of Good Counsels for the fifth year, || the 23d of April, the Count Ver Huell of which 21,000 copies has been dis- presiding. The report was read by posed of. The whole number of M. Grand-Pierre, in which a partictracts sold and distributed gratuitous- ular account was given of the Sociely, during the year, is 246,397; ma- ty's mission to the Cape of Good king the whole number circulated Hope. The expenditures of the Sosince the foundation of the Society ciety amounted to 24,902 francs, and to be 1,220,587. The receipts for the receipts to 31,131, and 452 fr. the year was 7,420 francs, and the were collected at the close of the expenses 12,064. meeting. The Journals des Missions Evangeliques is published by the society and is receiving increasing patronage. Bible Society of Paris. The meeting was held April 21st, Count Ver-Huell, the president, in the Chair. M. Lutteroth read the report; in which special notice was taken of the resolution of the American Bible Society to supply all the destitute families within two years. The receipts for the year were 43,377 francs, and the expenses 30,943.Copies of the Bible were issued amounting to 6355, circulated wholly among the Protestants. The whole number of copies issued since the foundation of the Society is 110,000. The Strasburg Bible Society has issued 20,000 Bibles and Testaments, since 1815. It is estimated that 155,000 copies of the Bible have been distributed among the Protestants in France during the last fifteen years, by means of Bible Societies. In the course of the meeting, 3,000 francs were given to enable the Committee to furnish a Bible to every family in some one of the departments which they shall designate. Society for the Promotion of Chris tian Morals. The anniversary was on the 22d of April; M. Guizot presiding. Mr. Doin read the report. The receipts for the year, were 10,508 francs, and the expenditures 13,441. The Society publishes a journal entitled the Archives Philanthropique; it supports 63 orphans; it has committees on prisons, for preventing pauperism, for meliorating the condition of the blind, on religious liberty, &c. Evangelical Missionary Society. Society for the Encouragement of primary instruction among the Protes tants. The meeting was held on the 24th of April. The Marquis de Jaucourt, peer of France, and president of the Society, presided. M. Laffon de Ladebat read the report. Circulars have been addressed by the Society's committee to the presidents of the consistories, and the pastors, making inquiries respecting the number of schools and scholars. In many departments it is said that nineteen twentieths of the population receive no instruction. The French government, the last year, gave 10,000 fr. to the Protestant churches to aid in elementary instruction. The receipts of the Society are 3,010 francs most of which was raised in Paris. From the Evangelical Luth. Intelligencer. The great advantages resulting from infant schools, have been witnessed in several cities of the United States, and we are certain, they will increase, until they shall be established in all our towns and villages. Not only, are the little plants less liable to accidents, which frequently befall those, that are entrusted to the mind as soon as it acts, is properyoung and inexperienced nurses, but ly modelled, and directed to such objects, as will render the rising generation more virtuous, more useful and happier than those generally have been, who were for years per-swineherd, too decrepid to leave his mitted to follow the unrestrained de-bed; and the rest were shepherds sires and propensities of the heart. who imparted their scanty knowledge In our opinion, that children ought to the children in the winter months. to be taught and directed as soon as Many of the teachers could not read they can articulate, we are not now with any fluency, and few made presingular, for many have been con-tensions to the art of writing. vinced of the propriety and necessity of some plan to cultivate the mind at an early day, although they formerly believed, that children should be permitted to stroll about, at their pleasure, for the first six or eight years. Stouber's first effort was to procure better teachers, and in order to encourage the more informed class of inhabitants to undertake the task, abolished the name of schoolmaster, to which there was a decided aversion on the part of the recluse aristocIt is with pleasure, that we record racy, and substituted that of regents, a notice of a Divine of our church, or superintendents, under which title to whom the christian world is in- some consented to co-operate with debted for inventing the plan of in- him. By his exertions aided by dofant schools. We extract it from the nations from the German border, he Saturday Morning Journal.-[Edit. provided books and a school house. Infant Schools owe their origin to Some opposition was made by the an obscure Lutheran minister in a peasants to the system of instruction, half-savage corner of France-the from the dread that some occult mysBan de la Roche, or Steinthal. The tery was concealed beneath the unmerits of their remarkable founder connected syllables of the spelling were buried in the remoteness and in- lessons. The progress of the bolder significance of his little parish, and spirits, however, so effectually overit seems as if by mere accident the came this objection, that in a short intelligence of his existence had time an adult school was establishbeen discovered. We allude to John|ed, which was taught on part of SunFrederick Oberlin, Pastor of Wald- days, and in the evenings of winbach, whose life was published in ter. London last year, edited by a bene- The bible was only known to the volent female, and which, whilst people by report. Stouber procured scores of pernicious English works fifty copies, each of which he divihave been reprinted with disgraceful [ded into three parts, for the purpose haste, remains not only unpublished, of more general distribution. Aided but so far as we remember, unnoticed by the simplicity of his weekly serin this country. mons and private instruction, they The district of the Ban contains soon were enabled to read with pleaabout 9,000 acres, and when discov-sure and understanding. In these ered, had probably less than 200 fam-employments the indefatigable minisilies, scarcely civilized. A barrier ter spent seventeen years of disinterof mountains secluded them from ested labor, when he was called to common intercourse with the neigh- a church at Strasburg. Anxious to boring provinces, and they hardly provide a successor who would foltilled the ground. The first effort to low up his plans, he prevailed upon improve their condition was made by Oberlin, a native of Strasburg to a German Lutheran minister, named succeed him; who, with his wife, Stouber. Upon coming into the dis-undertook the charge in 1767, in the trict he indeed found what were cal-27th year of his age, residing at the led schools, but the instructor of the parsonage-house, left by Stouber at first he entered was a superannuated the village of Waldbach. Oberlin, projected more extensive || school, one in directing manual tasks, plans than his predecessor had at- the other in instructing and entertaining the children, who were from two to seven years old. When weary of sewing or knitting, the conductress would exhibit and explain to them, pictures relating to scripture subjects, natural history, and maps. She would also instruct them to sing moral songs and hymns, taking care to prevent the use of the barbarous patois, which was their vernacular tongue. tempted. His first effort was to persuade his parishioners to open a passable road, by which their territory might be reached, and the means of communication with the more civilized districts increased. The proposal was listened to with astonishment and incredulity; but when the worthy pastor took up a pick-axe and set laboriously to work himself, he was soon joined by his people. He continued to direct and share their Thus trained, the children in due labors, until in 1770, a communica- course entered the higher schools, in tion was opened with Strasburg, and which a more elevated course of ina bridge thrown over the intervening struction was pursued. Every Sunriver. He introduced trades, by se- day the children of each village aslecting from the elder boys, the best sembled in rotation at the church, to qualified, and apprenticing them to sing the hymns and recite the relimechanics at Strasburg. The dwel-gious lessons they had learned during lings of the peasants were wretched the week, and to receive the exhorcabins hewn out of the rocks, or sunk |tations of the good Pastor or dear in the mountains: Oberlin caused them to build comfortable cottages. He taught them agriculture, and the method of raising fruit-trees, which made a magical change in the barren appearance of the county, and he finally established an agricultural society. Papa, as they called him. Besides this meeting, all the scholars were assembled weekly at Waldbach, where they were examined by Oberlin. His friends at Strasburg, subscribed liberally to aid his schools, and he was thus enabled to establish a circulating library for their use, to print a Oberlin directed his principal ef- number of elementary works excluforts, however, to the education of sively for them, and to procure some the youth. In the course of a few philosophical and mathematical inyears, he procured the erection of a struments. Prizes were awarded to school house in each of the five vil-masters and scholars, to stimulate lages, into which his parish was di- them respectively to diligent exervided. "During the construction of these buildings," says his biographer, "the preparation of masters continued; but as Oberlin had observed with concern, the disadvantages to which the younger children were subjected, whilst their elder brothers and sisters were at school, and their parents busily engaged in their daily avocations, he laid down a plan for We cannot follow the details of the introduction of infant schools al-his patriarchial life: it was one scene so." He, therefore, in conjunction of active benevolence and zealous with his wife, appointed a conductress piety. At one time he was so deeply for each village. Instruction and impressed with a sense of the reliamusement were blended. Two gious wants of America, that he dewomen were employed in each termined to emigrate to Pennsylva tion. He prepared an almanac, filled with useful instruction and advice. He taught his pupils botany, and to draw flowers from nature. Every child, at a certain period, was required to plant two young trees, to impress early upon their minds the duty of contributing to the general prosperity. terpreting the miracles which are related in Scripture, as if they were natural events, exaggerated perhaps, by the sacred historian, or magnified by popular tradition. Remember, that if there is a Deity, that Deity must be omnipotent. If there be a Deity, there is no greater difficulty to a wise man in believing in miracles, upon the evidence of an inspired book, than in believing in the evidence of his senses. Preach your nia, a design which was frustrated||will do well by avoiding to affirm by the revolutionary war. As the their truth. Never condescend to population of the Ban increased, degrade your hallowed cause, by inOberlin introduced cotton spinning and weaving. The thriving settlement attracted much attention, and in 1818, the Royal Agricultural Society of Paris presented Oberlin with a gold medal, in testimony of his services to mankind, and especially in the science of agriculture. The decoration of the Legion of Honor was awarded him by Louis XVIII. He was visited by several travellers from England, who expressed the utmost gratification and astonishment at the religion, with all its mysteries, and good order and happiness which pre-all its difficulties, provided you are vailed. Oberlin died in June,1829, satisfied that you preach the fair inaged eighty-six. The Memoirs be- ferences deducible from Scripture. fore us are of a cast which must cap- The union of the concurrent testitivate every reader. All that Uto-mony of the best interpreters, and pians have dreamed of, seems to sound, impartial criticism, will be have been realized by the community, whose history is identified with the life of the Pastor Oberlin. sufficient, by God's blessing, to preserve you from material error. I have said nothing to you upon the inferior subjects of the best manner of preaching, nor of the proper style of composition. Useful directions will be found in many books, upon these points, to which I can add but little. I can only say, with respect to the manner of preaching, avoid with the utmost abhorrence, all affectation, and address yourself to your congregation as if ADVICE TO A YOUNG CLERGYMAN. Make these great truths-(viz. the union of the doctrines of the Trinity, the incarnation, and the atonement; the necessity of divine assistance to restore the soul to its Creator, certainty of the resurrection from the dead; and the undoubted usefulness of the two appointed sacraments, the outyou were a friend or a brother, ward means of grace, and that sysanxious to persuade them to believe tem of church government which is some truth, which to you appears to founded upon Scripture and antiqui- be of the utmost importance or to act ty, upon usefulness and reason,)in some manner which you are conmake these great truths the founda- vinced is alone right, and wise, and tion of your preaching, and you will good. Be in earnest, and that earthen attain to the character of a true nestness will be the best eloquence, With respect to your style of compoLive but according to will be the real chris-sition, I would give you advice of a similar nature. So study your subject, that it shall fill your soul, and Write occupy all your thoughts. out before you commence your homily itself, a clear and ample sketch of the proposition you would enforce, the arguments by which you would support it, and the inferences you would desire to deduce from it; and Catholic. these, and you Predestination.—Indecision. your plain and simple address when delivered in the manner I have described, will be abundantly blessed by him, who is ever present with the ministers and the people of his church.-[Townsend. PREDESTINATION. The Almighty has granted to every christian the knowledge of his will, the influence of his spirit, and other means of grace, to enable him to attain present and future happiness, whatever be the unavoidable circumstances of life, the resources, the adversity or the prosperity, in which God has placed him. To illustrate my position, let me submit to you that instance in which the foreknow 133 liberty of man are harmoniously blended together.—[Ib. INDECISION. If a christian knows and believes, as you all know and believe, that Christ has died to save sinners, even the very chief, and that he has died, has sent his Holy Spirit to enable therefore, to save you, and that he you to follow him thro' the wilderness of this world, to happiness and heaven; and if cuses to cause you to neglect that you permit these exgreat salvation which has been purthese excuses lead you to quench chased for us by the Son of God; if the spirit, and harden the heart; the misery which you feel now, when your conscience then reproves you, may ledge of God is most forcibly display- be regarded as the earnest of that ed in the death of the body. Man has no control over this event; it is of the covenant will experience hereundying remorse which the despisers certain, and it is unavoidable; it is after. God, the Almighty, the merthe undoubted decree of God; nothing ciful God-God, the giver of chriscan alter it—nothing can suspend it-tianity, the Saviour of the soul, denothing can avert it. The merciful sires your happiness, and he has imGod, who has ordained this event, has instructed man to meet it, and to bear with it, though it is not given him to escape from it; and it depends, therefore, upon the man to render his inevitable lot peaceful or miserable We are invited and we are intreated to become possessed of that living faith in God, which can give peace at the last: and if we will obtain this living faith and humble hope, neither the infirmities of sickness, nor the pains of the body, nor the agonies of disease, nor the separation from all that has been dear to us in parted the revelation of his will to assure us of this truth. "How long then, halt ye, between two opinions?" The Lord, and not Baal, is your God. Follow him in the way he has appointed. Follow him, not merely by outward profession and outward observances, by useless resolutions and by broken vows; follow him by firmer faith-by secret prayer for strength to conquer evil, and to obtain peace of mind, and repose of conscience. Follow him by repentance, which shall not be repented of, till life, nor all the melancholy attendings of existence-christian holiness, possess the only two real blessants of dissolution, can render the and christian happiness. Follow him christian miserable, or shake his conby the dedication of the heart, by fidence, or sink him into despair. inward and decided religion, by inThus does God predestinate man to stant obedience, without excuses, and death, as an event over which man without delay.[1b. has no control; thus does the grace of God, and the power of the Holy Spirit, assist the free-will of man with its persuasive energies; and thus the foreknowledge of God and $1,100 have been collected in. Frederick, Md. for the Theological Seminary at Gettysburgh. |