understood, however, to intimate, that the mass of Christians in our country have done their duty, in these various ways; or that they have any correct views of what their duty is;—of its extent, its urgency, its universal obligation. Though individuals can be pointed out, whose minds and hearts are greatly enlarged, whose plans are comprehensive and well-devised, and whose principal aim is to benefit their fellow-creatures, the great body of professing Christians are yet to be awakened, roused, informed, and rendered zealous and active in the various works of love and mercy, which distinguish the days in which we live. The first thing which they need, after having their attention excited to the subject, is, that the scriptural wants of mankind should be exposed to their view. For this purpose the sermon before us is very useful document.

The text is, Isa. xxxii, 8. But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand.

The design of the preacher was to consider the two propositions of the text. The first is explained, both as a definition and as a prediction. This division of the subject led to a very interesting diseussion concerning genuine liberality; that liberality which consults the permanent interests of men;-the liberality which distinguishes the Gospel, from its first origin in the divine counsels to its annunciation on earth, and during its promulgation to our fallen race through every age to the final consummation.

Under the second head of discourse, the character of the liberal man is thus described:

"The truly liberal are joined to the Lord in one spirit, and will stand in his strength, and in his love forever. In obedience to the Gospel, with a renovated heart of penitence, faith, and love, they have given themselves to him; have presented their bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, and consecrated all that belongs to them, to him and his cause. This was their first truly liberal act; and by this their character, and their destiny, were determined for eternity. By this decisive act, their feet were fixed upon a ROCK;-upon "the sure foundation, which God hath laid in Zion;" and on this Rock they will abide forever. By this act they obtained a standing in the everlasting covenant of grace, as heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ: in that kingdom of righteousness and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, which shall never be shaken; but shall rise in excellence, and blessedness, and glory, through interminable ages. In this divine kingdom their inheritance lies. Here their treasures are deposited; and here their hopes are fixed:-treasures, which shall never fail; hopes, whose consummation is sure." pp. 16, 17.

"In the final day, he shall stand:-stand amid the terrors of a burning world, without dismay; amid the awful solemnities of the judgment-seat, with unspeakable joy. And in the great city, the holy Jerusaleni, amid the countless myriads of the redeemed, out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, in promoting whose salvation he was permitted to bear a humble part, he shall stand before the throne of their adored Redeemer; and walking with them in His light, he will see the good of His chosen, will rejoice in the gladness of His nation, and will glory with His inheritance, with ever fresh and ever increasing wonder and delight, forever and ever." p. 18.

The following exhibition of the necessity of preachers, in order to disseminate and perpetuate the Gospel, is particularly worthy of

attention at the present time. It has become a popular notion, to a considerable extent, that if the Bible be sent to those who are destitute of it, all is done which benevolence requires. But this notion has nothing to support it, either in Scripture, or in the testimony of experience. No instance can be produced of a nation, or a smaller community, having been converted to Christianity by the Bible alone; nor even of a church being preserved in the credible profession of religion without the labor of ministers of the Gospel.

"It is by the instrumentality of Gospel ministers, that Divine Wisdom has appointed to evangelize the world; and it is utterly vain and repugnant to the revealed mind of God, to expect the nations to be "discipled," or brought into the saving truth and grace of Christ, in any other way. The ministers of the Gospel must indeed be supplied with means and helps for their work. Bibles must be distributed, or otherwise spread, by them, or by others, in all lands, and among all classes of people; schools for the education of children and youth, must every where be established, under pious and capable instructors; and various other helpers and means must be extensively employed. But the great work will never be effected, without a competent number of able and faithful ministers. Without them indeed the Bible will never, to any adequate extent, be dispersed, or made known; without them the holy Book even where it is, or might be, possessed, will be but little read, but little understood, but little felt; without them the attention of mankind, engrossed as naturally they are with the things of this present world, will not be excited and engaged to the concerns of religion and the world to come. Without able and faithful ministers, in fine, churches will not be duly established; the nations will not be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; the worship of God will not be maintained and attended; His sacred institutions with which the promise of his renovating grace is connected, will not in any part be observed, agreeably to his revealed and most gracious will." p. 19.

The concluding part of the Sermon is occupied with some very interesting calculations, nearly the whole of which we quote. We would first observe, however, that the computation, adopted by Dr. Worcester, has been objected to, on the assumption, that there are more than 2,000 well qualified ministers in the United States. Admitting the fact to be so, we should insist, that full 6,000 are now wanted in addition to the present number of faithful laborers; for, in the first place, 1,000 souls are a sufficient number to demand the labors of one man, in the most populous towns and districts; and, secondly, in the less populous districts the spiritual instruction of 500 souls would be a sufficient charge for any minister. We do not say, that there ought to be as many religious congregations in our large towns, as there are thousands of people; but if it should be expedient, in some instances, that two, three, or even four thousand persons should belong to a single congregation, it would be expedient that such a congregation should enjoy the services of two, three, or four good ministers. Nor do we say, that every minister of the Gospel should statedly preach. It might greatly conduce to the promotion of religion, in some congregations, to support one minister, who should ordinarily be expected to preach, and another, who should preach occasionally, but whose principal employment it should be to visit the sick, attend funerals, VOL. XIII.

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conferences, and religious meetings for inquiry, and to train up the children of the congregation in a regular course of catechetical instruction. We now proceed to the extracts:

"Of ministers of the Gospel, however, able and faithful, there is a lamentable deficiency. It has been estimated that 8.900 ministers would be no more than an adequate supply for the people of the United States: that the present number of competently educated ministers of all denominations does not exceed 2,000; and therefore that 6,000 more are wanted. The estimate has been made on the principle of allowing one minister to every thousand souls. The alarming deficiency, instead of being lessened, is from year to year increasing; as the vacancies made by death and the increase of population annually exceed, in proportion, the number of those who come forward for the supply. These serious facts cannot fail deeply to affect every heart, that wishes well to our country, and to the immortal interests of mankind. Others, however, still more deplorable, demand to be considered.

"Of the 800 millions of souls, which the earth is computed to contain, not more than 200 millions even bear the Christian name. The remaining 600 millions are groping in thick darkness;-are immersed in deep corruption;are perishing for lack of knowledge. Of this commiserable portion of the human family, were a division to be made among the nations of Protestant christendom, according to their respective numbers, and abilities for supplying the means of salvation, not less, certainly, than 100 millions would fall to the share of our own nation! What number of Christi in Missionaries then ought we to send to them? What would a judicious and truly liberal man deem an adequate number for the work of evangelizing our part of the heathen world-100 millions of our perishing fellow beings? Would he say that one to every 20,000 would be too many?-But one to every 20.000 would amount to 5,000 missionaries. Even in the proportion of one to 50,000, a proportion which the liberal heart would bleed to mention as an adequate supply, no fewer than 2,000 missionaries to the heathen are demanded of this nation. Is any one startled at this statement? Let such an one be intreated to ponder the subject deeply.

"About two hundred years ago, the Lord, in his sovereign goodness,planted our fathers in this good land; driving out the heathen before them. Under his gracious care, a little one has become a great nation, richly endowed with temporal blessings, and with advantages for obtaining durable riches and righteousness. Upon this nation, thus eminently favored, the momentous command has been, for two hundred years, continually pressed by all the authority and pathos of infinite Love, Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. And what has this nation done in obedience to this high command? Our fathers have told us of the apostolical Eliot and Mayhews. In later times we have had our Brainerd, Kirkland, Sargeant, and Blackburn. And we have now ten or twelve good and faithful men, we trust, employed as missionaries to the heathen. This is the

amount!

"Are we then, at this late day, with these awful facts pressing upon our consciences; are we still disposed to postpone the work of evangelizing the heathen; because, alas! notwithstanding our eminent advantages, our own country is yet very inadequately supplied with the stated preaching of the Gospel, and multitudes of our own countrymen are lapsing into heathenism? My friends, may not our long, ungrateful, selfish, and hard-hearted disobedience to the ascending Redeemer's parting command, be one principal reason of the present affecting state of things?-Surely no truly liberal person,on due reflection, will suggest,or indulge a doubt, that it is as really our bounden duty, and a duty as instantly pressing, to supply our just proportion of missionaries to the heathen, as to provide the requisite number of ministers for our own country. No such person can doubt, that it is as urgently important that there should be one missionary to every 20,000, at least to every 50,000, of the poor heathen, who are absolutely destitute of the means

of knowing Christ; as that there should be one minister to every 1,000 souls in this Christian land, where even the most necessitous are not without very considerable means.

"Upon an estimate, then, so very low, that it cannot be mentioned without extreme pain, at least 2,000 missionaries for the heathen must be added to the 6,000 ministers wanted for our home supply; making in the whole 8.000! This, it is confessed, is a great number; but is it too great to be thought of?" pp. 20-22.

After inquiring whether a sufficient number of young men can be found, of suitable qualifications to be educated for the ministry, Dr. W. proceeds to another inquiry:

"But can we support the expense?—If we had now 8,000 ministers settled in our country, and 2,000 missionaries employed in heathen lands; allowing to each settled minister 500 dollars, which exceeds, undoubtedly, the average salary of our present settled ministers, and to each missionary 666 dollars, the actual stipend of our married missionaries in India; the total expense of supporting the whole would be 5,333,000 dollars: less than a sixth part of what is annually expended in our country for ardent spirits! Might not one sixth part of the expense for ardent spirits well be spared from that enormous and destructive consumption, and applied to the best and most important of all objects?-One sixth as much for saving men, as for destroying them!

"Another resource claims very serious attention.—In ancient times a tenth of all income was sacredly devoted, for pious and charitable uses. This part of religion was not of Moses; it was practised by Abraham and Jacob, and probably by all the patriarchs; and may well be supposed to have originated in at least an intimation from the sovereign Lord of all, that it would be no more than a suitable expression of allegiance and homage to him. Under the Mosaic economy, besides the tenth of all for the maintenance of the Priests and Levites, a tenth of ye remainder was required for other sacred and benevolent uses; together th many free-will offerings, for various occasional purposes. That economy indeed, is abolished; yet it does not appear that the original tenth, which was from the beginning has ever ceased to be a suitable and acceptable portion to be held sacred to the Lord, Nor should we doubt, that, were it thus held, and charitably and religiously applied, by the people of this land, the Lord would "open to us the windows of heaven, and pour us out a blessing, that there should not be room enough to receive it."

"If then we take the average income of the free, white families of this nasion at 300 dollars, which is much less than an estimate of no very doubtful data would make it; and compute the families 1,400,000 which probably is not far from the true number; one tenth of the whole will amount annually to 42 millions of dollars. Let this then be the estimated fund for pious and charitable uses; for the maintenance and advancement of the Gospel, and for the relief and help of the poor. The poor's tax, in the United States at large, is estimated, at less considerably than a million and a half. If to this we add three times the sum for private charities, which undoubtedly is much more than what is actually contributed, we shall take from the general fund only six millions of dollars; leaving still 36 millions for religious uses:more than six times as much as the estimated expense of supporting 8 000 ministers at home, and 2,000 missionaries in heathen lands. And if much more than the amount of this expense might well be redeemed from a single article of pernicious consumption; what might not be saved from all the various items of worse than superfluous expense.' pp. 22-25.

On the whole, this is an excellent sermon, and well calculated to shew the need of Christian exertions, with a constant regard to the

wants of our own countrymen and of the whole human race. The preacher has avoided a commor fault; that of exalting the particular charity for which he pleads at the expense of other charities. He takes a wide range, and would befriend every good institution, especially every one which has in view the salvation of immortal beings.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY FOR AFRICANS.

THE Synod of New York and New Jersey have recently appointed a Board of Directors to establish and superintend an African School, for the purpose of educating young men of color to be teachers and preachers to people of color within the United States and elsewhere. The Board met, soon after the appointment, and chose the following officers; viz.

The Rev. JAMES RICHARDS, D. D. President.

The Rev. EDWARD D. GRIFFIN, D. D. Secretary.
JOSEPH C. HORNBLOWER, Esq. Treasurer.

The Board also published the following well written address; an address which we re-publish with our best wishes for the object, and our warm approbation of the manner in which it is brought forward.

THE ADDRESS.

By computations founded on the lags information, there are in Africa and its islands twenty millions of the proper negro race, besides thirty millions, who differ from them more or less in complexion and features. There are supposed to be a million and a half of the same people in the United States; and a million and a half more may be reckoned for the Floridas, Mexico, South America, and the West India Islands, to say nothing of New-Guinea. Here then is a vast world of twenty-three millions of souls, (besides the thirty millions before mentioned;) a population equal to that of the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, and Denmark united.

Though we are fully persuaded that to the end of the world there will remain different orders in society, it cannot be supposed that so considerable a portion of the human race, consisting of so many inde. pendent nations, and occupying the greater part of one of the four quarters of the globe are always to be regarded as made only for slaves, or are to be excluded from the blessings of Christianity and civilization during the approaching period of the millennium. In those days, which are yet to come, and which are even now at the door, the descendants of Ham, we are bound to believe, will attain to an elevation and dignity which will do away the memory of their past disgrace, and give them a rank among the polished nations of Europe und America. Africa will yet boast of her poets and orators. Eloquence pal relay on the tumid lips of, her sons, and sable hands will strike person,c bounden dand weave the silken web. On the Niger as on the Thames, of missionaill arise to the living God; and perhaps the arid sands will ters for our ofsc of barrenness repealed by the same power that will important that into a fruitful field.

every 50,000, of