in applying the education thus provided, and shall thus illustrate the difficulty referred to, where it is said, "If we educate him moderately his church will not have him." We hold that the education of individuals must depend on the general condition of the community that they are to serve, as well as on the character and circumstances of each candidate. It is here that the difficulty of the subject inheres. It must not be forgotten, that in America education is generally acquired at › the expense of the student, his parents or guardians, or of the government to which they severally pay taxes. A gift of education from a benevolent society is exceptional, usually taking the form of a grant in aid, mostly to students preparing for the ministry, and never extending beyond the usual curriculum of the college and the seminary. Most of those who offer themselves as candidates for the ministry, make an offering of an education acquired at their own charges, and all of those entering on the foreign missionary work have become fitted for it without aid from the societies which send them out. The problem of the education of missionaries, therefore, does not concern the Missionary Boards. They have only to select, from the list of applicants for appointment, those whose gifts and piety fit them for the work, and send them forth. Still further, the Missionary Societies employ, for the most part, men of a single grade, or class. There is, of course, that difference which obtains in every calling, in the gifts and acquirements of the various missionaries; yet they go out, mostly, with one office, and in one relation to the people whom they serve. None of them are designed to fill the pastoral office; so that, whether they be stationed in large or small cities, there is no difference in the requisition made on their learning and ability. Nay, it sometimes happens that he who resides in the smaller town has a work calling for abilities of a higher order than those who occupy the larger cities. The case is quite different with those whom we educate in our foreign missionary fields, for the pastoral or teaching offices. They are, for the most part, beneficiaries from the beginning; taken, often, at an age when they are so undeveloped that we cannot form any idea of their subsequent bias or disposition, and often before we have evidence of their personal piety. It will be admitted that not every man who desires to study is fitted for a student's life; and that not every man who is a good student would be a good preacher or teacher, even presupposing his piety. We must be the judges of such cases as these, and shall not be blamed for bringing to a close our course of gratuitous instruction in such cases, as soon as we have discovered unfitness for a studious career, or unfitness for either the pastoral or teaching office. Benevolent individuals, here or in Syria, may contribute toward the education of physicians, and men in other pursuits, but missionaries cannot spend the time and money belonging to the work of evangelization, in this way. We have thus narrowed the inquiry to those whose talents and graces we judge suitable for the ministry and teaching. There is among every people a standard of attainments, demanded by popular taste and education, of those who would exercise these offices, especially the former, to which we more particularly refer. The wants of each congregation depend on its particular stage of culture; yet there is an average standard, demanded by the average cultivation of the whole community. The different denominations differ in the matter of this standard, and the theological institutions of each are so graded as to meet the average standard of want, and to supply the average standard of attainment in its ministers. We have not been slow to meet the wants of our missionary converts in this respect; and it has been our steady purpose so to train every candidate for the sacred office that he may satisfy the reasonable demands of his people, for superiority, in knowledge and culture, to themselves. But on missionary ground, as elsewhere, there are some churches that require more than average ability and culture in their pastors. Here again, the problem, so simple in America, is difficult in missionary lands. In America, a man who feels within himself the motions of genius, and a presentiment of a more than usual work, prepares himself, by his own energy, for the higher sphere, availing himself of post-graduate privileges at his college or seminary, or seeking abroad the facilities which he does not find at home. The title of any church to claim such higher qualifications must be decided by its ability to secure their possessor by a call, and provide adequately for his support. This principle is clearly understood by home missionary societies. They never think of supporting candidates for missionary labor in new, uncultivated communities in the West, or among the freedmen of the South, through post-graduate courses of more than usual study. If any church at the West or South grow until it demands such higher attainments, it then seeks for their possessor, and provides for his support; and in general, a church which cannot support a man of unusual capabilities does not need him. Doubtless the best preacher is not too good for the plainest people; yet as the world is, we cannot waste the means of the church in educating men to more than average grades of learning, or to great superiority over those whom they are to serve. Now there is a special reason on missionary ground why this most wise and salutary principle, which governs the action of the church at home, is difficult of application. In the infancy of the evangelizing work, the foreign missionary has no native helpers, teachers, or preachers; and the few converts gathered about him have no pastors. He is forced, by the necessities of the case, to perform toward them the duties of a pastor. This is pleasing to them, for many reasons. The missionary's great superiority, in education, to even the most cultivated intellects of the country, his social position, his influence with consuls and other officials, all conspire to make them prefer his services even to those of highly educated natives. But it is plain that this state of things is abnormal, and should, as soon as possible, be replaced by a permanent, native pastorate. The grade of the new pastor ought to be determined by the same principles as those which determine the case in America; that is, adaptability on the part of the pastor to meet the reasonable call of his people for superiority to themselves in culture and piety, and ability on their part to support him. If he be inferior, or barely equal to his people, in these respects, he is not fit to be their pastor. If he be so much superior to them that they cannot support him, this fact alone will generally be a reason why he should not exercise that office among them. But under these circumstances, newly evangelized and partially enlightened people are not reasonable. They want a missionary. They will use fair means, and sometimes foul ones, to get him. They will object to men fitted to edify them, and whom they could support with a little self-denial, and claim men whose abilities they would not attempt to command were they in America, and whom they cannot hope to support. Is it not true, then, in practical missionary experience, that if we do not educate the pastors highly the churches will not have them? Is this the fault of our system? Or is it due to the imperfection of their knowledge and graces, and the peculiar circumstances in which they are placed? There is a point on which I wish to make myself clearly understood. In urging churches to accept men whom we consider suitable for them, we never do it on the ground that we wish to limit their intellectual growth, or condemn them to the services of inferior men. We simply urge them to accept pastors whom they can hope to support. If they grow more intelligent and numerous, and able to give more for a more able pastor, we encourage a change that shall meet their wants. If their own pastor is susceptible of higher training, we give him every advantage in our power. Indeed, without the manifestation of any such desire on the part of the congregation, it is part of our plan to carry forward the education of pastors, after they have approved themselves faithful ministers, that they may gradually elevate the intellectual standard of their people. Again, the policy of urging the settlement of men of limited education over such churches is not for the purpose of having under our control men of dwarfed powers, the more easily to manage them, as some have insinuated! We are living there to elevate and expand, not to depress and dwarf. No instance can be shown where we have aimed to repress talent. Our lifelong effort is to seek it out, and utilize it for the spread of Christ's kingdom. And so far as the alleged desire to keep native pastors manageable is concerned, any one who has witnessed the autonomy which we have conceded, nay, in many instances almost forced on the native churches and pastors, cannot be prejudiced by any such suspicion. Our usual course with theological students is this. They are carried through the curriculum of the Seminary, and then, if possible, tried by a course of practical evangelism before ordination. They are then installed over churches, after due call and acceptance. If they give no promise of growing intellectually, their future training is confined to the instructions given during missionary visits, and by books and letters. If, however, the pastor give promise of intellectual progress, we are careful to foster and train his capabilities by systematic instruction, and in every way encourage him to the highest attainments, taking care, however, that his education be of the solid and useful rather than the showy kind. We believe in training pastors to work among their own people, not to go abroad to mingle with foreigners, and acquire their habits and tastes; and learn to lean upon their energy and to love their gold; and thus become unfitted for further efficiency at home. The other remark, that "if we educate a man highly, he will not serve except as a highly salaried and independent missionary," was simply a statement of fact, and can only be objected to as such if it be not true. Now I reaffirm that it is true, as a general statement. It implies that we have educated some highly, which is true. I think that they constitute as large a proportion to the whole number of pastors and preachers, as the highly educated and refined do in the ministry at home. Now it is true that we have been embarrassed and perplexed, and that our faith has been staggered, many times, by the fact that such exhibit less willingness to serve native churches for native pay than their less educated brethren, and exhibit a marked disposition to grasp at positions as evangelists at large, under foreign pay, and with the largest salaries. These are stubborn, painful, and injurious facts. We do not make them, nor misrepresent them. There are noble exceptions men of faith and zeal, who believe in the permanence and growth of native churches, and who, with self-renouncing zeal have thrown themselves into the work of raising them to independence and manly strength. We honor them; and taking courage from them, gain faith to believe in the ultimate regeneration of their people, and the firm establishment of self-sustaining institutions of Christianity among them. And it is only when we hear native Christians say, as one of superior intelligence said to me, that no native pastor, however eligible, would be received while they could have a missionary from America to serve them, and see native evangelists unwilling to assume the pastoral relation, and seeking all their lives for foreign appointments and foreign accountability, that we feel that our work is in danger of being a failure. REV. ASA THURSTON. THE death of this father among the missionaries at the Sandwich Islands, on the 11th of March last, was announced in June. Mr. Thurston was born at Fitchburg, Massachusetts, October 12, 1787. He graduated at Yale College in 1816, and at Andover Theological Seminary in 1819. Soon after leaving the Seminary he was married to Miss Lucy Goodale, of Marlborough, Massachusetts, "who has been his faithful wife and companion in all the toils, labors, and privations of his long missionary life." They embarked at Boston, with others of the company who formed the first band of missionaries sent to the Islands, October 23, 1819, Mr. Thurston having given a farewell address to the assembly in Park Street Church. In the address delivered at his funeral, at Honolulu, March 12, by Rev. Eli Corwin, it is said: "Forty-eight years ago this very month, on the 31st of March, 1820, the deceased reached the shores of Hawaii, with the pioneer missionaries sent out by the American Board, to evangelize these then benighted and barbarous islands. This day of his burial is just one month less than forty-eight years from the day when he and the still surviving companion of his earthly pilgrimage were stationed at Kailua, the ancient residence of the Hawaiian kings. And there, for more than forty years, he continued to reside and to labor as the honored pastor of a large and very important parish. "The instructor, for a time, of both Kamehameha II. and Kamehameha III., his influence upon the conduct and disposition, especially of the latter, must have been very great. But, as is ever the case with the faithful minister, his influence was greatest and his usefulness most apparent among the masses of the common people. Never once leaving the Islands for forty years, he was hon ored of natives and foreigners alike as a faithful, patient, persistent worker, steadfast and abiding, in one stay, far beyond the ordinary duration of missionary life. Indeed I know not that in the entire history of missions a like instance is recorded, of one remaining so long upon the field, and at a single post, during the lifetime of a whole generation, without revisiting the home of his childhood, or visiting any other land. Only when advancing age and repeated strokes of paralysis had rendered him incapable of service; only when his strong hand lost its cunning, and his tongue had begun to give a doubtful utterance, did he consent to resign his pastorate at Kailua, that he might spend the closing years of his life in this city. 66 Here, how beautiful the evening time of that life. . . . The outward appearance was but the truthful expression of the inward life, - a calm and undisturbed repose of faith; a rest in Jesus which knew no solicitude; a sublime quietude of soul which felt no fear." He is spoken of as a man of "marvelous physical powers, perhaps unsurpassed in his day by those of any other resident upon these Islands, whether native or foreigner"; "taciturn all through life, yet hardly less remarkable for a quiet humor, which was kept in subjection to his Christian dignity"; and it is said: "Those of us who were permitted to visit him near the close of his life, cannot soon forget those more lucid intervals when, for a little, the soul reasserted its power over the tongue, and with indescribable pathos and earnestness he exclaimed, 'My love for Jesus is very great." An obituary notice in the Honolulu Friend states: "As a missionary, Mr. Thurston ever labored with great usefulness and success. His knowledge of the native language and character was most thorough, and as a preacher, he was much beloved by the native Hawaiians. In the early years of the mission, his labors as a translator were arduous and successful. In this great work, ... associated with others, it fell to his lot to translate parts of Genesis, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and the whole of Samuel, Second of Kings, and some other parts of the Bible." "When our departed Father arrived at the Islands, all was one wide moral, heathen waste. Idolatry was abolished, but the work of reducing the language to a written form, and the endless toil of a missionary's life, were to be entered upon. Now, how changed the moral aspect! The deceased leaves a widow and three children, and numerous grand-children, to mourn his loss. All who were acquainted with his life and labors are ready involuntarily to exclaim : 'Servant of God, well done! Rest from thy loved employ; |