and they cannot be contemplated, with the incidental remarks accompanying them, without a conviction, or an increased persuasion, that the writings in which they are contained are true. None, of common intelligence, will begin to read this work, without finishing it. We hope it may have, as it deserves, an extensive circulation.

3. Macarius; or Memoirs of a Naval Officer. Boston: Peirce and Williams. 1830. pp. 54.

The story of Macarius is extracted from the Retrospect, a work published several years since in this city, and may be familiar to some of our readers. But those who are most familiar with it will, we doubt not, be most gratified to learn that it is now published, with notes and an appendix, in a little manual by itself. It shows the excellence and power of religion, as exemplified in scenes of peculiar temptation, and of great spiritual trial and conflict. It presents an instance of untiring diligence in professional business, amidst the toils and perils of the deep, united with unabated fervency of spirit in serving the Lord. It will be read with interest by all classes of Christians, but is specially adapted, as it is designed, for circulation among seamen, All the profits derived from it will be given to the American Seamen's Friend Society, for promoting the objects of that important institution. We sincerely hope it may increase the sympathies of Christians in behalf of naval men, by showing that a life of godliness is practicable and lovely even in them; and that it may promote the spiritual good of many who go down to the sea in ships, and do business on the mighty waters. Then both the author and the compiler will find that reward which, we doubt not, is dearest to their hearts.

4. Essays on the Present Crisis in the Condition of the American Indians; first published in the National Intelligencer, under the signature of William Penn. Boston; Perkins and Marvin. 1829. pp. 112.

We read most of these essays, while they were going the rounds of newspaper circulation; and have again perused them, since their collection and re-publication in their present form. And to say that we are satisfied, gratified, and thankful to their author for the labor he has bestowed on them, is not enough. Our feelings constrain us to pause, and render thanksgiving to Almighty God, the Fountain of light, and Author of all wisdom, grace, and strength, that he has enabled the writer of these papers, whoever he may be, so clearly and successfully to investigate the subject in question, and to rear such a munition of facts and arguments, such a rampart of fire, around the threatened, but sacred enclosure of Indian rights. Perhaps no papers of a similar character have been so frequently published, and so extensively circulated in the United States, as these. Still we are glad to see them collected in their present form. They

are too valuable to be left to the transient and perishable columns of a newspaper. They ought to be preserved, and transmitted to other countries, and to future generations, that, if the impending destruction be brought upon the Indians, it may be known that a solemn and enlightened testimony was borne against it, and that those who perpetrated or permitted the deed of oppression, did it with their eyes open.

To think of replying to the considerations here urged, is out of the question. It is manifestly impossible, and never will be seriously attempted. We hope our national legislators will be individually and severally served with a copy of this pamphlet. We hope they may take the time and the trouble to read it. We hope the collisions of party and passion may for a season subside, and that the still small voice of reason and conscience may be regarded. We hope and pray, that those, who will be called to decide the questions here discussed, may pause and consider before they do that which, once done, can never be undone, and which will be sure to draw down upon this great nation the reproaches of men, and the just judgements of God.

5. A Sermon occasioned by the death of the Rev. Matthias Bruen, preached in Bleecker-street Church, New-York, September 20, 1829. By THOMAS H. SKINNER. New-York: J. Seymour. 1829. pp. 48.

This discourse was delivered at the united request of the bereaved Church of the lamented Bruen, and of the Executive Committee of the American Home Missionary Society. From the declaration of the Evangelist, This spake he, signifying by what death he should glorify God,' the author was led to show, "How the saints die; and how they glorify God by their death." In general, it may be said,

"That the saints are in death what they were in life, only, as their circumstances are then wholly and wonderfully peculiar,there is a corresponding peculiarity in their exercises and deportment. Death finds them what they are, and does not make them different, but only gives them occasion for new and extraordin ary displays of their character. Their dying conduct, like their living, is stamped with holiness to the Lord.' Whether their last hours are full of victory and mighty joy; or are only calm and peaceful; or are hours of alternate temptation and triumph, darkness and light; they are hours when the spirit still obeys the divine will as the law of her being; still confesses her guilt and abases herself before the infinite Majesty and purity of God; still witnesses her supreme love of the divine excellence, her adoring gratitude for redemption, her self-renouncing faith in the great Sacrifice for the sins of the world, her unshaken confidence in the promises of holy scripture, her utter disrelish and loathing of the world as a portion, her supreme longing after perfect holiness, her heaviness and sorrow for impenitent perishing men, her assurance of a resurrection of the body, and of the complete and changeless blessedness of the righteous, and misery of the wicked. These are the elements of the saint's character in life, and they remain the same when he is dying, only they shine out then with a lustre as unwonted as the occasion."

Saints glorify God in their death, as in their life, by the exercise and manifestation of holy affections.

"The power of exemplified holiness rises in proportion to the severity of its trial. God is glorified indeed, when he is glorified in the fires of adversity. In the light of these fires, holiness shines sbove any other brightness seen in the earth. But the supreme of evils, the KING of terrors, the horror of the whole living creation, is DEATH-a name that stands for every thing appalling in earth and in hell. And does the holiness of the saints prevail even against this adversary? Does it meet and conquer, and in a sense abolish this last and chiefest foe? Does it put on its brightest forms of mildness, and majesty, and gladness, and triumph, as it joins itself in conflict with this leviathan of the universe? It does, my brethren; and here is the glory which the saints give to God: here is the excellency of power, the completion of moral evidence, the most efficient of all testimonies to the truth, the importance, the infinite worth, the absolute necessity of religion; the loudest of all protests against the crime and madness of a worldly life."

After several interesting reflections, Dr. S. proceeds to a more direct application of the subject, and to give a brief account of the life, the character, the dying agonies, and the abounding spiritual consolations, of his departed brother. Gladly would we extract all that he has said on this subject, that we might leave on our pages a memorial of one so extensively and deservedly beloved. We must confine ourselves, however, to two or three passages, setting forth his intellectual and Christian character, and his religious senti

ments.

"As to his intellectual character, he was so peculiar, that I have in vain endeavored to put him into any class. The aspect of his n.ind, like his countenance, was beautiful; its motions were easy, energetic, quick. He had a sprightly and fertile fancy; a pure taste; an acute and accurate discernment of the force of an argument, the spirit of his author, the beauties and deformities of composition. He loved literature rather than science; strength rather than logical precision; despatch and rapidity in discourse, rather than minute and extended analysis. It was astonishing, the case and success with which he thought. What fine specimens of composition has he left us, written in about as many hours as others would have deemed sufficient labor for the same number of days. His sermons, always full of beauty, and often too, full of learning, (that is, if the proper proof of learning in discourse be abundant allusions which only learning can make,) were generally the product of a day, and sometimes of a sitting. With such facility and speed he accomplished every thing. His manner of writing was better suited to the press than the pulpit, and his elocution discovered too much modesty and diffidence for the happiest effect. As a public speaker he was rapidly rising, and promised to be second to almost none of his brethren, as an eloquent and efficient advocate of the cause of our benevolent societies."

"His reading in divinity extended through the various systems; and he neither received as truth, nor rejected as error, what he had not considered in its polemical connexions. He understood and embraced the faith usually called Calvinistic; but not with such a persuasion of having seen the whole truth, as hindered the continuance of free and independent research. Hence he was constantly making accessions to the light, and diminishing the remaining darkness and inconsistency of his theological scheme. The changes which took place in his creed ought rather to be called modifications or corrections-they related to the philosophy, not to the facts and essential doctrines of religion; and were such as gave him freedom, pungency, and practical power in the pulpit."

"He had more fear than confidence, in regard to his spiritual state, though he felt and confessed the obligation to be assured of his calling and election. He was more ready to hear than to tell of spiritual manifestations and comforts -happier in the eminent attainments of others, than in his own measures of spirituality and grace. He loved revivals of religion; rejoiced in opportunities to put himself under their peculiar power, rendered God praise for their preva lence, and constantly prayed for their increase; but yet lamented that he had not more of the spirit of revivals, and was so afraid of his unfitness to labor where these extraordinary effusions of the Spirit were enjoyed, that he tremblingly entered upon any public service in such places.

"He was aware of the peculiar temptations to an unspiritual kind of religion that belong to the elevated circumstances and sphere of life for which he was fitted and disposed by his cast of character, connexions, attainments, and advantages; and he was conscious that his communion with God and his religious joy were not promoted by intercourse with the worldly great and honorable. The best associates he knew to be the most spiritual minded; and from the heartless siniles and courtesies of the world, with what delight did he return to the humble circle of prayerful and devoted christians. Goodness was before greatness, nearness to God before the greatest elevation among men, according to his judgment, his feeling, and his actual preference. He had no alliances or intercourse with men of distinction, which hindered him from loving and delighting in the society of holy persons, however obscure. He abjured fashionable amusements, and loved the house of mourning rather than the house of feasting."

7. The Proper Mode of Conducting Missions to the Heathen. A Sermon delivered before the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America, Nov. 5, 1829. By BENJAMIN B. WISNER, Pastor of the Old South Church in Boston. Boston: Putnam and Hunt. 1829. pp. 44.

The Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians and others in North America was incorporated by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1787. Its charter requires that "the incomes or profits" of its funds be "applied to the purposes of propagating the Gospel among the Indians in North America, and also among other people who, through poverty or other circumstances, are destitute of the means of religious instructions." The number of persons named in the act of incorporation, as originally constituting the society, is twenty-one, who, "with such others as they shall elect," were made a body politic, and empowered to "purchase and hold in succession, lands, tenements, and real estate of any kind, the annual income and profit not to exceed the value of two thousand pounds." At the time of the incorporation of this society, the existence of Unitarianism in this region was unavowed, if not unknown. The whole number of members at this time, according to the list appended to the last annual report, is thirty-five. Ever since Unitarianism in this region was brought to light, in 1815, there has been, as there is now, a majority of Unitarians in this society. Yet it always elected an Orthodox select committee, and all the missionaries oppointed by it, with possibly one exception, were, so far as we have been able to ascertain, Orthodox, till since the death of its late President, the Hon. WILLIAM PHILLIPS, who left

the society a legacy of $5000. At the annual meeting which took place on the week of his funeral, no change was made. But the next year, the character of the select committee was reversed. And, if we are correctly informed, the only two new missionaries that have been appointed since that time, and previous to the late annual meeting, were Unitarians. One of them, the Rev. Mr. BRIMBLECOME of Norridgewock, Me., soon after his appointment, avowed himself a Universalist, and joined the Universalist Convention of Maine. For this act he has been stricken from the list of missionaries of this society, with what consistency can be best told by its liberal members, who, of course, hold that no man is to be censured for his religious opinions. We were quite disappointed at finding no treasurer's report published the present year; for we hold it to be of the utmost importance that all our benevolent societies account regularly and fully to the public for the funds committed to their trust. From the report for 1827, it appears that, in November of that year, the society had a permanent fund of $28,700, the "probable income" of which was stated to be $1659. To this has since been added the legacy of the late Hon. William Phillips, $5,000, making a total amount of permanent funds, $33,700. The receipts of the society from other sources besides the income of permanent funds in 1827, were $152 88. Here, then, is a fund of $35,000, given for the purpose of propagating evangelical religion, that is henceforth, as fast as such an application of its income can be safely made, to be devoted to the propagation of Unitarianism.

Before this society, soon after it had commenced the course of perversion above described, was preached the sermon now before

us.

It is assumed by the author, on the authority of the text (Mic. iv. 1—4.) and numerous other predictions, that the time will come, "when genuine Christianity, with its blessed influences on the temporal condition and the eternal prospects of men, shall be diffused among all nations." In acco plishing this glorious revolution, "the efficient agency will be that of the Holy Spirit;" but means must be used, and men must be employed in dispensing them. How, then, shall this instrumentality be directed?

"Shall our primary object be to civilize or to christianize the heathen? And when we come to teach them the doctrines of religion,-whether at the commencement of our efforts for their improvement, or at a subsequent period, shall we inculcate only the simpler and more general principles of our faith or shall we, at once, present and urge upon their acceptance its most sublime and distinctive truths?"

In answer to these questions, the author shows conclusively, from the directions of Christ, the example of the apostles, and from well authenticated facts-in opposition to the opinions of some, who would be wiser than the primitive preachers of the Gospel-that the heathen nations must first be christianized, and that, in imparting to them Christianity, we must "at once present, and