is danger here; but there is danger everywhere. We must needs go out of the world, if we would find men who are not tempted to envy. There are strong temptations now. Some clergymen, now, are raised above their brethren by a finer culture from men and a richer endowment from God. We may not be able to avoid, but we must resist, the temptations to repine at the superiority of other men. The ministerial life, like every other, is a life of self-discipline. Ministers, like other men, if they waste their time in sleeping on beds of roses, must wake up on thorns of remorse. The truth is, we need, and must have, pastors more learned than we ever had; for we have to encounter more cunning forms of scepticism than our fathers ever knew. But we also need, and must have, a larger number of pastors than can receive a symmetrical culture; for we have large communities demanding, first of all, a good heart, ready speech, quick action. Let us have as large a variety of pastors, some educated, some instructed, as the variety of our social classes demands.

And let us not be slaves of a good rule. As there is wisdom in the rule that a ministerial candidate must study ten years in the academy, college, and theological seminary, so there is wisdom in making certain exceptions to it. Professor Hengstenberg has said: "The churches in Germany need for their pastors men skilled in dialectics and philosophy. The American churches need for their pastors no other men than those who can expound the vernacular Bible." We reply: There are many American churches that demand as ripe a learning in the ministry as is needed anywhere; but still we have large communities which must have less learned pastors, or none at all. The cry has come of a sudden "The Philistines be upon us." We cannot wait for the symmetrical culture of all our ministers. Not every captain need be fitted to be a general; not every corporal need be fitted to be a captain.

In the last place if we would augment the number of the ministers of the gospel we must labor for the re-conver

sion of men who have been converted once. The man who has not been born of God must turn, and the man who has been born of God must return, and as often as he deviates from the right way must again and again return to it, and obey the command of the Lord to his apostle, "When thou art converted, strengthen the brethren." The men of a past age were overcome with emotion as they anticipated the service of preaching the gospel. Candidates who were far from being fervid orators spent the night before delivering their first sermon in pacing their study chamber, being unable to sleep, or even to lie down. Tennant, walking in a grove while preparing himself for the pulpit, fell prostrate on the earth, and was unable to move without assistance to the church. Flavel, while on his way to the place appointed for his religious service, rose to such an ecstasy of interest in divine truth that he became oblivious of all outward scenes, and "found himself sitting by a brook, and faint from loss of blood." The present is a peculiar age, and must have a peculiar type of piety. We will not demand the prolonged vigils and fastings of bygone times, but we may strive to enkindle in every good man a faith in his own responsibility for the success of the gospel; not a mere willingness, but a will, to do his individual work. Men must be eager to deny themselves, as their Lord walked in front of his disciples when they were moving in sad procession to the city where he was to be slain.

There are many occasions of the reluctance which young men feel to enter the office which is not emblazoned with any outward splendor; but the cause of this reluctance is a lingering attachment to pursuits uncongenial with the spirit of the gospel. If they were magnetized with this spirit they would move toward the ministry as the needle moves toward the load-stone. When the lungs are charged with tubercles the sufferer shrinks from the east wind, and guards himself with silks and flannels against the change of temperature; but when the lungs are healthful they breathe into themselves new vigor as they inhale the cold air. So if our

young men were buoyant in spiritual health they would catch an inspiration for the work of a minister.

But we do a grievous wrong to these young men, if we charge them with the sole blame of our vacant pastorates. The fault lies also in the churches. If men frequented the sanctuary more because they loved it, and less because they were driven to it; if they supported the ministry more because they delighted in the "messenger of glad tidings," and less because they were obligated to sustain him; if they were glowing with zeal rather than coerced by conscience in their acts of worship, then would our young men quicken their pace into the sacred office as the cold winds of the north hasten to the tropics. Our puritan fathers built the meeting-house, and then added some comforts to the dwelling house; and we their children must make "Jerusalem our chief joy," and must invite young men into the pastorate by making the pastorate inviting.

But we wrong our lay brethren if we put at their door the sole responsibility for the want of ministers. The church is an organism; every part is alive and acts on every other part, and every other re-acts on it. The young men in our academies, colleges, and theological schools have an influence in modifying the energies of our laymen, and our laymen have an influence in modifying the energies of these young men. The ministers are moulding the characters of the candidates for office, and the candidates are powers working every day on the ministers. In the crowd of agencies none can move without stirring every other. We who have entered the sacred office often stand at the door and keep out those who would come in. Too often do we tell our children that doleful story about the scanty pittance we now receive, and the liberal exchequer we might have enjoyed in some other calling. Too seldom do we tell them that in our poverty the rich experiences of our office are silver and gold and gems, and that the pipes of the sanctuary which empty the golden oil out of themselves are golden pipes (Zech. iv. 12). If our young men whenever they thought of us who are now in the

sacred office, associated our names with the assurance that the joy of the Lord is our strength, they would be emulous to participate in such a joy. If they saw us stirred in the depths of our souls by the conviction that the children of apostate Adam will endure unending remorse unless they be radically changed by him who waits for our prayer, these pious young men would hasten to help us in the enterprise of saving the race from ruin, Young men when touched with the love of Jesus have a nobleness of spirit exalting them above the world. They are generous in their impulses. They spring to the relief of their comrades. They leap to lift off the burdens of their elders. When the battle-axe rings on the door-posts of the republic they fly to arms. Life is not dear to them; death is no evil to them, so they can honor their Redeemer. If it were true, and if these ingenuous young men saw and felt that we are harmonizing in one enterprise, that of purifying the mind of the race from its entire sinfulness; raising this mind from an eternal pain such as nothing but mind made in the image of God can endure; if these young men could know that our souls are knit together in that love to God which proves that we are his children, and in that love to men which proves that we are their brethren, we could not be left to labor alone; hundreds would catch the sympathy of our philanthropic hearts, would esteem it their honor to be, like us, crucified with Christ, dead in Christ, buried with Christ, risen with Christ, co-workers with him here, and preparing to reign with him hereafter.

How shall we multiply the number of preachers? By a better life in those who are already preachers; not in preachers of that other land, but of this land; not in the preachers of our Southern States, but of the State in which we live; not in the preachers of that other sect, but in us in every preacher himself. It is this earnestness in our office, not merely as an office important for the arts and sciences, for the army and the navy, for courts and legislatures, for the republic; but as an office needful for that

which we speak of so often that we are apt to lose the meaning of our words-the eternal welfare of the individual soul. It is this spiritual enthusiasm which is needful for even interpreting these simple words of our Redeemer: "The harvest" that mysterious harvest of the roses of Sharon, the trees of the Lord" is plenteous," who can measure its fulness and durability?" but the laborers". how rare a refinement in the work of these laborers" are few:"it is this godly mind, sympathizing with the mind of Jesus, and forming the first, second, and third incentive for adopting his method of supplying our want of ministers: "Pray ye, therefore," and with prayer other devices will succeed; without prayer, will fail, and without a self-sacrificing spirit we cannot pray," to the Lord of the harvest, that he will send". we do not send "laborers" what a majesty in such laborers, called of God" into his harvest," for it is not our harvest; for "the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof"; for "the house of Israel is the vineyard of the Lord, and the men of Judah are his pleasant plants."

NOTE A.

To the objection that ministers receive an inadequate salary, it is sometimes replied: They receive as much as is given to other men who are on an equality with them in mental and moral character. We are told of one preacher in our country who derives from his ministerial and literary labors an income of between $20,000 and $30,000. We are told of another who receives a salary of $15,000; another of $13,000; several others, of $12,000 each; a larger number of $8,000 each; still more of $6,000. The average of ministerial salaries in our land, however, is probably not higher than $400 per annum. There are some wealthy churches which pay $3,000, some $4,000, some (one at least) $5,000, annually for their church music; while many a preacher and pastor receives less than $400 for his work; and this work is at least equal to that of an organist. If the clergymen who receive the largest salaries were in secular life, they would probably obtain still richer emoluments; for we read of a president of a coal company who has an annual stipend of $15,000; a president of an insurance company who has $15,000; a president of a railway company who has $25,000; a manager of a sugar refinery who has $20,000; a city