be diligent in the use of these God's appointed means, and earnestly. seek his blessing on them; and not be looking for extraordinary means. Whenever men come to look for extraordinary means, and imagine they are to be taught by any thing but the word, they are in danger of being led away by strong delusions.

These two narratives naturally call our attention to the pitiable situation of the many nations of the earth, who sit in darkness and in the region and shadow of death. A great part of Asia, the most ancient, extensive, and populous quarter of the globe, formerly the seat of learning and religion; the large continent of Africa, in part of which there were once many flourishing Christian churches; America, which extends almost half round the world; all the inhabitants of which countries are of the same species with ourselves, originally of the same parents, have the same immortal minds, are the objects of the same eternal love of God, redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and heirs with us of eternal happiness, or eternal misery: all, except a small proportion, are living in ignorance, strangers to the benign, the heaven-born religion of Jesus; without God and without hope in the world. When we consider the distinguishing goodness of God to us, in that we are favored with the appointed means of salvation, and have set open to us the path of duty and the way of life; surely the goodness of God to us in this respect, should lead us to repentance and engage us to distinguish ourselves by a life of piety and virtue. How shocking a sight is an ignorant, profane, immoral man, in a Christian land! Distinguished by advantages and privileges; surrounded, and filled, and covered, with the mercies of God; and yet trampling them under foot,or prostituting them to the basest purposes, to the dishonor of his bountiful Benefactor, the injury of his fellow men, and his own eternal ruin! Tremble, my soul, at the thought! Weep, weep, if possible, tears of blood over a self-ruined race.

Every truly pious Christian, when he takes a view of our barbarous, benighted fellow creatures, will think it a reasonable and important duty to pity and pray for them. Is this all that can be done? Does not God work by means? Will he hear and answer prayers, when the means by which the object is to be obtained are neglected? Can nothing be done by the inhabitants of this State, [Virginia,] towards civilizing and christianizing our Indian neighbors? Are there no men of fortune in this state who would esteem it their honor and happiness to contribute a part of their substance towards so beneficent a purpose? Are the professing Christians, in this happy land, all swallowed up in self? Or are they only waiting to see some good plan proposed and some persons ready to carry it into execution? Have we nothing to do with the surplus of our property, but pamper the flesh and leave estates to wise men or fools, we know not which? Are our estates talents, which God has intrusted to us, to lay out for his glory, and the good of his creatures? Is it not in this way the wealthy are to lay up treasure in heaven? Do we think that devotion will take us to heaven without the fruits? Our brethren in other parts of the world are nobly and vigorously exerting

themselves to inform and bless their fellow men, by bringing them to the knowledge of God, and his Son Jesus Christ: and God, as we are informed, is crowning their labors with success. He has graciously promised to reward them in heaven with eternal bliss. Every soul converted to God by their means will be to them a crown of rejoic ing to all eternity. And have we no desire to share in this heavenly joy? no ambition to wear this crown of glory? Have we no aspirations after joining with Asiatics, Africans, and Americans in the regions of glory, in celebrating the wonders of redeeming love, and hearing them ascribing their salvation to the blessing of God on our instrumentality? If our souls are not fired with such thoughts and animated with such desires, they must be stupid indeed!

To the preceding observations of our correspondent, we add two reflections of our own.

1. How wonderful are the methods, which God often uses, to bring his elect to the knowledge and belief of the truth. Christians are not apt enough to contemplate this subject, as it is explained before their eyes, by plain, undeniable facts. In the case of the converted Algerine,how many providential events, of an extraordinary character, took place in the process of bringing him to an acquaintance with the Gospel. How improbable would it have seemed, that a Mahometan student, sailing up the Mediterranean, should be carried as a prisoner to New Orleans, transferred to Indians on the Ohio, enabled to escape and cross the mountains alone to Virginia, and, when sinking under the distresses of famine, nakedness, and solitude, in the midst of a vast wilderness, that he should be discovered by a compassionate hunter, rescued from death, and restored to civilized society; that he should acquire a competent knowledge of the English language by uncommon perseverance, have his aftention excited to Christianity by a dream, and finally obtain Christian instruction in the interior of an American colony. How evidently was this man elected from among his hardened and bigoted countrymen, that he might hear of Christ. And after he had heard the Gospel, it was necessary that the same divine favor, which had preserved him through so many dangers, should be displayed further in changing his heart.

In the case of the converted negro, also, the same distinguishing love of God is manifest. Why was he incited to seek after instruction? Why was he admonished to abstain from labor on the Lord's day? Why did the admonition prove effectual? How came it to pass, that he should feel himself to be a sinner, principally from his own secret convictions? Hundreds of thousands of slaves, in the same circumstances, were not the subjects of any of these things. Why was this poor man elected? For the same reason that all the redeemed are elected; a reason which cannot be stated so well, as in the words of our Savior: Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in ty sight Doubtless there are reasons, why it seems good to the infinite wisdom of the Father, that from among men of the same character, ir the same circumstances, and under the same advantages,one shonic

be taken and another left: but these reasons are not revealed to man. The fact is undeniable; and it perfectly corresponds with the doctrine, as it is expressed and implied hundreds of times in the Scriptures.

Our attention has often been attracted to this subject by instances of hopeful conversion within our own observation. Persons of the most unpromising character have been arrested in their course, and have become subjects of the renovating grace of God; while others, equally unpromising, have been left to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; and others still, apparently of a promising character, have remained, like the young man in the Gospel, ignorant of themselves and of the divine law, and have gradually become hardened against the truth, relying on the performance of external duties as the ground of acceptance with God.

Indeed, the very circumstance that a particular person is brought to bear the Gospel, is often owing to events in which he had no agency. How frequently do occurrences like the following take place: three young men leave their homes, and settle in a new country, They all have the natural aversion to serious things, which is common to our thoughtless race; and they know nothing about religion, even speculatively, though they may have heard good preaching all their days. One dies of a sudden fever, without any time for repentance or reflection. One falls into dissolute company, and dies at forty an inveterate drunkard. The third, after a life of prosperity in worldly affairs;-after growing more and more callous and torpid for many years, is suddenly brought to consideration. to repentance, and to a state of salvation. In another case the order may be reversed: one becomes penitent, gives satisfactory evidence of piety, and dies young; the second dies in the full pursuit of worldly good, unconcerned about religion; the third lives to be a hoary-headed drunkard, or, which is equally decisive of his character, a hoary-headed miser, and dies unaltered. A number of young men go to sea in the same vessel. They are, perhaps, all profane and immoral. The vessel is lost, and three or four reach the land in a boat. Of these, after many intervening remarkable providences, one becomes religious; the others remain as they were. Of ten gentlemen of education, talents, study, influence, and proparty, employed together in some honorable office, one is suddenly, and by some inconsiderable circumstance, brought to reflection; he is convinced of his sinful state and character, and receives Christ as the Savior of sinners. His associates see the change; they wonder at it: Oh, how happy is it, if they are not left to wonder and perish.

In all these instances, and in thousands of others, an observer may easily discern, that the election is made by God. How idle then is it, and how absurd, to oppose a doctrine, which is clearly revealed in Scripture, and confirmed by the history of every day.

2. Every faithful and well instructed minister knows, that the cardinal doctrines of the Gospel are very powerfully confirmed by the experience and testimony of ignorant and humble persons, who

are sometimes anxious for the salvation of their souls with little previous knowledge of the Gospel, and without ever having been instructed in any system. Such persons often spend weeks in a a state of great anxiet, without making known their case, or discovering their feelings, to any one. When they come to disclose their concern, and open their hearts freely to a judicious minister of the Gospel, he often finds, that. their own experience had taught them, that they were amazingly depraved, deserving of punishment, destitute of holiness, and unworthy of the least favor; that, if they should be saved at all, it must be by mere mercy, and in consequence of the free, electing love of God through Jesus Christ; and that many other truths, connected with these, are held by them to be indisputable,

In a word, the appeal is confidently made to the serious prayerful minister, who converses much with his people on experimental religion, whether he does not find, in a vast multitude of instances, that the doctrines of grace, or the doctrines commonly called Calvinistic, are confirmed by the untaught experience, the plain common sense, and the deliberate reflections of the humble Christian. In the case of the negro, which has occasioned these remarks, we see that this ignorant, uninstructed man had a deep sense of his depravity, before he could comprehend the teaching which was offered to him. Whence did he derive this sense of depravity? Doubtless from the same source as the illustrious Bacon, the greatest and most learned man of his age, derived the same thing:-from his own experience and the teachings of the Holy Spirit,

LETTER FROM A NEGRO GIRL

The following letter, written by a black girl to another black girl of her acquaintance, was handed to us sometime since by a respectable clergyman. It is inserted to show, by example, how admirably religion is calculated to promote the happiness of persons of all classes and in all conditions. A few verbal corrections have been made; but no idea is altered.

Canaan, July 25, 1815.

Dear Friend, PERHAPS you think strange of my not answering your kind letter, for which I return you ten thousand thanks. The reason why I did not, was because I had not any paper. It being my birth day this day, I thought I would devote a little time to writing to you. O my friend, eighteen years of my life are spent. render unto God for all his mercies, that he has bestowed upon me, And what can I especially the past year. I never shall forget that day, in which God made me to rejoice in him. Never before did I know what comfort there is in religion. There is more comfort to be taken, in one hour, in religion, than ever I took in all my life time before. What satisfaction there is to be taken with Christians; what comfort in prayer. Once I could not pray. Now the Lord has taught me. How could I neglect it so long? I have been blinded; but I

hope through the mercy of God I have been made to see and feel my need of a Savior; and brought to give him my whole heart.

"O what immortal joys I felt,
And raptures all divine,

When Jesus told me I was his,
And my beloved mine."

I think I can say, that I can rejoice in the Lord, and joy in the God of my salvation. O my friend, may we take up the cross daily and follow Jesus; may we learn of him to be meek and lowly in heart, that we may find rest unto our souls; and may we so live, as that others may take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus. I wish I could see you, and converse with you upon heavenly things; which I hope I shall before long. Do write to me as often as you can; for your letters do me good: and do come and see me. Now, my friend, may we so walk here in this world as to meet our Lord in peace, which is the prayer of your friend,

M. R.

XCI.

REVIEW.

True Liberality: A Sermon, preached in Boston on the first anniversary of the American Society for educating pious youth for the Gospel Ministry, Oct. 23, 1816. By SAMUEL WORCESTER, D. D. pastor of a church in Salem. Published by order of the Society. Andover; Flagg and Gould. 1816, pp. 28.

IT is a distinctive characteristic of Christian liberality at the present day, and in our own country, that it is enlarged in its views, and universal in its operation. By this phraseology we intend, that whenever any new call is made upon the beneficence of Christian, there are a considerable number of men scattered through our country, whose ears are open to hear it, and whose inquiry is not, whether the call is new; whether it assumes, that difficulties are to be removed, and sacrifices to be made, and time to be spent; but whether it imposes a duty, and must, on Christian principles, be heard and obeyed. Thus, when the wants of the destitute in our new settlements were laid before the public, missionary societies were formed to relieve those wants. When the deplorable condition of the heathen world was known extensively, exertions were made to send the Bible to the heathen, and teachers to explain it. When the want of new institutions to educate young men for the ministry came to be generally acknowledged, such institutions were erected and endowed. When the distressing scarcity of candidates for the ministry was felt, new and unexampled measures were taken to supply the deficiency. When the claims of the poor in our cities, of the slave-population of our country, and of the Jews, presented themselves, societies were formed to consult the spiritual interests of these various classes. This state of things is cheering to the good man's heart. It augurs well for the future. Let us not be