BX 9943 C4 V.I Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by ABEL C. THOMAS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. EXPLANATORY PREFACE. MANY Universalist Societies which have a name to live, are wholly destitute of a Gospel Ministry; others exhibit a sort of spasmodic life, by assembling occasionally to listen to a sermon; and others, again, meet statedly once in a fortnight or once in a month, for the purpose of religious instruction and worship. From some destitute Societies, and from numerous localities where Societies have not been organized, there comes an earnest cry for ministerial help; and in countless families all over the land, (emigrants from the religious circles of a former residence, or converted by reading, or by the voice of a Missionary, or by silent communing with God,) there is a yearning for social worship which appeals to our deepest sympathies. It cannot be doubted that the demand for Universalist Ministers greatly exceeds the supply; but to avoid all controversy as to the cause or causes of the scarcity, let us speak rather of the need than of the demand. We have not the ministers to send; and even if we had, the people could not provide an adequate pecuniary support, nor could the well-to-do sections |