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ligious instruction, will be to strike at the root of that corrupt tree which sheds dreariness and penury from all its branches. That there is a lamentable deficiency of religious observance, is extremely obvious. It is questionable whether one man or woman in fifty, of the indigent, enters a place of worship three times in a year. The means are not provided for them, and they are unable to provide them for themselves. Now it has been remarked, that in the immediate vicinity of a church, it is rare to find a house devoted to lewdness or depravity. One half of the sum annually expended in the maintenance of the poor, would be sufficient to build three houses of public worship.

Further, if wretchedness proceed from vice, and vice, among the poor, be generally the offspring of moral and intellectual darkness, is it not a most reasonable, social duty, which the enlightened portions of society owe to the ignorant, to instruct before they condemn, to teach before they punish? Can there be a more painful reflection in the mind of a humane juror, than the thought of consigning to death, or to perpetual exclusion from the enjoyments of virtuous society, a fellow-creature, for crimes that have evidently resulted from that condition of vicious ignorance, to which he has ever been exposed, without any attempts on the part of the community to rescue him from it?

The committee would, therefore, submit to the society, the proposition of endeavouring to effect, as the means may accrue, the gradual erection of buildings for public worship, in those parts of the city where they are the most needed, until every citizen may have an opportunity of attending divine worship.

7th. To promote the advancement of First day, or Sunday School Instruction, both of children and adults. We cannot but regard this kind of instruction as one of the most powerful engines of social reform, that the wisdom and benevolence of men have ever brought into operation.

8th. To contrive a plan, if possible, by which all the spontaneous charities of the town may flow into one

channel, and be distributed in con formity to a well regulated system, by which deception may be prevented, and other indirect evils arising from numerous independent associations, be fairly obviated.

It appears highly probable, that if

the administration of the charities of the city were so conducted, as to obviate all danger of misapplication and deception; these charities would flow with greater freedom, and that funds might occasionally be obtained, which would afford the means of erecting houses for worship, opening schools, and employing teachers, and thus direct, with greater efficacy, those materials which alone can ensure to the great fabric cf society, its fairest proportions, and its longest duration.

9th. To obtain the abolition of the greater number of shops, in which spirituous liquors are sold by license.

We trust that four fifths, if not the whole of the intelligent portion of our fellow-citizens will unite in opinion, that the present extension of licensed retailers, is equivalent, or very nearly so, as it respects the morals of the city, to the entire abrogation of the law which requires a dealer in liquors to take out a license. While the number of places in the city remain so excessively great, which afford to the poor and ignorant, not only so many facilities, but so many invitations and temptations to spend their money

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over the maddening bowl," reformation will be greatly impeded; poverty and ruin must increase and abound.

If each of the 1600 retailers in the city, sell, upon an average, to the amount of 250 cents per day, an estimate which we presume all will consider within the truth, the aggregate amount for the year, is $1,160,000. This enormous sum, extorted from the sweats of labour, and the tears and groans of suffering wives and children, would be sufficient to build annually, 50 houses of worship at $20,000 each, and leave a surplus that would be more than sufficient to erect school houses, and amply provide for the education of every child in the city. When, with a single glance of the mind, we contrast the difference in moral effect, between the appropri

ation of this sum fo the support of the buyers and sellers of strong drink, and its appropriation to the support of honest and industrious mechanics, employed in the erection of buildings, which would improve and ornament the city, and to the diffusion of religion and useful learning, who will not rise and exert his strength against the encroachment of so mighty an evil?

CHRISTIAN UNION.

From the London Magazine for Dec.

last.

Berlin, Oct. 11.-His Majesty the King of Prussia has been pleased to address the following invitation to the Consistories, Synods, and Superintendencies of the Monarchy:

"My illustrious ancestors reposing in God, the Elector John Sigismund, the Elector George William, the Great Elector King Frederick I., and King Frederick William I. as is proved by the history of their reigns and lives, endeavoured with pious zeal to unite the two separate Protestant Churches, the Reformed and the Lutheran, in one Evangelic Christian Church in their dominions. Honour ing their memory and their salutary views, I willingly join them, and wish to see a work agreeable to God, which met with insuperable obstacles in the unhappy sectarian spirit of those times, to be brought about in my dominions, to the honour of God and the weal of the Christian Church, under the influence of a better spirit, which disregards what is not essential, and holds fast what is the vital part of Christianity, in which both Churches are agreed; and I desire to see the beginning made upon the approaching secular festival of the Reformation. Such a truly religious union of the above-mentioned Protestant Churches, who are separated only by external differences, is conformable to the great objects of Christianity; it answers the first views of the Reformers; it lies in the spirit of Protestantism; it promotes religious spirit; it is salutary to domestic piety; it will be the source of many useful improvements in churches and schools, which have been often hindered hitherto, merely by the difference of religion.

To this salutary union, so long desir ed, and now again so loudly called for, and so often sought in vain, in which the Reformed Church does not go over to the Lutheran, nor the latter to theformer, but both unite in one new animated Evangelic Christian Church, in the spirit of their Holy Founder, there is no longer any obstacle in the nature of the thing itself, if both parties seriously and honestly desire it in a true Christian spirit; and if produced by this, it will worthily express the gratitude which we owe to Divine Providence for the invaluable blessings of the Reformation, and honour the memory of its great authors in the continuance of their work.

"But much as I must wish that the Reformed and Lutheran Churches in my dominions may share with me this my well tried conviction, I have far too much respect for their rights and their liberty to force it upon them, or to order or decide any thing in this affair.

This union, besides, can have real value only, if neither persuasion nor indifferentism have a part in it; if it proceed from the unbiased liberty of self conviction, and is not only a union in external form, but has its roots and vivifying service in unity of heart, according to the genuine principles of Scripture.

"As I shall myself celebrate in this spirit the approaching secular festival of the Reformation, in the union of the late Reformed and Lutheran congregation at Potsdam, in one Evangelical Christian congregation, and take the holy Sacrament with them, I hope that this my own example will have a beneficial influence on all the Protestant congregations in my country, and that it may be generally followed in spirit and truth. To the wise direction of the Consistories, to the pious zeal of the Clergy and their Synods, I leave the exteriour coinciding form of the union, convinced that the Congregations will readily follow in a true Christian spirit, and that eyery where when the attention is directed seriously and sincerely without any interested secondary views, to what is essential to the great sacred cause itself, the form will be easily found, and the external will naturally

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result from the internal, simple, dignified, and true. May the promised -period be no more remote, when under one common Shepherd, all united in one faith, one charity, and one hope, shall form only one flock!

FREDERICK WILLIAM. Postdam, Sept. 27, 1817. "To the Consistories, Synods, &c." "The undersigned Minister, charged with the publication of this expression of his Majesty's wishes, does not doubt of the desired and happy success; because, as it has been accepted since the 1st of this month by the clergy of this city, of both Evangelic Confessions, united in one Synod, with unanimous joy and grateful respect for his Majesty's sentiments and views therein expressed, it will certainly be received in the same manner by all the Evangelic Clergy and congregations in the kingdom.

Minister of the Interior,

VON SCHUCKMANN."

Ukase of the Emperor Alexander, addressed to the Legislative Synod, Moscow, Oct. 27, 1817.

DURING my late travels through the Provinces, I was obliged, to my no small regret, to listen to speeches pronounced by some of the Clergy in different parts, which contained unbecoming praises of me; praises which can only be ascribed unto God. And as I am convinced in the depth of my heart of the Christian truth, that every blessing floweth unto us through our Lord Jesus Christ alone, and that every man, be he whom he may, without Christ is full only of evil, therefore to ascribe unto me the glory of deeds, in which the hand of God had been so evidently manifested before the whole world, is to give unto man that glory which belongeth unto the Almighty God alone.

I account it my duty, therefore, to forbid all such unbecoming expressions of praise, and recommend to the Holy Synod to give instructions to all the Diocesan Bishops, that they themselves, and the Clergy under them, may, on similar occasions, in future refrain from all such expressions of praise, so disagreeable to my ears; and that they may render unto the Lord of Hosts alone, thanksgiv

ings for the blessings bestowed upon us, and pray for the outpouring of His Grace upon all of us; conforming themselves in this matter to the words of Sacred Writ, which requires us to render to the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise God, honour and glory for ever and ever. ALEXANDER.

The Newspapers have given another article relating to Alexander which is perhaps as worthy of imitation as the preceding; it is contained in an extract of a letter from a gentleman in England to his friend in Philadelphia and given in the Religious Remem brancer as follows:

"The Emperor has lately given a fine mark of a purified taste, in withdrawing from a company of French Comedians, an annual grant of 190,000 roubles, about 90001. sterling, and transferring it to a Philanthropic institution. Surely this may be viewed as a substantial evidence of improvement."

Extract of a letter from Peacham,

Vermont, dated Jan. 27.

"Since I wrote you in September, the attention to divine things among this people has been truly wonderful, and the power and grace of our Lord has been manifested to be exceedingly great. Forty-four new members were received to our communion on the first Sabbath in October, and 69 on the first in December; 18 had been previously received, since the first of August; one was received the last Sabbath, und 19 now stand propounded. There are between 50 and 60 more within my knowledge, who hope that they have tasted and seen that the Lord is good. The work, we think, still goes on, though it may be less powerfully. Of the 69 received to communion on the first Sabbath in December, 35 were young men and boys, under 24 years.

TRANSPORTATION OF CONVICTS FROM ENGLAND.

"FROM the official return of the number of persons transported since the first of January 1812, it appears that the total number of males is 3988, and of females, 671; and of male convicts under the age of twenty one,

980; and of females under twenty one, 136. Among the two latter classes were five of 11 years of age; seven of 12; seventeen of 13; thirty two of 14; sixty five of 15; 121 of 16; 132 of 17."-Christian Observer for Sept. 1817, p. 610.

This is a melancholy and disgraceful account: Melancholy as it relates to the victims of transportation; and both melancholy and disgraceful in respect to the government and police of Great Britain. The whole number transported, male and female, in a little more than four years and a half, was 4659-about 1000 annually-83 monthly and nearly 3 every day for

the whole term of time.

Now let it be considered that the rulers of a nation are called fathers, and that they are bound to exercise towards their subjects parental care, affection and tenderness, to seek their welfare in this world and in the world to come. Can it then be consistent with the duty of rulers to suffer little children to grow up in ignorance and vice, exposed to every temptation and allurement, and then condemn them, even before they are capable of providing for themselves, to a transportation as little adapted to reform them, as sending them directly to hell. What good parent could endure thus to exile children from 11 to 16 years of age, and doom them to spend their days in the society of abandoned villains and prostitutes!

Botany Bay is an English Purgatory from which it is believed very few ever returned reformed. The most splendid efforts of the British Christians to extend the blessings of the gospel abroad can never atone for their dreadful neglect of the poor population of their own country.

But any one who is acquainted with the history of that nation-with the number of men employed in the work of slaughter and devastation-with the immense appropriations of money for military establishments and for rewarding their heroes; will be able to account for the prevalence of vice and pauperism, and for their neglect of educating the poor in the paths of virtue, without imputing all the blame to Adam and Eve.

AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. THE President of the United States and the Several Heads of Departments of the general government, have by their respective contributions become members for life of the American Bible Society.

From the First Annual Report of the Committee of the Reading Ladies Bible Association.

AT this early period of their establishment, your Committee cannot but regard it as a circumstance of peculiar encouragement from Him, who alone "giveth the increase," that they are enabled to record some most important personal benefits resulting from their pleasing labour. The following anecdote reported by one of the District Committees, will, they trust, communicate to the hearts of their fellow labourers in the Vineyard, a portion of the cheering fervor which animates your committee in relating it.

"One of our subscribers, after having given us the usual sum, and as we were departing, smiled and said, this is not all, I have something more to add connected with a little tale you will rejoice to hear. A few weeks ago, a young man came to my shop, where the subject of the Bible Socie ty was mentioned; on this, his indignation immediately kindled, and he expressed, in unbecoming language, the rancorous and bitter sentiments of his heart; he was, at this time, so little master of his passion, that any remonstrance would have been ineffectual-we made no reply, and he soon left us. I mentioned the circumstance to my little girl, then on her death bed, who, though young in years was old in christian experience; and asked her what should be done ; 'O father she replied, subscribe for a Bible for him! This we did, and I presented it to the young man, at the same time informing him, who had induced us to procure it for him. Forcibly struck with the dying child's anxiety to supply him with a Bible, he received it with gratitude-he took it home, he read it; deeply impressed with the nature of its contents, he wished to share with others the pleasure he himself enjoyed; he read it to

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his fellow servants, who soon imbibed a similar feeling; and one of them, ardently wishing to be in possession of a volume, so unspeakably valuable, immediately paid down six shillings, longing for the time to arrive, when she could say, this precious book is mine. We received the money with peculiar interest, and with increased conviction, that the work is of God,. and that nothing shall impede its glorious and triumphant progress."

At a subsequent meeting, the Collectors delivered the following pleasing conclusion to this gratifying anecdote. "The remarkable change wrought in the heart of an individual by the perusal of the word of God, who, from a bitter enemy, became a zealous advocate for the Bible, was lately noticed; since that time, we have been informed, that he earnestly endeavours to improve in the knowledge of divine things, and that his actions prove the sincerity of his professions; he considers the offer of a Bible to a friend as the highest token of sincere regard; and for this purpose we have received nine shillings, with the acknowledgement of the privilege he felt it, to obtain so great a treasure for so trifling a consideration. Surely if this were a solitary instance of successful exertion, this Association would not have been established in vain!-Appendix to the 13th Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

INSTALLATIONS.

IN Plymouth Mass. on the first of Jan. Rev. W. S. Torrey, over the Third Congregational Church in that town. First prayer by the Rev. Mr. Huntington of Bridgewater. Sermon from Acts 20, 20. by Rey. Mr. Weeks, of Abington; consecrating prayer by Rev. Mr. Dexter, of Plympton; Charge by Rev. Mr. Riohmond of Halifax; Right Hand by Rev. Mr. Colburn, of Abington, and concluding prayer by Rev. Mr. Paine of Middleborough.

In Beverly, Feb. 16th, Rev. David Oliphant, over the Second Church in that place. The services were per

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Died-In Stratford, Conn. Rev. N. Birdsey, aged 103. He had 12 children, 76 grand children, 163 great grand children and 7 of the 5th generation.

In Philadelphia, Rev. Absalom Jones, aged 72.

In Griswold, Conn. Isaac Hernek97. He had 19 children, 92 grand children, 182 great grand children and 1 of the fifth generation; two brothers were at his funers], one aged 93, the other 81.

In Salem (N. J.) Henry Plat a black man-106.

At New Haven, General David Humphreys.

At Brookfield, Rev. Ephraim Ward, aged 77.

In Worcester, Mrs. Mary Chamberlain, widow of the late Deacon John Chamberlain, aged 70.

In Portland, Capt. Timothy Small, aged 73.

In Hampton, N. H. Hon. CHRISTOPHER TAPPAN, aged 83.

At Cornwall, Con. Feb. 17, Henry Obookiah, aged 26, a native of Ow hyhee, and a member of the Foreign Mission School.

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