Current Notes [pp. 544-549]

1875.] CURRENT NOTES. 547
Upon the reunion of 1758 there ceased to be any queston as to the
indespensable necessity of an educated ministry. A single exception to
the rule is put on record. This was the case of a Mr. Guiffith, who had
not enjoyed the advantages of collegiate training, but whose services
were desired by his countrymen from Wales, to whom it was thought
that he might prove useful. The rigidity with which the rule was en
forced, which requ~red a year of theological study after graduation, was
one of the grounds of the secession (1781), led off by Jacob Green, father
of Dr. Ashbel Green, which resulted in the formation of what was known
as the Morris County Presbytery. The ministers of this body and
of the associated Presbyteries, in view of the re~igious destitution of the
country, were disposed to accept the services of pious and devoted men,
who promised to be useful as preachers, even if not liberally educated, but
they do not seem even to have contended that it would be wise or
proper for them to enter upon their work without a Presbyterian
license.
While this secession was yet fresh in the minds of the Synod, they
were asked by the First Presbytery of Philadelphia to declare their
views on the question, Whether a person without a liberal education
may be taken on trial, or licensed to preach the Gospel! and the reply
ef the Synod was in the negative. Two years later an overture was
brought in, viz.: whether, in the present state of the Church in this
country, and the scarcity of ministers for the numerous congregations,
the Synod or Presbyteries ought, therefore, to relax, in any degree, in the
literary qualifications required of intrants into the ministry, and it was
carried in the llegative by a great majority.
Before the close of the century the great Kentucky revival commenced, and as a result, there was soon found to be a lack of men
properly qualified, according to the rules of the Church, to preach to the
congregations and minister to the ci~urches. In the year 1804 the Pre~byterian Patriarch of Kentucky, Rev. David Rice, addressed a letter
to the Genei~al Assembly in the name of his Presbytery, asking concerning the propriety, in the peculiar circumstances of the time, of
licensing and ordaining men to the work of the ministry without a liberal education. The reply of the Assembly admits the plausibleness
of the plea for their licensure, but argues earnestly and decidedly against
it. "We do not say," they add, "that a liberal education is absolutely
essential to a man's usefulness in the ministry of the Gospel, but reason
and experience both demonstrate its high importance and utility.. If
the gates of the church are opened to weakness and ignorance, she will
soon be overflowed with errors and with the wildest disorders. We shall
bring the ministry into disgrace and contempt. If men are sincerely