The comparison is unfair. It is a comparison of the average of a class in our time, with the rare and exceptional leaders of the same class in a former time. It was the singular, unusual brilliancy of these outstanding men that gave them their place in our memories, while their cotemporaries of the average are forgotten. The Church of Christ-we do not speak now of any one branch of it-never had so able, and never so large and well-equipped a corps of Divinityschool instructors as she has at the present moment. And not only so it may be permitted to the present writer to say, that the professors of the United States have an advantage in their being less "schoolmen," and more practical men than many of the corresponding class elsewhere. The facts that many of them have been active pastors, that they are often in stirring communication with the outside Christian world, through our unexampled social religious literature, protect them from the tendency to the ideal, speculative and impractical, formerly characteristic of many a class-room. The churches, looking at their apparatus in this section of it, may well thank God and take courage.

Can the methods of education for the ministry be improved? A clear answer to this question can only be given through the knowledge of two things: (1) what they are now, and (2) what is the end to be aimed at? Contenting one's self with what has been said in relation to the former, let a glance be given at the work for which the ministry is to be educated.

Preaching, doubtless, is the main element in that work. There is to be the clear utterance of saving and sanctifying truth by spiritual men. It is to be uttered; so it must be known. It must be uttered; so the power of utterance must be cultivated. It is not the saving truth only that is to be uttered. Souls are to be born and quickened into spiritual life through the saving truth; but the minister does not close his connection with them at this stage. The sanctifying truth has to be taught them. They are to be built up, directed, taught how to be useful. He has done the work of an evangelist, and with blessed results. Now he is to do for them the work of a pastor. They are born into the kingdom; now they are to be fed. And all this is to be done by a man whose whole nature is in the spirit of the whole work. In the nature of the case, no distinction will be made in the average mind between the personal character of the minister, on one hand, and his work, on the other, as with other professional men. "His way of living-oh! that is nothing to me; it is of his legal opinion I am thinking." So one may say about a lawyer; but such qualification will rarely be made with the clergyman. On the contrary, the human heart will get comfort to itself in setting aside an unpalatable, but unanswerable argument, by dwelling on any detected, or even suspected incongruity between the matter of the message and

the ways of the messenger. This, then, must first be aimed at by our Seminaries-that they send out consecrated men, able to gain a hearing for the whole truth of God.

But this is not all, by any means. Human nature is just the same as in Paul's days; but its modes and conditions of working change with the times. Christianity is now a system-historical, accepted and incorporated with social, and even political life; and the minister, to be effective, must be capable of understanding and of working —in his place—the machinery of a great organized system, and also of carrying himself usefully at every one of the hundred points in which Church and Christian life touches the general life of mankind. It is one thing for a general to win his way to a great city, scatter the troops that guard its approaches, and take possession of it for his government. It is another, and often a more delicate thing, to carry himself rightly in the city; where, whether he like it or not, he must have influence, one way or another. A Christian preacher is a soldier, but he must be administrator also. He is a preacher: he is also a "minister." In contact through the week with the secular teachers, the social ways, the commercial life, the home movements among which he lives, he may draw the nails he drove in on the Sabbath, or to use a strong Saxon word-he may clinch them. Any process by which a Seminary can, better than now, give preparation for this complex work is improvement.

That many men will find their way to the pulpit without regular training in either college or seminary is certain, and, within certain limits, is desirable. Our question, however, respects the methodical training of ministers; and the necessity for methodical training undoubtedly increases with the wider diffusion and deeper penetration of knowledge. The Molokani in Russia have not hitherto been allowed church buildings or organizations, and, of course, the more intelligent among them had a clear call and right to edify their brethren in such ways as were open to them. But let these people— for whose millions we trust there is a bright future-enjoy not partial but entire freedom, grow in intelligence and mental activity, and methodical training would become a clear duty. Our condition implies this obligation, and the number of facilities in seminaries on the one hand, and in Education Boards on the other, takes away most of the ordinary excuses for neglect of it.

The question then is, how to employ these facilities so as to secure deeper spirituality, more thorough knowledge of the truth, for statement of it to inquirers, for the edification of believers, and for the answering of scoffers, and, at the same time, the highest power of utterance?

The following points we venture to suggest, not as though all were equally important, or all equally disregarded at present:

1. A modification of the working of Education Boards. If the assurance from a kind-hearted minister and Session that a good young man aims at the ministry readily secures a grant, there is danger of the "beneficiary" falling into undue dependence on the church, and feeling as if she had contracted to see him through, and, in fact, through life, so long as he is "good." There is danger, too, of those who, if they chose, could pay their own way, turning from a profession that is fed in this way. It would be different if the moneys given were gained by intellectual effort, as scholarships or bursaries, for which the rich would compete on equal terms with the rest. The question is sure to be asked at no distant time, why cannot the Church draw students at their own cost, as truly as do Law, Medicine, and Physics? That benevolence is needed to found colleges is one thing; it is, to the average man, a quite different thing, that church benevolence supports him while in attendance.

2. Some systematic cognizance of all students who mean to go toward the ministry from the beginning of their studies. Suppose a boy thus inclined: what is to hinder his being brought once a year before Presbytery, Association, or whatever other body guards the common interest, examined on prescribed portions of the Scriptures, and that with care and thoroughness, say in successive years the Pentateuch, the other historical Old Testament Scriptures, the Prophets, the New Testament history, and the remainder of the book? Some would fall out for good reason; those who kept their place would be quickened and helped. The writer speaks from experience when saying that this process kept the work of the ministry as a real thing before the mind, gave subjects for study in vacation, made church organization a pleasant and familiar reality, and showed-what young people need to be taught that ministers are human beings, lifted by grace to most honorable service. In how many cases does the student now come into a church court, practically for the first time, to be examined for license? 3. Greater firmness is needed on the part of responsible bodies. Unhappily, there is divided responsibility. Church courts trust the Faculties; the professors leave the burden on the Presbytery, or other church body. There is enough human nature in Faculties, even of seminaries, to accept the providences that swell the number of their students and show their usefulness. Both should not only try to promote spiritual life, but they should not hesitate to intimate where it is apparent that other forms of service promised more usefulness and happiness than the ministry. An obviously incompetent licentiate, especially if "aided," does some harm all around.

4. Delay in the course of study would often be a gain. In a land like ours, where openings for industry are numerous, many a young man would be the better for being obliged to say to himself, "I have not means to pay my way next year; I must go to work and earn

them." Self-reliance, forethought, knowledge of life, the power to go in harness and make the best of things, acquaintance with human nature and other prosaic virtues would thus be gained, as they rarely are in a seminary. The want of these things has more to do with ministerial failure than defective theology.

5. Enthusiasts in a department should not linger over sections. They intend to be thorough on their scale. Disquisitions on Simple Sheva, on the Greek article, on the arguments for or against sublapsarianism or supralapsarianism claim reluctant attention which would be better bestowed on securing, say, a fair acquaintance with the English Bible as a whole. That acquaintance will be needed in the pastor's life a thousand times for every one where the Hebrew Sheva comes in naturally.

But, it may be said, men are needed to meet learned opponents on their own ground. Certainly. There are the professors; and a portion of a class will develop tastes in this direction to be satisfied in special hours, or post-graduate courses, or a few years in Germany, or in the maturer years, when judgment is riper, and leisure is made to follow out special aptitudes or cultivate special gifts. But should fifty students, who have to labor for life in the valleys, be dragged uselessly up hill for the sake of two or three who may some day, possibly, have to meet enemies on the top?

6. If this list be not alarmingly lengthening, we would add one more suggestion: Modern mental conflicts should be more noticed. Church history is of great importance. It is on the wide field of time that principles work themselves out, and display their influences. But there are two ways of studying it. A student may be required to know memoriter the arguments for and against, say, Traducianism, and be left ignorant of live issues, which he will meet daily in his future life. A professor who could condense on the heresies of the early centuries, and render plain and vivid their lineal descendants and "poor relations" of to-day, would help his students to practical usefulness, and lessen the temptation to say, quite illogically, of course, on quitting the seminary: "Now I am done with antiquity and the Orient, and I am glad of it! I am going to learn something about the West and the Nineteenth Century."

One respectful general word we venture to add in conclusion. Seminaries are a part of the life of the Church, and they will be as is the Church. If her tone be high and pure, they will catch that tone; if it be sordid and worldly, they will, ordinarily, imbibe the same earthly spirit. A living Church will choose earnest professors, and send forward students fired with an ambition above the earthly. is not possible to keep seminary doors and windows so closed as to keep out the surrounding atmosphere. If we have lukewarm men in any of our chairs, we have the responsibility-in part, at least-on us.

It

If our students are cold, or secular, or weak, or self-seeking, let us examine ourselves. They are our children. Where did they learn these ways? Has their "mother Church" been faithful to them? Can she transfer all the blame to their alma mater? Did not she stamp her image on them before ever they went to college? From her clergy they got their ideas of what a clergyman should be. From her worship they got their ideal of what it should be. They reproduce her lineaments. In view of all this, when we discuss the improvement of seminaries, let us not fail to mingle with the criticisms. this earnest cry: "Wilt thou not revive us, O Lord ?”

VI. THE PHYSICAL FACTOR IN PREACHING.

NO. II.

BY GEO. M. STONE, D.D., HARTFORD, CONN.

THE prejudice against "Schools of Oratory," and the aversion which is felt with reference to the itinerant elocutionist are not destitute of justifying reasons. There is, notwithstanding, a legitimate and vastly remunerative culture of the vocal powers. Its benefits are not limited to the organs of speech, but wise voice-building has in some instances affected general physical conditions in a most salutary way. It would surprise some people who have never tried it to discover the effect upon their own ease in speaking of simply reading aloud for one hour daily.

The brunt of the difficulty in regard to preaching, in many cases certainly, is the fact of its infrequency. Most of us could speak with greater facility every day than once or twice a week. The vocal organs are subjected to a heavy tax one day in seven, while they are suffered to remain unused for the major part of the interval between Sabbaths. Now the vigor, flexibility and volume of the voice depend upon practice, and that not spasmodically, but methodically and frequently. Von Bulow, the great pianist, is reported as saying: "If I quit the piano one day, I notice it; if I quit it two days, my friends notice it; if I quit it three days, the public notice it."

Daily prolonged reading aloud would furnish that regular exercise of the vocal organs, which would enable many speakers who feel over-fatigued by reason of the Sunday strain, to tide over the day without it. Suppose they were to include in the exercise the portion of Scripture to be read in worship, together with the hymns to be sung, the congregation could hardly fail to participate in the benefit. Skilled work in this particular phase of pulpit service is as conspicuously distinguished from unskilled as in any other place in or out of the pulpit. Besides the vocal mastery of Scripture lessons, there are other advantages to be gained by the practice mentioned. By reading aloud such noble and stimulating productions as Milton's