'How could you see me perish? Why did you not sell your estates to give the gospel to me? Ah! you never felt the pains of damnation.' Indeed, my brethren, when we contemplate that scene, we know not where to stop. When we have given a few hundred dollars, we look over the immense pagan waste, and then again to the judgment, and ask, Why should I not give as many

more?"

"We have slept too long over this immensely important subject. The millions who are gone cannot be redeemed: those who are now on their way cannot be stopped: the many who must die before we can reach the fields of the missions, must die as they are, because we delayed so long. But by the bowels of Christ let no more time be lost."*

Perhaps some apology is necessary for transcribing this long extract; but the subject is of vast importance, and the above appeal, with a special application to our slaves, cannot be too often reiterated. A SLAVE HOlder.

N. Carolina, Sept. 1820.

REVIEW.

A Sketch of My Friend's Family, intended to suggest some practical hints on Religion and Domestic Manners. By Mrs. MARSHALL, author of Henwick Tales. 5th edition. pp. 95. 24 mo. New-York: D. H. Wickham, 59 Fulton-street.

It is some comfort to believe, that the scene pourtrayed in this little volume is no fiction. We do not mean that it relates any actual facts, the exact history of any one family; but rather, that it pourtrays a scenery which may be found in many families in an enlightened Christian community, and particularly in that communityt where the book was originally published. The family whose character and daily occupations are here brought before us, is one which by a course of industry, is in the enjoyment of such affluence that every rational want may be supplied. Now the principal excellence of the work seems to us to be, that it presents such a family occupied in an enlightened and Christian manner. In the enjoyment of a profusion of blessings, denied to a great part of mankind, we do not see the parents, by their sheer neglect and indifference, precisely as illiterate and unimproved as if they had been doomed to hard labouring poverty; unskilled in the management, and careless in the employment of time; and yielding to their children, as the highest advantages, nothing better than the means of acquiring a factitious, empty-headed gentility. But we see them (Oh, that we might see the pattern followed throughout the community,) with cultivated and well informed minds, under the controlling, directing, and cheering influence of piety, employed daily and hourly in a rational and religious education of their children. The mother, instead of killing time by + England,

See C. Herald, p. 233.

wandering from shop to shop, from amusement to amusement, yields herself, without weariness or dissatisfaction, nay, with absolute pleasure, to enlarging their minds, correcting their manners, and improving their moral feelings. Instead of directing all the powers of her soul to her dress, to the decoration of her establishment, and to the accomplishments of her children; instead of weakening their minds and poisoning their moral feelings with gewgaws, and ribbons, and feathers, she is to them an example of plainness, yet "adorning herself with modest apparel," and "as becometh a woman professing godliness with good works." She is their guide, their teacher, their friend. Neither is she so buried in domestic avocations that she feels obliged to send almost her very nurslings to school, because she can find no time, and, of course, has no patience, to attend to them at home. Having an enlightened and well regulated mind, and being, in a reasonable and scripture sense, a keeper at home, she has skill and industry to manage her domestic affairs, to be a prudent and economical housewife, without having her every thought engrossed by petty concerns. She would rather dispense with cakes, and sweetmeats, and parties, and preparations, than to neglect her own mind and the minds of her children. She buries not the talent which God hath given her for governing and blessing the little empire which He has committed to her charge. That her dominion is small, diminishes not her sense of responsibility, or her interest in its welfare. She loves it as her own soul; she feels her obligations to her Lord and King, and anticipates the solemn account which she must render.

The father, though immersed in commercial business, is neither distracted nor engrossed with the business which he faithfully and successfully pursues; but can disburthen his mind of all its cares, and sweeten the domestic circle with his smiles, and instruct it by his wisdom. He returns to his much loved home to alleviate the mother's labours; and in doing so he relaxes from his own, while he seconds and sanctions her lessons and authority.

In making this sketch we may not have taken every line from the copy before us ;-we have only drawn the picture which it presented to our own imagination, or rather revived in our recollection, and which we could wish to behold in every family that we enter. We could wish to behold the mother, the enlightened, discreet, and pious guide and instructor of her children, and every family growing up, not like weeds, a curse and a deformity to the soil they occupy, but cultivated plants, beautiful to the eye and laden with fruit.

As many of our readers may have the work before them, and as we wish that all may possess it, we forbear making copious extracts. The following may suffice to justify our main observation, that it presents a family occupied in an enlightened and Christian manner.

"In Mrs. Clifford's family arrangements, I was struck with the beautiful order and consistency of the whole. Nothing was done without a plan. Every relaxation and employment had its alloted season; consequently, confusion seldom or never ensued; nor did the enjoyment of the one ever interfere with the performance of the other. In her expenses she was liberal, yet prudent;—she never curtailed the comforts of her family, or sparingly provided for their wants, in order to expend the sum thus unworthily redeemed, in the indulgence of unnecessary profusion, or the affectation of an unbecoming style. Her table was always plain, yet plentiful; frugal, yet well-ordered and genteely arranged. Thus, fully occupied in discharging the important duties of a wife, a mother, and a mistress, her visits were few, and her friends select. Home was the centre of her joys, and the principal scene of her exertions. Her relaxation was to inquire into the state of the poor, her amusement to aim at amending their characters and meliorating their condition.

"In the education of her children, she was assisted by the co-operating hand, and strengthened by the concurring authority of their father. If, at any time, the mother was displeased, the father never failed to heighten the effect of that displeasure by his much-dreaded frown: and when he reproved them, she never mitigated the punishment by an expression of pity better withheld, or a caress but ill-bestowed. A simple incident which occurred under my immediate notice, strongly indicated this union of authority, this harmony of conduct.

"On entering the room one day, in Mrs. Clifford's absence, the fond father bent to caress an engaging little girl, who stood pensively apart from the happy group. As he attempted to kiss her, she covered her face with her hands, and burst into tears. 'What is the matter, Jane, why do you not like that I should kiss you?' 'O papa,' sobbed the heart-broken little girl, I have been very naughty, and mamma is angry with me, so I am sure you would not kiss me if you knew that.' I saw that the heart of Clifford was touched; he could have clasped the ingenuous little penitent in his arms, but he prudently forbore, and turned from her, saying, 'I am glad you have told me of it, Jane, for you could have received no pleasure from a mark of affection which you were conscious of not deserving.' This, thought I, would furnish an admirable lesson to some of my married friends,

"In the evening, I ventured to inquire into the nature of Jane's offence, to which Mrs. Clifford replied- She brought me a tale of her little brother's faults, (a practice of which I never allow) and that too, with a degree of exaggeration and an air of triumph which convinced me she exulted in his fall.' 'Surely that is not all, cried I, for I remember that the same little girl, a few days since, broke an expensive decanter, on which she was only mildly reproved; and reminded that the same sum which must be expended to replace it, would have purchased a blanket for the poor family whose habitation she had lately visited.' 'It is my aim,' resumed the mother, in punishing my children, to be guided by the nature of their faults; instead of measuring the penalty by the inconvenience which their misconduct occasions me. In the present instance, Jane's first fault was caused by carelessness, and the other by nothing less than a lurking principle of malice in the heart.' I acknowledge that you are right, my dear madam,' I replied, but there is something so different in your plan to any thing I have yet witnessed, that you must forgive the remark.""-pp. 9-11.

6

"You will sometimes think of us when you do not see us, Mr. Bentley,' said Mrs. Clifford. 'Yes, I shall think of you when my sister Mary and I are seated each by the side of our quiet fire. I shall remember you when I enter the comfortless abodes of discord. And when I partake of the gaudy feasts of ostentatious hospitality, secretly trembling for the cost; -then I shall remember you. But oh! when shall I again behold a family so disinterested, so united, so happy! If we are happier than many of our neighbours,' interposed Mr. Clifford, it is because we seek our pleasures at home. Our visits and our visiters, as you must have observed, are very few—and they are so for two reasons; first, because our income would not prudently admit of much company; and secondly, Mrs. Clifford objects to the practice on our children's account, whose minds and bodies, she affirms, would both suffer without the hourly guard of maternal vigilance. Yet under these circumstances, my dear Bentley, you must allow, that had we not previously cultivated a taste for intellectual pleasures, our hours of leisure would have languished in unmeaning dulness, and our conversation must have degenerated into uninteresting insipidity.""-p. 92.

"But above all, my dear friend,' he continued, laying his hand on the Bible, which had not yet been returned to its place, since the offering up the evening sacrifice, above all, it is because this book is the law-giver in our family, that we have peace, whilst others are torn by divisions, and disordered by strife."-p. 93.

In order that the model presented here may be successfully imitated, there is required a withdrawment of the mind from the frivolities of the world. A worthier pursuit must be adopted than that of being distinguished by fashion, entertainments, and wealth: the mind must feel the responsibilities of the parental relation, and a habit of reading and reflection must be cultivated as the only way to wisdom and knowledge; and rational and pious conversation must be sought as the chief enjoyment of the social circle. Thus will their daily occupations and pleasures conspire to prepare parents to be skilful in training up their children, and to find their best enjoyments amid their most important duties. The domestic circle will be their delight, while they see their children delighted with progress in knowledge, and in a joyful reception of the grace of God. Year after year will increase their happiness, while in succession they dismiss them from their protection and their roof, to enter upon the duties of life, and to be a blessing to mankind, the joy of their parents, and the favoured servants of their God. Even their grey hairs will descend with comfort to the grave; while, instead of lisping infancy, they see gathering around them intelligence, and piety, and affection, which their own hands have reared.

We have one fault to find with our author, of some importance. It is intimated, we think undesignedly, (see pp. 7 and 30.) that refinement and cultivation of the mind are incompatible with a sober attention to domestic duties; unless their deleterious influence is prevented by the operation of the religion of the heart. Now we grant that religion tends to the best use of every gift,

and the refined and cultivated mind, influenced by it, becomes more useful, more worthy of love and admiration. Yet will we insist, that of two persons not under the influence of religion, she will be the better housewife, the better mother, the better neighbour and friend, whose mind has been cultivated by a liberal and solid education, who can find resources within her own house, in the books which she knows how to prize; and in her own mind, which is capable of reflection, of enjoying itself in its own enlightened operations.

The cultivation of the mind, and of the female mind too, is a good and not an evil in itself; and if we would wish the future matrons of our city and country, to possess the wisdom, and skill, and good sense, as well as piety of Mrs. Clifford, we must faithfully educate our daughters in all the solid and liberal improvements which adorned the youth of Emma Talbut.

LONDON SUNDAY SCHOOL UNION SOCIETY.

The annual general meeting of this society was held at the City of London Tavern, on Wednesday morning, the 10th of May, 1820. JOSEPH BUTTERWORTH, Esq. M. P. in the chair.

"The meeting was more numerously attended than at any former time, and the company departed with the appearance of having been highly gratified and delighted. It is hoped that this is not the only effect that will be produced by a meeting so important and interesting; but that all persons who were present, will return with fresh energy to their engagements in the religious instruction of the young, and that the true spirit of exertion and union, strengthened by the bond of Christian love, will in consequence more eminently prevail among the friends of the rising generation,"

Summary of the Annual Report for the year ending May 1st, 1820.

In the present number we shall confine our extracts from the Report to the general observations of the Committee, and what they denominate "Domestic Proceedings," and leave their notices of "Sunday Schools in foreign parts," to their appropriate places in our future numbers.

"The cause of Sunday Schools is not like a brilliant meteor, which dazzles for a moment; but is comparable to the shining light which shineth more and more to the perfect day. The benefits of education and the results of practical benevolence, are not unimportant because they are often imperceptible; and your Committee would found their claim to your affectionate regard and strenuous support, not upon intelligence which might dazzle