opinion, next to home religion, like that of Hannah, Eunice, and Doddridge's mother, and those great refreshings of the Church at large such as were once enjoyed in this country, the great means of furnishing an adequate ministry to the West, and the world, is found in an enlarged system of free Christian colleges, out of which may be selected ambassadors who shall beseech men to become reconciled to God. Thousands were rejoicing in what the Society had done and was now doing, and he would say to its friends, Let your motto be "excelsior." Dr. Cleaveland remarked, that no one of our benevolent organizations perhaps encountered at the outset so many obstacles in the shape of objections as this Society, but affirmed that all known objections are, in their actual facts, commendations. He refuted the following: Objection 1. "It costs too much." 2. "Western colleges do not give a thorough education." 8. "They do not produce brilliant and profound scholars." 4. "The West is rich, and ought not to tax New England benevolence." But if the West is rich, and yet indifferent to her dangers, this is the very reason why we should here prevent her wealth from being her ruin. 5. "The West is poor-in debt-don't pay her debts. Let her go to work and pay her debts and help herself." But if the West is poor, then a stern necessity is laid upon us. We must help her, or look on and witness her moral ruin. 6. "The West don't wish for your colleges-don't accept of them-don't patronize them." Then by all means common philanthrophy bids us teach her what her real wants are. Edmund Burke somewhere says something like this: "Get a man's ear-ring on it sounds that he dislikes, words that disgust him at first; keep on ringing them, and they will find their way through his inner being, and he will believe them and obey them. They will conquer him if you keep on." So deal with the West, and the result is sure. The Society then proceeded to the election of officers for the ensuing year. The following officers were chosen : PRESIDENT. HON. JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER, LL. D., Newark, N. J. VICE-PRESIDENTS. REV. N. S. S. BEMAN, D. D., Troy, N. Y. REV. C. A. GOODRICH, D. D., New Haven, Conn. REV. G. W. BLAGDEN, D. D., Boston, Mass. 66 REV. HENRY MANDEVILLE, D. D., Albany, N. Y. REV. ELAM SMALLEY, D. D., Worcester, Mass. REV. J. P. CLEAVELAND, D. D., Northampton, Mass. DIRECTORS. REV. S. H. COX, D. D., Brooklyn, N. Y. REV. ALBERT BARNES, Philadelphia. REV. THOMAS BRAINERD, D. D., Philadelphia. REV. A. D. EDDY, D. D., Newark, N. J. REV. JONATHAN F. STEARNS, D. D., Newark, N. J. REV. T. H. SKINNER, D. D., New-York City. 66 แ HON. T. W. WILLIAMS, New London, Conn. REV. LEONARD BACON, D. D., New Haven, Conn. REV. HORACE BUSHNELL, D. D., Hartford, REV. E. BEECHER, D. D., Boston, Mass. REV. EMERSON DAVIS, D. D., Westfield, Mass. REV. GIDEON N. JUDD, D. D., Montgomery, N. Y. REV. J. H. TOWNE, Lowell, Mass. REV. DANIEL P. NOYES, Brooklyn, N. Y. 66 REV. RUFUS W. CLARK, East Boston, Mass. ANSON G. PHELPS, Jr., New-York City. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. REV. THERON BALDWIN, New-York City. RECORDING SECRETARY. B. C. WEBSTER, Esq., New-York City. TREASURER. MOSES H. BALDWIN, Esq., New-York City. In accordance with the recommendation of the committee appointed to confer with the American Education Society, the Rev. C. A. Goodrich, D. D., Hon. S. H. Walley, Rev. A. Peters, D. D., Rev. A. D. Eddy, D. D., William Ropes, Esq., Rev. J. F. Stearns, D. D., Rev. Thomas Brainerd, D. D., and the Corresponding Secretary, were appointed a committee to meet a similar committee from the American Education Society, with a view of framing and presenting a plan of union for the consideration of the two Societies. The Society then adjourned. The new Board of Directors met, and, after the transaction of some business, adjourned to meet on the last Tuesday in October, 1854. CONSTITUTION OF THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROMOTION OF COLLEGIATE AND THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AT THE WEST. ARTICLE I. This Association shall be denominated the Society for the Promotion of Collegiate and Theological Education at the West. ART. II. The object of the Society shall be to afford assistance to Collegiate and Theological Institutions at the West, in such manner, and so long only, as, in the judgment of the Directors of the Society, the exigencies of the institutions may demand. ART. III. There shall be chosen annually by the Society, a President, Vice-Presidents, a Corresponding and a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer, and a Board of twenty-four Directors, which Board shall have power to fill its own vacancies, and also to fill, for the remainder of the year, any vacancies which may occur in the offices of the Board. The President, Vice-Presidents, and Recording Secretary, shall be ex officio members of the Board of Directors. ART. IV. Any person may become a member of this Society by contributing annually to its funds; and thirty dollars, paid at one time, shall constitute a member for life. ART. V. There shall be an annual meeting of the Society at such time and place as the Board of Directors may appoint. ART. VI. Five Directors shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, except for the appointment of a Secretary and the appropriation of moneys, when nine shall be present. ART. VII. It shall be the duty of the Board of Directors to employ all agencies for collecting funds; to investigate and decide upon the claims of the several institutions; to make the appropriations in the most advantageous manner (it being understood that contributions designated by the donors shall be appropriated according to the designations); to call special meetings of the Society, when they deem it necessary; and generally to do whatever may be deemed necessary to promote the object of the Society. ART. VIII. This Constitution may be altered or amended by a majority of two thirds of the members present at an annual meeting of the Society, provided the alteration proposed shall have been specified and recommended by the Board of Directors. TENTH REPORT. As the Society has now closed the tenth year of its existence, it becomes our duty once more to gather up and embody the results of its operations. While these results, so far as they stand connected with the year now closed, are small, as compared with the necessities of the case, they yet furnish cheering evidence that the favor of God still rests upon the enterprise, as appears from increased receipts, a deepening conviction of the utility and importance of the work, and a growing public confidence in the method adopted for its accomplishment. Viewed in its associated capacity, the Society is not only in harmony with the spirit and demands of the age, but is developing a power which it is more and more apparent can be applied with vast effect in the cause of Christian learning. So far as this country is concerned, the Society at its commencement was unique in its character-no other existing organization being devoted specifically and solely to a similar work. For more than three hundred years, however, a society had been in operation, whose main power upon the world has been exerted through the medium of educational institutions. From feeble beginnings its influence spread, till, in the height of its power, it could boast of no less than six hundred and ninety-nine colleges scattered over the civilized world. It had been in existence only twenty-five years when the Council of Trent, at the bidding of Catholic Europe, was called for the express purpose of devising means to arrest the progress of the Reformation. As the question in respect to the most efficacious measures which could be adopted went round that grave assembly, an eminent member said: "Train good preachers, and propagate as far as you can the Society of Jesus." And to him they agreed. "To this antagonist influence we must go for an answer to the question often asked-How it happened that the onward and apparently triumphant advances of the Reformation were on a sudden arrested, and, as by the myste rious fiat of fate, the dividing line was fixed between the Catholic and Protestant sections of Europe, to remain till now almost precisely where it was drawn thirty years after Luther had broken with Rome."* It is a stirring thought that in the prosecution of our work we are fighting over the battles of the Reformation, contending with the same antagonist forces on a new and vast field, and one, too, first trodden by the feet of Jesuit missionaries. Some fifty years before the Mayflower was moored in the bay of Plymouth, such missionaries might have been seen crossing the water-shed that divides the sources of the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, with their bark canoes upon their shoulders; then embarking on the broad Wisconsin, and finally floating upon the bosom of the father of waters, while an interminable wilderness stretched between them and the subsequent home of the Pilgrims. That wilderness has since disappeared, and the old conflict of opposing principles is renewed. In our associated capacity, in connection with kindred organizations, we meet the Society of Jesus to decide the question, "whether Protestant evangelical institutions or the institutions and influences of Rome shall cover that field, and mould the forming population." In this conflict we must meet institutions with institutions, libraries with libraries, profound scholars with those equally learned, free education with abundant resources for the benefit of the indigent; in short, we must bring the power of associated effort to bear on the creation of educational influences with a steadiness and a scope all over our vast Western domain that shall put to shame the movements of the Society of Jesus. And the work has been auspiciously commenced. We cannot here give the facts upon which the opinion is based; but, from some recent investigations made, we are persuaded that so far as the higher institutions are concerned, the single cluster aided by this Society has already, and is destined to have, more power over American society, than all the institutions of a similar class of which Rome can boast on the field over which the operations of this Association extend. RESULTS OF EXPERIENCE. Sufficient time has now elapsed since the organization of the Society, to furnish experience of great value to the Board for the future prosecution of the enterprise. A few points in * Puritans and Jesuits, p. 24. |