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duced, no time should be lost on the part of Christians in providing to erect the standard of the cross on every vacant spot, and sustain the labours of those who bear it, until the knowledge of the glory of God shall cover the earth, as the waters do the sea. The work is advancing; and are you willing not to have a part in it? If we can suppose that an immortal spirit has, after leaving the body, any knowledge of the affairs of this world, which is at least possible, what will be the feelings of those parsimonious professors of religion, who have neglected the missionary cause, that they might die rich, and leave an earthly inheritance to their children? When they shall be pointed to the desolate wastes which they might have been instrumental in rendering fertile, and listen to the dying agonies of the multitudes whose way through death might have been lighted up by the Gospel hope, had they done their duty toward introducing it among them; and mark the feuds and animosities among their children, rendered parsimonious by their example and the inheritance left them, will they not seek a place to weep over their past neglect; or, rather, receive their portion where there will be weeping and lamentation for ever? And will not their knowledge of the success God is pleased to give to the labours of his people in the missionary cause, and the extent to which small means are rendered effectual in kindling up the spreading fires of reformation among the destitute and wretched sons of men, tend much to augment their condemnation and misery? While on the other hand, those who shall have done their duty in this matter, when they shall see the redeemed coming from every part of the world, to join in the song of the Lamb, and shall know that their charitable efforts have been instrumental, either directly or remotely, in bringing any of them to the knowledge of salvation, will it not be a source of joy to heighten their felicity in the world of glory?

Let me solicit your support of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in consideration of the vast amount of good which may be accomplished by small means, under the direction of that society. I say not this with any invidious intention, but only for the purpose of encouraging those who have only small means, not to withhold what they can spare, whatever may seem to be the comparison between the apparent scantiness of the means and the vastness of the object to be accomplished. It has been insinuated by some, that as the means for supporting benevolent institutions are less abundant in the Methodist Episcopal Church than in some others, it would have been better for them to have amalgamated, in promoting the cause of benevolence, with others. For the same reason I think the reverse. If the money be not in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the economy is there. Methodists have been used from the commencement to the practice of a rigid economy. So far as single men can be obtained for missionary stations, one hundred dollars, with a trifle in addition for necessary travelling VOL. II.-April, 1831.

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expenses, is all that is required for the support of a missionary a year. And those who have families receive only a proportionate increase of allowance for the support of their families. This is in perfect keeping with the entire economy of the church, and affects all its institutions. Now what church, in whose service the most active and efficient men in our country are employed on such terms, ought to be left destitute of means efficiently to prosecute the cause of missions? And who among us, having any regard whatever to that cause, would prefer to be united with, and pay their money to other institutions, in which such economy has no place?

Finally, brethren, let me plead with you, one and all, to enter spiritedly into this work. Begin by making yourselves acquainted with the true condition of the Heathen, and cherishing a spirit of Christian sympathy for them. Let it be seen what estimate you put upon religion, by the concern you show for those who are destitute of its consolations. You can at least pray for them. And as you pray for them, in sincerity, your concern to relieve their wants, and send them the Gospel, will increase. Consider what your anxiety is for the individual, the relative, or particular friend, whose case you always remember when you go to a throne of grace. What would you not give, of your earthly substance, to effect his salvation? Let the church unite in praying, statedly and regularly, for the conversion of the Heathen; and let every member take part in this duty; then will they begin to feel a more lively interest in this cause. As the harvest is great and the labourers few, we are instructed to pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth more labourers. But we are not enthusiasts. We know that it is for him to qualify the men, and make their duty plain; to comply with the duty, belongs to them. In this we rejoice, however, that he does raise up men, as his work requires, who are willing to sacrifice all the endearments of life, and to die pleading with sinners to live for ever. The same power which qualifies one man to go into the harvest, by intellectual and spiritual endowments, qualifies another to aid in sending him, by a bestowment of worldly substance. And it is equally enthusiastic to suppose that God will carry on his work without the one, as without the other. cause should we have to mourn, if no ministers were raised up for this work? And so also, if means were not furnished by the Author of every good and perfect gift, to support them in their labours, it would be cause of deep lamentation. As God has fur

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nished the church with both, it remains for the church to bring both into requisition. We do not ask you to give your money to qualify ministers for their work, but only to afford them the necessary means of support in it. If men can be found who will devote themselves to a life of sacrifice and self denial, and to preach the Gospel to the destitute, receiving only the scanty allowance our church gives its ministers for support, can it be that such support will ever

be wanted for any missionary who can be advantageously employed, while so much temporal and spiritual prosperity attends us? May we be permitted to know how much interest you feel in the salvation of sinners, and how sincerely you pray that the Lord would send labourers into his harvest, by the zeal you manifest in performing the part assigned you in the work? Union of effort is necessary. No one individual can sustain the whole burden. God has ordained it otherwise, that every one may have a part in the glorious work, whether he have much or little to give. Remember the notice the blessed Saviour took of the widow's mite, and banish the foolish idea, that because you have but little to give, it is not of much importance whether you give it or not. This is the grand fault which occasions perhaps nine tenths of our vast deficiencies. Determine first, conscientiously, how much it is your duty to give, and then be sure and give it. If your circumstances be so poor, that you cannot give more than three cents a year to this specific object, make it a matter of the more importance that that amount be not neglected. Give it its direction, through some branch or auxiliary; or, if you can have access to neither, by some careful hand, toward the general treasury: and give it such a direction as you will be sure it will not lose its way. And let your prayers accompany it. Banish also the idea that applications for money, to sustain the cause of the Gospel, are inconsistent with your religious feelings, on class meeting occasions, or any other. If your religious feelings are right, and embrace a just sense of duty, and a willingness to perform it, a lively interest in procuring the means to send the Gospel to the destitute is as surely mingled with those feelings, as a spirit of prayer for their salvation is. In strict conformity to this sentiment, Methodism commenced its glorious career. With the voice of free grace, proclaiming salvation to all the lost sons and daughters of Adam, was also mingled the voice of appeal to the people of God, to aid in sending the Gospel of this salvation to the ends of the earth. Men and brethren, help!' said the venerable Wesley, Was there ever a call like this since you first heard the Gospel? Help to relieve your companions in the kingdom of Jesus, who are pressed above measure. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. Help to send forth able and willing labourers into your Lord's harvest: so shall ye be assistants in saving souls from death, and hiding a multitude of sins. Help to propagate the Gospel of your salvation to the remotest corners of the earth, till the knowledge of our Lord shall cover the land, as the waters cover the sea.' Listening to this call, as embracing a part of their religious duty, others have aided in sending forward the Gospel, according to their means and our wants, until it has overspread our land. In the same spirit we are called on to aid, according to our enlarged means, and the greater wants of others, in sending it still forward to the destitute in other regions. We shall be unworthy of the name of Methodists, if we be found defi

cient in this matter. If we wake up to our duty, then will God bless and prosper us; for he that watereth, shall be watered also himself.”

EDUCATION.

Review of the Journal of the Proceedings of a Convention of Literary and Scientific Gentlemen, held in the Common Council Chamber of the City of New-York, October, 1830.'

NEXT to religion itself, and perhaps to civil order, there is no one subject that we can bring before our readers, of deeper or more universal importance than that of Education. If any who read this first sentence shall think it extravagant, we beg that they will not therefore throw down the article, or turn away from it, but do us (and we hope themselves also) the favor to read on. Its subject is one in which every individual is interested: every parent and every child; every brother and every sister; every Christian and every citizen. It embraces within its broad and comprehensive grasp the entire community, and spreads itself over the whole interests of man, from the cradle to the grave,-in time and in eternity. "The great design of a liberal education,' says the late excellent and judicious Dr. Benjamin Rush, 'is, to prepare youth for usefulness here, and for happiness hereafter.'

That education is uncongenial with, or unfriendly to religion, or to any solid and substantial interest of man, is so far from being true, that it can have been only in ignorance, or in knavery which preys upon ignorance, that such a sentiment ever had an origin. That it should continue to be cherished in this age of the world. and of Christianity, and above all in this country, would be a reflection so deeply disgraceful, that we are anxious to give the fullest and most practical proof of its utter falsehood; and at the same time, to throw around our own communion, especially, a still stronger guard, against the possible admission or propagation of a sentiment as well so degrading in itself, as so pernicious in the consequences which it must inevitably draw after it. That ignorance is the mother (or the nurse) of devotion, of sound morals, of civil or religious liberty, or of individual, domestic, or social happiness, is an idea worthy of the dark superstition, or of the (if possible) darker craft, in which it was engendered, and has been fostered; but it is not the doctrine of Christianity, or of Methodism. It is as diametrically opposite to the one as it is to the other.

We cannot indeed be surprised, for it is not surprising, that the systems of education heretofore mostly in use, and still much too generally so, have had to encounter both the apathy of prejudice, and the actual resistance of direct hostility. It has not been, how

ever, to true and useful learning that even the great body of the people have ever manifested any opposition; but to that empiricism of pretenders, who have substituted for learning the formality of spending in halls of learning, so called, a specified time, in passing through certain mechanical forms, in order to acquire, as a matter of course, the mystic sheepskin,' and to palm that upon the world, and upon the Church, as an unquestionable proof of learning, and, above all, as an indispensable if not a sufficient passport to the Christian Ministry! It is from such literary quackery, and from such attempts to forge for them and to fasten upon them monkish chains like these, that the people, and especially Christian people, who have not so learned Christ, recoil in disgust,—and justly. "The common people,' as Dr. Rush remarks do not despise scholars because they know more, but because they know less than themselves. A mere scholar can call a horse or a cow by two or three different names, but he frequently knows nothing of the qualities or uses of those valuable animals.' It is the confining the idea of learning to that sort of education,-this wall of separation erected in her temple to bar out the body of the people,-that we wish to demolish. We wish to throw open the inmost doors of the temple to the whole community; to let them taste as well as see the rich repast within, and thereby to make them, from practical and fruitful experience of its excellence, the fast and steady friends and supporters of all liberal and truly useful knowledge.

But here a question may perhaps be made as to what is useful. On this question we are aware that there may be sentiments as various as the circumstances of individuals, and according as their own education, and their subsequent associations, pursuits, and habits, have rendered their field of experience, observation, and reflection, more or less extended or contracted. In the volume before us there is a beautiful and valuable passage on this point, in a paper communicated by Dr. Lieber, of Boston. It is in answer to an objection made by certain Scottish economists, that the truly useful or professional lectures, (in universities designed for professional education, after a college course has been finished,) would be attended numerously, and would afford a decent income to the professors, whilst those which are not attended so numerously are proved, by this very fact, not to be needed. In reply, Dr Lieber says,

'It would lead me beyond the limits of the present subject, were I to give my views respecting that word useful, so popular in our time, and, in my opinion, so often misunderstood, so vaguely applied; a word, which indicates something so powerful in respect of all the lower branches of human concerns, and is so devoid of meaning, wherever we elevate ourselves above that point. But it is necessary for me to state, that utility, in the meaning in which it is taken most commonly, that is, as turning directly to account, ought by no means to be the sole standard in establishing a university, nay, not even the

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