of the northern sky. Long may the light of these sacred institutions shine! The God of Zion grant that it may be the light of a highborn and heaven-sustained piety, and an accomplished erudition! We would look to them, not as the proud Greek looked toward the grove of Academus, or the mount where Apollo struck his lyre; but rather as the devout Hebrew was wont to look to the halls where Samuel taught, and David sang, and to the hallowed mountain where the Great Teacher spake, and employed whole nights in prayer. Let them be baptized with this Spirit! let the dews of Heaven fall upon them! let them ever be imbued with the atmosphere of Zion!

CHAPTER XXI.

THE PECUNIARY SUPPORT OF MINISTERS.

IT falls in with the legitimate design of our remarks, to call the reader's attention to another topic that is somewhat delicate in its nature, and still more so to be enlarged upon by a minister of the Gospel. It is a topic which it were more befitting and decent for some one to urge, who is not himself a party interested in such a discussion. I have not known it seriously undertaken and urged, save by one native layman. The late Jeremiah Evarts, a name that will not soon be forgotten by the American churches, the friend of missions and the able and fearless advocate of the red men of our own wilderness, once presented this subject in a strong light to the churches of New England. The topic is the claims of the pulpit for a competent and honorable pecuniary

maintenance.

The writer has some advantages for presenting a subject like this to the consideration of the churches, above the great mass of his

ministerial friends. For the most part, the maintenance of settled pastors in our large cities is highly creditable to the congregations whom they serve. Not only our wants, but our comforts are cared for: it becomes us to be grateful to God and to the generosity of our congregations that we are allowed to employ our time in the appropriate duties of our high calling, “free from worldly cares and avocations." Since, in this particular, we have nothing to ask for ourselves, we are the more bold to urge the claims of those who are less favored, though equally deserving. But while we ask this indulgence, our best apology for presenting the subject is, that it falls within the range of our instructions as contained in the word of God.

If the importance of the subject does not at once strike the mind of the reader, he has but to give it a few moments' thought, and to recur to the distinguished men in other lands whose pen has been employed in discussing it. Selden, in his treatise "On Tithes;" Bingham, in his "Antiquities of the Christian Church;" Prideaux, "On Tithes;" Hooker, in his "Ecclesiastical Polity;" Comber, in his "Vindication of the Divine Right of Tithes," against Selden; together with several more modern anonymous writers of great ability, in the Quarterly, and Edinburgh Review, in the Monthly Magazine,

and in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, have given the subject prominence, not only in the religious, but the literary and political world.

For the origin of tithes we must go farther back than the Mosaic Law. When Abraham returned from his victory over Chedorlaomer and his confederate kings, he "gave tithes of all" to Melchizedec, the Priest of the Most High God. There is no reason to believe that he paid the tenth part of his annual income, buɩ a tenth part of the spoil which he took from Chedorlaomer and the kings that were with him. The Apostle, in his Epistle to the Hebrews, speaks of this tithe as "a tenth part of the spoils." There are some commentators, and among the rest, Bishop Patrick, who argue from this payment of a tenth of the spoil taken in war, that it must have been the custom to pay to the priests the tenth of all other things. When Jacob was at Bethel, "he vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God; and this stone which I have set for a pillar shall be God's house; and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” We are not able to discover that the lights of reason and nature would have suggested this

payment of tithes for religious purposes; and are strongly disposed to believe that it was of divine original, and formed a part of the patriarchal dispensation.

However this may be, it was expressly commanded by God under the law of Moses. When the land of Canaan was divided among the tribes of Israel, no portion was allotted as an inheritance to the tribe of Levi. They were to be dispersed among all the other tribes; forty-eight cities were appointed for their residence; the family of Aaron, to which the priesthood belonged, was of this tribe; and instead of the portion of country, such as was allotted to each of the other tribes, each tribe was required to furnish provision for the priests and Levites who should dwell among them, and who constituted the settled ministry of Israel. This provision consisted of one-tenth part of the gross produce of the soil; the first born of the cattle to the priests, and one-tenth of the increase to the Levites.* Besides this, the Levites had a large quantity of land in the suburbs of the forty-eight cities allotted for their residence.

Not a few writers of high distinction have maintained, from these premises, that tithes,

* From this example, the clergy of Christendom gave one-tenth of their tithes to the Pope, which, at the Reformation in England, was transferred to the crown, by 26 H. 8, c. 3.