Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

We shall be excused for describing several important objects with more particularity..

One of the greatest of these is that regard to Missions, both foreign and domestic, which the state of the world requires. Many of our countrymen have been honorably distinguished by their persevering attachment to the Missionary cause. For this attachment, and all the sacrifices which it has occasioned, they have received, and are receiving, an abundant reward in the prayers and gratitude of multitudes in our new settlements, who have been saved from falling into heathenism, by this exertion of benevolence. But this attachment is, we hope, to be greatly increased and extended among us. It is time, that arguments should be pressed upon every member of the religious community, calculated to prove, that Missions at home and abroad have been greatly useful; that the experiment has been so abundantly made as to warrant great confidence of success; that the time has arrived for prosecuting this business with more zeal, more extensive means, and more assurance than ever; that New England is well situated, and in every respect able, to take a vigorous part in this labor of love; that when this duty is known, it cannot be neglected without great criminality; and that the salvation of millions of souls, and the approach of the Millennium, may be in a great measure dependent on the course pursued By the present generation.

The attention of the Christian public requires, also, to be steadily fixed on the subject of educating and supporting a learned and a pious Clergy. It needs very little discernment to see how intimately the good of society, and the salvation of souls, are connected with the respectability, worth, and piety of this class of men. But it needs much foresight and wisdom, as well as disinterestedness, to provide for the present wants of the American churches; and more still, to meet their future demands. We shall consider ourselves as highly honored, if our pages can in any measure add to the stability, the public estimation, and the usefulness of the clerical profession; a profession on which the best hopes of the country and the Church depend.

The portion allotted to Reviews will not admit of any thing more than a very small number of articles, which will be selected, according to our best judgment, with reference to the peculiar circumstances of the present times, and the state of literature and religion in this country. Those who are acquainted with the subject need not be informed, that the style and character of Reviews, in Great Britain, have experienced an entire alteration within a few years. These works are now incomparably more elaborate and profound than they were formerly. A large number of the most learned and able men in the community are devoted to them, and receive a regular stipend for their labors. The whole literary world takes a deep interest in their decisions. Hence, the writers have not unfrequently deserted their proper employment; and, instead of confining themselves to an account of the author's book, they seem much inclined to write a book of their own on the same subject.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

Such a mode of reviewing, though very agreeable to persons of much leisure for reading, cannot be adopted with success among us, till a much larger number of persons, than we can at present reckon upon, shall have made considerable proficiency in science and literature. The most that the American public can now expect, in the department of reviews, is such an account of books as a man of good sense, an improved mind, and real candor, (though of no vast pretensions to learning,) may be able to give. We shall make it our particular study, that no author shall have just reason to complain of a want of fairness, in any strictures which it may become our duty to lay before the public.

The portentous events which are continually taking place in the political and moral world may justly excite, to a high pitch of anxiety, the mind of every well informed Christian. Great punishments are inflicted upon the Antichristian world: may we not hope they will soon be succeeded by great and unexampled blessings? While every benevolent man feels deeply for the miseries of his fellow creatures in all parts of the world, he must still experience peculiar alarm when the interests of truth and piety, in his own country, are endangered. Not to mention, in this place, the errors prevalent among professed Christians, there are at present in operation, in some parts of New England, two powerful causes of Infidelity. The first is that loose, undistinguishing, frigid kind of preaching, which neither alarms the conscience, nor touches the heart; which does not make men feel that they are sinners, that there is need of salvation, nor, in short, that there is a Savior; which encourages in mén a high sense of their own dignity and importance; and which expends its whole stock of zeal in opposing all that the Christian world has heretofore considered as the essence of religion and the groundwork of a holy life. The other cause to which we refer, is the progress of ignorant and unauthorized sectarian teachers, who, under various names, are troubling our new settlements; who agree only in making incessant war upon the order of the churches, the support of regular ministers, and the institution of the Sabbath; and who are leading their adherents a short circuit, through different and incoherent errors, into open irreligion. At such a time, the difficulty of writing in such a manner as to be equally free from asperity and unkindness, on the one hand, and from giving place to pernicious, though popular, false doctrines, on the other, is greatly increased.

We have not been favored with so many accounts of Revivals of religion, as we could have wished to receive. This deficiency has been unavoidable on our part; but will, we hope, be supplied hereafter.

To our Correspondents we again return our thanks; especially to the writer of the Lectures on the Evidences of Divine Revelation. We are happy to announce that his favors will be continued. We earnestly invite the friends of literature and religion to afford us such assistance, as the plan of our work requires. While we do this, and assure our friends, that every attempt to serve us will be received

with gratitude, it must still be explicitly understood, that every communication is to be so disposed of by us, as shall be deemed most conducive to the purposes which we have in view. We are certainly as much interested, in the accomplishment of our profes, sed designs, as any other persons can be; it is reasonable, therefore, that we should decide, as to the admission or rejection of every paper, according to our deliberate judgment. We imitate the Conductors of the Christian Observer in desiring our correspondents not to afford their aid at all, unless they can cheerfully submit to have their contributions inserted, or not, as we shall judge advisable. We cannot permit ourselves, while deliberating on the admission of a piece, to feel, that we are in danger of losing the friendship of the writer. It is hardly necessary to mention, however, that when the first paper of a series is published, the succeeding parts will be inserted, of course, if written in the same style and spirit.

We trust our readers have never found us profuse in magnificent promises. The occasion requires, that we should give assurances of unremitted attention to our work, and that the best talents and services, which we can command, will not be wanting to render it worthy of extensive patronage.

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

LECTURES ON THE EVIDENCES OF DIVINE REVELATION.
(No. VIII. concluded from p. 446, Vol. III.)

III. THE Trial of our first par-
ents next claims our attention.
Gen. iii. 9.

On this part of the subject it will not be necessary to dwell. Two remarks will include whatever merits a particular attention.

1. God was pleased to bring our first parents to an open and formal trial. His Omniscience perfectly discerned the transgression, and knew the guilt of the transgressors. Still he did not think it proper to condemn them unheard. He summoned them before him,and gave them an opportunity to answer for themselves. In this conduct he acted as an example to all human tribunals; and taught the proper process,to be used in every future

trial. If the Omniscience of God would not prejudge, if his Justice would not condemn, his creatures unheard; with what face, or decency, can men, possessed of the greatest knowledge of the circumstances, and crimes of prisoners, judge without a trial; or condemn without giving the accused an opportunity of making their defence?

2. Adam and Eve, in this trial, as their posterity have ever since done, labored to exculpate themselves, as far as possible, by casting the blame on others. Eve accused the serpent; Adam accused Eve. Both, however, were compelled by conscience to acknowledge their own transgressions. The Serpent beguiled me,

« AnteriorContinuar »