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laration would not be true. The Gnostics would bring up the whole practice of infant baptism, and confront him with these undeniable facts.

Should any one suppose that Clement did actually maintain the absurd position, that unconscious infants were the subjects of all the mental exercises which he described, it may be said, that this would be degrading him as much as he would thereby exalt them. But the clearest evidence of the contrary is found in the fact, that even in the age of Augustine, when the absurdities of the effects of baptism were carried to their highest pitch, and were, in truth, applied to infants, such effects upon the infant mind were not pretended. Nothing can be clearer than the remark of Henke, namely: "When baptism was called an illumination, new-born infants could not well have been the subjects of it."-Church History, Vol. I, p. 142. We are not now concerned with the truth of Clement's sentiments in regard to baptism, but purely with the question whether they were reconcilable with infant baptism, and we think it pretty evident that they were not.

We take occasion, in closing these remarks, to express our hearty concurrence in the sentiments of Prof. Emerson, in regard to friendly discussion on the points of difference, already fewer than they once were,-between us as Christian denominations, and we unite with him in the earnest desire, that the day of our perfect union in the truth may be hastened. EDITOR.

ARTICLE X.

LITERARY NOTICES.

DISCOURSES ON THE DEATH OF PRESIDENT HARRISON.

THE death of the Chief Magistrate of our country was a suitable occasion for religious discourses, as well as for civic solemnities. We are glad to know that it was extensively noticed in our pulpits. As was to be expected, several discourses have been requested for public use; and, we doubt not, many more are yet in manuscript, quite as worthy to meet the public eye. We shall content ourselves with noticing the following:

(1.) The Mighty Fallen! A Sermon, occasioned by the death of General William Henry Harrison, late President of the United States; preached in the Melodeon on Fast Day, April 8, 1841. BY ROBERT TURNBull. Published by request. Boston: Gould, Kendall & Lincoln.

pp. 23.

This sermon is an interesting train of remarks suggested by the President's death, and enforcing the lessons of our mortality, the greatness of the change which takes place at death, and the need of preparation for it. The event which the nation deplores, is also treated is a special warning to our whole people, and to our government in

particular. A just tribute is paid to Gen. Harrison's character and public services. The author evidently felt a delight in recording some incidents and expressions which are favorble to the belief that our late President was a pious man.

The author's Scottish origin betrays itself in his idiomatic use of the auxiliary, will; an idiom, we may observe, so prevalent in our Southern States. "We too will [shall] be engulfed in its wild and swollen waves." "We too will [shall] soon experience a similar change."

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In the paragraph which refers to the Constitution of the United States, as being based on the word of God, and recognizing the fundamental truth, that "God hath made of one blood all nations of men to dwell on all the face of the earth," and affirming that all men are created free and equal, and have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, there is an inadvertence to which we would direct the author's attention. "The government of these United States, then," he proceeds to say, "is called upon by every possible consideration of interest and duty, to carry out the laws of righteousness to their full and legitimate results, to promote freedom and equality among all; to cultivate peace with the nations; especially to raise up the red men of the forest, and break the shackles of the oppressed." We understand the last clause as referring to the condition of the slaves in the United States; and taking it in its connection, we understand the author as affirming, that the government of the United States is called upon, by every possible consideration of interest and duty, to effect the abolition of slavery in this country. We wish most heartily that the shackles of all who are oppressed, whether in this land, or in any part of the world, may be removed. We doubt not, there is legislative power somewhere, in our country, which, in union with public sentiment, is adequate to such removal, so far as our country is concerned. But we submit, that the government of the United States has not been vested with that power. It has been vested with power to treat with foreign nations and with the Indian tribes," the red men of the forest." With pleasure we quote from the same paragraph a few words which present the proper legislative authority on this subject, so far as legislation is concerned. "Were the great law of Christian righteousness, as recognized by the Constitution, only developed in the entire action of the government, of THE STATES, and of the nation, all things, prosperous or adverse, would work together for our good."

The sermon leaves on the mind a favorable religious impression. (2.) Sermon occasioned by the death of William Henry Harrison. By S. F. SMITH, Pastor of the Baptist Church, Waterville, Me. Published by request. Hallowell: Glazier, Masters & Smith. 1841. pp. 15.

An earnest and touching exhibition of some of the practical truths which the President's death is suited to enforce. By this event, Mr. Smith considers God as teaching us the frailty of human distinctions; the vanity of all earthly expectations and purposes; the uncertainty of life; the superior value of religious hopes; and the duty of moderating party zeal. The discourse is pervaded by a religious spirit. It is

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written in an unelaborate, yet beautiful style, and is well sustained throughout.

(3.) A Discourse, on the occasion of the death of William Henry Harrison, ninth President of the United States; delivered at Roxbury, April 16th, 1841. By GEORGE PUTNAM, Minister of the First Church in Roxbury. Boston: William Crosby & Co. 1841. pp. 30. This eulogy was delivered in connection with funeral solemnities in Roxbury, in honor of the deceased President. It was printed at the request of the Committee of Arrangements. It is a worthy tribute to the memory of the departed. It opens with enlarging on the sentiment of veneration for rulers, a sentiment which, while it is not cherished by our republican institutions, is by no means destroyed by them. The eulogy then passes to a brief sketch of the life and character of the late President, and calls attention to the moral lessons furnished by the impressive event of his death. We are all taught the mutability of human things, and the vanity of reliance on them. Rulers are taught sobriety. A party spirit is corrected. The superiority of moral principle in statesmanship is shown.

The parts of the eulogy are happily arranged. It is well written, and does justice to the deceased and to the country. A high moral tone pervades it. No one can read it without benefit. If we may make any exception to it on literary grounds, our censure would fall on the very slight approach to that mannerism, or affectation of niceness, which marks some of the modern productions of the press. For instance,-"The instrument which our own hands do make and unmake." "In some sense a divinity doth encircle a great and responsible station." We prefer an entirely unostentatious phraseology, such as generally prevails in this discourse. We love to have good sense present itself, without any apparent solicitude for the beauty of its dress.

2. Essay on the Composition and Delivery of a Sermon. By the late J. F. OSTERVALD, Professor of Divinity, and Pastor of the Church at Neufchatel, in Switzerland. Translated from the French, and illustrated with Notes, by JOSEPH SUTCLIFFE, A. M. First American, from the last London edition. Baltimore. Plasket & Cugle. 1840. John Frederick Ostervald was born in 1663, and died in 1747, at the advanced age of eighty-four. After advantageously prosecuting his early studies in various places, he was settled in the ministry in Neufchatel, his native place, where his father had also been a minister. He was greatly respected, and enjoyed the friendship of Turretin, Werenfels, and other distinguished theologians. He had under his tuition candidates for the ministry, and was deeply interested in the mental and moral improvement of the young. His blameless life, his unaffected piety, his ample theological knowledge, and his superior pulpit talents, made him a happy model for those who came under his instruction. Though he agreed in his doctrinal views with the distinguished theologians above named, his turn of mind led him rather to study and inculcate the topics of Christian morals.

He was the author of several valuable works; and is most known, we believe, by an edition of the Bible, which he published in 1744, accompanied with observations. In a list of his printed works, we observe three mentioned as having been printed without his consent or knowledge, from defective notes taken at his lectures. From the title of one of these three, we are led to believe that the book we are noticing was at first a surreptitious publication. Its general character accords with such a belief. It is an ill-digested work. It needs contraction in some parts, and expansion in others. Nor has the English translator and editor added materially to its value. For American theological students it has scarcely any adaptation. As a book of literary instruction, they would lose nothing by never seeing it; and we hope the day will never come, when its suggestions on moral and religious character will be here needed.

R.

3. Sermons on Public Worship, suited to the times. By SAMUEL NOTT, Jr., author of "Sermons from the fowls of the air and the lilies of the field." Boston. Whipple & Damrell. 1841. pp. 404.

This volume comprises twenty sermons preached by a village pastor to the flock of his charge. It is handsomely gotten up, and abounds in excellent reflections. The writer does not aim by a course of continuous argument, to show either the duty or the benefits alone of Public Worship. But by a happy blending of reasoning and appeal, of narrative and allusion, and by mingling general truth with local associations, he seeks to invest this ancient and divine institution with its true and proper attractions, and to commend it to the reverence and affections of all classes of men. The style, both in respect to thought and expression, is peculiar to the author himself, and though it may not be always perfectly clear and natural, yet it seldom fails to awaken pleasant association, and to suggest valuable trains of thought to the mind of the reader. The views which are presented are of a decidedly practical character. They are evidently the result of much reflection and wide observation, and contain many pleasant allusions to the author's personal history, in the various spheres of his labor,-as a missionary to the heathen, as a traveller in foreign lands, and as a minister, for many years, in one of the oldest portions of New England. The spirit which is breathed from these sermons is a calm and quiet one, uncongenial to the stir and bustle, the artificial parade and pageant of a crowded community, but harmonizing well with the simplicity of nature and the retired rural scenes, among which they were originally preached.

4. History of the Colonization of the United States. By GEORGE BANCROFT. Abridged by the Author. In 2 vols. 16mo. pp. 372, 316. Boston. Little & Brown. 1841.

The design of this abridgment is excellent; and we are glad that its execution was not assigned to subalterns, but that the same mind which had received the impressions made by the documents of the history, has itself given them in abridged form, to the public. We cannot have too many such books for the young; we heartily commend it as well adapted both to schools and to private reading.

VOL. VI. NO. XXII.

40*

ARTICLE XI.

MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE.

BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.

The Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions.-The triennial meeting of the Convention was held in Baltimore, April 29, 1841. The receipts of the Board for the past year, exclusive of appropriations from other institutions, and from loans, were $56,948 42; and the expenditures for the same period, $61,860 27. Excess of expenditures above the receipts, 4,911 85. The amount of receipts from all sources, is $85,960 27. This includes a balance of $12,000 due the Treasurer. The amount of expenditures for the various stations, printing-presses, paper, salaries of agents, secretaries, &c., $85,960 27. About $50,000 of this sum was received from the churches, $20,000 from the American and Foreign Bible Society, $4,700 from the American Tract Society, $4,400 from U. S. Government for Indian schools; $2,454, legacies. The expenditures for the missions in Asia, $50,924; Africa, $3,943; Greece, $3,333; Germany, $4,850; France, $2,333; Indians, $99; Home Department, $3,083, General purposes, $5,807.

The following is an extract from the minutes of the Convention:The number of Missions under the direction of the Board of Managers in twenty (four of the Indian Missions have been embodied in one the past year),-eight of these are to Indian tribes; three are to Europe; one is to the Basas in Western Africa; and eight to Asiatic tribes and nations. The number in the Indian Missions, of stations and outstations, is 12; missionaries and assistant missionaries, 28; native assistants, 10; churches, 10; baptisms, the last year, 169; present church members, 855. The number in the European Missions, of stations and out-stations is 21; missionaries and assistant missionaries, 7; native preachers and assistants, 20; churches, 25; baptisms the past year, 90; church members, 414.

In the mission to Western Africa, there are three stations, eight missionaries and assistant missionaries, one native assistant, and one church of 14 members. The number in the Asiatic Missions, of stations and out-stations, is 44; missionaries and assistant missionaries, 57; native assistants, 71; churches, 31; baptisms, the past year, 209; church members, 1648. Making a total of 80 stations and out-stations; 100 missionaries and assistant missionaries; 102 native preachers and assistants; 67 churches; 462 baptisms, the past year, and 2931 members of mission churches. The number of missionaries and assistant missionaries sent abroad the past year, is ten-four to Africa, two to Greece, one to Siam, two to the Otoes, and one to Shawanoe. The number of native preachers and assistants has been increased by one assistant missionary returned from the Otoe mission, one assistant missionary from Siam, and two assistant missionaries (one of them a printer) from Tavoy. Two assistant missionaries have died.

The American Baptist Home Mission Society held its ninth anniversary in the same city, April 27. The number of agents and missionaries who received their commissions directly from the Executive Com

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