toil and difficulty did not deter those indefatigable pioneers from the full discharge of the duties, which the circumstances in which they were placed required at their hands.” The Rev. Isaac Reed says-"My travels in Indiana in 1824 were 2,480 miles." Now he is at Salem, or Charlestown in the far south, and then at Indianapolis or Crawfordsville, and anon at Terre Haute, or across the river at Paris in Illinois. The first licensure was at Charlestown in 1824, and the first ordination at Bloomington in 1825. In this last year-1825-Reed says "there were six ordinations in the Presbyterian Church in Indiana." He attended four of them himself. It is really wonderful to note this man's journeys. on horseback through this great wilderness, but it was only more wonderful than the tours of other "preachers of the Word" in that we have his record of what he did, while we have little record of what they did. Such men as Proctor, and Dickey, and Crowe, and Martin, and Johnston, and others, accomplished numerous long journeys. Proctor rode regularly for a time between Bloomington and Indianapolis. Johnston made frequent missionary tours; Dickey was constantly in the saddle, riding from "The Pocket" to "Mouth of Eel"; as was also Crowe, who made at least one extended journey through Indiana and Illinois, to explore the country with reference to the planting of churches. And this was only a specimen of his missionary tours.

These missionary scouts were soon joined by others as braveJames Thomson of Crawfordsville, James N. Carnahan of Dayton, Martin M. Post of Logansport, Edward O. Hovey and Caleb Mills, of Wabash College, David Montfort of Franklin, and many others. Montfort was a marvel of heroic power and enthusiasm, who on account of his crippled condition had to be lifted on and off his horse, and yet made long missionary journeys, not only among his own people, but in the State. Jesse L. Williams, of Fort Wayne, then a young surveyor, who had stopped over Sabbath at Knightstown, heard this resolute and able man preach twice. It was no uncommon thing, as related by Dr. Cleland and others, for these missionaries to lose their way in the woods, or to be overtaken by night far from any habitation. So far from esteeming the hardship as great, they felt themselves happy if they had flint

and tinder with which to kindle a fire both for warmth and protection.

Dr. Post, in his "Retrospect," speaks of "the long rides several times every year to Presbyteries and Synods, often distant from sixty to two hundred miles," and of "the missionary excursions," even as far as the Lake," organizing churches, preaching and exploring."

And did space permit it would not be difficult to cull from many sources other incidents, which show how great were the embarrassments and hardships of our pioneer ministers in this

State. And yet Dickey, and Martin, and Crowe, and Johnston, and Carnahan, and their worthy peers, could have adopted as their own the eloquent words of Dr. Post, who has just gone to his rest. In his " Retrospect " he said: "Nor have I regretted my choice of a place. Unworthy to serve Christ anywhere, I have found here reasons for attachment, and have made no sacrifices, none which can be mentioned, when the eye is fixed on Gethsemane and Calvary."

Father Johnston, in his " Forty Years' Ministry," describes the organization of the Synod, as one who took part in the act, and I quote his words. After showing that the Presbytery of Salem had been divided into three, as already referred to, he says that "by an act of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, adopted May 29th, 1826, these three Presbyteries, together with the Presbytery of Missouri, were constituted into a synod denominated the Synod of Indiana. Agreeably to the appointment of the General Assembly, this Synod held its first meeting at Vincennes on the 18th day of October, 1826. There were present at that meeting eight ministers and twelve ruling elders. Other brethren would have attended had they not been detained at their homes by sickness. The following are the names of the ministers who were permitted to be present at that first synodical meeting ever held west of the State of Ohio and north of Mason and Dixon's line: From Salem Presbytery but one minister attended, Tilly H. Brown; from Wabash Presbytery there were three, Samuel T. Scott, George Bush and Baynard R. Hall; Madison Presbytery furnished the same number, John M. Dickey, John F. Crowe and James H. Johnston; from Missouri Presbytery, which included the whole State of Missouri, the only minister present was Salmon Gid

dings of St. Louis; while from Illinois, whose entire territory constituted the great central portion of the Synod, not a solitary representative appeared."

And such were the small but grand beginnings of the synodical organization, which included nearly all there was of Presbyterianism in Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, not to speak of Michigan, with all the West and Northwest. On the territory defined as belonging to the Synod of Indiana, as it was fifty years ago, with its four feeble presbyteries, there are now six synods and twenty-four presbyteries, including seven hundred and fifty-eight ministers, nine hundred and ninety-four churches, and seventy-eight thousand seven hundred and eighty members. In all other respects the growth has been as marked.

It is not necessary to carry this investigation farther, nor to enter into details at any great length. Indiana, fifty years ago, was described in the Assembly's narrative as having "an immense territory lying waste without laborers to cultivate it. Now and then a traveling missionary scatters the seed of the kingdom." And yet the churches in these vast wastes were not only few, but in one year five became extinct for want of ministers. The General Assembly speaks of these destitutions in Indiana, and the feeble churches dying for lack of ministers. And was it so strange that with our highest judicature saying officially, "they are our brethren, and they cry to us for help," that such a want should have pressed from the agonized and beseeching churches in the wilderness its two Christian colleges?

Of what has occurred since the 18th of October, 1826, be it bright or dark, be it sweet or bitter, be it of the nature of aggressive warfare or unfraternal strife, it is not necessary here to speak. In the reminiscences of those times there is much both to gladden and to sadden us; many things we could wish were undone; but, on the whole, we shall find that the Presby terian Church has made progress in all respects, in the number of its churches and their strength, in its financial and moral power, in its educational institutions, and in most other respects. There are now single churches in this State that have more wealth than ail our churches in 1826. There are men, not a few, who commune at our altars, who singly can endow either of our colleges, or build institutions for the unfortunate. We are not poor, and if we will, we can overshadow the State itself

by the magnitude of our endowments and the magnificence of our churches. The Synod of 1826 was weak in its wealth and its constituency, but it was glorious in its missionary zeal and self-denial. The Synod of 1876, inspired with the spirit of the men of '26, have numbers, intelligence, organization, wealth, force to make our church "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners." With not an exception, the ministers who met in Vincennes just fifty years ago, are gone. A year ago our venerable Johnston was the sole survivor, but he, too, has fallen asleep, full of years and glory. Brown, Scott, Bush, Hall, Dickey, Crowe and Giddings had all been summoned away, and Johnston alone lingered. And now he, too, has taken his departure to join the fellowship of the saints in heaven. And if we add another decade, bringing our church down to that period when she was about to be met by divisions, we find that the fathers who belonged to that pioneer period, with only here and there an exception, have joined the great church on the other side of the flood. A few men remain, crowned with the glories of long service in this field, like Carnahan, and Hovey, and Mills, and Chase, and Henry Little, and Hawley, and Kent, and Stewart, and Scott. But, one by one, they are passing away. We have just laid in his own new tomb the remains of our St. John, our dear and venerable Post, and also our patriarchal Ross. And thus they pass away into the heavens, but as the fathers of our church-the pioneers-leave to us the work they so well begun; and we shall prove our admiration of them by carrying forward with great zeal and power the work they loved and ennobled, to a glory they never dreamed of.

BY HENRY A. NELSON, D. D., Geneva, N. Y.

ASSUMING that human nature, as found in every individual' specimen of it, is depraved, the degree or the intensity of this depravation becomes a subject of serious inquiry. If all mankind are morally and spiritually depraved, to what extent, or in what degree, are they so? If we must confess that our human depravity is universal, must we couple with this the confession that it is total? As God's ambassadors to men, must we not only affirm the universal depravity of mankind, but must we also insist that it is a total depravity?

In the very beginning of such an inquiry it behooves us to remember that what is true on this subject is likely to be offensive to those of whom it is true-to men generally-to ourselves. There can be no reasonable doubt that mankind are much more depraved than it is pleasant to them to believe or to be told. We certainly have a natural pride which repels the imputation of depravity, of perverseness, of sin. We ought not to think it strange if the natural pride of our hearts renders it difficult to accept the view of ourselves which our understandings may find to be actually given in the Bible. This liability is well stated by Dr. McCosh: "We are afraid to examine ourselves, lest humbling disclosures should be made. And when we have the courage to examine our hearts, prejudice dims the eyes, vanity distorts the objects seen, the treacherous memory brings up only the fair and flattering side of the picture, and the deceived judgment denies the sinful action, explains away the motives, or excuses the deed in the circumstances."

*

In all human jurisprudence this liability to too favorable judgment of ourselves is recognized and guarded against. Nothing could be proposed which would universally be pronounced more absurd than to allow any man a place on a jury whose verdict would involve a judgment upon his own characAll literature, and all conversation, are pervaded by the sentiment that no power has gifted us, or is likely to gift us, with the ability "to see ourselves as others see us," or to see

*Divine Government, p. 362.