Lack of Ministers

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 12, 1883

Lack of Ministers.

IN the Presbyterian General Assembly of 1883, the Moderator made the following statement:—

"The great peril of the church is in its apathy to the ministerial succession. There is no such thing as fitting together now the 5,741 churches in this General Assembly and its active ministry. Place all the retired clergymen and stated supplies in pastoral relations, and there will still remain 500 Presbyterian pulpits silent for want of a minister. The peril is a famine of ministers, for in the last decade the number of candidates has fallen off amazingly. One of the largest Presbyteries, numerically, in members and churches, that of Brooklyn, has now only two candidates. So along the whole line."

When it is considered that, in these large and popular churches, when the minister is gone the life and power of the church is gone, the prospect does not look flattering for them.