If we must have men of meagre attain- | most approved English classics would therements in the sacred office, let them by all by be driven into exile. Paradise Lost must means be settled over our most intelligent be banished; Pope and Thomson must be congregations, where, if they do no good, laid upon the same shelf with Horace and they will at least do but little harm. But Virgil; and the noblest works of genius, until an appropriate sphere of labor for an that the English language can furnish, illiterate ministry can be found, the Direc- must be kept from the student's eye. And tors feel warranted in insisting upon a who will say that a portion of Inspiration's thorough course of education, as a condition sacred page, would not, by such proscripupon which assistance is afforded. tion, be placed under interdict?

It is then neither candid nor wise to raise objections against the tendency of a study, when the evil, if any, results from the depraved habits of the student, or from defective modes of instruction.

But it is urged that some of the branches of study pursued in our colleges are of hurtful tendency, and ought to be abandoned; accordingly substitutes have in some cases been introduced which essentially modify the established and long tried sys- "Moses was learned in all the wisdom tems of public education. An attempt has of the Egyptians,"-literature as likely to thus been made by some respectable corrupt the heart as that of Greece and scholars to decry, and, if possible, to banish Rome; and yet we have no evidence that from the halls of learning the study of the the morals of Moses were tainted by his ancient classics. Other men of equal zeal, studies. It was that enlargement of underbut of far humbler pretensions, have echoed standing; that vigor of intellect, acquired the alarm, and rung all sorts of changes and disciplined by the patient and profound upon the dangers to which students are study of heathen writers, that made him exposed by this familiarity with pagan" mighty in words and in deeds," gave him writers. "The holy city is in the possession of infidels," was the animating text of Peter the Hermit. By his enthusiastic rhapsodies, the elements of social order were driven into fierce commotion, and the energies of Christendom were enlisted to dispossess the Infidel, and heal the wounded honor of Christianity. The text has indeed been changed, but the discourse is much the same in our day. We are gravely told that the word of God is dishonored by the study of the heathen classics; that young men whose characters are formed under their influence, if saved at all, must be "saved so as by fire." An impression has been made upon some, that candidates for the ministry are putting their morals, if not their souls, in jeopardy, by the study of Greek and Latin.

As the Directors insist upon a thorough course of classical study, it may not be unsuitable to this occasion, briefly to assign their reasons for adhering to this original and fundamental principle of the Education Society.

The objection to the classics, based upon their immoral tendency, has its foundation, chiefly, in the lively fancy of the objector. Centuries have passed since the study of Greek and Roman models has been deemed essential to a finished education; and they have left on record few, if any, well attested facts that go to prove the immoral influence of the study. It cannot, however, be doubted that classical study wrongly directed, may produce, and probably has produced, injurious effects. But if the ban of proscription is to be pronounced upon every branch of knowledge and every author, that abuse has made prejudicial to the mind or heart, it would narrow down the course of liberal education to limits most meagre and contemptible. Some of our best and 26

VOL. XII.

superiority over all his countrymen, and eminently fitted him for that perilous and responsible station, that he was called to fill. Paul was a student of heathen classics. He even quotes them in his public addresses, but nowhere intimates that his morals had passed a fiery ordeal in his course of study.

The great Reformers, Luther, Melancthon, Zwinglius, Calvin, and Beza, were eminent for their classical attainments; and the brightest ornaments in the Protestant church, in every successive age since the Reformation, were profound classical scholars, alike distinguished for purity of heart and power of thought.

The untaught Christian, then, has no cause to apprehend, that the moral principles of the candidates for the sacred office, will be poisoned by the branches of study they are called to pursue. Should an antidote ever be found necessary, it will be readily administered by the Christian teachers, to whose guardianship they are committed.

The high value of classical study in forming and furnishing the youthful mind, has often been demonstrated. No single department of learning is so well adapted to strengthen the memory, improve the judgment, refine the taste, form the habit of nice discrimination, and invigorate the reasoning powers, as the study of language; and by the almost unanimous consent of the literary world, no languages have higher claims upon the student, for purposes of mental discipline, than the Latin and Greek.

Perhaps there never was a time when sound learning and mental discipline, were more essential to the heralds of the cross, than the present. The general diffusion of knowledge in our country, has become a subject of State policy, as well as of individual and associated enterprise. Not only

which will not only tell in their results on the millennium, but will be among he prominent instrumentali ties in its introduction and in its consumma tion.

The meeting was addressed by the Rev. Charles A. Boardman, Youngstown, Ohio, Rev. Benjamin Labaree, New York, and Rev. Dr. Cox of Brooklyn, N. Y.

Ambrose White, Esq. is President of the Society, the Rev. Eliakim Phelp3, Secretary, and Geo. W. McClelland, Esq. Treasurer.

CONNECTICUT BRANCH.

AN account of the last Anniversary of the Society was given in the Journal for August. An extract from the thirteenth annual report, then read, is here inserted.

of an object immeasurably dearer to them than any earthly good.

Remembering the pain of these trials and apprehensions at the commencement of the year, it is with feelings of peculiar pleasure, and we trust, with emotions of gratitude to God, that we come before the Society at this time, with the ability to say not only that our wants have been supplied, but also, that we can enter upon another annual period of our labors with a much greater degree of encouragement and assurance.

On surveying the great field of gospel enterprise which has been opened to Christians of this day, and estimating in some imperfect degree the moral and spiritual wants of our own, and other nations, the Directors cannot but feel a deep conviction that the motives, which first impelled the churches to embark in efforts for the multiplication of evangelical ministers, are increasing, rather than otherwise, in their force and urgency. The supply of ministers, properly fitted for their work, has not kept pace with the growing necessities of our own country; while, at the same time, new openings and calls from abroad continually present themselves. The Macedonian cry is beginning to be heard, even from Europe, as well as from the other continents and islands of the sea. New empires are springing up on our borders, which will be looking to this country, for some time to come, to supply those who can come and dwell among them, in the character of Christ's ambassadors, laboring to plant and nourish up the seeds of Christian truth and influence. Political revolutions, and processes of a more gradually transforming and assimilating character, are going on within and among the nations of the earth both far and near; which seem to indicate that God is, in this respect, preparing the way before his peaceful chariot of salvation, so that the gospel may speedily have free course and be glorified. Are we prepared, brethren and friends, to meet the exigencies and duties of the crisis which appears to be at hand? Are we as fully consecrated to Christ and his cause, ourselves, as will be requisite to the cheerful discharge of our own responsi

The Directors of the Connecticut Branch of the American Education Society, in presenting their Thirteenth Annual Report, desire gratefully and devoutly to recognize the smiles of the Great Head of the church, during the past year, upon the great cause, to which, in their humble sphere, they are endeavoring to lend a helping hand. During the recent period of pecuniary embarrassment, no great object of religious enterprise was more seriously affected than that of the Education Society. For several reasons it is more difficult, than in almost any other kindred operation, to effect a sudden curtailment of the Society's disbursements, without the most injurious sacrifices; or, on the other hand, to make any appeal to the sympathies of the Christian public, which shall have an immediate effect in bringing up large deficiencies in its funds. In these trying circumstances the Society, looking to the great and precious interests committed to its care, and endeavoring, as far as possible, to preserve that steady course, so indispensable to the attainment of its ultimate object, was compelled to go forward under the pressure of accumulated burdens, which nothing but a reliance on the Divine hand could have enabled the Directors to sustain. At the close❘bilities? Are we ready to answer the call of the last year of the Society's opera- for the bread of life, of the famishing millions tions it seemed uncertain whether this who may soon be so far roused to a sense of Branch could be permitted to depend on their condition, as to feel that they have a the Parent Board to supply the deficiencies want of something which is possessed, only which were occurring almost every quarter, by the "people of the living God?" The in the resources of its treasury; and conse- Bible and the Christian Tract have gone quently whether a considerable number of out upon the wings of the wind. Many a the young men preparing for the sacred precious seed lies scattered here and there ministry in the literary and theological insti- which may soon require the hand of the tutions of the State, especially the former, cultivator and the reaper. Let us watch would not be compelled to suspend, or even with prayerful solicitude the signs of the utterly to relinquish the execution of their times, and be prepared, wherever any fadesign. This uncertainty was deeply em- vored portion of the field is ripe, to thrust in barrassing to the feelings of the young men the sickle. Let our young men especially, themselves, who could scarcely endure the whom God by his grace has numbered among thought of being cut off from the attainment | the host of his elect, be encouraged, and

assisted if need be, to prepare and consecrate | churches in a state of spiritual declension. themselves unto that high calling, in which Perhaps we cannot reasonably expect of it will be a peculiar honor for them to em- them a degree of piety essentially more ploy their most cultivated powers. Thus, elevated, than that which exists in the and thus only can we expect that when the Christian community at large, and particufathers in these churches shall rest from larly in the churches of which they are their labors, and missionaries on our borders members. Let more prayer be offered in and in foreign climes shall cease from their their behalf, and let opportunities be imtoil, a goodly number of the servants of proved by their pastors and friends of exChrist, suitably furnished for this arduous horting them to continue in the grace of work, will appear to receive their mantle, God, and steadfastly to aim at higher and and to occupy their places, and so bear higher attainments. onward the ark of God to its last and most glorious resting place in the sanctuary of the New Jerusalein.

MAINE BRANCH.

AN account of the Annual Meeting was given in the last number of the Journal. An extract from the Annual Report follows. At their meeting in March, your Directors appointed certain individuals of their own number to visit most of our beneficiaries at the seminaries, with which they are connected, for the purpose of inquiring into their spiritual state, and of giving them such counsel, as their circumstances might seem to require. We had the quarterly certificates of their instructors that they all possessed a fair Christian character, yet they might not, any of them, be fully aware of the importance of the position, which they occupy; that even now they are a spectacle to God, angels and men: that, while pursuing their academic, collegiate and theological studies much will be done to mature their own characters, and much influence be exerted by them for good or evil, upon that interesting class of minds, with which chiefly they are associated. Their situation is in truth one of peculiar and most solemn responsibility; it is much to be desired, that they should constantly and deeply feel the pressure of that responsibility; and that to an exemplary diligence in their endeavors to acquire knowledge, and to form habits of close and effective mental discipline, should unite a consistent, fervent, active piety. Into the holy office, which they have in prospect, they will be presumptuous, unauthorized intruders, if their souls do not glow with a Saviour's love. As recipients of the consecrated charities of the church, they cannot feel too strong a desire to show, even now, that this bounty is not bestowed upon objects unworthy of it, and to encourage by their Christian deportment the expectation, that if their lives be prolonged, they will prove good ministers of Jesus Christ. But they are human beings, young in years and in piety, encompassed therefore with infirmities, liable to err, prone to evil -exposed (at the academy and the college) to the ensnaring influence of evil communications and connected, it may be, with

Impressions are sometimes entertained, that young men are aided by Education Societies, whose powers of mind and literary attainments do not give fair promise of use. fulness. Now it is not necessary that all Christian ministers should be men of eminent powers and attainments. Experience has shown, that some men in these respects, scarcely above, perhaps apparently sometable and useful, than others in talents and what below mediocrity, prove more accep science decidedly their superiors. There is need of caution, therefore, before we reject, as well as before we approve. But in general the danger is much greater of bringing forward those, who have not sufficient capacity, than of rejecting any who have. Never was it more important, than at the present day, that those, who are set for the defence of the gospel, should possess the spirit of power and of a sound mind, that so they may be able to convince gainsayers, to instruct all classes of hearers in things pertaining to God, and to secure the respect of men of intelligence and cultivation for their office and their religion. Much of injury may accrue to young men themselves, if encouraged to leave employments in which they might be respectable, useful and happy, for a profession which they cannot fill. In the same way, much prejudice may be exerted against the Society that aids them, and against the gospel itself. At the meeting of the Directors in March, individuals were appointed to make particular inquiries with respect to the standing of beneficiaries in talents and scholarship.

The prejudice, too often occasioned against the Education Society by the real or supposed want of suitable qualifications in some one or more of the young men assisted by it, we cannot admit to be well grounded. The Society does not intend to bring forward into the ministry any other young men, than such as possess a "hopeful piety and promising talents." It receives none upon trial, but those who furnish satisfactory evidence of fair Christian character, and who having pursued classical studies for six months, are favorably reported of by their teachers, and approved of by an examining committee. After they are received, it requires from their instructors, a quarterly certificate that their talents, and scholarship, and deportment are such, as entitle them to continued assistance. But instructors and