ed, having been materially aided by of Scripture were read by Mr. E. the persevering efforts of the students Lincoln. 5. Sermon by Rev. Mr. from the Institution at Newton. Knowles, from Jude 3, Contend earn.

A pleasing prospect of promoting the estly for the faith once delivered to the interests of evangelical truth, excited saints. 6. Singing. 7. Right hand of efforts to erect a place of worship, fellowship to the church by Rev. Mr. which has been effected by the Jacobs. 8. Dedicatory prayer by friends in Watertown, assisted by be- Rev. J. Grafton. 9. Singing. 10. nevolent individuals in Boston, Cam- Charge to the Pastor, by Prof. Chase. bridge, and other places in the vicinity. 11. Right hand of Fellowship by Rev. A most commodious and neat edifice E. Nelson. 12. Singing. 13. Prayer by has been completed, in a central situ. Rey. Mr. Malcom. 14. Anthem. ation, with a basement story for a lecture room and vestries, a handsoine

DONATIONS OF GOODS. tower and cupola, and 72 pews.

To our friends who have contributed clothing,

and other articles for our missionary stations, and On the morning of the 19th, a coun.

who may be desirous to hear of their reception, cil was convened, consisting of pastors have been received and forwarded:

we are happy to state that the following boxes and delegates from the churches in

TO THE SAULT DE ST. MARIE. the vicinity, who examined the pro. Under the superintendence of the Rev. Abel

Bingham. ceedings of the brethren, their letters 2 boxes of Goods from Vt. State Con. per. of dismission, and the views of the 1 box do. froin kutland Aux. to same, not

John Billings, Treas, invoiced at $79,27 gospel which they professed.

estimated, but probably worth 20,00

1 bundle do. from Andover Aux. to same, The number associated was nearly invoiced at

6,69 50, dismissed principally from the 1 box do. from P. Brown, Treas. of N. H.

State Con. invoiced at

15,53 churches in Newton and Cambridge. 1 Quilt, and 3 pieces of Aannel, from Mr. Cordially approbating the measures

Millikin, of Mt. Desert, not estimated,
probably worth

10,00 which had been pursued, it was unan

4 bundles from Worcester Co. Char. Soc.

per 0. Convers, Treas. not est. say 50,00 imously resolved publicly to express 1 box from Dublin, N. H. do. do. 13,51 to them the fellowship of the churches.

$175,00 Rev. Peter Chase, having been in- TO THE THOMAS STATION. vited to become the pastor of the church, 1 box from Townsend, Mass. est

. at. Under the superintendance of Mr. L. Slater.

20,00 stated his Christian experience, his ex- from 0. Convers, Treas.of Worcester ercises in relation to the ministry, and

36,37

froin Cornish, per P. Brown, Treas. his views of gospel doctrine and church N. H. State Con.

5,50 2 from Goshen, hy same,

19,56 order, which were listened to with i from Bridport, Vt. same,

22,12 much interest; and the council voted to

from Goshen,

12,05

from female Soc. Cummington, N.H. 15,33 recognize him as pastor of the church, 1 from Goshen, no invoice, est. 30,00

1 bundle from do. not est. say by the usual services of installation. 1 box from — per L. & Edmands, no inv.say 30,00 At 2 o'clock, P. M. the public ser

from Westford, per I. Chase, Treas.

Crittenden & Franklinton Soc. Aux. to vices were attended at the Meeting Ver. State Convention,

103,00 House, and the crowded audience

8300,00 constituted a solid column. Though TO THE VALLEY TOWNS STATION, the meeting was necessarily protrac. 1 bbl. Goods from Southbridge, Mass. inv. 41,64

Under the superintendance of Rev. Evan Jones. ted beyond the usual hour, and great 2 hoxes from Middleborough,

1

Co. Char. Soc. est.

1

1 1

16.90

Account of Moneys recceived by the Treasurer of the General Convention of

the Baptist Denomination in the United States, for Foreign Missions, from June 24, to Aug. 23, 1830.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

The Review of Morris's Memoir of Fuller, came too late for insertion. It will appear next month.

IT was a declaration of the Messiah to his disciples, “Ye are the light of the world." The declaration evidently respects moral character. And being expressed in general terms, it implies that a knowledge of divine truth, and a moral purity, which are compared to light, are essential to the character of every true disciple of Christ. It hence follows that no external circumstances can extinguish the moral light of those who are heirs to the unfading in heritance; that every true Christian, however deep the moral and intellectual darkness which envelopes the world around him, will himself distinguish the essential truths of the gospel, and feel their influence upon his heart.

We are not then, as some have supposed, to look for an improved edition of Christian doctrine at every step in the advancement of literature and science. We must expect to find true Christians, as the light of the world, in all ages, embracing essentially the same doctrines, and cherishing the same purifying hope.

It is gratifying to observe that the facts developed by history, accord with this unavoidable inference from the declaration of the Saviour. It is pleasant to know that even in times when it seemed as if truth and righteousness had forever deserted the abodes of man,-when crime, and ignorance, and merciless barbarity, covered every spot of earth in one cloud of fearful blackness,—there were some who bore upon their souls the lovely impress of the Eternal Spirit; some whose purity of life, and unbending adherence to principle, marked them as “the salt of the earth ;" and that all these adopted essentially the same views of the distinguishing features of the gospel.

Of this number was JOHN DE WYCLIFFE.

Appearing in an age of unparalleled corruption, he shone indeed as a light " in the midst of a crooked and perverse" generation. Ост. 1830.

37

He was born at Wycliffe, in Yorkshire, England, about the year 1324, nearly two centuries before the great reformation in Germany, under the labors of Luther.

At this period the Papal power was at its height. The bishops of Rome had been gradually rising in their pretensions and authority, until, as Popes, they claimed to be the infallible successors of St. Peter; and wielded a mightier temporal power than did the proudest of the Cæsars, when Rome boasted herself mistress of the world. Throughout nominally Christian Europe, so completely were the souls and bodies of men chained down by this galling despotism, that few dared to move or even think, without the permission of their ecclesiastical superiors. And no Christian prince might venture to question the authority of the Roman pontiff, without hazarding his throne, and attracting the superstitious and affrighted gaze of the populace, who would regard bim as engaged in fearful rebellion against the mandates of Heaven.

Roman Catholic writers themselves acknowledge that all orders of the priesthood, from the Pope to the begging friar in rags, were stained with every species of pollution and vice. “The souls of men' were made the objects of traffic;" and licenses to perpetrate crime were bought and sold, like the common necessaries of life, by those who claimed to be the ministers of Christ.

Under such a blighting influence, need we wonder that the simple truths of the gospel were forgotten ? that godliness was supplanted by corruption and crime? that the scattered remnant of the faithful sent up to heaven the bitter lamentation, "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street ?"

In the very midst of this moral pestilence, Wycliffe sprung up, as from the regions of the dead, in the full vigor of life and strength, and stood forth as the unyielding champion of truth. Yet few have properly investigated his labors, or done justice to his memory. His name is seldom mentioned in connection with those of Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin ; and until very recently his character seems to have been but imperfectly understood.

A variety of circumstances have contributed to this ignorance of his merits.

The emissaries of papal power, either during his life, or shortly after his death, committed to the flames every copy of his numerous works, which their eagle-eyed vigilance could discover. While the remainder, in consequence of the persecution of his early followers, were doomed to comparative obscurity. Nor have there been any religious institutions or bodies of men to refer to him as their founder, and transmit his name to posterity. But there is yet another circumstance which is probably the principal cause of this neglect.

The immediate results of his labors were less conspicuous than those effected by the great reformers of a subsequent age. While we have before us a statement of one of his inveterate enemies, that “more than one half of the people of England in a few years" embraced the sentiments of Wycliffe, we should indeed be unwilling to say with a late writer that his efforts wanted immediate and

general success. Still, however, the visible effects of his labors were far less adapted to attract the notice, and fix the attention of the world, than those which immediately resulted from the efforts of Luther. Though he did not completely break up, he yet disturbed the death-like slumber, which had been deepening from by-gone generations. He seems to have possessed those same comprehensive and enlightened views, that stern decision, and above all, the same clear perceptions of the practical truths of the gospel, which characterized the reformers of the sixteenth century. And although the light which he struck out, was obscured after his death, it yet contributed more than that of a morning star, ioward ushering in the dawning day of the reformation.

At the age of sixteen we find Wycliffe a cominoner at Merton College, Oxford, where he complete:1 his public education. It was here that he acquired that mental discipline, and that commanding power in extemporaneous discussion, which one of his inost releniless foes affirms to have been almost superhuman.

“The years of his minority had scarcely departed, when the nations of the earth began to droop under one of those afflictive vis. itations, which the conscience of mankind has ever connected with the peculiar displeasure of the Almighty." “ It was in the year 1345 that a pesiilence, the most destructive in the annals of the world, appeared in Tartary," which in the course of its desolating march swept over almost every spot of the habitable globe. This fearful calamity seeins to have made a salutary and indelible impression upon the mind of Wycliffe. But he was disappointed in looking for any signs of repentance in the ungodly world around him. Hardened, rather than subdued by suffering, they seemed to spurn the heavenly monition. And such was the hopeless corruption of the times, that he regarded it as indicating the rapid approach of the last days; and published his views in a tract on that subject in 1356.

Four years subsequent to this, he acquired great celebrity by certain publications, in which he exposed the hypocrisy and vices of the begging friars, a class which, to some extent, had already become the object of popular disgust.

In 1372, at the age of 18, he was appointed to the professorship of Theology at Oxford, a circumstance which evinced at once the high estimation in which he was held as a man, and as a scholar. Here we find him strenuously inculcating the peculiar doctrines of revealed religion, and appealing to the long neglected word of God as the only standard of truth, and rule of action.

Two years after this appointment at Oxford, he was honored with another by the king, as one of his delegates to remonstrate with the Pope against his ambitious claims from the English throne. Dur. ing this mission, his negotiations with the Pope's nuncios allowed him to examine more narrowly the character of a court, whose pretensions to infallibility he was already disposed to question. It disclosed to him some of the unexpected enormities, which prevailed in the interior of this nominal sanctuary of religion. And the attacks which he had hitherto directed only against the infa