consecration took place on Palm Sunday. It was an occasion of great rejoicing to our little community here, who had long been looking forward to it with anxious anticipation. The church stands within a short distance of the spot where the great Apostle of the Gentiles first preached the gospel to the Athenians, and it was with no ordinary emotion that I looked towards Mars' Hill, while I preached the same gospel from his own words: Other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. The congregation was in part composed of men of Athens, the lower part of the church and the outside being crowded with Greeks, who took great interest in the ceremony."

CONSTANTINOPLE.—Some progress seems making here. The accounts we subjoin from the reports of the American missionaries.

"Recent communications from the missionaries at Constantinople represent the revival of spiritual Christianity, which is now in progress among the Armenians of Turkey, as having lost none of its interest. Those who live at a distance from the scene of their labours are met, however, with serious difficulties, when they endeavour to form a just conception of the character and extent of such a movement. Among the Armenians there is no public profession of a new religion, such as is made by heathen converts. There is no visible separation from the ranks of impenitence, such as takes place in Christian lands. The outward relation of the new convert to the church remains unchanged. He continues to be what he has long been, an acknowledged member of a Christian community.

"It is impossible, therefore, to submit to the friends of missions any statistics which shall indicate the precise nature and extent of this remarkable movement. The missionaries themselves have no means of forming an accurate estimate of the number of those who are the genuine disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some are daily preaching the gospel, even in Constantinople, whom they have never seen. These individuals, having learned the truth second hand, refrain from visiting the missionaries, for prudential reasons; and there are many in other places respecting whom they have no certain information. Still there is abundant evidence that the word of the Lord does not return unto him void.

“In a letter, dated March 24th, Mr Dwight says, 'The work which God is carrying forward here is truly wonderful. Opposers and haters of the truth are yielding to its influence. New enquirers are continually coming to us. Our native brethren have a spirit of prayer, which indicates the special presence of the Spirit of God, and is an earnest of greater blessings to come." In the same letter, he also says, 'One very gratifying feature of the times is, that many of the vartabeds are now preaching the gospel, as far as they understand it; having found that the taste of the people is so far changed, that the former mode of preaching legends and fables does not satisfy. The vicar of the Patriarch a week or two since, after a sermon, said something like this,' Custom requires that I should now bless you in the name of the Holy Virgin and of the saints; but alas! there is none left among you who receive the saints; and what shall I do?'"

THE

PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW.

JULY 1844.

No. LXV.

ART. I.-1. Religion in the United States of America, &c., &c. By the Rev. ROBERT BAIRD.

2. Democracy in America. By ALEXIS DE TOQUEVILLE, Avocat à la Cour Royale de Paris, &c., &c. Translated by HENRY REEVE, Esq.

HAVING in a former Number discussed the first three books of Mr Baird's work, we now come to Book IV., 6 on the developments of the Voluntary principle.' The extent and importance of these in the United States, cannot fail to gladden the hearts of all who, like ourselves of the Free Church of Scotland, are thrown absolutely on that principle for the maintenance of ministry, teachers, and ordinances. It is a chapter, however, which calls for a considerable amount of criticism, and this we frankly and candidly present.

First, then, at the very opening, we think Mr B. errs egregiously in assuming, as a matter of course, that the total dissolution of church establishments was a fourth and crowning step towards the attainment of religious liberty. This, at least, cannot be laid down as universally true. In the sixteenth century, religious liberty was universally unknown, and in Roman Catholic countries, at the present day, as Mr B. well knows, it is everywhere more or less repressed, or absolutely extinguished. But in Protestant countries,

VOL. XVIII. NO. II.

M

precisely in the proportion that Scriptural Christianity prevails, it is understood, allowed, practised. We ask, has this result been in no degree owing to the pains taken by Protestant governments of old, when in the hands of better Christians than are often to be found in

high places now, to turn the minds of their subjects from the corruptions and the slavish maxims of Rome, to God speaking to them in his own word, and by a faithful ministry? Was it not by established churches that this was done? And at this day, would it not be a great and crowning step in the interests of religious liberty, were the government of France to present everywhere to the people, truly evangelical pastors, who should direct them to the Scriptures of truth as the only source of true freedom, as well as the only sure guide to happiness? Are the principles of evangelical Christianity so hostile to religious liberty, that a government must be supposed to impair it the moment that it ventures to sanction and promote the teaching of those principles; not, it will be observed, in a country where voluntary efforts may be expected to suffice for that purpose, and where such efforts meet with encouragement from the great body of the people, but where there are few to make the attempt, and where a legion of priests and their followers are ready to oppose

it. Surely, then, a frank and strenuous inculcation of Scriptural principles by the government, with the consent and advice of the legislature, would be as legitimate an exercise of governmental power, always assuming that nothing compulsory or intolerant attend it, as a frank and strenuous inculcation of what the government conceives to be the true philosophy of natural science. Better, shall it be said, let it do nothing at all. But would it not blush, were it known in the scientific circles of Europe, that it stood by, doing nothing, while the youth of France were left to the teaching of men who inculcate false and exploded principles in the civil sciences? Is the government not infinitely more interested in the inculcation of sound principles of religion and morality?

Again, in a work written expressly for Europeans, while nothing could be more praiseworthy than to stir them up, if possible, particularly on the Continent, to a far wider and more liberal development of their own energies than they at present manifest, by showing the marvels accomplished in the United States by the associated efforts and sacrifices of private individuals, the different circumstances of the two continents ought to have been more explicitly avowed. We are aware that Mr B.'s candour is great and exemplary, and that in his preface he studiously repels the idea of prescribing for countries whose circumstances widely differ from those of his own. But it would have been better had he continued to glance at these differences, and shown how far they were such as make imitation hopeless. In the United States, the land is generally occupied by men who

must be supposed to be in better circumstances than even our ordinary farmers, since these are continually foregoing many comforts, and incurring much expense and risk, to join them. They pay no rent, and no heavy taxes. The labourers, again, are few, and well paid. Neither, except in New England, is there any property that has been set apart for ages for pious uses, such as the maintenance of the Christian ministry. Everywhere throughout the Union, according to Mr B.'s own statement, and in every district having the population of one of our ordinary parishes, there is a positive and growing ability to maintain a gospel ministry on the one hand, and no public fund specially set apart for its support on the other. Add to this, that whether the population be American or European, they must have been accustomed to associate public worship, and churches wherein to celebrate it, with all their ideas of civilization and respectability, to say nothing of religion at all. Thus nothing seems wanting, but simply to urge the people to unite in accomplishing an object, not beyond their ability, and in which all have a common interest. But how very different is it in the old countries of Europe? Our overgrown, and generally non-resident proprietors, have not the same interest in contributing towards the building of churches, and the maintenance of ministers on their estates, as the numerous farmers who cultivate their own land in America? Our farmers and their labourers are not equally able, with those in America, to give out of their abundance what may be required for that purpose. Help must therefore come from some quarter, be it from the teinds, or from a Free Church central sustentation fund,-a fund, by the way almost unnecessary in America, although indispensable here. No doubt, a machinery, and that a somewhat costly one, is required there to commence the work in the back settlements; for we quite agree with Mr B. in admitting, that a very sparse population, the juxta-position of settlers of different religious sects, and even of different nations, and distance from, or difficulty of procuring a ministry, are all serious hindrances in the first instance. To meet these, home missionary and theological education societies are necessary. But, we repeat, America has no large districts covered with a population who have really no superfluities out of which to build churches, and support a ministry,-no ancient funds belonging to no person individually, but consecrated for ages to the very purpose that is wanted -the support of a gospel ministry among a people too really and too permanently poor to have even the prospect of being able to do so. There are, indeed, two exceptions in the United States to the sufficiency of the Voluntary principle even there, and they demand our notice. Mr B. assumes throughout, that before a Christian ministry can be established, there must be a considerable number of settlers found within a given district, and many years may elapse be

fore a number sufficient to warrant the having a church and minister, can be found. Now, it is evident, that during that interval, the few settlers on the spot, being without a ministry and ordinances, must be fearfully tempted to become too worldly and irreligious ever to desire having a ministry settled among them at all. And has not the Establishment principle, by anticipating this, an immense advantage over the Voluntary principle, which, whether from choice or necessity, waits until Satan and the world have had a decided advantage in their favour? The next exception is the case of large cities, such as New York, and Philadelphia. M. de Toqueville speaks of the mobs of these cities as not only vicious but dangerous, and threatening to the very government of the country. We have ourselves seen evidence of this, in the reports of religious and benevolent societies from Philadelphia; and assuredly, wherever there are such large bodies of desperately low and vicious persons, that government must either be very cruel, or very foolish, which does not seek to bring Christian influences to bear upon them, by co-operating, for that purpose, with one or more branches of the church of Christ. it must be, if, refusing to avail itself of such moral influences, it attack these intestine enemies only with the terrors of a severe police; -foolish, if it allow them to wax in numbers and in ferocity, by leaving them to themselves.

Cruel

But we are not quite satisfied that these are the only exceptions. In the American Quarterly Register for August 1840, published at Boston, we find the religious statistics of Windham County, Vermont, comprising twenty parishes. After a complete list of the Congregational ministers and churches from the first settlement to the present time,' certain notes are given. The following extracts may probably be regarded as presenting specimens of all the poorer and more thinly inhabited districts.

"BROOKLINE. This is a small township, and the church always feeble, and enjoying but very little ministerial labour, has now ceased to have any visible existence.

"DOVER.-The church was formed in 1802. It has always been feeble.. During the long interval between the dismission of their first pastor and the settlement of the second, and also since the death of the latter, they have had occasional supplies-generally by the assistance of the Vermont Domestic Missionary Society. But a large part of the time they have been wholly destitute.

GUILDFORD. The history of this church has been calamitous. There is, however, very little record of its troubles and decline. Their first minister, concerning whom tradition gives a good account, died suddenly after a ministry of six years. Their second, Mr Williams, after becoming identified with one of the political parties in the contest with New York and the inhabitants of the New Hampshire grants, was obliged suddenly to abandon the place. The influence of the third minister, Mr Wol