8,053,500 pages. The committe have also sanctioned, and are now able to present to the public an edition of 16 Tracts in the Spanish language, and 14 in the French. Of the 8,053,500 pages of Tracts published by the society, about 3,611 500, comprising 337,277 Tracts have been put into circulation." Of the Christian Almanac, since its commencement, in 1821, about 250,000 copies have been distributed. AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY.— In pursuance of arrangements, with which our readers are acquainted, a Convention was held in New-York on the 10th of May for the formation of a National Domestic Missionary Society. The Rev. President Day, of Yale College, was called to the Chair, and the Rev. Mr. De Witt of Hopewell, and Rev. Dr. Chester of Albany, were appointed Secretaries. A Constitution was adopted, which being subsequently adopted by the United Domestic Missionary Society, that Society became the nucleus of the National Institution. From the report of the U. D. M. Society, it appears that aid has been extended during the last year to 148 churches and congregations, and that these congregations have been statedly supplied, in whole or in part by 127 missionaries. The committee have thus made provision for the entire support of 27 years and 9 months of missionary labor, and by this have secured to the congregations aided 115 years and 11 months of parochial or ministerial service. The receipts of the year were $11,504, and the expenditures, $10,156. The Baptist Triennial Convention closed a session of two weeks in NewYork on the 9th of May. The following facts respecting it are given in the N. Y. Observer: "There were 64 ministers, beside the lay delegates, present, and many other ministers who were not entitled to a seat. To be elegible to a seat in this body, there must be paid by the individual, or some society which sends him, one hundred dollars per annum, which money forms the prin cipal item in their receipts. In accor dance with the principle of the entire independence of churches, this convention neither exercises nor claims any control in the character of a church judicatory. It is wholly a missionary body. Education concerns have for a few years been connected with their operations, and the Columbian College, in the district of Columbia, was by them erected, and has been thus far supported. Measures. have been adopted at this session to discharge all the remaining debts of that institution, and then bid it look elsewhere for patronage, or stand on its own merits. They expect the Rev. Lott Carey, their coloured missionary at Liberia, soon to arrive in this country, and have made arrangements for an abundant renovation of funds for that mission. We are told, that in no previous convention has there been collected such a weight of talent and influence; and that in no previous meeting was there ever manifested so much Christian candour and affection throughout the debates, though some of the subjects discussed were peculiarly trying and momentous. Their mission stations are Burmah and Arracan, in the East; Liberia, in Africa; and Withington, Valley Towns, Tinsawatta, Carey, Thomas, Oneida, and Tonewanda, among our Indians. They have projected also, a mission to Mexico or South America. They have recommended all their churches to take collections for the American Colonization Society on the 4th of July annually. Among the late anniversaries in New-York was that of "The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church." The number of Missionaries employed by this Society is twenty-one; of whom one is stationed among the Mohawks and Missisaugahs in Upper Canada; two at Upper Sandusky, among the Wyandots; three among the Cherokees; two at Asbury, among the Creeks; one among the Choctaws; one among the Potawatamies; and the remainder in destitute white settlements. The expenditures of the year were $5,510, and the receipts $4,969. Ordinations and Enstallations. April 23.-Mr. JOHN BRISTED was admitted to the order of Deacons at Bristol, R. I. Sermon by the Rev. B. Smith, of Middlebury, Vt. April 25.--The Rev. CHARLES THOMPSON was ordained Pastor of the church and congregation in Dundoff, Susquehannah county, Pa. Sermon by the Rev. Burr Baldwin, of Montrose. May 7.-The Rev. AMASA CONVERSE was ordained to the work of an Evangelist at Nottaway, Va. May 11 The Rev. B. MANLY was installed Pastor of the Baptist church in Charleston, S. C. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Ludlow, of the Georgetown Baptist church. The Rev. Dr. Palmer, of the Circular church, and the Rev. Mr. Mc Dowell, of the Third Presbyterian church, were among the clergymen who officiated on this occasion. May 11.--The Rev. REUBEN SMITH was installed Pastor of the second Congregational church in Burlington, Vt. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Hoyt, of Hinesburg. May 14. The Rev. JACOB BROADHEAD, D. D. was installed Pastor of the Reformed Dutch church in Broom street, New-York. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Baldwin. May 17.-The Rev. JOSIAH TUCKER was ordained Pastor of the first Congregational church at Madison, Me. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Thurston, of Winthrop. May 17.-The Rev. WAKEFIELD GALE was ordained as an Evangelist in Salem, Mass. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Burnham, of Pembroke. The following gentlemen, late of the Seminary at Andover, were ordained at Springfield, Mass., on the 10th of May; viz. Messrs. JOSIAH BREWER, ELI SMITH, JEREMIAH Srow, and CYRUS STONE. These gentlemen are to be employed as foreign missionaries under the direction of the American Board. Mr. Smith has already sailed for Malta, where he is to be associated with Mr. Temple in connexion with the press. The destination of the others, we understand, has not yet been determined on. At the same time, and by the same Council, the Rev. RUFUS ANDERSON, ASsistant Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions, was ordained as an Evangelist. The Sermon on this occasion was by the Rev. Mr. Fay of Charlestown. DOMESTIC. Public Affairs. CONGRESS closed its session on Monday, the 22d of May. Several attempts were made to postpone the adjournment to a later day, in order to dispose of the great number of bills which, as usual, crowded upon the last days of the session. We regret to find the House of Representatives, in one instance, continuing its sitting till 5 o'clock on Sabbath morning-thus encroaching on that holy day by way of partially redeeming the time lost in idle speech-making. The act making appropriations for carrying into effect the appointment of a mission at the Congress of Panama passed the House on the 4th of May, and was subsequently agreed to by the Senate. This great question being thus, at length, disposed of, other bills of comparatively sinall importance passed in crowded succession. The resolutions for amending the Constitution were negatived. The national bankrupt bill, after making some progress in the House, failed of a decision for want of time. The Legislature of Louisiana has passed an act prohibiting the further introduction of slaves into that state, either for sale or hire. This act will do much towards limiting and discouraging the domestic slave trade, as it closes against that traffic its most important market. FOREIGN. The King of Poland died of apoplexy on the 6th of March. His daughter, the Princess Issabella Maria, acts as Regent. [Other foreign intelligence deferred for want of room.] unto thee, how often would I have After thus alluding to the ca- "IMMEDIATELY after those days of The circumstances in which this prophecy was uttered, will serve to explain its import. After reproving the Pharisees for their pride and hypocrisy, their attachment to human traditions, and their opposition to his cause, Christ declared that God was about to punish them for their sins, and avenge on that generation "all the righteous blood shed upon the earth from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias."* To this terrible denunciation he added the pathetic apostrophe "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent * Matt. xxiii, 1-33. 1826.-No. 7. 42 beauty and magnificence. Point- 8 light; and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the heavenly powers shall be shaken. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven; and all the tribes of the land shall mourn when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with great majesty and power. And he will send his messengers with a loud-sound-. ing trumpet, who shall gather his elect from the four quarters of the earth, from one extremity of the world to the other." To one who is familiar with the nature of prophetic language, the general import of this passage is too obvious to require minute and elaborate criticism. The phrase, immediately after the tribulation of those days, and the corresponding expression in Mark,* in those days after that tribulation—εν εκείναις ταις ήμεραις μετα την θλιψιν εκείνην-mean simply, that soon after the events mentioned as preceding the destruction of Jerusalem, "the sun should be darkened, and the moon withhold her light; the stars should fall from heaven, and the heavenly powers should be shaken." These are the expressions used in Hebrew poetry to denote the celestial bodies. The language, though bold and striking, corresponds with the ordinary style of Jewish prophets, who employ changes in the natural world. to represent changes in the moral and political world. Isaiah thus describes the overthrow of Babylon : "The stars of heaven, and the constellations thereof, Shall not send forth their light: The sun is darkened in his going forth, And the moon shall not cause her light to shine. I will vist the world for its evil, And the earth shall shake out of her place."+ *Mark xiii. 24. + Isaiah xiii. 10, 11, 13. Lowth's Translation. "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven."— Those who were appointed by God to publish his will, proved their divine commission by uttering predictions, and performing miracles. The Jews expected the advent of their Messiah to be attended with supernatural events, peculiarly grand and awful, which they called signs from heaven ;* and they frequently demanded such signs of Christ in support of his claims to the office of Messiah.t Such proofs he threatens, in this verse, to give them. The word translated signs, denotes any thing which proves a divine commission; it here refers to the prodigies which attended the destruction of Jerusalem, and means simply proof, or evidence. A sign in heaven is a conspicuous sign; a sign of the Son of Man in heaven is conspicuous proof of his being the Messiah; and the whole phrase, therefore, means that Christ, in destroying Jerusalem, should vindicate his claims to the character of Messiah, and give awful displays of his majesty and power." And then shall all the tribes of the earth moura when they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." phrase, all the tribes of the earth,πασαι &ι φυλαί της γης,—though of ten used to denote the whole human family, is occasionally applied, by way of eminence, to the inhabi tants of Palestine. This strong language, therefore, means simply, that the inhabitants of Judea should mourn when they saw the Saviour coming in all the terrors of an avenging God, amid the clouds of heaven. This figure is often employed by the Hebrew poets in describing the majestic The * Dan. ii. 44. et seg. vii. 13. ix. 24— 26. Josephus B. I. c. 6. + Matt. xvi. 1. Mark viii. 11, 12. Luke ix. 29. 1 Cor. i. 22. Zach. xiv. 11. Matt. v. 5. xxvii. 45. Eph. vi. 3. Joel ii. 1. movements of the Almighty; for when Jehovah came to deliver David, he is said "to bow the heavens and come down-to ride upon a cherub, and fly on the wings of the wind."*" And he shall send his messengers with a loud-sounding trumpet." Angels are messengers of God.. The word is used by the sacred writers literally to designate the instruments of Providence, or figuratively to represent signal interpositions of Providence without specifying the agents employed. A trumpet was the usual instrument for sounding an alarm, and summoning the people to resist invasion. The angels, therefore, blowing their trumpets, and gathering the elect into places of safety from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other," represent the special interposition of Providence to deliver Christians from those calamities which awaited the unbelieving Jews. The whole passage, divested of its poetic costume, may be thus paraphrased :-Immediately after the events mentioned as signs preceding the fulfilment of this prophecy, Jerusalem shall be destroyed with a terrible overthrow. The Jews, when they see these calamities coming upon them, shall deeply mourn their fate; but Christians, in every part of the land, shall by the merciful providence of God be delivered from these evils. We come, then, to the conclusion, that this passage refers exclusively to the fall of Jerusalem, and the consequent calamities which befel the Jewish nation. This may be confirmed by the following considerations : I. The passage forms a part of a prophecy which is supposed by all judicious commentators to foretell the destruction of Jerusalem. The disciples asked when Jerusalem should be overthrown; and Christ in reply, mentioned some signs which should precede this event, and added, that these signs of woe should be immediately followed by the destruction of that devoted city. There is no intimation, that the subject of discourse is changed; and the passage itself bears every mark of being a continuation of the prophecy which all refer to the fall of Jerusalem. II. The context seems to decide the point. To show how closely the signs he had mentioned would be connected with the destruction of Jerusalem, Christ adds, in the very next verse, a parable drawn from the fig-tree. "When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh. So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things,-the signs which I have specified as precursors of this event,-know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, this generation shall not pass till all these The men things be fulfilled.* of that generation, then, were to witness the fulfilment of this prophecy. This language is unequivocal, and fixes the reference of this passage to the calamities the Jews, which overwhelmed when the Romans, about seventy years after the birth of Christ, took the city of their solemnities, burned its temple, and spread devastation through the land.† III. If we examine the peculiarities of Hebrew poetry, and prophetic language, we shall find additional reasons for acquiescing in the conclusion to which we have arrived. To the writers of the New Testament the sacred poems "familiar of their nation were as as household words;" and, how * Matt. xxiv. 32-34. + Josephus' War of the Jews, B. III— VII. |