dead body to rise and walk. This truth, however, is by no means discouraging, nor may we infer from it that human efforts are not important. They are infinitely important. For there is a power that can render them efficacious as the means of accomplishing the infinitely important result-the conversion of the world. That power is the influence of the Holy Spirit. Let this blessed influence descend, and life will be imparted to the whole machinery of missions. The desponding missionary will no longer cry," Lord, who hath believed our report?" Should revivals take place at our missionary stations, or, which is the same thing, should the Holy Spirit descend upon them, we might expect that the grace of God would triumph in many cases which, to human view, look most unpromising. There are men in every pagan, and every papal country, such as Saul of Tarsus and Martin Luther were, before the Spirit of God took possession of their hearts. How easily could He who has the residue of the Spirit, transform those men into zealous preachers and defenders of his truth, and make them the leaders in a glorious "reformation," which should quickly spread through every nation and kingdom under heaven! How easily could he call from the ranks of his enemies a host of such champions as Asaad Esh Shidiak and Leang Afa; and multiply the number of such rulers as Pomaré, Kaahumanu, and Africaner! Only let the Spirit of the Lord be poured out abundantly, and each missionary station will be to the surrounding population what leaven is to & measure of meal-diffusing its benign influence gradually, but certainly, through the entire mass of ignorance and corruption, causing the wilderness and the solitary places to be glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as the rose. There is, then, a power which is able to give to the missionary enterprise COMPLETE AND UNIVERSAL SUCCESS. Now, what invests the subject with overwhelming interest to the Christian, is the connexion of this power with prayer. The outpouring of the Spirit was the subject of express and repeated promise in the Scriptures of the prophets the promise was renewed again and again by our Lord, both before his death and after his resurrection, and is in fact the most prominent, as well as the greatest among all the promises of the New Testament. It was to this promise that the waiting eyes of the disciples were directed after their Saviour's ascension, and by this they were encouraged to "continue with one accord in prayer and supplication." The wonders of the day of Pentecost, and every subsequent triumph of Christianity in ancient or in modern times, have proved that they did not hope and pray in vain. In short, it is as certain as the promises of God, and the whole experience of his Church can make it, that this most precious and most needful of all blessings can be obtained; and that it is to be obtained by prayer. Dear brethren, let us welcome to our hearts this WONDROUS, JOYFUL TRUTH! that our heavenly Father has put into our hands a key that can open the windows of heaven, and bring down upon a perishing world the life-giving influences of the Spirit of grace! The application of this subject, then, is obvious. What privilege is so precious, what duty so obligatory, as prayer-fervent, constant prayer, for the influence of the Holy Spirit? It is plain that there rests upon the children of God a most solemn responsibility in relation to this subject. Is that responsibility suitably felt? Were some of our own relatives in imminent danger-if, for example, we saw them drowning, should we not implore assistance for them with infinitely greater earnestness than we pray for a sinking, dying world? Had all the saints sought the promised Spirit, since the commencement of modern missions, as Jacob sought the blessing of his God at Peniel, is there not reason to believe that those missions would have been attended with a thousand fold greater success than we now witness? The time must come when there will be a generation of Christians upon the earth, who will thus appreciate and implore this heavenly influence, and who, like the patriarch, will have power with God, and prevail" to the full extent of their pious desires. Then will the time to favour Zion have come. The appalling obstacles which now oppose the spread of the Gospel, will melt away apace; the omnipotent Spirit will speedily convince THE WORLD of sin," and bring all nations to the obedience of faith. And why may not the present be that happy generation of Christians? Why may not we hope to see revivals of religion at our missionary stations, and that at no distant day? Is it necessary that another, and another, and another generation of our fellow men should die, before this glad consummation is realized? Will the obligations and the encouragements to prayer ever be stronger, or the necessities of the world greater, than now? Is the hand of the Lord shortened, or his ear heavy? O, brethren, what more could our gracious God have done, than he has done, to convince us that he is "not willing that any should perish"-that he not only is now, but has always been, ready to hear our prayers, and to save our perishing world? He gave his beloved Son-will he not give his Spirit? The Lord Jesus, by his death, purchased this heavenly gift, and, as Mediator, has power to bestow it without measure. Will he withhold the precious boon, when it is sought by his own dear disciples, in reliance upon his own gracious promise? Shame on our unbelief! Shame on all our vain excuses! The momentous inquiry then returns and let us all carry it to our closets, and into the secret chambers of our hearts, and see if we can find the answer to it there—Why may not we, of this generation, be the happy persons whose effectual fervent prayers for the effusion of the Holy Spirit shall prevail? AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY. THE WEST, AS VIEWED BY WESTERN MEN. [The following is from a western paper, entitled "The Friend." We commend it to the careful perusal of those who are disposed to take large views of the Home enterprise. The several topics admit of copious illustration by facts, as all know who have lived or travelled in the interesting region to which it relates.] If ever a people needed to be roused from the torpor of a present security, and stirred to action, for the purpose of avert- to guarded against. In the increase munication which is coming to have among men, occupied as it mainly is 4d interests that are merely secular in nature, and conducted on terms of fetopir ship that are answerable to its ex a there is naturally an advantage posson by that class of influences that is confore to sound order. By being thrown togfa er, the ignorant and the bad are coeling pa forth, among the friends of social order, || than any we now behold, in order to secure any different result. There are already diffused, throughout the western country, the elements of disorganization, to a most alarming extent. It is of no account that they have, as yet, hardly made themselves to be felt, in the midst of the social mass, in any open and directly dangerous way. They need only to be embodied, and to have a suitable occasionally made worse. Evil communicatie and to call forth their action, when it will be as in a moral respect the greater petere found that, like the slumbering energies these communications of which we of a volcano, they are fraught with mis-speak must be considered to be, ea chief to the whole region in the midst of good manners; and when the scales which they have their place. which they are conducted is large, Plainly, the growth of population has disastrous influence in this way must far outgone the course of intellectual and be so much the more certain and deplet the moral cultivation. A terrific mass of ig- ble. Errors are made impudent norance and error has thus gradually been strong; the restraints of educational formed, and is now coming more rapid judice are thrown off; corruption every year into circumstances proper for corruption, and iniquity finds the spa the developement of its secret power. of its action continually widening on Restraining influences, which have here. sides; the authoritative voice of rehto tofore existed, are by degrees disappear- | is suffered to die out of hearing, amid te ing, and influences of a contrary sort are restless activity and imposing show d ripening every day into stronger force, mere business intercourse, and thus and warming the germs of evil into life degrees its very truth is brought into que tion, and the spirit of an ignorant delity, embodied in pure sensualism, t workings of which are always darkly tend ing to disorder and death, gathers strength and puts on a greater show of authery every day. and action. The very prosperity of the country is attended here with an injurious influence. The activity that is given by means of it to the spirit of mere secular enterprise, seems to draw off the thoughts of men from interests of a higher nature, and actually to unfit them for perceiving that these last exist at all. Amid the noise and show of those many forms of action by which the wealth and outward com. forts of society are steadily increasing, and with the notion of utility and importance on this account so deeply asso. ciated, the world of truth and righteousness, that which is the proper home of the human spirit, and in comparison with which all else is shadow, is lost sight of almost entirely. The souls of men are materialized; and thus, as in every other case of idolatry, the light of conscience is darkened, the impression of truth is weak and indistinct, and the whole mind surrendered to the corrupting power of a merely selfish nature. In this way altogether, a rapid proces of demoralization has come to be going forward, under the action of what may be called the mere home elements of our s ciety. But, in addition to all this, a mos appalling agency is beginning to be exert ed upon us from abroad. The surplus population of Europe is pouring in upos us at a rate that increases every year, in a ratio that may well be called alarming especially when it is considered that all the vices of Europe are brought along with its swelling tide. The great body of this emigration, wholly uninformed as it is with the true spirit of our political and religious institutions, is borne, as a matter of course, into the open bosom of the West; and instead of incorporating itself there with any better condition of life that may be at hand, it is in danger of diffusing its own complexion over the whole, of, rather, we should say, uniting its own dis orderly spirit with the congenial forms of feeling which are already there, is in dan ger of giving in a little while such a preponderance to this gloomy interest, as shall issue in the ruin of all the good to which it stands opposed. Thus, directly, there is too much reason to believe, a hurtful influence is going forth at this very time from those improvements, which are, in every other respect, so worthy of admiration; while, at the same time, by extending men's intercourse with one another, and bringing distant parts of the country together, they are found to have an indirect operation, which requires to be no less anxiously Unfortunately, we are not left on this J be ness of the rudest age that has ever rested upon the world. to mere theory and speculation. id deterioration of character is even visibly, as it were, going forward. Still, the danger of which we speak is opinions, and daring deeds of wick-not such as to make ruin certain. We We s, are breaking in upon us in every have dwelt upon it only to show that it is ion. The increase of crime, under not imaginary, and that it is not effectore dreadful forms, has been a sub. ually guarded against by any of those pro. of general observation and remark. visions in which many are trusting. ling of insecurity in regard to inter- There is one way, and but one, in which and institutions, that a little while our prosperity may still be rendered sure. were looked upon as the most sure, is The friends of virtue and truth must feel, ng to force itself upon the reflecting that a mighty conflict is needed for the il parts. An infidel and irreligious support of these interests in the country, t is proclaiming itself strong and bold and they must unite with the spirit of one aghout the land, and already its with- man to maintain that conflict. This has g breath is making itself to be felt been done already; but it must be done a the brightest forms of hope that God on a broader scale, with more open front, made to gladden our goodly heritage. || and with more desperate determination. The reliances with which many please And as the West is emphatically the field nselves, in this case, are miserably of battle for the whole nation, it must reish and vain. They reach not at all ceive a corresponding attention. The true measure of the danger, and in whole world should feel an interest here. t constitute to the reflecting mind one Europe should lend assistance; a largo in element of the calculation on which portion of our danger is from her shores, idea of danger is made to rest. and her nations have a deeper interest at exposed to evil, because the virtue of stake here, than most of those which are › nation is in danger of perishing under agitating them at home. The eastern spreading power of ignorance and part of our country is bound to enter ac1; and what security is found against tively into the cause; for it will be found is, in the free nature of our institutions, to be, in a very little while, their own, our growing wealth, or in our internal and they will see their domestic affairs provements? Can mere outward ad. sinking into insignificance by its side. intages save us, while all right moral And if others are thus bound to act, how entiment is left to languish and die in much more so those who stand in immeur midst? Will canals and rail-roads diate contact with the evil-the friends of vail to sustain our institutions, when the religion in the West itself! By timely and iving spirit of order shall have become energetic action, such as we now speak vaporated from the form of them? If of, the victory may yet be wrenched from here be any truth fixed in history or phi. the hands of the enemy. But let this ac losophy, it is, that virtue and religion are tion be delayed only for a little time, and the only principles which, in any govern. those who now refuse to make sacrifices ment, may be called truly conservative. for its object, will find themselves shorn There is, in fact, a measure of wickedness of their pride, and stripped of their in every calculation on this subject, which strength, in a way of which now, per. leaves this truth out of view. To affirm haps, they have no imagination whatever. that the nation has nothing to fear, just on the ground of its secondary advanta ges, while all the vigour of its moral health is seen to be giving way, is just an exhibition of the very feeling in which our peculiar danger is embodied; and it may be counted upon with absolute certainty, that if this temper shall prevail, God will confound our proud dreams, if it were only to punish us for so unreasona ble an impiety. In this respect, what has been, will be again, and the boasted light of the nineteenth century, with its endless forms of improvement, will be found just as little sufficient to contravene successfully the order of that government which God exercises over nations, as the dark ROMAN CATHOLIC MISSIONS IN THE WESTERN STATES. "You are too late with your efforts; we have got the West," was the exulting reply of a Catholic beyond the mountains, to a Protestant with whom he was con versing on the comparative influence of their respective religious systems upon the future history of this republic. Now, though we believe neither of the propositions of "this same confident boasting," though we are persuaded that they have - not yet 66 got the West," and that we are not "too late" to make a successful effort to save our precious institutions from their grasp, yet we are among the number of those who watch their movements with some degree of apprehension. Thus far, the increase of Romanisin in the United States has been chiefly by the influx of foreigners. The converts from Protestantism are by no means numerous, though the pains which have been taken by the Catholics to blazon every instance of the kind, and the fears of Protestants themselves, have greatly magnified this source of increase to the papal strength. Still, there is one view of the subject which renders it not improbable that this system may hereafter prevail, even among the present Protestant population of this country, or their children. Were popery presented at once before the American people, full grown, and showing its distinctive features without covering or em. bellishment, there is not the least doubt that the entire system would be rejected with horror. All the republicanism in the land would rise up at once to combat a set of principles which involve every species of despotism which go directly to rob men of the right to think for themselves, and transfer the sovereignty of the intel. lects and consciences of millions to a spiritual oligarchy. All the common sense of the nation would repudiate such absurdities as transubstantiation, absolution, &c. And all the piety of the Churches would revolt from the contact of a religion which virtually, if not in words, discards regeneration, and degrades the work of the Son of God, by maintaining the efficacy of good works. But Romanism does not at once develope itself. As it came into the Church at first "paulatim," by little and little, so now, in this country, it comes to us in the garb, and professing the sympathies of our common Christianity, and only lifting, here and there, a corner of the veil, and revealing its distinctive features by degrees. This gradual developement, we fear, will prepare a portion of our unsuspicious coun trymen for a gradual adoption of the sys. tem. Like something else, which the poet calls A monster of such frightful mien, Ag, to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then pity, then embrace." The following extracts from the New. York Observer, will afford something more than mere speculation for the minds of those who think this subject worthy of their attention. It has been repeatedly asserted in the religious papers, that large sums of money are annually contributed in Europe for the support of Catholic missionaries in this country; that there are societies es. tablished for the express purpose of build. ing up Popery in the United States of America, and that these societies are pa tronized not merely by the Pope, but by other despotic sovereigns, with the view, doubtless, of destroying the influence of our republic on the progress of liberal principles in the old world. It has been asserted that large sums have been raised by these societies, and remitted to Cincinnati, for the support of missionaries in the valley of the Mississippi. Many persons have been disposed to call in question the truth of these assertions; but we now have it in our power to support them by official documents. A gentleman who has recently returned from a tour in Europe, has put into our hands the annual reports of a Missionary Society established at Vienna, in 1829, under the name of "The Leopold Foundation for aiding Catholic Missions in America, by Contri. butions in the Austrian empire." These reports contain the constitution of the Society, and a regular history of its ope rations, embracing minute statements of the receipts and expenditures, and copious extracts from the letters of its missionaries in this country. We have translated the most interesting parts of these documents, and intend to lay them before our readers in successive numbers of the Ob |