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must not be omitted among the advocates of the received text. The edition is formed very much on the text of Griesbach, but without adopting his alterations. It retains, among other passages, 1 John v. 7. The reading is, therefore, very far from standing in that miserable state of destitution to which its opponents seem to consider it reduced. F.

ON THE UNION BETWEEN THE GENERAL SYNOD OF THE ASSOCIATE REFORMED CHURCH, AND THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES.

(Concluded from page 311.)

In 1822, the Associate Reformed Synod of the West, addressed a letter to the General Assembly, in which they claimed a portion of the library which had formerly belonged to the General Synod; but as the late Synod had received and answered a similar letter, the Assembly "Resolved, That it is unnecessary to give to the Synod of the West any other answer than that which they have already received from the General Synod, as that Synod were better acquainted with all the merits and circumstances of the case, than this Assembly are." Before the union of the General Synod with the Assembly, this Synod of the West had seceded from the General Synod; and therefore could not have preferred the shadow of an equitable

claim.

In 1822, the Associate Reformed Synod of the South, also addressed a letter to the Assembly, in which they claimed a part of the library; but before the union took place, this Synod of the South had obtained leave, in 1821, to withdraw, and constitute an independent coordinate Synod. It relinquished, virtually, all right and title to the property of the General Synod by

becoming independent; and it was no part of the agreement by which they became free from all subordination to the General Synod, that a part of the library should go with them. In reply, the Assembly resolved, "That a union having now taken place between the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church and the General Synod of the Associate Reformed Church; and the library of the Theological Seminary of the latter, being, by the terms of the union, incorporated with that of the former at Princeton, the General Assembly cannot accede to the claim of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South."

Some time after the union was consummated, the Presbyteries of Washington and Saratoga, resuscitated the Associate Reformed Synod of New York; and in 1823, this newly organized body claimed to be the true successors of the General Synod, and claimed of the Assembly "the library, funds, minutes, and documents, which by the final decision of the General Synod, were placed in the possession of the General Assembly." The committee of the Assembly appointed to investigate this claim, ascertained from the statistical tables of the General Synod, that these two Presbyteries had contributed for the use of the seminary, from 1802 to 1820, the sum of $1519,6%; while in the same period the other portions of the Associate Reformed Church, and chiefly the churches now in union with the Assembly, had paid for the same object more than $35,300. Had the property given to the use of the Theological Seminary of the General Synod constituted a monied partnership, on the principle of equalizing among all the members of the Associate Reformed Church the profit or loss, a very small portion only would have been payable to the claimants of the north, south, and west.

The memorial from the Associate Reformed Synod of New York, claiming the library and funds that had been transferred by the late General Synod of the Associate Reformed Church to the Theological Seminary at Princeton, was, with the leave of the Assembly, withdrawn by one of the commissioners who had presented it, stating that he took upon himself the responsibility of withdrawing it. The other commissioner had left the city several days previous. The memorial having been withdrawn, the following resolutions were adopted, viz:

"Resolved, 1. That if any of the Presbyteries under the care of the Associate Reformed Synod of New York, shall at any future time, send any of their candidates for the gospel ministry to our Theological Seminary at Princeton, they shall be received on the same terms as candidates from our own Presbyteries, and entitled to all privileges, both from the library and the funds of the institution, which are enjoyed by other students in the same personal circumstances.

"Resolved, 2. That Drs. Nott, Blatchford, and Chester, be a committee to confer with the Associate Reformed Synod of New York, or, any committee which that Synod may appoint, on the subject of a friendly correspondence with this body, or of the amalgamation of their churches with the Presbyterian Church in the United States; and that said committee report to the next Assembly any such measures for adoption as the conferring parties may judge best calculated to promote the spiritual welfare of these two Presbyterian denominations."

After these resolutions were adopted, Dr. Proudfit, the commissioner present, declared that he was much more pleased and gratified by the adoption of these resolutions, than he would have been by the Assembly's granting the

claims of the memorial in their whole extent.

In 1824, the Associate Reformed Synod of the South sent to me their second memorial on the subject of the library, with a request from their agent, that I would present the same to the Assembly, and de every thing in my power consistent with duty in promoting its object. The memorial was presented, and respectfully considered; but my judgment was decidedly against the claims of the Synod. The estimable writer says to me, "It is sincerely hoped that the reverend Assembly will deliberately weigh the matter, and that they will either think proper to accede to our claims, or convince us that we have none." Our Assembly have no time for writing dissertations; and it is hoped the foregoing considerations will convince our brethren of the south, that it would be a violation of a trust committed to us, to transfer any part of the library in question to any persons who will not hold it, as we do, for the use of the Seminary to which it was originally devoted; and that the consolidation of the two seminaries no more annihilates either, than marriage would the partners who enter into it.

Having maturely weighed the matter, the Assembly of this year adopted the following report of a committee on the subject, viz:

"The General Synod of the Associate Reformed Church in May, 1821, previous to the formation of the connexion between the General Synod and the General Assembly, received a petition from the Synod of the South, praying permission to form themselves into a sister coordinate Synod, dated 4th of April, 1821, with which petition the General Synod did comply. The Assembly's right to the library, under the surrender of the General Associate Reformed Synod on this as well as on other justifiable grounds, your committee think

ought not therefore to be questioned. And your committee beg leave to recommend this report as a proper answer to the memorial presented by their brethren of the Associate Reformed Synod of the South." I cannot but hope that the foregoing history and remarks may have some influence, in preventing future applications for the library, and in satisfying those who were once connected with the General Synod. If our brethren of the north, south, east, or west, will send their young men to Princeton, they will be welcome to the joint use of it, with their fellow students. Indeed, some of the late, and some of the lately received, Associate Reformed Church, are now enjoying the advantages of it. But all may rest assured, that the Assembly will faithfully keep the library committed to them, as formerly it was to the General Synod, in trust, for the use of the consolidated seminaries; and neither law nor equity will ever compel them to relinquish it.

E. S. ELY.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE.

Mr. Editor,-A little work has recently made its appearance in London, under the curious title of the "Chimney Sweeper's Friend and Climbing Boy's Album." This book is composed of some documents and tracts, for the purpose of bettering the condition of the chimney sweepers in England, a class of miserable and degraded paupers, which calls loudly upon the liberality and sympathy of the English publick. In the populous towns of our own country, this ruinous system of bringing up children, already prevails to a considerable extent; and though it is confined with us to the black part of our population, it is not the less to be deplored. I have not unfrequently seen our climbing boys, after their morning's work was finished, loitering about our streets, and ready to engage in VOL. II.-Ch. Adv.

any species of vice which might be thrown in their way. A Sunday School was some years ago established for their instruction, but I cannot learn that it still exists. I am therefore of opinion, that the republication of this little volume among ourselves, would not be unseasonable, and I hope some enterprising and benevolent bookseller will undertake it. In noticing this volume, which is edited by the poet Montgomery, a certain writer remarks

"Philanthropy is sometimes not a little capricious. People claim the right, and it seems reasonable, to be benevolent and charitable in their own way. And never had they so many and various ways afforded them, from which to choose the least troublesome, most reputable, or most pleasing method of doing good. Schools, prisons, Bible societies, missionary societies, hospitals, asylums, the Greeks, the Irish, the Jews, the Gipsies, the Negroes, the Hindoos-how, it may be said, can a man attend to them all? A feeling of this kind has sometimes, we are afraid, led persons to shut their hearts and their purses against the claims of bounden duty. And they have almost been afraid to listen to any fresh appeal, lest it should force its way to their sympathy. But, with regard to that long neglected and injured class of infant bondsmen for whom this volume eloquently pleads, these English negroes, we were going to call them, there is no possibility of remaining neutral. Every man must take part, practically, either for them or against them. Every housekeeper, at least, has a chimney or chimneys which require to be swept. By what means are they swept? There are machines by which the employment of these poor little children may be superseded in nine cases out of ten: are they in such cases employed? Is it made an object, to discourage as far as possible the inhuman degradation of

2 Z

children? We put the question to the conscience of every reader." This little Album, besides the documents abovementioned, contains a number of interesting pieces in prose and verse, among which are the following touching verses

from the pen of Mr. Montgomery, the insertion of which in the Christian Advocate, I am sure, will gratify most of your readers. It will be recollected that the chimney boys in London are commonly children of native Englishmen.

A WORD WITH MYSELF.

I know they scorn the Climbing Boy,
The gay, the selfish, and the proud;
I know his villainous employ

Is mockery with the thoughtless crowd.

So be it;-brand with every name
Of burning infamy his art,

But let his Country bear the shame,
And feel the iron at her heart.

I cannot coldly pass him by,

Stript, wounded, left by thieves half dead;
Nor see an infant Lazarus lie

At rich men's gates, imploring bread.

A frame as sensitive as mine,

Limbs moulded in a kindred form,
A soul degraded, yet divine,

Endear to me my brother-worm.

He was my equal at his birth,

A naked, helpless, weeping child;
And such are born to thrones on earth,
On such hath every mother smiled.

My equal he will be again,

Down in that cold oblivious gloom
Where all the prostrate ranks of men
Crowd, without fellowship, the tomb.

My equal in the judgment day,

He shall stand up before the throne,
When every veil is rent away,

And good and evil only known.

And is he not mine equal now?

Am I less fall'n from God and truth,
Though "Wretch" be written on his brow,
And leprosy consume his youth?

If holy Nature yet have laws

Binding on man, of woman born,
In her own court I'll plead his cause,
Arrest the doom, or share the scorn.

Yes, let the scorn that haunts his course,
Turn on me like a trodden snake,
And hiss and sting me with remorse,
If I the fatherless forsake.

Reviews.

THE LIFE OF LUTHER, EMBRACING

AN ACCOUNT OF THE EARLY PRO

GRESS OF THE REFORMATION. BY

ALEXANDER BOWER. Philadelphia, published and sold by James Hogan, jun., No. 225, Market Street. J. Anderson, printer, 1824. 8vo. pp. 408.

After all that we have read-and who that reads at all has not read much-about the great leader of the Protestant reformation, the contents of this volume have had, for us, almost all the attractions of novelty. Not indeed that we have found in it much, the substance of which was not even familiar to us before. But the facts are better arranged, unimportant circumstances in the life of Luther are more pruned off, the narrative is better sustained-uniformly dignified and yet not dull-and the gradual progress of the mind of the Reformer, from the darkness of Popish error, to the luminous view which it ultimately attained of evangelical truth and Christian liberty, is more clearly marked and exhibited, than in any other production, historical or biographical, that we have perused. In a word, we have never seen any account of Luther and of the Protestant reformation, which has appeared to us so worthy of the subject, as that which is now before us. We did think, when we had read only the first part of the volume, that the author would not prove so decidedly a friend to those great and fundamental truths of practical godliness, which Luther most zealously inculcated, as would suit our taste and most gratify our wishes. But we were better satisfied in this particular as we advanced in the perusal of the narrative; and we finished it with the conviction that the temperate man

ner in which the biographer has
spoken on the topicks of religious
faith and controversy, is best calcu-
lated to manifest his impartiality;
while yet he has said enough to
show that he is unequivocally a fa-
vourer of the great doctrines which
Luther taught and defended with
so much energy and zeal.
style of the author reminded us, in
various instances, of that of Ro-
bertson, in his historical works. It
is perspicuous, chaste, and well sup-
ported; never diffuse or declama-
tory, and very moderately ornate.

The

The work, it appears, was first published in Edinburgh, in May, 1813, and is dedicated to "The very Rev. George H. Baird, D. D. one of the ministers of the high church and principal of the University of Edinburgh." The American copy has recently left the press, and we hope the publisher will not have reason to regret that he has risked the sale of it in this country. The fashionable novels of Britain will, it seems, bear a republication here; and it would not be very honourable to our taste, if the admirers of fiction should be found more numerous and liberal than the lovers of truth and fact-if, while the author of the Waverley romances finds among us a host of readers, who eagerly seek his well told tales of occurrences and characters, which often refer for their origin to the changes in religious opinions which Luther effected, an ably written life of the great man himself, should want a patronage sufficient to indemnify the printer.

The typography and paper of this volume are excellent, and a plate is given, exhibiting a full length portrait of Luther, in his professional dress. There is an appendix to the work, in which a good deal of curi

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