O! thou SPIRIT of the Living God, help me as I write and thy people as they read. Come from the four winds, O Breath of Everlasting Life, and breathe upon us slain ones, that we may live! Behold, O Lord of heavenly hosts, a poor company of earthly worms fairly gasping for life! Thy SPIRIT is vital breath: we are ready to die if thy SPIRIT breathe upon us not. Pity thine own redeemed offspring, thou Father of all mercies. Take from us, keep from us, all thou wilt and what thou wilt; but oh! withhold not from us thine own SPIRIT, the breath of love divine. Oh! would to God that the Church of God would wake up to the greatness of the things around her; then would peace be within her and plenty around her. But I forbear lamentations, though our present divisions are worthy of the tears of Angels. Let me to my work, which is the work of God.

From the veriest depths of my soul, and with a pen dipped, as it were, in the blood of the love of Jesus, I this day begin an appeal, an EARNEST appeal, to all that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, wherever they may be found, and without reference to age or sect or party, for the immediate foundation, in the densest and vilest part of the City of NEW YORK, of an institution to be known as "THE COLLEGIATE MISSION OF SAINT AUGUSTINE;" the only end and object of which shall [3/4] be, the bringing of the glorious Gospel of the love of Jesus home, to the hearts and houses of the poor wandering prodigals of that City.

The need of such a Collegiate Mission is found and felt in the wants of the age and necessities of the times. That there has been of late years a universal spiritual awakening, taking its place as a necessary reaction from the lamentable spiritual lethargy pervading and permeating every vein of many preceding years, no reading or truly spiritual man can doubt. "If it was startling," as that great and good man ARNOLD wrote some ten years ago, "to see how quietly opposite opinions lie, side by side, so long. as neither are keenly entertained," how much more startling is it not become, when both are felt as deep and real convictions? Men begin to feel their "principles" now, and to act on them. This at once sheds light upon this great move for the foundation of St. Augustine's Collegiate Mission. We all know how frequently we can ourselves, and how constantly we are hearing others, go prosing on in a sort of personal religious cant or slang, which is as easily learnt as other technical jargon. But the true GOSPEL FAITH is put of God into the hearts of men, broken first and rendered contrite; and is manifested by action and not by talking. It acts upon the mind as light upon the eye. Sight is lively faith, for to every true believer even now, as to Saint Stephen of old, is JESUS manifested in the skies. We act therefore as if we really saw the unseen realities of the WORLD TO COME. Our minds are now awakened to the greatness of things around us. We no longer look at passing things as the mere intellectual or moral men around us do. Our eyes are on heavenly things, while our feet are on [4/5] earthly. "We stand," as Gregory Nazianum says the primitive Christians did, "on tiptoe on the earth." We live like men of another world. We are "strangers and pilgrims" in this. We hang upon it but by the slender thread of natural necessity, desiring to have as little to do with it as possible. As Clement of Alexandria says, we are divorced and sequestered from all earthly interests. The "same mind" is in us as is in the "great cloud" of unseen witnesses about us in the ambient air we breathe. No longer do we look at the things seen which are but temporal, but our "eyes are opened" to things unseen which are eternal. We walk by faith and not by sight. Men about us shout out" fanatics" or "enthusiasts," or they ask with their compeers of old, What will this babbler say?" or they will say, "Thou hast a devil and art mad," or else will mutter the expressive argument of "hair-brained, religious fanatics." But what is this to us? Is it not our glory and mark of apostleship? Has not the Master forewarned us that men of this WORLD will hate us, and speak all manner of evil of us falsely, for his sake in whose words we believe? Do we not rejoice at being worthy to suffer shame for his name? Albeit is there anything, as HOOKER asks, more burdens one than the silent contempt of well-informed, respectable, though lukewarm Christians? Constrained and fired with the love of Jesus "who died for me;" me, a filthy, feeble, and unworthy mortal who has sinned most deeply and most foully, and zealously burning with that love of souls which permeated every vein of the breasts of XAVIER and MARTYN, and BRAINERD and SCHWARTZ, I do not count my life dear unto me, much less my reputation or my comfort. SAINT PAUL before me has [5/6] given up fortune, friends, reputation, relations, wife, family, and literature. Thousands after him have walked the slippery path of a Missionary of the Cross of Christ, and hundreds of noble MORAVIAN Missionaries are walking that most pleasant of paths even now. Surrounded by such a cloud of witnesses then, some of whom are waving me on from their mansions of rest and of peace in the skies above; looking upon their labors, and greedily covetous of their pleasures; who will sink back into inglorious ease and conservative comfort? Blessed Jesus! I thank thee from my inmost heart that thou hast called me to this state of grace, and I pray unto God that I may continue in the same unto my life's end. We read of some martyrs that they have endured great sufferings without any sensible feeling of their pains. Thus Mr. BAINAM, an English martyr, when the flames were creeping around him, cried out, "Yon Papists talk of miracles,,! Behold here is a miracle, for I feel no more pain than if I were in a bed of down." Surely his strength was not the strength of stones, nor his flesh as brass, that he should not feel the smartness of fires; he was so much in heaven that he endured those pains as being without pains. LAWRENCE, when on the Pagan grid-iron, cried out with glee, "This side is roasted enough; turn, now turn the other." MARCUS of Methusa, stung to death in a basket by bees, looked down upon the poor creatures below, saying, "I am advanced, despising you beneath." And when we thus read of weak, feeble sinners, defying their torments, conquering in their agonies; when we hear them expressing the greatest joy in the midst of their greatest torments; singing in prison, as PAUL and SILAS did; kissing the stake, as [6/7] HENRY VOES did; clapping their half-consumed hands, as HANSES did; blessing God that they were born to see that day, as JOHN NOYES did; calling their burning day their wedding day, as our BISHOP RIDLEY did; we cannot but think there was something more than ordinary that thus did raise their spirits. And who shall say me nay that it was the love of Jesus planted in their hearts by the SPIRIT of the living God? Doubtless they had an eye to the "recompense of reward," and the consideration of that "eternal weight of glory" to which their persecutors were sending them, from spite and ulcerated hatred, so ravished their hearts that no earthly thing could trouble them. TERTULLIAN well remarks, that "the foot feeleth nothing on earth, when the mind is firmly set on heaven;" and as this sweetens sufferings, so also all other earthly troubles to which the private Christians, even in my own parish, are subject. SAINT JEROME thus comforted the hermit that was sad with his being alone in the wilderness:--"Think of Heaven, and then thou wilt not feel thyself in a desert." Saint Chrysostome, when speaking of wicked men (whom he calls the "devil's hacks") going through thick and thin, through fair weather and through foul--stick at nothing the devil puts them on--says, that if we would in like manner be "willing" both to do and suffer what God would have us, no trouble would appear grievous, no state and condition of life seem amiss. This then is the "motive" of my present "earnest plea" for the Collegiate Mission of St, Augustine in New York. God, who looks at my heart as my eyes are set on this paper, knoweth that I lie not. Let the whole world go whither it will, I am resolved to walk in the steps my Saviour trod before me. He [7/8] went about the "streets" of Jerusalem "doing good;" and I would only be at the same errand in New York. Let this man mind his profit, a second his pleasures, a third his honors, a fourth himself, and all their sins: I am resolved to mind and serve my God, so as to make him the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last of my whole life. With SAINT PAUL I can say, I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ.

The following extract from a late number of the dissenting paper called the Independent--alas truly too "independent" as we all are of the spirit and power of the Gospel and Church of God--speaks forcibly for the necessity of our Collegiate Mission of St. Augustine. After condemning and shewing the absurdity of the present general move for "street preaching," the writer goes on to observe as follows:

"In order to accomplish the true end in view--the successful proclamation of the Gospel to the poor--provision must be made, we are more satisfied of it every day, to plant at the outset the INSTITUTIONS of the Gospel, the Church and the Ministry, in the very midst of the localities most marked by destitution. The wealthier churches must erect a plain building, connecting with it a room, &c. They must put in that building a man, and support him there." And what is this "man" to do? Why he is "to preach in a plain and earnest manner." Oh meagre charity of you more "wealthier" independent churches! The love of Christ is actually going to "constrain" you to hire "a man" to preach "in an earnest manner" to one hundred thousand besotted and worldly poor ones! And "they must," continues this loving disciple who edits the paper in question, "expect to pay the whole expense of [8/9] the movement from the first, while yet a small contribution may be taken from those who worship in the building." Oh what a picture of the coldness, the charity, the freezing liberality of the wealthier churches of the nineteenth century! See, O Tertullian, how we Christians LOVE one another. LUCIAN'S satire is but too true of us when he declared "the law-giver of Christians (only?) makes them believe they are all brethren." REMEMBER THE POOR, said St. Paul--REMEMBER THE POOR! The, as one living well observes, note of Christianity. The true mark of a loving disciple. The binding cord of sympathy and friendship. The poor of CHRIST, members of that human nature which he put on. The poor of Christ, without substantial fellowship, fearing that in sickness no soothing hand will minister to them; aged and infirm fathers, weak and tottering mothers, unreclaimed wanton boys and girls, fastened down by the laws of Christian society to their tedious, wearing toil, thrust out to rot, as they sleep and eat, into cold garrets and dampened cellars, with moistened walls and broken windows, trying with strained eye to point aright their shaking needles; what, Oh! WHAT are their more favored and "wealthier" christian "brethren" going to do for them? I cannot think without shuddering for the "churches" of the day. They think of "hiring" an earnest man, "whose heart is in his work" to preach "fervently" of that blessed religion, which has actually opened the hearts of those "wealthier" churches to send him to them, "to take SMALL CONTRIBUTIONS from those who" come to worship in "the building"!!! Oh! what a fearful view of the infidelity of the sect of man! Oh! how awful, how appalling, how withering this rebuke [9/10] of the Independent! I do not wonder that Evangelical Protestantism has digusted DOCTOR NEVIN, and I cease to lament that men are turning from this "naked gospel" to that "false gospel" which is tricked out to gaze in the robes of the Scarlet Whore on the Seven Hills of Rome. Who cannot but applaud the ignorant dupes who fly out of this freezing atmosphere of Evangelical Protestantism, into the warm and sexual embrace of the adulterous whore of Rome? See here the cause of all our Romanising. Help me to stop it.

The aim of the Collegiate Mission of Saint Augustine is single and simple, but its object is one of the very grandest importance. Its design is to awaken, and give excitement to a sense of human relations which is now sluggish and inactive; and so wisely to direct the charities of others, as not to waste their means in useless efforts, or occasion evil by the very means they intend and hope to check it. For this end it proposes to make men REALISE that they are then most effectually promoting their own, when advancing the virtues and happiness of others. Its aim is to seek the redemption of the victims of poverty and vice, by bringing those who have the means of redeeming them to a knowledge of their exposed and wretched condition. In this benevolent enterprise it addresses the sympathies of all men--men of the world, men of the sects, and men of the Church of Jesus, which is his "mystical body." It seeks not merely the spiritual, but the physical and temporal relief of the poor, principally through an amelioration of their moral condition. It aims to provide something for the consolation of those distressed ones, who are often suffering without the solace of a human comforter; something for the succor [10/11] of those tempted ones, whose greatest exposure is in a want of the means of living honestly; something for those, who, having by want and temptation been led into sin, have not yet lost all their dispositions to virtue, or all their convictions of duty, and who may yet be saved as brands plucked from the burning. Nothing short of this COLLEGE of SAINT AUGUSTINE will meet the claims of our religion upon us as stewards of God, and believers in the Gospel of Jesus.

But there are anticipated difficulties in the work, as well as objections to it. We, as CHRISTIANS, are not sufficiently alive to a sense of the wants and sufferings of others. We need hearts to sympathise with the poor, the feeble, the sick, the desolate, the oppressed, the tempted, the vicious, the idle. To do important, and above all to do permanent good to these classes of poor, we must distinctly understand in what this good consists, and what are the means most effectually to obtain it. Such mere "preaching" as Protestants recommend, will not serve our turn. The Missioners then of Saint Augustine's buildings--and there are many waiting for the word--will put themselves in the place of the poor man, they will speak his language, they will be interested in him, and we will love him. This will be our whole secret. We will listen to his complaints, not only with patience, but with attention. Oh! what a moment is that, when a heart overwhelmed with so many sorrows, can at last open itself with freedom to a Minister of Jesus, who listens and coinpassionates! What consolation to the sufferer! What reward to the Missionary! It is Jesus himself repeated on the earth. We will follow our Saviour who "went about doing good." We will beware of lavishing [11/12] exhortation upon sufferers, or merely "preaching" at them; A few words spoken at the right moment, and in a natural manner, will take more root in their minds than a thousand sermons. Long speeches and preachings will oppose our end. He who is hungry and thirsty listens with impatience to mere exhortations to holiness. We will act first, and then reason. We will avoid the greatest of Protestant errors, that of exposing the sublime religion of Jesus, to being received with lassitude and disgust. We will avoid those pedantic forms of sermons which chill and repel them. We will make plain the truths we wish to inculcate, without allowing them to lose anything of their dignity which is to conciliate respect. We will practise and not preach only; for preaching, as at present practised, is the most damnable of all professions. It is the one cause of the infidelity of the age. But the Missioners of Saint Augustine's College will become the instruments of the most important good to their suffering fellow creatures, when we aid them as far as shall be possible, to obtain the "great good" from resources within themselves; by assisting them to understand the true causes of their evils; and by doing what we may, to call forth, to direct, and to strengthen their capacities of self support, of usefulness, and happiness. The purpose of us Missionaries will have not been suddenly formed, and we will not be disposed ever to relinquish it. It will be the purpose of an act of the most disinterested benevolence that placed us here; of a benevolence therefore which will not soon be wearied, and will endure much "even to the end." A pure benevolence being the SPIRIT of love divine, working in the soul. Who has made us to differ from these our [12/13] fellow mortals and immortals? And what have we which we have not received? All we are brethren. Our Father made us all. The untaught, the poorest, and most degraded of our race have the same nature with ourselves, and we will realise it. But I cannot now pursue this great topic. I could not pass it unregarded in this connection, and in leaving it, commend it to the very serious consideration of the human reader.

Whether poverty or riches be the severest trial of human nature, I cannot here decide. If however we consider the frequency, the pathos, and the earnestness with which our Lord and his apostles speak of the danger of being in love with riches, there will be no doubt about the question. At all events, great and solemn is the responsibility of those to whom God has given abundance; especially if they are members of his body mystical, which is but an extension of his human nature. Riches may be a great good, and well worth all the care and labor that are demanded to obtain them; but if they are diverted from the end for which they were given, and made the instruments of increased and increasing sin, then better had it been for him who has so abused them, never to have been born, or to have lived and died in the deepest poverty. It is far easier for a cable to run through the eye of a fine needle, than for such a man to enter "within the gates of everlasting life." But it is of less importance to decide which is the severest trial of virtue, riches or poverty, than it is to know and to fulfil the duties of that condition in which God has placed us. Let me respectfully say then, look, my reader, to your own purse. How much is in it? Is it much? Then [13/14] "give plenteously" to this Collegiate Mission of Saint Augustine; remembering that to whom "much" is given, one day will "much" be required. But thou hast little? Then "give" of that little. Remember the words which Jesus will address to those who, by their riches, have fed the hungry, clothed the naked, ministered to the sick, and visited the prisoner: INASMUCH AS YE HAVE DONE IT TO ONE OF THE LEAST OF THESE, YE HAVE DONE IT UNTO ME. Yes, and I could cite examples of benevolence which, I have no doubt, will at last receive from the lips of Jesus as high a commendation as was that which he gave to the poor widow whom he saw casting "half a cent" into the poor-box at Jerusalem. May then these words from my soul, O Spirit of the Living God, seek their way into the hearts and souls of all who read them. May they tell the tale of human want, and pain, and sorrow--of the difficulties, and struggles, and miseries of the poor which their author means to minister to. May they teach the "first principles" of divine love to those who know them not, and strengthen and quicken them in every heart they find them. May they help every one that reads them, to feel that it is indeed "more blessed" to give than to receive; and stir them up not only to "remember" those words of the LORD JESUS which he spake, but what is "far better," even to ACT on them. Go, my little book, and may the SPIRIT of GOD go with thee.

But before I conclude this chapter, I would state that time fails me to narrate the advantages religious, political, moral, and social, which would flow like perennial streams from the fountains of Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission. We would exemplify to others [14/15] the aims and character of true charity. We would search into and analyse the characteristics of real indigence. We would classify the poor aright, and separate the tares from amongst the wheat. We would strengthen the virtues and root out the seeds of vices in the poor. We would live amongst them, preach the blessed Gospel to them, and obtain the confidence of the poor. We would educate their children, and snatch them from ruin and damnation. We would discountenance begging, by becoming the channel of a wise distribution of charity. We should excite others to emulate us, and be the means of saving others in other cities on this continent and in Europe. We should cause the Spirit of UNION and PEACE to hover over contending religious sects; and finally, would try to gain the co-operation of young Christians in every church, to deny themselves to give to the poor. The number of men who enjoy the privilege of being able to devote themselves wholly to the noble duties of benevolence and charity, is very small. Ministers of the Cross even, can only give to these labors a few minutes at a time; for owing to wives, families, and the "laws of society," they cannot follow their inclinations entirely. To visit the poor cannot be taught in books; it is only taught by practice. The genius of love requires in a Minister to the poor a certain youthfulness of heart, a certain vivacity of imagination, and an enthusiasm whose warmth has never yet been cooled. Advanced years too often need that ardor which nothing terrifies or wearies; that promptitude which seizes the favorable moment; and that vivacity and freshness of mind which discovers and imagines all resources. What a touching sight is that of [15/16] a young Theological student in the midst of a desolate family! He is the best comforter who is most easily softened. Each one then presses around him in whom is recognised a youthful messenger of peace and love. Ah, this benevolence will lead the STUDENT'S heart to pious sentiments, for the two great commandments are like to one another; and the love of God is blended with the love of man. Ah, who remembers not the "first love" of his innocent boyhood? Such only can understand the sentiment in its purest and most sublime acceptation. A celestial emanation! A feeling of angels! Then too religion collects the tears of youthful pity. The heart that is full of true love, can be satisfied only by diffusing and devoting itself. To give is, in itself, but little. To give is not charity; but charity is to love him who is "over all" and "in all," and embraces therefore all his creatures. The gift is only the effect, the sign, the sacrament of love; and receives all its value from the sentiment which prompts it. Let us raise that sentiment in our youth by raising the buildings of Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission. For what is more just and perfect than that the natural exaltation of youth should be associated with the divine enthusiasm for doing good He will see with his own eyes the profound and innumerable sufferings which are hidden from his eyes in the brilliant dances of the ball room. He will see the anguish of pain, and thus dull his natural desires of pleasure. He will see patience exemplified, and will thus learn to practise it. "Come then," says a good man of Europe, "you young ones who are the objects of so many affections, the source of so many hopes, whom we see disputing with so much ardor for academical honors, and who leap for [16/17] joy when looking forward to Ordination; you whose young hearts beat anew when noble actions are mentioned to you; you, who in your literary essays, are constantly expressing the noblest sentiments; you, whose souls yet fresh and pure, are eager for generous emotions-come, we offer you in Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission to be built, endowed, and inhabited the coming winter, celestial joys, inexhaustible pleasures, and a glory so much the more true as it is free from the seduction of vanity. You who are happy, upon whom all the pleasant "world" smiles, come and learn to compassionate and relieve. Come, and lay up treasures in the heavens. Saint Augustine's Mission Buildings, where charity robed as an angel of light, will always dwell to console human misery, is open to you. Come and be with us, the Ministers of Jesus, preaching the blessed Gospel of peace and love and purity, to the poor outcasts of society and "independent" churches. Come, and may Heaven reward you. You will enjoy innocent pleasures. Great thoughts spring from noble actions, and your minds will always be enlightened by the holy emotions of virtue. Oh! how I love to see a youthful heart expand with the hope of relieving others! Oh! how beautiful are the tears which, excited by misery, flow over the face that is pure and brilliant with youth. Ah! brethren in the love of Jesus, pardon me, a youth myself, if now in the morning of life I have discovered its sweetest privilege, the pleasure of causing happiness, and enjoying that calm serenity of peace which only flows from willing selfsacrifice to the poor; and a cheerful consecration to a career, which alone can satisfy my boundless ambition, without being troubled by any bitterness whatever.

[18] I.--Thus far my earnest appeal has been addressed to "those without" the Church of God. I have addressed my "cry" to the common feelings of our common nature, to those feelings of compassion and the love of true virtue and nobleness, which exists in pagans as well as "independent" churches and their members. Amongst the members of WESLEY'S Church, and of CALVIN'S Church, I believe and know that there are many who "love our Lord Jesus in sincerity;" and therefore I say grace and peace be unto them, both now and for ever.--Amen. But still CALVIN had no more right to make a church than MAHOMET had, and WESLEY than JOE SMITH. With those however who believe they had, I have nothing to do; to their own master they stand or they fall; it is my duty to pray and struggle as much for their conversion as for that of the heathen. I know MALONE, which is full of sectarians as some seas are full of sharks, is as bad almost as CHINA which is full of pagans. May Gad have mercy upon my little parish, for none hut He can help them. But I now am to appeal to the CHURCH of GOD, and I will appeal to the duty, and not to the feelings of its members. The Church of God: What is it? Did not his body enclose the Divine Nature? And does not the SPIRIT tell us explicitly that this body is the Church of Jesus? And is it not therefore in some true, though mysterious way, that the Church-the blessed COMPANY (other sheep I have not of this company) of the redeemed through all time and in all countries--is the body mystical of Christ, an extension of his own nature? But you ask the practical utility of this truth, and I prove it to you in the foundation of Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission. That which [18/19] characterised our Lord personally must still characterise his body now. Thus, as one has well said, through the Apostles in living connexion with Christ's body, and then through those who, on all sides, have been joined on to the Apostolic fellowship, has Jesus been unfolding himself in the alleviation of suffering humanity: and now by us, in Saint Augustine's Mission, would he still reach forth the hand of charity to succor the woes and distresses of his kindred flesh. Thus does the Gospel become emphatically a Gospel to the poor. This deep doctrine of the Incarnation and the Church and no other, has yet the power of studding every land with churches, missions, pious foundations, such as the present hospitals, and asylums. The most damnable sin of that Scarlet Whore on the Seven Hills who has filled the whole earth with her abominations, and has actually made herself drunk with the blood of the Saints, consists in having by her blasting parody on the Church of God, actually driven men into the formation of their own miserable sectarian communions. Upon the head of the Roman Catholic Church rests the guilt of all the schisms, heresies, and distressing infidelities of the age. Protestantism, which is the child of Satan herself, was caused by the existence of that synagogue of Satan, miscalled the Catholic Church, by nine-tenths of the present Christian world. I agree with my learned friend DOCTOR NEVIN here. The present state of things is alarming. Not to ponder on its cause is madness. The souls and bodies of the poor of Christ are neglected by our "independent" churches. The utmost of their charity is to hire an earnest man" to "preach" the naked system of ethics and feelings they call the Gospel, and to take up "small [19/20] contributions" from them! This-state of Christianity is too blasphemous to continue. It is infidelity itself in the shining robes of Christian truth. The ice on our hearts must be thawed. Saint Augustine's Mission will drive out these abominations from the house of God. And just as we become what we pray to become for every infant when it is regenerated, "LIVING MEMBERS" of that "one body;" just as our charity and faith grow more fervent and spreading, shall we perceive men recognising the Spouse of Christ, the Bride of Jesus; and the erring, the bewildered, the deceived, the straying, and unbelieving return to the "true fold" and Bishop of their souls. The Church of Christ will then even force that confession from sectarians which Christ himself forced from the demons in his time:--WE KNOW THEE who thou art, the HOLY ONE OF GOD. Blessed Lord! may that time be soon coming.

Thus in this "earnest plea" for the Collegiate Mission of Saint Augustine in New York, I have pointed out a "great work" to be done, and in Saint Luke's Hospital I see beginnings of fair promise towards its accomplishment. A few more endeavors of the same practical sort will be worth volumes of mere controversial speculation. If I read the "signs of the times" aright, my "earnest plea" will meet a "want of the age" which, as NEWMAN said some years ago, "needs something deeper than satisfied the last." The movement of 1833 which JOHN HENRY NEWMAN headed, has given us so far, a conscience, a sense of duty, and a mission, appertaining to the CHURCH as a body; as distinguished from the petty meagre system of Evangelical Protestantism which gives those blessings only to pious "individuals." Surely if there be a call on [20/21] the energies of the day, on the efforts of Churchmen, on the responsibility of Bishops, it is this of Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission. Let our Standing Committee, if there is any religious life in them other than that paltry piety which mere Anglicanism or Ecclesiology can give--let them I say, at once call a special convention to elect a man for Bishop who is learned, orthodox, pious, and churchly in his inward self. We want a man of energy and love divine, and the only man "for the times" is the Reverend Rector of Grace Church, in the city of Brooklyn. I am a graduate of the General Theological Seminary: I know too well the faults of that institution. While a member of it I wrote a "Judgment" upon it; and that composition I am ready to publish, if party spirit is arrayed against me. Facts are stubborn things, and I have only too many taken notice of in my papers at the time of their occurrence. What we need as the Church of God, is a ministerial education. That education the General Seminary is far from giving. I say it with awe and grief, that the students do not learn there to REALISE the clerical calling; and yet better there than elsewhere. This is the cause of our present lamentable divisions. The prevailing defect of us Ministers of the Church as a body is, a certain secularity, manifesting itself in various ways, but springing from one root. These are the words of a greater man than I am. There is no more favorite mark than this for the shafts of rival communions, no imperfection which has had a more lowering effect on the efficiency of our entire body through England, these States, and the Canadas and other Colonies. I speak from personal observation and knowledge. It is not enough that our Ministers should [21/22] be blameless moralists, or diligent pastors; for the ministers of mere human churches are the same. We must live our doctrine if we would have others converted to it. But though this is a matter of obvious truth to religious thoughtful persons, and that scores of our clergy are acting on it, yet it cannot be denied that they are the exception and not the rule. But how must we make them the rule and not the exception? Let us look at the fountain from whence these ministers flow. I say then, and behold before God I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that our General Theological Seminary needs some vigorous effort at reformation, so that earnest minded Ministers of JESUS may issue from out its noble halls. The genius loci is a genius of paltry joking and secularity. The Ecclesiological Society is fed from its pickings, and lightness and vanity is the "evil spirit" that presides. God forbid that I should say all are "possessed" by this spirit. But I do mean to say that, to the best of my recollection, it was a matter of lamentation and regret to all earnest minds of every school in theology, throughout the three studious years of my residence there. I tried to reform it even while in it, and did succeed in establishing a "practical society"--practical however no longer; for since leaving the institution, the society holds a mere nominal existence. The "Churchman" made a great flourish of trumpets about it when setting off the General Seminary against the Provincial one in Alexandria, and I must confess it looked exceedingly well--on paper.

As were the people, so were the priests which issued from the people. Look at the Church in our day. The rule still holds--like people, like priests. The [22/23] people have no clear understanding of the duty and dignity of "membership" in the body, blood, and bones of Christ. They come and are present at the services of the church, like spectators at a show; and the Priests of God do not rebuke them, but rather play the preacher before them so as to be admired and run after. It is no light sin. How shall we stop it? It is no light question, and admits of no random answer. What shall be the last touch given to that wondrous complex thing of body, soul, and spirit, which is to receive the awful unearthly shaping which makes of a man, a Priest in the Church of God? I answer, Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission in the city of New York. Let the General Theological Seminary feed that Mission instead of feeding the Ecclesiological Society. In young men aspiring to the ministry of souls, the first thing necessary, the one thing needful, is to form within them a certain mind. This is the first thing; the acquirement of theological knowledge is the second. The "mind" they make is the great instrument, under God, they are to work with after all. To work on men's souls, one must work with his own soul. The image and confirmation which they are to form in others, must first be formed within themselves. They must be what they profess to be, Priests in the Church of God. Between reading theology, and going through that meagre "course" of our General Seminary, there is all the difference in the world--but between both together, and learning the duty of a Priest in the Church of God, there is a greater "gulf" fixed. Now Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission will teach young men this duty. It will afford, if my "idea" is carried out, opportunities for study, devotion, [23/24] benevolence, pastoral visitations, death visiting, church training, and every thing else that is of utility in deadening one to this world and forming him for the next. Then again, here will the spiritual and Ritual system of the Church be going on continually; and that too with a completeness, and in a high commanding form, not ever experienced before. "The calm march," as one says, of the services of the Divine Church, her solemn days and seasons, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear, moving on and onward still, will be perhaps the grandest symbol that we can have on earth of the unearthly, because mystical and supernatural character of the visible church on earth. There can he nothing like it that we know of, save the unceasing revolution of the heavenly bodies and their attendant seasons." To associate themselves heart and soul in the high work of the Church of God, in this her continual service for the poor who will enjoy it; to be a part of it, to understand it, and to help it forward; this is the blessing and happiness to which I invite the students of our General Theological Seminary. Thus with one heart and one soul, having all things common, living under strict discipline, without either wives or families, we shall live till death lays us to bed in our coffins, doing man's noblest work in man's noblest way. Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission will thus be a means of continued daily access to the Lord in heaven--a sort of daily feast in the very outer courts of heaven--the nearest approach we can make to heaven itself. Oh! what will be, what can but be, the effect of it'? Truly this, to help us mightily to realise that we do, as individuals, bear about us a life-long spiritual priesthood; interweaving into our very souls [24/25] a consciousness" of our high position and calling, as members of the mystical body. For this cause then, I plead before my Church in the Diocese of New York, the grandest in the Union, the cause of the Collegiate Mission of Saint Augustine, to its dense and neglected poor. For this Mission will give us, under God, that blessing which SAINT PAUL desired for his favorite Ephesian converts, as the crown and sum of every Christian grace. For this Mission, then, with the Apostle, I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that he would grant us, through its practical operation, to be all of us strengthened with might by his SPIRIT in the inner man; that CHRIST may dwell in our hearts by faith; that we, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to KNOW, personally to know, the love of CHRIST, which passeth knowledge, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. Loving the Saviour, in communion with his body, doing good to the poor. Oh! what happiness will not be ours! What a blessing to have the inward recognition and habitual sense of our continuity and oneness with the universal Church. The BODY of which Saint Augustine's will be a Collegiate Mission, and with which we will daily worship, is vast; vast in time, in space, in numbers. In time, it goes back to the Apostles; in space, it extends wherever a branch of the Saviour's vine has been planted; in numbers, it is ten thousand times ten thousand, and our voices will but feebly swell a chorus which rises from all saints in all times and in all lands. Amen.

II.--But the Missioners of this Collegiate Mission, [25/26] what sort and kind shall they be? Who is worthy to take part in so glorious and great a work? Who has purity, who has love, who has grace, who has faith, who has humility enough to fit him for the work. They must not be sectarian or little-minded men. They must not be Catholic or Protestant men. They must be after the Apostolic models, earnest-minded and Christian men. Like SAINT PAUL, they must be clean, unmarried men; men who keep under their bodies and beat them down, having learnt through a painful experience the real hardness of doing so. Like the Apostle BARNABAS, they must be good men, and full of the HOLY GHOST and of faith, so that by their ministry much people may be added to the Lord. Like the Roman centurion CORNELIUS, they must be devout men, who can give, as he did, much alms to the people, and pray to God always with pleasure in secret. Like SAINT JOHN, they must be loving disciples, who have leant on the SAVIOUR'S bosom and drawn in the SAVIOUR's spirit. Like PAUL again, they must have learnt to speak BOLDLY in the name of Jesus, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Like SAINT JAMES, they must visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keep themselves unspotted from the world. Thus shall they exhibit in their own persons and conversation, that religion which, ONLY, is pure and undefiled before God, and which, ONLY, can be known and read of all men. In a word, the Clergymen of Saint Augustine's Mission will be, and must be, like that great Clergyman, the pattern of us all, who was anointed with the Holy Ghost and with power; who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed with the devil; [26/27] for God was with him, and God will be with them. Thus will they be "chosen vessels," bearing His name "with power" to the hearts and consciences of all who come across them. But for such men as these we must pray; prayer only, can make them. Then with the love of Jesus shed abroad in their hearts, will their "word," as his, be "with power" to the soul. Unction from above will be on them. A "live coal" from the altar of Heaven has "been laid upon their mouth." Instead of a dry didactic statement, faultless in doctrine and elegant in form, we will see in them the libation upon the sacrifice--the holiest affections of their souls poured out on the most solid products of their understanding, imparting to all they say a delicious odor and an irresistible eloquence. With them there will be an impassioned earnestness, a soul-subduing pathos, which will make it impossible to doubt that the impressions they strive to communicate are deeply engraven on their own hearts. Lord! send us such ministers as these. Rest! will they need rest on EARTH? Is there not all ETERNITY to rest in? The first rest they take will be when they turn into their beds to die. Ah! rest is a crime in them who have promised to labor all the days of their life. The prayer then of the glowing WHITFIELD will be the prayer of us in Saint Augustine's Mission--"Keep us, O Lord, from growing slack in the latter stages of our journey." We will be much in fervent prayer, and it shall be said of us as it was of JOHN WESLEY by an Oxford student: "I have seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of countenance that was next to shining." Of course we shall meet with many trials both of our courage and our patience. The scarlet fever, or the [27/28] small pox, may carry us off. So be it. It is our Saviour's will. We are his servants, ready to do and to suffer all things for his sake. What can separate from the love of Jesus? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Nay, in all these things we shall be more than conquerors through him that has loved us. For I, Jubal Hodges, Deacon in the Church of God, Rector of Saint Mark's, Malone, am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

III.--Finally, and in concluding my "earnest plea," a few words should be said concerning the raising the needful funds for our buildings; the cost of the work; the plan of the houses; the number of missioners; the selection of trustees; the internal discipline; the government, and such like. Of all these things I mean to say nothing in detail--I leave them to older and to wiser heads. As to the funds, we must raise at least one hundred thousand dollars; of which sum, some little children in Malone have, as yet, subscribed just one thirty cents. Let every one give according to their ability, as these did. JESUS praised the sentiment that actuated, and not "the two mites" themselves. Jesus looks at the heart; and I have faith that the same God who sent my "bell" to MALONE, will send me this "mission" to NEW YORK. The plan of the buildings must be hereafter determined by a Christian architect and a Churchman, who will, from love to Jesus and for his body's sake--the Church--give [28/29] his services gratuitously. I would hint that they should be in the Gothic style, consisting of a large stone Church, a Mission-house, a School-hall, a Hospital, and a row of clean stone buildings for the "worthy poor" to dwell in. 'T'here must be a large ORGAN in the Church; for the poor like good music, and it will attach them to the religion of Jesus and elevate their minds. And this Organ must be placed somewhere near the Chancel, for I mean to play it myself as long as God shall enable me. I have "a gift" of music from the Lord. I was an Organ-builder's apprentice six years ago, and have ever since the age of sixteen been a devotional Organist in the CHURCH. The musical world is as much out of joint as the theological world, and I should like to carry a reformation into the one as I am now doing in the other. And this is all I have to say about the Collegiate Mission of Saint Augustine, I have faith in God. When the buildings are ready--and it would be well to have them consecrated by our new BISHOP on Christmas Day next ensuing--I shall return from Minnesota, where I am now going, in compliance with the following request from JAMES LLOYD BRECK:--

Mission House, Saint Paul, Minnesota,
January 30, 1852.

REVEREND AND DEAR BROTHER,--

I received a letter by the last mail from the Bishop of Wisconsin, in which the following pleasing paragraph occurs:--"I had about a month since, a most ardent letter from Jubal Hodges, who stated, I thought, in most explicit terms, that he would certainly join you in the spring. I believe he would be of very great [29/30] service anywhere." I trust indeed that our expectations will not be doomed to disappointment again. May God help you, my dear brother in this work! May the HOLY GHOST give you a ready understanding for "divers languages," and in the beautiful words of the Whitsunday Preface, give you "also boldness, with fervent zeal, constantly to preach the Gospel unto all nations."

I intend now making some extracts from letters received from a partially educated Chippeway, who is father to the little Indian boy that is a member of our household, and who resides about one hundred and forty miles to our north. And when you read these, I am sure your heart will burn within you, for very ardor, to be the happy instrument of their conversion. I quote:--

"SWAN RIVER, December 21, 1851.

"The Indians, particularly the Chiefs and principal men, are very anxious to have teachers among them. The field is open for the Missionaries to come in. The Indians have left me to choose and select a teacher, whom, I think, would be likely to benefit their nation. The head Chief is willing to receive and embrace religious instruction now or at any time. I think I shall devote myself in teaching him and his family what little I know. If the head Chief first embrace the Christian religion, a great change immediately take place; for he has great influence amongst his people. Every body say to you, COME; come and teach. What more can we want? No stronger invitation can be given by the poor Indians. There might be some little translation of the Liturgy and some of the forms of prayer, and they would do a great deal of good at present."

This Chippeway is from the Canadas, and was educated in the south by the Methodists; but his eyes have been opened to see their defects, and he is now anxious [30/31] to have a wild people indoctrinated in a less naked system. "HOLE-IN-THE-DAY," the head Chief, is a bold warrior, and the terror of his enemies. But, my dear Hodges, hear further from a second letter, dated the 29th of January, 1852:--

"The Indians have all good feelings towards the anticipated Missionaries, especially the head Chief. They all seem to open their dark and stony hearts to receive you any time. HOLE-IN-THE-DAY is very anxious to have you come and establish a school among his people, in the spring. I have talked to him on religious subjects. He told me two days ago, that he had now fully made up his mind to become a Christian man. He said, 'I am going to throw away behind me everything; I am going to embrace the white man's God.' I am doing all I can in talking to the Indians and others. If you should want my assistance any time before spring, or in the spring, I shall be ready to engage with you; for I feel much interested in the work, though I feel very unworthy of the work."

Thus, my dear Hodges, an interpreter is raised up to our hands; and a man, it would appear, admirably fitted for the work of such a mission as we propose. This Indian is said to be, by all that know him, a very modest and teachable one. He enclosed a letter in his last to our Catechist, who is the teacher of his little son. I will make an extract from it:--

"You will no doubt be happy to learn the minds of the Indians here, as to having the Missionaries come to them. They will gladly receive them. Hole-in-the-Day's word--'They will come with the intention of doing us good, but not to deceive or destroy us.' For my part, I am truly glad to see that there is another offer of life, as it were, to be given them in the spring. I am the only one yet to speak and to stand for my ruined people. And as long as the good Loan gives me breath, I intend to speak for my people. I know I am unworthy, and I feel my [31/32] unworthiness before God, and I wish I was truly Christian, and I long to be one."

Hear him speak for his little boy, and then answer me what is the heart of the poor Indian:

"There is not a day passes away but that I have thought of ALFRED. His little brother often speaks about him, and sometimes cries because he want to see his little brother ALFRED. I like to hear particulars; spells how many letters; whether he can say come and go to school. I some times imagine that I see him in the school, or set to dine."

I must here tell you that this little boy could not speak one word of English when he came two months ago. He is now at the head of a class of five white children who have been here a long time going to school. He is spelling in three syllables, and can say the Lord's Prayer. Alfred is only in his ninth year. The Bishop of Prince Rupert's Land ordained a native Catechist the last year; may we not also live to see the day wherein this boy shall be made a Herald of the Cross. But I give you the last extract:

"Let me say good friends, when the cold nights come, I think about Alfred. Give him plenty bed clothes to have him sweep warm. You will bear with me; I know you will bear with poor Indian man. He thinks a great deal about his little boy. I think I say too much when I ask for any to think for me."

So much for my Indian correspondent. Again I say, my dearest Hodges, your musical talents will enable you to work wonders, WITH THE DIVINE ASSISTANCE, amongst this poor people. Read the early planting of the Cross in Pagan lands, and the chaunting of the TE DEUM it was, that commanded and fixed the attention [32/33] of thousands. To attempt anything without singing-Luther and other reformers knew this--would prove nugatory, or nearly so. I might add much more, but I have already written you twice since the receipt of your last.

With much love, and prayers that we may not look in vain for you, I remain

Your affectionate brother

In Christ and the Church,

JAMES LLOYD BRECK.

To the Reverend Jubal Hodges,
Rector of Saint Mark's, Malone.

APPENDIX.

The Devotional Effect of Music upon the Poor.

"That," said the heavenly-minded BISHOP BEVERIDGE, "which I have found the best recreation both to my body and mind, whensoever either of them stands in need of it, is Music--which exercises at once both my body and my soul--especially when I play myself. For then, methinks, the same motion that my hand makes upon the instrument, the instrument makes upon my heart. It calls in my spirits, composes my thoughts, delights my ear, recreates my mind; and so not only fits me for after business, but fills my heart at present with pure and useful thoughts; so that when the music sounds sweetest in my ears, truth commonly flows the clearest into my mind." I can testify to the truth of the BISHOP'S experience. And in preaching also I am well convinced, that the truth is set forth in a more heavenly "manner," with more love and zealous enthusiasm, if one comes straight from his piano and one of HANDEL'S choruses.

"That there is something more than ordinary in music," continues the Bishop, "appears from DAVID'S making use of it, for driving away the 'evil spirit' from SAUL; and ELISHA for the bringing of the 'good spirit' upon himself. From which I am induced to believe, that there is really a sort of secret and [34/35] charming power in it, that naturally dispels from the mind, all or most of those black humours which SATAN uses to brood upon; and by composing it into a more regular, sweet, and docile disposition, renders it fitter for the SPIRIT OF GOD to work upon, the more susceptive of divine grace, and more faithful messenger whereby to convey truth to the understanding." Thus far this witness.

We read of the father of BISHOP HORNE, that "when his son was an infant, he used to wake him with playing upon a lute, that the change from sleeping to waking might be gradual and pleasant, and not produce an outcry." What impression this early custom of his father might have made upon his temper we cannot say; but certainly he was remarkable, as he grew up, for a tenderness of feeling and devotional unction, such as makes us wonder.

"That there is a tendency in music," writes SIR JOHN HAWKINS in his History of the Science, "to excite grave, devout, and even lively affections, no one can doubt who is not an absolute stranger to its efficacy. Though it may perhaps be said that the effects of music are mechanical, and that there can be nothing pleasing to God in that devotion which follows the involuntary operation of sound upon the mind, yet this is more than can be PROVED, and the SPIRIT OF GOD seems to indicate the contrary." But let us turn to another witness.

"Man," says the best of living musicians, the father of him who writes, a father who stands at the head of ECCLESIASTICAL MUSICAL SCIENCE, who is at the same time its only ornament and defender, who has been through life subjected to bitter disappointments [35/36] in the path of musical glory, owing to those "dry and tough" hearts with whom he has had to do, and who could or even now can not appreciate the excellence that is in him--"man," says this writer in his forcible and moving APOLOGY FOR CHURCH MUSIC, "in all ages, from the infancy of the world to the present day, has recognised its power, and bowed to its influence. Music, in every clime, has been appealed to as the 'laborum dulce lenimen,' the joy of buoyant youth, the solace of declining age. Practised by saints and angels, lauded by sage philosophers, encouraged by gravest legislators, it comes from heaven itself." "Of the pleasures of heaven," says the elegant and eloquent BISHOP ATTERBURY, "nothing farther is revealed to us, than that they consist in the practise of holy music and holy love; the joint enjoyment of which, we are told, is to be the happy lot of pious souls to endless ages."

The breath of that new and eternal life which God will have given us through the blood of the LAMB, shall then be spent in Hallelujahs. The whole Church triumphant, composed of many and of different members, all actuated, like the pipes of a well tuned Organ, by the same SPIRIT, and conspiring together in perfect harmony, will be one great and noble "INSTRUMENT OF GOD," sounding forth his praises; for ever singing as they shine, the hand that made us is divine. Then shall we know the meaning of that verse, LET EVERY THING THAT HATH BREATH PRAISE THE LORD. With this sweet wish the Royal Psalmist closes the songs of ZION; but oh! how grand the massive choruses of heaven when that sweet wish is gratified! Who can conceive it! Who can even think of it without near losing his breath? Hark! I hear them; the songs of [36/37] angels sweetly singing. The heavens with Hallelujahs ring. The saints in glory! they sing aloud. The voices of harpers, harping with their harps! Lo! heaven, and earth, and seas, and skies, in one melodious concert rise, and swell the inspiring theme. The angels catch the thrilling sound, while all the adoring thrones around HIS boundless mercy sing. Join, ye loud spheres, the vocal choir, ye dazzling orbs of liquid fire, the mighty chorus aid; O! praise the eternal source of love, with youth's enlivening fire, and ask an angel's lyre. Oh! the music, the music of HEAVEN! When SAINT JOHN saw in vision the KING OF GLORY seated on his throne, he tells us that he heard all the angels which stood around, with the elders, and every creature in heaven, earth, and sea, lifting up their voices and singing together, a hymn of thanksgiving. What a choir! From the heavens of heavens, and those still farther unutterable heights, where hosts of immortal spirits, admitted to a sight of their KING, enjoy unfading pleasures, the eternal song begins. With animated strains the whole Church continues the blessed lay, and that neither coldly, but with an affection pure and flaming, like the holy fire upon the altar. That heavenly music! My soul is rapt and ravished with the thought. Oh how transparent the love! How deep toned the worship! How thrilling the strains of those massive choruses, in which the utmost perfection of melody is joined with the deepest concords of harmony. Dr. DODDRIDGE cried out on his dying bed, that his joys were too much for his enfeebled body to sustain. He had his ears in heaven. He heard, as methinks I do hear now, that voice which is to be at the first, as the voice of many [37/38] waters," and as the "voice of a great thunder," and which shall grow louder and louder; each glorious outburst of musical harmony adding a new wave to the many waters, a new peal to the massive thunders. He heard, as methinks I do hear now, that anthem which is to ascribe "worthiness" for ever and ever to the LAMB, already rushing as a torrent of melodious harmony, issuing from ten thousand times ten thousand and thousand of thousands of pure and pardoned sinners. What an orchestra! Who would not swell, who would not listen with rapture to such magnificent strains? But this anthem shall not always be of equal strength. For as the heavenly choruses increase in numbers by ransomed sinners "from other worlds," so will their hearts beat with a higher pulse of sacred devotion; their harps will be swept with a bolder hand, and their tongues will send forth a mightier burst. . . .

But alas! it may be that I speak to hearts so "dry and tough," that all this is nothing desirable to them. I know that those who are musical cannot understand the state of those poor creatures who are without that sense. There are people who are otherwise pretty respectable divines, who cannot perceive what to others is the keenest source of pleasure; and much as they regret this defect in their religious organization, they can no more remedy it than they can make their minds mathematical or philosophical. To some, music is heavenly and speaks of heavenly purity; to others, it says nothing, but speaks of evil deeds. A paradox. But there are men in whose sight flowers are full of beauty, which others tread on with cool indifference. I pity the man who has no music in his soul. He is [38/39] fit for every wickedness, and can never attempt a thing that is truly great.

The Christian hearts I address will now, I think, divine the necessity of having a solid, grand, and substantial Organ in the Collegiate Mission of Saint Augustine, New York. This Organ 1 myself will see to, as regards its specification and arrangements. It must be one worthy of the cause, and, may I add, worthy of the motives of the player. The poor of CHRIST have feelings, and who can tell, or give in words, the effect on their feelings of one of HANDEL'S choruses daily played by one of HANDEL'S pupils? I can easily understand how a taste for music is one thing, and a real submission to the influence of religion is another; how the ear may be regaled with the melody of sound, while the heart utterly refuses the proper impression that is sought to be conveyed by it; how the sons and daughters of "this world" may, with their every affection devoted to its perishable vanities, inhale with all the delights of enthusiasm, as they sit in crowded assemblage around the deep and solemn oratorio, its heavenly spiritual sounds. But is it nothing then, if this same effect is produced upon the poor that will crowd the portals of Saint Augustine's Church? Is it nothing gained, if their cold and sluggish hearts have devotion awakened within them daily, while their poor sin-crusted souls are melted and subdued by the influence of harmony? Will not the way then be "opened up" for us Missionaries, with our "affections flying before," to tell them of the love of Jesus; and will they not thus be brought, by slow degrees, to receive that "blest peace" itself of which music was the vehicle? Ah! I have been a sinner most vile myself, and I know how [39/40] I felt when heavenly strains of music so moved and overbore me, that I had to shed the tears of contrition, and was so agitated by the terrors of judgment, as to receive an awe upon my soul of the majesty and mercy of God. Deny me not my Organ then, for I have ere this been carried by an Organ into the "third heavens," where Saint Paul was carried, and thence have looked down upon the "world and all its glory," and by the glance of one commanding survey, realised the littleness and vanity of all its concerns. And as it was with me, so may it be with the poor to whom you will send me to preach the Gospel. The choruses of HAYDN, HANDEL, and MOZART, which I shall daily play, and my fellows sing, will, by that divine assistance which we shall always invoke when performing them, thrill upon the ears of those poor ones around us, and circulate, through grace, a succession of solemn and affecting thoughts and images through their fancy. They will not leave the Church as dead in "trespasses and sins" as they entered into it. Conscience now has wakened upon them. Repentance now has turned them. Faith has made a positive lodgment within them, of her great and vivid realities. They speed them back to their families and their laborers, with new hearts, new affections, new thoughts, and new desires. They learn to crucify their tempers, to contemn worldliness, and all those earthly and satanic affections which belong to beasts as well as to men. Thus music, not Gregorian or Boston music, but solid, substantial, and devotional music, will lull their passions into unison with piety, and stir up their "inner man" to lofty determinations, and so engage those affections to which religion is addressed, that they will be weaned from [40/41] the dust, and be carried through the "sorrows of this fitful fever" life, superior to the sordid, base, and grovelling pleasures that now condemn their souls to death. I now appeal to "my friend the world." Is not this "idea" of Saint Augustine's Collegiate Mission, calculated, IF FAITHFULLY CARRIED OUT, (and we have the men, we only want the money) to do much more good than the generous "idea" of DOCTOR BACON, editor of the Independent, to "hire an earnest man," whose duty it shall be to "preach" and to take up "small contributions" from the poor half-starved creatures who "come" to hear his naked "Gospel?" GOOD GOD OF HEAVEN! is that THY CHURCH, which gave birth to so magnificent a scheme of charity and mercy? No! thanks be to God for the honor of the religion of Jesus our Saviour. DOCTOR BACON is the minister of a mere human society, called the Congregational Church, and has therefore no connection whatever with the CHURCH of the Living God, the pillar and ground of charity as well as of truth.

And now I conclude with prayer for "the dew of heaven" upon my earnest labors. I have written to gratify no sect or no party, for I sorrow for and disagree with every one on earth. But I have written for the common service of all who call on the name of Jesus, wheresoever dispersed, and under whatsoever name. When I view the innumerable and unhappy differences amongst all Christians, all of whom are equally oppressed with "indwelling sin" and "corruption," I call to my mind the beautiful and affecting words which MILTON represents Adam as addressing to Eve, after they had wearied themselves with mutual complaints and bickerings:--

[42] "But rise: let us no more contend or blame
Each other, blam'd enough elsewhere: but strive
In offices of love, how we may lighten
Each other's burden in our share of woe."

In conclusion, I have only to observe, that if we are "earnest" believers and receivers of the Gospel, this will be the prayer of us all, as it is of him who now subscribes himself

Your servant in God,

JUBAL HODGES.

We understand that the Home Missionary Society of New York, is endeavoring to purchase the old brewery in the Five Points, an edifice which is famous as a nest of depravity, wherever vice and degradation are known. We trust that the effort will be crowned with success, for in it we recognize that best of Christianity--the practical.

We hear much said among the opulent and correct, about the growth of vice in great cities, and especially its increase among the poorer classes; but it is only at rare intervals that it becomes our privilege to record efforts like this, for their practical amelioration. Even Christian congregations are lukewarm in these matters. Close by the portals of wealthy churches exist dens of iniquity, whose presence, one would think, would give no peace to preacher or audience, until they had been effectually rooted out; snd not rooted out by law merely, to be transplanted to some other spot, but reformed and regenerated, and so forever extirpated. It is a fact which any honest policeman will admit, and which those philanthropists who venture among the destitute and depraved have long known, that below the outer surface of wealth and decorum which meets the eye, there surges a turbid ocean, in which [43/44] licentiousness, intemperance, evil of all descriptions, and crime itself commingling, slowly undermine society.

And yet how little is this awful truth realized.--Because, over this boiling deep, a thin crust of outward decency has formed, men remain indifferent to the gulf that yawns beneath, forgetful that, at any moment, the frail covering may crack, and ruin, swallow up all. For the degradation of this vast, vagrant and lawless population is not merely a moral evil, calculated to awaken the interest of the philanthropist and Christian; it is also a social cancer, which imperatively demands the attention of statesmen and politicians. Never was a truer word spoken, than when Webster said, in his late speech, that if morality and religion was suffered to die out, our liberties would perish with them; and the presence of such a mass of corruption, infecting everything with which it comes into contact, and thus gradually imparting disease to the entire social system, is rapidly doing what he thus dreads. The elevation of this outcast population is a duty alike to ourselves and to it. If we do not raise it up, it will drag us down, Shall we hesitate?

What is projected in New York ought to be imitated here. There are places in our city only less infamous than the old brewery. There is work enough for all the hands that can be found, and for all the hearts that can be enlisted. Citizens, philanthropists, Christian Churches, awake! Be up and doing, "for the night cometh!"

Project Canterbury