larly in the Congregational and Presbyte- | er Fathers hold? though admitted to be rian denominations. Were I to indicate important in their place, are regarded as the probable direction of religious opinion of small importance in comparison with and theological science in the United the questions, What saith the Scripture? States, amid this metaphysical strife, I What did Christ and the Apostles teach? should little hesitate to say that it is tend- Under this influence, the tendency of theing, on the whole, towards a higher appre-ological science, as well as of the popular ciation of the simplest and most Scriptural exposition of Christianity from the pulpit, Christianity, that is, of the Gospel as is towards the primitive simplicity of Chris"glad tidings" to all men, tidings of for- tian truth. giveness for guilt through the expiation The great achievement of American themade by the Son of God, and tidings of ology is, that it has placed the doctrine of the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead sinners the atonement for sin in the clearest light, to repentance, and to carry on a work of by illustrations drawn from the nature of sanctification in the hearts of the believing. a moral government. Nowhere is the disThe demand is everywhere for a Christian- tinction between the work of Christ as the ity that can be preached, and that, being propitiation for the sins of men, and that preached, will commend itself to every of the Holy Spirit in renewing and sanctiman's conscience in the sight of God.fying the sinner, more clearly drawn-noUnder such a demand, wire-drawn speculations about Christianity-remote from any application to the conscience, to the sinner's fears, and to the hopes and devout affections of the believer-are felt to be impertinent. Thus the Gospel is preached less and less as a matter of traditionary dogmatism and speculation, and more and more as Gospel, the message of God's mercy to needy and guilty man, to be received by every hearer as suited to his wants, and to be hailed with faith and joy as life from the dead. Against this general tendency there is, and there will be, occasional, local, and party resistance; the surface may be ruffled from time to time by some wind of doctrine, or speculation, rather, and the current may seem to be setting in the opposite direction. But I am fully persuaded that, on the whole, if not from year to year, at least from one period of change to another, the progress of religious opinion will be found to be towards the simplest and most Scriptural views of the Gospel as God's gracious message, which every man may embrace, and should embrace immediately, and away from those philosophical and traditionary expositions of Christianity which it only embarrasses the preacher to deliver, and the hearer to receive.

The increased attention which the theologians of America are giving to the accurate and learned investigation of the Holy Scriptures, may be regarded as an indication of the tendency of theological seience in this country. That the Scriptures are the only authority in matters of faith is not only universally acknowledged in theory, but more and more practically acted upon. Thus the science and art of interpretation are more and more appreci

ated.

The best theologian must be he who bests understands, and who can best explain the Bible. The questions, What did Edwards hold? What did the Puritans hold? What did the Reformers hold? What did Augustine, Jerome, or the earli

where is the necessity of each to the salvation of the soul more constantly and forcibly exhibited. The tendency of our theology, under the impulse of the Edwardean exposition of the doctrine of the atonement, is to avoid the habit-so common to philosophers and philosophizing theologiansof contemplating God exclusively as the First Cause of all beings and all events, and to fix attention upon him as a moral governor of beings made for responsible action. Here it is that the God of the Bible differs from the God of philosophy. The latter is simply a first cause-a reason why things are sometimes, if not always, a mere hypothesis to account for the existence of the universe, another name for nature or for fate. The former is a moral governor, that is, a lawgiver, a judge, a dispenser of rewards and penalties. God's law is given to the universe of moral beings for the one great end of promoting the happiness of that vast empire. As a law, it is a true and earnest expression of the will of the lawgiver respecting the actions of his creatures. As a law, it must be sanctioned by penalties adequate to express God's estimation of the value of the interests trampled on by disobedience. As the law is not arbitrary, but the necessary means of accomplishing the greatest good, it may not be arbitrarily set aside. Therefore, when man had become apostate, and the whole human race was under condemnation, God sent his Son into the world, in human nature, "to be made a sin-offering for us ;" and thus, by his voluntary sufferings magnifying the law, "to declare the righteousness of God, that God may be just, and the justifier of him who believeth." Thus it is that God, as a moral governor, is glorified in the forgiveness of sinners; that He calls upon all men to repent, with a true and intense desire for their salvation; that He sends into a world of rebellion the infinite gift of his Spirit, to impart life to those who are dead in sin; that in a world of sinners, who, if

left to themselves, would all reject the of- tions, lying with oppressive weight upon fered pardon, He saves those whom He has the common mind, and giving support to a chosen out of the world; that he uses the domineering priesthood. It is not that Raco-operation of redeemed and renewed men tionalism which, retaining little of Chrisin advancing the work of saving their fel- tianity but the name, has had a brief aslow-men. Men are saved from sin and cendency in some parts of Protestant Eucondemnation, not by mere power, but by rope. It is evangelical_Christianity-the means that harmonize with the nature, and Christianity of the New Testament. Wherconduce to the ends of God's moral gov-ever the stranger sees a place of worship ernment. This method of illustrating the in our cities, or in the country, the preGospel carries the preacher and the theolo-sumption is-the probability is, with few gian back from the Platonic dreams and dry exceptions, ten to one-that there God is dogmatizing of the schools, to the Bible. worshipped in the name of the one MediIt sets the theologian upon studying, and ator, with faith and penitence; that there the preacher upon imitating, the freedom, pardon is offered to the guilty, freely through simplicity, and directness, with which the Christ the Lamb of God; and that there the Apostles addressed the understandings and Holy Spirit is looked for, and is given to sensibilities of men. And thus it may be re-renew the heart of the sinner, and to fill | garded as coinciding with other indications of the tendency of religious opinion in the various evangelical bodies of America.

I would remark, in conclusion, that few things in the history of the Gospel more strikingly prove its inherent life and divinity, than the extent to which it has secured and retains a hold upon the Ameriean people. Their Christianity is not the dead formalism of ecclesiastical institutions-upheld by law, tradition, or the force of fashion. It is not a body of supersti

the believing soul with joy and peace. The worship may, in many instances, be such as would offend the sensibilities of certain cultivated minds-most unlike the choral pomp of old cathedrals—still, rude as it may be, it is often that only acceptable worship which is offered in spirit and in truth. The Gospel may be preached there ignorantly, and with many imperfections, still it is the Gospel, and often does it become "the wisdom of God, and the power of God unto salvation."

BOOK VIIL

EFFORTS OF THE AMERICAN CHURCHES FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.
We cannot well close our view of the

religious condition of the United States
without a brief notice of what the church-
es here are doing for the propagation of
the Gospel in other lands. This forms a

Much has been said in Europe about the tyranny public opinion in the United States, but I confess never have been able to comprehend what this expression means. M. de Tocqueville employs it, but without giving any clear idea upon the subject, as has been well remarked by the Hon. John C. Spencer, in his Notes to the American edition of M. de T's work. If public opinion be strong and decided in America, it is because the character of the people makes it so. When they form an opinion, more especially on any matter in which the judgment or the conscience is concerned (and what subject of a practical kind does not involve one or other of these,)? they are not willing to change it but for good reasons. And in all matters of religion, and morals especially, the Protestant Faith, which has so much influence with a large proportion of the population, concurs with the earnestness and steadiness of the AngloMaxon character, to make public opinion, not only strong, but right, on all points on which it has been sufficiently informed. Mr. Laing, in his excellent work on Sweden, has some judicious remarks on this subject, proving that he takes a philosophic view

of it.

natural sequel to what has been said of
their endeavours to plant and to sustain its
institutions on their own soil.

to learn that our churches are doing any
Some readers, indeed, may be surprised
thing at all for the spiritual welfare of oth-
do in their own.
er countries, while they have so much to
When they hear that
our population is increasing at the rate of
500,000 of souls in the year, so that no-
thing short of the most gigantic efforts can
effect a proportionate increase of ministers
and congregations; when they read of no
fewer than 60,000 or 80,000 immigrants
arriving from Europe, the greater number
of whom are ignorant of the true Gospel
and many of them uneducated, poor,
vicious, they may be astonished that the
American churches, unaided by the gov
ernment in any way, receiving no tithes
taxes, or public pecuniary grants of any
kind, even for the support of religion a
home, do nevertheless raise large sums for
sending the Gospel to the heathen. Such
however, is not the feeling of enlightened
and zealous Christians in America itself.
They feel that, while called upon to do
their utmost for religion at home, it is a

and

N

once a duty and a privilege to assist in promoting it abroad. They feel assured that he that watereth shall himself be refreshed, and that, in complying so far as they can with their Saviour's command to "preach the Gospel to every creature," they are most likely to secure the blessing of that Saviour upon their country. And facts abundantly prove that they are right.

his glory, we may with boldness go on to the settling of so hopeful a work, which tendeth to the reducing and conversion of such savages as remain wandering in desolation and distress, to civil society and the Christian religion." And in this, the charter professes to favour the "worthy disposition" of the petitioners to whom it was granted. Nothing could be more natural, therefore, than that John Robinson, Moreover, our churches have a special pastor of that part of the church which rereason for the interest they take in for-mained at Leyden, in Holland, should exeign missions. No churches owe so much to the spirit of missions as they do. Much of the country was colonized by men who came to it not only as a refuge for their faith when persecuted elsewhere, but as a field of missionary enterprise; and their descendants would be most unfaithful to the high trust that has been bequeathed to them, did they not strenuously endeavour to carry out the principles of their forefathers. Alas, we have to mourn that we have, after all, done so little to impart the glorious Gospel, to which our country owes so much, to nations still ignorant of it! Still, we have done something, and the candid reader will perhaps admit that we have not been altogether wanting in our duty, nor greatly behind the churches of most other countries in this enterprise.

CHAPTER II.

claim, in his letter to the governor of the colony at Plymouth, "Oh that you had converted some before you killed any!" But, in fact, the Plymouth colonists applied themselves to the conversion of the natives from the very first. They endeavoured to communicate the knowledge of the Gospel to the scattered Indians around them, and took pains to establish schools for their instruction. The result was, that several gave satisfactory evidence, living and dying, of real conversion to God. A poor, small colony, struggling for its very existence with all manner of hardships, could not be expected to do much in this way, yet in 1636 we find that it made a legal provision for the preaching of the Gospel among the Indians, and for the establishment of courts to punish trespasses committed against them.

The Massachusetts charter sets forth that, "to win and incite the natives of that country to the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and Saviour of mankind, and the Christian Faith, in our royal

EARLIER EFFORTS TO CONVERT THE ABORI- intention and the adventurer's free profes

GINES.

NOTWITHSTANDING the common mistake at the present day, of those who conceive that religious liberty, and to some extent, also, the enjoyment of political rights, were the sole inducements that led to the original colonization of the United States, we have seen that the plantations of both Virginia and New-England were designed to conduce to the spread of Christianity by the conversion of the Aborigines, as is proved both by the royal charters establishing those early colonies, and by the expressed sentiments of the Massachusetts settlers.

The royal charter granted to the Plymouth Company, having referred to the depopulation of the country by pestilence and war, and its lying unclaimed by any other Christian power, goes on to say, "In contemplation and serious consideration whereof, we have thought it fit, according to our kingly duty, so much as in us lieth, to second and follow God's sacred will, rendering thanks to his divine Majesy for his gracious favour in laying open and revealing the same unto us before any other Christian prince or state; by which neans, without offence, and as we trust to

sion, is the principal end of the plantation." The seal of the colony had for its device the figure of an Indian, with the words of the Macedonian entreaty, "Come over and help us." And here, as at Plymouth, some not altogether abortive attempts were made to convert the natives from the very first.

Thus, these two colonies might be considered as self-supporting missions, and rank among the earliest Protestant missionary enterprises. The Swedes had in the preceding century done something for their benighted countrymen in the northern part of that kingdom. French Huguenots, too, as we have seen, made an attempt so early as 1556, under the auspices of the brave and good Coligny, to carry the Gospel to America, by founding a settlement in Brazil. Calvin furnished several pastors for it from his school at Geneva. But Villagagnon, who took the lead, having relapsed to Romanism, put three of the Genevan pastors to death; whereupon some of the colonists returned to Europe, and the remainder were massacred by the Portuguese. A subsequent attempt, made under the same auspices, to plant a Protestant colony in Florida, also failed. Thus, even assuming, which

is not very evident, that these attempts were of a missionary character, certain it is that the New-England colonies may be regarded as the first successful enterprises of the kind.

In 1646, the Massachusetts Legislature passed an act for the encouragement of Christian missions among the Indians, and that same year the celebrated John Eliot began his labours at Nonantum, now forming part of the township of Newton, about six miles from Boston. Great success attended this good man's preaching, and other modes of instruction. Nor were his labours confined to the Indians near Boston. From Cape Cod to Worcester, over a tract of country near 100 miles long, he made repeated journeys, preaching to the native tribes, whose language he had thoroughly mastered, and had translated the Scriptures and other Christian books into it. Both editions of his Indian Bible, the one of 1500 copies in 1663, the other of 2000 copies in 1685, were printed at Cambridge, near Boston, and were the only Bibles printed in America until long after. Eliot, who has ever since been called the "Apostle of the Indians," died in 1690, at the age of eighty-five.

come joy," was one of his last expressions. His labours, and those of others whom he engaged in the same great work, were blessed to the conversion of many souls, and many settlements of "praying Indians" were formed in the country round

Boston.

But Eliot was not the first who preached the Gospel with success to the Indians in New-England. Thomas Mayhew began his labours among them on the island called Martha's Vineyard, in 1643. In 1646 he sailed for England to solicit aid; but the ship was lost at sea. His father, Thomas Mayhew, the proprietor of the island, though seventy years of age, then undertook the task, and continued it till 1681, when he died, at the age of ninety-three. His grandson succeeded; and for five generations, till the death of Zachariah Mayhew in 1803, aged eighty-seven years, that family supplied pastors to the Indians living on Martha's Vineyard.

But that very year (1675), King Philip, the chief of the Pokanoket tribe, instigated by his hatred of Christianity, and still more, probably, by jealousy of the growing power of the English settlers, made an unprovoked war upon the colonies. It ended in the annihilation of his party, not, however, without vast injury to the "praying settlements." Still, though the Gospel experienced a check, it soon began again to make progress, so that in 1696 there were thirty Indian churches in Massachusetts colony, and, two years later, 3000 reputed "converts."

In Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Long Island, which belonged to the province of New-York, though its eastern part was col onized by emigrants from New-England, missionary efforts were less successful. Still, the Gospel was not wholly without effect, and portions of the Narragansett, Pequod, Nantick, Mohegan, and Montauk tribes were converted to Christianity, and long formed "Christian settlements," some remnants of which exist to this day.

was

The news respecting the progress of the Gospel among the Indians in New-Eng land excited so much interest in the moth "Wel-er-country from the first, that "The Socie ty for Propagating the Gospel in NewEngland" was incorporated in England so early as 1649, and though its charter was annulled at the Restoration in 1660, a new one was granted the following year, reor ganizing the society, under the title of "The Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Heathen Nations of New-Eng land and the parts adjacent in America" The celebrated Robert Boyle took a great interest in it, and was its " governor" or president for thirty years. The good Bar ter was its friend. In 1698, "The Society for promoting Christian Knowledge" founded by members of the Established Church in England; and in 1701, "The So ciety for Propagating the Gospel in Foreig Parts" was instituted. This last joined with the first in aiding the American missions as did also, at a later day, "The Society for Propagating Christian Knowledge," whic was founded in Scotland. A considerable portion of the funds expended by these so In the Plymouth colony we find honour-cieties, in the missions among the Indians able mention made, among those who la- was contributed by the churches in Amer boured to evangelize the Indians during ica; for, before the Revolution, they be Eliot's lifetime, of Messrs. Treat, Tup- no independent missionary organization per, and Cotton; while in Massachusetts, of their own, owing to their dependant besides Eliot, there were Messrs. Goskin, dition as colonies. In 1762, the Massach Thatcher, and Rawson; and in Connecti- setts Legislature incorporated a socie cut, Messrs. Fitch and Pierson. The re-formed at Boston, "for promoting Christi sult of their united efforts was seen in knowledge among the Indians in Nor 1675, in fourteen settlements of "praying America," but the ratification of this act Indians, twenty-four congregations, and the crown being refused, the missions h twenty-four Indian preachers." Besides still to be conducted on behalf of the soc religious instruction, the Indians were eties in Great Britain, through America taught agriculture, and the other most ne- committees formed at Boston and New cessary arts of civilized life. York.