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14 THE
Contributed
OUR MINISTERS AND THEIft WORK.
Rev. Henry H. Sweets, Secretary.
Much has been said about the failure
to use some of our ministers, and the
unwise use of others. Some of this criticism
is without doubt due to a lack of
knowledge. It is certain, however, that
improvements could be made.
Some men of undoubted character and
ability are frequently unemployed for a
time because they have not been guided
to a field for which their gifts qualified
them. The establishment of a Bureau
of Pastoral Supply such as is successfully
conducted by other churches might be of
great assistance in bringing churches and
pastors together.
Many of the duties of the church outside
of the pastorate and pulpit seem to
demand a man of experience in the field
and of training in the seminaries.
Doubtless laymen might be found to do
some kinds of work now being done by
ordained ministers, but the following figures
show, I believe, that not many min'
isters have been put to an unwise use.
Remember that many of those who are
teaching, or are otherwise employed,
have suffered the loss of voice or some
other misfortune that has disqualified
them for the pulpit.
The Minutes of the General Assembly
for 1909 contains the names of 1,660 ministers.
Of these 1,291 are pastors, 37
evangelists, and 73 foreign missionaries.
1,401 are, therefore, actively engaged in
pastoral and evangelistic work.
Eighty-nine are physically unable to
work. Some of these are now very old,
many of them having passed the three
score years and ten. The incessant toil
and life of privation have left their marks
on these noble men.
The remaining 160 are occupied as follows:
Presidents, principals and professors
in schools and colleges, 48; professors
in theological seminaries, 18; superintendents
and agents of orphanages,
seminaries, colleges, etc., 17; editors, 9;
secretaries r?f the General Assemhlv 8:
state secretaries of Y. M. C. A., 2. This
leaves 68 ministers who are reported
without work.
Some have declared that we have no
need for more ministers because there
are so many unemployed. The figures
above demonstrate the fallacy of this.
68 ministers out of 1,660 is not a large
nroDortion of unemnloved. Manv of these
men have sufficient reason both in the
sight of God and man for their course of
conduct. Doubtless many of these, too,
are physically unable to labor regularly,
although not reported infirm.
In such a large body of men it is impossible
but that some unacceptable to
the churches should be received. Some
of these without employment have been
so reported for from ten to twenty years.
It would seem then that either they have
sufficient reason for their inactivity or
the Presbyteries have been derelict in
their duty. "JTears ago we find this rec
2 PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOU
ord: "With reference to ministers not
now engaged in their sacred calling, the
General Assembly exhorts them, if they
do not find fields of labor in their present
localities, to seek other places of
abode and fields of labor where they may
be useful in their appropriate work. It
also enjoins the Presbyteries to examine
their rolls, and require all ministers who
are not thus employed to give an account
of themselves, and to proceed against
those who are found to be habitual negIGcters
of their vows of ordination."
There is a great crying need for many
more of the brightest and the best of our
vnnnf mon in tho minictrv 1 ft1Q phurohoe
are now vacant; 200 men could now be
put to work In difficult fields with small
salaries guaranteed. Many trained men
are demanded in opening up other fields
and for reaching the peoples of foreign
lands who are beginning to throng our
shores. The 25,000,000 Christless souls
who look alone to us for the light, in
mute appeal, call, "Come over and help
us!" Our faithful ministers are falling
out of the ranks at the rate of forty or
more a year. "The fields are white already
to the harvest." Let us heed the
Saviour's command, "Pray ye, therefore,
the Lord of the harvest, that He will send
forth laborers into His harvest!"
Louisville, Ky.
THE CENTENNIAL CATALOGUE AND
THE CANDIDATES.
Rev. Henry H. Sweets, Secretary.
More than a year ago there appeared
a volume, edited by President Walter W.
Moore, D. D., and Rev. Tilden Scherer,
under the title, "Centennial General Catalogue
of Union Theological Seminary in
Virginia."
It is a neat book and contains information
of interest in the study of the problems
of the supply of ministers and candidates.
It has been of great assistance
in supplying many facts to complete the
records which we are carefully compiling
in our office. We trust that all the seminaries
of our church will in time issue
volumes as complete and helpful.
Some of the results of our study of this
volume may be of general interest and
we furnish a few facts in tho hope that
they may arouse earnest thought and
wise action with regard to our candidates
in the present century.
During the one hundred years from
1807 to 1907 there^Nere enrolled 1,406
students in Union Seminary. The colleges
attended by 1,241 of these are mentioned.
Of these 77 attended more than
one college and the records fail to show
whether the student is a graduate or
not.
The remaining 1,164 came from the following
classes of colleges: Presbyterian,
U. S., 721; non-sectarian, 234; state institutions,
131; Baptist, 24; Presbyterian*,
U. S. A., 17; Methodist, 7; Lutheran, 8;
A. R. P., 4; Disciples, 2; Friends, 2; various
unclassified, 16.
Our own church colleges furnished the
following: Hampden?Sdney, 327; Davidson,
185; King College, 66; Southwestern
Presbyterian University, 52; Central Uni
TH. October 27, 1909.
versty (and Center College), 46; Arkansas,
15; Westminster, 15; Austin, 12;
Presbyterian College or South Carolina,
8; Oglethorpe, 3; Davis & Elkins, 1;
Fredericksburg, 1.
The non-sectarian institutions furnished
the following: Washington and Lee (and
Washington College), 138; Princeton, 25;
Washington and Jefferson (and Jefferson),
23; Yale, G; Dickinson (Pa.), 5; Johns
Hopkins, 5; Union, 5; Amherst, 4; Dartmouth,
4; Hanover, 4; George Washington
(Columbia), 2; Nashville University,
2; and one each from Bates, Hamilton,
Lehigh, Miami, New York City College,
Oberlin, Rutgers, Tulane, Vincents, Washington
(Tenn.), Williams (Mass.)
The majority of our candidates decide
to give their lives to the work of the ministry
before, they leave the parental roof.
Of 410 candidates on our rolls last April,
380 decided before they were twenty-one
years of age to give their lives to the
work or the ministry; 287 decided before
they entered college, 85 while in college,
and 35 after leaving college. No influence,
therefore, Is more potent than the
religion in the home.
But many who go to college fully determined
to use their lives alone for the
glory of God make shipwreck of their
faith and aimlessly and hopelessly drift
away.
The value of our own institutions, under
the guiding hand of consecrated men
of our own faith can not be overestimated.
Almost one-third of the entire number
of these students came from 13 of
our own Presbyterian colleges, while
these and the colleges in other sections
were also sending large numbers of students
to other seminaries. Almost inva
riably the nearer the college to the seminary
the greater the number of men contributed.
Closer and more constant oversight
should be had of Presbyterian students in
other institutions. It will doubtless neve*be
possible to have all of these in our
own institutions. It is the act of wisdom
to keep in as close touch with these as
possible,
The Executive Committee of Ministerial
Education is doing all within its power,
by correspondence and by the publi-:
and private presentation of the claims of
uoa upon the lives of young men. The
fact that so many in the past have come
out of institutions other than our own
into our seminaries should arouse us to
a sense of gratitude to these colleges an 1
to more faithful oversight lest they fail
short of their past helpfulness.
A loud call comes to the Executive
Committee of Schools and Colleges to
press the claims of these useful Institutions
and to see that the atmosphere of
each one is kept pure and wholesome.
Louisville, Ky.
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At a recent examination to the question,
Who was Esau? the examinee, confounding
Esau and Aesop,, writes: "Esau
was a hairy man who lived In a wilderness.
He wrote a great ro^ny, fahles apd
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