Rev. Mr. Benedict had no objection to the resolution proposed, but he feared the measure would have but little effect. The evil is undisputed. After all, it is difficult to regulate this matter. We must submit to Providence, and live on what we can get. You cannot tell, what is the support a minister should have. What one man would starve upon, another will grow fat upon. Some men would spend any amount you would give them. Our Book specifies that, in calling a minister, a competent support should be given; but, what is a competent support? As to sending a pastoral letter to all the churches-all do not need it. The rich churches are doing all the pastor asks, and some of the poor ones are doing as much as they can. He thought the remedy must be applied by each congregation for itself. If an adequate support is not received by any pastor, he ought not to hesitate to tell the people so. He himself would not preach for a people that would not support him, if they were able to do so.

Mr. Strong thought the minister did wrong in just sitting down, as was often the case, and concluding that their people did not give them as much as they needed, when they never opened their lips to let them know that such was the fact. Let pastors speak out.

The Rev. Dr. Junkin rejoined, calling attention to the fact that money has diminished in value. It is cruel to insist that a pastor shall live on the same sum, when a bushel of wheat costs three times what it did formerly. There is little self-denial anywhere to support the ministry. Give him even the tobacco-money in any congregation, and he would make the minister and all his family happy. He merely mentioned this as an illustration.

Rev. Mr. Phillips said, that the first two years he was a minister he received, all told, but $225. He walked over a territory more than seven miles in extent, and laboured with all his might. The people could have given him twice as much. Long after he left them, he still owed $20 for books he was obliged to have. There ought to be a letter addressed to the churches on the subject. He had been eight years in the ministry, and he had never yet received $400 per annum. He had taught school, and thus got the few books he had. He knew many brethren who had at the outset given fair promise of usefulness in the ministry, but they were starved out of it, and now they were engaged in secular pursuits. If our Church is to gain her full measure of efficiency, she must adopt a new standard on this subject.

Dr. Junkin's resolution for the appointment of a Committee to report was adopted.

The Moderator appointed on the Committee R. L. Dabney, D.D., A. Phillips, R. G. Vermilye, D.D., ministers; Ashbel Welch, and D. C. Campbell, ruling elders.

Rev. Dr. Dabney, Chairman of the Committee appointed to consider and report on the subject of Ministerial Support, made a Report, presenting a pastoral letter to the churches on the subject.

It contained a summary of the arguments used in the debate, setting forth the trials and exigencies to which the ministry is reduced by its present inadequate support, and urging upon the churches the need of their immediate and increased liberality in this duty. It dwelt upon the fact of the greatly increased wealth of the Church, the comparatively great increase in the price of the necessaries of life, and the consequently increasing inadequacy of the stationary salaries of ministers which have been gradu

ated in past time to meet a very different state of things. It calls upon the churches to take immediate measures to raise an adequate sum by subscription or otherwise, and to institute efficient means for collecting the same.

The Committee also recommend a reference to the action of the Assembly on the subject in 1854.

It was moved that the Report be accepted and adopted.

Rev. Mr. Benedict made some explanations as to his experience in the ministry. Some had supposed that he was opposed to this Report. It was not so, but he had his own way of looking at the subject. He would say that he had never received a cent from the Church. For much of the time when he had preached he had taught school. He had been blessed in a thousand ways. God's mercy had followed him constantly. He had never received a cent from the Board of Missions, but he loved all the Boards. He thought the great need in the Church was a permanency in the pastoral office. In conclusion, he would say he was not opposed to the Report. He liked the Report.. It was scriptural, and therefore he approved of it.

The Report of the Committee was accepted.

Rev. Mr. Baird then moved that a resolution be adopted as an addition to the Report of the Committee, which, in substance, is as follows:

That a Committee be appointed to correspond with all the Presbyteries, in order to ascertain the amount of destitutions, and also to inquire how much the salaries must be increased, in order that the ministry may be duly efficient, and also to gather together all such facts on the subject as will enable the appointed Committee to report intelligently to the next Assembly.

Rev. Mr. Baird supported his resolution by remarks, showing the necessity, in order to the church's own spiritual progress, that the Churches should give their ministers such a compensation as to enable them to give their whole time to their appropriate work. He knew well that this was complied with in comparatively but few cases. In several Presbyteries with which he was well acquainted, there was not one case of adequate support.

Rev. Mr. Stockton-We are apt to magnify such a subject, when earnestly discussing it, beyond its relative demands, and to consider that to remedy it would remedy everything. I know that the ministry is poorly supported, but we are now in danger of overdoing the matter. The Report is a good one, but it lacks brevity. It will not be read so much as it would otherwise be. He believed the Assembly would be just as ready to act without all these specifications and facts proposed to be collected. He doubted whether pressing this subject to that extent would result in the better support of the ministry. It is not desirable that they should be so much supported as to be independent of the churches, and yet it is plain that they should have enough to keep them above want. This would be desirable, yet he believed God had so ordered it that his ministers shall have but little of this world's goods. The apostle knew both how to be abased and how to abound, and gloried at times that he laboured in the midst of want.

It was moved to lay the additional resolutions on the table. The motion was carried.

The question then recurred on the adoption of the Report.

Rev. Dr. Dabney said a few words in explanation of the Report. The

Report intended not to justify ministers labouring in a secular way for their support, but to put the blame of this where it belongs-on the people who compel it. Some might think it too long. The Committee wished to express the views presented in the debate. If it was too long, the Assembly could shorten it.

Rev. Dr. Junkin moved to amend the Report by adding a resolution, which he read.

The amendment was lost.

Rev. Mr. Harrison would say, as did a lawyer in Virginia, that the Committee had taken such an avaricious grasp of the subject as not to leave a word to be added. He hoped the members would remember that time is precious, and not unnecessarily waste it.

The question was taken on the Report and carried.

After some discussion on the best mode of publishing this Pastoral Letter, it was, on motion,

Resolved, That the Report of the Committee be printed in the religious journals, the editors of the same being requested to carry this into effect.

Miscellaneous.

WALDENSIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY.

ON motion of Mr. Baird, the following paper was adopted, viz.:

Whereas, The General Assembly, in 1853, determined to endeavour to raise an endowment for the Theological Seminary of the Waldensian Synod, and it appears, from the Report of the Board of Foreign Missions, that this endowment is not completed; therefore,

Resolved, That it be recommended to all those churches which have not contributed to this object, so interesting and important, to do so on the second Sabbath of November next, or on some Sabbath as near as convenient, and transmit the same to the Treasurer of the Board of Foreign Missions.

WASHINGTON CITY CHURCH, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

On motion of Rev. Jas. R. Eckard, the following paper was adopted, viz. :

Whereas, Since the dissolution of the late General Assembly, the Presbytery of Baltimore has dissolved the pastoral connection between Rev. J. M. P. Atkinson and the Bridge Street Church, Georgetown, District of Columbia, in order that Mr. Atkinson may devote himself to raising funds for the Assembly's Church, to be erected at Washington City; therefore be it

Resolved, 1st. That this Assembly reiterates the sentiments and expressions of previous Assemblies in regard to the great importance of the speedy completion of the said church in Washington.

Resolved, 2d. That this Assembly recommends Mr. Atkinson to the sympathies and liberality of all the churches under its care, recognizing his present agency as an act of self-denial, and of laudable zeal for the interests of Christ's cause and Church.

On motion,

Resolved, That this General Assembly be dissolved; and that another General Assembly, chosen in like manner, be required to meet in the First Presbyterian Church of Lexington, Kentucky, on the third Thursday of May, A. D. 1857, at eleven o'clock A. M.

The Assembly rose and sang to "Old Hundred" the hymn, "Come, Christian brethren, ere we part," with the doxology. A parting prayer, and the benediction from the Moderator, closed the services. Thus terminated the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of 1856.

THE

PRESBYTERIAN MAGAZINE.

AUGUST, 1856.

Miscellaneous Articles.

EVILS OF A STATE OF RELIGIOUS DECLENSION.

No. III.

ITS INFLUENCE UPON THE CONVERSION OF MEN.

THE evils of a state of religious declension may be seen outside of the Church, as well as within. There can be no question that upon Christians has been devolved a solemn responsibility with reference to the conversion of the world lying in wickedness. They are represented in the Scriptures as the light of the world, the salt of the earth, the leaven of society. They are exhorted to let their light shine, to hold forth the word of life, to do good as they have opportunity, to preach the Gospel to every creature. There are two ways of meeting this responsibility. They may, and do exert a great influence by conversation, instruction, admonition, and prayer, in the family, in the Sabbath school, and among the destitute of their neighbourhood. They may persuade, and encourage those who are living in neglect of the sanctuary, to attend its services, and thus bring them under the influence of the appointed means of grace. They may send missionaries, Bibles, tracts, and other religious influences to those whom their personal efforts cannot reach, by contributing of their substance for such purposes. And all this, if done in a right spirit, from love to Christ and souls, and in dependence upon divine grace, may accomplish incalculable good.

But when professors of religion are lukewarm and worldly, they will of course make no earnest adequate effort for the conversion of those around them. Indeed they will have no living, active sense of the worth of souls. No one will expect to hear them say, my heart's desire, and prayer to God is that they may be saved."

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And not only will they be indifferent to this great work, but even those efforts, that they may be constrained by their circumstances to put forth, will be without life or power-neither suited in themselves to the end, nor likely to be attended with that divine blessing, that can alone render them effectual. Besides, in such a state, they not only do little or no good, but positive harm. They give a wrong testimony respecting the importance and value of religion. The great mass of the impenitent receive nearly all their notions of religion from the lives of its professors. When such are formal and worldly, they must of course convey erroneous impressions of the necessity of conversion, even if they do not render the careless and unconcerned infidel on the whole subject. The case of worldly persons who are brought much in contact with professing Christians, and the means of grace, is very critical. Medical men tell us that if a broken bone does not unite at the first intention, it is much more difficult to get it to unite afterwards, and so on of the second, and every subsequent effort. It is precisely the same case with fallen, shattered human nature. If the first effort

to repair and convert it is not successful, this work becomes, humanly speaking, more difficult and critical-the prospect of conversion darker and more hopeless. The mind gets more familiar with truth, the heart more insensible to motives, and the means of grace consequently become less efficacious. The human soul, as Dr. Chalmers says, is like some material substances. If the force you lay upon it does not break, it will beat it into increasing hardness. Formal, heartless efforts, therefore, to bring men to the knowledge of the truth, may do more harm than good. How solemn a consideration this-that professors of religion may, by the spirit and manner in which they engage in the work of the Lord, so counteract the effect of the truth, as not only to render it ineffectual, but even to make the prospect of the conversion of their partners, children, friends, darker and more unpromising than before.

But there is another aspect of this subject. Christians may also exert a very great, probably greater influence through their lives. This is a means of doing good or evil, which is too much overlooked. Being social in their nature, men act and are acted upon, not only through the understanding, by speaking and hearing, writing and reading, but also through their sympathies and affections, imparting and imbibing most potent influences. There is no one who is not influencing and being influenced by others in this way. And this means of doing each other good or evil is the more efficient, because it is so constant, and so insensible in its operation. It can be felt, too, much earlier in life than the more formal influences exerted by positive effort. An infant can perceive and be influenced by the looks, the tone, the manner of those under whose care it is, long before it can understand their language. And all through life, we receive impressions in this way