new schoolmen been at war for several years past? What means the mighty outcry of the old-side Presbyterians, that the new divinity men are eating out the very vitals of Presbyterianism? Has all this been merely a war of words?

Do they agree any better in respect to ecclesiastical order? If they do, we understand nothing of the difference between Congregationalism and Presbyterianism. We have thought, and do still think, that there is a material, a very essential difference between committing the entire power of the Church into the hands of one single congregation, and the dividing it between the people, presbyteries, synods, and a general assembly. We think, therefore, that the conclusion to which the report arrives in favor of having but one society for foreign missions, derived from the supposed concord of these three denominations, being drawn from defective premises, is illegitimate, and therefore unsound.

But why is it, we would ask, that so much pains are taken to impress upon the public mind that this is a national society? Do they impose upon themselves? Having so long rung upon the changes of national societies, have they come at last to the absurd conclusion that they are so in fact, merely because they have been so called for such a length of time? Or do they wish by this means to make an impression that they give tone to all the religious institutions of the country, with a view to conciliate public favor? Charity seems to forbid the thought, that either of these suppositions is true. We dare not believe that an infatuation of so fatal a character has seized upon minds, otherwise so intelligent and virtuous, as to produce a delusion so monstrously absurd. Propositions like the one we are considering, under such circumstances, must be the result of accidental indifference to the true state of things, and not to a wilful perversion of the truth, or a voluntary self-deception.

Waiving, however, all these considerations, we cannot see how, in the present political and civil state of our country, any religious society can, with any degree of propriety, be denominated national. Even if the major part, or even all the denominations were to agree to lay aside their sectarian peculiarities, and unite in one great institution, there would be little propriety in calling it a national institution. The reason is, that all our national institutions are totally distinct from our religious institutions. The Church and the state are necessarily, because constitutionally, separate and distinct from each other, and can never be amalgamated or united without destroying our distinctive national character. An attempt, therefore, to incorporate the one with the other, though it may be only in name, is an encroachment upon our national and civil institutions; and hence all such attempts are justly viewed by our politicians with a jealous eye, as an approximation, at least in tendency, if not in design, to break down the barrier which the wisdom of our forefathers has erected between Church and state. It is on this account, as well as on others which might be men

tioned, that we have all along objected, not only to the thing itself, but to the name of national religious combinations. It is by gradual encroachments alone, generally slow and insidious in their first approaches, that ancient landmarks are removed, that institutions are subverted, and the liberties of mankind are destroyed. To prevent such disastrous results, the causes which lead to them should be detected and guarded against. They may, indeed, seem but trifling at first, but 'behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth!'

We are satisfied with our civil institutions. They guaranty to us our religious privileges, and protect us in the enjoyment of them. This is enough. We are equally well satisfied that all denominations should possess and enjoy all those religious rights and privileges which the constitution of our country so happily and justly secures to them. With these let us be content. Let no one sect attempt, by improper, or unscriptural, or even antiAmerican means, to control public opinion by enlisting it in their favor exclusively, by striving to make an impression, that the members of any one sect represent the religion of the nation. All such attempts will only render them suspicious in the eye of discerning men; and even allowing that their intentions are honest, and their ends of the purest kind, as we wish to allow in the case before us, still they render themselves liable to be suspected; and Christians ought not only to be beyond just censure, but, if possible, beyond suspicion.

MARSHALL'S LIFE OF WASHINGTON.

The Life of George Washington, commander in chief of the American Forces, during the War which established the Independence of his Country, and first President of the United States. Compiled under the inspection of the Honorable Bushrod Washington, from original papers bequeathed to him by his deceased relative. By JOHN MARSHALL. Second Edition, revised and corrected by the Author. In two volumes, 8vo. pp. 982.

EVERY thing relating to George Washington is deeply interesting to the American reader, and indeed we might say to readers of every country; for who does not revere the name of Washington?

It is not our intention, however, to give any thing more than a brief notice of the present work. The name of the patriotic hero of this narrative, and the name of his biographer are alone sufficient to recommend the work to the favorable reception of the reading community.

In preparing the second edition of this splendid work, and presenting it to the public in this condensed form, Judge Marshall has rendered a very important service to the American public, and added an interesting item to the literature of his country. The first edition commenced with an introductory chapter, con

taining historical details of the first settlements of the North American continent, and of their progressive improvements until the memorable era of the revolution. In the present volumes all this is omitted, and the work commences with the birth of Washington, the principal hero of the story, and progresses regularly through the history of his eventful life, combining in the range of the history the most important incidents and events of the revolution, the formation of the confederative, and then of the federative government, and terminates with the death and character of this illustrious general and statesman.

The following extract from the preface will show the claims which the present edition has over the former, as well as the manner in which the work has been executed :

'The work was originally composed under circumstances which might afford some apology for its being finished with less care than its importance demanded. The immense mass of papers which it was necessary to read, many of them interesting when written, but no longer so, occupied great part of that time which the impatience of the public would allow for the appearance of the book itself. It was therefore hurried to the press without that previous careful examination, which would have resulted in the correction of some faults that have been since perceived. In the hope of presenting the work to the public in a form more worthy of its acceptance, and more satisfactory to himself, the author has given it a careful revision. The language has been, in some instances, altered-he trusts improved; and the narrative, especially that part of it which details the distresses of the army during the war, relieved from tedious repetitions of the same sufferings. The work is reduced in its volume, without discarding any essential information.'

Every American youth ought to make himself acquainted with the father of his country, as well as with those events which led to its independence among the nations of the earth, and those civil institutions by which it has been and is now governed. This sort of information will secure him against those predilections for foreign things, foreign literature, civil and religious institutions, and more especially those foreign luxuries and vices, all which may have a deleterious influence upon his habits of thinking, on the judgment he may form of men and things, as well as upon his moral and religious conduct. We by no means wish to depreciate any thing merely because it is imported, any more than we would undervalue it because it is of American growth. Let our own institutions, civil and religious, be estimated according to their intrinsie worth, and whatever we may borrow from others which will increase their value, let us avail ourselves of it, that we may thereby add to the amount of our civil, religious, and literary acquisitions.

Of European luxuries and vices we have enough. Those that are peculiar to ourselves may very well be dispensed with without any detriment to our national character; indeed the more we re

trench from the one and the other, the more we shall rise in moral worth and national grandeur, and with the greater confidence may we look to the God of our fathers for the continuance of his blessing upon our land and nation.

An abridgment of the Life of Washington--not of these volumes, which are secured to the author by copyright has been prepared for the use of our Sunday School Union, which we hope will be extensively circulated.

NEW TRACTS.

No. 134. Dr. Fisk's Address to the Members of the Methodist Episcopal Church on the Subject of Temperance. 12mo. pp. 16. No. 135. A short Account of the Life and Death of Ann Cutler. By WILLIAM BRAMWELL. 12mo. pp. 20.

THE former of these tracts, both of which are on sale at the Methodist Book Room, embraces a subject which we are glad to find is gaining every day more and more interest in the religious community. The present address aims at the total annihilation of the use of alcohol in all its forms, except in cases of extreme necessity, both in the manufacture, sale, and use of it. And we hope the tract will be extensively circulated and attentively read by all classes of people. The experience of thousands, who had been in the habit of moderately using ardent spirits to their injury, now attests the soundness of the conclusion, that total abstinence is the only safe way either to restore a shattered constitution to its former vigor, or to preserve a sound one from premature decay. The Account of Ann Cutler is an interesting piece of Christian biography, and cannot be read without creating a conviction of the truth expressed by Solomon, that 'the ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.' Ann Cutler embraced this heavenly wisdom at the age of sixteen, and ever after lived an exemplary Christian life, and died in the triumphs of faith in the thirty-sixth year of her age. Her deep devotion to God, and her zeal in the cause of Christ, rendered her eminently useful in the circle of her acquaintance, and caused her to be much beloved and esteemed by all the true followers of the Lamb. We commend this tract especially to our female readers.

THE LOVE OF GOD.

IN a late number of The Protestant Episcopalian and Church Register,' after some pertinent remarks on the love of God, it is stated that the love of God differs so much from the love of sensible objects, and from our other passions, that it can hardly be called a passion in the same sense in which they are called passions.' Now mark the difference. It differs in this, that it is at first raised, and afterward kept up by reason. Was ever such a sentiment before uttered by a professed Christian? St. Paul says,

"The love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost.' This writer says it is first raised by reason.' St. Paul says again that one of the fruits of the Spirit is love; but according to this writer it is the fruit of reason.

A mere animal

How differs this from the religion of nature? passion, if indeed it may be called a passion at all! If reason can raise in us this noblest of the Christian virtues, and then keep it in action, we may very well dispense with revelation. Yes, we may return again to the bald and lifeless religion of nature, which is as powerless as it respects spiritual things, as the body is without the soul, and as opaque as this world would be deprived of the light of the sun. In opposition, however, to this lifeless theory of religion, the sacred Scriptures represent God as working within us both to will and to do, as renewing us in the inner man by the washing of the Holy Ghost, and as changing us from glory to glory, even into the same image' in which we were at first created. And it is only when we are thus renewed, washed, and changed, that we 'perfectly love God, and worthily magnify his holy name.' Perhaps this last quotation may have more weight with the Protestant Episcopalian than any we could bring, as it is taken from an authority it would not choose to disclaim.

SOME ACCOUNT OF THE OLD FOUNDRY IN LONDON. EVERY thing connected with the origin of Methodism is less or more interesting to its friends. And perhaps most of our readers have either heard or read something of the Foundry which was the first building Mr. Wesley occupied as his own for a chapel. The following account of this place, and the manner in which it came into the hands of Mr. Wesley, and was afterward occupied by him and his preachers, is taken from Chronicles of Wesleyan Methodism, by JOHN STEPHENS, one of the English Methodist preachers :-

"The introduction of Methodist preaching into the great metropolis of England, is an event in itself so interesting, so identified with the most hallowed recollections of spiritual profit thence derived by thousands, and has occasioned so much fruitless inquiry respecting several local circumstances connected with its origin, that we have been at no inconsiderable pains to obtain some account of the Foundry; one of the first places appropriated by Mr. Wesley to the preaching of God's word in London.

There was a large Foundry in Moorfields, where were cast the cannon belonging to government. As many persons were anxious to see the process of the fusion of the metal, running it into the moulds, &c, &c, there were erected galleries for the spectators. About the year 1716, the old cannon taken from the French by the duke of Marlborough were ordered to be re-cast: which circumstance excited considerable interest, and collected a greater number of visitors than usual, among whom was Andrew Scalch, a founder, and a native of