regarding with a cold heart, and an unhelp ing hand, the necessities of other churches? Can there be no love to God in the individual professor, who hath this world's goods, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion against a needy brother? And can churches practise towards churches the same hardhearted parsimony and be guilt less? Or must we draw the alarming inference, that the love of God dwelleth not in churches, if they disregard the afflictions of destitute churches and withhold the ne essary aid? Is it our duty to send the Gospel to the destitute in the new settlements in other States, and to the heathen in other lands; and can we be at liberty to witness as idle spectators, the extinction of sister churches, and the return of heathenism at home?" p. 21. "The consociation of the churches of this State, in the year 1708, is an express recognition of the relation which churches bear to each other, according to the Gospel, and a voluntary, implied engagement to fulfil towards each other all righteousness. Nor have the feelings or the duties of this relation utterly ceased, but they are feeble and limited in their practical influence. Sister churches have been overrun with error-divided, broken down, and even annihilated, and nothing but good advice and good wishes has been interposed. Instead of a general lamentation, that a light in Israel should be put out, it is not known, to many churches in this State, that such calamities have come upon us. But they have come. There are grievous desolations in this State: societies might be named, where the church is extinct and the house of God in ruins: The blasts of winter rave through it, the flocks of summer find a shelter in it. The Sabbath is a holiday; The authority of revelation has ceased with many, and, by others, is employed to sanction doctrines, not less destructive than atheism. Preachers are patronized, whose object it is to keep the audience Laughing by ridicaling the ministers, aud the doctrines of the Gospel. A revival of religion would be regarded with as virulent enmity, as Jews or Pagans regarded christianity. There are, in this State, districts as far from heaven, and, without help, as hopeless of heaven, as the Pagans of Hindostan or China. Will the churches sleep over such ruins? Can nothing be done to repair these desolations of many genera tions?" p. 23. We would not enter here into the many and forcible arguments which urge friendly churches to consociate. These paragraphs remind us, however, of one advantage of consociation, at which we will just hint. What church, that watches over its own perpe tuity, with the care it ought, and that is sensible that, like every association of men, churches too are mutable, will not wish, in the day of prosperity, to guard against future reverses; and attach to itself, by express compact, the friendly assistance of sister churches? Every church indeed depends on the King of Zion for its continuance and purity. But what church can hope for his smiles, when neglecting the ob vious means of its preservation? When a church lies waste, who shall pity her? Relief, if God grant it at all, will come through some church on earth surely. How much greater then her security, had she cultivated the friendship of sister churches, in the days of her glory. A consociated church in the day of afflic tion has at least one more hold on life than one that is not. She can call to her sister churches for assistance. She can point to the records that have pledged it. Or if she be so near her last struggle as to be insensible of her fate, sister churches will not be so regardless of their engagements as to reach her no help. There will be some faithful Beecher to call on them to rise for assistance, when a light is about being extinguished in Israel. The preacher has advanced one position in this sermon, which, if not new, has at least the claim of being brought out into a more distinct light, and urged with more persuasive reasoning, than has been usual. "It is a sad mistake, too often countenanced by ministers themselves, that small congregations are unable to support the Gospel: when the fact is, that no congregation is able to do without the Gospel: for the tax of desolation is four times as expensive as the tax, which is requisite to support the institutions of religion. This is no fiction. Go to those societies which have judged themselves unable to support the Gospel;-go to parents, and demand the items squandered by their prodigal children, beside breaking their hearts by their undutiful conduct. Go to the tavern on the Sabbath day and on week days; attend the arbitrations, the courts, the trainings, the horse-racings, and the midnight revels;-witness the decayed houses, fences, and tillage;--the falling schoolhouse, and tattered children of barbarous manners, and then return to your own little paradise, and decide, whether you will exile the Gospel, as too expensive to be supported. If you are too poor to support the Gospel, you are, demonstrably, too poor to do without it. If the one would severely press you, the other would grind you to powder A few families may fatten in waste places, but it will be upon the vices of the rest. The greater portion will be poor, and ignorant, and vicious. Do you demand how a poor people can support the Gospel? Let them first appreciate the privilege according to its import ance, and then let the father, and the mother, and the son, and the daughter, and the servant, lay, weekly, a light tax upon their pride, and another upon appetite, needlessly gratified, and add to these savings another item, acquired by some special effort for the purpose; and another, as God shall have prospered their lawful industry, and the result of the whole would be an abundant supply. Any ten families, of ordinary property, could better afford to support the Gospel, than to do without it. When societies calculate what they can afford to give for the support of the Gospel, they go upon the supposition, that what they do give is so much subtracted, annually, from the whole amount of their income; a supposition, which is utterly erroneous; for, in fact, as it respects the diminution of property, they give nothing. The Gospel is not a debtor to those who support it, but they are debtors to the Gospel. It does not subtract from the prop erty of a society, but adds to it more than it takes away. It is God himself who hath said, Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the first fruit s of all thy increase, so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine." pp. 30, 31, 32. These remarks, it will be seen, bear only on the advantages VOL. XI. secured in this life; how much worse than folly, then, is it for, feeble societies to refuse support. ing an evangelical teacher, when souls, whose worth (God being judge) will weigh down worlds, are taken into the estimate. On the assertion that any ten families may support the Gospel, we are disposed to make this calculation. each, would evidently support the A tenth part of the expense of family of a minister, as well as the average of the whole ten are Now what parent supported. among them, when he receives an addition to his family, is not willing, rather than cast off the child to perish, to add one tenth, yes,or one half, to his previous bill of expenses? Why should he not then cheerfully add a tenth to his items of expense, rather than cast off its soul to perish? He willingly labors to give his children food and raiment; why should he not, to give them that bread which nourisheth unto eternal life; to lead them to those fountains that flow with ever-living waters; to array them in those robes of righteousness that will hide the sh me of their naked. ness forever? Tue remarks of the preacher, though proving such churches to be without excuse, do not exclude them from the charities of abler churches No. Men are not less the objects of Christian compassion because they heedlessly exclude themselves from the Gospel. Nor is it consistent with Christian benevolence, that the wealthy contentedly remain eased' while such are 'burdened.' We have given an imperfect sketch of this excellent ordination sermon. It abounds in val: uable matter. It suggests many subjects, on which we might 60 profitably dwell; but we wish to render our notice concise, and refer our readers to the discourse itself, leaving them to the reflections it will naturally suggest. Every minister of the Gospel, who is willing to be exclusively devoted to his work, and to possess clear views of the extent of his duties, ought to make it a pocket companion. The conciseness and antithesis of Mr. Beecher's style gives his paragraphs weight, and point, and edge. All who will take the trouble to read the discourse will find their labor amply repaid. Two or three remarks we will just suggest at concluding. Waste places are not confined to those parts of Zion, which are destitute of preaching. A church may support an instructor, and statedly attend upon his instructions, and yet be in as desolate and cheerless a state as if it never met in the house of God. What a winter is desolating the graces and consolations of that church, which weekly meets at the sanctuary, and instead of hearing a message from her God, receives for doctrine the comThe mandments of men?" preacher, out of courtesy, selects his text from the Gospel of Christ, but draws his instructions out of the wells of heathen mo rality; the maxims of Plato, Sen aca, Zoroaster, Confucius, Mahomet, any but Christ. The Holy Spirit is grieved, and with draws from such churches his enlivening influence; for the doc trines are neglected, which only he makes powerful unto salvation. Jesus, the Head of the church, frowns; for his Gospel has been supplanted by another, and his eternal glories, that should have drawn away their affections from earthly vanities, arc clouded in darkness. If so much labor be requisite to build up the waste places of Zion, especial care should be taken to prevent cultivated places from becoming waste. All which are now waste, were once cultivated; they that are now cultiva ted, may become waste. The same causes of desolations are liable to operate now, as ever; and will produce, unless arrested by grace, equally lamentable effects. Let a church, which has long been enlightened and invigorated by the doctrines of the cross, but once be turned aside to preachers of smooth things, and that church has laid the founda tion for a desolation of many gen erations. That church, which shrinks from faithful, efficient discipline, is preparing death to her graces, and threatening her existence with schism. That laborer, which an Association have carelessly introduced into the vineyard of Christ, will fend no helping hand to its cultivation, but will demand much attention from the steady laborer to keep him from mischief. He has entered the harvest, not to reap, but to prevent others from reaping. The hall-way covenant, that anomaly in religion,' that halting place between two opinions, that experiment, which Jehovah pronounces vain, to serve both God and mammon, to hold fellowship both with Christ and Belial, will as surely desolate a church now as it ever has done. Wherever introduced, the distinction between the church and the unbe. lieving world is frittered away; the graces of the children of God wither; the salutary arm of dis cipline is paralized; the Head of the church threatens, as he did once the church of Ephesus, long since desolate, to remove their candlestick out of its place, because they have left their first love. We cannot rise from the perusal of this discourse, without being deeply impressed with the desolate condition of men. Could not the pious care of the venerable men, who planted on these desolate shores churches, fair as the cedars of Lebanon, for the very purpose of perpetuating the pure worship of God, preserve them from so soon experiencing wide and ruinous wastes? Must so many hearts and lives be put in requisition to cultivate the little tracts of this earth which Christians occupy? So much be done even to maintain their ground? How then shall that great change be effect ed, which, the promise of God assures us, awaits all the nations inade desolate by sin? When shall the wastes in all lands be built-"the wastes of paganism the wastes of mahometanismthe wastes of popery-the wastes of atheism and heresy?" Though the work be great, each individual may do much. He may repair the wastes in his own heart. Were this done by every one on earth, the great change, so desirable, would be effected. He may enlist himself in those plans, which are formed to repair the wastes of a desolate world. No Christian must refuse to engage in them, nor slacken his efforts until the work is done. The hand of charity must reach the Bible to the people of every kindred, and tribe, and tongue, and nation. Christian teachers must be stationed in every settlement on earth; and all the tribes of men must weekly go to the sanctuary, to behold the beauty of the Lord and enquire in his temple. Little children in all lands, precious immortals, must receive among their earliest lessons, from parental lips and the word of God, the affecting tale of their depravity and ruin, and of their only help in the compassion and power of the Savior, who bled for them on Calvary. The cries of misery, and ignorance, and sin, that have so long ascended from the wide wastes of the fall, must be soothed, and changed into sounds, sweet as the notes of angels, the praises of redeemed sinners. RELIGIOUS INTELIGENCE. SOCIETIES FOR THE EDUCATION OF INDI GENT PLOUS YOUNG MEN, FOR THE MINISTRY. THESE Societies are founded on two well attested and deeply impressive FACTS; that a large portion of our nation is destitute of competent religious instructors, and that the ordinary supply from our colleges is utterly insufficient to meet these wants. The population of our Country swells far beyond the ordinary flow of ministers from our colleges. The wants of the country are constantly be. coming more extensive and more griev. ous. An extraordinary and vigoroas effort, therefore, is demanded in order 19 furnish our nation with suitable Christian instruction. The facts, which have been laid in va. rious ways before the Christian public, relative to the wants of our countrymen, are yet incomplete. The most pryin eye has not yet seatche put every corner of darkness in our land. But the facts, which have already been collected, need only be diffused, to interest every Christian heart in the subject. An impartial statement of facts will enable every Christian to see what claims his destitute countrymen have on his charity. Information on this subject, must be collected and diffussed. Men must see, in order to act. Objects of misery must be present to the view, before the heart will be moved to pity. The multitude of Christians in our land who enjoy the weekly instruction of the sabbath, and who, with their families, dwell daily in the midst of that great light, which first diffused its healing beams in the land of Zebulon, beyond Jordan, in Galilee of the gentiles, must behold the thousands of their fellow-countrymen, who, with their children, spend the present life without Christian instruction, and enter the future without hope; and, u less they are Christians merely in name, they will open their hearts and purses in charity. Mr. Beecher, in his Address in behalf of the Charitable Society formed in Connecticut for this object. has laid before the public as brief and comprehensive a view of the present state of information, respecting the extent of religious instruction enjoyed in our own country, as can elsewhere be found. The facts he has exhibited respecting the deficiency of evang lical instructors in our nation, his ingenious and sound calculations to shew the incompetency of any ordinary method to furnish a supply, accompanied with the most solemn appeals to the conscience and heart, have already induced many Christians to take hold of the subject and to form Charitable Societies. Their ob ject is to educate pious young men for the ninistry, who are unable to educate themselves, and thus supply the nation. They would seek the energy, and talent, and piety, that adorn so many in the poorer classes of society, and cultivate them for more prominent service in the church of God. Mr. Beecher has warned us not to keep silence on this subject. In his expressive language, "the newspaper, the tract, and nagazines must disclose to our slumbering countrymen their danger. The press must groan in the communication of our wretchedness; and from every pulpit in the land the trumpet must sound long and loud. The nation must be awaked to save itself by its own exertions or we are undone." This was uttered while his heart was warmed by the facts he had just been xhibiting. These facts have probably met the eyes of most of our readers. We Cel justified, however, without detailing then minutely, to exhibit his general es timate of the spiritual necessities of our nation. The rule with which Mr. Beecher sets out in his estimate, is, that to furnish the United states with competent religious instruction, one instructor is demanded for every thousand souls. To justify this rule, he states that in the Jewish nation the proportion was much greater; that New England in lier most prosperous days had one for 628; and that the present medium supply for Europe is one for 1000. The following reasous shew the rule to be at least moderate. "The population of the Union is so scattered, that one half of it cannot be thrown into congregations of a thousand souls; and if, in some places, one pastor can supply 1500 or 2000; in four times that number of places he can embody in his charge a number not exceeding 500 souls. So that assigning one minister to a thousand souls, as they are scattered over the face of the nation, is in fact a very small supply. But could the population of the nation be organized in congregations of 1000 souls, or 150 families, the whole routine of ministerial labor, the weekly preparations for the desk, the visiting of schools, the catechetical instruction, the weekly lectures, and family visiting, added to a vast amount of miscellaneous avocations, would completely engross the whole time of any pastor." Take this rule, then, and the 8,000,000 of inhabitants in the United States need 8,000 ministers. The number of our ed ucated ministers is not more than 3,000; of course 6,000 are at present needed, and 5,000,000 people are destitute of competent religious instruction. There may be, perhaps, 1,500 besides, who are nominally ministers. These Mr. B. strikes off the list. His reasons for so doing are, that they are extremely illiterate, despising learning, and utterly incapable of exerting that religious, and moral, and litera ry influence which belongs to the ministry. "Illiterate pastors," Mr. B. justly observes, "cannot be the patrons of schools, academies and colleges. They cannot, and if they can they will not, exalt society above their own level. Education, religious and literary, will be neglected in their hands; civilization will decline, and inimoralities multiply. If the influence of such men be better than nothing, if it do not relp on the decline caused by human depravity, it is totally incompetent to arrest it." "literate men, have never been the chosen instruments of God to build up his cause. The Disciples of our Lord, to supply the deficiency of an education, were instructed by himself for three years; and then, were miraculously taught |