Letter from a Friend.

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before which other questions which are agitating it might sink into comparative insignificance.

As a conclusion to this article, it may be interesting to the reader to give some extracts from the communication of the gentleman above quoted to the present writer, which shew how the former was led to credit the cures, and accept them asfulfilments of a Bible promise. They will also shew how they are regarded by men of the highest eminence in Germany, who are acquainted with all the circumstances, and they give interesting glimpses of the life and work at Blumhardt's Institution:

"The healing of bodily disease through the instrumentality of prayer was first brought under my notice in the summer of 1867, in the university town of Erlangen, in Bavaria, by Mr S. I was entirely incredulous at first, and dismissed the subject as unworthy even of examination; but, as it was frequently pressed upon me, I began to admit the reasonableness of inquiry. As far as I could learn, though my circle of acquaintances was by no means large, the most intelligent evangelicals in the town not only believed in it but regarded it as a matter which did not admit of a doubt. The subject came up in a quite incidental way one evening at Professor Herzog's.1 A young medical man who was present expressed his full belief in it, although I must acknowledge he did not answer satisfactorily all my questions regarding the extraordinary symptoms given in Blumhardt's Bessessenheitsgeschichte. The Professor himself, a personal acquaintance of Blumhardt's, and from whom I afterwards obtained a letter of introduction to the Pastor, gave his assent without reservation to the genuineness of the facts; and so strong was the feeling on the matter in that family, that Miss Herzog and a lady friend, the daughter of a highly respectable citizen, who had at one time been Bürgermeister, if I remember rightly, seemed utterly shocked at certain expressions of unbelief which escaped my lips.

"Meeting with Professor Delitzsch, one Sunday afternoon, in the room of a fellow-student, on his asking, as he usually did whenever he met any of us, 'Have you any question?' I proposed this subject. He heard me patiently for a while advancing objections from the point of view of the old school of apolegetics, in which the whole value of the supernatural is placed in the proving of Divine commission. Without deeming it worth while to answer a single objection, he simply turned up the passage in the Epistle of James, and demanded an explanation on the supposition that the stream of the supernatural had been confined to the apostolic age. He then proceeded to narrate cases that had come under his own notice in connection both with Blumhardt and Dorothea Trüdel. According to him the genuineness and supernatural character of the facts admitted of no doubt; and my impression is also that he regarded the scriptural basis in the Epistle of James as sufficient to warrant the

1 The Editor of the Encyclopædia for Protestant Theology.

expectation that the stream of the supernatural had never ceased. I cannot say to what extent the students at the University believed in it. I had very little intercourse with them. Most probably they were related to it according as they were Evangelical or Rationalistic in tendency. All the tendencies are represented among them-most outspokenly High Church Lutheran, and the Rationalistic.

"I went to Bad Boll, in Würtemberg, about fifty miles from Stuttgart, where Pastor Blumhardt has his institution, at the close of the session, along with Mr S. Bad Boll is beautifully situated in the end of a valley, and is surrounded on three sides with wooded hills. The institution had formerly been a hotel, and the large dancing saloon is now used by the Pastor as a church. Service is held every Saturday evening and Sunday morning. We found about one hundred and fifty inmates, most of whom were able to appear at meal-times in the summer hall. We were assembled every morning at eight o'clock for breakfast. Immediately after breakfast, the Pastor read a portion of Scripture, and commented upon it in the broad Würtemberg dialect. His remarks were pithy, often humorous, and the whole of the little discourse in a high degree edifying. During the intervals between meals we rambled about in the grounds attached to the building, or took longer walks the among neighbouring villages or up the hill sides. The tone of conversation was generally religious, and religious topics were entered upon with perfect ease and naturalness. It was difficult, either among the people or with the Pastor himself, to make inquiries of the kind which my scepticism would have dictated. They believed it with entire child-like simplicity themselves, and such inquiries I found to be rather delicate. The Pastor himself was so fully occupied, that he could only devote a few minutes to each person who consulted him. There was, however, one gentleman there from Paris who had many years' acquaintance with Blumhardt, was familiar with all his most notable cases, was imbued with all his religious and theological views, and had translated some of his books into the French language. He told us that he had for years been in the habit of recommending cases to Blumhardt nearly every week, and almost in every case a cure was effected in answer to prayer.

"There is no doubt that the beauty of the scenery, the salubrity of the climate, the repose of the place both from local situation and spiritual circumstances, the wonderful spiritual atmosphere which is continually breathed, the cheerful hopefulness of the society, and the kindness with which everybody treats everybody else, will in many cases go far to account for restoration to health. But cases so peculiar in their symptoms and so obstinate in their nature as are related in Mr Blumhardt's book, and the cases narrated by the French gentlemen referred to, in which the cure was effected at some hundreds of miles distance, go to prove that there is another power at work.

There was no special religious exercise at the dinner hour. In the

From Möttlingen, his former parish, where he succeeded Christian Barth, the commentator, in the pastorate, and where this work began, Blumhardt was led to remove to Bad Boll, where it is now carried on.

Theological Seminaries in the United States.

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evening after supper, the Pastor spent a couple of hours or so in the summer hall, where there was conversation in regard to experimental religion. There were no prayer meetings such as are held at Männedorf. Blumhardt was nearly the whole day confined to his study, except when he was visiting the patients in their rooms. Apropos of the relation of students to the question, the Tübingen men often turn up on the Saturday, and remain over Sunday. There were four present on the Saturday we were there. Of course it might be said that they were merely making a tour of investigation. Blumhardt is however of too long standing to be merely a subject of investigation. A more decided position in relation to him on the part of Würtemberg students might naturally be expected, and in point of fact it is so. Students are often guests; and those who are unable to pay are gladly boarded free of expense."

Such is the experience and testimony of a friend whose competence to judge, and whose ability and culture would command, were we at liberty to authenticate it with his name, the confidence of such readers as enjoy the privilege of knowing him. Others must take the writer's word for the bona fide character of such testimony. The whole subject is, at any rate, worthy of fuller examination than it has yet received, both in relation to science and the Church. It is to be hoped that it will soon receive a thorough investigation. The present writer will be glad if this article should contribute towards such a result. JOHN KELLY.

ART. IV.-Theological Seminaries in the United States and Divinity Halls in Scotland.

IN

an Article recently published in this Review, we called attention to the Colleges of the United States, but had no time to speak of the Theological Seminaries of that country. We propose now to supply this deficiency, and to say a little of the efforts made there by the different churches, especially the Presbyterian Church, for the training of their ministers. In doing so, we shall follow the same course as that previously adopted by us, and shall speak not only of thcological training in the States, but of its present condition and results in Scotland. The vast importance of the subject may well be our excuse for speaking of it.

April 1873, p. 275.

The following is a statement of the Theological Seminaries in the United States, together with the particular churches or denominations to which they belong. We have compiled it from the Report of the Commissioners of Education at Washington for the year 1871, and though that document, the second of its kind, is described by the Report as only tentative, and but partially illustrative of the purposes of the Education Bureau," it is no doubt substantially correct, while at the same time it is amply sufficient for cur purpose. Of Baptist theological seminaries it states that there are seventeen; of Presbyterian, fourteen; of United Presbyterian, four; of Methodist Episcopal, ten; of Protestant Episcopal, twelve; of Congregationalist, seven; of Lutheran, fourteen; of Reformed, four; of Free Baptist, two; of Unitarian, two; of Universalist, two; of Moravian, one; of Union Evangelical, one; of African Methodist Episcopal, one; of United Brethren, one; of New Jerusalem Church, one; of Christian, two; of Roman Catholic, eighteen; of Unknown, four-in all, one hundred and seventeen.

Of these, fifty-four seem to have been instituted since the year 1850. Only three belong to last century, the oldest being that of the Reformed Church, New Brunswick, New Jersey, of date A.D. 1785. Since the beginning of this century, therefore, one hundred and fourteen theological seminaries have been founded in the United States; and that single fact ought surely to be accepted by us as a striking testimony to the Christian activity and enterprise of the churches there.

The territorial distribution of these seminaries teaches the same lesson. In Alabama, there are two; in California, three; in Connecticut, three; in Georgia, one; in Illinois, eleven; in Indiana, one; in Iowa, five; in Kentucky, seven; in Louisiana, two; in Maine, two; in Maryland, three; in Massachusetts, seven; in Michigan, two; in Missouri, four; in New Jersey, three; in New York, twelve; in North Carolina, one; in Ohio, thirteen; in Pennsylvania, seventeen; in South Carolina, three; in Tennessee, two; in Texas, one; in Virginia, five; in West Virginia, one; in Wisconsin, four; in Columbia, two. That is, not only in the older, long-settled, and more thickly-peopled States, but in those immense tracts of country where the virgin soil is just beginning to be

Their Numbers, Distribution, &c.

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broken up by the hands of man, where the population is thin and< scattered, and where the pressing necessities of life might be thought likely to drive away all thoughts of a higher culture or a trained ministry, some branch or other of the Christian church in America is planting its theological schools, and trying to prepare for an enlightened execution of their commission, those "sons of the prophets" who in every land can do so much to advance or to retard the progress of a people. It is quite possible that some of these seminaries may be in a rude and elementary condition, although we have no assurance that they are so. But even although they were, the great fact is that they exist at all. We are not entitled to expect in entirely new regions the full development which is reached elsewhere only after a course of centuries, which is even then, in Scotland and England at least, as experience teaches us, far from being complete; nor is it right to ridicule the awkward movements of a child who may one day have a giant's strength. We know nothing more creditable to the intelligence, the soundness of feeling, and the strength of Christian principle which mark so large a portion of the population of the United States, than these numerous efforts to make suitable provision for the education of a gospel ministry.

The number of professors and students is not completely given in the returns; but for ninety-five seminaries the number of professors is set down at 376, or, on an average, four to each seminary. If we assign a similar number to each of the twentytwo not reported on in this respect, the number of persons engaged in teaching theology in the United States will be 464.

In the case of the students also thirty-three seminaries present no report. The remaining eighty-four claim 3264 students, or, on an average, about thirty-nine to each seminary. If we assign a similar number to each of the thirty-three making no return, we shall have 4386 students. Such an estimate, however, would be too large. Successful institutions are not generally slow in giving statements as to their progress. From that number, therefore, we may safely deduct the odd 386, and we shall probably not be far wrong if we estimate the number of theological students in the United States at about 4000. A Roman Catholic institution, known as the Salesianum, and located at St Francis, Wisconsin, boasts of the largest

VOL. XXII.-NO. LXXXVI.

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