In recommending independence of mind to the clergy, our author has hit upon a cause of the prevailing evils of the day, deserving serious attention. When a young man is settled in the ministry, he finds two classes of hearers, whose errours he is to encounter, and two crosses, which he must take up. The first is the most obvious, and it is generally borne with a considerable share of fortitude and patience. He must first meet the men of the world-men who respect the name of religion, and little more; who start at its doctrines and dread its light; men who reverence the forms of religion, but have never probably felt its vital power on their hearts. Such men, conformed to the world themselves, want their minister to be very prudent and cautious. They are afraid of his fidelity and afraid of his zeal; and their constant cry to him is, like that of the royal critic of old, Suflaminardus-put on your drag chain.

In the course of a few years, however, many of these men become converted to the gospel, and accustomed to its stimulating truths. There is generated now another taste, -a morbid love of the more exciting parts of religion, a super-evangelical taste, a relish for high truths and high measures, a scorn of plain truth and humble morality-in short, a demand for what our author expressively calls the high pressure system. The minister finds the tide has changed under him; the current is running in a new direction; and it requires all his independence,-his fears of God and his superiority to the fears of man, to induce him to stem it. His people demand, not errour, but half the truth; and precisely that half of which they stand least in need. This is the time which tries the pastor's soul. He is called to take up the new cross, and face a popular atmosphere which is tinged with all the red clouds, and glittering rainbows, and rushing winds of a seeming religion. The errours of the day appear so sacred; they come from such an unsuspected quarter, and they steal on the mind by such treacherous gradations; that some are thoroughly deceived. Others, it is to be feared, allow themselves to be carried away against their own better convictions. And others still are misled by the pride of consistency,-forgetting that true consistency does not always consist in marching on one line, but in turning and wheeling in the direction where the enemy can be best faced. This is a sacred and a profane popularity; and faith in a minister will lift him above them

both. There is a religious as well as irreligious world, to which, in the fear of God, he must sometimes refuse to be conformed.

We hope that the example of Dr. Codman will be followed by every man, who has a name of weight enough to turn the scale to the side of sobriety and truth. We have often thought, that if men would consult experience, would dare to speak what they have felt and seen, we should have a more healthful public sentiment, and neither clergy nor people be hurried into measures or sentiments which their consciences secretly condemn. This discourse is a plain testimony, uttered in a most gentlemanly style-indeed the notes are touched a little too softly, though every discriminating ear will find the key-note to the tune-a testimony, we say, in favour of that truth we need, and against those errours which experience should instruct us to shun.

The author has recently published another book, of which, in closing, we will take a passing notice. From his observations during his late visit to England, he has composed a small volume, in which he rapidly takes the reader over the ground; carries him across the seas; introduces him to Rome; shows him some of the chief monuments of the antique world, making a work of more merit than many a drossy book of ten times its bulk and pretension. Particularly to the moral and religious_reader, who wishes to see the state of things among the English Dissenters, we can recommend THE VISIT TO ENGLAND, as a companion which will conduce to his amusement and instruction, without cheating him of his money or time.

ART. IV.

THE THEOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF THE PREVAILING DEFICIENCY OF THE CHURCHES IN SPIRITUALITY.

BY JOSEPH I. Foor, Cortland, N. Y.

THAT some portions of the American Churches have undergone serious changes within a few years no intelligent observer will deny. To specify and minutely describe each of these changes requires, in the judgement of the best

ecclesiastical historians, an elaborate volume. The particular change, of which we now treat, respects the character of the churches in practical piety. It has been widely noticed, that there is a dreary apathy concerning spiritual religion amongst those, who profess to be the disciples of Christ. This fact is either declared, or implied in the reports of most of our Ecclesiastical bodies. Nor does it appear, that those regions where the modern doctrines and usages have been successfully introduced, and are said to have been mighty in bringing men to salvation, are free from the evil. The members of these Churches, though for a time excited, and seeming to themselves and to incautious observers to advance beyond parallel in personal piety and in efficient plans and efforts for the conversion of men, suddenly relapsed into a state of spiritual unfruitfulness from which no effort seems permanently to arouse them. This is not the opinion merely of those who have always doubted the utility of the modern measures, and the truth of the modern doctrines. Most of those, who were the patrons of the new order of things, seem now fully to believe it.

But whatever may be their opinion generally, it is known, that the leaders of the New System are aware of the evil. The Rev. C. G. Finney in a discourse* delivered in the Chatham-street Chapel, early in 1836, thus addresses the Church, of which he was then Pastor,-"You profess that you want to have sinners converted. But what avails it if they sink right back again into conformity to the world. Brethren, I confess I am filled with pain in view of the conduct of the Church. Where are the proper results of the glorious revivals we have had? I believe they were genuine revivals of religion and outpourings of the Holy Ghost, that the Church has enjoyed the last ten years. I believe the converts of the last ten years are among the best Christians in the land. Yet after all the great body of them are a disgrace to religion. Of what use would it be to have a thousand members added to the Church to be just such as are now in it? Would religion be any more honoured by it, in the estimation of ungodly men? One holy Church, that are really crucified to the world and the world crucified to them, would do more to recommend Christianity than all the Churches in the country, living as they now do."*** “ Of

Reported in the New-York Evangelist, Feb. 13, 1836.

what use is it to convert sinners and make them such Christians as these? Of what use is it to convert sinners and make them feel, that there is something in religion, and then when they go to trade with you, or meet you in the street, to have you contradict it all, and tell them, by your conformity to the world, that there is nothing in it?"

The correctness of this testimony, so far as it relates to the deplorable condition of the Churches in which the author has moved, no one will probably find reason to doubt. The condition of these Churches he has had opportunity to know, and his candour is not liable to suspicion in giving testimony so manifestly against the effects of his own doctrines and operations. But while we admit his testimony respecting the particular Churches which he has known, we feel compelled to reject it when he speaks of those which he has not known. Thus, while on the ground of his testimony, we cannot doubt, but the great body of those admitted within ten years to the Churches of which he has knowledge are "a disgrace to religion," we cannot admit his. opinion, that they are "among the best Christians in the land." We have other testimony, derived from those, who were as intimately acquainted with their own regions, as Mr. Finney can be with those in which he has moved. Their testimony as fully establishes the fact, that under different doctrines and in other parts of our country and of the world, the great body of converts persevere in obedience, and are an honour to religion, as his declarations prove the great body of those with whom he is acquainted, to be "a disgrace" to it. Nor is it improper here to adduce some portions of this testimony. The Rev. Robert Fleming, in his work on the "Fulfilling of the Scriptures," gives an account of a remarkable outpouring of God's Spirit on the 21st of June, 1630, at the Kirk of Shots, where, under one sermon, nearly five hundred were hopefully converted to God. AND THEY MOSTLY CONTINUED LIVELY AND SOLID CHRISTIANS."* The Reverend Jonathan Edwards, in a letter published in London, Oct. 12, 1737, with a preface by the Reverend Isaac Watts, D. D., and John Guyse, D. D., says, "there is still a great deal of religious conversation continued in the town amongst young and old. A religious disposition appears to be still maintained amongst our peo

* See a Narrative of the Revival of Religion within the bounds of the Presbytery of Albany, in the year 1820. Postscript, p. 50.

ple by their holding frequent private religious meetings, and all sorts are generally worshipping God at such meetings, on Sabbath nights and after our public lectures; many children in the town still keep up such meetings among themselves. I know of no one young person in the town who has returned to former ways of looseness and extravagance in any respect, but we still remain a reformed people and God has evidently made us a new people."* This account of the people of Northampton. three years and a half after the beginning of the great revival in which about three hundred were evidently converted, is also, a pretty accurate description of the results of those revivals, which frequently occurred under the ministry of such men as the Reverend Samuel Mills, Jeremiah Hallock, Asahel Hooker, Ebenezer Porter, D. D., Alvan Hyde, D. D., and many others amongst the honoured dead, as well as amongst the living. Such apostacy, as is described by Mr. Finney and frequently said to exist through the whole territory, which his opinions and measures have penetrated, was never known to follow the revivals in the congregational Churches of New England, or in the Presbyterian Churches of any part of our country. If two or three individuals in a Church were found to turn back and disgrace religion, as "the great body" of the converts, with which he is acquainted, are declared by him to have done, it was a matter of mourning throughout the Church. It was told far and wide by the enemies of religion and was considered sufficient by all to bring the work into suspicion and reproach. And in view of the charge, which Mr. Finney alleges, against his converts, we should suppose, that consistency would soon require him either to declare that they are not the genuine fruits of the spirit, or else to adopt the whole system of Arminianism and deny "the Perseverance of the saints."

We have already traced the fanaticism which has come into existence in these regions to its proper source, and shown, that it has its origin in the Arminian views of the Spirit in regeneration and sanctification. Our present inquiries relate to those, who though not prevented by Perfectionism and its kindred branches of fanaticism are giving little, or no evidence of practical piety. It is no part of our