which they once were in themselves. And there are now many such throughout the United States. fathers, and the children, and the children's children, through many generations, and to send out their influences to the ends of the In 1805 there was scarcely a Presby- world. The organization, or resuscitation terian or Congregational church in the dis- of a church--Heaven's own institution— trict now covered by the seventeen most that may stand through all coming time, westerly counties of New-York. A few and bring its multitudes of redeemed ones: missionaries were sent thither at different to glory, is a great event. And to plant times, but the increase was small until the such churches, wherever there are souls Agency for Home Missions, now in con- to be gathered into them, our country over, nexion with the American Home Mission- and nurture them till they no longer need ary Society, was established there in 1826. our aid, but become our most efficient felNow there are on this field 380 Presbyte- low-labourers in hastening forward the unirian and Congregational churches, contain-versal reign of the Son of God, is surely a ing, it is supposed, 30,000 communicants. GREAT WORK! And yet, this is the work During the fifteen years of its operations, in which infinite condescension and mercy the American Home Missionary Society permits us, as friends of home missions, has aided 264 of those churches, and nearly to engage, and some of which it is our 100 of them are now able to sustain the privilege here to record." Gospel without assistance. The churches have nearly doubled since 1826, and the communicants have probably trebled. Such is the wonderful work God has wrought in this section of the state. Such has been the triumph of the Gospel. It is indeed the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes. Passing by other facts showing the collateral good accomplished by this effort to plant the Gospel in Western New-York, we mention, that many of the foreign missionaries are the sons of those churches. One of them is now pastor of a church at the Sandwich Islands of 7000 members, principally gathered through the blessing of God on his labours. Besides repaying the parent society more than $60,000 expended on this field, those churches have given $40,000 to send the Gospel to the more destitute beyond them. Nor is this all; they have been most generous helpers of every good cause. In 1839, this small part of a state, where home missions have been vigorously sustained, paid to the American Board of Foreign Missions $14,000. We conclude our notice of this society by giving the following extract from its Fourteenth Annual Report: "The results, indeed, of that mysterious and wonder-working influence which a God of grace exerts through the ministry of reconciliation, and which he connects with the missionary enterprise, all surpass finite comprehension. While the missionaries are preaching Christ and Him crucified to the living, they are laying broad and deep the foundations of many generations; they are setting in motion trains of moral influences, which will not cease when they are dead; they are kindling up lights in Zion, which will shine brighter and brighter unto the perfect day. Churches, that were near unto death, are quickened, and become able of themselves to sustain the Gospel, and to hand down its blessings to those who shall come after them. New churches are organized, to throw open their portals to the CHAPTER VIII. PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF DOMESTIC MISSIONS, UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE GENERAL PRESBYTERIANISM owes its foundation in the United States chiefly to persons who had been exiled from Scotland on account of their religious principles, and to Presbyterian emigrants from the north of Ireland. These were joined in many places by settlers from New-England, who had no objections to unite with them in forming congregations on Presbyterian principles. Presbyterians of Scottish and Irish origin coalesced in other places with Huguenots from France, and with colonists originally of the Dutch or German Reformed Churches. Thus did Presbyterian congregations begin to be formed towards the close of the seventeenth century. The first preachers were from Scotland, Ireland, and NewEngland. They were few in number at first, and were often invited to preach in neighbourhoods where some resident Presbyterians might desire to hear the Gospel preached by men of the same religious principles with themselves. The first presbytery was constituted in 1705, and the first synod in 1716. After that the work of home missions began to acquire greater consistency. Ministers were sent out on preaching tours among the small Presbyterian flocks, or, rather, scattered groups of Presbyterian families, particularly in the Middle and Southern provinces. In 1741, the synod was divided into two bodies, one retaining the old name of Synod of Philadelphia, the other calling itself the Synod of New-York. The former, soon after being constituted, had its attention drawn, "not only to the wants of the people within their immediate bounds, but to those also of the emigrants who were rapidly extending themselves through Virginia and North Carolina." They wrote, accordingly, to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, asking for ministers to preach in these colonies, and for assistance in establishing a seminary for the education of suitable young men for the ministry. A letter was also addressed to the deputies of the Synods of North and South Holland, in which they expressed their willingness to unite with the Calvinistic Dutch churches in promoting the common interests of religion. tours, at no small personal hazard from the dangers of war. Measures were taken in 1788 for forming the General Assembly, which was organized in 1789, and at its very first meeting much attention was paid to the subject of missions. In the year 1800, the Rev. Mr. Chapman was appointed a missionary in the western part of the State of New-York, and to his labours we must so far ascribe the great diffusion of Presbyterianism in that important section of the country. In 1802, the General Assembly appointed a "standing committee," to attend to the greatly-increased interests of the missionary causea measure which led to a farther extension of the work. A correspondence was commenced with all the known missionary societies of Europe. The committee gave much of its attention to the coloured population, a class among whom the late John Holt Rice, D.D., one of the most distinguished ministers that the Presbyterian Church in the United States has ever possessed, laboured as a missionary during seven years. "It is believed," says one of the most distinguished living ministers of the Presbyterian Church, "that at this time (1789) there was not in the United States another religious denomination, besides the Presbyterian, that prosecuted any domestic misAt the first meeting of the Synod of New-sionary enterprise, except that then, as York in 1745, the circumstances of the since, the Methodists sent forth their cirpeople of Virginia were brought before cuit-preachers in all directions."* them, and the opinion unanimously expressed that Mr. Robinson* was the proper person to visit that colony. He visited it accordingly, and on that, as well as on a former visit, was the instrument of doing much good. He was followed by the Rev. Samuel Davies, formerly mentioned. In 1758, the two synods were merged in the one Synod of New-York and Philadelphia, and from that time domestic missions began to receive considerable attention, and collections for that object were ordered to be made in the churches. In 1767, or 1768, the synod had an overture, or proposal, sent from the Presbytery of New-York," that there should be an annual collection in every congregation; that every presbytery should appoint a treasurer to receive and transmit the funds thus obtained; that the synod should appoint a general treasurer, to whom all these pres- In 1816, the General Assembly enlarged byterial collections should be sent; and the powers of the standing committee, and that every year a full account of the re-gave it the title of "the Board of Missions, ceipts and disbursements should be printed acting under the authority of the General and sent down to the churches." This Assembly." Many missionaries went forth was the germe of the present Board of Mis-under its auspices, to labour among the sions. In the same year, petitions for supplies" were received from twenty-one places in Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia. 66 Collections were thenceforward made in the churches. In 1772, it was ordered that a part of these moneys should be appropriated to the purchase and distribution of useful religious books, and to the promotion of the Gospel among the Indians. Two years afterward, it was seriously contemplated to send missionaries to Africa; but on the war of the Revolution breaking out in the following year, the project fell to the ground. Even during the war there was a considerable demand for ministers from destitute congregations, and to meet this many faithful ministers made missionary This Mr. Robinson was a remarkable man. His manners were plain, his eloquence simple, animated, and attractive. He had but one eye, and was from that circumstance called “one-eyed Robinson." The Rev. Dr. Alexander, professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, New-Jersey, says, that it was no uncommon thing for people to go twenty, thirty, and even forty miles, to hear him preach a single sermon. destitute Presbyterian congregations that were continually forming in the Southern and Western States. Meanwhile, many local societies, under the direction of synods, presbyteries, and other bodies, had sprung up, and were separately prosecuting the same objects to a considerable extent. The General Assembly again took up the subject of missions in 1828, and farther enlarged the powers of the Board, fully authorizing it to establish missions, not only in destitute parts of the United States, but among the heathen abroad. Such, however, was the demand for labourers at home, especially in the Western States and Territories, that nothing of importance could be done for foreign lands. It was found, besides, that home and foreign missions could not well be united under one board, so that in the course of a few years the latter were committed to the charge of another board, appointed for that purpose by the Assembly. Of its operations we shall have occasion to speak elsewhere. "History of the Missions of the Presbyterian Church," by the Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D. The cause of domestic missions in the members of the Board, and to it is comPresbyterian Church now went on with mitted the whole subject of missions. But fresh vigour, and the synodical and pres- the better to expedite the business intrustbyterial societies becoming either merged ed to it, the Home and Foreign departin the Assembly's board, or affiliated with ments are directed, respectively, by two it, the whole assumed a more consolidated committees, each consisting of four clerform and greater consistency. From 1828 gymen and four laymen, under the presito 1843, the missionaries increased from dency of the bishop of the diocess in which 31 to 296. The Report for the latter year the committee resides, and both commitpresents a summary of 296 missionaries tees are ex officio members of the Board. employed; 900 Sunday-schools, attended It is only since 1835 that the home misby at least 30,000 scholars, connected with sions of the society have been prosecuted the churches under their care; 4800 mem- with much vigour, but every year now bers added to the churches, of whom 3600 bears witness to the increasing interest upon examination of their faith, and 1200 felt by the Episcopal churches of the Uniupon letters of recommendation from other ted States in the work of building up churches; the receipts were about 35,000 churches in the new settlements, and othdollars, and the expenditures exceeded er places where none of that communion 31,000. The average expense of each mis-had before existed. sionary is 130 dollars. The Board pursues During the year ending 21st June, 1843, the wise course of simply helping congregations that as yet are unable to maintain pastors, by granting them so much on their undertaking to make up the deficiency. Such is a brief notice of the operations of the Home Missions of the General Assembly of that branch of the Presbyterian Church commonly called the Old School, to distinguish it from another branch called the New School. The Board has been instrumental, under God, in giving a permanent existence to some hundreds of churches. The divine blessing has been remarkably vouchsafed to its efforts. Its affairs are managed with great wisdom and energy, and the Church is much indebted to the Rev. Ashbel Green, D.D., for the deep interest which, during a long life, he has felt in this cause, and for the devotedness with which he has laboured to promote it. Nor can it fail to be a great consolation to him, in his declining days, to see his love and zeal for this enterprise crowned with abundant success. CHAPTER IX. the Board had employed ninety-four missionaries, and that they did not labour without effecting much good, is apparent even from the imperfect statements of the Report. The number of communicants in 84 out of the 180 places to which the missionaries had extended their labours was 2190; and that of the children under catechetical instruction was 2014. The income for the home missions, collected throughout the thirty diocesses into which the country is divided, was $38,835. From 1822 to 1841, 186 stations had been adopted as fields of special, permanent, and, as far as practicable, regular labour. During the same period eighty church edifices had been erected in those stations, and the number of these once aided, but no longer requiring assistance, was forty-four. From this it will be seen that this society has not laboured in vain, but that it, likewise, is an instrument by which churches that have long been favoured with the Gospel, and highly prize it, are enabled to assist others, until they, too, have grown up into a vigorous independence of foreign aid. 66 Freely ye have received; freely give;" this admonition and command should never be forgotten. It is the true HOME MISSIONS OF THE EPISCOPAL, BAPTIST, basis of the whole Voluntary System. AND REFORMED DUTCH CHURCHES. We shall only add, that the missionaries employed by the Board of the Episcopal Church are chiefly confined to the Western States and Territories. A SOCIETY was formed in the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, for the promotion of Home and Foreign Missions, in the year 1822. During the The American Baptist Home Missionary first thirteen years of its existence, that is, Society was instituted in 1832, and has up to 1835, it had employed fifty-nine la- been eminently useful since in building up bourers in its home missions, occupying churches of that denomination, both in the stations in various parts of the Union, but West and in many of the Atlantic States, chiefly in the West. The society was re- where the assistance of such an instituorganized in 1835, and, as now constituted, tion was required, as well as in establishis under the direction of a Board of thirty ing Sunday-schools and Bible-classes. Its members, appointed by the General Con- great field of labour, however, like that of vention of the Church. The bishops, to- all the other Societies and Boards for dogether with such persons as had become mestic missions, has been the "Valley of patrons of the society previously to the the Mississippi." It has numerous branchmeeting of the Convention in 1829, are es and auxiliaries in all parts of the United States; and during the year ending in May, Ordinarily, as often as once in the fort1843, had ninety-three agents and mis- night, a circuit-preacher conducts a regusionaries in its own immediate service, and lar service at each of these preaching pla275 in that of its auxiliaries, making a total | ces, whether it be a church, schoolroom, of 368, all of whom were ministers of the or a dwelling-house. In the largest towns Gospel, and believed to be faithful and ca- and villages such services are held on the pable labourers. They preached statedly Sabbath, and on a week-day or evening at 762 stations, and had travelled 175.035 in other places, and thus the Gospel is miles! They reported 4920 conversions carried into thousands of remote spots, in and baptisms, the organization of fifty which it never would be preached upon churches, and the ordination of twenty- the plan of having a permanent clergy, three ministers. By their instrumentality planted in particular districts and parishes. 6520 persons had been induced to join the It was a remark, I believe, of the celetemperance societies; 11,742 young per- brated Dr. Witherspoon, that "he needed sons had been gathered into Sunday-schools no other evidence that the Rev. John Wesand Bible-classes, taught by about 1500 ley was a great man, than what the system teachers. The receipts of the parent soci- of itinerating preaching presented to his ety and its auxiliaries amounted to $40,583. mind, and of which that wonderful man In addition to what the regular Baptists was the author." The observation was a are doing for home missions, it ought to just one. It is a system of vast importance be stated that the Free-Will Baptists have in every point of view; but that from which a Home Missionary Society, which em- we are at present to contemplate it is, its ploys some six or eight men. filling up a void which must else remain empty. Of its other advantages we shall have to speak in another place. The General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church has a Board of Domestic Missions, which is now prosecuting, with zeal and wisdom, the work of gathering together new congregations, and fostering them during their infancy, wherever it can find openings for so doing. For several years past it has been extending its operations, and during that ending in June, 1843, it aided forty-seven new or feeble churches and two stations. Five of these were in the Western States, and in these five missionaries were occupied in preaching the Gospel. The receipts for that period amounted to $5127. If the truth is to be carried into every hamlet and neighbourhood of the United States, it can only be by all denominations of evangelical Christians taking part in the enterprise; and it is delightful to trace the proofs of this conviction being widely and deeply felt. All are actually engaged in the good work, and send forth and support missionaries in some portion or other of the country. But, capable as the system is of being made to send its ramifications into almost every corner of the country, and to carry the glad tidings of salvation into the most remote and secluded settlements, as well as to the more accessible and populous towns and neighbourhoods, many places were found, particularly in the South and West, so situated as to be beyond the reach of adequate supply from itinerant labourers; a fact which led to the formation of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1819. This society, like that of the Protestant Episcopal Church, was formed for the double object of promoting missions at home and abroad. Reserving the latter for future notice, I turn at present to the former. According to the twenty-fourth annual report, being that for 1843, I find that it employed 210 missionaries within the limits of the United States, exclusive of those labouring among the Indians, whether within or immediately beyond those limits. The churches enjoying the services of these missionaries comprised above 30,000 members, and many of them HOME MISSIONS OF THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL had flourishing Bible-classes and Sunday CHAPTER X. CHURCH. schools. The report also states, that among the members of the Society's missionary churches, there were not fewer than 13,320 coloured people. IT has been said, with truth, that the Methodist Church is in its very structure emphatically missionary, and it is an inexpressible blessing that it is so, as the Perhaps of all the fields cultivated by United States strikingly prove. The whole this society, the two most interesting, and, country is embraced by one General Con-in some respects, most important, are ference; it is again subdivided into thirty-those presented by the slaves in the extwo Annual Conferences, each including a large extent of country, and divided into districts. Each district comprehends several circuits, and within each circuit there are from five or six to above twenty preaching places. K treme Southern States, and by the German emigrants found in great numbers in our chief cities. The missions among the former were commenced in 1828,* and origi * I speak here of missions technically so called, for, in their ordinary labours, the Methodists, from It has a mission, also, at St. Louis, on the Upper Mississippi. The churches gathered by the Society's missionaries from among the Germans in those places had no fewer than 1366 members in 1843, and of these more than 200 had been Roman Catholics. Yet this work had commenced only a few years before. Twenty missionaries were engaged in it, and several of these were men of considerable talent and learning, as well as zeal. One of them, the Rev. Mr. Nast, at Cincinnati, conducts a religious paper with a circulation of above 1500 copies, and which seems to be doing good. Here I close these brief notices of the nated in a proposal made by the Hon. Charles C. Pinckney, a distinguished Christian layman of the Episcopal Church in South Carolina, and which has been carried into effect with much success, the slaveholders themselves, in many places, if not all, being pleased to have the missionaries preach the Gospel to their people. The following paragraph from the report of 1841 will give the reader some idea of the hazardous nature of this work: "In the Southern and Southwestern Conferences, it will be seen, under the head of domestic missions, that, with commendable zeal and devotion, our missionaries are The Society has a mission, likewise, still labouring in the service of the slaves among the Germans, reckoned at 30,000 upon the rice-fields, sugar and cotton plant- at least, in the city of New-York. The ations, multitudes of whom, though des- income of this excellent and efficient socitined to toil and bondage during their earth-ety, for the year ending April 20th, 1843, ly pilgrimage, have by their instrumental-amounted to 109,452 dollars, and its exity been brought to enjoy the liberty of the penditure, including both its foreign and Gospel, and are happily rejoicing in the domestic missions, was 145,035. blessings of God's salvation. In no portion of our work are our missionaries call-home missions of the chief evangelical ed to endure greater privations, or make churches in the United States. They will greater sacrifices of health and life, than give the reader some idea of the mode in in these missions among the slaves, many which new and feeble congregations are of which are located in sections of the aided by the older and stronger until able Southern country which are proverbially to maintain the institutions of religion sickly, and under the fatal influence of a themselves. The societies which we have climate which few white men are capable passed under review in these four chapof enduring, even for a single year. And ters supported, in all, nearly 1900 ministers yet, notwithstanding so many valuable mis- of the Gospel, in the year 1843, in new, sionaries have fallen martyrs to their toils and, as yet, feeble churches and flocks. in these missions, year after year there are Year after year many of these cease to refound others to take their places, who fall quire assistance, and then others are taken likewise in their work, ceasing at once to up in their turn. Be it remembered, that work and to live.' Nor have our superin- the work has been systematically prosecutendents any difficulty in finding missiona- ted for no long course of time. Twenty ries ready to fill up the ranks which death years ago, in fact, the most powerful and has thinned in these sections of the work, extensive of these societies did not exist; for the love of Christ, and the love of the others were but commencing their operasouls of these poor Africans in bonds, con- tions. It is an enterprise with respect to strain our brethren in the itinerant work which the churches have as yet but parof the Southern conferences to exclaim, tially developed their energies and resour'Here are we, send us!' The Lord be ces; still, they have accomplished enough praised for the zeal and success of our to demonstrate how much may be done by brethren in this self-denying and self-sac- the voluntary principle towards the calling rificing work." into existence of churches and congregations in the settlements rapidly forming, whether in the new or the old states. Not less interesting are the Society's missions among the Germans resident in the chief towns and cities of the Valley of the Mississippi. Beginning at Pittsburgh and Alleghany Town, on the right bank of the Alleghany, opposite Pittsburgh, it has missionaries among these foreigners in many of the chief towns on the Ohio, such THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE DEVELOPED.—IN- as Wheeling, Marietta, Portsmouth, Maysville, Cincinnati, Lawrenceburg, New Albany, &c., as well as in towns remote from the river, such as Dayton and Chillicothe. the first, have had much to do with the slaves in the South, as well as with the free negroes of the North. In fact, no other body of Christians, perhaps, has done so much good to the unfortunate children of Africa in the United States as the followers of John Wesley. CHAPTER XI.. FLUENCE OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINCIPLE ON We have seen how the voluntary principle operates in America in relation to the building of churches, and also the support of ministers of the Gospel in the new settlements forming every year, more or less, in all quarters. We now come toconsider its influence on education. Hundreds of ministers, it will be perceived, are |