On this page

• Text (1)

  Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

  • 

    Untitled Article

• Transcript

  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

    Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.

    Untitled Article

    less liable to counteraction , the mind is more fitted for acquiring , knowledge ^ and to benefit by the discipline to which it is subjected . It is an advantage to leave such * institutions at a later rather than an earlier period . A more matured character—is brought to the duties of the sanctuary , a somewhat better knowledge of the world , that most important qualification , to deal with

    men who are in and too much oFThe world , about their Highest yet most neglected interests . And here let me beg and implore those who have any thoughts of entering the ministry to scrutinize with the exactest care the character of their motives . Give not place to the bad ; let them , if possible , have no weight in your final determination . Oh the disgrace of choosing the ministry for the loaves and fishes , for an elevation in society , for a reputable profession ! The very term ' profession , ' in such a

    connexion , is an offence . What do we by this term but degrade the ministry to a trade make it an affair of purchase and sale , and act in the very spirit of the abominable man who wished to buy , that in turn he might sell > the gifts of the Holy Spirit ? There is no being so much out of his place as the man that serves at the altar with unhallowed hands . He desecrates the holiest things , he trifles with the holiest affections , he perils the highest interests , and , is generally as unhappy as he is misplaced . In the best of cases motives will be mixed ; but let him not Jioueh the sacred

    thing who is not conscious of a predominant love of God and man , of Christ and his Gospel ; who does not deem it the highest honour to be associated with his Maker and his Saviour in the labour of human regeneration . These points appear to me to comprise the ground-work of an efficient ministry , yet they have not received that attention which their importance merits , I believe that students influence the character of institutions as much , if not more , than institutions influence the character of students . I believe that much more

    depends on the character which students take with them into institutions , than on the discipline , mental and moral , which institutions enforce . And I know that students in general prove good or bad ministers , mainly as was the character of the dispositions which they took with them when they left the privacy of home for ( he comparative publicity of college . A virtuous home , a good elementary education , a free and a late choice are of essential necessity in probationers for the ministry .

    To enforce the necessity of a collegiate education must be almost a useless work . Human weakness is no longer made strong by miraculous aid . Original capabilities , however great , are of less service without cultivation , than are inferior qualities with it . And surely those need , who have to impart knowledge ; those need energy of mind who have to influence and sway mind . No cultivation of mind can be too great , provided a good heart be the presiding power , and where the dispositions are bad , a little know-

    Untitled Article

    tHfi TRUTH TELLER . 165

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 1, 1833, page 165, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2615/page/5/