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JOSEPH S. BAKER —Editor. VOL. XIII. TERMS I’ER “ANNUM. gy The Christian Index, publish ed on Friday in each week, (except two In the year), will be furnished to each sub scriber at $2 50 cents, in advance; or $3 If not paid within the year. Post-Masters, where the Index is taken, are re vested to forward remittan •es Cor subscribers at their respective otii vies, according to a decision ol the i’ost .Master General as to their right to do so. All patrons and agents are requested to hotiee this. Every Agent, (and all Baptist Ministers are particularly solicited to become agents,) Uie lrivitA, —■—< -Trio compensation tor liis trouble.- - Letters on business, or communications, must be addressed to the Editor, post paid. Advertisements maybe insert! •: on usu al terms, at the discretion of . < Editor. For the Christian J/uic.i . Sermon on Theological Education: Delivered before the Convention at Forsyth, May 18th, 1845. Publish ed by request of the Convention. ilosea 4th, second part of 6th \rs. “Be cause thou hast rej t ied knowledge, / will also reject thee, that thou shutl be no priest unto me ; Serins thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, / kill ulsofam'd thy j children.” J t Man should be humbled byrthe con sciousness of his own ignorance. There is : eo much lobe learned, and so little time or capacity (or learning, that our greatest at tainments are small, and the most richly ‘ cultivated mind is seamy and unproductive. 1 The objects of nature, the laws of Creation, ihe r wonders of Science and art, the lu-aiilies o” Intt jfl I'TT I , ’TfvrtTfoS’ -rf —■ a*! *■ uun| . _ and the glories ol the Godhead sum! be fore us, in all their sublimity, commanding our study, and challenging our understand ing, mud the mind, awed, ami overpower ed, shrinks hack into itself, humbled at its ‘ weakness, and ashamed of its ignorance.— *4yvas with this feeling that the Psalmist 1 sSnTIJtd, “When l consider the heavens Jo work of diy fingers. the moon and stars which thou hast ordained, what is man that I g> ,u an mindful of him, or the Son of man ■ thou kuowest rhy ing, thou uTo'ugh'is afar off. Thou hast beset nfiybehind and before, and laid iltiue hand /upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me ; it is high, 1 cannot attain unto it,” IVhai makes our ignorance the more la mentable, it is increased and perpetuated by liewieedness of the human heart. How very difficult is it to prevail 00 man to use the mind ivkieb God has givtm turn-! To exercise his reason, to command his atten tion, lo chain i.is thoughts to any great sub ject, paiticularly the Salvation jof his Soul. Yes, my hearers, how often do we neglect and prostitute the mind ; stealing awry its energies,draining its resources,impoverish ing its treasury, and condemning it to eter nal barrenness, and spiritual night! Np wonder the inspired penman exclaims, “Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” And again in the text-Berause thou hast rejected knowledge, l will also reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me; Seeing tliou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also fotget thy children. Herein is contained a most awful denuncia tion against those priests, those public teachers, spiritual guides who reject knowl edge. But what sort of knowledge is here alluded to ? It is that, doubtless, for which Solomon prayed unto God, and said, “Give me now wisdom and knowledge, that I may go out, and come i:t before this people, lor who can judge this thg people, that is so great?” “The fear of the Lord is the begin ning of knowledge.” It is that knowledge which the dying David bequeathed lo his youthful sou, “And thou Solomon, know thou the God of tliy . ,ms. and serve him with a perfect heart an 1 . g mind.”— My brethren, I stand before you this morn ing, at the command of o-r Convention, speaking I trust the command of God, to dwell upon this knowledge, which is to enrich the intellect, and w arm up the soul of the Christian minister. As definitions are important on every subject, particularly on that liable to be misunderstood and forced into unnatural forms by the rough hanthof cruel prejudice, we shall define that of which wo are about to speak. It is absolutely necessary that the heaters no less than the speaker, under stand the point to be arrived at, the thing to be proven. Otherwise, we shall speak in ail unknown tongue, and bring the con gregation to no definite conclusion. Edu cation tlien, yes, theological Education is auch a training of the mind and improve ment of the heart as will enable a minister of Christ to accomplish, instrumentallt/ the most good in this world, and secure the greatest amount of happiness to himself and others in the world to come. Remem ber we said a minister of Christ. One call ed of the spirit to preach the gospel, and of course possessing undoubted piety, and humbly relying in all hi%fforts upon the promised grace, of God. We further re mark, by way of defining our position, that unsanetified learning not unlrequenlly puffs up a little mind, and draws from ?the nar row way a deceived soul. We here and there may meet with one professing to be THE CHRISTIAN INDEX. a son of the prophets, who, with much la bor, having reached a small eminence, fondly conceits he stands upon the highest peak ol the Amies ; and supposes his nar row horizon limits the world; ignorant alas, that beyond, there roll deeper sueatns and mightier Oceans, and there arise yet higher hills aud loftier mountains. He immediately gives himself up to profane anil vain babblings, and foolishly engages in the oppositions of science falsely so call ed. Such charaeteis do the cause of edu cation more injury than all its enemies.— They are often a uisgrace to religion itself; and wc may pronounce against them the wo tlmt Christ pronounced against the con ii ‘ r , ye have not enteied in yourselves, and the)’ that were entering in ye hindered.” Having said so much by way of expla nation, tve now assert this proposition, drawn from die text; It is plainly the will ol God that his ministers should study to have knowledge, as well as piety ; and that an ignorant ministry ever has been a prin cipal cause ol error in the church, and spoitual darkness to tite rising generation. We might here pursue llte usual method of prool, and bring forward a host of argu ments drawn Irom the dignity of man, the ~ *' ie die pleasures ofknowl ctp, our accountability to God for the im provement of lime and talents &c.; and Uieu answer the old objections, of ministe rial inspiraiim;, of having a machine shop fur manufacturing preachers; of wasting time m pouring over dry books, while the souls ol men aie being lost —and such like. Hut brethren, we came not here for eonlro-* vur.sy ; itis easy on any subject to make objections, to find I.mil and heap up diffi culties. Were we speaking to others, rath er than to Baptists, then there would he more reason fur indulging an objector, and umw**u iu uoVwering Cavillers. But vv 1 ftr you we appeal,, at once to ihs foundation ol Baptist lailli and practice; we throw ourselves upon the Bible, your boasted text book ; we resort to the word ol God, and the history of his chosen peo ple 111 every age. This then is tlm plan of our discourse We shall inquire of the Bible tlm will ol God on tins subject; who were the charaeteis,He chose to be bis puhhe if ache is jglapce hurriedly at a few ’ the Apostolic days; 4, e>c la, is lead us . lot as the Apostle r bo true and e.very/ojau a liar.”^^^^P We read in tlieText of a certain charac ter culled a priestrlTiffrthut he was rejected from being one, because he had n-jccic.i knowledge. Every sensible man would conclude tlierelure, that the possession of knowledge was requisite to being a priest. As further proof of tins, Malaeln says, 2. ch., 7. vrs., “For the priest’s tips should .keep knowledge; and they, (that is the people,) should seek the law at his mouth; lor he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.” But a minister ofGod is die mes senger ol the Lord of liosts, therefore a priest was a minister of God, consequently the lips ol die minister should keep knowl edge :We take it for granted that there ever has existed a chosen people since God’s promise to Adam. It is granted al so, that before tiie coming of Christ, Israel, as a nation was this chosen people, and among them were to be found me true ser vants of God. Now the order ol the priest hood was established, not only to offer sac rifices typical of the death of the Lamb, but to leach the people the law, and lo impress upon them through their type.- and shadows, faith in the coining Messiah. Aaron, of the liibe of Levi, was divinely appointed tone the founder of the priesthood. This Aaton was the btother ol Moses, who was Israel’s l ai erand law giver, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. It was through the eloquence ol Aaron that Xloscs made his communica tions to Pnaroah; they were constantly to gether, forming their plans, and seeking counsel ol UirJ. Who does not see that Aaron would thus soon acquire, (il he-did not possess it before,) much of the learning and wisdom ofAIosos? He was then cho sen, and thus lined by his piety, his elo quence and knowledge to be the priest oi minister of God. “The tribe of Levi was ihusaet apart” says a pious writer, “for the public ministry, to attend upon the at* tar at Jerusalem, and to teach the > people “up and down the nation; and for the bet tet fitting them for teaching, they had forty eight cities allotted them. These cities were so many Universities, where the ministerial tribe distributed in companies, studied tin. la>v, and became learned ; and thence seatteied through the whole nation, dispersed learning and the ‘knowledge of the lavvjn all the synagogues! But under the Jewish dispensation, there was anoLher veiy important class of teach ers. These were styled the puiphels.— We have seen that it ;vas necessary for the priests to'possess knovf ledge, and we know that the prophets must, because they were inspired ; hut they were required also to study, and become acquainted with the wisdom of men. We refer you to the child Samuel, whom his pious mother plac ed, at a very tender age, under the instrue titfhs of the aged Eli. And as he minister ed in the temple, and studied the law from day to clay, “he grew on, and .was in favor bbtli with the I.cid* and also with men.” There were also collections or schools of young men, upon whom rested the spirit of prophecy, in different parts of Judah aud FOR THE BAPTIST CONVENTION 0] THE STATE OF GEORGIA. PENFIELD, GA., JhNE 20,1845. Israel. We read of a certain young man, who was engaged in his agricultural pur suits ploughing, with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he with the twelfth, and the great prophet Elijah passed by, and cast his mantle upon him. And he left all, and went after Elijah, and ministered unto him. He was for years under his instruc tions , he loved and imitated him; and when his master was about to be taken up from him into iliaven, his last request was, “let a doule portion of thy spirit rest upon me.” And as he beheld him ascending, he ciied, -‘My father, my -father,” that is “aiy master, my teacher, instructor, the chariot oflstael and horsemen thereof.” — --T1..U1 dftlVnifH my nation <*f will.” “Thou wast Israel’s artillery, its glit tering legion, iis invincible licTsh’/ Oh that we had such ministers now. Wln.should he the guardians of the pulpit, the shidd ol the church, and the invincible legion aid bulwark of their country's piety. Now mark the destiny of these two young men we have mentioned. Samuel, having been trained under the experienced Eli, was liiin sell to become the instructor of a company of young men collected in a retired country seat called Naiolh. (Read 1 Samuel 19. 20.) And Elisha, succeeding his lamented teacher, came to Jericho where there were collected fifty voting men, and when “they saw him, they said, the spirit of Elijah doth rest upon Elisha, and they came to meet him, aud bowed themselves to the ground before him.” He went also to Gilgal, where there were ail hundred of the sons of tile prophets, that is, the pupils of the prophets and they sm bcfoie him lo receive his instructions. There was anoth er Institution located at Jerusalem; hut we are not informed as to the number ol schol ars or teachers engaged in it. It is simply Saul in 2 Kings 22. 14. “That Huldah the prophetess dwelt in Jerusalem in the Col lege.” We are not to suppose that this name College indicates any superiority to the other instiiutions we have mentioned ;’ they were all colleges, schools, here pious young men were prepared for usefulness. “Tlieso institutions, in the language of a nuther, were the depositories of Israelite light pnd justice. They shone as lumina ries iutacrooked and perverse nation.— And wv'lTtr'ieU say, whajNrearns’ of living waters flowed J'~*’*T Ijoini lin to re | fresh--" 4 fertilize TTieed my footers, mpKnongst ancient jmoptm— ■bis of atrkmds existed every where (lie Jews.” In every city and town there was a school where children weie taught lo read the law. And from the na ture id that law the Jewish learning must have been more or less theological The most celebrated of these schools, was that ofaJevvish Rabbi named Ilillel.the gtand futli-r of Gamaliel, the teacher ol the Apos tle Paul. The teacher sat on a platform elc above (lie heads of bis pupils; hen iis said of the great apostle, that he \ brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. VY c have thus taken a rapid glance at tiie arrangements ofGod under the ancient dis pensation for the building up of Zion and the instruction ol'his people, We pause to ask if we find any tiling here., in the Old Testament, to discountenance our humble efforts in schooling the mind and heart for the wink of the holy ministry? On the contrary, when did wickedness prevail in Israel, and vice and error scourge the land? YVas it not the first act of the w icked King Jereboam, when lie wished to establish idolatry, lo appoint priests of the lowest most ignorant order of the people? Did not the prophet describe a season of wick edness by saying they were without the true God, and u teaching priest? And again in the verse of the text, my ptjpple are destroyed for lack of knowledge, .bus it has ever been when ignorance prevailed. Well did Julian the apostate understand the power of education, when in his attempt to extinguish Christianity, and min paganism, he forbade the children to attend Christian schools; he abolished these institutions, and commanded the young lo be placed un der pagan instructors. But it is time we come to the New Tes tament scriptures, as many rely more im plicitly on their audio ity. The first prom incut character that meets us here, is the great forerunner of Christ, of whom it was said, “there hath not been born of woman a greater than John the Baptist.” He was the son of Zecharias and Elizabeth. They ministered in the temple and “walked in all the ordinances and commands ofGod, blameless.” “And die child grew and wax ed strong in spirit.” He grow in body, and was instructed by his father in the law; iiis mind was expanded, his spirit was strengthened and imbued with the nature of his sacred office. “And he was in the desert all the day of his shewing to Israel.” And how, do we suppose he inustTave spent his days of seclusion from the wrfrkl? Did he relire to sleep anil dream away his time? Or would he not rather lend all the energies of his mind to the study of his great work, and like Moses in the Mount, receive his instructions from the mouth of Deity, and at length come forth from his place of study ami devotion, prepared to preach tho plan of Redemption to listening thousands, and call upon them to prepare j the way of the Lord and make his path.* i straight. He was indeed an man. Having received all the education of a priest of Levi, added to which were years of retired study, he made the wilderness of Judea rint; with his eloquent appeals, and mu'MTThEI Aateis of Jordan with Into-, dredPp&illing converts. His influence “to fas the elegant language of a living wrii3F‘reach.ed the palace of Herod, and his r ‘i >6fs tingled in (he-'!eajrs.of4ie /ux uriot'monatch.” He gleamed jj pmi tlte worl ivilh a meteorls brig us th Sayfajir has said 1 , He* yf as, a on filing and; dinning Hghl.'• Such was John the Bap l l. ‘Does - die furnish iis with an ex amp of ministetiaL ignorance and mentaL slotl ‘ *’ B we Come now so the Apostles ol Chri , who have been proverbially styled illite ite fisherm..n. YYe ask yfour candid and: siitive hearing to two or three, re in;:.jjjj viiiiceruiiie these met!. We observe Ist.'TeeyTiafl received, in oo;. moil with their cuvndyinen the advantages ol these schools, And; synagogue instructions so strictly /itteudrd to by the JeYvs. They unilefsteod tie Hebrew of the Old Testa meiijsi'riptui'es, (fir they were Hebrews. They knew tie Greek ianguage, for their vritßgs are ii the Greek tongue. Observe 2. ‘tfhey wev acquainted with the Geog iaplivof thec untry ; its mountains and vallev. its Inks and rivers. Aud men la niili*'iih all he customs and riles alluded to iim.c Bible We inquire if any of the preapers ofojr day possess such advan ti thft acquirements, tliey vv ’® r< j. Les-j fry the fldly Spirit, had the gdtol __ gtfes, the powjr of wcj king miracles. the glori ous Jrivilegit'of all the rnys teridi of itie gorfcllJfdu ask then why thcqpwere mej of oh-c/.ro birth, in the humble walks ofwb. They made no pretensions to the lofting of t'ie Rabbis and doctors of the la chose not the chief seats in tlnftynajjogties and matknt-places. ‘i'hey mum no/ela'iin to tho philosophy and astro noiMj ‘iAl curious |i.esiions of the day ‘l’lnyTtk no part in the learned discuss ion* ufv|e Jew, or the classic refinement of the i|lished Greek. But with p,ia;.. sense ail solid acquirements, and minds inrhned (with holy spirit they preached ChCTt i ticified to the Jew a stumbling bloqk. iad to the Greek foolishness. Oli that ‘i.'ifiad in our day many such illiter ate ijfiermeii. p i •jß'yet.'jbreihren, it was necessar f i ftMli in n ii ail mi ii with tlituiogy"v^fc;_ : was necessafjjjj ‘if i thqul surely what ought we to do ? ShsTfW ; wo/ever relax in our efforts to be good aiirJ - letraed men ? Ought we notto go onwaid, i irnnfove every opportunity, uso every 3 mCnjl, aiKjety, mightily lojfod to aid us in t befouling'learned in the wisdom of men . anil mighty in the Holy Scriptures.? Let . us :t least never plead again the character ) Apostles as an excuse for our idle ; nitisoran apology for our ignorailcc. t i hall we go on to cite you to the learned . Ap stle of the Gentiles, standing in the 5 *4* Os Mur’s-hill, quoting to the men oil . At! ens passages ‘rom their authors to prove 1 to them the character of the great God ? i Shall we refer you to the eloquent Apollos, 1 mighty in the Scriptures—but whosubmit : ted himself to the leaching of Aquilla and r Prtfciila, and learned from them the way of • Gotj more perfectly ? How anxious must i thtie good people have been that the Gos ? pci of Christ be not retarded by the iguor r anti of the preacher! Had Apollos been i likjSome young men of our day, he would ; ha e been so puffed up with his popularity & I papers of eloquence, that lie would have - nJßfcd away with mortification and con ■ tempi from the honest-hearted teaching of 1 ihii pious couple. And had they been like 3 buvtoio many of the fathers and mothers of i thy present time, they would have regarded . the young man as a prodigy of eloquence ; and learning—thin Ling, perhaps, he had a i little 100 much of die latter; or, at rate, , joining with the crowd in making him sat i i.-lii'd with his attainments, and spoiling , him by flattery. But, ah! those wcio the • days of honesty, of pious simplicity, and ‘fl|Hhr. > ~ . ~: a c-fordingMto knowledge. Look, . too, at the youthnd Timothy, acquainted . with the Scriptures from a child—but whom the Apostle exhorted to close reading, to : statly to shew himself approved, and togive ; himself wholly to the woik. Oh, breth i ren ! lake the New Testament and point ; me to a single passage or example that can encourage the Christian minister in folding his arms in idleness, in throwing aside Ins books forever, in shutting the avenues-of the intellect against all knowledge, in luil i >g Ids mind into at) eternal slumber, in (Stowing over the people of his charge the ;>jU of hopeless ignorance, and leading them on erring, and dark and blind to the chiulov/ qf death and the scenes of the Judg ment. 1 once heard a young minister say that ho knew nothing about English Grammar, < n(i, moreover, lie did not believe it neces sary for a preacher to understand it; as for himself he had no use lor it. Surely, sure ly, aud has it come to this? The teacher of the people, the ambassador of God, the expounder of the mysteries and glories of Cross, to rise before an intelligent, but y**rishing people—and, with stammering j tongue and darkened ideas, to render uu foyclcome and almost despicable the sweet **-s>vilaiions of Jesus, by throwing them forth in barbarous terms and murdered English! No, no, no! my young brethren; would to God that we knew not only our mother tongue in all its force and beauty, but were 1 familiar also with the original languages ol the Bible, were acquainted with the man ners and customs of those times, with the mountains, and lakes and rivers’ of the ‘country, and Were conversant with the ve ry scenes and Walks of the blessed Sa ■gwqg'. * ilere, brethren, we might cease out dis course—and, with the Bible in our hands, proclaim to this assembly, to the Baptist denomination —yes', to.the world, tire truth wish which we started —that it is God’s will that the Ministers of should be learned as well as pious. . But we beg your patient hearing still luithflr, w hile we rim over a few facts a (folding additional evi dence of our doctrine. ignorance has ever been a fiuitful source of error. Any one, who will east his .. . ; over the history of the Christian Church, will see this truth exemplified in ail its force. During the lives of the Apostles, and the fathers immediately succeeding them, the doctrines of the gospel were taught in all heir purity : hut, us these holy men were taken away, mul others of less .knowledge and piety came forward—as persecutions gradually ceased, and church es multiplied—the means of communication became more difficult and less pure : prim ing not yet being invtailed, Uje manuscripts Alii -pul NeurTeslaments were eir- Tulated but slowly amongst the people. ‘The great mass of the Church, therefote, were dependent upon the reading and inter pretation of the few ; and many of those lew soon lailed to overcome the diffieiilth s of obtaining a thorough knowledge of the “Scriptures—ignorance began to prevail among teachers and people, and the Bible ueeessaiily was misinterpieted, and the or dinances of the church were comipted. “The state of religion, during tire 2nd and 3rd centuries, exhibits melancholy proof of a gradual departure from the simplicity of the gospei. Instead of regarding the in spired writings as the 1 sole depository of truth, professing Christians acted as though the Bible were only one of the sources of religious knowledge. It cannot be too deeply deplored u,. e1..a..a...y v.iw modi fied and mingled with philosophy, and that the simple worship of the first Christians was quickly corrupmJ by the introduction of rites and forms burrowed from Jewish or tieaiiien observances. It uas </ i auy for the Church. Baptism a|o //IvJ Khmer:k were treated as oßDjjLvjj^Jp ■HMgli SALVATIOtv. l f 0 ~~ 1 r ' T u Jjj 13 r [‘work published by the ‘ .frnerican Traci] ‘Society , styled “ The Reformation in Eu-] rope.” YVe are here taught that bapfism thus eally was misconstrued into anesku tial of salvation, and assumed the place of faith itself. It was consequently adminis tered to sick and dying persons, sprinkling being substituted for immersion. At length, this blind construction embraced infants, 100, as the preper subjects of this saving ordinance; and thus FcdoL>aptiiii, we will not say a sciiyud ignorance, (for doubt-, less very many were better informed,) but at least an exotic, unknown in apostolic days, was grafted oil the church ; and there it yet remains a singular, strange-looking limb, having imbibed so much of the sap and strength of the tree, that it has defied the learning and piety of hundreds of years to lop it off. llow many controversies, aud strifes, and divisions, has this one er ror caused ! My brethren, Baptists, of all others, ought to be educated ; for il is now necessary to pul on the whole armor ol God, to fill the intellect with stores of knowledge, and the heart with treastues of piety, in order to defend ourselves fiotn this ■rude supplanter, or strike one blow at this Flowering branch. The biead used in the Supper was also, in these daysol darkness, transformed into the actual body of Christ, and the wine into his blood, and transub stantiation. is now believed in by thousands professing to revere the Gross. But again, as Christians multiplied in the 3rd and 4th “centuries, in the large cities, they scattered off and formed churches in tho country. These, however, were in a great measure dependent upon the mother church sci preachers and instructions. Thus die city churches began to feel and assert their su periority; aud, in the course of time, the city pastors actually appointed the country pastors, and held them accountable for their conduct and teaching. Btittiie cities them selves began now to be rivals; and that one would naturally gain the ascendancy, which was the metropolis of cotnmeice, and the seat of the arts and sciences. This was imperial Rome, still possessing much of her ancient grandeur. She asserted that the Church here was one of the oldest, and her Bishop claimed descent from the Apos tles, and possession of the keys of Si. De ter. Thus was founded the Papal See, and the Pope of Rome was enthroned. lie soon stretched his dominion over the kings and princes of the earth.: he hurled his anathemas against his offending subjects, and the thunder'd of the Vatican made Eu rope tremble. Here we see, brethren, tho error-and danger of yielding for a moment the inde pendence of the churches; lor hence sprang the rule of Episcopacy, and all the tyranny and abominations of Roman Catholicism, There was an ignorant zealot, by the name of Anthony, who inisconstiued cer tain passages in the New Testament, and lied to the wilderness to escape the evils ol society, and to bury himself in a hermit’s cell; numbers flocked after him. Con vents and monasteries were gradually found ed, celibacy was enjoined, demonology PußLisiiEii—BENJ. BRANTLY. was believed im, the doctrines ol penance and auricular confession soon followed, the bbiunlaries of purgatory were marked out. and finally, indulgences for crime were qjought and sold, and ilark-tiess covered the e-iirtli, and gross darkness the people. Gh# tlic fatal power of ministeiial ignorance! Look, my’ heaters, at that starless night* and tell me, where were the people of God ?- It does, indeed, appear that the blighting curse of the text had descended upon the church: “ Because tliou hast forgotten the law ol thy God, I also will forget thy chil dren.” \Y ill not this whole congregation join me, and semi up to lieuvfen thedevjmt prayer ol the lamented Mercer? “ The Lord save'us from an ignorant ministry !” , And hoy, brethren, look back upon the | ground ovaf-which \ve have foistil'’ travel ed ; consider t.od's appointments and in strumentalities in all igesand dispensations, and answer the important question—What is God’s will respecting the improvement ol'his sacred teachers ? Oh, it does seem to your speaker to come with the plainness of demonstration, that he wills his minis ters to ‘cultivate the mind as well ns the heart, and that he will invariably etiiso those “ blind guides, leaders of the blind,” aud will bless the efforts ol'his faithful ser vants to spread his knowledge, and roll round the glorious jubilee of the gospel. But before we close, we are asked, by some honest hearer, cannot Got! use even the ignorant to accomplish his purposes ? cannot he bring light out of darkness, strength out of weakness, and out of the mouths of babes and sucklings perfect praise ? Yes, my brethren, he can and docs do it. He is able ol ilitse stones to raise up children to Abraham. Man is alto gether vanity; and those the most gifted, and learned and pious, are hut as babes and sucklings before the Almighty. In this sense he docs it. , But ! urtiier—(here are many pious and successful ministers who neve; /robbed ihe walls ol a CuiiwjjeVdr labored through the ponderous volumes of the Seminaries and Universities. I see many such around me to-day—the honored servants of the blessed Jesus, whose venerated forms have braved the dangers of live wilderness, and whose hallowed lips have preached the gospel to the poor, the ignorant and the dying : but > these same men have struggled on with difrtt tieulties innunierable--they have applied* all their flowers of tniitij Vuhe woik—-they^ ~.. “gp#* i jUireniMe : they have felt ihe jd by brotli and would not chain the rising ministry to r ’ the same difficulties, and keep them shroud-'* ed in darkness, when light is fast spreading over the people they are called to teach. Oh no, no ! I see them crowding up here from their fields of humble labor—some, alas ! with tottering frames and whitened heads, but all the hardy pioneers of the Cross. I see them rallying round the standard of Christ, and saying toiheir young brethren, Come, coim -like Psiul from the very feel of Gamaliel, w ith sanctified learn ing and crucified heart, take this banner and beat it to the Jew and the Greek, the learned anil the ignorant, plant it on every shore, unfurl it to every breeze, till its broad folds shall sweep the earth, and’ the shout of universal triumph shall proclaim the day’ of millenial glory. We turn then, in conclusion, to ask Bap lists of Georgia, What are we doing ? YVo have often been reproached for our idleness and ignorance; ar.d it has fiequently been said, that if Baptists would wake up, take an elevated stand, and send forth men of learning and piety, capable of advocating and proving their doctrines, we would soon overrun the Slate and take the world. Brethren, it is high time urn were awake. Others have commenced the march of im provement, and arc endowing their schools, qualifying their young men, and propagat ing their tenets throughout the land : ansi where are we ! ’1 is true, we have not been altogether idle. Various efforts have been made, ever since 1802, in the cause of education. Many year.; ago, there was a stranger youth—poor, indeed, but having mind and piety in the small village ol Eatonton, who, with but little assistance from teach ers, silently’ pursued his studies, and prs -1 pared himsell for College, supported only by the charities of his brethren: that one is now the President ol Alabama Universi ty. 1 here was another in the same vil lage, and similarly situated, who has walk ed many a weary mile to supply a country church, anti has spent many a sleepless hour in prayer and study. Ho toiled on, through difficulties and poverty, to success and prosperity, and has often raised his voice for Christ and education ; and was ready, even to-day, as an alternate, to advo cate beforeyou the cause his labors, his ener gy, his whole life, have proved so dear to his heart. Yve have also sent out a few shi ning lights from our Mercer University: Inn, brethren, the number is too small; o"ur Institution is too much neglected. It is now at an important crisis: late events in vite and urge us to gather fresh around it. Come, Baptists, we speak not to a few; there are thousands in our beloved State: come, then, let us assemble a mighty band to this glorious work, and make our school a nursery of piety, an armory for the Lord. Young brethren, I turn to you. This work, in a great measure, must be yours. Our Elder Brandy, our Marshalls and Mercers, are gone; and our Poseys, and Sanders’, and Callaways, will soon follow. In a few years, we shall assemble here— NO-. 25.