subscription, and also Clergymen to promote the object in their respective congregations. After the first Mon day of April next, the Corporation will call a meeting of the subscribers, that they may adopt any measures they may see fit for carrying this charitable plan into effect, and particularly choose five Trustees to act with the Corporation in the appropriation of the funds. In behalf of the Corporation, with the assent of the Board of Overseers.

JOHN T. KIRKLAND, Prest. Harvard College, Dec. 18, 1815.

SUBSCRIPTION.

In conformity to the foregoing proposal, we the subscribers, being disposed to cooperate with the Corporation and Overseers of Harvard College in providing for the education of Students in Divinity and Candidates for the Ministry at said College, and to aid in forming a Society for that purpose, do agree to pay the sums, annexed to our names respectively, to such Treasurer as the Society may appoint to receive the same; each annual subscriber to continue to pay his subscription, till he withdraw his name by written notice to the Treasurer.

N. B. Gentlemen holding subscription papers are requested to make a return of the result of their exertions on or before the first Monday in April

next.

COMMITTEES

Appointed by the Corporation. Three persons have been selected for each commission, under the belief that that number would most conveniently cooperate in this interesting work. The gentlemen first named will please to act as Chairmen.

Suffolk county.-Hon. George Cabot, Hon. Israel Thorndike, William Parsons, Esq.

Hon. H. G. Otis, Hon. William Gray, Hon. Isaac Parker.

Theodore Lyman, Esq. Gen. Arnold Welles, Peter Thacher Esq.

William Sullivan, Esq. Col. Joseph May, Joseph Coolidge, jun. Esq.

Hon. William Brown, Charles Davis,

Esq. Samuel May, Esq.

Hon. Josiah Quincy, Hon. T. H Perkins, Jonathan Phillips, Esq. John E. Tyler, Esq. William Thurs ton, Esq. Henry Gray Esq.

Samuel Eliot, Esq. James Prince, Esq. T. K. Jones Esq.

Samuel Parkman, Esq. Redford Webster, Esq. Dr. Ephraim Eliot. Hon James Lloyd, David Sears, Esq, James Perkins, Esq.

Hon. Thomas Dawes, John Parker, Esq. Josiah Salisbury, Esq.

Hon. P. C. Brooks, Samuel Brad ford, Esq. Hon. Daniel Sargent.

William S. Shaw, Esq. James Savage, Esq. Francis Gray, Esq.

William P. Mason, Esq. Theodore Lyman, jun. Esq. Thomas Dexter, Esq. Essex.-Edward A. Holyoke, M. D. Jacob Ashton, Esq Dr. Joshua Fisher. Hon. Samuel Putnam, Hon. Joseph Story, Hon. Benjamin Pickman, jun. Hon. D. A. White, Thomas Cary, and Stephen Hooper, Esquires.

Oliver Prescott, M. D. Nathaniel Bradstreet, M. D. Michael Hodge jun. Esq.

Hon. John Pickering, Humphrey Devereux, Esq. Leverett Saltonstalli Esq.

Hon. John Heard, Asa Andrews, Esq. Nathaniel Lord, Esq.

Plymouth-Hon. George Partridge, Beza Hayward, Esq. Dr. Cushing Otis.

Hon. Judge Thomas, Hon. William Davis, Kilborn Whitman, Esq.

Hon. Nahum Mitchell, Hon. Wilkes Wood, Barnabas Hodge, Esq,

Bristol-Hon. George Leonard,Hon. Hodijah Baylies, Hon. Samuel Fales, Esquires.

Barnstable-Dr. Samuel Savage, Hon. Wendell Davis, Hon. Richard Sears.

Norfolk.—Hon. Edward H. Robbins, Hon. J. Richardson, Thomas Greenleaf, Esquires.

Middlesex.-Hon. Josiah Bartlett, Hon. Timothy Bigelow, Samuel Hoar, jun. Esq.

Abraham Bigelow, Esq. Loammi Baldwin, Esq. Hon. Timothy Fuller.

Worcester-Hon. Joseph Allen, Hon. Oliver Fiske, Hon. Levi Lincoln, juni Esquires:

Daniel Waldo, Esq. Stephen Salisbury, Esq. Hon. Benjamin Heywood, Esq.

Hampshire, Franklin, and Hampden.Hon. Thomas Dwight, Joseph Lyman, Samuel C. Allen, Esquires.

John Williams, Esq. Samuel Lathrop, Esq. Lewis Strong, Esq.

Cumberland. Hon. Prentiss Mellen, Hon. George Bradbury, Hon. Stephen Longfellow, jun.

Berkshire. Hon. J. W. Hulbert, John C. Williams, Esq. Henry D. Sedgwick, Esq.

York. Hon. David Sewall, William Pitt Preble, Esq. Dr. Samuel Emer

son.

Kennebeck. Hon. S. S. Wilde, Hon. James Bridge, Hobert H. Gardiner, Esq. Hon. S. Thatcher.

The Corporation will name other gentlemen in addition to the above, in the more distant counties.

OBSERVATIONS.

As a proposition is now before the publick for increasing the means of theological education at Harvard Uni versity, it is thought that a few observations on the subject may be accept able to those who have not been able to give to it much attention, and whose aid and patronage may be solicited.

It may perhaps be asked by some, though I hope the question will be confined to a few, Why ought we to be so solicitous for the education of min. isters? The answer is very obvious. The object of the ministry is peculiar ly important. To the Christian minister are entrusted in a measure the dearest and most valuable interests of the human race. He is called to watch over the morals of society, and to awaken and cultivate the principles of piety and virtue in the hearts of individuals. He is set apart to dispense that religion, which, as we believe, came from God, which was given to reform, exalt, and console us, and on the reception of which our immortal hopes depend. Ought we not to be solicitous for the improvement and preparation of those, by whom this religion is to be unfolded and enforced, and to whose influence our own minds and those of our children are to No. 1. Vol. IV.

be so often exposed?

Our interest in a minister is very peculiar. He is to us what no other professional man can be. We want him not to transact our business and to receive a compensation; but to be our friend, our guide, an inmate in our families; to enter our houses in affliction; and to be able to give us light, admonition, and consolation in suffering, sickness, and the last hours of life.

Our connexion with men of other professions is transient, accidental, rare. With a minister it is habitual. Once in the week, at least, we are to meet and sit under his instructions. We are to give up our minds in a measure to his influence, and to receive from him impressions on a subject, which more than all others, concerns us, and with which our improve ment and tranquillity through life and our future peace are most intimately connected.

We want the minister of religion to address our understandings with clearness; to extend and brighten our moral and religious conceptions; to throw light over the obscurities of the sacred volume; to assist us in repelling those doubts which sometimes shake our convictions of Christian truths and to establish us in a firm and rational belief.

We want him not only to address the understanding with clearness, but still more to speak to the conscience and heart with power, to force as it were our thoughts from the world, to rouse us from the slumbers of an unreflecting life, to exhibit religion in an interesting form, and to engage our affections on the side of duty. Such are the offices and aids which we need from the Christian minister. Who does not see in a moment, that much preparation of the intellect and heart is required to render him successful in these high and generous labours?

These reasons for being interested in the education of ministers grow out of the nature and importance of religion. Another important remark is, that the state of our country demands that greater care than ever should be given to this object. It will not be

denied, I presume, that this country is on the whole advancing in intelligence. The means of improvement are more liberally and more generally afforded to the young than in former times. A closer connexion sub. sists with the cultivated minds in other countries. A variety of institutions are awakening our powers, and communicating a degree of general knowledge, which was not formerly diffused among us. Taste is more extensively cultivated, and the finest productions of polite literature find their way into many of our families. Now in this state of things, in this increasing activity of intellect, there is peculiar need of an enlightened min istry. Religion should not be left to feeble and ignorant advocates, to men of narrow and unfurnished minds. Its ministers should be practical proofs, that it may be connected with the noblest improvements of the understanding; and they should be able to convert into weapons for its defence the discoveries of philosophy, and the speculations of genius. Religion must be adapted in its mode of exhibition to the state of society. The form in which we presen it to the infant will not satisfy and interest the advanced understanding. In the same manner, if in a cultivated age religious instruction does not partake the general elevation, it will be slighted by the very minds whose influence it is most desirable to engage on the side of virtue and piety.

I have observed, that an enlightened age requires an enlightened ministry. On the other hand it may be observ'ed, that an enlightened ministry is a powerful agent in continuing and accelerating the progress of light, of refinement, and of all social improvements. The limits of this essay will not admit the full development of this sentiment. I will only observe, that perhaps the most reflecting men are not aware how far a society is in.debted for activity of intellect, delicacy of manners, and the strength of all its institutions, to the silent, sul tle influence of the thoughts and feelings, which are kept alive in the breasts of multitudes by religious instruction,

There is another most important consideration for promoting an enlightened misistry. Religious teachers there cer tainly will be of one description or other; and if men of well furnished minds cannot be found for this office, we shall be overwhelmed by the ignorant and fanatical. The human heart is disposed by its very nature to religious impressions, and it wants guidance, wants direction, wants the light and fervour of other minds, in this most interesting concern. Conscious of weakness, and delighting in excite ment, it will follow the blindest guide, who speaks with confidence of his communications with God, rather than advance alone in the religious life. An enlightened ministry is the only barrier against fanaticism. Remove this, and popular enthusiasts would sweep away the multitude as with a torrent, would operate with an unresisted power on the ardent imagination of youth, and on the devotional susceptibility of woman, and would even prosti ate cultivated minds, in which feeling is the most prominent trait. Few of us consider the proneness of the human heart to extravagance and fanaticism, or how much we are all indebted for our safety to the good sense and intellectual and religious improvement of ministers of religion.

Ignorant ministers are driven almost by necessity to fanaticism. Unable to interest their hearers by appeals to the understanding, and by clear and judicious and affecting delineations of religion, they can only acquire and maintain the ascendancy which is so dear to them, by inflaming the passions, by exciting a distempered and ungoverned sensibility, and by perpetuating ignorance and errour. Every man of observation must have seen melancholy illustrations of this truth, and what an argument does it afford in favor of an enlightened ministry!

Nothing more is needed to show the great interest which the community ought to feel in the education of young men for the ministry. But it will be asked, Are not our present means sufficient? Are not our pulpits filled with

well furnished and enlightened teachers? Why seek to obtain additional aids for this important end? I answer, first, that a sufficient number of enlightened ministers is not trained for our pulpits. There is a demand beyond the supply, even if we look no further than this Commonwealth; and if we look through the whole country, we shall see an immense tract of the spiritual vineyard uncultivated, and uncultivated for want of laborers. I answer, in the second place, that whilst in our pulpits we have ministers whose gifts and endowments entitle them to respect, we yet need and ought to possess a more enlightened ministry. Many of our religious teachers will lament to us the deficiencies of their education, will lament that the narrowness of their circumstances compelled them to too early an entrance on their work, will lament that they were deprived by the imperfection of our institutions, of many aids which the preparation for the ministry requires. We have indeed many good ministers. But we ought to have better. We may have better. But unless we will sow more liberally, we cannot expect a richer harvest. The education of ministers decides very much their future character, and where this is incomplete, we must not expect to be blessed with powerful and impressive instruction. The sum is, we need an increase of the means of theological education.

But it will be asked, Why shall we advance funds for the education of ministers, rather than of physicians or law yers? Why are such peculiar aids and encouragements needed for this profes. sion? Will not the demand for ministers obtain a supply, just as the demand for every other species of talent? This reasoning is founded on a principle generally true, that demand creates a supply; but every general rule has its exceptions, and it is one of the highest offices of practical wisdom to discern the cases where the rule fails in its application.

All reasoning should give place to fact. Now it is an undeniable fact, that whilst the other learned professions in our country are crowded and

overstocked, whilst the supply vastly surpasses the demand, the profession of the ministry is comparatively deserted, and candidates of respectable standing, instead of obtruding themselves in crowds, are often to be sought with a degree of care and difficulty.

The reason of this is to be found in the difference between the ministry and other professions. Other profes sions hold out the strong lures of prof. it and distinction. They appeal to the ambition, the love of gain, the desire of rising in the world, which are so operative on youthful minds. These lurcs are not, and ought not to be, ex. hibited by the ministry. This profession makes its chief appeal to the moral and religious feelings of the young, and we all know how much fainter these are than those which I have previously mentioned. Can we wonder then that the ministry is less crowded?

I proceed to another remark. The professions of law and medicine do not imperiously demand any high moral qualifications in those who em brace them. A young man, whose habits are not altogether pure, or whose character is marked by levity, may enter on the study of these professions, without incurring the res proach of impropriety or inconsisten cy of conduct. The ministry, on the other hand, demands not merely unexceptionable morals, but a sobriety and seriousness of mind, and a propensity to contemplative and devout habits, which are not the ordinary characteristics of that age, when a choice must be made of the business of life. On this account the number of the young, who are inclined by their own feelings and advised by others to enter the ministry, is comparatively small.

I am now led to another reflection, growing out of the last, The profes sion of the ministry has an aspect not inviting to the young. Youth is the period of animation and gaiety. But to the hasty observation of youth, there is a gloominess, a solemnity, a painful self restraint belonging to the life of a minister. Even young men

of pure morals and of devotional susceptibility shrink from an employment, which they think will separate them from the world, and impose a rigorous discipline and painful circumspection. That path, which they would proba bly find most tranquil and most flowery, seems to them beset with thorns. Do we not see many obstructions to a sufficient supply of students of theol. ogy?

I now proceed to another most im portant consideration. We have seen, that a large number of young men, whose tastes and feelings lead them to the ministry, is not to be expected. "It is also a fact, and a very decisive fact, that those young men who possess these tastes and feelings generally belong to families, whose circumstances are confined, and whose means of educating their children are exceedingly narrow. The children of the rich, born to prospects of ease, and formed to gaiety if not licentiousness by indulgence, have little relish for the ministry. On the contrary, the sons of poorer families, whose circumstances impose great self restraint, whose collegiate education is their whole portion, and often demands their own as well as their parents' exertions, are naturally formed to greater seriousness and consideration, and to a wil lingness to meet the toils and uncertainties of the ministry. From this class of the young, the ministerial p profession does accordingly receive its largest supplies. Do we not at once discover from this statement, that this profession demands from the community peculiar encouragements?-Let me briefly repeat what I have said. From the nature of the ministry, a small proportion of the young are dis posed or fitted to enter it, and of this small number a considerable part are unable to defray the expenses of their education; and yet the community has the highest possible interest in giving them the best education which the improvements of the age and the opulence of the country will admit. Is it not as clear as noon day, that there ought to be provided liberal funds for this most valuable object?

Will it here be asked, why the can

didate for the ministry cannot borrow money to defray the charges of his education? I answer, it is not always easy for him to borrow. Besides a debt is a most distressing incumbrance to a man, who has a prospect of a salary so small, that, without exertions for eign to his profession, it will hardly support him. Can we wonder that the profession is declined in preference to such a burden?

Where this burden however is chosen, the effect is very unhappy, and the cause of religion is often a suffer.

er,

The candidate, unwilling to contract a larger debt than is indispensable to his object, hurries through his studies, and enters unfurnished and unprepared on the ministry. His first care is, as it should be, to free himself from his pecuniary obligations; and for this end he endeavours to unite some secular employment with his sacred calling. In this way the spirit of study and of his profession is damped. He forms negligent habits in his preparation for the pulpit, which he soon thinks are justified by the wants of a growing family. His imperfect education therefore is never completed. His mind remains sta. tionary. A meagre library, which he is unable to enlarge, furnishes the weekly food for his flock, who are forced to subsist on an uninteresting repetition of the same dull thoughts.

This is the melancholy history of too many who enter the ministry. Few young men among us are in fact sufficiently prepared, and the conse. quence is, that religious instruction is not what it should be. The commu nity at large cannot perhaps understand how extensive a preparation the ministry requires. There is one idea however which should teach them, that it ought to be more exten, sive than that which is demanded for any other profession. A lawyer and physician begin their employments with a small number of clients or pa tients, and their practice is confined to the least important cases within their respective departments. They have therefore much leisure for preparation after entering on their pur suits, and gradually rise into publick