RELIGIOUS NECESSITIES OF THE WESTERN TERRITORY OF THE UNITED STATES.

THE Episcopal Church of the United States of America derives its origin from this country. Ten dioceses have been formed, nine of which are in the Atlantic States, east of the Alleghany Mountains. Portions of two of these dioceses, those of Philadelphia and Virginia, reach across those mountains, as they are co-extensive with the respective states of Pennsylvania and Virginia; but the diocese of Ohio is the only diocese yet formed beyond those mountains, in the western territory of the States.

The pressing want of elergymen in this diocese has led the right reverend prelate, who has the care of its scattered parishes, to visit this country that he may procure that aid which is necessary to preserve his infant church from perishing, and which he had no hope of procuring else where. The spiritual wants of that diocese call for special assistance; and the supply of those wants requires the establishment of an institution on the spot, in which natives of the country may be prepared for the ministry, at an expense within their reach, and in habits suited to the sphere of their labours; and this important object is not likely to be accomplished without liberal aid from this country. Our readers, we are persuaded, will feel deeply interested in the details respecting this portion of Christ's universal church which we are about to lay before them.

In a letter, addressed to Dr. White, Bishop of Philadelphia, Bishop Chase gives the following sketch of the formation of the diocese of Ohio, and the establishment of the bishopric :

"On the third day of March, 1817,I left my beloved parish of Christ Church, Hartford, State of Connecticut; and, in so doing, bade adieu to many of the comforts, and nearly all the refinements, of well-regulated Christian society. With what sentiments and feelings I did this, may be witnessed by the tears which I

* Bishop White was consecrated at Lambeth, September 19, 1790, by Dr. Moore, Archbishop of Canterbury, Bishops Porteus of London, and Thomas of Rochester assisting. Bishop White is the only surviving bishop consecrated in EngJand.

shed at parting, and which scarcely ceased to moisten my cheek for many a day, as the rapid vehicle conveyed me fast to the western wilderness.

"My motives, in going, were those expressed in my ordination vows—' to seek for Christ's sheep that were dispersed abroad, and for his children who are in the midst of this naughty world, that they might be saved, through Christ, for ever." As Abraham, I went out from my kindred and friends, not knowing whither I went:' but the Lord, I trust, being my guide and helper, I commenced my labours in the State of Ohio; concluding, if they were successful, there to continue; if not, to go further among our new settlements, perhaps to Indiana or Illinois.

"Time, however, soon convinced me, that the field of usefulness was that of the State into which I had first entered. Assisted by the exertions of a fellow-labourer, the Rev. Mr. Searle, the State was, during the spring and summer, for the most part traversed, parishes were formed, and little societies of Christian worshippers were gathered in many places. Delegates from these attended a convention previously appointed, in Columbus, in the following winter, where the constitution of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States was adopted, a diocesan constitution was formed, and all things regulated according to the usages of our primitive church. The succeeding June being the time specified by the constitution for the meeting of the convention, it was very generally attended; and a bishop was, under an existing canon of the general convention, unanimously elected. His consecration took place in the following February, A.D. 1819. From this time a new era commenced of labour and care. The newly formed parishes were nearly all visited. Other members of our communion were sought out and found in our woods; and considerable numbers, who had never professed any sense of religion, were disposed, by the grace of God, in the preaching of the word and the administration of the ordinances, to forsake their sins, and join the body of the faithful.

"Our clergy, this year, consisted of the Rev. Mr. Searle, in the north; the Rev. Mr. Johnston, of Cincinnati; the Rev., Dr. Doddridge, of Virginia, officiating as a missionary a part of the time in the State; and the Rev. Mr. J. Morse, whom

in June I admitted to the holy order of the priesthood; and by these all our parishes, however distant and scattered, were to be sustained. This work, however difficult, was attempted. In March, 1820, came into the diocese my son, Philander, a candidate for holy orders, who was ordained the following June. Taking charge of a school, he assisted me in parochial duty, and thus enabled me to be more extensively useful to my beloved people throughout the State. The labours of the past year were continued with renewed vigour, through this of 1820. Cheered by the fond hope, and relying on the promises of God to his church, that he would raise up and send forth labourers into his vineyard, we went on in our exertions to sustain and keep together our infant parishes; and, though some of them were permitted to enjoy the ministration of a clergyman but once or twice in the year; yet even that was attended with such evident blessings, as for a while to keep them from desponding.”

Some idea may be formed of the overwhelming labour, connected with an infant diocese in such a country as that of the western territory of the States, from the following fact, quoted from the journal of the Ohio convention :-Bishop Chase travelled, in the course of the year 1820, on horseback, which is the only way of visiting the infant settlements of that country, a distance of twelve hundred and seventyone miles, and performed Divine service and preached eighty-two times, besides attending the sick, the dying, and the afflicted. In consequence of the view of the spiritual wants of the diocese presented by the bishop to the convention, they authorised him to prepare, and transmit to the several bishops of the United States, an address setting forth the great necessities of the church within the diocese of Ohio, and soliciting their aid and assistance in procuring missionaries to reside in that State. The following are passages from this apostolic address :

"The map of Ohio will shew you the extent of our charge. Our extreme parishes, as those of Cincinnati and Ashtabula, are distant, each from the other, upwards of three hundred miles. In other directions, their distance is not much less. On this vast surface, our settlements are thinly scattered; and, among these settlements, are mingled the members of our primitive church. Having emigrated from places where the pleasant things of our Zion were freely and in abundance ministered, they remember their past enjoy

ments as hungry persons think on their former feasts of plenty. In this situation they sit, like the captive Israelites by the muddy waters of the Euphrates' stream, waiting, with sighs and tears, for redemption to the church of God; for that blessed time when the word and sacraments can, with any thing like constancy, be ministered among them. Besides innumerable individuals dispersed throughout our state, there are forty-eight places containing our little flocks, mostly in circumstances similar to the above. These I have hitherto visited once a year. I have witnessed their joy at meeting, and their grief at parting. parting. Their passionate inquiries, prompted by their love of Zion, and especially by the danger of the rising generation's being enticed every day from her order and beauty, into the paths of sin and infidelity; their passionate inquiries for some prospects of relief in the enjoyment of faithful missionaries, almost every where repeated, have sunk deep into my heart, and caused my tears to mingle with theirs.

"Our parishes and places of holding Divine Service, are mostly distant from each other from fifteen to sixty miles; and the amount of parochial services is hardly so much as of five clergymen to support them all. Though these are faithful, I fear beyond their strength, yet what are they among so many congregations, and at such distances? To keep from ecclesiastical extinction the little flocks already formed, they have, in many instances, encompassed so great a field of duty, that, before they have finished their circuit, their former labours are no more seen; their fences against error are thrown down, the weeds of sin are grown, and their whole ground is laid waste. often have I witnessed this with mine own eyes: too often have I seen the lands of the fold devoured, because a shepherd' was too far distant to hear their cries. What must be my feelings under such circumstances, the beatings of your own bosoms, as you read this, can best express.

Too

"In doing the duty above alluded to, I have found the labours of a Missionary inseparable from those of the Episcopate ; and, to a person of my age, this assemblage of fatigue is more than can be borne. Incessant speaking in private, as well as in public, in teaching the rudiments of Christianity to the young, and in explaining and defending the first principles of our religion to the ignorant opposer, have already much impaired my voice and my

general health; and should this state of things continue, to all human view, my strength will soon be brought down in my journey, and my days will be shortened."

"Our parishes and people are too dismembered and too poor to maintain qualified ministers of the Word and Sacraments. They have made their efforts according to their utmost ability, and they find all is insufficient. Should they be suffered to fail in the diocese, what will remain of the church in the West? They will soon disperse. No funds-no clergy -and soon no people. Thus, even should prosperous days return, there will be no foundation on which to build a future superstructure.

"I have now, surrounded by my manifold cares, finished my address to you on this, of all others dwelt upon through my whole life, the most important and momentous subject; and thus, according to my weak ability, have done my duty. With prayers the most sincere I commit the event of it to the wisdom, the good ness, and mercy of Him, who, to found and erect a kingdom here on earth, shed his precious blood for us. Whatever the event may be, whether prosperous or adverse, 1 humbly implore His divine grace to make me submissive to His holy will and pleasure."

The powerful appeal contained in the Bishop's address, enabled his son, the Rev. P. Chase, to collect about 3000 dollars, for the support of such clergymen as might be induced to exercise their ministry in the wilds of Ohio. That sum remains, however, to this day but little inpaired, because clergymen have not been found who are willing to encounter the fatigue and privations of ministerial labour in this land. Various disappointments occurred, till, of the state of things at the time of the last convention, held on the 4th and 5th of June, 1823, Bishop Chase draws, in a letter to Bishop White, the following affecting picture :

"All our clergy, residing in the State (six only in number) were present at this convention. Though cheered by God's grace, and I hope supported by his Spirit, we had but a gloomy prospect before us. Too well was it known among us that some of our parishes had, by reason of a want of any thing like constant ministrations, become discouraged and had ceased to be others had complained that the promises of Missionaries had not been fulfilled; that they had kept together under the benefits of lay-reading; but that, unless some new hope should arise, they could

not do so much longer. Added to these complaints of the destitute laity, we had mutually to endure those of the clergy. Their labours, they alleged, were more than the human constitution could reasonably bear. Their parishes and places of preaching were so distant, their travelling in most seasons of the year so bad, and the pressing importunities to officiate so frequent, that not only all opportunities of study and improvement were cut off, but their families were suffering for things needful and necessary. When,' said they, shall we have that assistance from our brethren in the East which we had hoped for, and which our distressed condition, and the very existence of the church as a diocese, so imperiously demand? After so long a period has elapsed, since the affectionate and supplicant appeal was made for missionary aid, and after so many have been ordained to the ministry, is there not one found, who is willing to encounter what we have encountered for the glory of God and the good of the church? If we are to wait until the Atlantic States are all supplied with clergymen, does not the increasing state of the church there, not only bedim, but for ever extinguish the ray of hope here, that any will ever come from thence? And, this being the case, who will supply our places when we are gone, to say nothing of the numerous parishes unsupplied? So poor are we, in such confined and uncomfortable dwellings do the most of us reside, so scanty are our libraries, and so incessantly engaged are we in parochial and missionary duties, that we can neither assist, nor direct, nor teach the young men who apply to us for orders, though there are not a few. If the qualifications for the ministry are kept up to their present standard (and we pray that they may be ever so) by what, except a miracle, can we be supplied with clergymen?' The only answer to this question was given, by stating the imperious necessity of having an institution for the education of young men for the ministry, among those who are to be benefited by their labours. That this conclusion was just, and unimpaired by investigation, appeared from the distance at which we were placed from all means of education at the eastward, and the moral impossibility of sending our candidates to the eastern seminaries. Full well did we perceive, that the same causes which prevented the ordained candidates from courting the labours of a missionary. in the West, and inclined them to listen to the superior offers, and prefer the more

refined state of society, in the East, would not cease in their effect on the young men, whom, if it were possible, we might send thither for education. We saw, or thought we saw, that if, in the lapse of years, means should be found to send here and there a person to the East for his education, the Western States would have no certainty of having him for their minister. Besides, the dissimilarity of habits and manners existing between the inhabitants of an old and a new settled country forbade the expectation that useful clergy could be obtained to supply our present wants. Time and zeal, prayer and sufferings, might succeed, as they had succeeded, in overcoming difficulties of this kind; but, ordinarily, they are too great to be surmounted.

"But this subject is so much better stated by the Right Rev. Bishop Bowen, of South Carolina, in a letter to me, that I beg leave to refer you to it."

Bishop Bowen writes

"It has been painful in a very great degree, to contemplate the obstacles which have seemed to impede the success of your zealous and apostolic labours in the West. I have been aware that the chief of these was the difficulty of procuring clergymen suited, by their education and habits, to the peculiar nature of the service to be performed. The view which you express of the characteristic necessity of the case of the church in the Western States is not only that in which I am disposed to acquiesce, but the same which I have myself for some years entertained. Your clergy must be sons of the soil. A mission to the Western-Ocean islands does not more require an adaptation of character to circumstances in the ministry, than an effectual propagation of the Gospel, according to the doctrine and discipline of our church, in the western territories of the United States. Wales must not more, of necessity, have clergymen who are Welshmen, then Ohio, Illinois, &c. clergymen, who, by early training and habit, are capable of assimilation to the character of their inhabitants generally, and of enduring the travel and exposure of their woods and hills."

The plan of the intended theological seminary is thus sketched by Bishop Chase:

"A landed estate will be given us, already improved, and supplied with pure water, fuel, fruit, and some convenient buildings. From this farm will be produced the principal support of the young men in their board and comforts. That

this may be done with the least expense to them, they will covenant, as they enter the school, to attend to horticulture and to the ingathering of the harvest; this, however, never as an impediment to their studies, but to supply the place of that exercise necessary for their health. the spring and fall of the year, the accounts of the establishment will be settled, and the average expense assessed on each individual: this, it is evident, can be but small.

In

"To accustom our youth, the future servants of a beneficent Redeemer, to acts of substantial charity, and as a means of disseminating the principles of our holy religion throughout our barren region, and especially among the poor and ignorant, a printing press and types will be solicited; and the young men, or some proper proportion of them, will, at convenient hours of the day, be employed in printing tracts and a periodical publication. The institution is to be under the immediate care of the bishop for the time being, or his substitute; assisted by two or more professors of sacred learning."

The estate spoken of in this extract is the little all of worldly substance which Bishop Chase possesses. After securing from it, in case of his own early death, some assistance to his widow and the younger branches of his family, he devotes it to the advancement of that object which lies nearest to his heart-the supplying of faithful ministers to the flock over which he has the charge.

The view which has been given of the peculiar wants of the Western territory and of the best manner of supplying them, is strikingly confirmed by a document, published in America since Bishop Chase sailed for England. Charles Sigourney, Esq., treasurer of the Bishop's Fund in the diocese of Connecticut, thus writes to Bishop Chase :

"I enclose a Number of the Philadelphia Recorder, of Oct. the 4th, because it contains, in an address of the Rev. A. Baldwin, a remarkable coincidence of opinion with you in your views of establishing a Western Theological Seminary. Mr. Baldwin has been employed as a Missionary, by the General Missionary Society of our church, in the Western States: and, after spending some time there, this is the result of his observations while there, now first made public. I thought that it might be useful to you, by corroborating your statements, and convincing the world that your plan of establishing a Western Theological Seminary

was a measure recommended by expediency, and growing naturally out of the necessities of the case."

The reader will see the truth of this remark in the following extracts from Mr. Baldwin's address:

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Churchmen have removed from all the Atlantic States into most parts of the New States. These are either sighing in their new habitations for the pleasant things of Zion which they left, and mourning over the saddening prospects of their rising families; or have lost all sensibility on the one subject most important to them as accountable and immortal creatures, and need to be awakened from their spiritual lethargy. There is a wide, field in the West, which is rapidly extending on every side, inviting culture from our hands, and promising a rich harvest, and abounding glory to Him whose blessing giveth the increase. There may be, there must be, toils and sacrifices in cultivating these new fields: but those who enter into them shall reap no little satisfaction here in witnessing the success of their labours, and glory hereafter in the presentation of the fruits of their toils before the presence of God in heaven.

"But the inducing a few clergymen to remove into the Western States is not the principal object of this address. The planting of a church in any country must be by foreign ministers: but the watering of a church therein-its preservation and increase-must be by the labours of domestic ministers; men who have been brought up and educated in the country where the church exists. To this observation the most serious attention of the reader is solicited. Cast your eye over the history or present state of the church, and you will see sufficient proofs of its truth. Make the attempt to induce a certain number of clergymen to remove into the Western States, and you will perceive the necessity of there being provision made for the education of young men resident in those States, for effecting the object in contemplation-the extensive founding and lasting preservation of the church there."

Mr. Baldwin urges the establishment of a General Theological Seminary, for the use of all the Western States of the Union, as that already formed at New York may serve for the Eastern States *. Bishop

Our readers are already apprised of the formation of the general seminary at. New York, which promises to be of essential service in promoting sound learn

Chase's more immediate object is a seminary for his own diocese of Ohio; but as Mr. Baldwin considers the diocese of Ohio the most eligible situation for a seminary even with the most extensive views, Bishop Chase's plan will be capable of enlargement, at any future time, so as to embrace all the objects of Mr. Baldwin's, and will have the advantage of beginning on a scale, which, it is hoped, will be speedily practicable, without waiting for the funds which the larger plan would require. Mr. Baldwin states that 50,000 dollars, or 11,250. sterling, would be requisite to carry his plans into full effect. The estate which Bishop Chase devotes to his object may be estimated at 5000 dollars: the contribution of 10,000 dollars by friends in this country would enable him to make a commencement; while his plan might be consolidated and enlarged, as further contributions should be received. In respect to the mode of instruction best adapted to the local wants, Mr. Bald. win coincides with Bishop Chase.

Of the vast field of usefulness opening before clergymen duly prepared for this labour, Mr. Baldwin thus speaks :

"The institution will be a perennial spring, sending out its pure and fertilizing waters into every part of those lands, and making glad the cities of our God. And over how large and interesting a section of the American empire will the waters of that healing fountain flow!-Look on the map of America, and compare the Western States-Transalpine America-with the rest of our rising empire. Observe the facilities of intercourse in the mighty rivers that wash the western parts of Pennsylvania, Virginia, the States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Louisiana. Suppose a theological seminary established near Cincinnati-how great the facilities of visiting it from every part of the Western States, and some of the Southern! How many and great would be the blessings flowing from it to the numerous people living in those extensive and fertile

ing, clerical efficiency, and a spirit of union throughout the United States Episcopal Church. Bishop Hobart of New York, who lately arrived on a visit to England, is authorised to receive subscriptions for this highly important institution, and we are most happy in giving our strong recommendation to his object. Subscriptions may be sent to Messrs. Rivingtons, 'booksellers, St. Paul's Church-yard, London.