alogued as undenominational which could be claimed as Methodist, though such there may be. On both these points I have preferred to follow an official document, rather than to attempt any corrections based on personal knowledge or opinion. As a basis of comparison to show the proportion of the educational establishments of the respective denominations to the numerical strength of those denominations, I have taken not the numbers of communicants, but the numbers of sittings in churches, as given in the United States census for 1870, considering these statistics, from their uniformity of method, as affording perhaps as good an indication as can be obtained of the relative strength of the respective denominations.

I have compared the educational establishment of our Church with those of three other denominations or groups of denominations-first, the group of Churches which may in a historical sense be called the Calvinistic Churches-the Congregational, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, and German Reformed Churches which are one in doctrine, and whose interchange of members and ministers is so unrestricted that they may be reckoned for most practical purposes a single denomination; second, the Protestant Episcopal Church; third, the various Baptist Churches. The educational establishments of these Churches are summarized in

But the numbers of sittings in the respective Churches are as follows:

The solution of a series of simple proportions will exhibit more clearly the ratio of the educational establishments of the respective Churches to their numerical strength. The following table shows the result, if we suppose the numbers of the other Churches increased so as to equal the Methodist Churches, and their educational establishments increased in the same ratio:

These tables show that the educational establishment of the Calvinistic Churches is, in proportion to their numbers, vastly superior to ours. The same is true, in most points of comparison, as regards the Episcopal Church. In point of number of students, the Episcopal Church is apparently inferior. This, however, is only apparent; for, in three colleges catalogued as undenominational—Columbia, Harvard, and Yale-there are probably almost as many Episcopal students as in all the Episcopal colleges together. The tables show that the educational establishment of the Baptist Churches is slightly inferior to ours. This inferiority is especially marked in the South and West. In the region east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and the Potomac the same mode of comparison would show the Baptists slightly superior to us.

These facts find a partial explanation in two obvious considerations. The Calvinistic Churches and the Episcopal Church were formerly, in particular parts of the country, quasi-established Churches, having the field in undisturbed possession. The Methodists and Baptists have been intruders or invaders everywhere. Again, the Calvinistic Churches and the The Methodist Episcopal Church are wealthy, the latter especially so. and Baptist Churches are poor. But let us remember that, though poverty may impose a limit upon our ability, it does not diminish our need. It is not dollars, but brains, that we propose to educate. Our young men would not have more need of education, nor would our Church have more need of the power of educated minds, if we were the richest of all Churches.

For two reasons I would especially emphasize the comparison with the Calvinistic Churches. First, because their educational record is the best of all the Churches. To compare ourselves with the best is the impulse of an honorable ambition. Secondly, the Calvinistic Churches are our nearest neighbors. Since the sterner features of their Calvinism have become merely a historic reminiscence, they are more like ourselves in doctrines and modes of worship, and in the general tone and spirit of their religious life, than any other Churches. They are at once our best friends and our closest rivals. Their place and ours are side by side in the embattled line of the Church universal. It becomes us to see that our weapons and equipments are as good as theirs.

It remains that I should indicate, in a word, the duties which the situation suggests.

First, we must educate liberally more of our young people. It will not do for us to educate only half as many men, in proportion to our numbers, as some of our sister Churches. And, since our people are not adequately awake to the importance of education, our ministers must awaken the people.

But, if we need education in the pews, we need it yet more in the pulpit. There was a time when the forcing of uneducated men into the ministry was a necessity. We shall be false to our responsibilities as a Christian Church if choice shall continue the policy which necessity began. Much progress, indeed, has been made, but I think there is no conference in our Churches in which the men of college education are not in the minority, or (at most) very slightly in the majority. Surely this state of things ought not to continue. In the north-eastern section of our country, at least, the admission to conference of any preacher with less than a

collegiate education ought to be henceforth a rare and exceptional action. I leave to others better acquainted with the field to say how far this proposition must be modified by exigencies of the work in the South and West.

Another duty of the hour is the increased endowment of our educational institutions. They need larger libraries, more abundant apparatus, more numerous instructors. There may be need, in some parts of our country, for the founding of new institutions. But I believe that few, if any, new institutions should be established until those already in existence shall have been vastly strengthened. A college can not do its proper work with the endowment which would suffice for a primary school, or for an academy; and one good college is worth more than ten poor ones. Yes, strengthen all our colleges. But, above all, strengthen those that are strongest. Increase the endowment of those that are best endowed. Fulfill the divine law, "To him that hath shall be given." It is time that the sanctified ambition of our Church should look toward a goal which as yet seems very far distant, the building up of at least one institution which shall rank with Harvard and Johns Hopkins, with Oxford and Cambridge, with Leipsic and Berlin, among the world's great centers of intellectual light and power. The Church which was born in Oxford should deem one part of its mission unaccomplished till it has an Oxford of its own.

THE EDUCATIONAL SPIRIT AND WORK OF
METHODISM.

CHANCELLOR C. N. SIMS, D. D., LL. D.

WE are to consider at this hour the spirit of Methodism in relation to the great subject of education, and what it has done and is doing in this department of Christian activity. How does it regard higher education? Has it great desires for its promotion? Does it see clearly and feel strongly its necessity? Does it recognize a vital relation between it and the success and permanency of the Church? Is it zealous to plant schools and properly equip them? Does it appreciate their value as an adjunct to the work of saving souls? If it feels all this, how wise and efficient has it been in its educational movements and methods? These are some of the questions which come before us to-night, and which ought to be carefully considered in this great Methodist council.

I. The Methodist Church is distinctly a Church of the people, probably more so than any other Christian denomination. Its spirit is distinctly democratic in that broad sense which brings it into closest sympathy with the masses, while, at the same time, it does not hold itself aloof from persons of the highest rank and station. It feels the burdens of the common people, shares their interests, knows their heart-life and aspirations, and ministers to their wants. It is the greatest of revivalists and street preachers. Its spirit impels it to participate in all movements which promote human welfare. It preaches a full salvation to the entire man-salvation from sin, poverty, ignorance, and suffering. It is concerned for all moral, spiritual, and intellectual enterprises. It enters every avenue of activity

which promises the relief and elevation of humanity. It has caught the spirit of the Savior's motto, "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly," and is everywhere endeavoring to contribute to the fullness and purity of human happiness. It seeks with unceasing diligence and unutterable longing for the conversion of souls. It is not content to stop here; it understands that all which lies beyond conversion in the development of symmetry, breadth, and force of character must be the result of wise education. Nay, more; it realizes that even the possibility of continuous growth depends upon education crystallized into habits of thought and action. It is, then, according to the genius of Methodism that it should have a spirit of intense concern and willing helpfulness toward higher education under Christian direction; and such, indeed, is the spirit it manifests.

1. It recognizes the value of Christian education as an aid in building symmetrical character. It desires to make as much of every man, in the symmetry and beauty of his own life, as his fullest and completest development can yield. It recognizes the correlation of the religious and the intellectual faculties; that spiritual awakening and religious growth stimulate and increase intellectual power. Yet, while this is so, it is also strangely, but emphatically, true that mental culture, carried forward in the absence of religious training, dwarfs and enfeebles the spiritual faculties almost beyond recovery. Therefore, intellectual training alone can never satisfy the Church, for it can not regard with indifference any education that omits the recognition of God and fails to enforce the soul's obligation to him. It does not ask or desire religious instruction at the hands of the state, but it does propose, at its own expense and under its own direction, to furnish an education that shall be both intellectual and religious. To do this, it establishes institutions where the faith and spirit of the Gospel so permeate all instruction that conversion and religious life are as logically anticipated as mental acquisitions and honorable graduation.

2. It believes in education as a means of increasing aggressive Christian power. There are two' values in manhood. One is the enlargement and perfection of its own personality, which, as it approximates the perfect man, is of greater worth, both to God and the world; the other is in efficiency as a moral force for the improvement of others. In the latter, as well as in the former, the Church has a vital interest. It needs men who will go in its aggressive work, and help win the world to Christ-trained men, who, by their intellectual superiority, their social influence, their moral worth, and their force of character, are leaders of men and molders of public sentiment. No mere amiability, not even the most fervent personal piety, can do this if wanting in mental and social strength. Therefore, because it must train leaders of men, the Church takes active interest in the cause of education. It understands full well that a single thoroughly furnished spirit, endowed with a genius for leadership, as Luther or Wesley, is sometimes worth more in shaping the thought and faith of the world than thousands of the untrained rank and file of its members. In this training, therefore, and the schools where it can be done, the Church has an abiding interest.

3. It recognizes Christian education as an efficient ally in its efforts to gain control over society as a whole. The Church expects to take the

whole world for Christ. It would bring into the fellowship of its faith, and into harmonious co-operation with itself, the most intelligent and refined classes of community. It would furnish them with society and surroundings in keeping with their own high ideas. It would find for wealth its largest field for usefulness; for intelligence, its highest delight; and for refined taste, its most perfect exercise and enjoyment. In all this the necessity of thorough education is, of course, evident.

But, while it is thus holding the more favored classes of society in closest fellowship, it does not for an instant forget its obligations to the ignorant, sinful, and wretched. It seeks the regeneration of those whom sin has most degraded, and, having turned their steps into the better way of life, it begins the work of building them into nobler and purer character. It shows them how much life may be elevated and enlarged, and the possibilities of better social relations. It teaches them a higher style of thought, feeling, and purpose. And here again Christian education is its efficient co-laborer. Could we see, as in a vision, the steady procession of youths who are passing through our schools from narrow and limited social environments behind them to broader and more refined society before them, we could better understand the value of these institutions as means of lifting men in the social scale.

4. It depends upon Christian education as an antidote to the skeptical tendencies of the times. Christianity has new and peculiar battles to fight in every generation. Whoever has closely observed the condition of our homes now and a generation ago has been impressed with the marked change in their religious features. Then the Christian newspaper was the principal weekly visitor, and a few religious books constituted the bulk of the family library. No printed matter opposed or unfriendly to the doctrine of Christ was permitted to enter the home. All the literature and influences of the household nurtured faith and encouraged religious purpose. The direct statements of the Bible were received with unquestioning assent, and recognized astthe most authoritative standard of faith and 'conduct. It followed, logically, that the simple preaching of the Word carried overwhelming power, and earnest exhortation was effective in bringing the children to the cross. Revival seasons impressed whole communities and saw multitudes gathered in the Church. To-day circumstances are in many respects wholly different. Much of our magazine literature is of a character either to antagonize or weaken the foundation of Christian faith. Scientific instruction-unintentionally, doubtless, but silently and effectually-suggests inexorable and efficient law as the only knowable authority in nature, and remands to the background Providence, miracles, and a personal God. The Church, therefore, instead of having its youth already predisposed to the acceptance of Christ, finds them full of questionings, doubts, and sometimes of strong opposition to its instructions. The only effectual way to counteract this peculiar social condition is to carry education, saturated with Christian teaching, into these homes.

But this tendency is not confined to these narrow limits. The scientific mind of the age is, in no small degree, divorcing itself from revelation and piety, and is exerting an immense influence in this direction upon public opinion. The public mind holds spiritual things in too dreamy a fashion. A glamour of uncertainty is over the declarations of God's Word and religious truths are only half believed. Early Christian training, in