The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1883-02-21
VOICE OF THE CHURCH ON
AGGRESSIVE WORK AND
WORKERS.
For the Central Presbyterian.
Supply of Ministers.

MeSSrS. EdstOrS,-The recommendation
of the last General Assembly that we
should carefully reconsider our mode of
preparing candidates for the ministry, is
not receiving the attention it deserves
Several efforts have been made to have
the Church consider it. The offer of the
Georgia prize for the best essay on the
subject, your own excellent editorial on
" Presbyterian Cavalry" and the recent
letter of the Committee, are attempts in
this direction. Will you permit me to
lay before the committee of the Assem-
bly, the result of my own observations e?
For year and half served the two
Presbyteries in East Tennessee as all
evangelist. There were twenty -four va
cant churches at one time in their bounds
1t was my duty to visit, counsel and en-
courage them. 1 thus had an excellent
opportunity to study the cause of our
failure, in the past, to keep up with the
advance of our Presbyterian population
The greatest cause Of failure found to
of ministers There was no
where young min
plety, common sense, and indus
~, willing, for the sake of Christ, to
practice the same patience and self-de-
NAL which the young lawyer or doctor
or merchant expects to exercise, would
not have been, in two years, as well, or
as badly, supported as is the common
ministerial lot. But there were no min
listers to be obtained Other clutches,
more promising and more remunerative
absorbed the few ministers that orr sem
inaries annually produced, and these still
remained vacant. And as it is here, so
it is everywhere. 1t is due to our neg
lect, to our failure to supply ministers
that the descendants of a Presbyterian
population have oined the Methodist,
the Cumberland Presbyterian, the Bap-
fist churches and we should thank our
ministerial brethren in those denomina
tons for supplying our lack of service.
The ecclesiastical history of our coun.
try presents remarkable instances of rapid
growth. One hundred years ago there
were only few Methodists and a few
Baptists in the United Colonies which
had just achieved their independence.
There were no Cumberland Presbyterians
and no Complexities. Now the Metho-
dist and the Baptist are the two leading
denominations, and in the southwest the
Cumberland Presbyterian and the Camp
belllte churches outnumber the Presby-
terians. The secret of these great sue
cesses IS simple one. 1t is not doctrine
for every form of doctrine has been sue
cessful. Arminianism, Calvinism, the
Cumberland scheme, and the doctrines
taught by the Disciples. 1t is not the
mode Of church organisation for the
three different forms of church govern
ment, EPiscopacy, Presbyterianism, and |
lndependency, have equally succeeded. |
The reason why the Baptists, Methodists.
Cumberland Presbyterians, and Disciples |
have multiplied their churches and their
i5 that they had ministers to
preach to them. Their churches have
had little trouble in procuring pastors.
The rivalry, indeed, among Baptist min
listers is sometimes almost unseemly. The |
Methodist bishop and presiding elder sees
to it that every appointment is supplied |
at least once a month. But our people
setting at distance from their churches
are almost totally neglected. The weaker,
feebler churches, ignorant OF church ma
not as generous or jealous as
they should be, cannot obtain ministers. /
And the reason is that the time and en-
ergies of our ministers are fully occupied |
elsewhere. Other churches have out |
stripped Us because they have had more
workers.