the aged-should be regarded as the wards of the church, and not of public or even Christian charity. But he feared it would be many years before this high ground would be won by the Board of Relief, and in the last number of THE CHURCH he had asked whether there could not be devised some plan in the methods of the administration of the Board by which at least one class of its beneficiaries-the old ministers, most of whom by vote of presbytery are Honorably Retired" from the active duties of the ministry-might be clearly recognized as the honorable recipients of an annuity which they had earned; and he had ventured to make the suggestion in the forthcoming number of THE CHURCH (for June) that every Honorably Retired minister should receive an annuity of a certain amount, graded by the Assembly according to the number of years he had served in the pastorate of the Presbyterian Church. This sum might not be so large even as the appropriation which is now the maximum of the Board ($300), but what a relief it would be for the aged minister to draw it, as he formerly drew his salary, without the necessity of appearing before the presbytery to make bare his poverty and tell the pitiful story of suffering and want in his humble home!

"I have not overlooked the difficulties," added he. "If an annuity in old age is based upon the principle of service rendered to the church, some will ask, How about those men at forty or fifty who have rendered more service than others at eighty? And how about the 'Honorably Retired' ministers who have grown old in secular employments, and the good men of other denominations, where no such annuities exist, who may come to sit down, in their old age, under our vine and fig tree?"

The doctor confessed his inability to give an altogether satisfactory answer to these questions, but he was so profoundly convinced that the blessed old ministers of threescore years and ten, or of fourscore, who have wrought a good work in the Presbyterian ministry-some of them for half a century as missionaries at home or abroad, or in the often no less self-denying labors of the pastorate-should be Honorably Retired by the Presbyterian Church on a suitable annuity, that he believed some way would be found to solve these difficulties.

He gave several cases of those now on the roll of the Board as illustrations-long, useful, honored lives-and he asked, "Could not the

presbytery, under the rules and with the safeguards laid down by the General Assembly, determine the grade of an annuity to be paid to such Honorably Retired ministers in regular installments out of a permanent fund raised for that purpose?—an annuity which the wornout veterans could draw without appearing annually before their brethren in the role of the 'poor pensioner,' seeking the appropriation which will be voted by the presbytery if they show they still need it, and which will be sent to them by the Board if its funds will allow ?"

Discussing the question whether such a permanent fund could be secured during the Centennial year-with all the interest and enthusi asm awakened by a review of the glorious work wrought in this country through the Presbyterian Church mainly by its self-denying and ill-paid ministers-the speaker said he was quite sure such annuities to the Honorably Retired ministers could never be paid out of the annual contributions to the Board. Every dollar of these will be needed for others on the roll; and he felt free to say that it would be a calamity to the church if, by any endowment, it were wholly divorced from the annual care of these wards. He then referred to the account given in the report of the Board this year of the steps taken by the Assembly, from the very first inception of its scheme of ministerial relief, to secure an endowment fund by which the appropriations should be placed beyond the fluctuations of annual contributions, and asked if the church was not prepared to go a step further and secure a large permanent fund out of which the aged minister might receive a comfortable annuity.

Such an "act and testimony" to the ministry would render the coming Centennial year memorable in the history of the Presbyterian Church in America. These few worn-out veterans, scattered here and there throughout the country, and drawing a comfortable annuity. from the church to which they have given their best years in faithful, self-denying service, will certainly be an "object lesson" in teaching God's people a proper respect for the ministerial office, while this advanced step toward what is now done by so many corporations and business men and governments in return for faithful service will hasten the glad day when the church shall awaken to a full sense of its duty to make a better provision for all who are on the roll of its Board of Relief!

A REMINDER.

October is the month appointed by the General Assembly for contributions by the churches to the Board of Education. This arrangement was made with a special view to facilitate the administration of its business. The scholastic year begins with September. The great mass of our recommendations come in then and through the month of October. Having our income then before us, we are enabled to decide better on the amount of our scholarships. And it is important that this be done knowingly, since our rules require that the amount promised be paid, even though it might necessitate borrowing. We would therefore earnestly ask our brethren to comply with this arrangement as far as possible in settling upon the order of their collections.

As an assistance for making the appeal for a liberal contribution, we subjoin the following statement of facts, the substance of which, at least, we hope will be given to the church at the time it is taken up.

A STATEMENT AND AN APPEAL. No one can look through any number of THE CHURCH AT HOME AND ABROAD, however cursorily, and not be impressed with the magnitude of the work in which our denomination is engaged, and the necessity of keeping up an ample supply of well-trained and devoted men to carry it forward successfully. Through our Board of Home Missions we are undertaking to do our full share toward the evangelization of all the newly-settled portions of our country as fast as it fills up with a most heterogeneous population. Last year this Board had in charge 1465 missionaries, and gathered 175 new churches, to say nothing of the schools it is planting and supporting. Through our Foreign Board we are sustaining missions in China, Japan, Korea, Siam and Laos, India, Persia, Syria, Africa, South America, and among Chinese, Japanese and

Indians in our own land. Under its employ there are 173 ordained missionaries. We are also looking after the spiritual welfare of the Negroes at the South, helping to meet the obligations our country owes to 7,000,000 of its freedmen by means of schools and churches. Our Board in this interest reports 106 ministers, nearly all of whom have to be educated and supported largely at the church's expense. Besides all this, we are pushing the work of founding colleges and academies, a large portion of the teachers of which are taken from the ranks of the ministry, not only for the sake of their religious service, but also because as a rule such teachers give the best instruction at the cheapest rate. Moreover, in all these instances the fields of labor are widening every year. To arrest progress is virtual retreat. Every gain made creates a necessity for further advance and for an increase of laborers. Still further, it must be borne in mind that ministers do not live forever. Though proverbially long lived, they do pass away at last, and their vacant places must be filled. Whatever may be the obligation resting on the church to lengthen its cords and strengthen its stakes, its first duty is to maintain the integrity of its main body by keeping its established pulpits and chairs of instruction well manned. Decay at the centre is weakness at the circumference.

Accordingly, it must be seen that the pivotal question on which turns all inquiry as to the real condition and prospects of the church must have primary regard to its ministerial supply. A militant kingdom that is wisely administered and means to conquer, first of all makes careful count of its forces in command, and looks well to their training. The church,-God's kingdom established here for subduing the world to his sway, we hold, ought to pay no less regard to its ministry and see to its suffi ciency. Now what are the indications on this point?

The catalogues of our seminaries last spring reported not 200 graduates all told, of whom several belonged to other denominations, and some may prove failures. These are all we have educated to fill the 130 gaps made by death, and to supply the demands of the boards for an increase of laborers, and to occupy the vacant pulpits which at the end of last year numbered over 1200. Now the report of the Home Board alone calls for 200 men who are now needed," it says, "in territories west of the Mississippi river." This seems an extravagant estimate, but extravagant only to such as do not make themselves acquainted with the rate at which our population increases. For the last few months our immigrants alone have numbered 2000 per day; so that it I would seem that the Home Board alone could absorb every graduate that issued from our seminaries this spring. We have seen no report of the needs of the Foreign Board in this respect; but it is fair to suppose that having paid off its debt, and being urged by the marvellous openings of opportunity which are inspiring fresh hope and zeal throughout the country in the cause of missions abroad, it will soon be calling for men in large numbers to go in and occupy. The question is, Have we the men ready? The largest portion of those who are said to have offered themselves to the cause are still far back in the course of preparation, and who can tell how many of them in the end will be able to resist the call to stay at home and supply the numerous vacancies here? These vacancies are all around us most tempting in their offers. The papers report every church of our order in the large city of Rochester save one as pastorless. Two in Newark are in the same condition; two in Cincinnati; five in San Francisco; a number in the suburbs of New York, such as Bloomfield and Montclair. We can hardly go amiss of them, and for all this demand our church raised last year less than 200 new candidates. It is a relief to know that more are promised in the future. The number of candidates reported is larger than ever before. But the demand is increasing too. We are far from being able to cry, "Hold,

enough." So far from this, we are every year drawing from other denominations double and treble the number we give to them in return.

With such openings for the highest serv ice, and such calls for the employment of the best gifts and attainments that a man can have, how can our young men who profess love to Christ and are desirous of benefiting and blessing their country and the world refuse to consecrate themselves to the work of preaching his gospel and advancing his kingdom in the earth, and thus to obtain for themselves the richest rewards? There is no field of profitable labor comparable with this. The country does not need more lawyers or doctors or teachers, but it does need more evangelists whose business it shall be to save our population from the degradation and ruin which ignorance and godlessness and vice inevitably engender. Nor must we stop here. Our true policy is to I carry the war into Africa." Who will enlist?

66

And since there are many young men of the requisite mental and spiritual qualifications ready to enlist, but without the means of acquiring such an education as will fit them for ordination, does not the church as a whole owe it to itself for its own preservation and enlargement to assist these men in properly preparing for their calling? They can earn their living without this assistance in some secular business, but the question is, Can it live without them? And is it not for its interest to give them the best advantages attainable? The cost they are put to is large. The closest economy will not reduce it below $300 or $350 per annum, and when at the end of his course the minister is expected to labor for no more than a bare support, in the majority of cases, with no prospect of wealth, ought not the church to be willing to bear at least the half of this cost? The nation gives its cadets, however wealthy their parents, $540 per year. Ought not the church to be willing to give to its prospective servants, who have little or no means to pay their way through academy and college and seminary, at least a moiety of their expense? The help is not asked as

a charity, but as an obligation to our blessed Lord and Master, and as a matter of selfinterest on the part of the church

INTERESTING CORRESPONDENCE.

The first letter contains a complaint and a hint in regard to a custom too prevalent among ministers. We give it for the benefit of those to whom it will apply, especially or our candidates who have not yet adopted the custom:

DEAR BROTHER:-Please find enclosed within for educational purposes. The sum is small, but well intended, notwithstanding the disgust and pain I feel in reference to many of our young clergymen. I have heretofore mentioned some of my difficulties, and feel very delicate about saying more. But I am terribly tried with our hair-lipped speakers. Good men as I regard them, still they voluntarily cripple their own efforts. I heard one of them yesterday. He had a good voice and spoke sufficiently loud, but I think about one-tenth of the congregation must have failed to follow him in his discourse. Those who were the more distant from him and those whose hearing was somewhat impaired could not have been much benefited, simply because of the hair mattress through which the words had to be strained, thus breaking up the distinction of sounds. I cannot think that God is pleased to have his ambassadors utter his gospel with a muffled mouth and an indistinct articulation. Nor do I think that your Board of Education or the churches generally approve of it any more than I do. Yet so it is; and what can be done about it? Many will shave the whole face except just that part the covering of which is most effectual in breaking up or suppressing the voice. I certainly wish my money to go toward educating men who will be distinct in their utterance, if they are to be mouthpieces

for God. Please excuse this criticism. Yours fraternally,

listening a delight. Such tones ought therefore to be cultivated. All that obstructs them should be removed, and all possible assistance for hearing should be afforded to the partially deaf by the sight of the moving lips. The magic charm of such delivery as captivated the audiences of the late Dr. R. D. Hitchcock was owing very much to the None were lost by hasty clipping or by a fallway in which he made his strong words tell. ing voice. The word in which was concentrated the meaning of the sentence struck on the ear with unmistakable force. Would that all our candidates would acquire the art!

The second letter we give in substance, because too long and too personal to himself to be published without leave. The purport of it is to explain why it is that so many ministers take so little interest in the work of enlisting young men into the ministry. As he puts it, it is because "they know that by urging an increase of candidates for the ministry they would be prematurely digging their own ecclesiastical graves." In corroboration of this statement he presents some items of his own history. Reliable testimony is furnished of his having been a useful minister, both in the numbers that have been converted through his instrumentality and in the salary he has received, as well as in the commendations that have been bestowed upon him. Having now advanced somewhat in years he is without a charge, though "able to preach as well as ever he could." He was dropped out of his last place, which he was occupying as a stated supply, by reason of the chance which was offered the church of getting a supply from the neighboring seminary at a cheaper rate. case is a hard one and is typical of many. He concludes by saying:

The

My candid conviction is that if all the aged ministers capable of rendering good service were furnished with suitable fields of labor, we would no longer hear the hue and cry of a dearth in the ministry; many of them would also be prevented from burdening the Relief Board prematurely.

In this conviction we heartily concur. The difficulty, however, lies in the "if." Where is the power that can furnish such

ministers with "suitable fields of labor"? Congregations insist on selecting their own ministers and resist any attempts to force ministers upon them. In such a case the burden is put upon the ministers themselves to make themselves acceptable to the congregations. When this is done, age presents no hindrance to employment, unless it disables from work. We can point to numbers of ministers who are retaining positions when long past seventy years, and who have been called to new service when past sixty. Everything depends on the degree to which the minister keeps his faculties vigorous and productive. Old sermons are an old minister's bane. The people rarely fail to detect them. They do not taste fresh and are therefore not relished. They must be recast and have the new life of the spirit run in them, in order to be nourishing. Accordingly it is a great mistake to suppose that there is much advantage to be gained by changing places for the sake of using old sermons; the result is very apt to be a premature W. C. Yet with all this we acknowledge that more might be done by presbyteries than is done to counteract the foolish fancies of congregations in determining whom to

call and in securing employment for ministers that can labor for edification. There are many congregations who seem incapable of telling what is good when they see it and who need to be advised. Here is one cause of the trouble which our correspondent complains of. Would that it could be removed!

A NOTEWORTHY RECORD. The class of 1837 in Amherst College celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its graduation this year. At its commencement it numbered 53. Of these 34 entered the ministry, three of whom became foreign missionaries; eight became lawyers, five practiced medicine, three became teachers, one turned to farming, one has proved a successful librarian and one took no profession. At the end of fifty years the survivors count 21, of whom 17 are ministers. It is another verification of the calculations of our life-insurance companies, which show that the ministry, with all its cares and hard work, is favorable to longevity. This is a consideration worthy of being taken into the account by all who are debating the question of their future course. Length of days and long

life shall it add unto thee.

THE "HAINES SCHOOL." We call the attention of our readers to the following report of the "Haines School," at Augusta, Ga. We met the writer, Miss Lucy C. Lang, in a public school at Savannah, Ga., some two years since, and were impressed with her thorough scholarship and methods of teaching, and wanted her at once for our work. A year afterwards she proposed to go to Augusta to open a school under the auspices of the Board, but without a salary, as she thought she could make the school self-supporting. She went and succeeded as she hoped. At the end of the

ers.

year, however, the work had grown so much larger than at first anticipated, the Board thought it wise to aid her in carrying on the enlarged work, and sent her two teachThis school now promises to be one of the most useful under the Board, as will be seen by the report for the last year. Miss Lang is a colored girl, the daughter of a colored Presbyterian minister, and well fitted by nature and grace to do a noble work for the girls of her race. We trust some benevolent friends will respond to her appeal for $700. Let this noble girl have help from her white sisters. The school is called