the millennial glory of the church is approaching, “when the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the saints of the Most High." It is vain to expect that such an event shall take place without a great conflict. In all ages of the church, when there has been any great revival, when any great reformation has been effected, it has been by a conflict between truth and error, proportioned in magnitude to the effect produced. How was it that the apostle Paul was made the instrument of Christianizing the Roman empire, and of shaking the throne of the Cesars to its foundations? Doubtless, by his vast powers of reasoning, accompanied by the blessing of God; for when he raises up very learned men, of vast conceptions, and acute habits of reasoning, we may reasonably conclude, that such instruments have been prepared for some valuable purpose. May we not say the same of those men, who were the instruments in the hand of Heaven, of effecting the Reformation from popery? Did not the reasoning powers of Zuinglius, of Luther, of Beza, of Calvin, of Knox, of Du Moulin, &c. preponderate? Then too there was a tremendous conflict of opinions, which agitated the whole world, and excited into action all its intellectual fibres.

The age of controversy has now commenced in the Christian world. Errors of the most destructive nature have been poured upon the church in copious floods, for more than a century, and comparatively little has been done by the friends of truth; but they begin now to awake, and are gird

ing on the harness. A spirit is be and are gird

to be aroused,

which nothing can quell. That ministry then who are the most learned, intellectual, polemic and faithful, will be the most successful. While the church then should spare no pains to have a pious, and ardently zealous ministry, let her bend her most vigorous efforts, after she has selected pious candidates, to the cultivation of those characteristics, which the signs of the times peculiarly demand. Let her teach her sons of the prophets to expect, and prepare to enter the field of combat. Let them be taught to imitate an

Owen, a Magee, a Horseley, a Scott, a M'Leod, a Campbell, an Ely, and a M‘Master, in polemic divinity.

We have yet another denomination of Presbyterians to review the German Calvinists. They are chiefly confined to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland, though they have a few congregations in New York and in Ohio. A few of these people emigrated to Pennsylvania not long after the commencement of settlements in the colony. They derive their origin from the Reformed church in Germany, and hold in high estimation the character of Zuinglius and Luther. The Heidelburgh catechism is the manual which they use for the instruction of their children, and as their standard of divine truth. They have published no statistical tables; but they are known to have between fifty and sixty ministers. The disadvantages under which they have laboured, in relation to schools of literature, and the tenacity with which they adhere to the language of their fathers, nearly all their ministers preaching in the German language, have rendered it impossible for their clergy to become very learned. There is not much education among the laity. Their religious associations have been, until very lately, much confined to their own society. Among them, there exists very considerable diversity of sentiment in relation to the doctrine of divine decrees, the imputation of Adam's sin, the impotency of human nature, and the extent of the atonement. Some of them embrace precisely the doctrines of the Genevan school; they are, however, the minor number. The greater part of them are Arminians, and some are suspected of Socinianism; but as a body, they are opposed to this heresy. It is on this ground that they refuse to admit to their communion, and to associate among them as ministers, emigrants from the reformed churches in Germany, until they have submitted to an examination, as to their soundness in the faith; for the general mass of ministers in Germany has been found tainted with Socinianism.

They have for many years contemplated the formation of a theological school, under the patronage of their synod, but they have not yet been able to effect it. Their young

men now generally prosecute their theological studies under the care of the Rev. Dr. Helfenstein, of Philadelphia; who teaches them Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, and theology. The number of their students rarely exceeds ten. The increase of this society is not rapid; one great cause of which is, that they preach chiefly in German, while that language is going into disuse, and must ere long be cultivated by very few people in America. Many of their ministers are devout, sensible men, and excellent preachers, and many of their people are pious and intelligent.

The Baptist society in the United States is large, increases very rapidly, and is spread over the whole republic. It embraces many men of learning and respectability, and has great weight in some seminaries of learning. Brown university, in the state of Rhode Island, is almost exclusively its property; and the Rev. Dr. Maxcy, who was formerly president of that institution, and now of the South Carolina college, as mentioned above, belongs to the Baptist church. At the beginning of the present century, they had in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, Rhode Island, New York, Delaware, and South Carolina, 360 congregations, which doubtless, was far from half their number. Their present number of congregations is certainly near eight hundred. During 35 years, in the state of Massachusetts alone, their increase was 62 congregations. By far the greater proportion of the Baptist clergy are illiterate; many of them, especially in the eastern states, or who have originated there, are of the Hopkinsian defection. The northern clergy of this society are generally more learned than their brethren to the south and west. In Philadelphia, great personal efforts are making by the Rev. Dr. Staughton, to improve the state of literature among the Baptist clergy, and by Doctors Holcombe and Rogers, to turn their brethren from the errors of their ways. From five to ten young men are commonly under the care of the former, whom he instructs in geography, composition, grammar, Greek, Hebrew, history, and theology. Many, who have been for some time engaged in preaching, have put themselves under

the doctor's tuition, and preach in the city and its vicinity, while they prosecute their theological studies. The influence of this school is thrown into the orthodox scale. The same missionary spirit which animates the Baptists in Europe, prevails among the American Baptists. There is no single society in the United States that has carried its efforts on this subject so far as they have done. They set an example worthy of universal imitation. Their zeal for making proselytes to their system, is, perhaps, greater than that of any other branch of the church in America, if we except the methodists. It differs from the Hopkinsian spirit in this respect, that they wish to make proselytes, and suffer them to continue in the churches to which they are attached, that with greater facility they may diffuse their errors; whereas, the proselytes to the doctrine of anti-pedobaptism, all unite themselves with the Baptist church.

Next to the Baptists, it is hard to say whether the New England churches or the general assembly have displayed the most of a missionary spirit. The former have established a board of foreign missions, and have several local missionary societies. The general assembly has for a long time had a committee, which was last year enlarged, and clothed with authority to act as a board of missions. They employ many settled pastors and others, in their new settlements, as itinerants for several months in a year. It is a favourable circumstance for the diffusion of the true gospel, that this board meets in Philadelphia, and that the Rev. Jacob J. Janeway, D. D. is its president. He has taken a decided stand in opposition to the indefinite atonement, and all the Hopkinsian innovations; and it may be expected that his influence will be exerted to send forth sound evangelists; and the orthodox only, as the missionaries of the general assembly; while the eastern missionaries are too frequently men, whose talents will procure them no establishment at home; but whose attachment to the New England divinity is obtrusive and unconquerable.

As in Britain, so here many of those whom we number among the baptist congregations are called irregular bap

tists, the greater part of whom are Arminians. The regular baptists of the middle states generally embrace the system of Dr. Gill, who is much studied and copied by the clergy, and read by the common people. In forming an estimate of the influence which the various denominations will have on the doctrine of the atonement, the balance in this society would, upon the whole, be rather against the orthodox interest. The learning and the talent of the regular baptists are divided between the orthodox and the Hopkinsians, while the Arminians number in their ranks, the irregulars. Here, as in every branch of the church, the grand enemy of truth, the most to be dreaded, because the most insinuating and the most to be opposed, is Hopkinsianism. The irregular baptists, disappear before the light of literature and genuine scientific theology, and with them their delusions, while the northern heresy poisons the very fountains of literature and theology. It is a specious, falsely metaphysical system, that pretends to more than ordinary intelligence and piety. Among the regular baptists, there are much ardent piety, and numerous amiable people.

The Methodist society is numerically a powerful body; its system is well arranged and remarkably vigorous, for the materials of which it is composed. Its purest organization was imparted to it by bishops Coke and Asbury, both of them well acquainted with men, and the means of governing them. The great, as well as the most minute parts of the machinery which they put into operation, are adjusted with wonderful accuracy. They maintain precisely the doctrines that were taught by the Arminians of Holland, and embraced by the English methodists, whom they resemble in all the distinctive features of their character. They scarcely possess any learned men, and they rather despise human literature, than manifest any disposition to cherish and cultivate it. The stock of knowledge, and the themes on which their clergy declaim are soon exhausted, and hence all their preachers are itinerants. They declaim with great vehemence and arouse the passions of their auditors; and even the most ignorant of their preachers possess a