say that I think this is a very im- the captain durst give to his steam portant Institution. It is a very was insufficient to propel the vessel gratifying consideration that so forward. We however consoled many of those who have the man- ourselves with the consideration, agement of the Institution entrust-that our detention gave us a good ed to them, are persons of unblem-opportunity of minutely surveying ished morals and undoubted piety. the remarkable eddies, and varying I leave my dear child with perfect currents of this far famed place. confidence, believing that every attention will be paid to her comfort and improvement, which can be expected in a public institution. I am your affectionate brother. REMARKABLE CONVERSION. We We are indebted to a friend for the following interesting narrative of a remarkable conversion. We give it with pleasure to our readers, to whom we are convinced it will furnish many delightful topics of reflection. EDS. For the American Baptist Magazine. SOME ACCOUNT OF MR. LUKE SHORT, WHO DIED AT MIDDLEBOROUGH, MASS. Mr. Luke Short was born in Dartmouth, County of Devon, England, where he lived until he was about 16 years of age. He recollected to have seen Oliver Cromwell, witnessed some of his most memorable achievements, and was present at the beheading of Charles Ì. in 1649. At noon we left Hartford in the Steam Boat Oliver Ellsworth." Before we went on board, I was so fortunate as to be introduced to a clergyman who accompanied us to Saybrook. The weather was peculiarly fine, and the prospect on each side the Connecticut river surpassed in beauty any thing I had anticipated. My interest was increased on being informed that in some of the towns which we passed, there had lately been a general attention to religion, and many had given evidence of a work of grace in their hearts. With my clerical friend, although of another denomination, as we walked the deck together I enjoyed much communion. In fact, just such communion in its nature, as I expect saints will enjoy in heaven. It consisted in an unreserved interchange of thoughts and feelings on subjects connected with the glory of God, the salvation of the soul and the prosperity of the Redeemer's kingdom. For this From Marblehead Mr. Short sail"communion of saints, "I am not ed regularly in the merchant serconscious of having ever felt a movice, until being advanced in life, ment's reluctance since I have had a hope in Christ, and I am sure that without this any occasional form of fellowship would be vain. Having left some of our passen-chusetts. gers at Saybrook, we proceeded on our course and arrived in this City at 1 o'clock yesterday. We should have been here at least two hours sooner, had we not been detained at Hurl Gate. The tide which had set in against us was so rapid and powerful, that for a long time, the highest pressure which Shortly after this time he became a seaman, sailed to America, and fixed upon Marblehead as the place of his residence. There he married, and was blessed with a family of children. some change of employment became necessary. He then removed from that place and settled in Middleborough, Plymouth Co. Massa Here he resided until the day of his death. When an hundred years old, his strength was sufficient to enable him to work on his farm, and his mental faculties were but little impaired. At this advanced age, he was sitting down one day in his field, and calling to mind some of the most remarkable events of his life, par ticularly of his youth. His memo- || labors. Duty is ours, the event must be left to God. We are to preach the word with plainness, with affection, in simplicity of heart, and God will direct it where and when he pleases. He has promised that his word shall not return unto ry fastened especially upon the following fact. When quite a boy, he had heard the venerable John Flavel, whose praise has long been in the churches, preach from the words, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be ana-him void, but shall accomplish that thema maranatha." He recollected a considerable part of the discourse which was exceedingly pungent and solemn, particularly the explanation of the words anathema maranatha, "cursed with a curse, cursed of God with a bitter and grievous which he shall please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereunto he hath sent it. Where we expect the most good to be done, there may be done the least, and where we utterly despair, it may be a time of the right hand of the Most High. And it may be that long after we have descended to our fathers, the seed which we have sown may spring up into an abundant harvest; souls may, through to light, who shall be our crown of rejoicing before the throne of God and of the Lamb. Connected with the delivery of the sermon was one event, which at the time made a deep impression on the minds of the audience, and which was now called to recollec-our word, be turned from darkness tion by Mr. Short. When Mr. Flavel arose to pronounce the benediction he paused and said, "How shall I bless this whole assembly, when every person in it who loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ is anathema maranatha?" A baronet who happened to be present, fell to the floor, overwhelmed with the solemn conviction which this question carried home to his bosom. "Though seed lie buried long in dust, The narrative also presents much matter of encouragement to Christians of all classes who are labouring in the cause of God. Specially The recollection of this sermon, should it encourage teachers in and of the circumstances attending Sabbath schools to abound in the it, were the means used by the work of the Lord. We behold in Spirit of God to awaken Mr. S.'s the case before us an instance in attention to the subject of religion which seed lay buried for 85 years, at this advanced age. He obtained before it sprang up and brought mercy through the merits of a cru- forth fruit unto everlasting life. cified Saviour, joined the 1st Con-You are, my young friends, instillgregational church in Middleborough, and to the day of his death, which took place in his 116th year, gave pleasing evidence of piety. God, who in answer to prayer, added 15 years to the life of Hezekiah, added 16 years to that of this venerable man, after he had been born when he was old. This brief narrative naturally gives rise to several interesting reflections. 1. It should serve to encourage ministers of the Gospel, who at present witness no fruit from their FEB. 1825. ing into the tender minds of children, doctrines and principles which they can never forget, but which will often check them in the hour of temptation, and alarm them in the hour of solitude, and which, whether they be converted or not, cannot fail to have its effect on all their subsequent life. You are casting seed upon the waters; you know not whither the current may waft it, or on what bank it may spring up, but it will spring up somewhere, and you shall find it after many days. 6 And lastly, let us all solemnly reflect on the meaning of the words which awakened the subject of this notice. If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema maranatha, cursed with a curse. Do we love the Lord Je Again, the above narrative should encourage the aged to seek an interest in Christ. Think not, aged friends, that it is too late for you to turn unto God. Your case we know is alarming, but it is not hopeless. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin. It is suffi-sus Christ If we do not, how aweient to cleanse you. Seek the ful is our danger. He that beLord while he may be found, and lieveth not is condemned already, call upon him while he is near because he hath not believed on Turn unto the Lord and he will the name of the only begotten Son have mercy upon you, and unto our of God. God for he will abundantly pardon. REVIEW. The History of the Christian Church || ed simply as an historian he will from the Birth of Christ to the Eigh-bear away the palm from all the teenth Century, including a very inter- writers who have gone before him, esting account of the Waldenses and Albigenses. By WILLIAM JONES, Au- and what is better, he will confer thor of the Biblical Cyclopedia, &c. one of the most substantial blessFirst American from the 4th Londonings upon the human race, that man Edition, published by Spencer H. Cone, has conferred since the days of the N. Y. 1824. 2 vols. pp. 483, 492, and Albany, by John B. Johnson, pp. 575. Apostles. No subject on which any historian has ever written can compare with this in interest or importance. We consider the New Testament an appeal to the moral nature of man, a book disclosing the remedy devised by Almighty God to rescue him from the woes of the apostacy, the grand means by which this world, so full of misery and sin, is to be restored to an intellectual and moral elevation, which shall make it in some manner to resemble the mansions of the blessed. Now what we would have an historian do is, to follow these doctrines wherever they have gone, THERE yet remains one great desideratum to be supplied in historical literature; it is a full and luminous history of the Church of Christ. We use the terms history of the church, because they are so commonly used when speaking of this subject, but as they are generally understood, they are very far from conveying the idea of what we suppose to be so much wanted. The words have been so differently applied by different sects, and call up so infinite a variety of topics of polemical controversy, that they are most unfortunately used as the title of a work which should be design-mark their effects upon the state ed for Christendom and the world. What we wish to see, and what we hope before long will be accomplished, is a history of the rise, progress and effects of the doc trines and precepts of Jesus Christ. these doctrines Let any man who is competent to spread at first with such unexthe task gird himself to this under-ampled rapidity. He should tell taking, and let him candidly and us where and when and how those fearlessly execute it; and consider- who professed them at first, began of political society, domestic relations, courts of justice, and all which belongs to the moral of human nature. He should mark by what means and under what circumstances, to depart from their primitive || ciple in man, and the importance simplicity, and what in each case of cultivating this if they would was the result of each individual ever confer any substantial benefit deviation. He should trace the upon our race It would be an unseveral steps by which men de- answerable argument for the truth parted from the word of the Living of Christianity; for no one would God, until at last they were plunged question whether a religion, which into the night of a second pagan- wrought such effects, were from ism; and he should show us how, God. It would diffuse over Chrisjust in proportion as the light from tendom a deeper reverence for the the holy oracle was obscured by Bible, and would make every sect the devices and doctrines of man, see that we are only safe while we darkness covered the earth and make it, and it alone, the only rule gross darkness the people. And for our faith and practice. he should show us the process by which the human race emerged from this abyss of degradation; how the starting place of improvement was the Bible, how the press has interposed to stem the torrent of a second deluge of barbarism, and how the Bible is now leading men onwards in the career of improvement, and slowly, but surely, working out the emancipation of a world that lieth in wickedness. We can conceive of no work of human intellect which must not yield in interest to such a history as this. It would not be the story of a tribe or a nation; it would be a grand development of the workings of the moral principle in man, and an exhibition of all the various ramifications of human character, with which this principle is connected. It would exhibit human nature at once in her boldest as well as in her most delicate aspects. The moral daring of the martyr, the tender anguish of the parent, the lofty purpose of the reformer, the patient suffering of the confessor, the blinded rage of the pagan persecutor, or the cold, cunning, deliberate malice of the papal inquisitor, would all conspire to render such a history indescribably more fascinating than any of the fictions of romance. And what is of more consequence, it would be a work of incalculable utility. It would show to statesmen, what statesmen have been ever slow to learn, the force o the moral prin But when we come to speak of the qualifications required for such an undertaking, we almost fear that our readers, like the prince in Rasselas, will arrest us by saying Enough! thou hast convinced me that no human being can ever be this historian. Proceed with thy narration." Yet vain as may seem the hope that such a man will be found, it may not be utterly useless to state some of the requisitions which appear most indispensable to his success. He should be a man of piety. He should have that delicate moral tact, which nothing but true religion can impart, that would enable him to discover where the principles of the gospel stood alone, and where they were mingled with the notions of men. He should be a man of learning. He must take nothing for granted, but must himself go up to the original sources of sacred and profane history. Whatever that has escaped the ravages of time, which the Fathers, or the Martyrs, or the Apologists, or their enemies have told us, must have been read and re-read, and thought into shape, and embodied into luminous and undeniable general truth. He must be a man of candour. He should be of no sect, but prepared to expose the errors or exhibit the virtues of all, as they came, and only as they came in the way of his grand design. He has to do with no party distinctions, but only with the moral influence of the doctrines of Jesus Christ. || the Waldenses and Albigenses. He should be a statesman. By He is evidently a man of enlarged this we do not mean that he should information, of unusual honesty, of be the leader or the follower of a clear intellect, and sound practical political party, but a man capable sense: a combination of qualities of seeing and estimating the force for which we think Church histoof moral cause and effect, who rians have not been very generally knows what has and what has not, distinguished. He is always a firm what can and what cannot operate and intelligent defender of the great changes in the moral mass rights of conscience; and in every which covers our globe, and in a case in which he discusses them, word, who has keenness of eye and does it with peculiar ability. steadiness of hand to sketch the Though deficient in dates, and not outline of that picture, which the always unexceptionable in method, religious history of man for eigh- his work abounds with important and teen centuries has spread out be- interesting information respecting fore him. But we will mention no the Christian Church, and will more qualifications. Whenever doubtless do more to promote a taste the man shall arise who will dare for this kind of reading than any to qualify himself for such an un- thing which has lately appeared. dertaking, let him thrust in his It has been, and it will still more sickle and reap. A harvest of ex- be, extensively read. Its popularhaustless riches, yet almost un-ity is well deserved. We are touched, is bending before him; and the church and the world will say unto him, “The blessing of the Lord be upon thee ; we bless thee pleased, and not at all surprised, that it has already passed through four editions in England, and two in our own country. We hope that the enterprising proprietors of We know it will not be consid-both editions will be abundantly rewarded. in the name of the Lord." To attempt an abridgment of such a work for the benefit of our readers would be useless. We shall not therefore attempt it. In the remarks which follow, we shall circumstances of the rise and decline of the Christian Church. Our remarks, from the nature of the case, will be brief, and many which we should be glad to make must of necessity be omitted. We shall therefore only select those of more general interest, and those which seem most likely to profit us in this age of the Christian Church. ered as intending to underrate the book before us when we say, that it is not, nor does it pretend to be, such a work as we have described. It is compiled, as the author in the preface informs us, with the desire of communicating some inter-only offer a few reflections on the esting information to a few friends, whose views of the Gospel of Christ, and the nature of his kingdom in this world, happen to coincide pretty much with his own, but who have been debarred the opportunity of exploring the voluminous productions in which that information lay scattered.” It is but just to state, that this object has been fully accomplished. The author has The history of the Church from given us, as must necessarily be the time of Christ to the presthe case, a brief sketch of the most ent day, is naturally divided into prominent moral features of what two periods. The first ending and was called the church of Christ the second commencing with the throughout the first twelve centu-era of the Reformation. This first ries of the Christian Era, and has period is again naturally subdividdevoted the remainder of the worked by the age of Constantine, when almost entirely to an account of the church, delivered from pagan |