where he may shake off the trammels of religion, | felt no difficulty in these transitions; and if he did and be at peace.

Do I, then, regard these circumstances with apprehension? No, I look on them with hope-I regard the entire exigencies of this great country with the assurance of hope. If there was a time for apprehension, that time is now past. Had the church remained as dormant and secure as she was even ten years ago, there might have been cause for alarm; but she is awake, and the people are awake. The Home Mission, the Education, and the Sunday School Societies, which have arisen into such mighty and rapid action, are directing chiefly their energies to the West. Missionaries in the cause of religion and education are traversing all its regions; schools, and even colleges, are springing up amidst the stumps of the smouldering forest. The wants and claims of the West are made to ring and reverberate over the East, and the North and the South; and the common attention is not summoned in vain.

Then it is not merely that public attention is awakened to these growing exigencies; the people in the more settled States are strikingly prepared to benefit those that are settling. They are so by circumstances, and they are so by character. The circumstances of the New England people, for instance, remarkably dispose and fit them to aid the West. Their soil is comparatively sterile and ungrateful, and this inclines them to emigrate. They carry with them the very institutions which are wanted by the West; they are never contented with a settlement till it has its school and its church; and their force of character-their thrift, their energy, and their morals-gives them a controlling influence by which society around them is modelled. The hand of Providence seems conspicuous in this provision, and in making it so effectual. In the whole, about 21,000 persons were delivered from the mother country on these shores; their offspring are now spread over all the States, and amount to upwards of three millions of persons!

not display the clearest judgment, he showed that he had no double or dubious motive.

It must be evident to a practised judgment, that this aptitude to become all things to all men, and all occasions, is a valuable qualification for real usefulness, in a country where the form and fashion of things, are continually varying under the influence of increasing civilization and refinement.The free institutions of the people possess just the same pliancy. The principle of adaptation, the want of which, a high authority has lately admitted to be the great defect of an Establishment, is certainly the life and virtue of the voluntary system. Whatever may otherwise be its character, its adversaries cannot disallow the inherent power of adaptation; and if they did, America would confound them. The school-house and the church are seen to accommodate themselves precisely to the state of the people, never behind them, never too much in advance. Their very form and structure pass through the gradations of wood, brick, and stone, as do the residences of the people; and their lessons are dispensed by "line upon line, and precept upon precept, here a little, and there much," as they can bear them.

Especially, the Americans have great earnestness of character; and as this is essential to all true greatness, so it is the very quality to inspire hope. I think I have never seen more of it in any people. It may not always express itself as you would desire; but its very presence and name is power.Their character, like their climate, has great decision about it; it may be hot, it may be cold; but when it is cold it freezes, and when it is hot it burns. Only let them fully apprehend the importance of an object; and you will see them move to it with a directness of mind and a scorn of sacrifices, which would surprise weaker natures.

When this is associated with Christian principle it confers a striking power of self-devotion. Endless instances illustrate and confirm this. It is this Not less does their character inspire hope. So far quality, thus sanctified, that gives to their missionas it affects this subject, it may be said that they ary his highest praise. It is this, through the form have remarkable versatility in adapting themselves of the Temperance Societies, that has astonished to the occasion, and great earnestness in moving the world with the noble example of a nation renoto their object. Their versatility and tact may pos- vating itself. In smaller circles the principle is sibly be greatly fostered by their circumstances-perpetually at work with equal power, though with this is not material to a question purely practical: less observation. I have been charmed and rethat it exists is without doubt. The difficulty which freshed with it every where. It inspires private would be felt with us, of passing from an occupa- Christians to revolve great things, and to compass tion which we had learnt, to one of which we were them by great means. I know of no country where ignorant, is scarcely felt with them. They may there are more examples of beneficence and magnot be over careful in selecting means, nor over nificence. The rich will act nobly out of their steady in the use of them; but they certainly have abundance; and the poor will act as nobly out of a degree of French facility in falling on them, and their penury. There are refreshing instances of in accommodating themselves to them. Many find individuals sustaining schools, professorships, misno difficulty in becoming students at forty, if they sionaries, and evangelists. Ministers are repeatedly should have been denied the opportunity before; making movements in which it was evident, that and it is a common thing for those who do not suc- every thing was to be sacrificed for usefulness. I ceed to their wishes in one avocation to apply to have seen the pastor at sixty, beloved and happy in another, though years should be the price of acqui- his people, give up all, and go forth into the wildersition. Forms in society, as well as personal habits, ness, because he thought that his example, more are far less fixed here; and where there is so much than his labors, might bless the West; while the freedom to move, you may expect it to abound and church has been as ready to relinquish him, vary in proportion. I knew of a gentleman who though with tears, when she has been satisfied, that had been trained to mercantile pursuits; as a it was for the good of the church catholic. I have Christian, he thought he could be more useful by seen a band of students, careless of ease and repupreaching; he renounced, therefore, his profitable tation at home, forsake the college which they have merchandise, to employ himself in public teaching. passed with honor, and covenant together to go After some pains and lengthened trial, he had rea- forth some two thousand miles, to rear a kindred son to think he had miscalculated on his talent. institution in the desert; and I have seen the aged Having made the experiment, he again became a man kindle at their enthusiasm, and support them merchant; remarking, that, as by merchandise he with his purse, when unable to be their companion. could afford to sustain five preachers better than Does a neighborhood rapidly outrun the existing himself, there could be no doubt that, as a merchant, means of religious instruction? it immediately crehe might best promote the cause of religion. He ates effort; and individuals in different churches

volunteer to give up their endeared privileges, and to go forth, as a little colony, to benefit that district.*

Woman, too, has at least an equal spirit of selfdevotion here. I have never been more impressed with this. The females move less out of their own sphere than most; but in that sphere they are employing a thousand womanly appliances in favor of the good cause. They have a loftiness of character about them which requires that they should have some great object before them; and none know better than they, how truly little means are sanctified and ennobled by great ends. They band together for all sorts of benevolent and religious uses. The maternal societies are their own, and are at once a testimony to their well-regulated as well as exalted feeling; the mother is not forgotten in the Christian, nor home in the world. They work, or collect in company, for the support of a student or a missionary; they prepare linen and other garments for the poor scholar; and all their deeds are anointed by their prayers. We have seen the spirit of piety kept alive in a church, the Old South, through a long period of darkness and heresy, by the prayers of a few females. The Foreign Missionary Society is considered to have its origin in the prayers and exhortations of one sainted woman. I have known of three excellent matrons, who, when a church was afflicted by a worldly ministry, devoted themselves to secret prayer for its and the church's renovation, and who have lived to offer praise for an answer to prayer, of which none knew but themselves.

LETTER XLIV.

MY DEAR FRIEND-Although I have written ostensibly of America, it has been always with a bearing on our own favored country; and, in conclusion, it may not be improper to refer to those mutual duties which seem to spring from their relationship, their place, and their privileges. This may, perhaps, be done under three or four such terms as-union-intercourse-peace and co-operation.

There is every reason why the churches of the two countries, and the countries themselves, should be in a state of perfect amity and union. If kindred is a cause of union, we should be united; for our relationship is that of parent and child. Never were two people so homogeneous. If interest is a cause of union, we should be united; for just what we want, they have; and just what they want, we have. With us capital is in excess, with them it is deficient; we have too many hands they have too few; we have mouths craving bread, they have corn craving mouths; we thrive as commerce thrives, they can consume all we can manufacture. If similarity is a source of unie. then we should be united; for where shall we find such resemblances? Not to speak of foreign courtries, in Wales, and in Scotland the Englishmu will find stronger differences from what is familiarized to him, than he will find in America. I cer tainly never felt myself, at once, so far from home, and so much at home, in separation from my native land. Whatever is found with us, has its counterpart there. In habit, in literature, in language, and closer than is usually thought, or than is found be religion, we are one; and in government are much tween ourselves and any other country. Theirs is, under other names, an elective and limited mo narchy, and ours a hereditary limited monarchy; and our reformations incline us to them, and theirs to us. Why should not such nations be one in af fection and in fact?

Who shall doubt of such a people? They are full of hope themselves, and they create hope in others. Every thing about them contributes to nourish it. They are born into national existence in the most auspicious times. All the lessons of wisdom which have been suggested through ages to other nations are at their command. They begin their course just where other empires have closed theirs. Their field of action is so vast, that they churches in particular, I can truly assert that they On the part of the people generally, and of the may put forth the mightiest energies, without expo- are prepared for this exercise of amity and connsure to hostile interests and barbarous warfare.dence. While I rejoiced that the churches at home They need fear no foe, and therefore they need not were showing the strength of right and noble feelembarrass themselves with alliances which might lead to conflict and bloodshed. They have the fair-ing, by sending forth a Deputation with their affecest opportunity of showing how little a Government may be felt as a burden, and how much as a blessing, silently diffusing life, liberty, and joy, over an immense community. The people are aware of this, and are ennobled by their circumstances.They believe all things, and they will accomplish all things.

Yes, they will accomplish all things, with the single provision, that they remain under the influence of religion. Religion is requisite to the welfare of any people; but they have made it emphatically necessary, not only to their prosperity, but to their political existence. The evils to which their promising circumstances chiefly expose them, are worldliness and presumption; and these can be quelled only by religion. No approaches to the experiment they are now making on the liberty of the subject, have been made with success; and they can only succeed by making religion their best ally. Universal suffrage, whatever may be its abstract merits or demerits, is neither desirable nor possible, except the people are the subjects of universal education and universal piety. AMERICA WILL BE GREAT IF AMERICA IS GOOD. If not, her greatness will vanish away like a morning cloud.

*The case of Boston, already noticed, is proof of this; and that of New-York, referred to in the Appendix, is yet more striking.

tionate overtures of communion; I was uncertain whether it would be duly returned. On first landing on the shores of a distant and foreign country, I felt all the chilling force of this incertitude. But it lasted not a day; and the longer we remained, the this Christian overture was not made too soon, it more we saw, the stronger was the conviction, that was made too late. Had it been earlier, it had been better. We could not have been more disposed to send out delegates on a mission of fraternal affection, than they were to receive them, by universal kindness and excess of love.

And this feeling is not limited to the churches, it is common to the people. The exasperation beneath which they have frequently acted, and even felt, is as nothing compared with the strong and steady under current of mother feeling, which speaks to them of common blood and common origin. They desire to express love and esteem; but they require, before they do so, to know that they shall not be despised for it. The fault, then, will be ours, if our pride shall stand in the way of our established union and fellowship.

Intercourse is at once the means and the end of union; this, therefore, should have our considerate attention. Such intercourse, I am persuaded, is of high value to the churches on either side the Atlantic; and to the interests of religion generally. It might, for instance, besides nourishing Christian affection, prevent interference in our plans of ge

neral usefulness, and it might, by mutual conference, | I hope, soon find, in the zeal and practical tact of impart to them decided improvement. It might our transatlantic friends, an adequate remedy. likewise promote a still greater resemblance between churches already so assimilated in form and discipline. Why should we not, for instance, have one Psalmody, as well as one Bible? and one method, as well as one faith? and this not by enacting a platform, but by the assimilating power of affectionate intercourse. Such fruits of intercourse would evidently give to the universal church assurance, and before the world, power.

This intercourse may be sustained in many ways. That of delegation, as we have already adopted it, need hardly be named. Only let us see that as we have opened the door, we are at least as eager as any to keep it open. It is pleasing to observe that, on our side, the Baptist community are sending forth their deputation; and that, on the part of America, we have at the present time delegates from the two great religious bodies of that country, with the promise of others. I am by no means, however, pleading for annual missions. At present we could not commit ourselves to this if we would; and if we could, I should not think it desirable. They would lose much of their significance and power, if they were too often repeated; and, from incurring considerable charge with small benefit, they would drop into desuetude. What we shall want is, when the novelty has worn away, still to look steadily to the object; and to act upon it as frequently as a Christian, and not a mercenary, motive shall suggest.

Then there is evidently wanted to correspond with such provisions, a suitable and recognised agency. This is of great importance. From what I have seen the last twelvemonth, there is quite enough to engage the hands and talents of one of our best men; and were the churches ripe for these more enlarged methods of usefulness and union, they could not do better service to the church universal than to devote a person to such engagements. At present, perhaps, there can hardly be hope of this; and in the want of it, the best should be done that circumstances may allow. Care should be had, that the agency should be such as is generally known and approved, rather than self-created; it should not be such as may be provided by private and pecuniary interests; and it should be decidedly such as will assuredly promote by the wisdom, temper, and piety of its communications, the knowledge, benevolence, and fellowship of the churches.

Why should not more than this be done? Is it not time that the churches created an agency by which they might hold communion and communication with kindred churches of whatever name, or whatever place? Why should not the churches of the European continent, for instance, which are reviving from papal oppression, or a dormant Protestantism, find some common centre where they might enjoy the sympathy and fellowship of all other Christian churches? Why should not the whole church become conscious of its essential one

Literary communication is another mode of inter-ness, by its sympathy with all the parts? and why course commending itself to notice, because it may be always in exercise, and is attended with small expense. The churches there know very little of the state of religion with us; and we know still less of them. Great advantage would arise to both by a free and enlarged communication. Nothing can be more interesting to us than the state of religion in that land, placed as it is in new and untried circumstances; yet, up to the present time, nothing of value, or nothing that may be relied on, has been reported to us. Churches that are in all essential points one, have nevertheless been so absorbed in their own estate, and so little animated by the spirit of their Founder, as to remain not only without fellowship, but almost without the privity of each other's existence.

To sustain this intercourse with the best effect, we want accredited organs and agents. There should be, in both countries, some one periodical instrument, known and approved, by which every thing important to one body may be readily imparted to the other. With us, the Congregational Magazine, with decided arrangements to that end, might perhaps be made to answer for this duty; but in America there is at present nothing that meets this case. They have papers, and religious papers in abundance; but, because they are so abundant, they are limited in circulation. If, for instance, we desired to make a communication to the churches of New England, there is at present no recognised organ by which it could at once be done. On this account, a letter addressed to them generally, and not to the churches associated in a particular State, was actually passed from association to association, each one expecting the other to answer it, and no one deeming itself qualified to that end. According to existing provisions, it would require that a communication should be made to at least six different parties, to secure its circulation in the several States. If the like intercourse is sought with the Presbyterian churches, not less than four instruments must be employed; and, after all, it loses much of the power which might be derived from an accredited medium. This is an evil that will,

should not the parts gather vigor and assurance by their felt connection with the whole? And why, as this intercourse advanced, should it not lead to personal conference and fellowship? Why might there not be a triennial or quinquennial convention, by delegates of the leading religious bodies in America, and of the reformed churches in England, Holland, France, and Germany, for the purposes of promoting a community of faith, harmony, and love, and of energetic and combined service for the redemption of the world? I can see no greater difficulties in the way, than those which have been overcome in the existing intercourse with America. I can see the highest advantages accruing to the interests of true religion, by its direct influence on the church, and by its indirect influence on the world. Without precisely determining method, the times call for movements of this comprehensive order. Romanism is one; Mohamedism is one; and Paganism is one; but we are not one. And until we become one in a different and better sense, the world will never be convinced, the Redeemer will never be acknowledged, and the subtle combinations of heresy and sin will never be destroyed.

To enjoy the intercourse we seek, peace must be maintained. The native of either country cannot possibly visit, and become associated with, the inhabitants of the other, without deep lamentations that ever war should have existed between them. The resemblances are so great, the connections are so close, the interests so much in common, as to give to conflict all the horrors of civil war. If, in an ordinary case, war, not sustained by the plea of extreme necessity, is homicide; in this case it is fratricide.

Another impression I could not help receiving while in this country. It is, that if the religious community here, and the religious community there,

* On the subject of intercourse with America, some facilities might be granted by the Government. It is painful to find that the transmission of letters and books meets with so little obstruction on one side of the ocean, and so much on the other.

this high service; so much so, indeed, as to indi- together. In this connection, one and one make cate that it is consigned to their hands. Where more than two; they exert a triple force against shall we find two nations placed so advantageously every opposing obstacle. on the surface of the globe to this end? Where shall we find them in possession of so much of the world's commerce, which is a direct means to this end? Where shall we find a people whose civil and religious institutions are so prepared to bless mankind? And where shall we find any people who are so ready, by desire and effort, as these, to bestow whatever makes them distinguished and happy upon all other nations? Blot out England and America from the map of the world, and you destroy all those great institutions which almost exclusively promise the world's renovation; but, unite England and America in energetic and resolved cooperation for the world's salvation, and the worldness would not create fear, but admiration and con

is saved.

It is not only important that they should render these services; they should render them in union. It should be felt, that what the one does, the other virtually does also; and the very names, indicating the two people, should be a sort of synonyme, which might be applied to the same works. The service is arduous; the difficulties are great; and the adversary of liberty, light, and religion, should be suffered to gain neither advantage nor confidence, by regarding us as separable. We shall have more relative and more real power, by acting

Here, then, is the province of these two great countries. They are to consult, act, and labor in union for the conversion and blessedness of the world. For this they are made a people; for this they are evangelized; for this they are privileged, and blessed themselves. Theirs is no common destiny; and theirs should be no common ambition. They are to find their greatness, not in the degradation of other nations, but in raising them to an elevation of being which they have not known. They should rise from the patriot into the philanthropist, and express love to man from love to his Maker. Great as they then would be, their great

fidence; and He who made them great would not withhold his approbation.

Let them look to this! Let no one "take their crown." Let the man that would enkindle strife between them, be deemed an enemy alike to both countries. Let them turn away from the trivial and the temporary; and look on the great, the good, the abiding. Let them faithfully accomplish their high commission, and theirs will be a glory such as Greece, with all her Platonic imaginings, never sought; and such as Rome, with all her real triumphs, never found.