ALL persons, assisted by the American Education Society, at any time during the period between October 1, 1826, and January 15, 1832, are entitled, as a gift of the late Mr. Cornelius, to a copy each, of the recent Boston edition of the Memoir of HENRY MARTYN. Such as have not received a copy, are requested to send, without delay, to the rooms of the Society, No. 52, Washington Street, Boston. AMERICAN QUARTERLY REGISTER. THIS work is published on the first days of August, November, February, and May. Each number will contain from 60 to 70 pages, and the whole volume, from 250 to 300. The work will be put at the low price of one dollar in advance. Agents are appointed in many of the large towns in the United States, to whom payments may be made. A list will be found below. Single subscribers are expected to make payment in advance. The Quarterly Register will be sent gratis, to all who give to the American Education Society $75 a year, or the amount of a temporary scholarship. LIST OF AGENTS. HARDY ROPES, Esq. GENERAL AGENT, No. 52, Washington Street, Boston. MAINE. Samuel S. Drake, Bangor Theol. Sem. Rev. George Shepard, Hollowell. E. P. Hawes, Belfast. Rev. Joseph Fuller, Kennebunk. Cyrus Hamlin, Brunswick. William Hyde, Portland. Rev. Wakefield Gale, Eastport Rev. Daniel Kendrick, Edgecomb. Rev. Charles S. Adams, Wells. Charles S. Buswell, Waterville College. NEW HAMPSHIRE. Walker & Stearns, Portsmouth. Samuel Morril, Esq. Concord. Rev. Moses Gerould, New Alstead. Edward A. Lawrence, Dartmouth College. Rev. Charles Walker, New Ipswich. Rev. Liba Conaut, Northfield. Rev. Bezaleel Smith, Rye. VERMONT. Chauncey Goodrich, Burlington. Rev. Joseph Tracy, Windsor, Stephen R. Wright, Middlebury College. John E. Roberts, Vergennes. Rev. Moses Kimball, Randolph. Rev. Jonathan McGee, Bruttieboro'. Benjamin Gould, University of Vermont. Erastus C. Spooner, Burr Seminary. MASSACHUSETTS. Whipple & Lawrence, Salem. Charles Whipple, Newburyport. John Whitney, Theol. Sem. Abner J. Phipps. Phillips Academy, Andurer. David S. Whitney, Northampton. Francis F. Seig, Theol. Institution, Newton. David Andrews, Amherst College. Henry Gallup, Williams College. Rev. Benjamin Woodbury, Falmouth. RHODE ISLAND. Leonard Bliss, Jr. Brown University. CONNECTICUT. F. J. Huntington, Hartford. James B. Thomson, Yale College. Samuel C. Starr, Norwich city. Rev. Chauncey Wilcox, North Greenwich, Rev. Zolva Whitmore, North Guilford. Jolin W. Merrill, Wesleyan University. NEW YORK. Oliver Willcox, Esq. Rooms of Pres. Ed. Society, 159, Nassau Street, New York city. L. B. Scott, Albany. Samuel B. Willis, Union College. Rev. Edwards A. Beach, Stephentown. Robert Wesson, Troy. Edward Vernon, Utica. A. C. Hall, Theol. Sem. Auburn. Isaac J. Rice, Hamilton College. A. Gaston, Oneida Institute. NEW JERSEY. Charles C. Corss, Theological Seminary, Princeton, PENNSYLVANIA. Benjamin Wells, Philadelphia. VIRGINIA. Rev. A. Converse, Richmond. Benjamin M. Smith, Union Theol. Seminary. TENNESSEE. Rev. Duncan Brown, D. D., Columbia P. O. Maury Co. Rev. Darius Hoyt, Theological Seminary, Maryrille. KENTUCKY. Rev. O. S. Hinckley, Lexington. Joseph Rucker, P. M., Augusta. OHIO. Rev. John Spaulding, Cincinnati. Rev. A. Pomeroy, Gallipolis. Rev. A. R. Clark, Hudson. ILLINOIS. Rev. John M. Ellis, Jacksonville. FORM OF A BEQUEST. ITEM. I do hereby give and bequeath to the American Education Society, the sum of dollars, to be paid within months after my decease, and to be applied to the uses and purposes of that Society. One hundred dollars are required for the Life membership of a layman, and forty dollars for the Life membership of a clergyman. Sec'y and Agent of the Utica Agency of Mr. JESSE DɔOLITI LF, Treasurer of do. Western Education Society. Rev. WILLIAM PATTON, Cor. Sec'ry of the JAMES S. SEYMOUR, Esq. Treasurer of do. Auburn, N. Y. Rev. ANSEL R. CLARK, Hudson, Ohio, Sec'ry Dea. ASABEL KILBORN, Hudson, Treas'r. Rev. TILLY H. BROWN, Tr. for the Southern Rev. JULIAN M. STURTEVANT, Secretary of the Illinois Branch, Jacksonville. Mr. JAMES G. EDWARDS, Treasurer of do. Jacksonville. Illinois. Rev. JOHN W. BEECHER, Secretary East Ten- Rev. ISAAC ANDERSON, D. D). Treasurer do. Dr. ALEXANDER HUTCHINSON, Treasurer do. Mr. J. T. SOUTHMAYD, Tr. New Orleans. ANNUAL CONCERT OF PRAYER FOR COLLEGES. THE time for the Annual Concert of and New Hampshire; and the General Prayer on behalf of our Colleges is near Convention of Ministers in Vermont; and at hand. It is hoped that this season of the General Conference of Churches in supplication for God's blessing will be re- Maine. membered by all the friends of Zion, and that while they are yet speaking, God will hear. At the last Annual Meeting of the THE RESPONSIBLENESS OF THE CHURCH, American Education Society, the following resolutions were passed: "Whereas the dependence of the Christian Ministry upon the Great Head of the church is entire and constant, and his blessing absolutely necessary to its success; and whereas the last Thursday of February has been annually set apart, by many of the friends of the Redeemer, as a season of united prayer, for a blessing on the young men, in a course of education at our colleges and academies therefore, "Resolved, That it be earnestly recommended to all the young men, under the patronage of this Society, to observe the last Thursday of February, as a day of fasting and prayer, with special reference to the more copious effusions of the Holy Spirit on our literary institutions; that the young men who resort thither for an education, may be sanctified, and led to consecrate themselves to the work of the ministry. IN RESPECT TO THE CONVERSION OF An Address to Christians, in reference to the ap- Written at the request of the Revival Association in the Theological Seminary, Andover. By the Rev. Dr. Skinner, THE approach of the day devoted annually to prayer for the colleges of our land, cannot fail to excite deep concern, as to the manner of its observance this year, in every spiritually minded person who considers the present exigencies of the church, and the purpose for which such a day has been gospel among mankind have been steadily consecrated. Exertions for extending the increasing for more than thirty years; but the conversion of the world still lingers, and the souls of men at the rate of twenty millions a year, pass to their eternal doom without the knowledge of a Saviour. To resolve this appalling fact into the sovereignty of God, no more exempts Christians from responsibility for it, than the same short way of explaining all the miseries of time and eternity, exculpates those accountable agents whose voluntary conduct is the procuring cause of those infinite evils. God governs his moral kingdoin, not by direct interpositions or isolated acts of power, but by fixed principles or rules of conduct, obedience or disobedience to which is optional to the subjects of his empire, and the consequences of obeying or disobeying which, are not ordinarily precluded, by deviation from his stated mode of administration. Hence impenitent transgressors Resolutions recommending the observ-eat of the fruit of their own way;" and ance of this Concert of Prayer have since been passed by the General Associations of Ministers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, VOL. VI. "Resolved, That the churches of Christ, and all the friends of this Society and of the Redeemer, be affectionately requested to observe this Annual Concert of Prayer." hence also, the just results of negligence and unfaithfulness on the part of Christians, however disastrous, usually come to pass. When men, by refusing to observe the un F changeable ordinances of infinite wisdom plunging in the sea, as doubt the goodness and goodness, bring ruin upon themselves of God's moral enactments, or hope to avert or others, what propriety or relief is there the penalty of resisting them. in referring the natural effects of their inexcusable disregard of duty, to the sovereign pleasure of God? Not that we are required to be submissive, even in such high cases, to mere arbitrary power. "We are not to think," says Howe, the matter determined as it is, in all such cases, by mere will and pleasure, without a reason; which were an imagination altogether unworthy the supreme wisdom: but that there are reasons of mighty force and weight, or certain congruities, in the natures of things themselves, obvious to the divine understanding, which do either wholly escape ours, or whereof we have but very shallow, dark, conjectural apprehensions; as he that saw men as trees, or as some creatures of very acute sight perceive what to us seems invisible. And yet these occult and hidden reasons and congruities have been the foundation of constitutions and laws that hold things more steadily than adamantine bands, and are of more stability than the foundations of heaven and earth." The submission demanded is but an exercise of confidence in infinite wisdom and goodness. When on a certain Christians have not been ignorant of God's arrangement for converting the world. They have known that the settled plan of Heaven respecting this great work, demands, that the knowledge of the gospel be universally diffused, that it be diffused by preaching, and that preachers are eminently the gift of God, and arc to be obtained from him by prayer. That these are fixed principles of the divine government in reference to this matter, is as well known in the Christian church, as any doctrine or precept of Christianity. Such has been, such is, and such will be the divine order in this case. God is a rock; his work is perfect. He does not revoke, he does not relinquish what he has once announced as his established rule of operations, in any department of his dominion. Christians know that his plan for evangelizing the world, requires them to seek the needed supply of preachers by prayer; they know, and they have most imperfectly fulfilled what it requires at their hands. The natural consequences of their neglect have not been hindered. For almost eighteen hundred years, mankind have been going without holiness, and of course, without hope, to eternity, at an average of not less than twenty millions a year. Only the mind that fills eternity, comprehends the evil involved in such a result; yet the tre mendous result has followed, and will continue to follow, while Christians refrain from falling in with the divine arrangement. It cannot but be, that God regards this immense evil, with just such emotions as perfect knowledge of it, is adapted to produce in a perfectly benevolent mind; but still, in infinite goodness, he permits it, since worse than even this evil, would be any deviation from the order, which with his eye open upon all the secrets of futurity, he thought proper to adopt. This is not a subject for speculation, it is no more to be disputed than that God is a truly benevolent being As well call in question the reality of the past or the present, as this affirmation. It is the affirmation of a fact, and a fact which to every Christian should be a principle of future life. We ought not stand wondering why God has adopted such a plan, or scrutinizing into the secret reasons of the divine determination, or giving heed to any suggestion of an evil heart of unbelief; but take to ourselves the reproach of past delin-vest, be said, is plenteous, but the laborers quency, and coincide forthwith and forever, with the unchangeable counsel and purpose of the Most High. As soon should we attempt to arrest the course of nature, or contend with the elements, or evade the consequences of rushing into the fire, or We are most impressively instructed as to our duty in this matter, by a passage in the life of our Saviour. occasion he lifted up his eyes on the multitudes around him, it is said, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. The compassion of Him who came down from heaven to die for a lost world, was not a feeble principle, and it was not now without its appropriate manifestations. Yet what steps did he take for the relief of perishing men, destitute of all means of salvation? He could easily have supplied the requisite means, by a direct exertion of almighty power. He, at whose bidding the worlds arose out of nothing, could have done this; but an arrangement respecting all such cases, had been adopted by the divine will, and his compassion, though large and mighty as his infinite mind, was in absolute subserviency to that arrangement. He would not indulge that compassion, by departing from the divinely appointed way of obtaining the means of grace. He could have died for these multitudes; he did in fact die for them, but though for their sakes he did not count his life dear to himself, he would not violate the order of God's moral kingdom. turned to his disciples, and devolved upon them the responsibility of procuring by their prayers, what the exigencies of these men and of countless thousands in no better condition, so urgently required: The har He are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest. And this, it should be remembered, was but one exemplification of a principle which uniformly controlled the conduct of our |