should assume the disguise of an angel of light, and should audaciously mimic or counterfeit God's glorious work to answer his own evil purposes?

"I can easily conceive of at least four objects to be answered by him in making the attempt, viz: To draw off the attention of Christians from a work in which he is very actively engaged, at the present day, that of suppressing God's truth.

"To induce a presumptuous reliance on a self-determining will and power to be all, and to do all, that God requires; thus leading men to question their dependence on the Holy Spirit, to usurp his office, eventually, to deny his work and influence.

"To seduce into all manner of extravagance, that the whole work of revivals may thereby be brought into disrepute.

"And to open a door for the introduction of all manner of scepticism."-See Dr. Milledoler's letter, in Appendix.

man.

In all ages of the Church, the work of the Spirit has been exposed to the evils of abused human agency; and the history of revivals in the world, from the days of the Corinthian disorders down to the present times, gives a melancholy picture of what God's cause has in this form endured from But our own age is, above all others, perhaps, prone to the production of the evils of which we speak. We cheerfully concede to it a peculiar fertility, in qualities which if well directed, are eminently fitted to adorn our nature, and extend our holy religion. But, at the same time, it is an age rife in the spirit of change and innovation; in impatience of restraint, pride of opinion, and love of novelty; in intense excitement, social combination, licentious liberty, and mighty action; in a spirit, which if not sanctified and ordered by the God of all grace, will go on to innovate his word, his worship, and work, and finally, bring in upon the Church an atheistic, self-sufficient mechanism, like the infidel system of cause and effect in the natural world.

The following solemn and just language is held by the Rev. Drs. Davis and Dana, in their respective letters.

"We live in an age of peculiar character, marked by a restless spirit of bold and daring enterprize, and an eagerness for discovery and invention, which is reckless of consequences. There is a prevailing and strong propensity to adopt what is new, because it is new; to stop our ears to the voice of experience and the dictates of common sense, and to turn aside from the good old paths in which our fathers have walked. This spirit affects all our most important concerns. Even religion itself is not exempt from its

influence. Indeed, no one of our interests is so much endangered by it."-Appendix, pp. 108, 109.

"Are there not certain characteristics of the age, which threaten in a greater or less degree, the purity of religion?

"This is an age of display. Almost every thing new pushes itself into notice, courts the public gaze, and claims the public admiration. But religion, genuine religion, is modest, unobtrusive, and humble. It seeks not public applause. It is content with the notice and approbation of God. These characteris tics constitute not only its beauty, but in some measure, its very essence. A vain ambitious popularity-seeking Christian is almost as great a solecism as a profane, or prayerless Christian. Should this spirit once enter our churches, it will sadly mar the beauty, and consume the very vitals of their religion."-App. pp. 20, 21.

These qualities which distinguish our age, still more eminently characterize our own country. Our character and circumstances give to them a special intensity; and when we add to this, that our land has been made the selected theatre of God's most extraordinary work of grace, the subject assumes additional solemnity and importance at every step. Alas! that we should have to confess and to deplore that we have been distinguished no less by our abuse, than our participation of the divine favour!

The evils of which we speak have, in former periods of our history, been of irregular occurrence, of limited extent, and of transitory reign. During their continuance, a world of mischief was accomplished; but they soon burnt out, and became rather beacons, than models to mankind. They were even overruled, in the result, as to the country and church at large, "to edify us much without intending it: they have had the effect which the great critic of antiquity assigns as the purpose of the tragic muse-that of purifying by pity and terror." This was emphatically true in the case of the memorable Davenport, and of the great excitement in Kentucky, in 1802, whose instructive history is so well embodied in the 4th Letter of the Appendix. But it would seem as if in later years a system of measures has been organized, in connexion with a scheme of doctrine and a spirit of action, which are evidently designed to give universality, duration, and supreme dominion to the influence of these evils. We do by no means intend to assert, that their promoters as a body are not men of God: we doubt not their sincerity, and even entire conviction of the rectitude of their intentions, and the

excellency of their system. Indeed, the peculiar mixture of truth and error, of piety and indiscretion, of good and evil done, while it may afford ground of hope for the leaders, terribly augments the danger of their followers and imitators. For, while any good that is done is in spite, and not in consequence of their errors, the second generation of friends may admire them in spite of their virtues, and in consequence of their errors; or, as one has said, “ copy the wart of Cicero, and the stammer of Demosthenes." It is because of the good that mingled with these evils, that the best and wisest men in the Church were so long silent on this subject. They said among themselves, "touch it not, for a blessing is in it." They cherished the amiable but fallacious hope that the evils would cease, and the good be augmented and made permanent. This silence, in its character and consequences, is well defined by good old Cotton Mather. "There was a town called

Amycle, which was ruined by silence. The rulers, because there had been some false alarms, forbade all people, under pain of death, to speak of any enemies approaching them; so, when the enemies came indeed, no man durst speak of it, and the town was lost." Corruptions will grow upon the land, and they will gain by silence. It will be so invidious to do it, no man will dare to speak of the corruptions, and the fate of Amycle will come upon the land." Such was the public crisis when the Rev. Dr. Beecher gave to the world his very noble letter on "The New Measures," dated Boston, January 1827, and published by his request in the New York Observer, in December of the same year. This letter of its kind is unrivalled. It deserves to be put by the side of Calvin's letter to the king of France. We would publish every word of it, (omitting names) if we had room; and we have attempted to give a faithful abstract of its admirable views. We feel the more pleasure in doing this, because the author had, at the time, no connexion with the Presbyterian Church, and was supposed to be capable of a disinterested and calm survey of the whole subject before him: and he declares in the letter, that he had "unquestionable evidence from eye-witnesses, and friends of the work." His opinions may be regarded, therefore, as peculiarly just:

Boston, January 1827. Dear Brother, It is some time since I have been rejoicing in the revivals of the West,-as I had hoped, the beginning of a new era in revivals, in respect to rapidity and universality.

"It is not until recently that a rumor has floated on the breeze to excite solicitude. But first by a paragraph in the Christian Regis. ter, I was alarmed; and since, by unquestionable information from eye-witnesses and friends of the work, my fears have been greatly increased, that Satan, as usual, is plotting to dishonour a work which he cannot withstand.

"I have no doubt that the promises of God, in respect to prayer, includes much more than has commonly been apprehended, and that a chief means of promoting those, revivals which are to bring down the mountains, and exalt the valleys, and introduce the millenium, is to be found in more comprehensive and correct views concerning the efficacy of prayer.

"I am persuaded too, from the close alliance between the moral and social movements of our nature, that some degree of imperfection and indiscretion may be as inseparable from a sudden and powerful revival of religion, as it is from every other sudden and powerful movement of human feeling.

"No man appreciates more highly than I do, the importance of ardent, powerful, and fearless preaching, as a means of promoting revivals; or would deprecate more than I should, a cold-hearted, timid prudence, which would extinguish zeal and weaken the power of holy men when they are constrained by the love of Christ and the terrors of the Lord.

"But the more important revivals of religion are, the more should we deprecate all needless repellences in the manner of conducting them; and the deeper the wave of public feeling which is rolled up by the breath of the Almighty, the greater is the danger, and the more injurious the effect of mismanagement. The ship pressed by mighty winds upon the mountain-wave, needs a keen eye and a vigorous arm, as a slight movement of sail or helm may produce instantaneous shipwreck.

"The following are the subjects, upon which I would suggest a few thoughts:

"The hasty recognition of persons as converted upon their own judgment, without interrogation or evidence. Revivals may become so great and rapid, as to make it proper that those experiencing a change, in the course of a day, should meet in one place not to be recognised as converts, but to be examined, cautioned, and instructed; for the more powerful and rapid is the work of grace in a community, the more certain is the existence of sympathy and all the causes of self-deception; and the more imperious the necessity of caution, unless we would replenish the Church with hypocrites, to keep her agitated by discipline or covered with shame by the neglect of it.

"Severe and repelling modes of preaching and conversing with stupid and awakened sinners.

"Assuming without sufficient evidence, that persons are unconverted. We may not possess any evidence that a person is pious, and it may be highly probable that he is not; but probabilities do not render it expedient to assume the fact as certain.

"The application of harsh and provoking epithets, which, though they may be true in some theological sense, are, as they would naturally be understood, a violation of civilized decorum and of Christian courtesy. The application to men, of all the epithets which their character in the sight of God might justify, would constitute a hell upon earth. And should such provoking epithets be hurled at each other by members of the same community, it might qualify them sooner for Billingsgate than for the Church of God.

"Another evil to be deprecated by such unusual treatment of mankind, is its tendency to produce imitators, who, without the moral power, will offer the same provocation, and be treated by an indignant community as the seven sons of Sceva were treated by the unclean spirits. Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye?'

"The laws of the human mind are not to be outraged in preaching the Gospel, or the depravity of the heart needlessly roused and brought out into virulent action against man and God. There is impediment enough in man while the rage of his enmity sleeps, to forbid the exciting of its extreme violence, and enough to inspire compassion for the sinner, without involving him in new disabilities by arraying against him the exasperated power of his depravity; and if some are saved notwithstanding, there is no rea son to doubt that many are destroyed by such treatment, who might otherwise have been saved.

"Female prayer in promiscuous assemblies.-First, it is no where commanded. Secondly, it is no where authorized, either by precept or example. Thirdly, female prayer in promiscuous assemblies for worship is expressly forbidden. I suffer not a woman to teach nor to usurp authority over the man ; but to be in silence.'

"Bold, or imprudent expressions in the ardour of preaching, or under the provocation of opposition, or in the delirious exultation of spiritual pride."

"Language of unbecoming familiarity with God in prayer.Such a thing is possible in good men, but it is piety degenerated and mingled commonly with carnal affection or spiritual pride. No frequency of real spiritual access and communion with God, can possibly breed irreverent familiarity. For a man, then, to talk to his Maker about men and things, in the dialect more familiar and divested of reverence than a well-educated child would adopt, in addressing an earthly parent, is utterly inadmissible.