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their father's farm. The pastor, or some member of the church to which they belong, having discovered their talents, may think these might be employed to advantage in the ministry, instead of being buried in such engagements. But their own desires should first be ascertained, and should they be found longing to proclaim a crucified Saviour to the world, they ought to be encouraged, while cherishing this feeling, to put themselves into a position for finding and following the will of God.

It is probably at the prayer-meeting, the Sabbath-school, or the Bible-class, that the character and abilities of such young persons most often show themselves; and from these nurseries of the Church have come forth great numbers of men who are now engaged in the ministry throughout the United States. Many young men, also, who having entered our colleges with other views, become converted there, and are called to preach the Gospel.

When a pious youth of promising talents, and with a strong bent to the ministry, is found without the requisite education, or the means of obtaining it, he is recommended to the Education Societies, which have proved a great blessing to our Churches; and when approved of, he is carried through the course of instruction which the Church to which he belongs requires in all who would enter the ranks of its ministers.

The process is much shorter in those Churches which, without exacting a course of classical and scientific education at college, or the regular divinity course of a theological school, require only a wellgrounded knowledge of the Scriptures in the English tongue, and of the doctrines which they contain. After a suitable examination on the part of the proper church authorities, the candidate is permitted to exercise his gifts for a season, in order to ascertain whether he is likely to prove an acceptable and useful preacher; and if the result be favorable he receives full ordination from the proper quarter.

Among the Methodists, the preachers spring from the Classes, as they are called. At the meetings of these companies of professed believers and inquirers, the graces and gifts of pious young men are most commonly discovered. In due time they are brought forward to the quarterly meeting of all the classes of the district. They are there recommended to the notice of the presiding elder, and by him are authorized to teach and preach for a time, but not to administer the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper. Afterward they receive ordination from the hands of the bishop, first as deacons, and subsequently as presbyters or priests, and are employed to preach the Gospel, either as traveling or stationed ministers. In the Congregational Churches, young men are consecrated to the ministry by a

"council of ministers;" among the Presbyterians, by a presbytery; among the Episcopalians, by a bishop.

In all the Churches of the United States, except the Methodists and Roman Catholics, the pastors are chosen by the people to whom they preach. Among the Methodists they are appointed by the Annual Conference, at which a bishop presides, regard being had to the wishes which may be expressed by the people in favor of certain ministers, as peculiarly fitted, in point of character and talents, for specific localities. The appointment of the priests to their respective churches among the Roman Catholics rests wholly with the bishops. When a church belonging to any of the other denominations loses its pastor, by his death or removal to some other place, inquiry is first made for some one not yet settled, or who, if settled, would not object to change his place, and who, it is thought, would prove acceptable to the flock. The person fixed upon is invited to preach a few times, and should he give satisfaction, the congregation agree to call him to be their pastor, in doing which they must proceed according to the established rules of the religious body to which they belong. Thus, in the Presbyterian Church, no call to become a pastor of a vacant church can be presented to any one without the consent of the Presbytery within whose bounds the vacancy has taken place; nor can it be accepted without the consent of the Presbytery to which the minister who has received it belongs.

In the Congregational Churches of New England, the practice in calling a pastor has been for the church or body of the communicants to make out a call, and this to be followed by another from the whole congregation, or, rather, from the males who contribute toward the support of public worship, the amount of the proffered salary being stated in the latter call. In the Presbyterian, and most other churches, each pewholder, or each head of a family who subscribes toward the pastor's salary for himself and household, and others who subscribe only for themselves, are allowed a voice in the call. Such is the more common practice, and yet there are Presbyterian churches in which none but members who are communicants can vote in calling a pastor. If the people are to be allowed a voice in calling their pastors, it would be found difficult to withhold that right from those who, though not communicants, contribute as much, and perhaps more, than those who are. Nor in a church and congregation in which the people have been well instructed in the truth, and where religion prospers, does any evil of much consequence commonly result from such an extension of the right of voting on such occasions. For when men have been faithfully instructed in the Gospel, it is found that even the unconverted will readily join in calling an efficient min

ister, even although he be not only orthodox, but very zealous and faithful. Such men have sufficient discrimination to know, and often they will say it, that if ever they are to become the religious men they hope one day to be, they need a faithful pastor to secure that great blessing. Such men have sense enough to know that a lightminded, worldly, cold preacher of the Gospel is not likely to prove a blessing to them or their families. But when church and congregation have long been hearing "another Gospel," have become hardened in error, and strongly attached to damnable heresies, it were absurd to expect the unconverted to prefer and seek for a faithful minister. Such a state of things should not be allowed to occur. And then, with respect to all denominations that have a government encompassing and controlling the churches connected with them, there is, in the last resort, a power to prevent the settlement of unworthy ministers in the churches under their care.

CHAPTER VII.

THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE DEVELOPED IN HOME MISSIONS.AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THUS much has the voluntary principle done for the parts of the country longest-settled and most densely-peopled. Let us now see what it does for new and thinly-peopled regions, where hundreds of new congregations are rising annually, without the means of maintaining the institutions of the Gospel by their own efforts. Such churches are to be found not only in the new settlements of the Far West, but also in the growing villages of the East.

This inability to support the public preaching of the Gospel often arises from the number of sects to be found in new settlements, and even in some districts of the older States. In this respect diversity of sects sometimes causes a serious though temporary evil, not to be compared with the advantages resulting from it in the long run. It is an evil, too, which generally becomes less and less every year in any given place: the little churches, however weak at first, gradually becoming, through the increase of population, strong and independent, and what is now an evil disappearing, or, rather, as I hope to prove, being converted into a blessing.

The most obvious way of aiding such feeble churches is, to form societies for this express object among the older and more flourishing

churches. This has been done, and in this the voluntary principle has beautifully developed itself, particularly during the last thirty years. It began with some denominations not long after the Revolution; and early in this century we find missionary societies formed among the Congregational Churches of Massachusetts and Connecticut, for the purpose of sending ministers to "the West," that is, the western part of the State of New York.* The "Far West" to them was the northern part of Ohio, which was then beginning to be the resort of emigrants. The faithful men sent by these societies into the wilderness were greatly blessed in their labors, and to them, under God, many of the now flourishing churches of those regions owe their existence. Missionary societies were subsequently formed in the other New England States, for supplying destitute places within their own bounds with the preaching of the Gospel, as well as to help in sending it to the other parts of the country.

Two societies were formed, likewise, about the year 1819, for the same object, among the Presbyterians and Reformed Dutch in the city of New York, and these supported a goodly number of missionaries, chiefly in the new and feeble churches in the State of that name. In 1826 they were united into one body, and now form the American Home Missionary Society.t

This society, from its very outset, has advanced with great vigor, and has been directed with singular zeal and energy. At its first meeting in 1827, it reported that in the course of the year just closed it had employed one hundred and sixty-nine ministers, who had labored in one hundred and ninety-six congregations and missionary districts. Its receipts for the same period amounted to $20,031. This auspicious commencement must be ascribed to its having assumed all the engagements of the Domestic Missionary Societies, out of which

* I have seen the maps which some of those pioneer missionaries made of the portions of the State of New York which lie west of Albany, in the years 1796–97. What is now a densely-settled country was then almost terra incognita. At present, the West, or frontier country, lies far more than a thousand miles west of Albany, instead of just beyond it. In fact, the Pacific coast is now the "Far West," our "ultima thule" in that direction.

The epithet American, employed by this society and others, which do not comprise all the religious denominations, has been greatly objected to as savoring of arrogance, and as if intimating that the whole of America belonged to them exclusively as a field of labor. Such an idea probably was never entertained by those who use the word in the nomenclature of their societies. All that they mean in employing it is, to signify that the field to which their attention is directed is not a single State, or a few States, but the whole country. The American Home Missionary Society embraces the orthodox Congregational churches in New England and out of it, and the New School Presbyterians, and, to some extent, the Reformed Dutch, Lutheran, and German Reformed Churches.

it sprang. The Society soon drew into affiliation with it all the State Domestic Missionary Societies of New England, some of which, such as those of Massachusetts and Connecticut, had been of long standing were well established.*

It would be interesting to trace the history of an institution which has been so much blessed to a vast number of new and poor churches throughout all the States and Territories of the American Confederacy. But we can only present a summary of its operations at two epochs, during the thirty years that it has been distributing blessings with a liberal hand.

In the year ending May 1st, 1835, the society employed seven hundred and nineteen agents and missionaries. Of these, four hundred and eighty-one were settled as pastors, or employed as "stated supplies" in single congregations; one hundred and eighty-five extended their labors to two or three congregations each, and fifty were employed on larger districts. In all, one thousand and fifty congregations, missionary districts, and fields of agency, were thus supplied in whole or in part. The persons added to the churches that year under the care of the society's missionaries, were estimated at five thousand; namely, one thousand seven hundred by letters of recommendation from other churches, and three thousand three hundred by examination on profession of their faith. Several of the churches were reported to have been blessed with seasons of more than ordinary interest in religion; in the Sunday-schools attached to them there were about forty thousand scholars, and about twelve thousand persons attended the Bible-classes. The number of those who had joined the temperance associations had reached seventy thousand. The expenditure amounted to $83,394; the receipts to $88,863.

Let us now turn to what was done by the society within the year ending 1st May, 1855. The number of ministers of the Gospel in the service of the Society, in twenty-seven different States and Territories, during the year, was one thousand and thirty-two. Of the whole number, five hundred and twenty-eight were the pastors or stated supplies of single congregations; three hundred and twenty-eight ministered to two or three congregations each; and one hundred and seventy-six extended their labors over still wider fields. Ten missionaries preached to congregations of colored people; and sixty in foreign languages:-nineteen to Welsh, and thirty-four to German congregations, and seven to congregations of

*These societies manage, in a great degree, their own affairs, appoint and support the missionaries who labor within their bounds, and pay over the surplus of their collections, if they have any, to the American Home Missionary Society. If they need help at any time from that society, they receive it.

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