concern. If, then, we can take advantage of this propensity-if, by means somewhat peculiar, yet consistent with Christian sobriety, we may bring them within the reach of good influences, and by degrees allure them to the house of God and to religious associations-it is our evident duty to make the effort. The Methodists, in their early rise, did this kind of work in Great Britain, and with wonderful effect. They seemed to be raised up by Providence, for the special service of arousing a torpid church to sensation and life, when vital religion was at a point of most lamentable depression. And whatever we might object to the system of Wesley and his coadjutors, as a permanent mode of operation in an already regulated church, yet the impulse of a single will upon zealous subordi. nates, adapted it admirably for aggressive warfare upon the ignorant and vicious masses. And they have been successful pioneers in our new settlements, and have fulfilled a noble mission in all lands. Yet Wesley, Whitefield, and their associates, committed themselves to a novel course, which probably an urgent cause could alone justify. In their case it surely did. By field preaching and by breaking through the fetters of a dead formality in other ways, they revived apostolic scenes, and wrought signal triumphs-God working with them as in times of primitive Christianity. If I am asked whether I would commend out-door preaching among ourselves, I reply, that I could neither advise nor, if soberly done, condemn it. It is a work that requires peculiar qualifications, and, moreover, such an inward conviction of personal duty, and such a hallowed consecration of mind and heart, as can brook no ordinary restraints, and is ready to endure all things from love to the Saviour and the souls of men. It needs a very special call; and, in its nature, I think, must be temporary, since its success will much depend upon its novelty, appealing as it does to the curiosity of the popular mind. The exigencies of the lower classes, and of the immigrant class, may demand some such expedient. And so long as the truth in Jesus is taught, his institutions are honored and good is done, I am not disposed too rigidly to object to the ways of others because they follow not with us.

But other means, since Wesley's day, have been brought into operation, adapted, in a good measure, to meet these wants. Our Bible and Tract, and Sabbath School Societies; the city missionary and the colporteur; missionary-preaching in tents or in the large rooms of public buildings, suit the case; and, by such agencies, incalculable good has already been done. Why do Popery, infidelity, the various forms of delusion and impiety, so loudly rail at the ministry, at these societies, and such efforts, if it be not that they have had a taste of their success. What means of these kinds we have, then, let us ply with all the skill of adaptation and decision of purpose they will possibly allow. And, I think, we shall then find no great difficulty in keeping alive the curiosity and interest of the popular mind.

III. Again; our general subject may be illustrated by the fact that

LARGE CITIES ARE CENTRES OF POWER AND SOURCES OF INFLUENCE Over

surrounding regions; indeed over the whole country. Here wealth accumulates, which, proverbially, is power. Here fashion holds its court and enacts its decrees, which are submissively obeyed, to the cut of a coat, the style of a bonnet, the dressing of the hair, by the beaux and the belles of every village in the land. From Paris, London, Washington, from every capital, goes forth the legislation that controls the entire people, and, in many cases, even those on the other side of the globe. At the Bourse, at the Exchange in London, in Wall-street, are conducted the money transactions of the world. The prices of stocks, the value of railroads, your banking operations, are all settled at the broker's board. And in cities the means are sought by which all those enterprises are carried on that keep capital in circulation and provide various employments for the laboring classes. A large commercial metropolis is the great heart of the country, that beats in unison with the pulsations of every part, and sends the life-blood through every vein and artery from the centre to the extremities of the body politic. Of course all who have fortunes to make or to spend, naturally seek the cities. Here collect the young men the ardent, the enterprising-from every quarter; those of the finest talents and best habits, and those without morals or principle; and the grand object is to acquire wealth. With many, their motto is, "Get money: get it honestly if you can: but get money." Here too it is spent profusely, for pleasure or sensuality; but with equal munificence at the call of philanthropy, ungrudgingly and with wide diffusion. To show the influence of this city in this view, we may simply observe, that there is hardly a college, or seminary, or new village church erected, that does not seek help from the city. And usually they meet a courteous reception and substantial aid. The amounts annually bestowed in benevolence would surprise those who have never looked into the matter. Nor is there, as I believe, a more liberal set of men in the world than the business men of New-York.

Now all these things give importance and influence to the city. Hundreds of thousands resort to it for trade or amusement, and form a floating population far exceeding the stated numbers of many large towns. Being free from observation and the restraints of home, they are tempted to plunge into the gayeties and vices of the town. When these persons return to their homes, or when the young clerk revisits his native village, they will seek to enhance their importance in the eyes of their old companions, by a parade of city style or manners, to the overthrow of those chaste and simple virtues their fathers practiced. Or, what is worse, the corruption with which they have become infected, cleaves to them and introduces a moral pestilence into the place. Many of our beautiful rural retreats have thus lost the decent character and the modest charms they once possessed, through the encroachments of city habits.

Again; the literature of the city is the staple reading of the whole land. Here it is produced. And the penny sheet or formidable journal; the magazine, the novel, all descriptions, good and bad, to suit all tastes, and at all prices, immediately find their way to the steamboats, rail-cars, hotels, and are hawked and purchased and read from Maine to Georgia, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. It cannot be but that a decisive influence must follow. And when we consider what is the character of much of this product, how the vilest sentiments are insinuated or openly taught, what floods of sensuality have proceeded from some of our largest printing establishments, in the form of newspapers, or novels, or even the philosophical treatise, we see that that influence must be disastrous in the extreme. It is as if a destroying angel were flying through the land, breathing pestilence among its inhabitants, and touching with blight and mildew the fields rich with promise of future abundance. And when the thoughtlessness which even good men have displayed in this matter, is remarked, one is almost tempted to wish the freedom of the press restricted, that the nuisance might be abated.

It is true there is a counterpart to all this. The influence of the religious character of the city is vast and equally diffusive. It has need to

be so, to hold in check the forces of Satan, and keep alive the tone of piety in the midst of so much ungodliness. Your churches, and preachers, and Sabbath-school, and Bible and Tract operations, the Young Men's Associations, Temperance Societies, and other good agencies, are well known, and become the models of similar institutions elsewhere; they supply and their missionaries and colporteurs spread broadcast the religious literature which is to counteract the destructive effects of infidel and sensual publications, and to feed the masses everywhere with knowledge and understanding. The hopes of Christians turn to these agencies to fulfill this service. And when they at the farthest extremity of the country, consider how absolutely their own interests, as well as those of other lands are blended with the success of these societies, they surely will feel the obligation more pressing, to minister means and to encourage them by their prayers. Were our Bible and Tract Houses to sink, and carry down with them the agencies they represent, and they could not be restored, I sincerely think the calamity to the country and the world would be more deplorable, than if the millions of material wealth collected in this city were consumed. The one could be borne and recovered; the other would remove that which makes a people truly prosperous, by making them virtuous, and gives a better hope to erring man.

IV. I remark once more, that the TEMPTATIONs in large cities render evangelical efforts peculiarly necessary to guard and save the unwary. I know that temptations exist everywhere, and the depraved heart is easily inflamed. But nowhere can vice assume so bold and flaunting an airnowhere do facilities for sinful indulgence so much abound-nowhere does the tempter spread his wiles so insidiously to beguile the heedless-and nowhere can every taste find such ready gratification, with the promise of such entire secrecy, as in a large city. First, the whole arrangement of city life is fraught with danger to the moral and religious principles of even such as are most scrupulously watchful. It is a scene of worldly parade, and competition, and indulgence. All classes strive after it, or are gradually drawn into it. And as it is seen that elegant personal decorations, gorgeous furniture, equipage, state, luxurious living, require money, and that "money answereth all things," the temptation with many, to esteem its acquisition the great object of life, becomes almost irresistible. Hence the complete absorption of the mind in business; the danger of lowering the standard of piety; of forgetting the soul in the adornment of the body, its heavenly mansion in the grandeur of its earthly habitation. Hence, too, the temptation to forfeit trusts, and seize dishonest gains; to make haste to be rich by speculations and fraud. Our hotel palaces also are making sad inroads upon our habits, by inducing families to break up their separate establishments, and live in splendor, free from domestic And if domestic virtue do not suffer it will be wonderful. Think what must be the magnitude of these establishments, and what the throng to this city, and what the influence upon city and country, when the profits of one for a single year are said to exceed one hundred and twenty thousand dollars! But the amusements of a city are likewise sources of evil. Scores, from the low show shop to the magnificent museum, or theatre, may be found, where men, women, and children may be suited with low buffoonery, or moral plays, according to their taste or consciences, at all hours of the day, almost of the night. Hundreds of such receptacles are said to be open on the Sabbath, chiefly for the foreign population, where music and dancing violate the sanctity of the day, and perpetuate foreign vices among us. Hard by abound places, licensed and unlicensed, for the sale of intoxicating liquors, from the meanest groggery to the elegant saloon, where seduction sits at the door, and saith: "Come eat of my dainties, and drink of the wine that I have mingled!" And multitudes are tempted to enter, not knowing that those "ways are the ways of hell, going down to the chamber of death." The exposure of all classes, but especially of the young, of transient strangers, and of young men who come from the country to obtain positions in business, and are free from the restraints of home, is, beyond computation, dreadful. The lack of society, or love of amusement, may be so strong as to override conscience; or they may vainly imagine that their virtue will be armorproof against temptation when it comes. And they often hasten, "as a bird to the snare, not knowing it is for its life." No places can be found in small towns or villages so low, and none so grand as thousands where the flames of hell are enkindled; and no objects of guilt and ruin either so splendid or so forlorn and hopeless as those that are common in large cities. I could narrate thrilling stories of some within my own knowledge, both high and low, from country and city, whose early promise has been most woefully blighted; whose fervid course of transgression, and sad and ever-tragic ends could be traced to their ambition to figure among the rich and fashionable, or to the temptation presented by our theatres and their accompaniments: the drinking saloon, the gambling hell, vicious companions, and guilty indulgences. It requires no imagination to devise such characters, or dress out such scenes: they are, alas! too natural and too common. The reality will often be far more startling than vivid picture-fact than fiction. And when we reflect what numbers of all classes and characters collect in cities; how assiduous the tempter is; how wretchedness may seek relief or excuse in its absolute misery for indulgence, we need not enlarge on the dangers of city temptations.

But can any lover of his kind, can a Christian reflect upon these things, and not ask, is there no remedy? Can he feel that cities are not on all accounts fields demanding special religious efforts? If a man of wealth, can he fail to inquire whether a portion of that wealth, acquired in the city, should not be liberally devoted to the interests of the city? Whether his poor neighbor does not want food he can supply? Whether there is not some helpless orphan he can raise to hope and usefulness? Some widow to whom he can extend the means of preserving herself and her children from despair? Can he not inquire if his efforts may not procure the blessings of education to some youth who has talents, and only wishes the opportunity to be allowed to use them? Whether there be not some worthy young man just struggling into business to whom he might stretch out a helping hand? Whether in these or other ways he may not preserve his gold from the canker that consumes hoarded riches, and bless himself by becoming a blessing to others. Again, since the bestowment of temporal gifts is not the only mode of beneficence, nor this world the whole of man's existence, let such an one ask, if there be not some objects of religious benefaction that legitimately claim his regard. Can you not send a Bible to a destitute family? Can you not induce your neighbors to send their children to the Sabbath School, or themselves to attend the sanctuary? Can you not aid the erection of some feeble church or of missionary houses for the destitute? There is a large class among us, our foreign population, who require this aid, or they will settle and spread among us without any religious principles, and be little fitted to become good citizens, or to hand down to others our institutions which

have been planted, and can only be perpetuated by the influence of Protestant piety. But why should I multiply such inquiries? The citizens of New York have always shown a most commendable spirit on these subjects; and after the recent example of bequests to the amount of tens twenties, hundreds of thousands for religious uses, I do not fear that they are growing weary in well doing.

The City Tract Society fills one very essential department of labor, and co-operates in various ways with other associations which look to the temporal or spiritual wants of the dependent classes in our city. This society was organized in 1827, and occupies itself in the dispersion of tracts; and more especially by missionary instruction and personal address seeks to reach the destitute and bring them under the influence of regular religious ordinances. In 1852 it employed 26 missionaries, and 1,176 visitors, and the results of its labors in various ways were highly satisfactory. When you consider what an immense number of immigrants are landed in our streets (300,000 annually), how many foreigners make this their permanent abode, and how many tarry for a short time on their way to our Western States; and when you reflect who these immigrants are, how much they need religious instruction, and how certainly they will not get it by their own exertions, nor in any way except it be by some such organization, you will confess that this society has an important work to do. There is a class our regular means of grace cannot reach. They are thrown upon us by Providence from all countries of Europe, and with all kinds of religious notions; they are to make part of this great republic and greatly to influence its destinies; but still more important, they are immortal beings hastening to eternity, and they depend on us for the light that is to guide and the hope that is to save them! The appeal in their destitution is at once to the patriot and the Christian to send them help from the sanctuary, and strengthen them out of Zion. But besides these the seamen and boatmen of this commercial metropolis, the inmates of our humane and criminal institutions, and the outskirts of the city come under the supervision of this society. Now no one acquainted with New York can survey the field and not see the vast importance of just such an instrumentality to meet cases that must be met in this way or not at all. You could not, perhaps would not, do this service. Then aid and encourage such as can and will. This subject of provision for the religious wants of the destitute among us is forcing itself more and more earnestly upon the attention of our churches. And well it may when we observe what is going on. What luxury to draw away the rich from regard to religion, and what poverty and vice to deter masses from seeking divine ordinances; and then this constant tide of immigration, which obviously is giving to our city a new and foreign aspect. The result we must regard with solicitude. Yet I do not believe that either our religion or our republic is to go down in the torrent. I believe that God has prepared this people by a peculiar course of discipline for this crisis and now sends them over to us that we may bless them with religious light and civil freedom-and then they will send back to the Old World the influence that shall there work and prepare the people of the Old World to assert and enjoy the same blessings. But however that may be, our mission is not merely to possess and enjoy, but to impart and to bless. And if we be faithful we may stand pre-eminent among the nations, and be honored to grace his coronation when Jesus shall come to assume the crown and the sceptre of the millennial kingdom.