Our Missionary at Griggsville, says :

"This part of the vineyard of God is, I think, very important and very destitute. In this county there is but one Presbyterian or Congregational minister. In Brown county there is but one, and in Schuyler, not any. There are several places desiring ministers. At Columbus and at Payson, they are desirous of obtaining and settling ministers; both are important places. Such is the destitution here, that I doubt if it is the duty of any church to claim a minister the whole of the time. There are villages growing up in every direction destitute of preaching, and the Mormons and Campbellites are making great exertions to spread their delusions, not without success. Men will have some kind of religion, and they are ready to seize on the grossest errors if truth is not presented."

Mr. Kent, for 15 years a pioneer in the West, and all that time pleading for a coadjutor, writes from Galena :

"This large district, between the Mississippi and Rock rivers, is one wide waste, so far as Presbyterian and Congregational ministers are concerned, if we except two or three on the southern margin of the field, and one at Galena. There are large settlements on the Wisconsin, Grant, Platte and Fever rivers, tributaries to the Mississippi, and then there is the Pecatonica, tributary to Rock river, 200 miles long, and will ere long be navigable within 30 miles of Galena, and watering some of the finest mineral and agricultural country in the world. And all this wide field is destitute of Presbyterian and Congregational preaching with the exceptions before made."

A Correspondent in Missouri, wrote, a few months ago—

"There are fifty counties in this state in which no Presbyterian minister resides."

Another in the same state, reports

66

My circuit is fifty miles. Too much time is necessarily consumed in riding from station to station. There is not a Presbyterian preacher within fifty miles of me, and but very few of any denomination except Campbellites. The country all around is pretty well settled. The salvation of thousands of immortal souls in Missouri, depends upon the prosperity of your Society."

From Iowa, Rev. A. Turner has written within a few weeks as follows:"The field is white already for the harvest. There seems to be an increased conviction on the minds of the mass of the people, that 'religion is the chief concern of mortals here below.' I feel that now is the time to gather in the harvest. Sinners are inviting us to preach the everlasting Gospel. The Holy Spirit is inviting us to go out into the highways and hedges, and compel men to come in. I know the number of laborers has increased-almost doubled-in our connection, the past year; but the demand is increased, not diminished. The few that come to our aid seem to be lost, just as the little stream is lost, that makes its way to one of our lakes, or to the Father of Rivers. The state of things in this territory demands a greatly increased number of laborers from the A. H. M. Society-1st. Because immigration is more rapid than ever before; men are pouring in here every day and every hour. 2d. God is holding the pursuit after the world in check; a dark cloud hangs over our pecuniary affairs. True, many are perplexed and troubled, and the minds of many are soured; still the mass begin to feel, that they must lay up treasure somewhere else than on earth. 3d. The Holy Spirit seems to be hovering over the territory. Such times should be improved. If we had five times as many laborers as we have, all filled with the Holy Ghost, they would have enough to do. One year's labor now may be worth more than ten bye-and-bye. Such a state of things existed when I first entered Illinois, twelve years ago; but it did not return for years. My prayer is, that you will send us on forthwith some true yoke-fellows."

But it is not only from the remote portions of the West that this importunity for immediate assistance comes from Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and Michigan, similar appeals are sounding. We have room but for specimens. One Presbytery, reaching from the mouth of the Wabash river up the Ohio 200 miles, embraces 21 counties, in 9 of which there is but 1 Presbyterian minister. Ten or fifteen well qualified ministers are immediately needed. Many other Presbyteries, and individuals—lay as well as clerical-have appealed to us in behalf of dying thousands of men, for whom there is no probable ground of hope, if ministers cannot be induced to go to them from the older states. One Presbytery in Kentucky says, that there are in the southern part of that state 12 or 15 counties without a Presbyterian minister-and they offer $600 a year each for two good missionaries, and assure us that five or six are imperiously needed.

But we need not multiply these statements; no reader of the publications of the American Home Missionary Society can, for a moment, doubt the existence of extensive regions, and great numbers of individual churches and settlements, where missionaries are needed.

Can Missionaries be found?

It is a common impression, that because "there are more vacant churches in the Eastern states than there are ministers who are candidates for settlement," that therefore few men can be spared to go to the West. This impression is incorrect. The destitution of those churches does not result from a dearth of ministers, but from other causes-such as the smallness of their field, their vicinity to other churches, the want of harmony among their members, the absence of all probability that they will ever be raised above a state of debility and dependance, &c. These unsupplied churches will not settle ministers; but would probably remain in the same destitute condition, if the number of ministers were three times as great as it is. If, then, we leave these churches out of the account, we shall have many ministers who can go, and ought to go to the West.

Are they disposed to go?

But,

Many of them are. Their hearts are deeply impressed with the claims of the needy, and they "have compassion on the multitudes" of their countrymen, "because they faint, and are scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." They feel that they are under vows to Christ, and when his little ones in the wilderness, when whole churches, and even whole counties and groups of counties, stretch out their hands and utter their moving plaint, year after year, they seem to hear the Savior, saying to each one of them, "Lovest thou me ? Feed my sheep"-"if ye do it not unto these, ye do it not unto me." They look on their ministry as a matter in which faith and not sense is to direct. They confer not with flesh and blood, nor insist on a guaranty against trials and suffering. When they accepted pardon at the hands of Christ, they felt that any place in his kingdom was good enough for them; and now that he has counted them worthy to be put into the ministry, they do not stipulate with him for "important posts," nor decline to go into the field, unless they can have assigned to them a position with few obstacles and large advantages.

But, alas! such are not all. Too many hang back from the western field, because of its trials. Forgetting that "it is enough for the servant that he be as his master"—that they have covenanted to "follow the Lamb withersoever he goeth,”—that the reward of fidelity, in this life, is not only "a hundred fold" what they sacrifice, but also "persecutions," they act as though they were not devoted men-as though they were just as much at liberty to avoid trials and to seek their ease, as men upon whom no vows rest. church no small sum to educate; and yet, in her need, they do not respond to her call! Let prayer unceasing be offered for them.

Some such, it has cost the

But are not the trials of the West so severe as to afford just reason for ministers staying away?

In reply, our first remark is-the trials in the West are not so severe as to keep emigrants from going thither in crowds; and where souls are, ministers ought to be. The trials are not too great to keep physicians and lawyers and merchants from going there. These bear trials, for the time being, having respect to a recompense of reward, no greater than the accumulation of mere worldly wealth and consideration; they do not expect a crown of immortal glory for what they do and endure. Roman Catholic priests, Mormons, preachers of Universalism, lecturers on Atheism—all these go to the West. They live there, and "endure hardness as good soldiers." Says a devoted pioneer, respecting some of the heralds of pernicious error" these men ransack every place, without purse or scrip, in imitation of the ancient apostles. Always on foot, with a zeal always burning, they all make, and they will make, proselytes." An enemy would have added, "it is only the ambassadors of the cross that shrink from the toil and trials of the new settlements."

But again, we reply, that the trials to which ministers are subjected in the West, are, in almost all cases, principally owing to the want of support. The complaint is not often that their labors are not desired, that their office is not respected, that the people are deficient in tokens of personal affection; the most serious difficulties with which the missionary has to contend, are of a pecuniary nature. This fact may justly be taken into account by those ministers who have large families, or are otherwise so related that a generous income is essential to their keeping a good conscience. But for young ministers-such as have small families, or none,-to make such things as plain fare, living in log collages, or any mere privation of physical accommodations and comforts, a reason for refusing to go and preach to those whose souls are perishing—is a burning shame! Any disciple of the MAN OF SORROWS-of him "who had not where to lay his head"—should blush to detect such a thought in his heart.

Thirdly, we reply to this question-that the support of ministers will increase with the increase of the communities which they serve. There are many clergymen who went out a few years ago, who have remained at their posts, have gone through the season of trial with their people, and are now receiving a comfortable support. The West has the elements of wealth, and it must rise, and rise soon. The causes of its present financial depression are extraordinary;

they have affected the whole nation, yea, even the nations of Europe. These causes are also temporary, and will pass away in a few years, probably in a few months. This is the calculation of shrewd men in the secular professions. They are willing to cast in their lot with the people of the West, and grow up with the towns or settlements in which they live. And they are not disappointed; they attain to as great a proportion of competence and influence as the same class of men at the East. And so it will be with ministers. It is affecting to see young men of fine talents and education, expending the prime of their days in merely keeping alive some obscure church in the old states; when they might be laying the foundations of large and influential churches in central points at the West.

Again We ask the hesitating candidate, what are his prospects if he remain at the East? If he possess no unusual attractions, he may find it difficult to obtain any better pecuniary support than if he should go to the West. Almost every eligible vacancy here is besieged by a multitude of candidates; and a man will not only consult his self respect, by turning his attention to the more needy states, but he will also be quite as likely to have his reasonable wants supplied. The guaranty offered by the Am. Home Missionary Society varies according to the circumstances of the field to which missionaries are sent; but in all cases, this guaranty, if not a full support, is a great assistance; and no money pledged for ministerial support in our country, is more certain to be paid, than the grants of the Society. Ministers in debt for their education, and desiring to pay off their debts by annual instalments, will do well, therefore, to consider, whether, with these pledges of the Society, with a conscience cheering them with the persuasion of having done right, and with God's blessing, they are not quite as likely to be unembarrassed by pecuniary difficulties in the missionary field, as if they remain lingering around the older churches?

But our last reply to the objection suggested, is, that the attention of the christian public is more and more turned to the condition of our own country; and we trust the time is at hand, when the Home Missionary will have as much consideration and sympathy, as his brother that goes to the heathen. It is our firm persuasion, that more will be done for Home Missions. Men high in official station, ministers and civilians, are becoming much interested in this cause. They are cheering us on by their gifts and their assurances of kind feeling. And the churches at large will not fail to coincide with these leading minds. They will not bear, that their strong young laborers should stand all the day idle, while the harvest perishes. It will soon be regarded as decisive of a man's unfitness for the ministerial office, if, without a plain exemption by the providence of God, he avail himself of trifling pretexts to keep away from the great and needy field.

Miscellaneous.

EMIGRATION FROM THE “OLD WORLD,"

And its connection with Romanism in the United States.