Whatever may have been the motives, which dictated the above inquiries, we consider the subject one of great practical importance, and deserving a serious and candid consideration. Without pledging ourselves to answer all of the foregoing questions, we shall make a few remarks on the subject.

Respecting the best method of conducting Manual Labour Schools, we feel and acknowledge our incompetence to give instructions; because our experience and observation do not authorize us to give a decided opinion. Besides, the experiment is one of recent date, and sufficient time has not yet elapsed to enable those best acquainted with the existing establishments to decide on the best mode of operation. It ought not to discourage the friends of this enterprise, if in a few cases a total failure should occur. It is thus with all other kinds of business. The projectors of enterprises the most useful to their country and to the world, have not unfrequently failed. Errors have been detected, improvements have been made, and the work, by repeated efforts, has at last been brought to a successful issue. Of the ultimate success of the plan of uniting manual labour with mental improvement, we have not the smallest doubt. By this means, we confidently hope, many energetic and honest hearted men will be raised from obscurity, to occupy stations of distinguished usefulness.

There is one error, however, likely to exist in the minds both of the patrons and pupils of these schools, which ought to be avoided, because, in our opinion, it will lead to disappointment, and will have a tendency to retard the final success which we anticipate. The error to which we refer, is, expecting too much profit from the labour of young men engaged in a course of study. Some benevolent and liberal men may imagine, that when they have contributed the means to commenee an establishment of this kind, young men destitute of all other resources, will be able to work their way through a course of studies, without farther aid; and young men may commence their studies with similar expectations; and the consequences in both cases must be injurious. That a few young men, in peculiarly advantageous circumstances, may support themselves during their education, is admitted, because it has been done. But that all worthy of patronage with a view to the ministry of the gospel, can do so, ought not to be expected. And in a large school, founded on the principle of Manual Labour, instances will be extremely rare

of young men carrying themselves through their preparatory studies, solely by their own industry. All cannot find such profitable employment, as an individual in peculiar circumstances may find. Yet these schools, as regards the great body of indigent youth, are unquestionably more economical than if the same persons were scattered in various situations: because, in the latter case, nine-tenths of them could find no profitable employment, and at the same time have the advantages of competent instruction.

Bodily labour, to a certain extent, we maintain, is salutary, contributes to health, and prepares the mind for vigorous and successful action; but, carried beyond that point, it produces lassitude, torpor, and an irresistible tendency to repose. Consequently, if labour be extended beyond the degree necessary for the preservation of health, it must retard, or totally defeat the attainment of the object proposed. What proportion of the expense of his education a young man may defray by his industry, can be ascertained only by experience: and on this point the experiments are not sufficiently numerous to enable us to form any definite estimate. Besides, the profits of the same establishment, directed with the same economy and industry, will vary with the price of provisions, the demand for the articles produced, and many other circumstances incapable of enumeration. Yet, in the most favourable circumstances, it cannot reasonably be expected, that a young man, without interfering very materially with his improvement, can support himself by his own labour. The labour of apprentices for several years, is generally deemed barely sufficient to pay for their food and clothing, and the instruction received from their employers. In a majority of cases, the young men who enter our Labouring Schools, are not superior in skill and manual dexterity to common apprentices, in the work to be performed, whether it be in agriculture, gardening, or the mechanical arts. Besides, apprentices who devote their whole time and attention to a single object, must have a great advantage over those with whom labour is considered only a secondary concern. Three or four hours, daily, is as much time as, in our opinion, can be spent in labour, consistently with intellectual improvement.

From these considerations, we conclude, that it ought not to be expected of young men in a course of education, to support themselves by their personal industry. What proportion of

their expense may be paid in this way, must, as we have before said, be ascertained by experience.

The inference fairly deducible from the preceding remarks is, that young men, who are labouring to prepare themselves for usefulness in the Church, where their service is greatly needed, and where there is little probability of a worldly remuneration, ought not to be suffered to struggle alone, unaided by their Christian brethren, to whom the Lord has given the

means.

We think there could be nothing unreasonable in the demand, if we should say, that such as have to labour for their own daily support, ought to contribute a part of their earnings. to the education of indigent and pious young men preparing for the gospel ministry. By what rule of equity does it appear, that young men should abandon lucrative employments, labour with their own hands with a design to prepare themselves for a work, in which, if they have a just view of the prospect before them, they cannot anticipate a high earthly recompense, while others, partakers of the same hopes, and under the same obligations to their common Lord and Master, do nothing? And if the poor should give to this cause, ought not the rich, and all classes, according as the Lord has prospered them, to aid in preparing labourers to gather in the plenteous harvest now ready for the sickle? Shall the enterprise of sending the gospel to the heathen fail for want of labourers? Shall those stations which are now occupied, and where the Missionaries are fainting under excessive labours, (stimulated by the success which attends their efforts, and the demands of surrounding thousands hungering for the bread of life,) be abandoned? Will not the churches and congregations springing up in the new settlements, wherever a zealous and faithful Christian Missionary sets his foot, excite our organized churches, and all who regard the welfare of their country, to do something in preparing more men to go forth and occupy other fields equally promising? Shall this favourable moment for securing the temporal and eternal interests of the extensive and fertile regions now opening in the South and West, be permitted to pass unimproved? There is a call for Missionaries and for Pastors to supply the vacancies daily occurring in churches already established; and there are demands for the means of their support. Yet we verily believe, that the calls of the education-cause are at this moment louder than any other. The necessity of contributing for the support of those actually engaged in ministerial labour

is seen and felt, the more easily, because the beneficial results are immediately experienced. But the services which those engaged in a course of preparatory study may render are distant, and, in some respects, uncertain. In agriculture, the preparation of the ground and the sowing of the seed, are as necessary as the ingathering of the crop ; and no prudent man would exhaust all resources on the one to the neglect of the other. Competent and faithful ministers of the gospel are, at the present moment, more needed to supply the destitute in our own borders, and to evangelize the world, than any thing else; and how are they to be obtained? Who are to furnish the means of acquiring a suitable education? Shall we wait until the Lord disposes the hearts of those educated at the expense of their parents, to engage in this work? In ages past, Protestant Christendom has depended chiefly on this mode of providing Pastors and Missionaries; and many congregations have remained vacant, and in heathen lands, generation after generation has passed away without hearing that the Son of God died for sinful men.

In the first ages of the Christian Church, the Lord prepared men in a miraculous manner to preach the gospel. So also, he gave the Israelites, during their journey in the wilderness, bread from heaven; but, after they were settled in Canaan, he required them to provide their sustenance by the cultivation of the earth. When the Divine Redeemer ascended to heaven he issued the command, Go preach the gospel to every crea ture. Those, who, duly qualified, have gone forth in obedience to this command, and those who have contributed the means of preparing them for the work, or of sustaining them when engaged in it, have done well. But in what way do multitudes of professed Christians comply with this command of the ascending Saviour? Perhaps they aid in supporting the minister of their own parish. It is well. Still we ask, what hand have they in preaching, or in causing the Gospel to be preached to every creature? What are they doing to qualify men for this work, or to sustain them when preaching to those who are destitute of the means or of the heart to give a necessary support? We leave it to the consciences of professed Christians to answer these questions; and we ask again, what must be done to answer the calls, repeated from almost every quarter, for pious and competent ministers?

If a sufficient number already educated, are not found willing to enter on this self-denying work, shall such as offer

with perhaps warm and honest hearts, but destitute of suitable education, be sent to preach to shrewd and intelligent men, who would sneer at the ignorance which such persons would necessarily betray in their private intercourse and public ministrations? So urgent is the demand for gospel ministers in some places, that ecclesiastical judicatures, in connexion with the Presbyterian Church, are authorizing young men, with very little previous study, to preach the gospel. Such a procedure, if it continue, will, in our opinion, be eventually fatal to the best interests of piety. The ministrations of ignorant men must soon fall into contempt with the intelligent part of the community; and then divisions will take place, and various sects spring up, in places where all might have been united under the ministrations of a man qualified for his office.

What means can be used to avert these evils, and to supply the demand for pious, devoted and competent messengers of Jesus Christ? We answer, let individuals, and let the churches aid those pious indigent young men, who are willing to make many sacrifices, to submit to a course of laborious study, in order to qualify themselves for the important work of preaching the gospel, and managing the concerns of the Church of God. Let Christians beware, that they do not expect young men looking towards the ministry of the word, to perform impossibilities; to make the necessary attainments in learning, and at the same time, to sustain themselves entirely by the labour of their own hands.

In answer to the question on which our correspondent is particularly desirous to have our opinion, viz: Whether indigent young men, who, from any cause, neglect to provide as far as practicable for their support during their education, ought to receive any assistance from education societies, and others; we answer, that as a general rule, young men in the circumstances supposed, ought to make every exertion by economy and industry, consistent with their intellectual improvement, to diminish the expense of their education to the church by which they are patronised. And, whenever this can be done by industry requiring bodily exertion, we deem this method preferable to any other.

In the first place, because manual labour promotes health and gives that firmness of constitution, necessary in order to perform the arduous duties of the gospel ministry. With a laudable view of aiding themselves as much as possible in their education, many young men teach schools a part of the VOL. III. No I.-D