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A just and conscientious view of the subject would require calcu lation-close and patient calculation. First, his expense account for one year must be estimated, and his whole living examined, to know what it will probably cost, including ample provision for the just demands of the intellect and taste. This once conscientiously determined, every man could proceed to fill the Lord's treasury in his house the sub-treasury. Secondly, this fund must now be economically and conscientiously distributed. The Disciple's pocket ought to be furnished with alms for the needy; his share of all church expenses should be paid; and his support should be extended to the Lord's poor-to the Lord's servants at large-to the school of the prophets, etc., etc.

This subject may be adverted to again, but, for the present, this must suffice. D. S. B.

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We had the pleasure of attending the late anniversaries of the benevolent institutions now located in Cincinnati; and also, the annual State Convention held in Lexington, Ky. These were very happy meetings. We had much good teaching, and some good preaching, during the meetings. Besides, we had the feast of communion with many excellent brethren, who are laboring, and have been laboring for many years, in the great cause of Christian refor. mation. We took sweet counsel together, on the ways and means of advancing the great cause of the great Benefactor and Saviour of the world-the redemption of man from ignorance, guilt, and bondage.

Remarkable unanimity of mind appeared on all the great themes of deliberation that came before us, and especially on that of the necessity, importance, and value of an increased liberality on the part of the whole Christian community, in reference to the increas ing demands growing with the rapidly enlarging area opening to the gospel, as proclaimed and developed by us. From all that I have heard, and learned, and know of the wants of the people-of the increasing desire to hear and understand the great principles propounded by us-I feel myself not to be chargeable with the sin of exaggeration, in affirming the conviction, that we want, in these United States, one thousand able men, as preachers and teachers, to equal the calls of the people, and the calls of the Lord upon us, to preach the gospel as delivered to us by the holy apostles. In our field of vision, we may truly say, the harvest is great and the labor, ers are few very few-not enough to gather a tythe of what the

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Lord has made accessible to us. And while sundry and various projects are being pressed upon the brethren as worthy of their patronage and Christian liberality, there is one with me of transcendent of paramount importance—which is the least pressed of any other upon their attention; and that is, not only to "pray the Lord of the harvest to send forth reapers to gather it," but to do our duty in raising up and furnishing the men to send.

The age of miracles is past. The Lord found and educated the men, and sometimes fed them, by miracle, whom he trained to plead his cause. When he ascended from earth to heaven, he showered, nay, he poured down, the Holy Spirit, and, by its influence, furnished them with the languages, sciences, and arts of the kingdom, vouchsafing every gift and endowment of mind, of elocution and of utterance, necessary to the great commission which he gave them.

And what next? His Holy Spirit taught the apostles to teach the church-the great aggregate of the family of God in every nation, kindred, tongue and people-to commit this work of preaching, teaching, and presiding well, to "faithful men"-to able men-to men" able to teach others also."

It was, therefore, necessary, in the judgment of Paul, and enacted by his authority, that the churches should be furnished with able and faithful teachers, and that those in office should superintend this matter. Hence he gave a charge to this effect to his agent and son Timothy. He had committed a similar work to Titus, in Crete, as that committed to Timothy in Ephesus. "I left you," says he, in Crete, for this purpose, "that thou shouldst set in order the things wanting; that were left by me undone-viz: that you should ordain elders, bishops, in every city as I directed you;" and after setting forth the moral and Christian characteristics of those teachers, he adds, that he must "hold fast" the truthful word as he had himself been taught by his teacher Paul, that "he might be able, by sound learning, both to exhort and to convince" sceptics or " gainsayers," whose mouths he must be able to silence, as well as to teach those "who have believed in God to be careful to excel in good works." I presume that I will be excused, by every sensible reader, in not attempting to prove that such labors and laborers are always wanting or necessary to the position which the church still holds in the world; or that such persons are not as necessary in Cincinnati, New York and Lexington, as they were in Ephesus, Corinth and Crete, where apostles and evangelists had long labored in person.

In the general and special constitution of the Church of Christ, Paul informs us that the Lord Jesus Christ himself had, by the SERIES IV.-VOL. 1. 58#

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authority of God, appointed or ordained certain offices and officers, both extraordinary and ordinary. The extraordinary were apostles and prophets. These are ever with us, in their writings. But beside these, he has ordained a third class, called teachers. These the church will always need for herself, as much as she needs preachers or evangelists for the conversion of the world. Pastors or teachers, and deacons, are always in demand on the part of all Christian communities that desire the knowledge and experience of the fulness of the blessings of the gospel of Christ. These statements need, amongst us, no labored arguments. They are conceded points of Christian doctrine.

What, then, do we to meet the growing demands of the church in particular, and of the world in general? This question. I cannot answer with much satisfaction. We have men capable and willing to serve in the gospel, but they are not at work in the field. They are not fully prepared for it. There are some workmen of this class that need to be ashamed. And others, that need not to be ashamed, are at home on their farms, or at their merchandize. They do something-some of them do much for their study and reflection; but they resemble, in the main, the secular elergy or elders. Some societies besides the Romans had, and some still have, their " secular," as well as their “spiritual" clergy. The secular support themselves; the spiritual were supported by the church. The secular wrought with their own hands, as Paul sometimes did, to support himself and his fellow-laborers. The spiritual devoted their whole time to preaching, teaching, exhortation and discipline. Publicly and privately, from house to house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.

It was a wise, as it was a benevolent ordinance of the Lord Jesus, "that they who preach the gospel should live by the gospel." Men, generally, are most apt to mind that business that minds them. Let a man's living depend upon his flock, and both he and it will, as a general law, fare better in all good things. But if the Lord has ordained that they who preach the gospel should live by the gospel, that is enough. His ordinances are as infallibly wise as they are supremely good. There was a danger in the apostolic age, from which we, indeed, are rather exempt. Some preached Christ for filthy lucre's sake; and some from a willing, cheerful, and benevolent heart. There are some, perhaps many, of both classes, yet in the world. But it is to be hoped, that amongst us, there are many more of the latter class than of the former. The temptation is, in truth, not so very strong as to require very great strength of mind to

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resist it. This, it will be assumed, but cannot be proved, to be a safer state of things. Some Christian philosophers think, that if the church keep her ministers poor, the Lord will more easily keep them humble; yet I have seen not a few, whose vanity seems to be fully satisfied with the reward of a good hearing.

But what say the true friends of the Redeemer, now living amongst us? They, I hesitate not to affirm, will say that the church is not doing her duty in countenancing one class, and in not sustaining the other. They will say the Lord's cause demands the best men we can raise and furnish for his great field-the world. But they ask, Where shall we find them? How shall we obtain them? We answer, wheresoever you find a young man, or a fully matured disciple of Christ, well reported of, prepare him for the work, then send him to the field and support him in it.

For this purpose, as a supreme object, we have got up a seminary of learning, and a system of instruction with special reference to this great object. We ought to have men as well educated to preach and teach Christ, as other communities have men well educated and trained to preach and teach metaphysical theology or partizan gospels. We desire to have all the youth of our country to study sacred history, as well as indeed, rather than-profane history. We desire to have them more conversant with the facts and precepts of the Bible, than with the laws of Lycurgus; with Moses, than with Solon; with Jesus Christ, than with Socrates or Plato; with Paul and Peter, rather than with Demosthenes or Cicero. The natural sciences, as well as the moral; the works of God, as well as his word; the history of nature, as well as the history of Providence; the history of moral government, as well as the history of redemp tion, are intimately associated, and should equally find a place in the education of youth, as well as in the libraries of their fathers. We assume that Christianity needs, and can use with advantage, every branch of true learning and true science, and can raise as much revenue from them as can the State; nay, can cause them to redound more to the glory of God and the good of mankind, than can any merely civil or temporary institution.

But this subject needs no argument nor defence from our hand. It is conceded by every intelligent reader of the Harbinger. Well, then, brethren, what are you doing worthy of eternal fame, in this great and excellent work? How much of your earthly means do you annually devote to this great work of the Lord? How much stock have you in the Bank of Heaven? How many sacrifices of sweet savor do you offer to the Lord that redeemed you, out of your

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flocks and herds, your fields and your stores of earth's riches and of God's benevolence? Do you give, like Abraham, the tenth of the spoils, or like Israel, the tenth of all your labors, and of the increase with which the Lord has blessed you? I know there are some of us that give much, and some of us that give little. Amongst the preachers and the teachers there are some that labor in the word and teaching without any reward from them to whom they minister, and for whose edification and salvation they travail in labors and toils. There are some that receive a humble pittance; a very few that receive a full reward of earth's bounties. Is it not so within the sphere of every reader's observation and knowledge, who takes any interest in this great work of faith and labor of love?

But, in our late conventions, we were pleased to see a growing feeling of obligation evinced; an increasing interest developed; a more generous benevolence, and a more earnest desire to advance the cause of salvation, displayed in reference to every measure proposed, bearing on this great object.

Both at Cincinnati and Lexington, there was a discussion on the best method of raising means for the wants of the poor, and for all the demands upon Christian sympathy and benevolence. In both cases, the order of Paul to the churches of Galatia and to the church at Corinth, concerning the collection for the saints, was argued as a precedent for raising the funds necessary for these purposes. Indeed, by request of the convention last year, an admirable discourse upon this subject was delivered by Bro. P. S. Fall, of Frankfort, during the sessions of the Kentucky Convention. It was received with great satisfaction, and ordered to be stereotyped, and widely circulated among the churches in Kentucky. While delighted with this excellent discourse, and with the speeches made by brethren at the Cincinnati Anniversaries, on the same passage, I had only to regret the possibility of an exception, which could and might be urged against the application to this subject, of the passage in 1 Cor. xvi. 1, which was made the theme of these essays; and that, in consequence thereof, the means requisite and necessary to accomplish the various objects of Christian benevolence, could not be obtained.

A treasury in the church, or a sub-treasury at home, in which weekly to deposit, as it might appear to every brother proportionally to his weekly prosperity in business, under the Divine blessing, had not the warrant of a Divine appointment or provision, only for one purpose; whereas, the objects of Christian benevolence are numerous and manifold, and could not, without great inconvenience, be