these, he believes, which has in every age been the grand mean of extending the triumphs of the cross-these have been his own support in many a happy and many a melancholy hour, and they are far dearer to him than life itself; but feeling as he does the growing conviction that these Societies are an adjunct to the gospel, and that, through the blessing of Almighty God ("without whose blessing nothing is wise, or holy, or strong"), they have been productive of benefits, the extent and importance of which eternity only will disclose, he is anxious to remove objections which he is quite willing to allow do, at first sight, seem to lie against them, and which he knows have weighed with many to whose judgment he is accustomed to defer, and for a time kept them aloof from the Society. Others have supposed "it is an interference with the grace of the gospel," and on this account have hesitated to join us. The motive in these cases cannot possibly be too highly praised, as it is designed to secure all the glory to God. I trust I ON SLAVE-LABOUR LUXURIES. A HINT FROM THE EDINBURGH REVIEW. To the Editor. SIR,-Thousands of persons in various parts of the kingdom (oh, that we could reckon them by hundreds of thousands!) have long abstained from sugar, and other articles of luxury, on conscientious grounds. In what light Christians who refuse to practise such abstinence are regarded by the irreligious and semireligious, will appear by the following extract from the Edinburgh Reviewer's remarks on a book entitled "The Drama brought to the test of Scripture, and found wanting." "The tendency of the stage to demoralize its professors, is urged as an imperative motive for its discouragement. Now if the principle (implied in this argument) be a just and sacred one, it is manifestly binding, on those who hold it as such, in all cases and circumstances whatever, where it is applicable. That the evangelical class do not so hold it, we are warranted to conclude from their total neglect of it, except in the instance of the actor. We can discover no gratification, however selfish or temporary, which they deny themselves from the motive here assigned for the discouragement of the drama. If there be any earthly profession or occupation imperiously calling for the exercise of their principle, it is that of the dealer in human flesh. The luxury he provides us with is the fruit of an iniquitous traffic; it is purchased by the employment of thousands in a pursuit altogether foreign from a life of holiness, and especially denounced by the evangelical party as contrary to the spirit and precepts of the gospel. Does one in a hundred of them deny himself the luxury? We verily believe not. They gratify their palates with this product of an atrocious and demoralizing trade, and then turn round to warn their worldly brethren against the deadly sin of encouraging the profession of a player." The rule with myself and my friends is, either to make use of articles which are prepared by free labourers, or, in default of such articles, to do without them. ANTI-SLAVERY. 2 LETTER FROM A YOUNG CLERGYMAN TO AN OLD ONE. Communicated by the Rev. R. Hill. Acle, March 13, 1830. MY DEAREST SIR, AS I have the means of sending a parcel to town, I cannot deny myself the pleasure of assuring you how much I felt obliged by your most kind letter, and the excellent advice it contained. Flowery declamation in the pulpit is, to my mind, one of the most sickening things that can be conceived; and, to say nothing of its bad taste, evinces a sinful desire of personal admiration, instead of an earnest wish to discharge, with a single eye to the glory of God, the most important function of our great office-the simple preaching of a crucified Redeemer-the leading of poor lost sinners to a saving knowledge of Christ as made sin for us. The more we become acquainted with our own hearts, the greater must be our dissatisfaction with ourselves; and it is an awful thought, that if God were extreme to mark our infirmities, every sermon we preach must in some measure carry our own condemnation along with it. I must acknowledge that the time was, when I was desirous to have it said of me, how well he has preached, what a powerful sermon; but I trust I can say with truth, that this feeling has, in a great measure, left me, and that I am willing that the earthen vessel should be forgotten in the contemplation of the treasure it contains; and I am sure that, by God's grace, the higher I rise in heavenly-mindedness, the lower I shall fall in humility. If the doctrine of the gospel enlightens, and the love of Christ inspires our hearts, we shall be enabled to say with the apostle, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Oh! what a blessing to forget self, and to be eternally longing and watching for souls; to agonize for the conviction and conversion of sinners, and not to strive for that vain admiration which is the surest antidote to serious and permanent impression. These are times peculiarly fraught with danger to the minister of the gospel; and these dangers are only to be avoided by carefully watching over our own deceitful hearts, by earnest prayer, and serious study of the Bible. We must never get above or beyond that book; it must be our ladder to learning even unto grey hairs, as I am sure you will, my dear sir, readily admit. What snares arise to young ministers from the public religious meetings of this day, from all the ostentatious machinery of their management! and how careful should we be (while we could not be warranted in entirely standing aloof from them) that we are not led away, by the display of the hall and the business of the committee-room, from the closet, the study, and the diligent care of our respective flocks! I fear the waters of religion, though spreading wide, are shallow; and if God should cause a sifting time to arise in his church, how many of us would abide the trial? The great secret of embarking with Christ upon the troubled lake of the ministry, for better and for worse, is to labour to cut the cable which has too long and too firmly at tached us to self and to the world. May God, in his mercy, give us to do this! I am now reading the Bible in the Hebrew with a converted Jewish Rabbi, at Norwich, of whom I take weekly lessons. I feel much interested in the study of that language. I had no previous conception of the beautiful simplicity and grandeur of the Old Testament. The Rabbi says it is worth while to learn Hebrew, if it be only to read the story of Joseph in the original. With our united best love, believe me, SOME ACCOUNT OF A CONVERSION WHICH TOOK PLACE IN AN AMERICAN REVIVAL. Mr. EDITOR,-You have often favoured your readers with some interesting communications from America; and many of us have had the opportunity of hearing, from the lips of our transatlantic brethren, something of those revivals of reli gion which have taken place amongst them; and are particularly indebted to our esteemed friend and brother, the Rev. C. Colton, for publishing those interesting statements which he has kindly given to several of our congregations. I do not, however, recollect that we have ever had, in the pages of the Evangelical Magazine, any communications directly from those individuals who were themselves made the subjects of conversion at any of those seasons; having, therefore, within the last few days, had a letter from a young man to his sister put into my hands, whose mother is a member of the church over which I am permitted to preside, who appears to have been made a subject of divine grace on one of those occasions, I have thought that it might be interesting to your readers to have the opportunity of reading it. It relates the simple fact in a very plain and artless manner-the operations of his own mind at the time-his resistance of the plan proposed, and the power of divine grace in subduing the enmity of his heart, and leading him to a humble affiance in the Saviour. I shall transcribe it, therefore, as it is before me, with the earnest desire and hope that it may be rendered useful to some, and especially to the young, to whom the Father of Mercies condescends to say, "Give me thine heart;" "I love them that love me, and they that seek me early shall find me." “D—, April 11, 1832. "MY DEAR SISTER, 'And now I will tell you the reason of my not writing to you before. One of the religious societies in this place holds a four days' meeting, when the services are continued with very little intermission, and generally productive of much good. So it proved at this time; the meeting commenced on the Saturday evening, when I attended for the first time. After the sermon, it was intimated that those who felt desirous of having the prayers of God's people, would do well to take their station together in the front row below the pulpit. I felt a great desire to be prayed for, but through pride and the fear of man I held back. How true is that passage of Scripture: "The fear of man bringeth a snare." I felt, however, the necessity of an interest in Christ, and went home under very deep and serious impressions. The next day (the Sabbath) I attended again; and, in the evening, the same course was followed as on the preceding. I happened to be sitting in the seat those who wished particularly to be prayed for were to occupy; and at first I thought I would sit still, but pride again overcame me, and I rose up and removed into another seat. I had not remained long, however, before I felt constrained to go back and take my station with those who desired to be prayed for: and I have reason to bless God that he led me, by the influence of his Holy Spirit, to take that first step towards the kingdom of heaven. I think I felt the awfulness of my situation. I saw my danger as a sinner, and my need of a Saviour; and these impressions I continued to feel for some days. I was convinced, but not converted; and it was not till I was brought by the grace of God to give myself entirely up to Christ, and to rest on his atoning sacrifice and all-prevalent intercession, that I began to feel any thing like peace and joy. And now I have a hope that I have found forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ; that I am accepted in the beloved, and constituted a member of the household of faith-the family of heaven. I have since joined the church; and it is my earnest prayer that I may be found walking as becomes a child of God, and worthy of the voca tion wherewith I am called. Oh, my dear sister! if you have an interest at the throne of grace, pray for me, as I do for you; and if you have not an interest there, oh, begin to seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon him while he is near! I feel the greatest anxiety for your welfare, both temporal and spiritual, the latter especially. But a short time since, and I was utterly unconcerned about these things, living without God, without Christ, and without hope in the world; and I now look back with sorrow on my past life; I can see no well-spent time; nothing but a total neglect of all the pious admonitions I had received from my dear mother and aunt: even her parting advice to read my Bible was neglected; I scarcely ever looked at it, and never with a desire to profit by it. I can now take and read it with interest and delight, and with an earnest desire to understand its blessed truths. How thankful ought I to be that I am placed in a religious family! I hope I am grateful for it, when I see so many of my young friends like-minded with myself deprived of the blessing of surrounding a family altar, and jeered by their fellow-workmen on account of their religion. "God has graciously visited this place; numbers have been truly converted from the error of their ways; a great many young men, and some of the most har Such is that part of the letter which relates to the conversion of the writer; and the fact itself, and the circumstances with which it was attended, have suggested a few considerations to my mind, which perhaps you will allow me, Mr. Editor, to add. The first thing that suggested itself to my mind on the reading of this letter was this: That if meetings for prayer, frequently held, and conducted with becoming earnestness and importunity, are thus signally owned and blessed in America, why should not we follow the example, and expect the same results in Britain? I am aware that this is the case in some of our churches, and I believe they have seen the benefit of it; but, having had occasion to travel through a large part of the country recently for the benefit of my health, I am persuaded that it is far from being general. Meetings for prayer amongst us are too few and too formal; and there are few churches that have more than one prayer-meeting in the course of the week. Surely they may be increased without laying ourselves open to the charge, "To what purpose are the multitude of your sacrifices unto me, saith the Lord." Our God is, indeed, a sovereign, who dispenses the gifts of his Spirit, and the blessings of his grace, as it seemeth him good; but he himself hath said, "I will be inquired of." He has commanded us, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, to make our requests known to him; and he is the same prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God in Britain as in America. How is it, then, that we have not more signal and frequent answers to prayer? I should be ashamed, and think I had taken leave of my senses, if I were to expect any thing extravagant or miraculous; I see no warrant for any thing of the kind in the sacred Scriptures; and it is evident that God has carried on his work since the apostolic age without miraculous interposition. But I remember, also, that it is written, "Ye have not because ye ask not;" or, "because ye ask amiss." It is to be feared, that we are not so earnest and importunate at our meetings for prayer as we ought to be, for those who are ignorant and out of the way, and for those who are brought under some concern about their state in the sight of God. Too much dulness and lukewarmness, indifference and formality, are to be found in our meetings for prayer. Let us, then, be excited to plead with God, for the outpouring of his Spirit, as a spirit of grace and of supplication, and surely it shall not be in vain. The second thing which struck me on the perusal of this letter was, the encou ragement it affords to parents to persevere, and never to give up praying for their offspring. It may appear for a season to be to no purpose, but it is not so. The widowed mother of this young man bore him in remembrance at the throne of grace; and though she had little or no encouragement for a while, the end proves that it was not in vain. Young people may be separated from their relatives and friends, and led to sojourn in a distant land; but God can meet with them abroad as well as at home, and bring them to himself. This youth had often heard the gospel, the glad tidings of salvation by Jesus Christ, in this country, but it did not reach his heart. The set time, however, came; and, while far remote from his family and his friends, he is made to receive the truth in the love thereof, and becomes a new creature in Christ Jesus. One thing more suggests itself, and that is, Thirdly, How powerful are the opera tions of the Holy Spirit! He is, indeed, not only the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, but also the Spirit of might and of power; and it is God's office to convince of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. This young man resisted the first impressions; pride and the fear of man prevailed; and he determined to keep away from the spot appointed for those to occupy who were under concern for their souls' eternal welfare, and desirous of having the prayers of the church; but he could not-he left the seat, but he was constrained to return to it again. And how often have we found this to be the case in the experience of those who have Be not afraid, 'midst the shaking of nations; Jesus still reigneth, his church to uphold. ; Mark how he opens a door for your labours Catch the right season, and enter the field; 'Up, and be doing," and call on your neighbours, Each his due tribute of service to yield. Open, ye wealthy, the stores of your treasure, Pour them all out at the feet of your Lord; Render, ye poor, with as holy a pleasure, That which your scantier means will afford. None are excluded from lending assistanceNone in whose hearts God has planted his fear : This is the glory of mortal existence ; Rulers and people, submissively bending, O'er the wide earth is his kingdom extending, Oh, thou Omnipotent Prince of salvation! REVIEW OF RELIGIOUS PUBLICATIONS. THE SELF-EXISTENCE OF JEHOVAII PLEDGED Westley and Davis. SHOULD missionary sermons ever become a mere vehicle of self-development and selfdisplay-conveying to the minds of the spiritually-discerning the irresistible impression that the preachers are chiefly solicitous to have their discourses lauded as great and unrivalled productions-then may the Societies for whose benefit they are professedly delivered write Ichabod on their walls, for then assuredly shall the glory have departed. Crowds may still flock to hear them, and the plates may be filled with the usual contributions; but when once the sermon has been heard, and the gifts handed over to the collectors-when the usual hebdomadal commendations of the gossipping circles have been bestowed, and the edge of anniversary excitement has been worn off-the cause of such institutions, the cause of the poor hea then, and of the heathen's Redeemer, will |