surprised to learn with what diligence, (and generally by stealth,) infidel books and pamphlets have been circulated. They have been put into the hands of youth, and even children; and often, while their pious parents were praying for their conversion, the abettors of infidelity have been industriously poisoning their minds with the most insidious and destructive skepticism. Need it be added, that the emergencies of the times require not only a deeply pious and untiringly zealous, but also a well instructed ministry. We need men for this work well read in the evidences of revealed religion, able to draw the line of discrimination between the impostures of Mohammed and the truths of Christianity, between the lying wonders of paganism and popery and the miracles of Jesus, between the ambiguous oracles of heathenism and the inspired predictions of those men 66 who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." We need men able to unravel the dextrous coils of sophistry in which error enwraps itself; men, whose thorough acquaintance with man, not barely in the abstract, but as he thinks, feels, and acts in society, shall enable them to lay open the hidden springs of the human heart, and show his auditors themselves in true colors.

The general diffusion of knowledge among all classes of the community is such as imperatively demands an intelligent and well trained ministry. Let it be remembered, that "it is not so much the duty of ministers to follow examples as to set them." They occupy a conspicuous position. Their office leads them into the van of the advancing host. They are expected to be among the first in whatever advances the general good. Under these circumstances for a minister to possess a mind untrained and destitute of mental furniture is to expose himself to mortification, and his office and character to contempt. A mental sluggard in his study, he will be a blunderer in the pulpit, and will soon be considered as an intruder into the sacred office by his brethren, while he will be set up as a laughing-stock by even school-boys.

The same qualifications which would have enabled a minister to pass very well thirty years since, will not answer for these times. Institutions of learning were not then multiplied as at present; and those that did exist, particularly the elementary schools, did not compare with those now in operation. With the improvements already made, and those projected and in progress, no inconsiderable share of science is likely to be brought to every man's door. History, the philosophy of language, geometry, chimistry, natural philosophy, the elements of astronomy, physiology, the elements of moral and intellectual science, and composition, are already taught in some of our common schools, and likely soon to be quite generally introduced. Books on all these subjects are multiplied, and cheap. Now no proposition in mathematics is more demonstrable than that the ministry, the public teachers of religion, must keep in advance of the general intelligence of society, or lose its influence over the public mind. The same acquirements which pass at present will not do twenty years hence. The progress of learning in the ministry must be onward; and those whom it may concern will do well to look to it that they do not introduce mere "novices"> in learning into the sacred office.

The state of the nation demands an intelligent and influential ministry. In this country every thing is in motion. Nothing seems so permanently settled as not to be subject to frequent fluctuation. Towns, villages, states, and even nations, are rising up around us, as if by the influence of magic. Not only whole families, but nearly whole neighborhoods are found removing from one part of the continent to another. Let any one mark the line of our seaboard, where thousands of emigrants are pouring in from the old world; let him trace our great thoroughfares, our rivers, railroads, canals, and turnpikes; let him look into our public vehicles; let him look at the waves of our population rolling westward; let him turn his eye to Texas, where a nation, "like a young giant, is rushing up to manhood;" let him not forget the Oregon territory, where the germ of a nation has already made its appearance; let him also take into account the mania for speculation and money-making with which this nation has already run mad; and then, remembering that the gospel ministry, with the subordinate agencies under its control, is to be the chief instrument in infusing the moral elements which are to guide and save the millions spreading over this vast continent, let him ask himself, if a ministry endowed with gifts both solid and durable, as well as grace burning and self-sacrificing, is not required to meet the emergencies of the times.

The condition of our own beloved Zion-our own branch of the church-requires a well instructed ministry. As a church, we have grown up with unparalleled rapidity. Providence sent Methodism to these shores, and Providence opened "a great and effectual door" before it. It is within the memory of men still living when there was not a Methodist church in the United States. Now our numbers are greater than those of any other evangelical church within the limits of the nation. A necessary consequence attendant upon our rapid growth is that, until quite recently, we have not been able to turn our attention to the promotion of the cause of education to any considerable extent. The result was, that those of our youth who were in pursuit of an education were obliged to seek it in institutions under the influence and control of other denominations. As might be expected, many became alienated, or were drawn from us. The ranks of our ministry were often impoverished by young men of piety and promise going out among others to seek literary advantages which we could not give them, and finally connecting themselves with other ecclesiastical bodies.

To see our young men drawn from us in this way—young men for whom we had labored and prayed, and over whom we had rejoiced as children born into our spiritual household, was by no means agreeable. We felt that it was due to them and ourselves to make provision for them. Moreover, we felt bound also in honor, and by Christian principle, to contribute of the ability which we at length possessed in advancing the general cause of education. Accordingly we have succeeded in establishing seminaries of learning, academies and colleges, under our own patronage and influence. These institutions have rapidly filled up; they have been favored by the God of providence, and blessed by the Spirit of divine grace. The result has already been of a very cheering character.

But the point had in view at the commencement of these obser

vations, and which is of the utmost moment, is this: These institutions are fast raising up among us an intelligent and well instructed laity, and one which will expect and require a corresponding ministry. It is vain, under any circumstances, to expect an intelligent laity will sit under an uninformed ministry.

We therefore reiterate the sentiment, the minister must keep ahead of his auditors. If he do not, he will inevitably lose his influence over the most influential and valuable of his hearers, and drive them into other churches. For ourselves, we are fully convinced that the ministry of our church is capable of being one of the most efficient on the face of the earth. Let us maintain and improve our piety; let us retain our simplicity and zeal; let us be pastors, as well as preachers; let us continue, as from the beginning, the spirit of self-sacrifice; let us never give up our impassioned style of address, but continue to speak as though we were in earnest; and then let us follow out the intention of Mr. Wesley who penned, and our fathers who adopted, the rule found in section xvi, pages 59 and 60 of our Discipline; let us get all the learning we can, particularly that which more immediately concerns our calling, and the followers of Wesley will be second in efficiency to none on earth. "It was once remarked of the preachers of the Methodist Church by a learned infidel, that, were they only panoplied in the literary armor which is worn by the preachers of some other sects, they would, in five years, make a conquest of the world." Were we panoplied in all the literary armor the world could furnish, and did we possess the unction and energy of a Paul, we should not probably be favored with so sudden and extensive a conquest as this eulogy of our zeal would imply. But, with the learning and zeal which we may call to our aid, we may be privileged with acting a successful part, at least, in the great warfare against sin and the powers of darkness.

As to the means of bringing about an improvement, and meeting the wants of the church in the particular which forms the subject of this article, that must be left to those who may be selected to represent the church in her highest ecclesiastical council, and to the bishops and annual conferences. The writer may, however, be permitted to observe, that if there could be a greater number of examinations of the candidates for sacred orders among us, and if they could be more thorough, it would be for the mutual advantage of all concerned. Why should there not be a rule requiring an examination into the literary acquirements, as well as the piety and native gifts, of those who ask a recommendation to the annual conferences from the quarterly conferences? This could be done either before the quarterly conference, or before a committee, by the presiding elder; or in case he should not be present, or should desire it, by some senior minister; or some one or two ministers, with the presiding elder, might do it. Then, why should not the examinations be extended to four years, instead of two? And, again, why not examine candidates every year, and report upon their cases to the conference? Our system, too, might, with advantage to the church, require four years' probation before admission into full connection. It would then be a year shorter than that required by our Wesleyan brethren.

It is certainly no advantage to the young men themselves to find their way into our annual conferences too easy. They need something to arouse their energies, and call out their powers. To throw them upon their own resources at the outset of their ministerial career is one of the best things in the world for them. Some of the most pious and intelligent among them would be among the first to ask for more thorough and frequent examinations. They feel the want of a spur to assist them in overcoming the mental sluggishness common, in a greater or less degree, to all.

In connection with the qualifications required for admission into our conferences, it should be remembered that we are not like other churches in our ecclesiastical organization. They induct a man into their ministry, and send him off to seek a field of labor where he can find one. They throw him upon his own resources, and let him sink or swim, as he can. We take a man, and agree to find him a field of labor, and must sink or swim with him. If he be incompetent, we share the results. If a church or circuit run down under him, we must go and build it up. If he scatter a congregation, we must pay the penalty, and go and get it together, if we can, even though we have not bread to eat or a coat to wear while doing it. If we labor until flesh and blood complain, and lungs and nerves cry out, under the pressure of our burden, and incompetent men are among us, they may be our successors to blight and prostrate all we have done. Is it, therefore, unreasonable that we ask for such a system of trial and examination as shall let us know whom we are to vote into our ranks? An itinerant ministry not well guarded must inevitably sink by its own weight.

In closing this article, the writer cannot do better than to transcribe the following extracts from a small volume, lying before him, entitled "The Ministry we need," published by Taylor & Gould, New-York, 1835. After describing the ministry which the church demands, the author* observes :-"If it be said, that this exhibition is, on the whole, appalling, disheartening to our youth-I answer, The standard will always be low enough in practice, without sinking it in theory. Besides, it will be found on experiment to be a great deal cheaper to get competent knowledge than to go without it. No man knows what he can do till he tries; and he never will attempt great things if he has no adequate motive. If a man aims low, his skill is generally of that sort that he hits his mark; and in consequence the archer is as low as the archery: he conforms himself to a standard ignoble and degrading. If a young man knows not his weakness, it is equally true that he knows not his strength; and shall his self-ignorance, in any respect, be allowed to legislate for the church respecting the quality of her approved ministry? He needs to be encouraged, assisted, and enlarged. If in lower offices innumerable men task themselves to grand achievements, and succeed, why not in that profession which in importance, in profit, in peril, in courage, in magnificence, in usefulness, in responsibility, in solemnity, in glory, has nothing equal to it in the universe of human pursuits? What has ignorance to do in the sacred office? God is not the patron of darkness. He has none of it in his own nature, and near his altars there should be perpetual light. A

* Dr. Cox.

minister of Christ is expressed emphatically by the metaphor of a star. Why? Obviously because he is appropriately a luminary in the world

‘Mid upper, nether, and surrounding darkness.'

Its lodgment is a candlestick-a church lightened with its heavenly brilliancy, and upholding its pure and steady radiations.”

There is a generous enthusiasm worthy of any bosom-indigenous to the purest, and inspired by that philosophy which sees things as they are. It ought to be encouraged and cultivated in every minister and every candidate. The aspirations of piety, the promise of intellect, and the stamps of vocation from above, are all involved in it. Yet for the same reason that piety is not all in the qualifications for the ministry, the mind must be stored, regulated, ripened, fully and correctly, or a brief and unfruitful career at best may be ordinarily predicted. There is special need of such preparation, all the more where there is excellence of capacity and adaptation of gifts connected with distinguished zeal. The greater momentum of the powers is only the more perilous without proportionate and balancing concomitants, verifying the poetry of the Roman satirist :—

"Vis consilii expers mole ruit sua."

"The finest energy, devoid

Of wisdom, soon is self-destroy'd."

For the Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review.

JACOB'S DREAM; OR, THE MINISTRY OF ANGELS.

A Discourse on Genesis xxviii, 12.

"And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it."

THE narrative of which this passage forms a conspicuous part presents a striking instance of that vigilant oversight which God takes of his creatures. This has been called by some his general providence; and perhaps the term general may be allowed, as a collective term, embracing all the individual interpositions of the Rector of the universe with regard to his creatures. It may also be used to denote the fact, that the providence of God extends to all the creatures that people his wide domain. But, while we admit that the providence of God extends to all his creatures, we have reason to believe that it is peculiarly interested in the concerns of rational beings, and that among them mankind have received no small amount of the divine regard. In view of this the patriarch asks, "What is man that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? and that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment ?" Job vii, 17, 18. And a similar question is