numbering "ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND TEACHERS," and demanding "the stated and united prayers of Christians in all parts of the world;" that prayer in general, and concert prayer in particular, is essential to the success of every Christian enter prise ;-that the existing monthly concert has an exclusive reference to missions, and should not be diverted from this specific object; and hence, finally, that it is proper to establish a monthly concert for Sabbath Schools. Now, Mr. Editor, I wish to suggest whether this sort of reasoning may not be turned to some further account, and whether the "hint" which occasioned it, may not be made profitable to various other great concerns. I would ask the managers of Bible Societies whether theirs be not "a great and extended interest" embracing thousands of auxiliaries and tens of thousands of contributors, and whether a monthly concert be not as important to their cause as to that of Sunday Schools. Inasmuch therefore, as Bible Societies are not identified with mis sions' and consequently do not come within the view of the existing monthly concert, is it not plainly the duty of those who direct them to recommend that some evening in cach month be set apart as a concert of prayer for Bible Societies? Again: the "cause of religion among seamen" is "a great and extended interest." Are there not a “hundred thousand" of these neglected men for whom "Christians in all parts of the world" have never prayed in concert? Ought there not therefore to be a monthly concert for Seamen? Further: Education Societies, Tract Societies, Jews' Societies, our Colleges, and many other things of which time would fail me to speak, are among those great and extended interests against which the monthly concert for missions has shut its doors. But whereunto will this matter grow? "On such an evening"-I seem to hear our ministers proclaiming from the desk-"On such an evening of the present week is the monthly concert for missions, and on such an evening is the Sunday School Monthly Concert,and on such an evening is the Seamen's, or the Jews,' or the Bible, or the Education, or the Colonization Society's monthly concert!" Monthly concerts thicken upon us till they outnumber the feasts and fasts of the Catholic Church, and we need our rosaries to keep our reckoning. In objects of public importance a man's sensible horizon is the line which circumscribes his own labors. By confining his views and his ef forts to some one department in the great field of Christian benevolence, he is apt to overlook the importance of other departments and to conclude that his own enterprise is the great enterprise of the age. He surveys the magnitude of the operations which it contemplates and reckons up the thousands that are interested in it, and for it, till in his view it is nothing less than the stone cut out without hands, which became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. I love the zeal which carries with it the whole heart; but let it be tem pered by knowledge and by catholic views. To whatever division of the great army of the Prince of Peace we may have attached ourselves let us be faithful to our post; but let us look beyond our own operations and consider how our particular plans and movements are likely to tally with the general object of the campaign. My objection to the propos ed monthly concert is the very obvious one, that it will do away the interest of that already established. The existing monthly concert is a most interesting and sacred institu tion. It is interesting in its nature and in the associations with which its history is connected. But, it is confined, we are told, to missions, and "ought not to be diverted from this specific purpose." How it may have been conducted in some places 1. I cannot tell, but wherever it has been my happiness to be present, it has embraced not simply missions, but all the interests of Christ's kingdom, and all the means of its advancement. Its simple prayer is, Thy kingdom come; and the communication of no species of intelligence relating to that kingdom, nor the mention of any one great subject of prayer or praise, however distinct from missions, has been considered inappropriate to the occasion. Missions it is true hold a prominent place in the exercises of the monthly concert and this is as it should be ; for they hold a prominent place in the great system of ineans for converting the world. But it is with some surprise I learn, that those who have not been accustomed to restrict it to missions, have mistaken its character and celebrated it amiss. One monthly concert is important. It is well that there should be one such season returning monthly to remind Christians in all lands of their common relation to the great family of Christ, and of their common duty to the millions of them that dwell in darkness. But add another, and another to it, and the peculiar sacredness of the institution is gone. have been adopted without due consideration and sufficiently extensive views-a measure which is to affect existing institutions and habits, and which, if the hand of time do not write Ichabod both upon it and the sister institution, is to go down to the evening of the millennium. A Sabbath School Teacher. For the Christian Spectator. Written in the Album of a Lady who had suggested her "WORK-BASKET" as a theme for a poet. I saw it in a midnight dream, When slumber's charm was o'er me :A little basket in the beam Of noon-day stood before me;— So fair, it seem'd some elfin band Of gossamer had wrought it: 3 Yet thro' its sides, in every part, Their sweet perfume was stealing; 'Twas like a guileless maiden's heart Its inmost thoughts revealing: And soon, methought a singing maid Was sitting there, those flow'rs to braid. 4 As grew, like hope, the flow'ry wreath Beneath her flying fingers, Se seem'd with halfa sigh to breathe- The blast of death had o'er me swept, Before those flow'rs were faded ; And soon above my ashes grew 6 I dream'd that when a few brief years Were past, my parted spirit Came back to trace the joys and fears That once it did inherit;Just as the man comes back to trace 7 I have not troubled you, Mr. Editor, with these remarks, because I have any apprehension that the observance of the new monthly concert will become universal, even among teachers themselves. Yet it may. The resolution of the "Association of Male Teachers" in Philadelphia, is seconded by the formal and imposing recommendation of the "Board of Managers of the American Sunday School Union ;" and "the first Sunday School Monthly Concert" has already been attended in several of our large cities. Finally; if my views on this subject be erroneous, I shall be sorry to have burthened your pages with The scenes of childhood's dwelling-place. them. But if they be right I shall not be alone in my regret, that a measure of so much importance as the one under consideration, should I saw that little basket stand Ev'n as before;-but time's rude hand Review of New Publications. 1. The Decision: or Religion must Ir is not among the least of the wonders of modern times, that every species of intellectual effort should be enlisted in the service of religion. Nay, even a great deal of worldly business seems to be shaped and modified under its influence. Men seem to lay their plans with some sort of reference to religion. There is probably no surer index of the current of fashion, than the periodical advertisements of "New Publications." Those enterprising men, the Booksellers, are too sharp sighted not to follow where public opinion leads. They have no idea of publishing such kind of books as will not be interesting, and which, of course, will not sell. And that other very useful class of persons, the Book makers, as a body, are always sufficiently dependent, to fall very readily into the popular current. When therefore, we find all sorts of publications devoted to the subject of religion, Novels, Tales, and Children's Books; Geographies, Gazetteers, and School Books; Newspapers, Magazines, and Almanacks; and the number of these continually increasing, as if laboring to meet the pressing demand; we may be sure that religion of some sort, has be come, as it ought to be, the paramount subject of interest in the community. The effect has been, as we believe, that a taste for reading is much more generally diffused, and has taken place, beyond any thing a consequent enlargement of mind. that was ever known before. If knowledge is power, then there is, at this present time, a much greater amount of moral force than there ever was before, which is ready to act, with an unexampled efficiency, either to subserve, or to injure, the best interests of man. Exactly pro portioned, therefore, to the amount of intelligence diffused, becomes the importance of having the public mind decidedly biassed in favor of truth. A hand mill may become disordered in its movements, without any very disastrous consequences. It is only that the man at the crank has wasted a little of his labor. But the irregular movements of the Steam Engine, spread destruction and terror far and wide. It is on this principle, that we bold it to be the duty of all who love the truth, to encourage every effort that is calculated to give a right direction to public sentiment. Whether writers are engaged in the more difficult field of doctrinal discussion, or in the pleasanter employment, of giving a practical influence to the truth, they are co-workers in the same cause, and ought always to give each other an encouraging look, and as occasion requires, a helping hand. The labours of such men as Edwards, and Bellamy, and Dwight, in clearing religious truth frou vain speculations, which hindered its success, and laid it open to the objections of the captious, have prepared the way for such men as the author now before us, to enter in, and avail himself of their labors, by giving a practical exhibition of the proper tendency of the Gospel. There is no occasion of jealousy, nor any ground for one class to undervalue the efforts of the other. "If they were all one member, where were the body? Shall the car say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body?" We respect the motive of every one who heartily engages in this cause. When such authors as this are engaged, we applaud their performance. We know not this writer's name, but we believe he has achieved a service of no inconsiderable value to the cause of Christ. And if his heart has been in his work, (and how otherwise could he do it so well?) he has won for himself a crown of reward. In the two little works before us, the author has attempted, and we think in a happy manner, to illustrate the influence of divine truth, and the process of conversion, in two classes of very amiable persons, who appear, in the eyes of superficial observers, not to need any such change as is denoted by the new birth. One class is composed of the more tender hearted, such as the matron and the youth; and the other, of the sober, reflecting, and respectable men of the world. The characters are all taken from the refined part of society, and nothing is admitted which should wound the finest feelings, or disgust the most delicate taste. Nor is their literary merit merely negative. We think them decidedly calculated to raise the tone of thought, and to refine the minds of those readers, whose previous attainments are such, as prepares them duly to appreciate their worth. And we believe that in our country, such a degree of mental cultivation is very extensively diffused; and consequently, that these volumes are adapted for very extensive circulation and usefulness. The general object of the writer seems to be to show the false notions of the nature of piety, which are entertained by many amiable persons; and to expose the weakness of the objections which sceptical minds adduce, against experimental religion. Although there is much that is didactic, and upon some v ry difficult points, yet the writer has had the address to keep up a good degree of interest. There is very little incident, and consequently the life of the pieces depends chiefly upon the air of sincerity and real earnestness which he contrives to give to his characters. The books take something of a dramatic form. They are written with an easy mixture of narration and dialogue, which offers some advantages to the writers of similar works. This mode relieves an author, on the one hand from the necessity of making speeches, merely to keep up the thread of the story, where narration would do the thing better, and in fewer words; and on the other hand, prevents the awkwardness of the continually recur ring expletives, says he," and says she." In regard to the writer's views of the doctrines of the gospel, and of their practical bearing, they correspond, in the main, with those which prevail in this country. He seems to have studied Edwards with some attention, and probably Bellamy, and some other of our writers. Yet we cannot but think so quick and acute a mind would find itself abundantly repaid, for a still more careful examination of such writers. There is, in some of his statements, a want of discrimination, and in some of his arguments a want of completeness, which will weaken their force. It is easy for a man who believes, to jump at a conclusion but he must not expect unbelievers and cavillers to take the leap. If he cannot make his connexion perfect, his argument is gone. We might be ourselves, disposed to controvert some of his positions, although we decisively approve his system We should be still more apt to think that in some instances he had failed, on the one hand, by attempting to explain what is inexplicable; and on the other, by not giving what appears to us to be the true explanation of questions which are within the reach of the human intellect. We refer our readers, who have access to the volumes, to page 105, of "Profession is not Principle," for apposite examples. President Edwards' theory about the origin of evil there adopted, appears to be an instance of the first, and the waving all inquiry into the nature of the Atonement on the same page, may pass for an instance of the other deficiency. To discuss these, and some other subjects, which the work has suggested, would carry us to a length not comporting with our present design. On the whole, the works are adapted to give high ideas of the purity of God's Law, and to establish an elevated standard of Christian action, while they lead the mind to look only to the Lord Jesus Christ for justification and life. We proceed to give a brief account of each book. The first in point of time is "The Decision." The principal character is a young lady of that class of persons, "who, though they at first revolt at the idea, that they whom they love and esteem, are not only themselves ignorant of true religion, but have educated them also in ignorance of it, are yet too honest and candid to resist truth when it is placed before them; and who cannot rest satisfied till they have examined, whether all is indeed right, both with themselves, and with those they love." The name of this young lady is Gertrude Aberley; and she, with her widowed mother, and Edward and Anna, her brother and sister, make up the characters in the first part or act. The scene is laid at Mrs. Aberley's house in London. Mrs. A. from a mistaken view of the true interest of her children, had involved them in all the gaiety and dissipation of a London winter. Their cousin Charles Ashton, had recently forsaken a very dissipated course of life, and had become wholly and ardently devoted to true religion. He not only felt and exemplified its power, in himself, but he wished and laboured, that others might know the same peace, and engage in the same cause. Gertrude was the first among his friends, who began to listen to his appeals in favour of religion, and to feel the unsatisfying nature of the worldly pleasures in which she was involved. "He gradually gained her attention; and she felt a wish to hear that kind of preaching to which he ascribed a change so unaccountable. With her mother's consent, she accompanied her aunt, Mrs. Ashton, to hear her cousin's favourite preacher. She heard; and her mind soon fully acquiesced in the truth delivered by a servant of God, whose life was holy, whose reasoning was conclusive, and whose manner bespoke the deep feeling he himself had of those truths he taught. Gertrude began to study the Scriptures, and felt that she never before had understood them The life of gaiety in which she was involved became irksome to her; but she did not immediately perceive that it was her duty to forsake it." p. 7. But before the following winter, her mind was made up, and her resolution became fixed, for the service of God. She had to encounter as much opposition as could be expected, in an affectionate family, absorbed in the gaieties of life, but who yet were so well informed on religious subjects, as to make the self-denial and spiritual-mindedness of a young convert a constant source of self-reproach and uneasiness. Her conversations with her mother and sis ter, which are detailed, are extremely faithful, judicious, and affectionate, and may well serve as a model to others in like circumstances. The first member of the family, however, who "became infected," was her brother Edward. "He had entered upon the follies and vices of young |