The Christian Examiner (Volume 30 (Mar. -July 1841)) (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Art. III. ? Pastoral Library Magazine. No. I. November, 1840. We have long desired to see the object, recommended in this pamphlet, brought before the public; and we are rejoiced to see it done in a way which will secure the attention of a part, at least, and, as we hope, of all our American churches. The object proposed is the formation, by religious societies, of Ministerial Libraries. This pamphlet is published apparently under the auspices of our Presbyterian brethren; but it also appears that the Episcopal church is moving in the same matter. We earnestly hope that the Unitarian churches may follow their wise and good example. We believe that there is no possible way in which they could secure from the same amount of money, so great and permanent a public benefit. The reasons which should induce parishes to establish permanent Ministerial Libraries are very obvious. As it is with young men who enter other professions, so with those who enter the ministry, three out of four, by the time they have completed their nine or ten years of preparatory study, have exhausted all their resources, while many, when this long and expensive course of education is finished, are left more or less in debt. Take one thus situated. He is settled on a salary which is probably very little more than sufficient for the support of a family; and if he shrink from an old age of penury, and from leaving his family, in case of his death, in destitution, he is compelled to avoid all expenditures which are not absolutely necessary. He leaves the Theological School with habits of study, and enters on his office, we may suppose, with high and pure aims, and with capacities which give the promise of permanent usefulness. But as soon as he is settled he meets with obstacles which he had not anticipate...