The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1881-09-16
Colleges and the Ministry.


It was of old unmarked that where
there was a maia member of q family
who early showed inadaptablity for bus
mess his friends Immediately set about
making minister of him. The Inter
national Revie,v, lin an article on "Col-
lege Graduates in the Ministry" shows
that "useless young men" have been
diverted to other channels, or else-what
is still more pleasing to contemplate
there is very large decrease In the crop
of such young men. 1t appears that
there has been, in nearly all the colleges,
a steady decrease Of graduates who have
entered the ministry. At Harvard OF
the class of 1850 over half (53.3 per
cent entered the ministry. From that
time to the present the percentage has
steadily declined. The number of grad
yates from 1741 to 1850 was 239, 1914
more than graduated from 1912 to 1850,
and yet there were only sixty-four more
ministers, or about 33 per cent. of the
whole number. For the ten years end
ing in 1850 the number of graduates
was 627 and only fifty-nine ministers,
thirty-one less than had come out of the
239 graduates the one hundred years
previous. From 1861 to 1870 the grad
yates were 997, sixty-seven were minis
tiers, little over per cent.-a falling
off of over 46 per cent in little more
than 200 years. Yale College presents
the same ratio of decrease. Starting at
1902 to ITO the graduates were thirty
three, clergymen twenty-five; 1871 per
cent. 1S01-1810, graduates, $40; min
listers, 1876; 23.3 per cent. (; l86l-lS7O,
graduates, 1,012; ministers, 152; 10
per cent. Princeton shows an increase
in graduates from 161 Q74S to 1900 to
622 1851 to 1870. In the graduates of
the first decade there were eighty minis
ters-50 per cent. in the last, 1872 min
listers, 81. 2 per cent. Brown University
turned out, from 1859 to 80, sixty grad
yates, of which twenty-one were minis
tiers 35 per cent. 1S6l-1S7O, 1856 grad
yates, of which eighty-six were minis
tiers little over % per cent. Column
bia, 175S-70, eighty-one graduates eight
entered the ministry; 1920, of $50
graduates, thirty-two; about Is per
cent. entered the ministry; 1S61-70, of
$50 graduates twenty (5.8 per cent.
entered the ministry. Amhurst, from
1920, of 219 graduates, 139 entered
the ministry (63.4 per cent? 1870,
of 400 graduates 157 entered the minis
try (31.7 per cent? AT Oberlin, 1887
40, of fifty-six graduates, thirty seven
became ministers (66 per cent? 1861
20, of POI graduates sixty-four entered
the ministry (31.3 per cent? 1t will be
seen that the main business of the col
leges IN early days was to prepare young
men for the ministry. The years So
lected are not phenomenal in respect to
the decrease, but the graduates Of each
decade show steady decrease OF those
entering the ministry. OF the whole
number of Harvard's graduates 30 per
cent. have entered the ministry, and OF
| Yale's 1874 per cent. For nearly the
first hundred years over 80 per cent of
Harvard's graduates entered the minis
try through the eighteenth century
1913 per cent. At Yale 1t Is about the
same, and also at Princeton. Columbia,
of all the old colleges, has furnished the
smallest proportion of her graduates to
the ministry. She never has quite
reached Is per cent, beginning at lit.
tie less than 10 per cent, the last decade
showed less than per cent. Amherst
and Oberlin, especially fostered by relig-
ious influence, show also great decrease,
having lost about half of the percentage
of graduates for the ministry they
started with. The writer in the RcuieV
attributes this steady and universal de-
crease in supply and demand for clergy
men, first and principally, to the vastly
diminished attendance upon church ser
vice. The religious influence of the old
Puritanical days, when person who
was not found at church speedily had
place in the stocks has passed away. In
New England probably not one-third of
the population attend church at all, and
of these not half attend regularly. The
census of 1870 showed the seating capac-
ity of church edifices only 81, 665, O62,
but it appears to be ample for the de-
mand. Another reason given for the
decrease in demand for ministers is the
growth of the Methodist Church where
college-bred clergy have not been re-
quired. The reports from Wesleyan
University however, shows that Metho-
dism is looking to better training for
her ministers. At that college there has
been q steady increase in the percentage
of graduates who have entered the min
istry. From 1833-40, of 142 graduates
fifty-five entered the ministry. (3S.7 per
cent? 1S6l-70 of 263 graduates 1913
entered the ministry (46.S per cent
This shows that the demand for college
bred ministers in the Methodist Church
is greater than it formerly was, and that
the intellectual force of the church is
advancino = Di/sbly.y DisDnfch