"Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature"and whatever discouragements and difficulties may lie in her way, her only language is not the plaintive language of the Prophet, "Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed." God has given efficacy to his truth, and has added success to the efforts of his people. The year which has just passed away, and the events which it has been our happiness to behold and contemplate, has been a year of blessing.-Many of the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially in our own highly favored country, have been visited with precious seasons of refreshing from the store. house of heaven. The saints of God have been revived and quickened, and many sinners, from the child of ten years of age to the man of threescore years and ten, have had a new song put into their hearts. A deep and tender solicitude in view of the temporal and eternal interests of men has been awakened The Church has received a new impulse, and has, more fully than in former years, come up to the standard of her duty. Christians are praying, and sinners are pressing into the kingdom of God. And when Christians pray, and when the sensibilities of the Church are stirred up within her, is it strange that sinners should be converted? "When Zion travails she brings forth children." "The time to favor Zion is come, for thy servants take pleasure in her stones and favor the dust thereof." Many, and extensive, and powerful are the revivals of religion with which the great Head of the Church has watered and beautified his spiritual heritage. Glad tidings have saluted our ears, flowing in like so many refreshing streams from every direction. Our cities, our villages, our country population, our literary institutions, our Sabbath Schools, our Bible classes, the cottages of the poor and the palaces of the rich, all have participated in the gracious life-giving influences of the Holy Ghost, and even upon our canvass that whitens the bosom of the great deep, begins to be written "holiness unto the Lord." And while Jesus Christ has thus in great mercy visited his people and poured down salvation, that department of his kingdom which has been committed to our trust, has not been forgotten of him.-While a number of our churches have been more eminently favored, there has, we trust, a redeeming spirit from the lethargy of former years, gone abroad throughout the length and breath of our Zion. The churches which have been more particularly distinguished and blessed in the recent visitations of divine grace, are-the church in Franklin street, the church in Broome street, the Collegiate Church, the Greenwich church, the South Church, and the Church in Market street, in the city of New York-the churches of Brooklyn, Flatlands, New Lots, Jamaica and Williamsburgh, in the Classis of Long Island -the first and second churches of Philadelphia, and the church of Harlingen, in the Classis of Philadelphia-the church of Poughkeepsie, in the Classis of Poughkeepsie-the churches of Nassau, Schodac, and Catskill, in the Classis of Rensselaer-the church of Washington and Gibbonsville, in the Classis of Albany-the church of Union Village and Scaghticoke, in the Classis of Washington— the church of Canajoharie, in the Classis of Montgomery-and the churches of Lodi, Chittenango, Utica, Ithica, and Farmersville, in the Classis of Cayuga. In several, if not in all of these churches, and in others not here enumerated, it is believed there is now a work of divine grace in progress the issue of which may yet gladden the city of God. Since the statistical reports of the several Classes have been submitted, the most cheering intelligence has been received from various sections of the church. In some of our congregations many have been recently received, and in others the prospects of accessions are such as to promise a large increase. And while with gratitude and praise we make mention of the goodness of God, and of the favorable indications of his providence, be it our fervent and united prayer, that the truth of God may have free course and be glorified among us, that the hope of Israel may be unto us not as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night, but that he may take up his dwelling in the midst of our churches, and that his Holy Spirit may be poured out, until revival of religion shall meet revival of religion, and until the song of redemption shall be heard throughout our borders, from one extremity of our Zion unto the other ;and we would exhort ourselves, our Christian brethren and friends, and the Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, over whose interests we are called to watch with an untiring solicitude, not to deny the work of God's grace, nor even for a moment to call in question the reality and the divine origin of those revivals of religion which have spread over our land, lest we should grieve and strive against the Holy Ghost, and bring upon ourselves and upon our churches and congregations, the frowns of divine displeasure, and the withering influence of his avenging Providence. It has been pleasing to learn that in the late revivals of religion in our land, and within the bounds of our own church, an unusual number of men have been gathered in-prominent men, men of wealth, of character, of high standing; and therefore likely to exert, and to a more than ordinary extent, a most happy influence upon the moral and religious interests of the church, and of the whole community. Among the connexions in which, and the means by which, revivals of religion have occurred and have been promoted in our own church and in sister churches, and which God seems to have marked in his Providence, we would mention particularly the plain, simple, searching; zealous presentment of divine truth in the preaching of the gospel; the establishing and conducting of Sabbath Schools and Bible Classes; the observance of days of fasting, humiliation, and prayer, for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost; the formation of Temperance societies; daily meetings for united prayer at an early hour of the day; and public religious exercises continued throughout several successive days, by a convocation of ministers, aided by the prayers and co-operation of the officers and members of our churches. It is mentioned emphatically in the report of the Classis of New York, on the state of religion, that, "in a goodly number of their churches, meetings held at an early hour in the morning have proved very refreshing to the people of God."-These and similar prayer meetings must have a happy tendency: they are stated---they are frequent; they unite the sensibilities, the sympathies, the faith, and the best desires of the Church, in one undivided and strong expression of feeling before the mercy seat, and they are likely to prevail with God. In reference to the cause of Temperance, we feel as if we could not speak in terms too decided, nor with a zeal that is too great. It is a cause which God has prospered-which he has very prominently held up to the view of the philanthropist and the the Christian, and upon which he seems to have set the broad deep seal of his co-operating and approving Providence. We rejoice to hear that so much has been done to give direction and energy to public feeling in this cause throughout our country, and throughout the church which we represent. Like him who came to prepare the way of the Lord, temperance efforts, and the establishment of temperance associations, have come laden in themselves with a thousand joyshave ushered in revivals of religion, and in many, very many instances, have proved the harbingers of a thousand blessings, which have gladdened the city of God; which have soothed the pains and dried the tears of a thousand sorrows; and which shall fill heaven itself with songs of everlasting gratitude and praise. It is believed that the great benevolent institutions of the day in which we live, and which are calling forth the pecuniary resources of the Church, are receiving an increased attention and support among us, in view of their bearing both upon the interests of our own church, and upon the more extended advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom in the world. We have reason to rejoice when the sentiment obtains deeper root, and becomes more powerful and operative, that it is the duty and the privilege of the Christian community, to give their service in the consecration of their property unto the Lord; believing at the same time that those who give, and who give most liberally, and who give in the spirit of the gospel, shall not lose their reward. And now in conclusion, we would say to ourselves, to our brethren, to the churches under our care,-go onward, in unity, in peace, in the exercise of that charity which seeketh not her own, which is not easily provoked, which thinketh no evil, and which rejoiceth in the truth; each esteeming others better than himself, keeping the heart with all diligence, fully sensible that the increase is of God. The field to be possessed and cultivated is large; much remains to be done; the night cometh when no man can work; time is short, eternity is at hand; immortal interests are depending.—Go onward, employing every system of means which the Bible warrants, and which is adapted to promote the salvation of souls, and the important interests of the Redeemer's kingdom, increasing as you go, always abounding in the work of the Lord; and in due season you shall reap if you faint not. By order of the Committee, R. BRONK, Chairman. |