174 PAY OF CLERGY. [CHAP. XII. 



wish to keep the multitude in ignorance, with a view of main 

 taining their own po\yer. But no educated people will ever 

 tolerate an idle, illiterate, or stationary priesthood. That this is 

 impossible, the experience of the last quarter of a century in 

 New England has fully proved. In confirmation of this truth, 

 I may appeal to the progress made by the ministers of the Meth 

 odist and Baptist churches of late years. Their missionaries 

 found the Congregationalists slumbering in all the security of an 

 old establishment, and soon made numerous converts, besides 

 recruiting their ranks largely from newly arrived emigrants. 

 They were able to send more preachers into the vineyard, be 

 cause they required at first scarcely any preparation or other 

 qualification than zeal. . But no sooner had the children of the 

 first converts been taught in the free schools under an improved 

 system, than the clergy of these very denominations, who had 

 for a time gloried in their ignorance and spoken with contempt 

 of all human knowledge, found it necessary to study for some 

 years in theological seminaries, and attend courses of church 

 history, the Greek, Latin, Hebrew, and German languages, the 

 modern writings of German and other biblical scholars, and 

 every branch of divinity. The Baptist college at Newton has 

 greatly distinguished itself among others, and that of the Meth 

 odists at Middletown in Connecticut ; while the Independents 

 have their theological college at Andover in Massachusetts, which 

 has acquired much celebrity, and drawn to it pupils from great 

 distances, and of many different denominations. 



The large collections of books on divinity which are now seen 

 in the libraries of New England clergy, were almost unknown 

 a quarter of a century ago. 



The average pay, also, of the clergy in the rural districts of 

 New England has increased. About the middle of the last 

 century, it was not more than 200 dollars annually, so that they 

 were literally &quot; passing rich with forty pounds a year ;&quot; whereas 

 now they usually receive 500 at least, and some in the cities 

 2000 or 3000 dollars. Nor can there be a doubt that, in pro 

 portion as the lay teachers are more liberally remunerated, the 

 scale of income required to command the services of men of 



