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done well. And have merited, what I am sure we will be ever
ready to accord, our hearty commendation for their sagacity, their
zeal and their sacrifces, as well as our gratitude for allowing us to
share in the avails of their labors. But it would be too much to
expect us to offer them our candidates, after we had come to see
very serious difficulties standing in the way, and have ascertained
morover, that we had the ability to provide for them nearer
home.

It is doubtless within the experience of us all, that many young
persons of piety and zeal as Christians, are to be found in all our
dioceses, whose minds and hearts would be turned to the ministry
of the Church, if the facilities of a character to favor their being
properly educated nearer home were presented. We encounter al-
so sometimes persons not among the very young, which such facili-
ties would go far toward inducing to think seriously of the same
office. And I dare say it is not too much to affirm that much
the larger part of all these are lost to the service of the Church
for want of such facilities.

The importance of raising up the ministry from among those
whom they are to serve—of a native ministry—is axiomatic, and a
point not to be argued. The obligation to see that this is done rests
primarily upon ourselves. The necessity of the thing, as well as
its obligation and duty then being points conceded, how is it to be
done in the most satisfactory and efficient manner? To be done
efficiently and satisfactorily, it must be don thoroughly and with
ability. And to be done with becoming ability would require an
amount of pecuniary outlay, and other external support, beyond
the reach of our dioceses separately. But to graft such a seminary
upon the primary or collegiate institutions above indicated, would
furnish an easy solution of our difficulty, and give us all we could
desire. A single corps of professors would serve us all, and the
means at the disposal of our dioceses severally poured into one
channel, would swell the aggregate amount to a sum large enough
to enable us to make such liberal provisions for the several chairs
as would make them objects of attraction, and place at our com-
mand the highest talent. And what is true in this respect of the
Theological, is equally true of the Academical and Collegiate de-
partments.

It is true, as I have remarked, we are in our several dioceses,
compared with other religious organizations, a small body, but it
is to be feared we have more power than we have used for the pur-
poses of which we speak. It is certain we have not now in exist-

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ence, as far as I know, a single seminary for the instruction of
boys, under the distinct appointment or control of the Church,
rising to the level of a first class grammar school. Granting our
numbers not to be large, yet considering the intelligence and
wealth of our people, this fact seems hardly compatible with the
duties of good citizenship, hardly in keeping with the obligation
every man owes his country, to bring the whole of his influence,
whether individual or associated, to bear upon the advancement of
the common intelligence. As others have the power to serve
State, by combining or concentrating their denominational
strength, and founding schools or colleges, open to all, so have we,
and it is for us to settle it with ourselves and answer to the coun-
try, which is ours as well as theirs, for failing to employ for its
benefit that power of influence which the intelligence, wealth and
social position of our people gives us for that purpose.

How, then, can we rest satisfied, with the amplest means at our
disposal, with all the intellectual culture required to organize, di-
rect and give efficiency to the most satisfactory plans for the edu-
cation of the children of the Church and the State, while we
are supinely allowing others to discharge duties for which we are
so deeply responsible? Are we not thereby depriving the children
of the Church of their privileges , and the Church of her proper of-
fice, as well as cutting her off from an amount of power of use-
fulness to those who are without, to which she is entitled, and
which our consent and co-operation are alone wanted to secure her ?
Indeed, I cannot conceive of an agency more powerful for good, in
the largest sense, than such institutions as those now respect-
fully proposed. By their estalblishment we might serve the State
by founding schools, we have the means of making equal to any on
the continent, which would be of course open to all, which would
relieve our own people of the necessity of sending their children
away, for that education they are entitled to at home, and would,
while they required the highest standard of intellectual develop-
ment, breathe that spirit of chastened and dignified conservatism
for which the Church is so confessedly distinguished.

As to their effect on the interests of the Church, as such, in the
Southern portion of our Union, it would e difficult to estimate
them.

But before considering these, I beg leave to call your attention
to certain facts which seem to point to the locality at or about
which Providence seems to direct our minds, as that most appro-