SERMON LVII.

THE INDUSTRIOUS YOUNG PROPHETS.

II. Isaiah, vi. 1-3.

And the sons of the prophets said unto Elisha, Behold now, the place where we dwell with thee is too strait for us. Let us go, we pray thee, unto Jordan, and take there every man a beam, and let us make us a place there, where we may dwell. And he answered, Go ye. And one said, Be content, I pray thee, and go with thy servants, and he answered, I will go.

ABOUT nine hundred years before Christ, there was at Jericho or Gilgal, some place near to Jordan, a school of the prophets, at the head of which was the worthy and venerable Elisha. The government of Israel was in the hands of Jehoram, a degenerate son of the impious Ahab. It was a time of general corruption; the prophets were treated with neglect; and the honours due to God were given to an idol. Still the prophets were employed in promoting the worship of God, and their number increased till they had occasion to enlarge the place of their tent. In the simple and interesting history of this enterprise, we learn, that the prophets, though poor, and not held in very high estimation in that degenerate age, were pious, honest, and industrious.

They seem to have dwelt together, that under the tuition of their honoured father, they might become prepared to teach and prophecy in Israel and the neighbouring countries. They were, no doubt, at this time, frequently consulted by the leaders of Israel, notwithstanding their degeneracy and corruption.

I presume it can need no apology, if I glance from this school of the prophets to the education of a gospel ministry. O could I, in the transition, bring with me into gospel times the faith of Elisha, and transfer into my audience the zeal of his associates! Then the building we propose to erect would soon rise, and the church, down to the latest ages, feel and rejoice in the benevolent enterprise. I shall take occasion to remark in the

First Place, That, up to this moment, very inadequate provision is made for replenishing the gospel ministry. This treasure is committed to earthen vessels; ministers are dying men. When we have served the church a few days, we go the way of all the earth, and the places that knew us know us no more forever. But the churches must still have a ministry; and that ministry be composed of men, not angels ; men educated by human means, not inspired with miraculous gifts. Hence there must be made a perpetual effort to create this supply of pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, and for the edifying of the body of Christ. But the present ratio of supply is entirely inadequate to the exigencies of the church. On this subject there needs no other argument but a statement of facts, of which there could be presented a list that would move any but a heart of iron. A very few of these facts, drawn from the very best authorities, I will take the liberty to mention.

The nine millions of souls in these United States, have the service, it is believed, of only about two thousand five hundred ministers who are competent to preach the gopsel. But if instead of this number we had nine thousand, each must then have the care of one thousand souls. But in a large proportion of our country, owing

to the scattered state of its population, five hundred souls would be an extensive charge. Hence, nine thousand ministers, in addition to all we have, would be but a bare supply for this district of the church of Christ. But this number would equal that of the ministers educated in times past in all the colleges in the United States in nearly twenty years. While, then, we might be preparing this supply, many ministers will go to their graves, and others be disabled, and our population will have almost doubled.

We are assured, that in the three southernmost of the Atlantic States, containing perhaps a million and a half of souls, there are but one hundred and ten competent ministers; while in one district of South Carolina, containing nine hundred square miles, there is but one place of worship, and that not used, and not one Christian church or minister of any denomination. In the whole of Indiana, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Illinois, Michigan and Missouri, a district of country large enough for a continent, and containing at least three hundred and fifty thousand souls, there are not twenty competent ministers; of course, but one to more than twenty thousand. In East Tennessee, there are in seventeen counties more than one hundred thousand, while fourteen of these counties are without one regular minister of the gospel. In the west of Virginia, in eight counties, are forty-seven thousand souls connected with no religious society; and four whole counties without any religious institutions whatever. In another district there are fiftythree thousand souls, in another twenty thousand, and in another still sixty thousand, all in about the same deplorable condition. In Pennsylvania there are extensive districts in which there never was a school, where more than half the adults can neither read nor write, many

never saw a Bible nor any book, nor ever heard a sermon. One district of forty thousand souls, has but one fixed pastor. In the state of New-York there could be settled immediately, were they to be found, two hundred ministers. And if we should survey the limits of New-England, we should see some dreary moral deserts. In the two oldest counties of New-Hampshire, there are about forty-five towns without a ministry. But I have not time. to enlarge. Allowing that these statements may be in many respects not exactly correct, still they are evidence of a wide and fearful desolation. If but the one half is true, it presents to the eye of charity a moral landscape of wide and fearful dimensions.*

If you could read the epistles that pour these complaints into our ears, you would weep if you ever did, or would die with shame, or would rise to a tone of charity that many have not reached. Now these desolate places must be cultivated, these wastes of death must be fertilized. But where are they to find a ministry? The common resources are utterly inadequate to this home supply. But in the mean time we need missionaries to send to the heathen. Of these there are six hundred millions who pay their supreme homage to stocks and stones. The United States, it is computed, ought to despatch to their help at least two thousand missionaries, and will do it, if the time has come, as we presume it has, when the Christian community, with the charter of eternal life in their hands, can sleep no longer.

And still the ministry must be replenished at home. If the probability is, that we shall feel it our duty soon to support among the heathen, a number of missionaries

* We are happy to say that the state of things, in all these cases, are greatly altered for the better, and that this institution, notwithstanding its youth, has had its full share in producing these happy results.

greater than that of the ministers now within our limits, pray from what resource can we obtain that enormous supply? To export the whole of our ministry, would render our own country the valley of death. It is impossible not to see that the Christian churches have neglected their duty too long. We must be more thoroughly awake soon, or nothing but a boundless desolation stares us in the face. The wastes of death are already so wide that they almost outmeasure the hope of cultivation, and they are daily augmenting their horrid circumference. Our children, when we shall have done all that we can, are very likely to be among those who shall cry for the bread of life, and perish before their cry is heard. When they shall have attended our funeral, they may retire to.. the west, and there pine away in their sins, while there falls upon their ears no sound of mercy, and their eyes see not upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings, that publisheth peace, that saith to Zion, Thy God reigneth. We may miss our children in heaven, and know then, but know too late, that they have perished through our negligence. While we thus weep over the fearful delinquencies in the ministry of reconciliation, it is cheering to know,

II. That we have the materials and the means of an abundant supply. When I speak of the materials, my eye is searching among the churches for the happy subjects of our late revivals. Many of them I perceive are in the vale of poverty, and would rejoice to be useful, if they might presume to hope, that they could be equipped for the work, and that God would employ them in his service. They are waiting, it is presumed, till this institution rise, and some kind voice invite them to come and take sanctuary under its covert. If they could equip themselves they would; or if they dared to hope that