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regarded with a kind of instinctive horror. But in great cities, where they occur every day, and sometimes every hour, and frequently court the public eye, they are, insensibly, regarded with less and less horror. And it will be well if the minds of many, who once thought themselves beyond the reach of such an effect, are not gradually poisoned by the contagious example. It will be well if practices once considered as unquestionably and highly criminal, be not, by and by, so familiar to the mind, as to appear scarcely criminal at all, and as hardly a proper object of ecclesiastical discipline.

"Now, it cannot be questioned, that whatever hardens the heartwhatever renders death and eternity less impressive, and sinful practice, of whatever kind, less abhorrent to the soul, forms a real obstacle to the success of the ambassador of Christ. It can scarcely, I think, be doubted, that this was one of the difficulties which the apostle contemplated in the prospect of preaching the gospel at Rome. There, he knew, that many of those practices which he must denounce as unchristian, were not only loved, but sanctioned by public opinion, and by general habit. But in spite of this, and of every other obstacle, he declared himself ready to go forward, ready to put his reputation, and even his life in jeopardy, to plead the cause of his master against all opposition."-pp. 22, 23, 24.

We have quoted the observations on this head entire, though we beg leave to dissent in part. Is there, we ask, a greater familiarity with death in the city than in the country and particularly in this city, which has been the principal theatre of the reverend author's experience and observation.

In the case of the minister himself these may be, in that of the people we apprehend it is widely different, and the danger of the city seems to us rather to be in this-that there is less familiarity with death and sorrow in the city than in the country.

In the city, indeed, we see, and perhaps bear a part more frequently in the passing funeral. But in all this there is little familiarity with death, and more particularly in the unchristian manner in which funerals are too often celebrated here. We meet to walk to the grave and drop a fellow-being into it, but we hear no lesson, and mingle in no devotion.-But without noticing more particularly the custom here alluded to, our circumstances in a city confine our intimate knowledge of the circumstances of sorrow and death to a very limited number of families, while in the country those circumstances press upon the mind of a whole town, or at least upon an entire congregation, and death, even in ordinary cases, comes nearer to every man's mind, because all those circumstances are known. In the city, there may be familiarity with funerals, but not with sick-beds, and deathbeds, and sorrow, which are among the grand means of preparing the mind for the influence of divine truth, and of which a country minister has a much greater opportunity to avail himself than a minister in the city.

To the last obstacle to the success of gospel ministers in populous cities, noticed in the sermon before us, we would invite

the serious and candid attention of our readers, and especially those who have the charge of families, which they are commanded to train up in the way they should go."

"In great cities there is created a sort of morbid appetite for variety, and for an excessive quantity, as well as delicacy of public preaching. There is such an easy access to every sort of talent and manner, that it cannot fail of being extremely difficult for any one man to keep together, and to satisfy a large congregation. If he hope to do it, he must not only preach the pure gospel, with diligence and with power; but he must also labour, as far as is lawful, to give his people that variety and richness of matter, which may be adapted to the various tastes of those who attend on his ministry. He must labour, as our Lord expresses it, like a good householder, to bring forth out of his treasure things new and old. He must, as the apostle, in writing to Timothy, exhorts-He must give attention to reading, as well as to exhortation: he must meditate upon these things, and give himself wholly to them, that his profiting may appear unto all.

"But that love of variety, which is peculiarly strong in the inhabitants of great cities, and which a city pastor must make peculiar exertions to consult, and, as far as is proper, to satisfy, is not the whole of his difficulty. There is also a tendency in large towns, where public exercises of religion abound, and where some churches, of one denomination or another, are almost always open; there is a tendency among many professors of religion, otherwise exemplary, by far too much to neglect the duties of the closet, and of the family, and to be almost perpetually engaged in attending on public services. I am a warm friend, not only to a punctual attendance on the stated service of the house of God on the sabbath, but also to an attendance on prayer meetings, and other similar exercises, as Providence may afford an opportunity, in the course of the week. The person who has it in his power to attend such meetings, but has no taste for it, and seldom or never appears at them, gives too much reason to fear that if he have real religion at all, it is at a very low ebb in his soul. Nay, I have no doubt that, where the principle of piety is in a lively and growing state, such meetings will be regarded as a feast, and there will be a desire to enjoy them as often as is consistent with the other duties of the Christian life. But this desire may be, and often has been, indulged to excess; especially by parents and heads of families. Many hasten from church to church, and from one social meeting to another, until every hour on the sabbath, and every evening in the week, are employed in public services. In fact, they seem to think that they serve God acceptably just in proportion to the number of public exercises on which they can attend. This religious dissipation-for it really appears to me to deserve no better name is productive of multiplied evils. It interferes, almost entirely, with that calm self-examination, and self-converse, which are so essential to a life of growing piety. It abridges, or prevents, in a most fatal degree, that faithful instruction of children and servants, which is indispensable to training up a family in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And it tends to surcharge the mind with an amount of spiritual provision, which is never properly digested, or likely to be advantageously applied. The consequence is, that the young and rising generation, in such families, are never prepared by adequate training at home to hear the gospel with

profit; while those who are more advanced in life, taking little or no time for meditation and reading in private, do not grow as they ought in scriptural knowlege, and remain but babes, while they ought to be strong men in Christ.

"Hence it arises, that among the mass of the professors of religion in great cities, there is, commonly, less accurate and digested knowledge of Christian doctrine, than among an equal number of professors in the country. Not that there is less general intelligence, or less access to books, in the former than in the latter: but, on the contrary, more, usually, of both. But because there is more mixed society; more of those distracting interruptions which multifarious society cannot fail to produce; and, of course, less retirement, less religious reading, and less leisurely digestion of what is read and heard.

"Now, it is perfectly obvious that all this is unfriendly both to the comfort and the success of a Christian pastor. Whatever has a tendency to interrupt or to abridgethe exercises of retirement and devotion; whatever has a tendency to prevent professors of religion from enjoying much deep, undisturbed converse with themselves, their Bible, and their God; and whatever tends to interfere with the patient, laborious pursuit of family instruction, and family discipline, will always be found to have an equal tendency to increase the toil, and at the same time to diminish the fruit of a minister's work will render the closet a less edifying preparative for the sanctuary, and the parental mansion a less wholesome nursery for the church of God."-pp. 25, 26, 27, 28.

2d head is, "That as peculiar difficulties and temptations attend the preaching of the gospel in great cities; so it is of PECULIAR IMPORTANCE THAT THE GOSPEL BE PLAINLY AND FAITHFULLY PREACHED IN SUCH PLACES.

"It is of unspeakable importance that the gospel be plainly and faithfully preached every where. For it is the power of God unto salvotion, to every one that believeth. If the salvation of the soul be of infinite moment; if the gospel of the grace of God be the only message of life and peace to fallen man; and if he that believeth this gospel hath life, but he that believeth it not, shall not see life, but hath the wrath of God abiding on him ;-then no tongue of men or of angels can tell the importance of preaching the gospel, in its simplicity and purity, to every creature.

"But the thought which I wish to illustrate and enforce is, that there are some considerations which render it PECULIARLY important that the gospel be plainly and faithfully preached in GREAT CITIES. Among many which might be suggested, I will only request your attention to the following.

"If there be any justness in the remark offered in a former part of the discourse, that there is a certain intensity of character usually observable among the inhabitants of great cities; that, especially, their luxury and dissipation, their follies and vices are, in common, more strongly marked, than in the more spare population of the country; then it follows that there is, humanly speaking, more NEED of the gospel in the former than in the latter: a more imperious call for exhibiting, in all its solemnity and power, that most potent of all means for opposing and subduing the depravity of man. It is a maxim, among wise physicians, that the most strongly marked diseases, call for the most bold and vigorous treatment. To counteract a poison of peculiar virulence, remedies of the most active character must be employed. So it is in the moral and spiritual world.

Where difficulties more than commonly powerful and obstinate exist, remedies of correspoding potency ought to be sought and diligently appli ed. Since, then, the gospel of Christ exhibits the only adequate remedy for human depravity and misery, it ought to be preached with peculiar plainness, fidelity and perseverance, wherever the diseases which it is intended to heal reign with more than ordinary malignity.

"Again; it is of peculiar importance that the gospel be faithfully and powerfully preached in great cities, because there it is commonly addressed to GREATER NUMBERS AT ONCE than in more retired places. There the preacher has a more favourable opportunity of doing good upon a large scale; and, of course, the result of a given amount of labour, other things being equal, will be likely to be more extensively useful."-pp. 29, 30, 31. "A large city forms the heart, the most vital portion of the state or country to which it belongs. It gives fashion, and almost law, to the surrounding districts. A favourable impression made here, will be extended in every direction. A happy impulse given here, will vibrate, and be beneficially felt to the remotest bounds of the social body. How important, then, that in the metropolis of a state or nation, the truth be known and honoured, and orthodox churches established and edified! How peculiarly desirable, that in such a great centre of action and of influence, there be able, faithful men, well qualified to be guides of the faith and practice of those around them.

"In a great city, there is special need of instructive, faithful preaching, because there, as you have heard, there is apt to be less reading, less retired devotion, less patient use of the private means of growing in scriptural knowledge, than are commonly found in other places, where the means of grace are statedly enjoyed. It often happens, in large cities, that the instructions given them from the pulpit, form the greater part of what many professors of religion and others, ever receive. Of what unspeakable importance is it, then, that the preaching, in such circumstances, be plain, clear, sound, able, faithful, and edifying! How important that preachers be scribes, well instructed in the kingdom of God; qualified rightly to divide the word of truth, and give to every one his portion in due season!

"In a large city, moreover, the faithful, popular preacher will, almost every sabbath, address a number of strangers, who flock to the metropolis, on business or pleasure, from every part of the surrounding country; and who, if they be benefited themselves by his labours, will carry with them a portion of the sacred treasure, wherever they sojourn, or wherever they abide. When Peter preached in Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, he was the instrument of saving benefit to many who resided in almost every part of the Roman Empire. Some of the inhabitants of Egypt and of the Lesser Asia, of Crete and Arabia, of Rome and of Parthia, were found together, drinking in the word of life from his lips; and each, afterwards, going to his own home, we may suppose, became a means of saving knowledge to many around him. O how animating, and, at the same time how solemn, is this thought to one who, from sabbath to sabbath, proclaims the message of salvation in a populous city! Every time he enters the pulpit, he will, perhaps, preach to some who never heard him before, and will never hear him again; and who may carry away an impression eternally beneficial or injurious, according to its character, not VOL. VII. 4 F

only to themselves, but also to many others over whom they may exert an influence !

"Finally; in a large city, as we have seen, there is generally collected a much greater amount of intellectual power, of literary acquirement, and of pecuniary means, than are to be found in other places. Of course, if a right direction be given to public sentiment by the faithful preaching of the gospel (and we cannot hope that it shall be given by any other means) we may expect to see a much greater amount of talent, of learning, of wealth, and of exertion devoted to the cause of the Redeemer, to the promotion of human happiness, than could otherwise be reasonably expected. The servant of Jesus Christ, then, who takes the oversight in the Lord of a large and wealthy city congregation, may consider himself as called to preside over the movements of an engine of mighty power, which, under wise guidance, may accomplish more than can easily be estimated;-not for his own personal aggrandizement ;-not to gratify the littleness of sectarian bigotry;-but to support and extend those great plans for building up the church of God, at home and abroad, which now do honour to those who engage in them, and which will promote the happiness of unnumbered millions in time and eternity.

"It is plain, then, that the labours of a gospel minister, in a great capital, are more important than those of most others in the sacred office:→ That greater benefits, or greater mischiefs are likely to flow from them, according to their character:-and that, as he is called to struggle with many peculiar and most painful difficulties; so he has, also, peculiar inducements to be faithful, and may expect peculiar rewards for his fidelity."-pp. 32, 33, 34, 35.

Intelligence,

UNITED STATES.

CHEROKEE INDIANS.-BRAINERD.

This is the principal station among the Cherokees, so called in memory of the distinguished missionary of that name—situated in the district of Chickamaugah, and on the creek so called-about 500 miles in a direct line north of the gulf of Mexico.

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

With this mission not only the Board, (says their tenth Report) but the Christian community extensively, have become familiarly acquainted. It is near; seemingly even in the midst of us; has intercourse with all parts of the country; is established in the affections and confidence of all, who wish well to the long neglected natives of the wilderness; and, from various causes, has engaged general attention, and inspired elevated hope. May it please the Father of Lights, that it may continue to be worthy of all these kind regards, and never disappoint its patrons and friends.

The company, consisting of Messrs. Abijah Conger,* John Vail, and John Talmage, with their families, designed for the Cherokee mission; and the Rev. Alfred Finney, with his wife

* See Christian Herald, Vol. VI. p. 540.