our folly and re-adopt, than to march vainly on, bent only on discoveries in the unexplored future. We would, for ourselves, rather enlist under the banners of truth, than under those of universal reform.

Let it not be imagined, because we speak thus, that we observe and acknowledge no defects, confess no apparent impotence in present institutions; feel no disappointment, that the world grows wiser and better no faster, or believe that the Sabbath, and the ministry, and the Church, are all fulfilling, without failure, their several ends. We think and believe no such thing. But what then? Is destruction the most secure road to larger possessions? For some single defect in an instrument, otherwise of admirable use, shall we throw it aside as worthless? The dwelling that has long sheltered and defended us, and which seems ample, and beautiful, and strong, save some few fissures and blemishes time and neglect have inflicted, shall we repair and adorn it, or pull it suddenly down, and that too in such haste as to endanger our burial in the ruins? Why should the people be called together, not, indeed, formally to vote down the Sabbath, but to fill their minds with suspicion and disaffection, to plant jealousies, and hatred, and fears? Were it not better, if these reformers are sincere in their purposes of human improvement, to have cast diligently about, each in his own private sphere, to see how he might turn the Sabbath to a better account, and make it serve, as he thinks it ought, a higher end, and then, when he had made some useful discovery, have called the world together to rejoice with him, and partake the benefit? The united wisdom of these twenty-four men and women will find it difficult, upon discarding the Sabbath, to imagine an institution that shall offer nobler opportunities to the Christian and the philanthropist to carry into effect any moral or spiritual design he may wish for the good of man. The very thing that they would now vote out, that very thing, if their hearts are where we think they are, would they vote in again as soon as the loss was felt. Let them now employ their ingenuity, not in magnifying its imperfections, but in devising new ways of using it aright, and society will improve by the process, as fast as it seems to be the design of Providence it should.

Of the ministry we say, as of the Sabbath, it would not be easy, if we once got rid of it, to devise an institution that would serve as well the best interests of humanity, with as few liabilities to abuse, with as many facilities of a fair, and manly, and wholesome influence upon human character and conduct. Yet, great complaints are heard from our reformers of it. Of the actual working of the institution, of the way in which it is used,

complaints may be made with reason; but of the institution itself, with not a grain. It is better than the men, who complain of it. The institution is good enough for the men, the men are not equal to the demands of the institution. It is a larger and more powerful instrument than they, many of them, have strength to wield, which is the reason they fail in its service. They often mistake their own weaknesses for those of the institution. This, we doubt not, is the truth in the case. The difficulty lies deeper than any imperfections or superstitions clinging to men's notions of the ministry and its foundations. Preachers are inefficacious not because they preach in churches, from a wooden box called a pulpit, or because the people sit in pews, and pay for them; not because the ministry is in some sort* dependent on the people; not because of any forms observed by this church, or neglected by another; not through any restraint laid on the preacher's utterance, as if he might not say anything of real advantage to the souls of his hearers; but because the genuine spirit of their office is not in themselves, a spirit of living piety, of simple-hearted dovotion to men's spiritual interests, of renunciation of the world and self. As soon as a minister appears of this character, his labors are effectual, and the institution answers its end. He does not convert the world in a day, nor can he make saints of devils. It was never meant he should; but virtue and piety flourish under his word, in the degree that is natural and human; in the degree that may with reason satisfy the most conscientious and sensitive mind.

We shall sincerely regret the circumstance if this convention ever sit again, for we can imagine no effects but injurious ones ever to follow from their labors. That they have succeeded in alienating many minds from the services of the Sabbath, and from the institution itself, we hear often asserted in conversation. What substitute they have offered to their disciples, as means of promoting personal religion, we have never heard. Their designs may be philanthropic; but we fear they have nothing so good to propose, as what they would deprive us of; no balm so healing, as shall even cure the wounds they have inflicted, much less infuse a health unknown before.

* See "On the Independence of the Clergy" some late editorial articles of great ability in the Christian Register.

Selections from the American Poets. By WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. New York: Harper & Brothers. 12mo. pp. 316. 1840.

To no one would the public more willingly confide the task of making a selection from the American Poets, than to Mr. Bryant. A taste and discernment like his were especially needed for the kind of selections he has undertaken, which is a gleaning over the whole field of our poetry, from that, which is to be found in well bound volumes, to what lies broadcast in magazines and newspapers. The present volume is made up of pieces from seventyeight authors. A collection from a few writers of acknowledged excellence and general fame were a much easier labor. We are particularly pleased with the course he has adopted. Another volume is promised, should the present be well received. We are sorry that anything from Mr. Bryant's hand should through the press of the Harpers, whose distinction it is to issue the poorest looking books of the whole trade. There is a compensation in their cheapness, we suppose, with which we ought to rest satisfied. We noticed one or two errors of names; W. O. P. for W. B. O. Peabody; Elizabeth, for Louisa J. Park.

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Living for Immortality; delineating the evident Indications of Moral Character, pertaining to the Future State. Being an Introductory Essay to Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul. By JOHN FOSTER; Author of Decision of Character. Boston: James Loring. 12mo. pp 216. 1840.

ANOTHER valuable work of this author, from the press of James Loring. The learned and elaborate elegance of Foster, although not calculated for popular reading, will prove effective with a different class, who would turn away offended from Doddridge, and even from Fenelon. This book has its place, and an important one, too, in a library of practical divinity. It matters little what the sectarian faith of a writer is, whose religion is warm and earnest as Foster's.

ERRATUM.

P. 311, nineteenth line from top, for course read cause.

INDEX.