certainly murderous; and if we say that the life of the murderer ought to be taken by his fellow men, where shall we stop? What a multitude are now living who ought to be put to death!

It will probably be pleaded, that those who have made war, and those who have killed others in war, have been seduced by custom, passion and prejudice. This is granted; and in how many cases might as good a plea have been made in behalf of malefactors who have suffered death? So far as the delusions of passion and prejudice may be urged in favor of lenity, they may doubtless be pleaded in behalf of those who are denominated murderers by the laws of the Land, as well as in behalf of warmakers, and those who act under their influence.

It will probably be admitted by all, that murderers are not to be put to death by men merely on the ground that they are guilty. If the safety of others and the good of community do not require their death, their lives should not be taken by men; they should be allowed as long a space for repentance as the God of mercy is pleased to give them. Two questions then occur: 1. Whether some mode of confinement may not be sufficient for the safety of others and the good of the state, and of course preferable to taking the life of the criminal? And 2. Whether taking his life for the safety of others and the good of the state, be not in fact doing evil that good may come? Mr. Cleveland takes the affirmative of the latter question, and asserts his opinion with confidence.

In answer to the important question, "how far may a christian go in self-defence?" he says "I lay it down as an axiom founded on the whole tenor of the gospel, and which perfectly accords with that martyr spirit which every christian ought to pos sess, that we may do any thing to save life, liberty or property from the un principled hand of the assailant, which we are confident he himself would

thankfully approbate were his heart right with God. Such efforts, such resistance, no doubt the gospel fully sanctions, but nothing further" "No

moment," he says, "is allowed us in the whole scheme of the gospel in which we may cease to love our enemy in such a sense as not to regard his best good; therefore not a moment is allowed us to take his life." pp. 10, 11.

Among the Tracts sent to us on the subject of War, there is one containing two letters by Thomas Parsons, a minister of the Baptist society in England, and another letter by I. Scott, together with the "Sentiments of Early Christians." The letters are written not only with ability, but with a most amiable spirit. The pamphlet was published in this country in 1814, by A. Shearman, jun. of New Bedford. We should be happy to give extracts from it if our limits would permit.

We have still one pamphlet to mention, entitled a "Memorial of the Re. ligious Society of Friends to the Legis lature of Virginia on the militia laws, with a letter from Benjamin Bates, bearer of the Memorial, to a member of the Legislature." The object, both of the memorial and the letter, was to obtain a revision of the militia laws, which subjected the Friends to military service, or to penalties for noncompliance. This tract is the smallest of the number we have mentioned, but it is not surpassed by any other in perspicuity and force. Indeed we have seldom seen from any sect a more pertinent and forcible vindication of the rights of conscience. We cannot refrain from giving our readers one or two short extracts from the let ter of Mr. Bates.

"But of what avail under any form of government is the attempt to en slave the mind? As soon would the Academy devise means to arrest or control the revolutions of the solar system, as the legislature of any country find laws that would bind the free spir. it of man. How long has tyranny tortured its invention, and varied the apparatus for discovering this grand desideratum! Creeds, tests and anathemas have been tried. Stripes, fetters and dungeons have done their best. Racks, flames and gibbets have exhausted all their powers, and all have ended in miserable disappoint.

ment. And is it not difficult to conceive how the notion ever came to be entertained on this side the Atlantic? The genius of our country did not borrow even the mildest feature of such a system; and it is certainly not congenial with our habits of thinking, to suppose that the mind may be fet tered by putting a chain upon the leg, or that a man's heart can be divested of its convictions by a warrant to take his cattle." pp. 14, 15.

From the plea it appears, that the legislature had contrived to have the Friends pay their fines for the neglect of military service under the name of a school tax. In reference to this the writer observes:-"Have I any objection to the support of schools? Far from it-I should rejoice to see knowledge and virtue diffused among the lower classes of society, I would cheerfully pay an equal tax for the purpose, and might be disposed to encourage it by a voluntary contribu

tion. But when I pay a partial taxa fine, I am neither discharging the common duties of a citizen, nor doing an act of benevolence; I am paying what is considered by the government as a debt; and for what consid. eration? plainly for being allowed the liberty of conscience. But I do not desire the liberty of conscience from the government; I hold it by a tenure antecedent to the institution of civil society it was secured to me in the social compact, and was never submitted to the legislature at all. They have therefore no privilege to grant or withhold at their pleasure, and certainly no pretence of right or authority to sell it for a price. It appears then, that this exclusive tax for the support of schools is a groundless and oppressive demand. It is a muster fine in disguise, and violates the very principle it seemed to respect." pp. 15, 16.

"INDEED the zeal with which young persons of both sexes and the labor. ing orders of society, have enlisted themselves in the cause of missions has greatly encouraged and animated your committee."-"The awful condition of the heathen world is made known; the perishing state of our sixty or seventy millions of fellow subjects begins to be understood: the obligation under which we lie, of imparting to them and to all men, the inestimable treasures of the gospel is felt on all sides: the honor of our Divine Savior is seen to be involved in the winning of conquests for Him from the empire of sin. These topics animate more than ever they did the pub. lic ministrations of the church; they are carried home with us to our families; they enter into the daily prayers which we offer with them to the Father of mercies, and we bear them on our hearts in our secret approaches to his throne. The more competent feel constrained to give of their abundance;

the superfluous ornament is sacrificed; the convenience not indispensable is surrendered; the guinea is given where none was given before, and it is doubled where but one was before bestowed."

"And are not the most salutary effects on our children to be looked for from these their exertions? Their sus ceptible minds will be soon awakened, their tendencies to selfishness will be corrected, the value of religion will become palpable. An adequate motive is presented for their laying by a portion of their little income, the best feelings of their simple minds receive a right impulse; and an opening is made, under the blessing of God, for those principles of piety which may be their guard and their ornament through their future lives.

"The progress of the society has been like the sudden start of youth into manhood, Its average income for the preceding 13 years, since its for mation, did not reach 2,000. per an

By a Report of the Bible and school Commission at the Cape of Good Hope on the first of Jan. 1814, it appears that their receipts for the then last year had amounted to 35,000 dollars. A free school at Cape Town was then educating 87 boys and 63 girls, be sides 22 grown-up persons and appren. tices, who attend the school in the evening. "The Lancasterian" mode of education appears to have been adopted. Of this the Committee say;"The new mode of education, manual, expeditious and full of life, seems of all other means, most likely to fix the mind, and interest the feelings of an active yet uncivilized people. Of this the Committee are fully aware, nor will they leave the interesting subject much longer a question.

"By means of teachers educated on the new system, and subject to the control of the Bible and school commission, they are encouraged to think that they may thus be able to extend the knowledge of christianity, of civilized language and of useful arts to the different and unenlightened tribes of Southern Africa. The Committee cannot but feel persuaded that the most promising and effectual method of converting a barbarous people to true religion, is by imparting to their minds a love and a susceptibility of knowledge, and by transforming their vagrant, plundering habits into those of order, honesty and industry."

"An account of the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowledge."

THIS interesting pamphlet was published the present year, "by order of the society for the use of its members." It contains an account of the origin of the society, its constitution, and its efforts for the diffusion of christian knowledge. It also exhibits some deplorable facts as to the state of religion in Rhode Island, and in

two counties of New Hampshire, Rockingham and Strafford.

This society has printed and purchased for distribution, 30,350 Tracts and 8,224 bound volumes, at the expense of $5659,99. Four general distributions of books and pamphlets have been made. The first extended to every Congregational and Presbyterian society in Massachusetts Proper, except in the counties of Suffolk, Hampshire and Berkshire; Rhode Island, Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia also shared in this distribu

tion. This was made in 1804. The second was in 1806-the third in 1809 -the fourth in 1813.

The society has also employed missionaries in New York, Rhode Island and New Hampshire.

"The inhabitants of Rhode Island, who profess to believe Christianity, are divided into Baptists, Quakers, Episcopalians, Methodists, Congre gationalists, Christyans or Smithites. The Baptists, the most numerous de nomination, are subdivided into Calvinistic, Arminian, Separate, and Seventh Day Baptists." p. 32.

In the counties of Providence, Kent and Washington, there is a population of more than 55,000 and not one Congregational or Presbyterian Church, except in the town of Providence. "Nor does it appear that in the whole region west of Narragansett Bay, there ever was a Congregational or Presbyterian minister regularly settled, except a Mr. Noyes in the town of Westerly, who has been dead more than 100 years." pp. 31, 32.

The morals of the people in many places are represented as very deplorable. The divided state of the people, their indifference or aversion to stacles in the way of the missionary. public worship, were found great obStrong prejudices existed against Congregational ministers. "But what greatly added to the virulence of these prejudices, was the imprudence of some missionaries who had visited that region before those sent by our society-of one of whom it is stated; con versing with two persons under serious impressions, he asked them if they prayed. They said that every night

and morning, they kneeled by the bedside and implored the forgiveness of their sins. He replied, 'your prayers are selfish, and therefore they are an abomination to the Lord.' They have never attempted to pray since." p. 38. A missionary journal states—“Visited four families; found they had been often disgusted with an indiscreet exhibition of the doctrine of predestination; That God has made some for salvation and some for damnation, as the primary cause of their creation, making his own glory a secondary mo. tive." One of those missionaries made the following observations to a young girl:"You commit sin sixty times a minute; every breath you draw-and you are rushing down to hell." To an elderly woman while spinning, "You sin against God every thread you spin. Where is your husband" Answer; he is hoeing in the field; "Then he is sinning against God too." To a young married woman he said, while sitting to eat; "Do you love God with all your heart?" Answer, I do not suppose I do. "Then how dare you eat a mouthful? You are eating damnation to your soul." The woman left the table, and took such a disgust at congregational ministers, that to her dying day she would never converse with one." p. 38.

“In another family I found a desponding girl, who had been languish ing under trouble of mind, more than a year. She had been under serious impressions, and anxiously inquiring what she must do to be saved. In this state of mind a missionary conversed with her as follows. "Are you willing to be damned?' No, Sir. 'Do you feel as though you could praise God in hell? I do not, Sir, These must be your feelings before you can ever be admitted to heaven.' It drove her almost to distraction-She was afraid to pray, because she was 'so great a sinner." p. 69.

"One of the vilest in the region complained of a missionary, that he did not preach enough hell and damnation to his poor wicked soul.' Another who wished to be thought more knowing, asserted that we are not free agents in choosing to be religious, and that the grace of God must be shed

abroad in our hearts, without our do. ing any thing about the externals of religion." "Many,' says the mission. ary, 'I find are afraid of morality, lest they should trust in it for salvation. If they commit wickedness, they think they are more open to conviction." p. 39."

We should hardly have given these extravagancies a place in our work, but from the hope that it may be the means of exciting in some preachers more caution, and of leading them to inquire whether they find any thing in our Savior's manner of preaching which will justify their own. If more respect should be paid to his example, and less to metaphysical and mysteri ous systems, preachers would appear more in character as the ambassadors of Christ, and they would have more reason to hope for success.

The society received applications to send missionaries into New Hamp. shire. At first they hesitated; then sent their president into the counties of Rockingham and Strafford to make inquiry. The result of this inquiry made the path of duty plain. The following paragraph from the report of the pres. ident Feb. 1813 gives an affecting picture of the state of those counties. "Without descending to particulars it may be stated generally, that in the counties of Rockingham and Strafford, containing (exclusively of Portsmouth and Exeter) seventy six towns, and according to the census 1810, eighty three thousand and forty seven inhab itants, there are 45 towns-40,286 souls, destitute of the stated means of grace. Of these 45 towns, some have been destitute 10, some 20, some 30, some 40 years; and in some the gos pel ministry has never been statedly enjoyed.-In some towns a christian church has not yet been formed-in some where churches exist, the Lord's supper has not for ten, twenty, or thirty years been administered. Most of these churches are also much reduced in number; one from 62 mem. bers to 2 females; several to but one male member-and in one town con. taining 1063 souls,the visible church of Christ, after a stated ministry of 20 years, has been many years totally extinct."

The report proceeds to represent the situation of these towns as deplorable not only as destitute of the stated means of grace, but as divided in opinions and exposed "to the errors of enthusiasm and sectaries of various name." "It may be added, the calamity is still increasing, as every year diminishes the number of visible christians, and adds to that of destitute towns."

In consequence of this report missionaries have been employed, and by extracts from the letters and journals of the missionaries farther evidence is given of the melancholy situation of the people in those regions, and of the demand for persevering exertions.

Pleasing intelligence from the Christian Visitant. July 7.

EVERY foreign journal, every mail from the west and from the south brings tidings of religious revivals and of accessions to the cause of Christ.

Virginia has awoke from her slumbers. Her Bible Societies, an institution almost divine, exceed in number and generous exertions any of her sister states.

New Jersey, the Attica of America, displays her religious ægis-Praying societies are restored and crowded On Sunday evening June 18, three young gentlemen opened a Sunday evening school in the village of Elizabethtown for poor Africans-between 40 and 50 persons, of all ages and sexes, bond and free, offered themselves with a zeal and gratitude approaching to enthusiasm. In Newark above 300 persons are taught in a Sunday school weekly.

Georgia, where slavery and religious indifference seemed to have established their empire, begins now to awaken, and inquire for God, who alone gives the song of salvation. In the county of M'Intosh, where gospel ordinances have since its erection hardly been known, churches have recently been established under very favorable auspices. The most respectable members of the community,

*Rev. William Whir.

some reaching fifty, sixty one matron approaching her hundredth year, with the spirit of the ancient Grecians, who said, "we also would see Jesus," have, with uncommon desire, requested to be admitted among the disci. ples of Christ. With youthful ardor, they have joined the flock of the Redeemer.

These are the works of God, carried on by the labors, the zeal and the direction of a venerable, aged clergyman, whose piety and ardor in his Master's service, seem to revive and strengthen in proportion as the almond leaves grace and adorn his pious temples.

The exertions of this enlightened and philanthropic clergyman increase liberality of Missionary, Bible, and oth with his prospects.-The ardor and er societies for preaching the gospel and sending the scriptures among the most remote nations of the earth, have equally surprised and delighted him. "Why," says he, "shail we Georgians exert ourselves so liberally in sending the word of eternal life among the heathen whom we never saw; and suffer the heathen negro slaves on our own plantations to remain more the slaves of ignorance and sin, than they are of inhumanity? Why pretend to send the lamp of religion to other quarters, when our own es tates lie under more than Egyptian darkness and vassalage?"

This amiable and venerable servant of God and friend of man,* is an ob ject truly interesting. In all his walks, and with whomsoever he meets, religious inquiry, religious discourse occupies his heart and conversation. The hospital and the prison, the stage coach and the steam boat, share in his useful and judicious exhortations.

Without partiality to persons, to sects, or to parties, he seems equally ready to preach to all, the unsearch able riches of Christ. The language of his conduct on all occasions, and in every place, seems to say, "I seek not yours, but you." He appears resolutely determined for himself, "to redeem the time," and to engage all, without exception, to join with him.