1 so considerable as almost necessarily to exclude many competent young men, if left to their own resources, and deprived of Christian sympathy and aid. But the Church has commended her affection to her pious youth, by offering parental assistance to all possessing the requisite ecclesiastical recommendations. The permanent scholarships in our Theological Seminaries, and the annual scholarships provided through the Board of Education, take away all excuse arising from the plea of poverty. So intent is the Church upon cultivating the qualifications of her meritorious sons, that the Board of Education for the last twenty years have acted upon the publicly avowed principle of assisting, in reliance upon Providence, all candidates recommended by their Presbyteries, however numerous they may be.* And yet, in the face of these ample provisions of aid, the number of theological students in the Presbyterian Church is not increasing. Whatever may be our neglect of the use of other means, the fault is not here. It lies deeper than the surface. It is concealed in depths beyond the reach of ordinary ecclesiastical action. WANT OF MINISTERS. The Board of Education have endeavoured to keep the want of candidates before the Church, and to awaken attention to the causes and remedies of the present destitution. Thus far in the year, there is no perceptible increase in the Presbyterian Church. Other churches appear to be in the same sad condition. METHODIST CHURCH SOUTH.-Bishop Andrew, in a recent letter, addressed to the Southern Church papers, laments the want of preachers in the south, and calls loudly for additional supplies. He says there is great call for a large increase of labourers in most of the southern conferences, and that this is more especially true of the weaker conferences. He says a dozen preachers are needed for the Western Virginia conference alone. In Kentucky there is a great lack of men. Missouri wants many more preachers. Arkansas needs more preachers. Louisiana calls aloud for additional preachers. Texas is represented as suffering for want of more labourers. For several years the proportion of preachers to the wants of the people seems to be diminishing in the South; and unless a change takes place, there must be many fields in the south that will be destitute of labourers to cultivate them. We deplore this in any of the churches in the south or in the north. Our homily on the subject is, that the churches should pray the Lord of the harvest to send labourers into the field; and in connection with this prayer, it would be well to inquire how far the course of the churches, in their arrangements, is calculated to diminish the labourers, or to divert them from their proper fields.-N. Y. Observer. *The Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church have, by the blessing of God, never yet failed in a single instance to redeem their pledge. It is believed that this cannot be said of all Education Societies. EPISCOPAL CHURCH.-Bishop Meade laments the paucity of clergy in Virginia. He has admitted twelve candidates for holy orders during the past year. He has dismissed eight clergy to other dioceses, and received only two. Bishop Delancey, of the diocese of New York, like many other of his brethren in the episcopate, lamented the fewness of candidates for holy orders, and urged the clergy to call the attention of their people to the matter.-Register. CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHES.-At the annual meet ing of the New Hampshire Branch of the American Parent Society, made a very practical address, Education Society, Mr. Tarbox, Secretary of the touching upon the increasing want of ministers of the gospel, the decrease in the number of candidates, the efficiency and prospects of the Society, and some of the objections that have been made to it. He remarked that while the number of students in our colleges is rapidly increasing, that in the Theological Seminaries has greatly diminished, there not being connected with them more than four-fifths as many as there were ten years ago. We are not educating ministers enough to keep up the supply of our own New England churches, to say nothing of the wide world to which we are debtors. Similar considerations were earnestly urged by others.-N. Y. Observer. The Board will continue to press this subject upon the churches in our connection, in every way that may seem scriptural and proper. The LORD OF THE but he has enjoined, as chief in order and imporHARVEST can alone send supplies for the ministry; tance, the duty of PRAYER. THE WANT OF THE DAY. In almost all sections of our country there are a vast many vacant churches-vast fields also in which there is not only room for the formation of many other churches, but there are multitudes wholly destitute of the gospel. Our population also is flowing off continually into the forests of the "far West, and the "far South"-thus increasing the necessity for more ministerial labour, and rendering more difficult the means of supply. In view of this state of things, a question of the gravest import is, "Whence can all those needy and waste places be supplied?" The answer comes back from all directions, "Ministers are not to be had!" And what renders this state of things more appalling is, that comparatively few of the youth of our country are found devoting themselves to the sacred office. How is this, and what does it become the Church in such state of things to do? While we would leave it to all-whether ministers, elders, or private members, for themselves to consider what is duty, we cannot forbear throwing out the following reflections-and we would do it in anticipation of the day of prayer which is near at hand, appointed expressly for this end. May not blame be attached to the Church in three respects: 1st. The want of a sufficiently deep sense on the part of Christian parents of the importance of specially consecrating, as did Hannah of old, their sons to the service of God in the gospel of his Son, and training them up for this service. There is in the members of the Church too much pride, too much worldly mindedness, too much ambition to have their sons occupy stations of worldly affluence and prominence. 2d. Have not Christians been greatly at fault as it regards obedience to the solemn injunction of our Lord, "Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest." tempt, by any occasional or habitual inconsistency. They profess to aim at a high standard of character; and if, in any conspicuous degree, they fail to reach it, their crafty and vigilant enemies will not fail to detect it, and contemn them accordingly. 3d. May not the criminal neglect of the Church to afford an adequate support to the ministry in days Paul was a model for ministers. He was habitupast, have provoked the Lord of hosts to withhold ally circumspect, under a deep conviction that the his Spirit, and suffer this "famine of the bread of gospel which he preached might be misrepresented life," as a just judgment to come upon the land? and injured by its friends, if they failed to illustrate God himself ordained, that those who preach the gos-it in their lives as a system of practical godliness. pel should live by the gospel. Man, in many instances, He even denied himself in things lawful, lest an has said, "No, they shall live by other means, or occasion might be given to enemies to reproach starve." What, in such case, could be more reason- the cause which was dear to his heart. No one, able, than the Lord should say, "This being your observant of his strict consistency, could despise manner of treating my servants, I will cease to him, however they might hate him; neither could send!" they, by occasion of his short-comings, revile the gospel which he proclaimed. The world actually pays a reluctant compliment to the religion of Jesus, when they pry into the inconsistencies of its professors, and triumphantly charge them to their account. Ah, if Christians were always what they should be, how resplendently would the truth shine! Each believer would be a light in the world, not only glorifying Christ, but vindicating the honesty and sincerity of his own professions.-Presbyterian. Surely there is neglect of duty, there is criminality somewhere. Let each for himself consider wherein he is in fault, turn and do his "first works," that the Lord may again visit his heritage, coming into the midst of his people with abundant refreshings from his holy presence.-Southern Presbyterian. HINTS TO CANDIDATES. THE PREACHER. "Keep, then, this issue, this judgment, this eternity, continually în view. Oh, with what amazing perceptions do dying men apprehend these things! Speak not one cold or careless word." The herald of the King of kings, Stupendous issue; who may tell The bliss or woe of heaven and hell? Who may impressively declare, Who may our sluggish minds prepare Let not one cold or careless word Telling to all the wondrous love Let all their message heed in time, Oh, listen to the Saviour's voice, His precepts to obey.-Puritan Recorder. LET NO MAN DESPISE YOU. THREE GOOD SAYINGS. Mr. Shepherd, on his death-bed, addressing himself to some young ministers, observes: Their work was great, and called for great seriousness. Three things he told them 1. The studying of every sermon cost tears. 2. Before he preached any sermon he got good by it himself. 3. He went to the pulpit as if he were to give up his account to his Master. II. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." THE GREAT VALUE OF AN ACADEMY. The agency of institutions of learning in training the mind and heart, and in supplying the means of carrying forward evangelical operations, is, as yet, but feebly realized. A community, within whose bounds a Christian institution is located, ought to esteem it a privilege to labour for its prosperity. The attention of the reader is directed to the following account of an academy in Massachusetts, as worthy of perusal and meditation. The results it discloses are sufficient to stimulate all who are engaged in founding and conducting such institutions. BRADFORD ACADEMY. Paul, in his letter of instructions to Titus, says: "Let no man despise thee." He does not say, Let no man hate thee, or persecute thec, for it was to be presumed that the more bold and faithful his ministry, the more likely he would be to exasperate sinners, and stir up the spirit of persecution. To be despised is quite another thing. It implies some Fifty years ago, last March, there was a social defect or wrong-doing on the part of him who be- gathering in the outskirts of the village of Bradford. comes the object of the feeling; and hence the lan- Ideas more practical than gossip, neighbourhood guage of Paul is a caution to Titus to do nothing scandal, and fashions, honoured the hour. While which would justly expose him to the contempt of some spoke of sons, and others of daughters, as men. Every minister, and indeed every Christian, about to leave home for a High School, the question may apply the caution to himself. However the was raised, Why not have an Academy in Bradford? world may hate, and revile, and oppress them, let When they parted, the Academy was founded in them never become the objects of its deserved con- resolution. But in olden time they had a way of working, as well as resolving, in that goodly town. terian-a fountain of sound learning and of pure And so, within a week, "At a meeting of a number morals. The course of studies is sufficiently extenof the inhabitants of the First Parish in Bradford, sive to prepare young men for the junior class in the March 7th, 1803, it was mutually agreed upon that best Colleges. Though intended to afford scientific a building should be erected for an Academy." So instruction to all, the institution is especially deruns the old record. Then followed, as a practical signed to exert a healthful moral and religious insequence, the subscription of $1218.80 by about fluence over the forming minds of the young, that it thirty individuals. And in less than three months, may, with the blessing of God, aid in supplying the that is, June 6, 1803, this so bright a sun in our present great lack of Gospel ministers. This design literary firmament cut short its sudden dawn, and of the Miller Academy recommends it to the favourstood at once above the horizon, with fifty-one able regard of the friends of Christian education in satellites catching its virgin rays. A noble enter- our Church. prise in its first thought, and nobly, promptly executed! All honour to its unselfish, large-hearted founders. The child of the town, it has been their pet and their pride, as it is their glory. Fifty years have gone by. On the foundation thus laid, $25,000 have been invested, not for a three per cent. return, and the enhanced value of property adjoining, but in full donation and without reversion. Through the action of able trustees and teachers, uncontrolled by any private or narrow policy, the Institution has been ever in the ascendant. To those fifty-one pupils of the first term a host have been successors, and now, at the close of its fiftieth year, the children of that Alma Mater number 4820. Of these, 1315 were in the male, and 3510 in the female department. In 1836 the school became solely a female institution, and, as before, so from that day onward, Bradford Academy has been a pioneer to a higher, better, and more comprehensive system of female education for our country. As such it has educated teachers and principals for other schools in almost every State in the Union. Its pupils, in the male department, are found in all the professions and honourable callings in the land; more than three hundred of its daughters have become the wives of the ministers of Christ. About forty of them have followed in the footsteps of its two earlier pupils, those leaders and heroines in the missionary cause, Mrs. Judson and Mrs. Newell.Puritan Recorder. From the Presbyterian of the West. THE MILLER ACADEMY AT WASHINGTON, OHIO. Messrs. Editors:-I beg leave to present the claims of the above-named institution to the churches of the Presbytery of Zanesville, and to other patrons of Christian education who read your excellent paper. In accordance with the plan recommended by the General Assembly, the Presbytery of Zanesville has located a Presbyterial Academy at Washington, Guernsey county, O., and upwards of $2,500 have been expended in erecting a large and tasteful edifice. The plans of the building may be seen in the Presbyterian Education Repository for 1853. It is a brick building two stories high, having a large school room and two recitation rooms on the lower floor, and on the upper floor a library room and a large hall for public exercises. The location is in a village of about 1,000 inhabitants, on the National Road, about half way between Zanesville and Wheeling, and near the Ohio Central Railroad. It is a place peculiarly favourable to health and good morals, and of easy access at all seasons. Boarding can be had in private families for $1,50 per week. The institution is entirely under the control of the Presbytery, and is intended to be decidedly Presby Our building is yet in an unfinished condition, and we earnestly desire to finish it in time to get the school into successful operation next Fall. To do this we must raise an additional sum of $600 or $800 within a few months. Will not those churches of the Presbytery which have not yet contributed their due amount take subscriptions immediately, and help us to complete this important purpose? We hope they will do so without delay. But this undertaking bears heavily on the churches of a single Presbytery, some of which are small; we therefore earnestly appeal to other liberal readers of your paper for aid. Such institutions are greatly needed. We have established our Theological Seminaries in the East, South and West, and have supplied them with eminent professors; but what can they do to supply the Church with ministers, unless we also establish clas sical schools and academies to prepare pious young men to enter those Seminaries? That donors may have some definite objects before For furnishing the same with stove and benches. For plastering the lower hall and lobby For painting the inside of the building . $20.00 20.00 75.00 80.00 36.00 50.00 30.00 45.00 25.00 100.00 50.00 A benevolent individual, a sewing society, or a church, may find it convenient to furnish the means for accomplishing one or more of these items of the work. Any such favours will be thankfully received and faithfully applied. On behalf of the Board of Trustees, ARANAMA COLLEGE. FORT LAVACA. We were highly interested and instructed, on the 1st and 2d days of this month, in attendance upon the first examination of the students in the "Áranama College," located at Goliad, in Goliad county, on the San Antonio river. This Institution has been in operation only one year, and its future prospects for usefulness, under its most accomplished and efficient head, Professor Shive, are most flattering and promising of success. It has been established and is under the care of the Presbytery of the O. S. Presbyterian Church of Western Texas; but, as an Institution of learning, it is open and free to all denominations of Christians who choose to avail themselves of its advantages and benefits. No sectarian creeds or tenets are taught there-no efforts made to bias the mind in favour of any sect or religious creed-the mind of the student is left free to embrace any religious doc trine. But a moral and religious influence is thrown around the students, guarding and protecting them from those excesses and demoralizing practices which not unfrequently are found to prevail with students in their youthful days, when away from home, from under the influence and control of religious parents and guardians. Professor Shive has a most happy faculty of governing his school. Adopting the law of kindness, he is thus enabled, by a most devoted Christian walk, and pleasant, familiar, and entertaining conversation, to obtain complete control of all who attend his school. The town of Staunton is well known for the salubrity of its climate and the beauty of its surrounding scenery, and is perhaps the most easily accessible town in the State. The situation of the Seminary is one of remarkable beauty; sufficiently central and yet retired. The Academic year is divided into two sessions of twenty weeks each, beginning on the first Wednesdays of August and January. EXPENSES FOR THE SESSION OF FIVE MONTHS. Board, including washing and every necessa- 66 66 Preparatory class Embroidery $5 00, Hair Braiding and Wax Flowers each Charge for repair fund per session The Trustees and patrons of the Institution were most agreeably entertained with the late examina-Tuition in the higher classes tion, and highly encouraged at the and progress proficiency of the scholars, in their various branches of study. Every student acquitted himself with honour. A number, in fact, gave evidence of originality and genius, surpassing the most sanguine expectations of their friends, and even their preceptor could not but express his agreeable disappointment in their progress and advancement, as evidenced by the ready manner they answered the various questions propounded in the different branches of science and learning. Original compositions were read by each student, displaying talents and originality of thought highly creditable. Our space will not permit us to give a detailed statement of the order of exercises as followed on the days of examination. Suffice it to say, that the classes, in all the branches and departments of instruction, acquitted themselves honour-conditions. ably and with much credit. After the close of the exercises, on Wednesday evening, the Rev. Mr. Cocke, of Green Lake, delivered an address upon the subject of education, which, for elegance of style and diction, force of language and logical reasoning, surpassed any effort of the kind we have ever had the good fortune to hear. We learn that application was made to the author by a committee of gentlemen of Goliad, for a copy of the Address for publication. We hope to see it in print, as such sentiments as it embodies should be read and entertained by every Texan and patriot throughout the Union.-Watchman and Observer. AUGUSTA FEMALE SEMINARY, STAUNTON, $55 00 15 00 12.00 8.00 20 00 8.00 10 00 10 00 50 No other charge whatever, unless by special agreement. NON-RESIDENT PUPILS. 1. The Principal is to decide where each pupil may board, and is to have as full control of her time and direction of her conduct as if she was in his own family. No pupil will be received except on these 2. All may at any time, not improper for such purposes, take recreation freely in the Seminary grounds; but except in going to and from the Seminary no one will be permitted to walk the streets, unless in company of a teacher or judicious friend. 3. Three times a week the pupils will walk out together for exercise, accompanied by a teacher. All shopping, &c., must be attended to on Saturday, in company of some adult member of the family in which they board, or by one of the teachers, who will take this duty in turn. 4. No pupil will be permitted to receive the visits or public attentions of young gentlemen-this of course not applying to proper visits of relatives. This rule will be enforced in all cases, and its infraction considered one of the gravest offences. 5. No pupil, unless for a special reason, can be permitted to go home, or visit friends out of town, oftener than once a month, and that must be on the UNDER THE SUPERVISION OF THE PRESBYTERY OF LEX- last Saturday. INGTON. This Seminary is managed by a Board of Trustees. The Rev. William B. Browne, A. M., is Principal, and competent female assistants are associated with him. GENERAL. tend Bible class Sabbath morning, and public worAll the pupils, unless specially excused, must atship morning and evening. The aim of this Institution is to secure to the pupil the safest and most effective training in the ment, neatness, and diligence, will be adopted, and A rigid system of marking all faults in deportvarious branches of useful knowledge by female a definite point fixed, beyond which a pupil cannot go and remain a member of the Institution. Monthly reports will be sent to parents or guardians by teachers of cultivated minds and undoubted piety. The higher branches and the general control are under the care of the Principal, whose time and attention are wholly devoted to the school. The pupils board either in the family of the Principal, or under his direction and control, in other Christian and refined families. * We should be very sorry to know that this statement is literally true. The mind of the student should indeed be "left free to em brace any religious doctrine;" but not because it has not the true doctrine before it. Unless the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church are taught there, the Presbytery hardly honours the standards by which it tests the urity and value of the truth.-Cor. Scy. Bd. of Ed. mail. No deduction will be made for absence, except in Principal will be accountable for time lost by teachcase of the protracted sickness of the pupil. The ers, but, unless better paid, cannot be for that lost by scholars. The course of study contemplates four years after the preparatory class. Each pupil will be examined on entering, and assigned to a class, and required to pursue a regular course. A certificate of having passed a satisfactory examination on the studies of Presbytery of Peoria. Presbytery of Lexington. Rocky Spring ch 5 40; Tinkling Spring ch 33 66; a class, will be necessary in order to enter a higher There is a regular weekly recitation from the Bible, and the school is opened daily with reading Scripture and prayer. During last year, there was a season of religious interest, beginning in immediate connexion with the services of the last Thursday of February, and mostly confined to the school, in which about ten or twelve of the pupils were hopefully converted and added to the Church. Two subjects of that awakening have already passed to another world, and we trust to a reward of grace. FORM OF A DEVISE OR BEQUEST. All that the Board deem it important to furnish is their CORPORATE NAME, viz. New Providence ch 16; Bethel ch 26 Presbytery of Orange. Through Jesse H Lindsay, Treasurer. Amount of Vicksburgh ch LEGACIES. Miss Margaret Little, late of Wilmington, Del. 66 "The Trustees of the Board of Education of the Presby- | ‹‹ R terian Church in the United States of America." Any person, disposed to leave a legacy to the Board of Education, is requested to insert the right CORPORATE NAME. The State laws differ so much that no one Form will answer in all the States. The following form may be used in Pennsylvania. I give and devise to the Trustees of the Board of Education of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, the sum of dollars, to and for the uses of the said Board of Education, and under its direction. [When real estate, or other property, is given, let it be particularly described.] SCHOLARSHIPS. The sum of Seventy-five dollars forms a scholarship to assist a student in the collegiate course, and the sum of One Hundred dollars in the theological course. REFUNDED. MISCELLANEOUS. Martha Nelson, Phila, Tenn. 10; Collection de- Less exchange $8 25. Discount 14 cts. 64256 81 06 750 48 31 50 270 01 21.00 . 52 22 $1567 04 8.39 $1558 65 HONORARY MEMBERS. The sum of Fifty Dollars constitutes a person an Honorary Member of the Board of Education. A copy of the Hamilton and Rossville chs Annual Report is sent to all the Honorary members every year. BOARD OF EDUCATION. |