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clerk-hire to put its statistics into a perfect shape, and we hope that its estimable and experienced Secretary will, in future years, lead the way in a work which, if done at all, should always be well done, with all possible accuracy. One thing might readily be done in every Diocese, to give in tabular form the reports so far as presented, including in the list all existing parishes; supplying, where it can be properly supplied, the unreported items from the reports of previous years. Thus there will be no such fluctuations in the totals of the several years as now embarrass every attempt to note Diocesan growth.

Bearing in mind what has been thus far said, we ask the attention of our readers to a few out of many suggestions that naturally arise in view of the table (A) which accompanies this article, and the accuracy of which we have diligently sought to secure. The order of the Dioceses, it will be seen, is that given in the Journal of the General Convention. We have attempted a comparison of the number of the clergy, the communicants, and the candidates for orders reported in 1856, (in all the Dioceses in union with the Convention,) with the same particulars in the Diocesan Journals for 1858. We have divided the numbers of baptisms, adult and infant, and of confirmations reported in 1856, so as to give an average of the three years preceding, and have compared these with the reports for 1858. We have left out of the present comparison, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Arkansas, and Oregon, in the first three of which the increase has been marked.

Upon the numbers of the CLERGY, we may remark that the increase falls mournfully short of the necessities and the opportunities of the Church. From 1853 to 1856, the net increase was at the rate of 60 per annum; for the last two years this rate has barely been maintained. Yet who can doubt that were the increase three-fold or even four-fold what it now is, all who were really qualified for the work of the ministry, might at once enter upon their duties, even in our own land, while the loud calls of the heathen world demand a supply which, if our Church but realized its mission and consecrated its wealth to the Lord, would take every year more than all we

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BAPTISMS:

CONFIRMATIONS.

DIOCESES.

1856. 1858.

1356.

Increase.

average of 3 years, 1853-6. per Convention Journals, 1859.

1856.

1856. 1858.

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now ordain. Oh! how empty will be our ta k about an apostolic ministry, if we fall so far short of the spirit of apostolic times! if both men and means are so niggardly afforded for the great work of the Church, to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!

There is one fact which concerns the increase of our ministry that has a two-fold aspect; it is both painful and pleasurable. We refer to the accessions we are receiving from the ministry of the several denominations of Christians around us. There are many such, how large a proportion of the whole increase we can not say, but the many instances cited in the several conventional addresses, satisfy us that their number is very large. Believing, as we do, with implicit confidence, that ours is preeminently a Scriptural ministry, and convinced as we are, that there must be a return to the platform of the primitive Church, before Christianity can achieve its highest conquests over our sin-disturbed earth, we rejoice in the testimony that is every day borne by the men, high in intellectual and moral worth, who are asking for orders at the hands of our Bishops, so that their ministrations may be not only valid but also regular. Yet we ask, with much concern, Where are our own sons? Where are the men whose infancy was cradled in the Episcopal Church, whose baptism was at our fonts, whose catechising was at our chancels, whose nurture was under our system? Have their mothers con ecrated them, as Hannah did Samuel, to the Lord? Have our Sunday-school teachers, our ministers-have Christian parents amongst usset before our lads and our young men, as they ought, the office of the Christian ministry as one worthy of their highest and holiest aspirations? Or have they dwelt too much on the sacrifice, the self-denial, the unrequited toil which this work too often involves? Oh! that more of the sons of the Church were pressing into the ministry of the Church, with no need to unlearn, as have those whose youth and early manhood (and may be, maturer life) were spent under other training than that of our own Scriptural Liturgy; with no such temptations to ultraism as the experience of the past twenty years has so largely marked, besetting at least a numerous section of the

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class just described. Yet we welcome all who come, no matter whence they came, so that they but love Christ, and preach His blessed Gospel "as this Church hath received the same." Our readers will observe, in the table (A) here given, that the most defective column is that which perhaps ought to be most complete the number of CANDIDATES FOR ORDERS in the several Dioceses. We have not been able to ascertain this from the Journals of Md., Va., S. C., Ga., or Michigan. It is evident, however, that there has been little, if any, increase since 1856. There has not even yet been time for the largely awakened religious interest of the past year to show itself in the enlarged number of Candidates for the Ministry; but we may rejoice in the assurance that two or three years hence this precious fruit will become more and more apparent. Meanwhile there is heard afresh the Master's voice, bidding His people pray the Lord of the Harvest to send forth laborers; and if their prayers are sincere, they will be accompanied by corresponding exertions. Our Theological Seminaries must be furnished with larger means. Our churches must realize that it is a blessed privilege for them to assist not only in sustain. ing Missions, Diocesan, Domestic, and Foreign, but also in aiding those whom the love of Christ prompts to desire a preparation for the work.

Our columns enumerating the BAPTISMS in the several Dioceses, are worthy of examination. It is pleasant to observe that the Infant Baptisms reported in 1858 exceed by 6000 (or about 33 per cent) the average for the three years, from 1853 to 1856. We look upon it as one of the signal services ren. dered by our Church to Protestant Christendom that it presents so firm a front against the error which would deny to our children their rightful place in the Kingdom of Christ on the earth; and at the same time we rejoice in the confidence that this Sacrament is less and less looked upon as a mere ceremony, on the one hand, or as an infallible guarantee of salvation on the other. The increase of Adult Baptisms is equally remarkable; and when we read of 6000 adults baptized by our ministers in a single year, it is worth while to remember that nearly all these were probably brought up, or at least born,

among these non-Episcopal communions whose members are accustomed to think lightly of Infant Baptism. God grant to all that are living out of that vast army of 32,000 Christian soldiers, who, in a single year, have thus been enrolled and signed and sealed for Christ, in our own division of the Church. militant, that they all may fight manfully under the banners of the Captain of their salvation; that the solemn vows and covenants thus made may ever be remembered; that all those names may be found in the Book of Life. And now comes back the thought, how many of these 6000 newly-baptized adults have devoted themselves to the work of the Ministry? How many will offer to go and tell the heathen of Christ and His salvation? Ilow many of them have written upon their property, "Holiness unto the Lord ?"

The CONFIRMATIONS for the year give, it will be seen, a total of 17,414, whilst the average of the three years preceding the last General Convention was but 10,216, an advance of 7200, or more than 70 per cent. It must be borne in mind, too, that most of our Conventions are held in May or June, so that the fruits of the especial religious awakening of 1858, so far as concerns many of our Dioceses, are yet to be noted in the Journals for the present year. There is a striking difference in the exhibits made as to the several Dioceses in this particular. In some, the illness of the Bishop may have prevented his usual ministrations. In others, there is peculiar caution exercised lest any make a hasty profession of personal faith in Christ. But those expressive words, "I do," have been spoken, as the professed faith and purpose of all those hearts. With the apostolic "laying on of hands" there has gone up to heaven carnest prayer for the gift of the Holy Ghost. If these professions have been all sincere and intelligent, if these prayers have been prayers of faith, what may not the Church expect, under God, in the accumulated energy and zeal thus brought to her membership?

We turn our view now to the columns representing the number of COMMUNICANTS. These, if accurate and full, would give us the most reliable data whereon to build expectations as to the work which the Church has to do. In only five of the

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