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was immediately shown by many individual members of the churches, in subscribing liberally for that
purpose; and had it not been for our national distresses, which at that critical moment rendered it
improper to proceed with the subscriptions, there is no doubt a sufficiency would have been soon obtained.
Two years have elapsed, and the object is not yet accomplished. It is acknowledged that the
funds collected are not adequate to the honourable support of the professor, that they do not correspond
with the wishes and character of the churches; and are, as yet, vastly inferior to any other public
establishment; but it is suggested, and probably with great truth, that all further application for
an increase of the funds, and even for obtaining a great part of what is already subscribed, depend upon
the immediate removal of the professor to Brunswick. After waiting so long, despondency has arisen,
and fears are indulged, that notwithstanding all the exertions which have been made, the whole institution,
if he refuses, will at last fail, or be again broken into separate interests. Hence the requests
are pressing, the demands increase, and the public voice becomes clamorous."
The professor has laboured twenty-six years without any compensation; and he may now be
justified in the expectation of having his situation
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at last rendered comfortable and equitable. He cannot
therefore, it may be supposed, reconcile it with prudence or justice to himself, to engage in new
and precarious dependencies, and expose himself to losses and troubles, which the public have no
right to expect or demand from an individual. But these remonstrances must yield to the authority
directions of Divine Providence; and correct views of the important crisis, in which the interests
of our Churches are brought, seem to suppress all personal considerations, silence all minor objections,
and imperiously require an immediate sacrifice. I judged it proper to draw these outlines of our history,
that you might at one glance have the whole subject before you."
"And now, my dear brethren, what conclusion do you draw? I make no appeal to the feelings
which your affections dictage. I know your love; a love that has been ripening, without any interruption,
nearly half a century; a love which, if consulting its own claims, would never consent to a
separation while life remains. But I appeal to your judgments; I appeal to your zeal for the
highest interests of Zion; to your attachment to the Reformed Dutch Church in our land; and to
the obligation we are under to assist in promoting a cause, to which consequences of such immense
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