and may not improbably revolutionize and bring them to Christ. We know not how things will terminate; but so far as we can now understand the designs of Providence, God seems about, in the striking language of the number of the "Home Missionary" for January, TO MOVE FORWARD CHRISTENDOM ITSELF, and set it down over against pagan Asia, face to face, at the nearest point, where no pathless desert, or other obstacle shall intervene."

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Much will depend, not only as respects the prospects of our own country, but those of the Asiatic world, on the character of the new states soon to be formed on our western shores. If these should be made up chiefly from the refuse of our own land, and the off-scourings of Europe, it might be better for us and mankind if California had been submerged beneath the ocean, before the battle of Buena Vista, than to have become connected with our Union. But if the new commonwealths should be so pervaded with the Puritan spirit, that Christian churches and schools shall be everywhere established, and cherished as essential to prosperity, and the open Bible be received as the Magna Charta of freedom and happiness among them, the millennial ages will bless God for his mighty works performed among us.

It is a pleasing feature in the California emigration, that so many of the vessels which have sailed from our Atlantic cities, have gone forth, recognizing great Christian principles as the basis of their prosperity. Among the thousands who are spreading themselves over the regions of gold, while there are many reckless adventurers, who were a moral nuisance at home, and may probably find the grave of the dissipated abroad, a fair proportion are supposed to be temperate, intelligent, and friends of good order, while some are members of our churches, and esteemed as young men of piety among us. We have been pleased and encouraged by the readiness with which many of these mining companies have entered into moral compacts with each other, and have sought to go forth under religious influences. Some have spared no pains to obtain good men who should act as chaplains on their long voyage, and preserve the sacred institutions of home. Many companies have solicited public addresses from our clergymen, and have also requested the prayers of Christian congregations with them and in their

behalf, on the eve of their setting forth for the opposite shores of our continent.

The Bible and the Tract societies deserve commendation for the spirit of enterprise and liberality with which they have supplied these adventurers with religious reading for their voyage; and the Home Missionary Society, for the means they have taken to begin the work of building up Christ's kingdom in that distant land.

The older states of our Union have great duties providentially assigned them, in reference to the territories newly acquired. They are henceforth to be part of ourselves. Involved in our destiny, we must prosper or perish together. What we do for that portion of our country which borders on the Pacific, must be commenced soon. A few years hence will be too late. We have long felt as if the work of christianizing the West was too mighty for us. But every year it increases on our hands. Providence delays not, out of consideration to our fears, our parsimony, our indisposition for severe labor, or our want of faith. One field after another is thrown open to us. God seems to say: Go in, and possess the land!

We need more of a self-sacrificing spirit. There must be more prayer to God, and larger conceptions of the grandeur of the Christian enterprise, and the importance of engaging in it with all the heart, and especially as concerns our own country, with the least possible delay. A year is now a century. Blessed are they who shall be found on trial equal to the great duties of their mission. Should we prove unfaithful, the prospects of the world, though darkened for a time, will not remain clouded forever. A bright day is coming. This is as certain as the promises of God. But if we dread and refuse the work assigned, a future generation, another race, may have the glory now offered to us. The words of Mordecai to Esther, may be applied to Christian America: "If thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there enlargement and deliverance arise from another place; but thou, and thy father's house, shall be destroyed: and who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this?"

THE REVIVAL OF RELIGION.

THERE are, at present, many indications in this city, of an unusual increase of religious feeling. It has not, however, reached that stage which we have been accustomed to designate as a revival of religion. There is still wanting, for instance, that feature of the special agency of the Spirit, which the Saviour placed first in the order of his influences: "When he is come, he will convince the world of sin!" We, indeed, hear men speaking of the importance of religion, and of increased attention to our spiritual interests. But we do not hear of men " pricked in their heart," as in the day of Pentecost, and crying out, each for himself: "Men and brethren, what must I do to be saved?" It is well, so far as it goes. But we must not regard this as constituting that high form of social blessings, for which our country has at times been distinguished.

In Isaiah's description of an approaching period of judgment upon his guilty nation, he makes this declaration: "The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down; and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day." This description contains a principle which lies at the foundation. of all God's works of mercy and of judgment. The dispute with man has chiefly been on this point, as to exaltation of the creature. Pride is the master-sin which God chiefly brands with the marks of his disapprobation; but which man chiefly cherishes, and least censures, especially in its manifestations toward God. Indifference to the glory of Jehovah, contempt of his Word, unwillingness to admit his testimony concerning our character, and reluctance to feel our littleness, intellectually, essentially, and morally, before Him, constitute the crimes of the most refined and exalted men. and nations generally.

Many commend the Sermon on the Mount, and its Preacher, who would resist to the death its first benediction if put in the form of a precept. They profess to be willing to learn of him, but shrink from all that shews him to be "meek and lowly in heart." The Creator of men requires of us, as his right, a lowly reverence, which is not servile, but profound. "If I be a Father, where is my honor; and if I be a Master, where is my fear?" "For I am a great King, saith the Lord of hosts, and my name is dreadful

among the heathen." Nor has he reference only to his own rights, in this requirement. The perfection of human character and human society demands that humility, and that desire to give all glory and honor to the Most High, which He exacts. You say that a man is very defective, physically, who cannot distinguish colors or sounds. You require a sensibility to the beauties of nature and art in a perfect being; how much more, then, a sensibility which can feel the claims of moral worth to our esteem and respect; of station to our homage; of authority to our obedience! A child is deeply defective in character, who lacks these elements. No learning, no smartness, no accomplishments, can atone for the want of them. The father must be duly honored by the child, according to his parental relation, and his personal worth. And when that amounts to Infinity, there is no limit to the claim upon our homage, and the exaltation we should render, except that of our finite capacity. A family is in confusion where filial respect is wanting. Meekness, courtesy, reverence, confidence, love, the preferring one another in honor; these are the silent forces which gently balance the conflicting tendencies in a happy household, and sweetly guide the harmonious action of that little empire.

God will therefore be exalted by his creatures. And it will be either by judgment or mercy. In the days of Noah, the impiety of man had become bold, and defied the wrath of God. But the Lord was exalted by awful and righteous power in that dreadful day, in which he opened the windows of heaven, and sent the swelling billows to hunt out every rebel, and dash his greatness and his stoutness to the earth. Our globe hung darkling in the mid-heaven. The Lord had arisen in his wrath, to smite the earth. It was a day of judgment, of power, and of fierce indignation. The only man whose family was saved in that day, was an humble man, who feared God, believed him, and prepared an ark to the saving of his house. The Lord, and He alone, was exalted in that day. There were no more any found to set their mouth against the heavens. The loftiness of man was brought low. Almighty power then appeared, where every good being would ever see it, on the side of holiness. And there it is ever found, God ruling in might and in right. The precept of his law exhibits him ruling in righteousness. The penalty enforced exhibits him ruling in power. Acknowledge his right with your whole heart and life,

and God is at peace with you. Deny it, challenge him to maintain his claims, refuse to exalt him in the day of mercy; and he will be exalted in the day of wrath. Build your nest in Carmel, and he will bring you down from thence. Erect your tower to the heavens, to mock the fury of his roaring waves, if he should send them to chastise you, and he will write upon it, Babel; Pride's folly!

But God is now carrying forward the work of mercy, to which those works of judgment are to be but necessary interruptions, until the great day of judgment. And it is God's delight to gain the willing homage of his creatures. He is thus celebrated on one occasion: "Thou hast taken away all thy wrath; thou hast turned thyself from the fierceness of thine anger. Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

Now we conceive of a revival of religion as distinguished preeminently by this feature: "The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the Lord shall be exalted in that day." They that have been honoring idols of any kind will abandon them; they that have exalted reason, genius, wealth, political sagacity, military power, the popular will, forms of religion, ecclesiastical power, and they that have exalted themselves, will be brought low in their own estimation; and these, their idols, will be abased. All classes will" cease from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" They will exalt the Father, as the God of an infinite majesty, as the Sovereign ruler of the universe, as "having mercy on whom He will have mercy," as "doing what He will with His own." They will honor the Son as Head over all things to his church, as God manifest in the flesh, as the Saviour able to save unto the uttermost all who come unto him, and whose blood cleanseth from all sin. They will honor the Holy Spirit as the promised Comforter, who renews the heart in the image of God.

A genuine revival of religion as a season of special divine interposition and mercy, will be that day, in which the Lord alone. will be exalted. There will be, so far as the revival extends, no denial of the corruption of the human heart, of its pride and ungodliness, and no denial that we are "all by nature children of wrath." There will be a total renouncing of all dependence upon man's unaided power. It will be a season of deep and solemn 12*

VOL. III.