bitter scorn of all its bright promises. His is not a spirit agitated with doubts, and breathing out its sadness in low and melancholy murmurs. The sentiment of infidelity is, in the mind of the poet, not diffident and quiescent, but fiercely and vindictively active-not a dreary shadow oppressing and darkening the intellect, but a foul and pregnant cloud to which the spark of passion is unceasingly applied. It is not the dream of a speculative intellect, prisoned in the toils wrought by its own fitful activity, and struggling for liberty and life in the grasp of the subtle enchantment; but the dark and troubled movement of a wayward imagination, grappling in proud defiance with the terrors of that eternity which it dares not meet in the sobriety of reason. This attitude of defiance and contempt is not the natural one of calm and assured scepticism; there lurks a thick drop of believing terror in the inmost recesses of that bosom which discharges the poison of its contumely against the awful truths of religion. It is the dead weight of perverted passion alone that could have degraded the mounting spirit of Byron into the scorner of the lofty destiny of his nature; and his upward energy, suppressed but unextinguished, yet heaves and palpitates beneath the incumbent load. The scepticism of Byron is not like the philosophic wandering of Lucretius, through the dark regions of speculation, where the bewildered spirit clasps some disordered phantom sprung from its own chaotic agitations, as the creative and upholding power of universal nature. The spirit of the modern poet does not pretend to have completed, or even attempted, the giddy round of philosophical speculation, returning from the cheerless voyage with the usual freight of fictions and absurdities. The infidelity of Byron is a very repulsive species of bold, uninquiring, contemptuous dogmatism. It is not the trembling ague of the understanding, but the bad and burning fever of the heart. Hence it is, that it developes itself—not in modest doubt and compassionable hesitation-not under the type and with the symptoms of a disease purely intellectual-but in starts of phrenzied and infectious profanity;-in grumbling reproach and deep resentment, compared with which the levity of Voltaire himself is but the sting of an insect to the rabid ferocity of a tiger. "It is impossible, we should think, that Byron can be ignorant how much he thus loses as a poet and a man of genius. He must know that the loftiest and most magnificent field upon which his spirit could expatiate, is that which is displayed-not by the truths of religion themselves, for they are too solemn and awful to be touched with impunity even by the most vigorous efforts of profane inspiration, but by that countless multitude of elevating and ennobling associations which they create, and to which the highest spirit of poetry loves to give form and reality. There is no theme which may not be exalted, by the proper use of such associations—and none which may not be degraded by their exclusion. The sentiments of religion, indeed, form the noblest elements of the poetry of human nature, for they announce that lofty aspiration after other than the vulgar and sensible things of this world, which is characteristic of humanity in all its gradations of existence. The rude and early periods of society have been supposed, and with justice, to be propitious to the more genuine, unconstrained, and ima #ginative flights of poetry: they are, as it were, the cradle of the divine art, where it is seen in all its innocence and simplicity. Yet these are the periods when that scepticism which is generated in the laborious trifling of a disciplined but enfeebled understanding, is unknown, and where the voice of nature speaks, even amid the most fantastic mythological aberrations, of that immortality which civilization dares to doubt or to despise. "But if this be true, even of the uncouth and often unintelligible fictions of heathen mythology-if the great poets of classical antiquity would have forfeited in a great degree their hold over the spirit of mankind, had they been coldly indifferent towards the elements of grandeur and sublimity which mingled themselves even with the superstition of their age-how much more is that poet to be pitied for his infatuation, who not only neglects to avail himself of all the lofty resources which are opened to him in the system of a purer religion, but contemptuously excludes them, and strives to cast ridicule on all the higher mysteries of revealed faith, as well as upon the unextinguishable sentiments of natural religion itself. Let Lord Byron beware, and not exult too much in the popularity which his genius has achieved, but which his temerity may yet forfeit. He is a great poet indeed: his country has owned his claims with deferential homage and respect; it has cherished his rising glory with unexampled ardor. But let him not, intoxicated with adulation, imagine for a moment that he is among the very greatest of English poets, or that we could not afford, to allow his name to perish in that neglect which he has appeared to brave by his audacious pollutions." ORDINATIONS. AT West Springfield, Mass. Aug. 25, 1819, the Rev. WILLIAM B. SPRAGUE, colleague pastor with the Rev. Joseph Lathrop, D. D. Sermon by the Rev. Abel Flint, D. D. of Hartford. At Portland, Sept. 29th, the Rev. THOMAS J. MURDOCK. Sermon by the Rev. Dr. Porter, of Andover. At Newton, Ms. Oct. 20th, the Rev. OLIVER BROWN, as an Evangelist to labor in R. Island, in the service of the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge. Sermon by the Rev. William Greenough, of Newton. Oct. 13th, the Rev. HEZEKIAH HULL, as a missionary to labor west of the Mississippi, at N. Haven, Con. Sermon by the Rev. SAMUEL MERWIN, of New Haven. At Poultney, Ver. the Rev. STEPHEN M. WHEELOCK. Sermon by the Rev. Ebenezer Hubbard of Brandon. At Pequea, Lancaster Co. Pen. Sept. 29th, the Rev. WILLIAM MODERWELL, Sermon by the Rev. Robert White. At Waterford, Ver. Oct. 6th, the Rev. REUBEN MASON. Sermon by the Rev. David Sutherland of Bath, N. H. At Bridgewater, Oneida Co. N. Y. the Rev ALPHA MILLER. Sermon by the Rev. Asahel S. Norton, D. D. of Clinton. At Norwich, Ver. Nov. 24th, the Rev. RUFUS W. BAILEY. Sermon by the Rev. Nathan Perkins, of Amherst, Mass. Nov. 17th, the Rev. JOHN GOLDSMITH, was ordained by the Presbytery of New York, and installed to the pastoral charge of the church in Newton, L. Island. Sermon by the Rev. William Rowan, of Greenwich. At Newburyport, Dec. 8th, the Rev. LUTHER F. DIMMICK. Sermon by the Rev. Professor Stuart. At Mount Vernon, N. H. Dec. 8th, the Rev. EBENEZER CHEEVER. Sermon by the Rev. Richard Hall, of New Ipswich. At Charleston, S. C. Dec. the Rev. SAMUEL GILMAN. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Tuckerman of Chelsea, Ms. At Randolph, Ms. Dec. 29th, the Rev. DAVID BRIGHAM, Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Ide, of Medway. BRIGHAMA At East Barnstable, Ms. Dec. 22nd, the Rev. EDMUND QUINCY. Sermon by the Rev. Ezra Ripley, D. D. of Concord. At Nantucket, Ms. Dec. 16th, the Rev. ABNER MORSE. Sermon by the Rev. Phineas Fisk, of Marshpee. At Charleston, S. C. Rev. Messrs. JONAS KING and ALFRED WRIGHT were ordained as Evangelists, by the Congregational Association of South Carolina, Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Floyd. At Geneva, N. Y. the Rev. SAMUEL W. BRACE, Dec. 29. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Porter, of Ovid. At Limerick, Me. Jan. 19th, the Rev. CHARLES FREEMAN. Sermon by the Rev. Edward Payson, of Portland. At Sturbridge, Ms. Nov. 30th, Rev. ALVAN BOND. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Mills, of Sutton. At Southwick, Ms. Feb. 2, the Rev. CALVIN FOOT. Sermon by the Rev. Alfred Ely, of Monson. POETRY. For the Panoplist. Might ever raise my thoughts above, THE COMPASS. Dark is the night, and loud the wind, Each Sailor, as his course he steers? The needle, see, its aim maintain! Though mountain high the billows roll, Why? With the magnet's magic power, Nor since hath wandered. Storms may lower, Thus I, though rude, may learn to know The power of Grace upon the soul. And aft I've thought, since first my heart I trusted Him; He lent an ear To every sigh and each complaint. And when my heart has sunk with fear, And help was far, and death was near, He bade me never faint. Oh that experience of His love, Which I so oft have known and tried, This storm will cease, my voyage be o'er, From the Evangelical Magazine. Rev. xix, 6. 1 Cor. xv, 24-26. Hark! the song of Jubilee; Hallelujah! bark! the sound, Sheath'd his sword: He speaks,-'tis done; Are the kingdoms of his Son. He shall reign from pole to pole, He shall reign, when like a scroll, THE MISSIONARY HERALD. No. 5. MAY, 1820. VOL. XVI. RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL NARRATIVE OF MISSIONS, DIRECTED BY THE TRUSTEES OF THE MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF CONNECTICUT. To the Christian Public, the Trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut present the Twenty-first Annual Narrative of Missions under their direction. FRIENDS AND BRETHREN, A FEW reports of service performed in the earlier, as well as later parts of 1818, were not received in season for acknowledgment in the last annual narrative. The Trustees are constrained to fix their eyes upon a frontier already extended several thousand miles, and annually enlarging. So great is the distance, that a number of weeks-perhaps of months-must elapse, after the journals are prepared, before they can arrive. It is also a frequent fact, that the time of labor, allotted in a missionary commission, includes the close of one year and the beginning of the next. Such journals of service, whether performed in districts comparatively near or remote, must embrace a part of two years. It will be readily perceived, therefore, that the narrative of a given year must, of necessity, comprehend, in some instances, a portion of the preceding. It will be equally obvious, that they cannot exhibit an account of services rendered during the closing weeks of the year to which they principally refer. It is, however, their uniform purpose to communicate, by the earliest statement in their power, an exact outline of all the services performed under their direction. They both wish and rejoice to publish a complete view of their exertions, together with the interesting results, as far as these can be known upon earth. Numerous are those friends of Christ, who, by their prayers and their property, have come "to the help of the Lord" in this divine cause. It is with no ordinary pleasure, that the Trustees make known to them, and to the public at large, the manner in which their benevolent offerings are applied. Those missionaries, who are employed under commissions of recent date, cannot have transmitted journals seasonably for notice in this publication. An account of them may, con sequently, be looked for in the next. The present narrative recounts the labors of thirty-one missionaries. According to appointment, their duties have been discharged in the States of Vermont, New-York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and in the Territory of Missouri. The Trustees commence their present narrative with a statement of labors in the northern section of the vast missionary field. Thence they will proceed westerly and southerly, guided chiefly by the course of the frontier line, until they shall have reached the most distant settlements to which they were able, the last year, to send the blessing of a preached Gospel. VERMONT. In this service the Rev. John Lawton spent thirty-two weeks. He labored, the principal part of that time, in the counties of Windsor, Caledonia, and Orleans. In several of the towns which he visited, the Lord's work had been powerful. He found numbers very deeply impressed with a sense of their sinfulness. Some also were rejoicing in peace of mind; trusting, that they were reconciled to God, through the blood of the everlasting covenant. Individuals met him in the spirit of open and bitter hostility to the Gospel,-He was much affected by observing a VOL. XVI. 28 deplorable want of intelligent, correct, and faithful ministers. Souls, convinced and anxious, had none to guide them in safety. To him it seemed as if no rea gions of the globe could be more decidedly the suitable objects of assistance by missionary societies, than several of the settlements in which he preached attended conferences, and administered ordinances.-He exerted himself to promote the Sabbath school institutions, and he thought he saw proof that the results were remarkably happy. In some instances, the instructors themselves appeared to experience effects in the highest degree salutary Persons who began to teach in those schools, without any cordial affection for divine truth were made experimentally certain, that the word of God is the sword of the Spirit. In the more central and southern parts of the State, the Rev. Justin Parsons labored twenty-six weeks. He was active and zealous in establishing and maintaining Sabbath schools. He attended them diligently himself; and, though every anticipated benefit was not realized, he saw much good result from their operation. Children and youth became better acquainted with the holy Scriptures. Their respect for the Sabbath was increased. Their general demeanor, on that sacred day, was improved. The habitual appearance of the rising gen-t eration, where such schools were supported, was much better in the view of considerate and serious people. In one instance there was pleasing evidence of saving conversion. Numbers, however, in several places, conceived the most unfounded and even malignant prejudices against those schools-persuading themselves to believe, or at least to say, that they were engines of party policy and craft-and, by such wretched pretences, greatly impeded their salutary progress. On the subject of religion, pious people had many and severe trials. Errors, pleasing to the unrenewed heart, were industriously propagated, and by numbers eagerly embraced. Nevertheless, he was convinced, that on the whole, the cause of Christ was advancing. The distinguishing truths of the Gospel were more extensively believed. Amidst much surrounding darkness hel found no small cause of encouragement and gratitude. STATE OF NEW YORK. The Rev. Simeon Snow was employed twenty-six weeks, chiefly in the counties of Oneida, Otsego, and Delaware. The people in those parts were much divided by sectarian prejudices. Notwithstanding this unpleasant fact, he found, in most of the settlements which he visited, numbers that were hungry for the bread of life-Several towns were favored with special and powerful revivals. There was an affecting want of evangelical teachers. The Missionary Society of Connecticut had, for many years, sent them ministers and done them much good. This benevolent kindness had been uniformly received and acknowledged with fervent gratitude. It had been apparently instrumental of salvation to many souls. Such assistance they continued to need, and earnestly to request, their churches being feeble, and their congregations generally small. The Rev. Eleazar Fairbanks was twenty-two weeks in the Holland Purchase, and in the county of Ontario. Many of the settlements afforded much that was encouraging. Churches, destitute of pastors, were constant in the maintenance of meetings for worship and instruction on the Sabbath. Stated seasons of prayer, at other times, were observed. In one settlement a Sabbath school and a Tract Society had been established, and their prospects of accomplishing much good were animating. Some gross and dangerous errors, once alarmingly prévalent, appeared to be losing their influence. In a few places he found an unusual seriousness, and converts were added to the churches. At Lewiston, on the western border of the same Purchase, the Rev. David M. Smith has a pastoral charge. A part of his time is spent in missionary service. The population of that district is already numerous, and is rapidly increasing. Well informed and able ministers are few. Multitudes of the people seem to have little or no sensibility on the solemn subject of their guilt in the sight of God, and their need of salvation. When the small number of praying people have been cheered with the prospects and hopes of a revival, a sectarian spirit, under the impulse of ignorance and a passionate zeal for proselyting, has grievously disappointed their pleasing expectations. Faithful missionaries are greatly |