MR. MODERATOR, FATHERS, AND BRETHREN:

The voice you were to have heard to-day discoursing upon this theme is now engaged in recounting to the angels the wonders of the redemptive grace. The joy into which our

brother has entered is the reward of those who illustrate in their lives the truth they teach. A tireless worker, a devout soldier of Christ, a successful winner of souls, a self-forgetting servant of God, and a large-hearted lover of his fellowmen, is gone. Heaven is richer, and earth to us so much the poorer, because the Master has taken Constans Goodell to Himself.

I take it for granted that the subject assigned me is entirely serious. I am aware that no one exposes Himself to such gratuitous obloquy as the man who sets up for a prophet. But, gathered as we are, in a city where the storm and stress of the forces which threaten, not religion only, but organized society, are at the fiercest; where the Haymarket is still stained with the blood of officers of the law murdered while in the execution of their duty; where the community is still oppressed with anxiety as to the possibility of punishing evil-doers and protecting itself against defiant anarchy, the future becomes a part of the present; and no question of to-day can be regarded as settled until it has been considered in its bearing upon to-morrow.

shown and lived every day. name, your honor, are mine.

Your growth, your good
You are the apple of my

eye. I long over you, I pray for you, I thank God for you. My heart's desire is to see you perfect in Christ. Grant me that, and my work is done.

ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS.

BY REV. HENRY A. STIMSON,

OF WORCESTER, MASS.

IN TREMONT TEMPLE, BOSTON,

MAY 31, 1882.

THE underlying motive which, directly or indirectly, will be appealed to in all the addresses today, is "For Christ's sake." No other motive has adequate power or permanency.

The appeal of the society that now receives your attention has peculiar force, because its work is modeled so closely after that of the Master. A most remarkable feature of the Saviour's ministry was his patience. There was as little of haste in His work as of heat in His words. He needed disciples; but instead of selecting men of influence and position, He called the twelve from the ranks of the common people, and slowly and carefully trained them for their task. He came to establish a kingdom; but, when sudden dominion was offered Him, now by Satan, now and again by the people, He calmly put aside the proffered kingly crown. He did not claim, He seemed little to value, immediate returns.

He was

always far more anxious to be steadily, even though it might seem fruitlessly, doing His Father's will, than He was to find proofs of His success. His was a constructive work, and He could bide his time for the sure result.

You will be addressed in strong appeal to give money to

build much-needed missionary churches, and to send preachers to the frontier, teachers to the South, missionaries to Africa. The doors are open wide; the need is urgent; the harvest is already white. The day dawns in which prophecy may be fulfilled, and a nation born. Who does not feel the force of such appeal? It is to be expected that not a few will be thrilled with purposes of eager consecration, and many will recognize an hour of opportunity and of exigency.

We cannot so address you. We ask you simply to take a place by the side of the Master; for His sake, and in His way to undertake a patient work of construction, to give aid in planting and training both Men and Institutions.

That there is need for continued aid to students preparing for the ministry can be readily made to appear. Apart from what we recognize as the slow but regular growth of Congregationalism in the older communities, our denomination, through the quickened interest in the work of Home Missions, and the substantial increase of Home Missionary contributions, is making long strides forward at the West. A Western State Superintendent of Missions recently reported that, in less than eight years of service, he had aided in organizing some seventy new churches. The young but timely and vigorous New West Commission is finding unlooked for acceptance, and is still further widening the field to be occupied with Congregational churches. All this points to a largely increased demand for ministers in the immediate future.

What are the prospects of supply? Dr. Hough, of Michigan, in a paper recently read at Chicago, called attention to the following facts: The whole number of students in our seven theological seminaries has, for four years just passed, decreased according to these totals: 327, 310, 298, 279. Looking further back, he finds that, in 1872, 3,263 churches gave 329 students to the ministry, while, in 1880,' 3,745

The new Year-Book reports for 1881-2 only 275 students from 3,804 churches with a slightly decreased membership.

churches, i. e., 482 more than in 1872, with 65,416 more members, gave only 279 students, or 50 less than in 1872. In 1872-3 we had one student for every 970 church members; in 1880-1, only one for every 1,378. I observe that not a single member of the graduating class in the Chicago Theological Seminary is a native American.

All this seems to indicate that, in the contest of the professions for our educated young men, the ministry is just now sadly in arrears.

If, in any one section of the country, there seems at any time to be a plethora of ministers, the report of the late Field Superintendent of Home Missions, to the effect that, in the brief nine months of his service, he was instrumental in moving 34 ministers West, and at the close had 20 more on the way, shows how rapidly such plethora is disappearing.

The churches owe it, therefore, to the commonest instinct of self-preservation that they do all in their power to smooth the way of worthy young men into the pastorate.

New reasons appear, also, why young men now require special financial aid. In the first place, the "Short Course" is pretty generally abandoned in all our seminaries. There is a growing conviction that it is in the interest neither of the ministry nor of the churches. There remain, therefore, no short cuts for needy men. All must take a full curriculum; and while they add so much to the total cost of their professional education, they are also obliged to defer to the same extent all possibility of paying debts incurred in the earlier stages of their studies.

And, in the second place, the increased requirements in every department of study make it no longer possible, if it ever was wise, for the student to plan to earn any considerable part of his living by outside work during his seminary or college course. The seminaries now ask preparatory Hebrew, which is very desirable, but it takes time and strength. Every new lecturer and every special course of lectures added to the privileges of the seminary involves new reading on the part of the student. You would not have these costly opportunities

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