is where there is no state establishment, If the Spirit of God be poured out upon us, we may hope that in America first of all will the world behold the example of a truly religious state without a state religion.

From what has taken place, and is still taking place in France, we may learn a great lesson, namely, that infidelity is no cure for superstition and bigotry; you cannot render a people tolerant by making them infidels. There has been in France the rankest license of blasphemy against all religions, but out of this chaes the people are ready to pass again with indifference into the bitterest bigotry, into the persecution of a sincere opponent, any false religion that may be the fashion. Voltaire was one of the most genuine products of the Roman Catholic system: he dropped from it as a leaf from the poison tree. The Roman Catholic system made him an infidel by its false presentation, its horrid caricatures of Christianity: and the habit of infidelity so gained, he carried into eternity against whatever was revealed to him of the gospel. Under present circumstances, Voltaire's infidelity, if he were living now, would not keep him from exercising, in the bosom of a church which he himself would scorn, an oppressive intolerance against those who should differ from it. The infidel may be made one of the readiest tools of the zealous, artful bigot.

I have been ready to think at times, that the infidelity produced and nourished by the system of Romanism in those who sit under its incubus, might, by dislodging the mind from any reverence for, or attachment to, that system, prepare the way for the reception of the true gospel. I used to think that possibly this might be the case in Spain. But alas! a new and powerful disease is thus generated, which the gospel must overcome before it can find entrance. The infidelity produced is not merely a disgust against the false system, but, the false system being taken for the true, it becomes a genuine hatred against every professor of Christianity, Besides, the Romish system, by being in reality despised, but in profession honored and obeyed through fear, generates an hypocrisy in the character, both national and individual, which is fearfully contrary to the open disposition with which the gospel must be received, and its profession adopted. There, are, therefore, in Roman Catholic countries, obstacles to be overcome far greater than any that exist in heathen countries so called; and to be a faithful minister of Christ in such countries, demands in some respects a truer missionary than any other station in the world, The Protestant ministry in France must be a

ministry of fire, it is to be God's testimony in the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters.---Evangelist.

EXTRACTS FROM THE AMERICAN MESSENGER,

COLPORTAGE IN GERMANY.

In a kind letter from Rev. J. G. Oncken, Hamburg, Germany, he expresses the belief that more than 100,000 souls within the year 1843, received the message of the gospel, by means of the Society's grant. And he adds,

ner.

"Our labor has not been in vain in the Lord; we have had a year of blessings. God has owned this part of our work in a signal manThe instances of conversion brought to our knowledge were more frequent than before. We had about sixty conversions in the city and vicinity, and out of these about one-fourth were in the first instance instructed from our Tracts, or by the brethren who distributed them.

en

"From other parts of Germany and Denmark we have been couraged with equally interesting information; and from the whole I am led to draw the conclusion, that as by the wickedness of men we are prevented from preaching the blessed gospel, God is pleased to accompany the circulation of Tracts with a greater blessing in these countries than in those where these restrictions do not exist, and where the verbal testimony for Christ is the primary means to gather in his elect. The Lord can thus frustrate the designs of hell and earth, and overrule the wrath of man to his own glory."

ST. PETER'S CHURCH AT ROME.

In a review of D'Aubigne's History, by M. S. Spaulding, D. D., of the Romish Church, he admits the fact that St. Peter's Church at Rome was built from the sale of indulgences; but adds, "If there were no other proof of the utility of indulgences, the erection of that splendid temple, mainly due to them, is a monument which would alone suffice to remove every cavil on the subject." By the same logic, says the Baptist Record, "the decapitation of a few thousands of Protestants ought not to raise a 'cavil,' if by that means the interests of the 'Holy Mother' could be subserved! Their property might erect another temple as 'colossal' as that of St. Peter's in Rome!"

ARE GOOD BOOKS READ WHEN DISTRIBUTED?

A few days ago I travelled about twenty-five miles over almost impassable roads, with the gnats and mosquitoes tormenting beyond description, and arrived at house, much exhausted with heat and the want of food. After I had dined, I entered into conversation, and found that neither the husband nor wife could read, but that two young men who were living with them could read. They had borrowed Baxter's Call from a neighbor several miles distant, and had read it themselves and to the family with great benefit. This little book had travelled forty miles since I had given it away, and had been read by many with much interest. Its history, in a word, is as follows:

A few days before, I called upon a family that were very poor and irreligious: none of them could read, and they had not a book in the house. After urging upon them the worth of the soul, I gave them a New Testament, and with much hestitation this Baxter's Call, and told them to get some of their neighbors to read it and the Word of God to them on the Sabbath, which they promised to do."

When I called to mind the unpromising field in which that book was dropped, and the doubts and fears I had of its ever being read, and learned that in 8 or 19 days it had been read by so many, and some at the distance of forty miles, my heart was filled with joy and gratitude to see, when my body was almost fainting and my mind desponding, with what humble instrumentalities the Lord was carrying on his work.

PRAYER AT A CARD-TABLE.

One morning I espied a narrow lane leading to a house nearly hid in a forest of trees and herbage. I turned up the lane, and on entering the house, found four intelligent young men playing cards. On inquiring if I could sell them any religious books, they asked if I had Paine's Age of Reason, Voltaire or Volney, Gibbon or Hume? I replied in the negative, but stated that I had an ingenious and satisfactory refutation of these writers. One of the party wished to see it. I produced it from my wagon, and while he was examining it, another said he would not read such a work, that he detested such authors as Nelson. However, the young man purchased the book, when the other two requested copies, and purchased them. The one who had expressed his detestation of the work then asked for a copy, but they were all gone. I then gave a short but solemn admonition to each

one present; and after obtaining their consent, we all kneeled around the card table, where lay Nelson's "Cause and Cure" mingled with a pack of cards, while I addressed the Throne of Heavenly mercy in behalf of these infatuated and unhappy young men. On rising from my knees I thanked them for the courtesy and respect which they had so unexpectedly granted to me, and departed.

Obituary.

DIED at Due West Corner of, inflamation of the brain, on the 9th of June last, Francis George, son of Rev. J. N. and E. J. Young in the second year of his age.

Departed this life at Due West Corner on the 23d of Sept. last, of pulmonary consumption, Elizabeth Jane, wife of Rev. J. N. Young, leaving one child, an infant son to feel his loss. The deceased was a native of Ohio, in which she continued to reside until the fall of 1841. She had early devoted herself to the service of God, by a public profession of religion, which through her short but useful life she adorned by a godly walk and conversation. During her protracted ill health which commenced with an attack of measles in March of 1843, she manifested christian meekness and resignation. When compelled by the rapid progress of disease to be absent from the services of the sanctuary, the Bible was her source of comfort. So strong was her trust in the merits of the atonement, that death was disarmed of its terrors. But for the thought of the helpless infant which she was about to leave, she would have been willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. After the death of her first born, to whom she was bound by no ordinary tie, she frequently remarked that now she felt an interest that she had not before in heaven, since her dear son was there. Her many virtues and becoming deportment gained for her even among strangers many friends.

Due West Corner, Oct. 9th.

The Christian Magazine of the South please copy the above.

EDITORIAL NOTICES:

American Tract Society.---From some slips which have been sent to us from the Society's Press, it appears that the Executive Committee have recently had an interview with a Delegation from the Boston Society of the same name, of which, the object, was to inquire into the complaints which had appeared in the papers against the Society, and the result, entirely satisfactory. On all hands, it was agreed, that the Society had not violated the principles of its constitution; though a regret was expressed by some, in which, on reflection the Committee concurred, that they had not waited until D'Aubigne had been consulted.

D'Aubigne himself, the Author of the History of the Great Reforma. tion, has been heard from on the subject. He thinks the Society should have asked his permission before they made any changes in his work, and intimates that he does not entirely approve all the changes they have made; but expresses a high regard for the Society, as well as an ardent wish for its success; and promises that if he can do it without any sacrifice of principle, he will prepare such an edition of his work as the Society can publish.

As the precipitancy of the Society arose from an honest and praiseworthy desire to extend the influence of a work so admirably calcu lated to shew the difference between Popery and spiritual religion and as enough has already been done to evince the watchfulness of the Christian public, we think the discussion might now be dropped without injury to any importont interest.

Temperance.---The following testimony may have weight with some mind's. As far as our acquaintance extends, the practice of dram drinking, or that use of intoxicating drinks, as a beverage, which formerly produced such deplorable consequences, has been for years, chiefly or entirely done away, among christians, and the more moral portion of the community. What intemperance remains, (and not a