suits? What has ignorance to do in the sacred office? as much as sin-I had almost said—and no more. 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 minister of Christ is expressed emphatically by the metaphor of a star. Why? Obviously because he is appropriately a luminary in the world,

Midst upper, nether, and surrounding darkness.

Its lodgment is a candlestick; a church brightened with its heavenly brilliancy, and upholding its pure and steady radiations.

True, our youth are often impatient of the preparatory process, and desirous of the active scenes of the ministry. The drill and the discipline of the theological academy are tedious, and seem unproductive too, to our spiritual cadets, who pant for action and victory in the field militant. And this passion for the work is not to be regretted. The aspirant is nothing without it. There is a ge

nerous enthusiasm, worthy of any bosom, indigenous to the purest, and inspired by that philosophy which sees things as they are, which ought to be encouraged and cultivated in every minister and in every candidate. It is allied in nature and in grandeur to the zeal of the Lord of hosts. There is a glory incomparable in active ministerial engagement, in the performance of proper official duties, that must arrest the gifted and attach the good. It is the excellent way in which an ingenuous expectant is honorably called to glorify God. It is distinction, virtuous and legitimate, lofty and lasting, eternal and divine. 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 of 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 consili expers, mole ruit sua.
The finest energy, devoid

Of wisdom, soon is self-destroyed.

A mighty and an intense mental action, without expansion, erudition, and experience; without a wisdom presiding in its movements that is equal to its regular control; may soon become the victim of its own achievements, the sport of disturbing forces from without, or the foil and the eulogium of intellect less rapid and less glowingmore effective, useful, enduring; because enriched and guarded with ampler, and better assorted, and more valuable, though not more showy materials. Whatever be the cast or the measure of native endowments,

-but

as they can do nothing in the best manner without appropriate education, so with such culture, a mind less mighty and of qualities less sparkling, more steadfastly endures— shines with a radiance purer and more certain -allures, attaches, and guides a larger multitude of tributaries, each owning a benefactor, and inheriting a blessing, in the centre that attracts him. If it be the tendency or the temptation of the age to dispense with scholarship in the ministry, it is one to be strenuously and thoroughly resisted. We must have a learned ministry. For what is learning chiefly and supremely valuable? I answer-ONLY FOR ITS SUBSERVIENCY TO RELIGION! It is not to take its place, to change its nature, or to eclipse its light, that we value the one in connection with the other. The use of learning as the handmaid of religion, and not its mistress; the use, and not in any form the abuse of learning, is that for which we plead and testify; and conscience as well as judgment, our

creed, as well as our constitution, require this at our hands. We could not belong to a church that pleaded for a no-learning ministry, and the due necessity of learning is an item of importance in our objective religion. Preaching ignorance is impious usurpation and abuse.

If these views are correct, they are also encouraging. Supineness, presumption, and silly conceits of genius, may be displeased with them; but modesty and worth will entertain them with an estimate more sound and grateful. Theirs is a practicable theory. It gives promise to industry and hope to exertion. This is the only rational encouragement. It shows the vanity of great endowments without great attainments. Even to mediocrity of talent, it arches the prospect with the bow of hope. Economize your powers, it says to the devoted student. Improve what God has given you. Make the most of yourself and the best of yourself. This is the way to increase the talent your Lord has con