year. To this course we object, because the employment is sedentary, and more debilitating, when faithfully performed, than close personal study. At the close of his quarter, the teacher feels more need of relaxation than when he left the academy or college. Besides, a school cannot be obtained for a less period than a quarter, and so long a period will not correspond with the vacations in any of our public schools. The time lost, cannot be redeemed without such intense application as is perilous to health. If a young man must teach a school in order to acquire the means of prosecuting his studies, he ought, in our opinion, to devote one or two years exclusively to the business, and then to return to his studies with the means he has acquired; so that he may not derange the classes, or fall behind a majority of the students in the institution to which he belongs. To be absent any part of the regular term of study, will infallibly lead to imperfect and superficial attainments in knowledge.

The plan of uniting manual labour with daily study, appears to us a most happy invention, admirably adapted to preserve the health, as well as to aid in the support of those who are destitute of other means.

In every institution, from the grammar school to the theological seminary, we every year hear of some of our most promising young men losing their health, being compelled to abandon their studies, and not unfrequently falling victims to diseases arising from sedentary habits. This is especially the case with young men taken from active life, and confined within the walls of a literary or theological institution. The change is too great for human nature to bear. Suddenly to pass from a sedentary mode of life to one extremely laborious, is generally considered dangerous to health; and, we apprehend, that an immediate change from activity and open air, to the torpidity of the study, and the confined atmosphere of the school room, is likely to be still more fatal. On this subject, there is no need of examining causes, and of showing their tendency to produce the effects anticipated: experience speaks in a language too plain to be misunderstood, and in a tone too authoritative to be neglected. Young men of vigorous frames, accustomed to an active life, are the first to feel the effects of confinement and application to study. Of this class are a majority of those, who commence a course of study expressly with a view to the Gospel ministry. The habits of these young men are too sedate, to permit them to engage with

alacrity in those gymnastic exercises, introduced into some of our literary institutions, with a view to preserve the health and promote the agility and strength of the students. We doubt whether persons of this character, would take such an interest in these feats of agility, as is necessary in order to attain the end proposed. Boys play, because they love to play, and when the book is in their hands, they long for the hour to arrive, when they shall have an opportunity of excelling their companions in some feat of activity or strength. These motives will not operate on the youth whose interest we are considering. To exercise solely with a view to promote health, like eating without an appetite merely to sustain life, can seldom be beneficial.

Manual labour has all the advantages, as far as health is concerned, that can be anticipated from gymnastics. To use the saw, the plane, the axe, or the hoe, will excite perspiration, expand the chest, and give strength to the muscles, as effectually as to climb a rope, to mount a ladder, or to turn a somerset; and while employed in manual labour, the student can indulge the pleasing idea, that he is doing something useful to himself or others. We have, it is true, no conscientious objections to gymnastic exercises. We should recommend them to youth of all descriptions, where exercise of a different character is not attainable.

Again, the practice of some useful branch of industry, is important to young men who have in view the Gospel ministry; inasmuch as the habits and skill thus acquired, may be convenient and necessary in future life. What is it that a majority of those who are preparing to preach the Gospel have reason to expect in future life? Can they anticipate a full and competent support from the people among whom they may labour? Is this the fact with regard to a majority of those now located in villages and agricultural districts? A large portion of them derive a part of their support from teaching schools, or from cultivating the earth. And what grounds have those now preparing for the ministry to expect an easier lot than that of their predecessors? In many cases, the people are not able, and in others they are not willing, to give a minister an adequate support. In these circumstances, a man acquainted with gardening or farming, may support his family on a salary not half sufficient without the aid of a small lot of ground. Suppose he does not perform much of the manual labour himself, (as he cannot, and ought not, if he devotes his time and

strength to the spiritual interests of the people,) it is important to know how his little concerns should be managed; unless he knows what service he ought to expect from those he employs, and how their labour can be advantageously directed, he will lose by every attempt to provide bread for his family in this way. If he has learned the use of mechanical tools, he can with his own hands, furnish his family with many necessaries and comforts, without which they must suffer; or, he must call a mechanic, at considerable expense, to drive a nail, to fix a latch, or to make a bench. We have known some men so ignorant of these small matters, and so utterly helpless, that their families actually suffered, when at the same time they were receiving an income sufficient, with skilful management to afford every necessary. We have known others of the same character, who were obliged to call on their people for a much larger support than would have been sufficient, with skilful economy. Now, is this right, is it honest, in a young man, having in view the gospel ministry, to form such habits that he must tax the church for a much larger amount, than with different habits would be necessary for his support?

Among people who obtain a living by personal labour, a minister loses much of his respectability and usefulness, by ignorance of the common concerns of life, and an incapacity to do any thing for the support and comfort of his family. The idea not unfrequently arises in their minds, that he entered the pulpit, because he was fit for nothing else. On the other hand, if they see that their minister knows how things ought to be done, and that he is willing, when necessity requires, to use his hands and to help himself, they conclude that he had some other motive in entering the sacred desk, than to get a living. In a missionary, among a rude and ignorant people, a knowledge of agriculture, or of some mechanical art, seems almost indispensably requisite, not only as a means of subsistence, but also of making a favourable impression on the minds of those destitute of the comforts of civilized life. If the savage do not see that the Christian is superior to himself in the arts which minister to human comfort, he will be slow to receive his instructions respecting the means of future happiness.

It is admitted, that a minister may be placed in such circumstances, that he shall have no occasion to use his hands, and that it would not be his duty to spend a moment of his time in manual labour. In these circumstances, he can easily desist from labour, and accommodate himself to his situation: but he

cannot, in early life, if his hands have never touched a spade or axe, dig his garden, or cut wood to warm his study or to cook his dinner.

We would, by no means, wish to intimate that ministers of the gospel ought to depend on a secular employment for support. A people never adopt a more mistaken policy than when they take such measures as tend to produce this result. The inevitable consequence is, that their minister becomes completely secularized. The business which occupies a great part of his time, will occupy a great part of his thoughts. When a religious society purchase a large parsonage or farm, and expect their minister to provide for his support by his own management and industry, they do all in their power to tempt him to neglect the duties to which he has consecrated his life. No man can be faithful to his vows, who suffers himself to be so entangled with worldly engagements, that the Sabbath and a day or two in the week, is the only time he can devote to the work of the ministry. Nothing less than absolute necessity, should induce any minister of the gospel to devote more time to secular occupations than is necessary for a relaxation from his studies and the anxieties of parochial duties. Yet in these hours of relaxation, he may do much to lessen the burden which his entire support would impose on a feeble congregation. And if a man, in his youth, has attempted no kind of manual industry, he will, in middle life, be utterly incompetent to assist himself. What would have become of the Apostle Paul, had he not learned to make tents? Paul was a regularly bred scholar; he had enjoyed, in youth, the best advantanges of instruction which his age and country afforded, and, at the same time, he had learned a trade by which he could support himself when necessity required. The custom which, in former days, prevailed in some countries, of causing every young man, whatever might be his rank or fortune, to learn some useful art, by which he could obtain subsistence in a reverse of fortune, is one worthy of imitation, especially by such as have in view the gospel ministry.

The preceding remarks are, in some respects, applicable to all, whatever be their circumstances, who intend to enter the sacred ministry, and to endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. No man who has in view a laborious service, ought to indulge himself in such an easy and indolent mode of life, as will disqualify him to bear the toils before him. In cases where no assistance is asked or received from the church,

such persons are answerable only to the Master whom they profess to serve. But the church has a right to inquire whether those whom she assists in their education, are forming such habits as will render wholly or partially useless, all the expense bestowed upon them.

There are other considerations peculiarly applicable to those under the patronage of education societies. Let it be remembered, that the widows mite and the hard earned savings of the daily labourer, have been thrown into the fund by which they are supported. It is fit that no more be drawn from this sacred fund than is indispensably necessary. And it must be gratifying to the feelings of an ingenuous young man, by his personal industry, to diminish the demands on the Lord's treasury, or to contribute the means of educating others. This he does, in fact, when he earns a part of that which is necessary to his own support. The labour which he performs, will also teach him economy in his expenses, as he knows from experience how hard it is to earn money.

The abstract question, whether a young man, preparing for the service of the church at her request, has a right to a support, has nothing to do with the view which we are now taking of the subject. The general principle may be true, and yet particular circumstances may modify its application. The Apostle Paul had a right to a maintenance, at the very time when he was labouring with his hands, lest the church should be burdened, and the glorious cause in which he was labouring impeded. Such, we conceive, is the existing state of things. The demand for competent and faithful preachers of the gospel is unexampled in the history of the church. Many young men of piety and talent are offering their services, provided they can obtain the means of qualifying themselves for the work. Funds cannot be raised to the full amount necessary for their support. In these circumstances, every candidate for the sacred office, if he has a right spirit, will consider it his privilege as well as his duty, to do something, however small, to bring more labourers into the plenteous harvest. And if a young man has not wealth accumulated by the industry of his ancestors, he has hands, which can provide, in part, for his own subsistence. If this can be done without retarding his progress in learning, if it is the most likely way to preserve his health, and to give him such habits as his future usefulness will demand, why should any one hesitate to make the attempt?