THE chief object of this little book is to perpetuate the memories of the early preachers who established the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in this State.

It is deemed not only appropriate, but as contributing to the original design of the work, to precede the record of their lives with a brief history of the Church which was organized and permanently established by the labors of these men. It is no part of our purpose to enter into a detailed account of the organization and subsequent history of each congregation in the State, but rather to state general results and the present condition of the Church If we had the data, it would be profitable and interesting to give the history of remarkable meetings, or such as were attended with unusual exhibitions of spiritual power and divine grace; but we have no material at hand for such a chapter, and therefore we will not attempt it.

The purchase of the "Province of Louisiana," under Mr. Jefferson's administration, in 1803, added a great empire of country to the original United States. I say "empire of country," because it was inhabited in only a few scattered localities, at the date of the purchase. When France, for the second time, became the owner of this vast territory, no adequate idea of its great resources and capabilities were entertained by that government or people. Napoleon had formed the purpose of establishing a permanent French colony and military post at New Orleans; but difficulties and complications arose between him and the British Government, which compelled him to abandon this enterprise, and he sold the whole territory to the United States--embracing all that portion of the States and Territories of the Union lying west of the Mississippi River, except Texas and the States included in the California purchase from Mexico.

The tide of emigration from the older States to the West did not set in till some years after the close of the Revolutionary War. The people required time to recuperate somewhat, after that exhausting struggle, before they could afford to set out to find a new home in unexplored countries. Hence the first great movement across the Alleghanies did not acquire volume and magnitude till about the year 1795 and on to 1810. This movement settled Kentucky and Tennessee to a considerable extent. In about another decade, the people began to be stirred by an emigration fever, that could only be cooled by the waters of the great rivers of the continent--the Mississippi and Missouri. Accordingly, from 1817 and onward, an almost continuous stream of emigrants poured into what are now the States of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. The emigration to Central Missouri was chiefly from Kentucky and Tennessee, led by the intrepid frontiersman and explorer, Daniel Boone. Very many of the emigrants from Southern Kentucky and Middle Tennessee were members of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Of course they left behind them strong petitions for preachers of their own faith to be sent out to them in their new homes.

The most accurate information to which I have access is to the effect that Rev. Green P. Rice moved to Western Illinois as early as 1817. He came to St. Louis and preached in the then small French village, and was frequently in Missouri attending the Presbyteries during the first years of the Church. The first minister who actually settled in Missouri was Rev. Daniel Buie, who then made his home in what is now Chariton, or Howard county. He settled near the present line between the two counties, and not many miles from the present city of Glasgow. Mr. Buie was in the country, and was preaching to a limited extent, when Rev. R. D. Morrow arrived in the State in the summer of 1819. This gentleman was sent to the then Territory by Logan Presbytery, in Kentucky, and was supported by a Ladies' Missionary Society. See more of this in his life.

The McGee Presbytery was the first organized west of the Mississippi River. At the Synod which met in the fall of 1819, and which was attended by Messrs. Rice and Morrow, an order was passed establishing this Presbytery, which included Western Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas. The first members were Rice, of Illinois; Morrow and Buie, of Missouri; and John Carnahan, of Arkansas. They met in Pike county, Missouri, in the spring of 1820. The next session was held in Booneville, Cooper county, in the following October, at which time Wear, Weedin, Burns, and McCorkle became candidates for the ministry. At subsequent dates and sessions of Presbytery, the following names were added to the list of candidates: Robert Sloan, John B. Morrow, S. C. Ruby, David M. Kirkpatrick, J. R. Brown, F. M. Braley, and perhaps others not now recollected.

Many of these details are given in the biographies of R. D. Morrow and Robert Sloan, and are introduced here reluctantly, but necessarily, in order to make our history connected and consecutive.

These young men were in course of time licensed and ordained to the work of the ministry, and were sent out into the wide field comprehended within the limits of the Presbytery.

I have no information as to the date of the organization of Presbyteries in Illinois, which would detach that State from McGee; but the Arkansas Presbytery was established in 1824 or 1825, and Rev. Robert Sloan, of Missouri, was ordered by the Synod to go to that State and assist in organizing the new Presbytery; thus returning the kindness of Rev. John Carnahan, who came from Arkansas to Missouri several times to attend Presbytery--traveling at least five hundred miles, on some occasions, to reach the place of meeting. McGee remained the only Presbytery in Missouri until the Barnett was organized, in 1827, and, at a later date, the St. Louis was established--the precise time when being unknown to the writer.

In 1829, the first General Assembly of the Church met in Princeton, Kentucky, and at that session the first Synod west of the Mississippi was organized. This Synod, for five years, was called "Washington," and it comprehended in its bounds the States of Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas--being the original boundaries of the McGee Presbytery; and the first session was held in the town of Potosi, Washington county, Missouri, in October, 1829. The members present were Ewing, Smith, McCorkle, and Kavanaugh, from McGee; F. M. Braley, from St. Louis; J. M. Berry, from Illinois; and John Carnahan, from Arkansas.

The next session of this Synod was held at New Lebanon, in Cooper county, in the fall of 1830, and there were present the same ministers from Illinois and Arkansas. There was a full attendance of the preachers from Missouri. The Minutes of Synod from its organization till 1834 have not been preserved, as I suppose, for I can find no traces of them whatever. I learn from the first Minutes of New Lebanon Presbytery that the Synod of 1831 organized that Presbytery, and the first session was held at New Lebanon Church in April, 1832. The information as to the first and second sessions of Synod was derived from the journals of Rev. A. McCorkle and Rev. H. R. Smith, who were both present at those sessions. I can but call attention to the long journeys performed by Mr. Carnahan, of Arkansas; for most of his way lay through an Indian country. In attending Presbytery and Synod, both, he must have performed the journey half a dozen times at least, and the distance was from four to five hundred miles.

I have some recollections of the Synod of 1830 at Lebanon. I remember a large number of the young preachers whose names have been mentioned as the first candidates in the State were then in Synod as members. I remember, also, the Rev. Mr. Berry, of Illinois. He was regarded as a man of good abilities and a fair preacher. He was a brother of the late James Berry, who then resided in the neighborhood of Lebanon Church, and was a member of that congregation. There were several members from the south-eastern portion of the State, living several hundred miles from the place of the meeting of Synod. Those from Illinois and Arkansas came from a greater distance; and yet it was regarded no great hardship in that day to perform these long journeys on horseback to attend the judicatures of the Church. The preachers of that period were early and deeply indoctrinated into the theories and practice of self-sacrifice, self-denial, and continued labor, as being a part of their ministerial inheritance.

The Salt River Presbytery was formed sometime intermediately between 1830 and 1834--the precise date not known to the writer.

The Lexington Presbytery was organized in ____, 1832.

The McGee, St. Louis, and Barnett were established by the old Synod, which was then the only judicature of the Church of that character, and before there was any General Assembly. The remaining Presbyteries were formed by Washington and Missouri Synods.

In October, 1834, the last session of Washington Synod was held at the Brick Church, four miles south-west of Lexington, in La Fayette county. It was the congregation to which Chatham Ewing, Wm. Jack, Adam Young, and others of the old settlers of that county, belonged. Rev. Daniel Patton was the Moderator, and R. D. Morrow, Clerk. There were present at that Synod Rev. B. H. Pierson and Rev. Andrew Buchanan, both of Arkansas, who traveled a distance of not less than four hundred miles. Mr. Pierson was then a young man of fine promise. He afterward married a daughter of Colonel Wm. Jack, and is now a distinguished preacher in the Church.

The notable acts of this Synod was the passage of some strong resolutions on the subject of Temperance--among others, one recommending Presbyteries to pass orders requiring all members of the Church who were engaged in the business of manufacturing or vending ardent spirits to be suspended from the privileges of the Church. The Synod also appointed Rev. (Colonel) Wm. Horn to travel throughout the State and lecture on Temperance and organize Temperance Societies.

The statistical report only embraced the item of professions of religion, which were 213 for the preceding year. Of the members present at that meeting of Synod, there are now living only Daniel Patton, J. B. Morrow, R. D. King, Henry Renick, and J. T. A. Henderson.

In October, 1835, the Synod met in the town of Booneville, The General Assembly of that year had changed the name from Washington to Missouri Synod. The introductory sermon was preached by Mr. Ewing. Rev. Samuel C. Davis was Moderator, and R. C. Mansfield, Clerk. These gentlemen are still living--the former very old, and now quite blind. He was a good and useful preacher in his day. At this session of Synod the Temperance Agent tendered a report of his work during the preceding year; and it is a very interesting document. As a part of the current history of the times, I will copy it in full:

"To the Synod of Missouri of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church:--

"Your Temperance Agent respectfully reports that, in pursuance of his appointment, he has traveled extensively through a part of your bounds, including some ten counties in the central portions of the State; has spent about nine months in the discharge of his duties; has reestablished many former Temperance Societies; made numerous speeches on the subject of Temperance; has organized eleven new Temperance Societies, and enlisted between eight and nine hundred members who have signed the Temperance pledge, making, with the former members, about twenty-five hundred members.

"From the best information I can obtain, there are thirty-eight distilleries in the bounds through which I have traveled; nineteen of which are in the hands of professors of religion, viz: Eighteen in the hands of the Baptists, including one preacher, and one in the hands of an Arian. It is proper to remark that when I commenced my operations as Agent, there was one Cumberland Presbyterian, a private member, who owned a distillery; but he has pledged himself to discontinue the business entirely. All of which is respectfully submitted.
                               "WM. HORN, Agent."

It also appears that the Salt River Presbytery was reattached to the McGee Presbytery at this session of Synod.

The statistics of this year show 399 professions of religion, 161 accessions, 55 congregations, and 2,228 members in communion.

The session of 1836 was held at the Bethel Church, in Boone county. Among the members of this Synod appears the name of Rev. Nicholas Cooper, a colored man of rare endowments as a public speaker. He was a bright mulatto, having a very fine face, and being of large, portly person. I have heard him preach from the same stand, at a camp-meeting, with Ewing, Morrow, Sloan, and others of the old preachers. I noticed that he was appointed on a committee with S. C. Davis and John M. Foster to examine the Minutes of the Barnett Presbytery. He had formerly been a slave, and was the property of Wm. Jack, of Lexington. He obtained his freedom and became a minister in the St. Louis Presbytery--at least he appeared from that Presbytery in Synod. I think I never heard a speaker with so fine a voice. It was strong, yet smooth, melodious, and musical. When raised to a high key, it was like a buglenote from a silver trumpet.

Speaking of Boone county, suggests another topic which I wish to discuss briefly. This county, together with Howard and Calloway, lies in the center of the State, and is now among the large and wealthy counties. Our people were once numerous in all these counties, but, by reason of the removal of the ministers to other places, the Churches have all died out, except, perhaps, one in Calloway. I have observed this fact with a good deal of concern and some mortification. The early preachers in this State at certain periods were seized with a mania for moving about. They became dissatisfied and restless, and would pull up and move away from promising fields of usefulness and flourishing Churches, to settle in some new country. The practice has proved disastrous to very many Churches which, if care had been taken of them, would now be large, wealthy, and influential congregations. These remarks apply to several other counties in this State--among them, La Fayette, Clay, and Ray.

In those counties where the preachers remained permanently, our denomination has become strong, influential, and stable. Take the county of Pike, where Rev. J. W. Campbell has labored for fifty years. He did not move around, like many of his compeers, but remained on the same ground; and now there are said to be twenty congregations in that county, and many of them very strong. We also refer to Johnson county, where the Morrows settled and remained. The denomination is probably stronger in that county than in any one in the State, except it be the county of Pike. In this way our cause has been sustained; but where the preachers have become restless, and moved away, and left their old fields of labor, the cause has languished and in many places died out altogether. Probably one reason of this is to be found in a real missionary spirit, which prompted the desire to take the gospel to new and unsupplied communities; but, even if the motive was good, the result has been disastrous to our general cause, not only in this State, but in many others. Another reason that probably prompted the removal of many preachers is not so creditable to them. A minister with but limited resources for preaching, and not very industrious, is apt to preach himself out in a few years. He has told all he known, and the people will not stand very many repetitions of the old song.

At the session of Synod in 1836, the Salt River Presbytery was reestablished with the former boundaries, and in the following year the General Assembly attached the Lexington Presbytery to the Arkansas Synod. Why this was done is not known, unless it was to keep the Synod alive, not having Presbyteries enough in that State for that purpose.

Upon the records of 1837 is an order appointing Rev. F. M. Braley to ride as a missionary throughout the Synod, and preach to the people on the subject of supporting the gospel. His report at the next session is exceedingly interesting. Among other things, he mentions that some of the Presbyteries had neglected to appoint any circuit-riders, and, as a consequence, the churches were cold and demoralized, and therefore they would give but little to support the gospel; whereas in other Presbyteries, where the circuit-riders were found traversing their bounds, every thing was prosperous, and liberal contributions were made for religious purposes. The cause and the effect were both very plain, and they produced special emphasis in the missionary's report.

It appears that this practice of sending out missionaries from the Synods was kept up for several years, and that the Rev. F. M. Braley was appointed to missionary duty two or three times. It might be well for that, as well as some other old practices of the Church judicatures, to be revived.

In the spring of 1840, Lexington Presbytery was reattached to the Missouri Synod, and her members are found in the next session, which met in the town of Richmond that year. We find the statistics, as presented at that session, as follows: Conversions, 521; additions, 334; adult baptisms, 134; ordained ministers, 53; licentiates, 24; candidates, 19; and members, 3,130.

The session of 1841 met at New Lebanon, and upon the Minutes is noticed the death of Rev. Finis Ewing, with resolutions complimentary of his character, and an order for Rev. Samuel King to preach his funeral before the Synod. From this time on, it will be found that the early preachers in this State began, one by one, to drop out of the lists of members of Presbyteries and Synods, and to transfer their membership to the General Assembly and Church of the first-born.

Another very striking fact appears upon the Minutes of Synod, and that is, the names of certain members are always found. No difference where Synod met, F. M. Braley was always present, and next to him in promptness was Samuel C. Davis. Among the elders who frequently attended Synod, I notice Wm. Houx, of Lexington, and Major George Woodward, of Richmond. This latter gentleman was frequently Clerk of the Synod, and filled that position with great acceptability to the members. He was for many years clerk of the courts in Ray county, and in this way became very well qualified for that position in the Church courts.

In the Minutes of 1842 is noticed the death of Rev. Samuel King, with the usual resolutions in respect to his memory and the funeral-sermon. The statistics of this year show 1,202 professions of religion, 815 accessions to the Church, 79 churches, 54 ordained ministers, and 3,820 members in communion.

As the years advanced, we see a sensible progress on the part of the Church.

In 1844, the Platte Presbytery was established, accompanied with an order that the late Rev. H. R. Smith should be the first Moderator. The new Presbytery embraced a section of country added to the State by purchase from the Indians in 1838. It covers an area of six counties, and is a very rich and interesting country. How promptly our people occupied the new territory, will be observed from the above dates--opened to settlement in 1838, and in six years a Presbytery organized in the new limits. At the session of 1844, the Synod memorialized the General Assembly to divide the Missouri Synod and establish a new one, which was accordingly done in the spring of 1845; and it was called McAdow, in honor of one of the early fathers of the Church. The new Synod was composed of the New Lebanon, Salt River, McGee, and St. Louis Presbyteries, and held its first session at New Providence Church, in Calloway county, Rev. F. M. Braley, he who never failed to attend, was the first Moderator. Among the first members of that Synod who have gone up to a higher court, we may mention S. B. F. Caldwell, Barron, W. H. Guthrie, F. M. Braley, Clark, Buie, Pharr, Allison, and Downey. Some of these preachers were men of mark in their day. The fruits of a good work and an honorable name survive them all.

The statistics of the old Synod, after division, are as follows: Ordained ministers, 25; licentiates, 16, candidates, 14; congregation, 38; members in communion, 1,734; and for the preceding year there were: conversions, 299; accessions, 225. At this session of 1845, we find there was entered upon the records a stirring and emphatic protest, signed by Wm. Houx, George Woodward, and Hiram Silvers, against a resolution of Synod to the effect that no elder had a right to a seat in Synod unless accompanying a minister. This has long been a vexed question in the Church, and in after years that resolution was repealed, and under the present rules of this Synod every congregation in the bounds in entitled to be represented by an elder. We will not stop here to discuss the legality of this decision, and refer to it merely to show one of the reasons that have so long furnished grounds for the demands of a revision of our form of government. There can be no valid reason why any governmental machinery, whether for Church or State, may not be revised and improved from time to time, as practical experience demonstrates the necessity for it. Nothing devised by the ingenuity of man in perfect, and nothing tends so well to test the fitness of rules of government as long trial and experiment, in their practical operations. Moreover, there is an inherent right in the governed, at any time, by their constituted authorities, to alter and amend any rule of conduct that is not claimed to be of divine appointment. If it be claimed that all the details of our Church government are of divine origin, then that settles the question. What God ordains no man should attempt to change or amend; but I presume no one will contend that any thing more than the general principle of Presbyterian government is derived from the Scriptures. The machinery for the practical operation of that principle is the work of man's hands; but the right to change the form of government does not carry with it the right to change or amend the Confession of Faith. The two are essentially different. One is a matter of conscience with every member of the Church; the other is a matter of conduct under government, and may be employed over the subject thereof without disturbing his conscience. The Confession of Faith is the epitomized doctrines of the Scriptures; and the profession of faith in these doctrines, as contradistinguished from other formulas of faith, constitutes the fundamental differences between the different denominations. It is true that the various sects are usually distinguished from each other by some name relating to their form of government, but the radical differences lie in the doctrines taught by the several Churches. Our own denomination furnishes an apt illustration of this position. Our fathers and our people are Presbyterians, so far as concerns the form of Church government; but, differing as we do in doctrine from the old Church of that name, we made a new denomination, based upon a difference in doctrines alone. Bearing in mind the foregoing proposition, that it is the doctrines which give to the Church distinctive character, we come back to the idea already advanced, that there can be no delegated authority to any Church tribunals to alter or amend the Confession of Faith. It would be absurd to maintain that one man, or one hundred men, or any number, could authorize any Church court to amend or change their articles of belief as taught by the Scriptures. Truth admits of no amendment or improvement. If the original formula of faith, as promulgated by the Church, contains the truth--and we all thought so when we joined the Church--no change of circumstances or lapse of time can change that truth into error. Truth cannot change: "The eternal years of God are hers." If the Confession of Faith contained the truth when it was first adopted, it must contain it yet; and any change made in it will do violence to the conscience of all those who sincerely adopted it, as expressing the leading doctrines of the Scriptures; and such change will essentially alter the fundamental idea upon which the separate denomination was formed, and will thus destroy, in fact, the original Cumberland Presbyterian Church. It is within the prerogative of both Church and State to make men do certain things, but no power under the sun can make them believe what they do not think to be the truth.

When a community of people join any given Church, that act becomes, as to all the parties thereto, a mutual covenant. The terms of the agreement are all known at the time, the articles of faith are all well understood, and the stipulations of the contract are for the mutual support and assistance of all in the Christian life, and to extend the blessings of the Church relation to all who may be induced to come in. This is the basis of the agreement, and then follow the objects to be accomplished. Now, will any one content that a given number of those who become parties to this covenant can essentially change the basis of agreement (to wit, the Confession of Faith) without the consent of the others? It is a sound principle of law that one or more of the parties to mutual covenants cannot change the terms of agreement without the consent of the whole.

But, without pursuing this argument, it is sufficient to say, that, while there is express authority in our form of government providing for its revision and amendment, there is no such authority in the book for amending or changing the Confession of Faith.

At the session of Synod of 1847, the Lexington Presbytery was divided, and the Independence was organized. This continued for two or three years, and the Independence was dissolved and reattached to the Lexington. The statistics of this year show about 520 conversions, but no very remarkable advance in the Church for several years past.

The General Assembly of 1850 reattached the New Lebanon Presbytery to Missouri Synod, and the year previously the last-named body established the Chillicothe Presbytery, and thus the Presbyteries in the Synod were increased from four to six; and the statistics of this year show an encouraging increase in the number of professions and additions to the Church.

At the session subsequent to this time, a very singular question arose in some of the Presbyteries, which passed up through the Synod to the General Assembly. It appears that one Bonham had been deposed from the ministry by the Presbytery of which he was a member, and that afterward the Salt River Presbytery received him under her care, and, in course of time, reordained him to the work of the ministry. The General Assembly declared this proceeding illegal and void, and that the only method by which a deposed minister can be restored to his ministerial functions is by repentance and confession before the Presbytery which deposed him, or by moving for a new trial in the tribunal which condemned him. This vexed question was for a long time in the courts of the Church. The Missouri Synod having obtained jurisdiction of the case, by reason of the said Bonham becoming a member of the Platte Presbytery, declared the ruling of the General Assembly to be the law in the premises.

Upon the settlement of the country on the Pacific coast, including Oregon and California, the whole region from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean was attached to the Missouri Synod, and, accordingly, we see that a California Presbytery was organized in the year 1851, and the names of her ministers called in the following session of Synod, but no one answered.

An interesting item of the current history of the Church occurs here, in the fact of the establishment of a religious weekly newspaper in the city of Lexington, in the year 1852, edited and published by Rev. J. B. Logan. It was called the Missouri Cumberland Presbyterian. This enterprise was of great value to our cause in this State. Mr. L. was a very earnest, zealous, and talented editor, and he gave to the paper all his abilities and energies for a number of years. After a year or two, however, it was deemed best to remove the publication of the paper to the city of St. Louis, and shortly thereafter the name was changed to the St. Louis Observer, and for a year or more was edited by Rev. Dr. Bird. The paper, under its new name, was continued until the commencement of the late Civil War, and was then abandoned. In a year or two afterward, it was revived by Mr. Logan, in the city of Alton, and called the Western Cumberland Presbyterian. I take this occasion to pay an earnest and heart-felt tribute to the devotion of this excellent man to the cause of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church; and, although I differed with him widely in the conduct of his paper for the first two or three years of its publication at Alton, yet afterward he took the true ground, that the Church should remain a unit, and should not suffer herself to be riven asunder by the war or any of its after-consequences, and upon that ground I heartily supported him.

The Synod for 1853 met in the city of Lexington. The proceedings were of unusual interest. Again the Church enters its solemn protest against the sale and use of intoxicating liquors, and calls for stringent measures to be adopted in all cases where Church-members are guilty of either practice. The statistics are also very encouraging--conversions for the preceding year, 517; accessions, 417; number of ordained ministers, 59; licentiates, 27; candidates, 17; congregations, 75; and members in communion, 3,960. The reader will bear in mind that the Synod now embraces only a part of the State. Another event, occurring after the adjournment, will be long remembered by the members of the Church in the city. The Rev. Daniel Weedin, a member of Synod from New Lebanon Presbytery, was taken ill before he left the city, and died in a few weeks thereafter. He was a young man of fine abilities, and a preacher of more than ordinary promise of usefulness. He was a younger brother of the Rev. Caleb Weedin, mentioned heretofore as one of the first candidates for the ministry in this State.

In 1854, we find on the records a long and stirring memorial to the General Assembly in relation to the wants of the Western States and Territories. It is stated that the jurisdiction of the Synod extends over half the State of Missouri, the State of California, and Territories of Oregon, Utah, Kansas, and Nebraska. A special appeal is made in behalf of California, setting forth, in vigorous language, the future greatness of that State and the wants of our Church on that coast. It is also seen that the Pacific Presbytery was created at this session, making two in that State.

In the following year we find the order for organizing the Kansas Presbytery (embracing that entire Territory), and requiring A. A. Moore, Oliver Guthrie, and Thomas Allen to be attached thereto, temporarily, in order to assist in perfecting the organization of the Church machinery in that new country. And while upon this point it is proper to state that Rev. A. A. Moore was one of the earliest missionaries to that Territory, and that he bestowed a great deal of pecuniarily-unrequited labor upon laying the foundations of our cause in that country.

In the proceedings of 1859, it is found that St. Louis and West Prairie Presbyteries are represented in Synod, having been reattached by the General Assembly in the previous spring; and among the members from St. Louis, we find, for the first time, the name of Rev. Dr. Bird. He was at this time residing in the city of St. Louis, and was the editor of our Church paper, called the St. Louis Observer. He was the Moderator of Synod, and conducted its proceedings with great dignity and promptitude. He seemed thoroughly familiar with the laws governing parliamentary bodies, and made an excellent presiding officer. Dr. Bird has made a history in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church that places him in the very front rank of her ablest men. As a profound theologian, able writer, and accurate thinker, he had, perhaps, no equal among his immediate contemporaries. He was great, strong, devoted, and good.

We have now reached a period in the history of the Church in Missouri where it may be profitable to pause a moment and resurvey the field over which we have passed so rapidly.

In the matter of establishing city missions, our Church has had an unfortunate, and even disastrous, experience. I need not go beyond the limits of this State to find an example of this painful fact. The Church in this State was all alive to the support of the mission established in St. Louis by the Board of Mission. All through the Minutes of Synod, for a number of years, large sums of money are reported to have been raised to aid that enterprise, and it is a fact within the personal knowledge of hundreds of members of the Church that they were frequently called upon, and that they responded liberally to the call for aid in that direction. But the enterprise failed utterly and ignominiously; and it all arose out of the fact that the parties to whom were intrusted the financial management had no practical business capacity. A large debt was incurred for ground on which to erect the church, and finally the edifice was built. Interest accumulated, the principal could not be met, and the property was finally sold to the original owner of the ground for the purchase-money, and, of course, all the costs of the improvements were lost. This failure discouraged the Church in this State beyond measure. At the close of the War the mission was revived, and the Church responded again to the call for money, and five or six thousand dollars were raised to build a church-house. A property was purchased that would have answered the purpose very well for a few years, but, in an evil hour, the managers of the business were induced to sell their own humble house and put their money in a large, expensive, and unfinished building, and assume a debt of about twenty thousand dollars that was upon it. In this arrangement was included that of taking into the Church a number of persons who were formerly connected with an independent Presbyterian organization. This latter measure proved to be the rock on which the whole enterprise split, and ultimately resulted in a rupture in the congregation, the loss of the property, and the loss of all the money which our people had contributed to that object. Two signal and disastrous failures in the same city, it would seem, ought not to have occurred. The lesson taught by the first failure was of no value whatever to those who had the management of the second undertaking.

I repeat the statement made above, that both of these failures arose from the want of a little business capacity among the managers. As a general rule, ministers of the gospel are not the best business men in the Church. Perhaps in the last instance mentioned there was also an undue ambition to get a large, find house too quickly. The act of creating a large debt on the first house, and the failure to raise the money to pay it, should have deterred the managers of the second project from committing a similar error, but it did not. On the contrary, the very same thing was done in the second as in the first instance. Still the matter of building a church in this the great inland city of the continent could not be altogether abandoned, and another appeal to the Church is again made, with reasonable success so far. The policy in reference to this project will be different from that of the others, and the management now proposes to build a house after they get the money. O for a little business sense and management in all our Church affairs which involve moneyed considerations!

The subject of general and ministerial education claimed the attention of the Church at an early day. The first inhabitants of this State were nearly all very poor persons, emigrants from some of the older States, who had sought a new home in the wilderness of the West, where land was cheap, in order to improve their circumstances and provide for their children homes near by them. However benevolent and liberal they may have been disposed to be,t hey did not possess the pecuniary ability to do any thing very considerable in the matter of building and endowing colleges; yet the experiment was several times made to establish in this State literary institutions of high order. To do such a thing successfully requires time, skillful business management, and a great deal of money.

The first effort at special instruction for the young preachers was made at New Lebanon, by R. D. Morrow and Finis Ewing. The former taught literature to a large class of candidates in the winter of 1821-22, while the latter instructed them in theology. This school, however, was only designed to meet a present emergency, and when the end was accomplished the school was discontinued. The next effort in that direction was by the same indefatigable worker, Mr. Morrow, at his own home, in Johnson county. At this school a large number of the present active ministers of the Church, and many who have gone to their reward, were taught both literature and theology. It was altogether a labor of love with Mr. Morrow, for he never charged the young preacher any thing for instruction, and he did not get any compensation from other sources.

The first effort at the establishment of an institution of high order for general education was made at Chapel Hill, in La Fayette county. The author of the enterprise was A. W. Ridings, Esq., who was a private member of the Church, and who had for some years followed the calling of a teacher. The school became an incorporated college after awhile, and was taken under the control of the Missouri Synod. In 1850, Rev. R. D. Morrow became President of the institution, Mr. Ridings still remaining in the school as teacher and general business manager. After four years of labor in that position, Mr. Morrow resigned, and was succeeded by Rev. W. W. Suddath. For a period of six or seven years, the institution was in a very flourishing condition. A large number of the youth of the country was educated there, some of whom have become leading men in all the walks of life. But it is to be noted especially that the school gave free instruction to a large number of the present ministers of the Church, and several of her students became eminent in their profession. Among them may be mentioned Rev. C. A. Davis, D.D., who at the time of his death, at Memphis, Tennessee, in 1867, was perhaps the most popular preacher in the Church. We also mention in this connection Mr. Suddath. This gentleman was educated at this institution altogether, except one year at Cumberland University, at Lebanon, Tennessee. Mr. S. was, in my opinion, the finest scholar in the entire Church of his age.

The institution was finally closed about the year 1857 or 1858, during the great financial crisis that came upon the country at that time, chiefly for the reason that it had to depend on patronage for support, which it could not be expected to receive in times of financial depression. This experiment afforded another demonstration of the fact that no college can be regarded as permanent unless it has a solid money-basis in the shape of a productive endowment.

About the year 1859, the Synod undertook to build a female college in the town of Booneville. A suitable property was procured, and the school opened under favorable auspices. It made a good beginning, and perhaps, but for the war, which spread like a flame all over the State, would have survived to this day. Female schools are generally better patronized in this country than those for males. It seems that men will educate their daughters well, if the boys have to go with a mere smattering of the elementary branches. It is a singular fact, and is merely noted by the way.

But the war, and a good deal of unbusiness-like management, put this institution in the category of educational failures in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

For a long period a very successful high-school was maintained at Steelville, Crawford county, by the St. Louis Presbytery. I am not sure that it is now in operation. But the most emphatic and business-like effort in the direction of education, under the auspices of the Church, ever attempted in this State, is found in McGee College, at College Mound, Macon county. It was first commenced as a high-school, under the control of McGee Presbytery. It was not very wisely located, being in a poor and sparsely-populated country district. It grew apace, however; and finally, when it came under the management of Rev. J. B. Mitchell, it began to assume imposing proportions. After awhile it became an incorporated college, and was transferred to the control of McAdow Synod. Being dependent alone on patronage for support, the school was closed during the war. It was reopened after the conclusion of the great conflict, and since that time its career has been both solid and brilliant. It now has a corps of ten teachers, and has usually from 250 to 280 students in attendance each year.

Dr. Mitchell is still President, and has displayed very eminent qualifications for the position. He is not only a very skillful educator, but is a thoroughly practical manager of the business affairs of the institution. The school has a large and commodious building, but has no endowment as yet. What will be its future, in the absence of a more solid money-foundation, cannot be very well predicted. With such a basis, however, and with Dr. Mitchell at its head, we could speak with absolute certainty as to its future usefulness, both to the Church and the State.

The geographical position of all that section of Missouri lying in the south-west part of the State, and south of the Osage River, has caused it to be somewhat isolated from the more central counties and the strong Church communities of our denomination. In the matter of our Church operations, there is quite a wide space of territory lying to the north of this south-west section that is entirely unoccupied, and that disconnects the churches of Central Missouri from it. This fact, connected with its geographical position, has made this region of country, as to Church matters, almost like a different State. The Presbyteries there were at first attached to the Arkansas Synod; but, for several years before the war,a separate Synod was organized, lying wholly in this State, and called the Ozark Synod; but during the war the organization was lost, and for several years thereafter the whole territory was embraced in Springfield Presbytery, and that was attached to Missouri Synod. On account of their remoteness from the usual places of the meeting of this Synod, the members of that Presbytery finally asked to have their former Presbyteries reestablished, and the General Assembly of 1871 reorganized the Ozark Synod. The churches in that section of the State have enjoyed extraordinary prosperity since the close of the late war. It is perhaps true that our people, in many of the counties of that region, have a greater numerical strength, in proportion to the aggregate population, than in any other part of the State, excepting along the counties of Johnson and Pike. We have flourishing churches in the towns of Springfield, Mount Vernon, Neosho, Newtonia, Greenfield, and others not now recollected. One venerable preacher, who was the first to introduce our cause into that part of the State, still survives. He has been, and is now, an eminently useful minister of the gospel. I refer to Rev. A. A. Young. He is a nephew of the late Revs. William and John Barnett. Our venerable Rev. David Lowry now resides in that part of the State.

The churches in South-east Missouri, in the limits of St. Louis and West Prairie Presbyteries, are in a tolerably good condition. No special evidences of Church enterprise have been exhibited by the people in that section of the State. A number of years ago, several of their most efficient preachers left there and settled in other parts of the country. Among them I mention Revs. Frank and John E. Braley. The former of these was perhaps the most influential preacher of the denomination in either of those Presbyteries. Although the city of St. Louis is in the Presbytery of that name, there is no connecting link between the city and country churches. The former are completely isolated from the latter, and when I speak of the South-east I do not include the city of St. Louis. I apprehend that the ministry of this geographical section of the Church have not much of the aggressive spirit that distinguishes her operations in other parts of the State; at least it occurs to me that there is great room for improvement in that direction.

Of the work of the Church in the bounds of McAdow Synod we can speak only in general terms. Several years after the Synod was organized, the Lebanon and St. Louis Presbyteries were attached, and at a still later period the Platte and Barnett Presbyteries were added to the jurisdiction of this Synod. At this time the Synod embraces all that part of the State lying north of the Missouri River. The McGee College, located about the center of her bounds, has exerted a very important influence in favor of the Church all through that region of country, and the consequence is that the Church is strong and influential, and has a ministry of high order. Among the oldest preachers yet living in that region are Rev. J. W. Campbell, Rev. R. C. Mansfield, Rev. James Dysart, and Rev. S. C. Davis. The latter is very feeble, and entirely blind. He has been a strong man and a devoted minister in his day. I remember him as a regular attendant at the judicatures of the Church, and always faithful and conscientious in the discharge of his duties. His work is now practically closed, and he is rapidly approaching that heavenly land, where no cloud ever comes over the vision bestowed on those created anew in Christ Jesus. There are no blind eyes where Christ is the source of light. Mr. Mansfield was in his early days a man of the finest promise. I refer to this period of his life because I have not known him since that time. As a speaker he was remarkably ready, fluent, and eloquent, and sometimes delivered his sermons with great force and power. I believe it can hardly be claimed that his mature years have met the expectations of his early promise. Mr. Dysart is a genius in his way--singular and eccentric, yet gifted, forcible, and successful to a degree. There are a good many opposite and, apparently, antagonistic traits in his character; yet, if these unruly elements ever come in collision, they only affect him, and do not detract from the universal esteem in which he is held, nor from his great usefulness as one of the most successful revivalists of his day. Mr. Campbell retains, in a wonderful degree, his physical and mental powers. He has been preaching actively for fifty years, and is still hale and vigorous in both body and mind. He is the Nestor of the ministry in that Synod, and is justly called the "old man eloquent."

The Church is well established in the cities of Louisiana, Moberly, Macon, Kirkville, and in other less important towns.

In the western part of the Synod, in the Platte Presbytery (Barnett being now attached to Platte), the late Rev. H. R. Smith labored successfully for many years. Very many of the churches in this section of the Synod were built up by this most faithful and useful minister of the gospel. Still hale and strong, and able to preach with as much force as ever, is the Rev. Daniel Patton. He has resided in the bounds of the old Barnett Presbytery for forty or more years. He is one of the few men who never, upon any pretext whatever, compromised his convictions of duty. Stern and inflexible in his pursuit of the right, he never deviates from the straightforward path of faith and duty. Several months ago, I met him, after an interval of half a score of years, and he told me he was enjoying a serene and happy old age. I inquired what was the source of his happiness, and his answer was that all of his children were religious, that his own skies were bright and unclouded, and that a bountiful Providence had supplied him with an abundance for his material comfort in his old age. I agreed with him that he had abundant cause for rejoicing.

The General Assembly of the Church has met three times in this State--first, in 1857, at Lexington, when that congregation was in its prosperous days; second, in St. Louis, in 1861, the first year of the war; and third, at Warrensburg, in 1870; and it is appointed to meet in Springfield, in May, 1874.

Grouping together the general results of the operations of the Church in Missouri, it may be stated, briefly that from one Presbytery (McGee), organized in 1820, with Western Illinois, the whole of Arkansas and Missouri included in its bounds, and with only four preachers in all that territory, we now have in this State alone twelve Presbyteries, three Synods, and about 18,000 members in communion. The number of ordained ministers is 160; licentiates, 48; candidates for the ministry, 44.

The value of Church property is as follows: In Missouri Synod, $100,000; in McAdow Synod, $93,460; in Ozark Synod, $65,000. Amounts contributed by the Church for all purposes, in Missouri Synod, for 1872, $34,500; amount by McAdow Synod, in 1871; $21,511; in Ozark Synod, not known. With a Church property of $260,000 in value, and at least $65,000 annual contributions by the Church for all purposes, we present substantial results, independently of the working force of the Church in her 250 ministers of all grades and her 18,000 members. To the great Head of the Church be all the glory.

What has become of all the men who, from time to time, became candidates for the ministry?

I cannot find any more appropriate conclusion for this Introduction than some remarks on this subject.

I have been looking over the Minutes of several Presbyteries, which cover a period of over forty years, and I have been amazed at the great array of names which the candidates for the ministry present. Session after session, one, two, three, four, or five young men presented themselves and were received under the care of the Presbytery. And what has become of them? Scarcely one in half a dozen has had his name transferred to the roll of the Synod. Sometimes they have been licensed, and then the painful record soon follows that they are not useful in the Church, and their licensure is revoked. Very many of them appear at Presbytery a few times, read indifferent discourses, and after awhile their names are dropped, and no more is heard of them. What a mournful commentary is this upon the wisdom of the members of Presbytery who make themselves parties to such transactions! Every man who sets out to become a preacher, and is dropped out of the list because he has not brains enough to accomplish any thing, ought to have been rejected in the first place. What valuable purpose does a preacher's age and experience serve him, if he is not qualified to judge, with some degree of accuracy, whether a young man has any capacity for future usefulness? Surely he ought to be able to tell whether a young man has any force of character, whether he has any industry, whether he possesses any of the essential elements that go to make up a successful public character. As soon as a man enters the lists for the gospel ministry, he becomes, to a degree, a public character, and is the subject of continual remark and criticism by both the Church and the world; and if there be good grounds for that criticism to be unfriendly, why, the cause of religion is made to suffer in the house of its friends. The theory of the Church is, that God calls men to the holy work of proclaiming his gospel to the children of men. Does it never occur to members of Presbytery that God could never call an incapable person any more than he would one who was unworthy? The ministry is a high and responsible calling, and the great Head of the Church never will, by his authority, bring into that office men of no brains--men of no general fitness for such duties--men who would bring reproach upon the calling and the cause they represent.

I have often sat in Presbytery and witnessed the process of bringing candidates under her care. Those presenting themselves generally tell the old, stereotyped story about their impressions to preach, and all that; and this is all that is done--they are forthwith assigned texts upon which written discourses are to be presented at the next session. I have never seen one rejected yet. I once moved to reject a man, who was at least forty years old--had a wife and six children--had no education, was very poor, and had no more than very ordinary capacity, and yet he was received by a large vote. Of course he could never do any thing in the ministry--it was simply impossible under his circumstances. In addition to this, the Church is contributing every year to the education and support of scores of young men who can never be any thing but mere drones in the great work of the ministry. Admit that they are pious and upright in their walk, still, as preachers, they will always be a failure. There is a remedy for this, and not a difficult one, either. Let Presbyteries appoint committees of their oldest and most experienced members, preachers, and elders, whose duty shall be to take the young applicant and give him a thorough examination as to his early training, habits of life, his practice in industrial pursuits, his spirit and ambition to become and to do something, his stability and fixedness of purpose, and to extend these inquiries among all the friends and acquaintances of the applicant; and if such committee is not perfectly satisfied that there is outcome in the man, let the Presbytery have the courage to reject him. This process might curtail the list of candidates, but it would give us preachers of whom we could not be ashamed. It would redeem the long list of those who get their names on the roll of candidates, and finally drop out, by reason of their own inherent unfitness for the holy work. It is admitted that many of these candidates are truly pious; but it is not every good man who is called to preach the gospel. It requires a combination of rare elements to make a good and successful preacher. The Church is wasting her substance every year on men who have no possibilities in their composition. Nature must have done something for a man in the way of natural endowments before the Church should take him up and endeavor to make of him what Providence never designed he should be. Educated dullness is more to be deprecated than ignorant dullness, because the first has cost the Church a good deal of money and very considerable disappointment and mortification in witnessing a failure when something was expected. No college and no amount of learning can supply a natural want of brains or capacity for success. The old rule, when a boy was selected from the family to be a preacher, used to be to take the smart one for a lawyer, and the dull one for a preacher. I would reverse the rule, and I believe Providence does, too. It requires a greater versatility of talents and acquirements to make a successful preacher than it does a good lawyer. I never have believed that the Holy Spirit would prompt a dull, heavy-headed man to preach his own everlasting gospel. I will not be understood as intimating that God does not call the poor and humble in life to be the messengers of his salvation. On the contrary, I believe that a great majority of the truly-called ministers of the cross are taken from the humble walks of life. What I insist upon is that preachers, who are so well qualified to judge of the necessities of their profession, shall be more circumspect in the matter of receiving candidates, and shall use their influence to bring into that holy office a better and more promising class of men than those who usually crowd the candidates' lists. Let any minister, or other person, sit down and read the Minutes of Presbytery for twenty or forty years, and he will see how fully justified I am in these strictures upon this most important of all subjects.

History is of no value unless it is absolutely accurate.

In speaking of the organization of the Missouri and Washington Synods, I was led into an error by the Minutes of those Synods. The early Minutes of Missouri Synod are not to be found, and the Washington Minutes do not explain the history of the organization of that Synod. I append, below, the current history, taken from the official records:

The Missouri Synod was organized by the General Synod, at Franklin, Tennessee, October, 1828, and held its first session in Potosi, Missouri, October, 1829, as already stated. Illinois, Missouri, and Arkansas were included in its bounds. This continued till the spring of 1834, when the General Assembly established a new Synod, called Washington, taken from the Missouri Synod, and composed of territory lying in Western and Southern Missouri; and at the same session of the General Assembly, the name of Missouri Synod was changed to Arkansas Synod. In the following year, 1835, the Assembly changed the name of Washington to Missouri Synod; and the St. Louis Presbytery, then in the Arkansas Synod, was attached to the Missouri. And thus the Synod remained, with all the State of Missouri in its bounds, till the McAdow was organized, as stated heretofore.

The errors which the foregoing is designed to correct are, perhaps, not very important; but no statement can be taken as a fact unless it is true, and I prefer to be accurate, even in small things.