“Under a local system, the teachers move towards the people. Under a general system, such of the people as are disposed to Christianity, move towards them. . . .
“It is the pervading operation of the local system, which gives it such a superior value and effect in our estimation. It is its thorough diffusion through that portion of the mass in which it operates. It is that movement by which it traverses the whole population; and by which, instead of only holding forth its signals to those of them who are awake, it knocks at the doors of those who are most profoundly asleep, and, with a force far more effective than if it were physical, drags them out to a willing attendance upon its ministrations. . . .
“The schools under a local system are so many centres of emanation, from which a vivifying influence is actively propagated through a dead and putrid mass.”
Thomas Chalmers, Collected Works, 14:79, 81.
West Port Experiment 
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