excite the passions, it awakens the dormant energies of man; and, before he is aware of his own exertion, or is even sensible of the purpose of his heart, makes him active. How many, who minister at the altar, have

been roused from their slumber and urged to their duty by the zeal of Whitefield, the diligence of Doddridge, and the perseverance of Scott! How many have learned from Howard to listen to the sighing of the prisoner! and although they have not with him sailed the "voyage of philanthropy" nor performed "the circumnavigation of charity;" they have, nevertheless, been induced, by the consideration of his labors for the relief of human sufferings, to lend a helping hand to the same great object, and to aid in purifying the noi some abodes of misfortune and wretchedness. How many have heard the voice of Wilberforce, and been spectators of the unwearied exertions of Clarkson in the cause of the much injured Africans; and, while they have heard and seen, have been induced in turn to lift their own voices, and raise their own hands, against "the cruel traffic in human blood!" How many in the humbler walks of life, and in the lighter, but no less genuine, labors of love, have been roused and animated by the influence of example! Hence we may learn the importance of this beautiful precept of our Lord; Let your light so shine before men,. that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, who is in heaven.

Mutual exhortation is another method, by which Christians

provoke one another to love and good works. Thus, too, their numbers as well as their zeal and energy, are often increased. Exhortation, private and public, personal and general, judiciously and affectionately given, is never vain, often highly successful. Many want nothing, but an encouraging word, to induce them to perform, what else would remain forever undone. Thousands have been irresolute and inactive, where the hearty counsel of a friend would have fixed their wavering purpose, confirmed their feeble resolutions, and given life and vigor to the native energies of their souls. Hence the propriety of those precepts which command Christians to watch over one another in love, and exhort one another daily. Hence, too, the impor tance of that part of the duty of Christian ministers, by which they are required to exhort, rebuke, and reprove, with all long suffering, and doctrine.

But the most successful methed of provoking one another to love and good works, is by forming voluntary associations for definite objects of benevolence. This unites, indeed, the advantages of individual example and mutual exhortation; and, with more than geometrical propor tion, increases the power of both. In a well-organized society, the wisdom of each member may be easily communicated to the whole; and the influence of all readily concentrated in one series. of efforts. Here are all mutual counsellors, and mutual supporters. Their measures will of course be generally concerted with prudence, and their pur

poses executed with energy. Thus many members constitute one body, animated by one soul. Thus man, who alone is but a pigmy; by union and association becomes a giant; a giant, not only with a hundred hands for labor, but a hundred eyes for dis

covery.

It is the glory of Christianity to have given rise to associations of this description. Search all the records of Pagan antiquity and modern infidelity; and you will find nothing, like the humane and benevolent societies, which exist in such numbers, in almost every section of Christendom. In Protestant countries, however, these institutions have always been most numerous and Bourishing; and within a short period, have been multiplied, beyond all former example. It would be in vain to attempt a complete enumeration of the charitable associations, which have been recently formed in this Commonwealth alone. For the relief of the distressed, for the comfort of the sick, for the support and education of orphans, for the dissemination of Christian knowledge; in a word for the prevention of evil of ev ery description and the promotion of happiness in every form; societies, more or less extensive, and bearing various names, according to the nature of their respective objects, have been instituted by persons of both sexes, of all ages, and of every religious denomination. Among these recent institutions is "The Massachusetts Society for the suppression of intemperance." Auxiliary to this, smaller associ

ations have been formed in various parts of the state.

It is the general object of this auxiliary society, as briefly stated in the preamble of their constitution, "To promote the design of the parent society, and diminish the temptations to intemperance and its kindred vices." And is not this an object, worthy the attention and the most self-denying labors of the benevolent? Is not this a work, in which every friend to humanity, every lover of his country, every one, who regards the happiness of the rising generation, should engage with zeal, energy and perseverance? Is not this a labor of love-a good work, to which we should provoke one another; and which we should strive to promote by example, by exhortation, by friendly concert and united exertions? Look for a moment at the nature and extent of the evil, which we wish to prevent, and hope at least to diminish. Go with me to the house of the intemperate. Behold the man; his eyes inflamed, his countenance distortedhis limbs enfeebled-his constitution broken-his mind deranged-his passions without control!-Behold his family;-who can describe the mixed emotions of their souls! Compassion and indignation at once swell their bosoms; shame Covers their checks with crimson, while they attempt to conceal the cause; they dread his presence, but natural affection forbids them to flee. Has he a wife? She is bathed in tears-her heart is broken. Has he children? They are mortified; they are disgraced;

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all their prospects are blasted. His house, once the abode of peace and love, has become a place of wretchedness and woe. Confusion and every evil work afc there. The evil spirit hath entered, and all domestic comfort hath fled forever. His estate is wasting away; disease is preying on his vitals; death is hastening to close his mad career; and what is infinitely more awful, he is daily becoming more hardened in sin-more stupid and insensible of his danger, and thus sealing with his own hand his eternal doom!

This, my friends, is not exaggeration; it is the sober truth. The scene described is not imaginary; it is real; it is common. The evil is extensive and alarming; and, with those which follow in its train, it threatens destruction, not only to individuals and families, but to the country itself. Say not, then, that the subject furnishes no cause for the consideration and activity of benevolence. Say, rather, here is need of all her wisdom and strength; let her exercise all her skill in devising means, and exert all her energies in executing plans of reformation.

If the measures of this socie. ty are adopted with prudence and executed with firmness, they will not fail to produce a salutary influence. They may not reclaim the confirmed drunkard; but they will prevent others from falling into his fatal habit. They may be the means of preserving some even of our own number. I say, of our own number; for who of us can say; "I am out of danger-I am beyond the reach of temptation?"

Others, who had been men of sobriety, of good character, of understanding and apparently sound discretion, have been led away and enticed-overcome and destroyed. Let him, therefore, that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. The frequent and melancholy instances, in which those, who had promised to be useful and happy in life, have been gradually and imperceptibly drawn into the fatal vortex of intemperance, furnish us with awful warnings of our danger, and call upon us to watch and be sober. We may be instrumental also in saving others of this generation from the destroyer. The very existence of such a society as this, naturally awakens attention, and leads to inquiry. The sober and considerate, who, from motives of popularity, or through want of faith in our success, choose not to associate with us, will still be gradually led to countenance and adopt our prudent measures, for their own good and the benefit of their children. We may even succeed in breaking down those pernicious Customs, by which men tempt one another to intemperate drinking, out of which have grown more than half the existing evil. At least we may hope to obtain a salutary influence over the habits of the rising generation; and thus ultimately save thousands from untimely death, and perhaps from everlasting destruction.

our

Let us not then be weary in well doing. Let us exert united endeavors, to check this vice, and the prevalence of the vices connected with it, which destroy individuals, and interrupt

the peace and harmony of society. With the fear of the Lord before our eyes, and the love of man in our hearts, let us apply ourselves to our self-denying labor. Let neither the timid counsels of the fearful and un

believing, nor the ridicule and reproach of the drunken and profane, shake our purpose or relax our exertions. Let us put our hands to the work, and look to Heaven for a blessing on our labors.

MISSIONARY NOTICE.

AT a late session of the Prudential Committee of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, after serious and prayerful deliberation, it was resolved, to fit out a mission with all convenient despatch te Ceylon: the mission to be composed, in the outset, of Messrs. JAMES RICHARDS, jun. DANIEL POOR, and HORATIO BARDWELL, with their wives. The Ordination of these brethren, together with Messrs. EDWARD WARREN, and BENJAMIN C. MEIGS, is appointed to be on Wednesday the 21st of June next, at Newburyport.

From ample information obtained, Ceylon appears to present a most eligible field for missionary labors.* It it so represented by Dr. Buchanan, in his Christian Researches; it is so represented by an intelligent

*The reader will find a very satisfacto. ry account of Ceylon, in the last edition of Dr. Morse's Universal Geography, vol. , p. 596. The climate of this island is said to be rather more temperate than that of the neighboring continent. That

sort of information, which relates to it as a missionary field, will be found in Mr. Newell's journal, part of which will be published in the subsequent pages of this number.

gentleman resident in that island, who wrote to the London Missionary Society, "I hope the Missionary Society and all other Societies, will strain every netve to send some able teachers to this country; never was such a harvest as is here prepared for the reapers;" and it is so represented by our own Mr., Newell, who sojourned in Ceylon about ten months, visited the principal parts of the island, and made his observations and inquiries with a direct reference to a missiona The ry establishment there. population of Ceylon amounts to between two and three millions, a very considerable portion of which is in a state peculiarly favorable for the reception of Missionaries.

In a part of the Island the Tamul language is spoken a language into which the Scriptures have been translated, and which is also spoken by cight or nine millions of people on the neighboring Continent; and by means of a great temple, to which multitudes from various parts of the continent continually resort, peculiar facilities are offered for distributing the Holy Scriptures and diffusing the knowledge of the Gospel thence to a very great extent. Ceylon is not under the jurisdiction of the East

India Company; the Governor, Chief Justice, and other princi. pal men, are well disposed towards missions, and even desirous of having missionaries sent thither; and Mr. Newell was as sured, that himself, and as many of his brethren as would come thither, would find protection and encouragement.

"Here," says

Mr. Newell, "missionaries may labor with perfect safety; the people will not molest them;the government will protect them. On these accounts, there is perhaps no portion of the heathen world, which affords so ma. ny advantages for spreading the Gospel as this." Whatever doubts may be entertained in regard to the expediency of females being attached to missions to be established in some parts of the heathen world; there should be no doubt that they may, very properly and with fair prospects of great usefulness, make a part of a mission to be established at Ceylon. The state of society and the circumstances of the people there, especially in some of the principal places, are in this regard particularly favorable. The wife of the missionary, Mr. Palm, while there was eminently useful: and a Mrs. Schrawder, mentioned by Mr. Newell in terms of high praise, who is now there, employed in a school and in imparting religious instructions to many of all classes, is doing incalculable good.*

*That missionaries should, as a general rule, live in the married state, wherever they can obtain a settled and undisturb ed residence, is argued from the following considerations.

1. All the arguments in favor of the marriage of the clergy, gencrally, can be urged in favor of the marriage of missionaries, situated as above described; and

some of these arguments can be urged with peculiar force.

2. Those Christian duties, which result from the relations of husband and wife, parent and child, and master and servant, can never be so well inculcated, nor so well understood, by a solitary man, removed far from Christian society, as by persons, who sustain these relations in a well organized family; but, particularly, these duties cannot be exemplified before the heathen, unless by missionaries, who are married to well educated and pious females, who have formed all their habits and modes of thinking in a Christian country. This is a point of immense consequence, and is not sufficiently attended to, by those who give a cursory glance at the subject.

3. Missionary Societies ought to strive to raise up a Christian population in hea then lands. The children, in most hea. then countries, are like wild asses' colts; they grow up ungoverned and ungovernable, and of consequence become idle and dissolute, But missionaries can govern their own children; they can make them industrious; they can make many of them studious and learned; and, by the blessing of God, can fit them to become future missionaries, with many advantages and Carey and Dr. Marshman bid fair to be high accomplishments. The sons of Dr. the very first oriental scholars. How could such scholars be formed in any other way so easily, as by making them acquainted with the languages of the country from their infancy? Two sons of Dr. Marshman, aged thirteen and eleven, carried on called forth the high encomium of the Gova public disputation in Chinese, which ernor General. Let it be remembered, that the Chinese is a language, which has been pronounced till lately impossible to be thoroughly learned by a European.

4. The decencies of civilized life, including a just appreciation of the female character, can never be introduced among heathens, unless by the aid of females whe have been educated in a Christian country. We are not to forget, that those heathen countries, which are so far civilized, as to have made great progress in agriculture, manufactures, and commerce, and to have enjoyed a written language for many generations, are yet altogether uncivilized in many most important respects, as Dr. Buchanan has proved, in his Christian Researches. Domestic virtue and domestic happiness are unknown among them. Our missionaries at Bombay liave been witnesses of such gross,