Page images
PDF
EPUB

Seccombe, willingly offered themselves to the work, and after they had labored in the places assigned them more than a year, they were ordained missionaries to the natives in New England, by an ecclesiastical council of ministers and delegates of the churches convened at Boston, Dec. 12, 1733.

The missionaries, just before their ordiuation, gave their public consent, severally, to this awful promise and vow, in a

most serious manner.

"I do now in the presence of Christ, and before this assembly as the Lord's witnesses; before God, angels, and men, willingly and freely, with humility and fear, offer myself first unto the Lord, and then to the service of souls; to the work of the ministry in general, and particularly to that mission to which I deem myself called of God, by his special and singular providence, to carry the Gospel among the heathen in our borders. And I will, by his grace, so long as God gives me opportunity, humbly, diligently and faithfully, apply myself to this work of the Lord, as one that must must give an account of his stewardship." I am yours, &c. E. S. Milford, (Conn.) Aug. 1812.

P. S. Have we any account of the labors of these missionaries? How long did they continue in the service of the Society?

[blocks in formation]

of the last summer, I called upon a respectable minister, in a beautiful village, in the interior part of the country, who was blessed with a congregation that loved him, but, (as it often happens,) that loved their money better. He told me that he had discovered a way to lengthen out his small salary, by means that might be highly useful to his people, and would not entangle himself with the cares of the world. This said, he led me into a snug little room, and showed me a choice collection of religious books, mostly of the practical kind, and well adapted for the improvement of a village. "See," said he, "I have turned bookseller: and while I help myself a little, I am introducing the custom of reading, and am scattering among my people infor mation of the interesting things which are taking place in the Christian world at the present day." "The editor of the Panoplist," cried I, "shall hear of this; and it shall be his fault if half of the ministers of New England do not know it too." So, Mr. Editor, you have got to answer for it if this excellent little plan of disseminating religious knowledge and information, is not suggested to your ministerial readers. X. Y. Z.

[blocks in formation]

REVIEW.

XLII. God's Visitation of Sinful Nations; Two Sermons delivered in Colrain, on the public fast, July 23, and afterwards in Shelburne, Aug. 20, 1812. By SAMUEL TAGGART, A. M. Pastor of the Presbyterian Church in Colrain. Published by request. Greenfield; Denio & Phelps. 1812. 8vo. pp. 74.

FROM an advertisement prefixed to these discourses, it appears, 'that they were composed about nine months before they were delivered, without any reference to the occasion on which they were delivered, and without any fixed purpose of delivering them on any occasion.' These facts are of use to show, that the warnings and instructions, which the author has here embodied, are the fruit of habitual observation, reflection, and study of the Scriptures, and not the result of a hasty preparation for the solemnities of a public fast.

The text is Jer. v, 29. Shall not I visit for these things, saith the Lord? Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

The preacher offers, in the first place, "some general remarks on God's visitation of sin. ful nations, and the manner in which he visits them;" and, secondly, notices "some of those traits in our national character which go to show, that, as a nation, we are exposed to those righteous visitations of heaven."

Under the first head, he proves, by a large induction of particulars from Scripture, that the

providence of God fixes the destinies of nations; and that national prosperity and national declension and ruin are dispensed according to the moral character of nations. These positions no considerate reader of the Scriptures will deny.

Preparatory to the examination proposed under the second general division of the discourse, the author gives a cursory view of the advantages and privileges which our nation has enjoyed, justly inferring that our national guilt is enhanced by the advantages we have abused. He then proceeds to the melancholy task of enumerating our principal national sins. The first in the catalogue is described as follows:

"And here I am constrained in the outset, somewhat reluctantly I confess, to notice a feature in our national government itself, which presents to nitude; I mean its being entirely desmy view a national evil of great mag. titute of every appearance of a fea ture which can be termed religious. And as if the entire silence of the original constitution had not been sufficient to calm the fears of the nation, lest something of a religious nature, might possibly, either at one time or another, become in some shape connected with the govern ment, Congress is, by the first amend. ment since added to the constitution, any law respecting religion. This is expressly prohibited from making not merely such a limitation of the power of Congress, as to prohibit the establishment by law of any superiority, or the giving of any preference to any particular denomination tends to the subject of religion on the of Christians above another. It exbroadest ground, i. e. Congress must give no preference to Christianity

above Deism, Judaism, Paganism, the impostures of Mahomet, or even above Atheism itself. They must, by no law, act, or resolution, acknowl edge the existence of a Supreme Being, because that would be a law relating to a great and fundamental doctrine of religion with which government has no concern. According to a construction given to this article of the constitution, by high authority, we find that a bill to incorporate the Protestant Episcopal Church of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, for the purpose of enabling the soci ety the better to manage its temporal concerns; and another to bestow upon a religious society at Salem, in the Mississippi Territory, the paltry donation of five acres of the public lands, including the spot where they had erected a meeting house, both of which had passed both houses of Congress, were objected against and returned, because, by passing these bills into laws, Congress would go beyond their constitutional limits by interfering in a subject connected with religion. If this construction of the constitution of the United States be just, and it is not my present intention to call it in question, it presents a view of the religious situation of our country which is truly alarm ing Christianity is not only treated with entire neglect, but is absolutely proscribed. I see not, but agreeable to this construction of the constitution, Congress has annually violated it by electing chaplains, and giving them a trifling compensation out of the public treasury. At least, the joint resolution of the two houses, which limits the choice of chaplains to particular denominations of Christians, to the exclusion of Pagans, Jews or Mahometans, must be un. Constitutional, because it has the ap pearance of giving Christianity the preference above other supposed religions, some of which at least have more numerous votaries in the world at large than Christianity itself. Indeed, if the separation between religion and government must be so entire, I see not upon what grounds Congress possesses the power of making provision by law for the ad

ministration of oaths, as this is a sub

ject which is certainly most intimately connected with religion, and is in itself an acknowledgment of the being, omniscience, and moral gov ernment of GOD, and the accountability of man. Where there is no sense of religious obligation, no awe or reverence of a deity, no conscious. ness of his all-seeing eye, it is diffi cult to conceive of what use or importance an oath can be in any case. Government therefore cannot nounce all connexion with religion, without furnishing the means of its own destruction. But to this length does the principle in question lead PP:

us."

22-24.

re

The author then enters into an elaborate discussion of the supposed impropriety, that government should have any connexion with religion; and shows, in our opinion conclusively, that government need nof take an attitude of entire indifference to Christianity, in order to preserve civil and religious liberty. He shows. that for government to take such an attitude, is, in effect, to array itself against Christianity.

grief and lamentation with good It has long been a topic of men, that not a single feature of our national constitution should have borne the impress of the Christian religion; and that there should be so much evidence of a

disposition to be as independent of the eternal God, as of Great Britain. Whether we are guilty, as a nation, in this matter, is at inquiry of serious moment, and not to be settled by uttering the vulgar cant against bigotry, hypocrisy, and superstition.

Our limits will permit us to do little more than give a detail of the remaining topics.

The second national sin is in

fidelity, or a disbelief and rejection of the Gospel.

common

3. Profaneness. 4. Sabbath-breaking. 5. Duelling. 6. Making with the transatlantic enemies of God and religion. This last is a delicate subject, and treated with moderation and coolness.

Under the third, fourth, and fifth particulars, large extracts are made from papers in the Panoplist for February, and April, 1811, amounting in the whole to several pages. It is certainly a gratification to us, that communications inserted in our work should be approved and selected, as suited to convey solemn religious instruction, by the writer of these sermons.

We had intended to make some observations on the danger which ⚫ impends over New England from Sabbath-breaking, and on the exertions which ought to be made to avert this danger; but we must leave the subject till another opportunity shall present itself.

These sermons close with judicious practical reflections. We recommend them to the perusal of all friends of their country. The author is sometimes inattentive to his style; but his remarks are always sensible, and fraught with true wisdom.

The profits of this publication are devoted to the Foreign Mission Society in Franklin County.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

AMERICAN MISSIONARIES.

IN our last number, p. 334, we gave notice that Messrs. Judson and Newell, and their wives, arrived safely at Calcutta about the middle of last June. By the ship Tartar, which arrived at Boston on the 19th inst. from Calcutta, having left that port the 17th of September, letters have been received from the missionaries themselves. From all the letters which have come to our knowledge, it appears, that Messrs. Nott, Hall, and Rice, and the wife of Mr. Nott, arrived at Calcutta in the Harmony, on the 8th of August, having touched at the Isle of France and spent 24 days there; that they wrote home very fully from that place; [These letters have not been received that

they were well at the time of landing, except Mr. Rice, who had been slightly ill during his passage from the Isle of France; that Messrs. Judson and Newell had been notifed by government, immediately on their ar rival, that they must return in the Caravan; that they preferred a petition to government, the purport of

which is not here given; that their petition was not granted, and they were again notified that they must return in the Caravan; that they then petitioned for leave to take passage by the first opportunity to the Isle of France, which was granted; that they wrote home by the Francis about the time that they received the second order to return; [These letters have not been received.] and that Mr. Newell, (and, we presume, his wife,) had sailed for the Isle of France, about a week before the Harmony arrived, in a ship which could take no other passenger. These are the most important occurrences, which took place before the date of those which are stated in the following let ter from the three brethren who sailed in the Harmony.

"Calcutta, August 21, 1812. "Rev and dear Sir,

Through the goodness of God we are enabled to tell you of our arri val in India, and of our general health and prosperity. He has preserved us from the dangers of the sea, and hitherto from those of the climate;

and we feel the reason that we have to thank God and take courage. You will doubtless have received accounts from brethren Newell and Judson, before the arrival of this, and have learnt the course they were obliged to take. Since we have been here, we have been engaged in the process with the government, through which they have passed. We were yesterday summoned to the police; and today we obeyed, and received from the government an order to leave the country in the ship Harmony, in which we came, and were informed that the captain would be refused a clearance till he had given the gov. ernment satisfaction, that he would take us away. About an hour after.

wards we handed to the officer of the police the following paper:

""To the Honorable the Governor

General in Council.

We the undersigned, passengers lately arrived in the ship Harmony, having received an order to depart out of the country on board the same ship, beg leave to state, that agreeably to our intention, stated at the police on our arrival, of leaving the Company's dominions, we request the liberty to depart by the earliest opportunity for the Isle of France, and that therefore the Harmony may not be refused a clearance on our account. L. RICE,

S. NOTT, G. HALL."

"This petition, as far as we can judge, will be favorably answered, so that you will perceive, that our first object will be the Isle of France, whither brethren Judson and Newell had before obtained permission to go. As to our future prospects, we have now time to say but little; and hope in a few days to write you again. It will be sufficient at present to state, that our eyes fix upon Madagascar, a field immense in extent, totally unacquainted with the Gospel, to which no others are intending a Christian mission, (Dr. Vanderkemp being dead,) and which is attended with many facilities from its adjacency to, and constant intercourse with, the Isle of France, now an English

colony. To which may be added the assistance and protection offered to us by his Excellency the Governor of that Island, when we were there, provided we would undertake a mis sion to Madagascar. This circumstance had led our minds to consider this place while we there, as you will learn by our letter which we then wrote; and we now think we see in our being sent thither, in the various circumstances which attend. ed us, in the destination of the other brethren, and in the immense difficulties which lie in the way of our former plans, the finger of Providence pointing us to a place which we had not chosen, necessitous in itself, and opening to the view of Christian benevolence, likewise, a much wider scene of Pagan and Mahomedan misery.

"Our reasons for making this choice and for giving up our former intentions, and those fields of labor, which the Commissioners have more

particularly looked at, we shall hereafter more fully detail.

"Should Providence on our arrival at the Isle of France open a better prospect, than that which we have before us, (for instance, that of beginning to give the Gospel to Eastern Africa,) we shall feel free to decide, and shall be at the place from which, of all others, it will be the easiest to go to any part of the Eastern World.

At present we must wish you to direct your letters, &c. to the Baptist brethren at Serampore, by whom we are treated in the most cordial man

ner.

We feel it necessary to men. tion the great expenses which in the present state of our affairs we must necessarily incur, and the need we shall be in of remittances from Amer. ica. The rout too, by which we shall receive communications from Amer

ica, will be long, as we must receive them through Serampore in our present unsettled state. We trust that whatever is sent forth will not be misapplied by us, and that the bounty of the people of God in our native land will be richly compensated by the success of his Gospel in the Eastern world. Pray that we may labor with diligence, and wait with With the most faith and patience.

« EelmineJätka »