ON THE STATE AND PROSPECTS OF RELIGION IN THE UNITED STATES. IN A LETTER ADDRESSED TO ROGER LEE, ESQ OF CLAPHAM.

Alleghany Town (opposite to Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, May, 1831.

MY DEAR SIR,

I have delayed answering your kind letter to me, that I might have an opportunity of acknowledging the receipt of the several parcels of books of which your letter made mention. And I felt myself the more excused in the liberty I had taken, since the Rev. D. Campbell assured me, that he would write to you in the interval of delay. It is now my privilege to acknowledge the receipt of the several packages you gave us reason to expect, and for which we tender you, and your worthy associates in christian liberality, our unfeigned thanks. Lord grant your names a record in the Book of Life.

The

The seminary which dates your interest by its birth, continues to flourish beyond our most sanguine hopes. The main edifice is nearly completed. One of the wings is now occupied by the students. When complete, it is designed to accommodate 100 students. The wings are three stories and the body four in height, overlooking the Ohio river, the city of Pittsburgh, and the town of Alleghany. The hill on whose summit we are situated, rises precipitous from the margin of the river, to an elevation of about 150 feet, is solitary, narrow, affording only space sufficient on the ridge, for the seminary and its requisite buildings. The spot now occupied by this "school of the prophets," was an ancient burying place for the Indians, before they retired into the forests nearer to the setting sun. This spot was the donation of the town of Alleghany, on condition that the seminary should be fixed upon it. Eighteen acres are connected with it. When the first stone was laid, there was not one dollar in the treasury; but the great Head of the church, while he called us to "walk by faith and not by sight," has faithfully supplied us by little and little, so that the work has gone up without interruption, and the labourers have been regularly paid at the appointed day. He has moved our hearts, unknown to us in the flesh, and between whom and us the Atlantic rolled. We are helped by their benefactions and (we fondly hope) their prayers. We will go onward, encouraged by our "Ebenezer."

I do not know, but it might be interest

ing to you, to sketch the plan of theolo⚫ gical education in this country. No son is born here for the church, for the patronage is lodged with the people, and they offer no lure, but that approbation and support which they freely yield to the ministry which is commended to their consciences in the sight of God. I find in the Transatlantic writers, even of piety, who contemplated the result of this experiment, at the period of our independence, that their pages are replete with gloomy bodings as to the permanence of Christian institutions in our lands. But the experiment of primitive Christianity which triumphed over the paganism and power of the Cæsars, has only been repeated, and whatever may be surmised or said to the contrary, the experiment here has also succeeded triumphantly. The simple truth is this, that notwithstanding the contaminating influence of war, and the infidelity diffused by the French army, who fought by our side; notwithstanding the vantage ground gained for Thomas Paine by his political pamphlets, which were read by officers at the head of military companies, to the army of the Revolution, and rewarded by Congress and the States; notwithstanding that our country has been for half a century the Botany Bay for moral outlaws, to which they have gone often in voluntary exile, from the old world, that they might escape the censorship of the press, and breathe their blasphemies in a freer atmosphere; notwithstanding the demoralizing mania of speculation incident to the first years of a country growing with unexampled rapidity; notwithstanding the atheism of some of our native politicians like Jefferson, who had gotten a finish to their philosophism in the circles of Paris; notwithstanding the unfettered freedom of every sectary, there is at this moment more vigour and growth and influence belonging to Christianity here, than at any period since the declaration of independence. And the reason of the fact is this, that Christianity is left to the bare guaranty of her divinity; and heaven will sustain what heaven begat. We have no miracles, and expect none. It is enough for us, that so long as the church is founded. on the rock of Christ, "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." When built on any other foundation and buttressed with human inventions, time and revolution will crumble it, and we care not how fast. Our candidates for the Gospel ministry are of two kinds, those who being hopefully pious and inclined to devote

themselves to the spread of Christ's kingdom, enter on a course of study to prepare themselves for the sacred work, or those, who having entered a course of study with reference to other professions, or even with no particular aim, are hopefully renewed in the academic halls, and then and there resolve to devote their talents and lives to labours for the salvation of their fellow men. That our universities are not mere haunts of dissipa tion or abodes of heartless philosophy, is evident from the religious awakenings which so often occur within their walls, and the fact that the presidents of our American colleges, consider themselves as sustaining a pastoral relation to their students, and labour directly for the salvation of the young men under their care. After the collegians have finished their course at the colleges, they disperse to pursue their apprenticeship to such professions as their inclination dictates.

Our theological seminaries, disjoined from those institutions where other than purely theological studies are attended to; are supposed to be free from several evils incident to the arrangement so common in Europe. Their attention is not distracted and the tone of spirituality reduced by any mixture with studies purely secular, the young men are united only with those who have devoted themselves entirely to" the work of the Lord," all their study, conversation, intercourse, have relation to this one thing, and their connection with the professors is that not only of pupils, but of friend and pastoral charge. The term of time employed in direct preparation for the Gospel ministry is in our theological seminaries, three years. These are sacredly filled up, only enough respite for health being afforded during the short vacations The course of study is generally, one year for the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, and whatever belongs to biblical interpretation, one year for theology didactic and polemic, and one year for Ecclesiastical history, church order and pastoral duty. The students are examined publicly twice each year, and when their studies for the ministry are finished, they are remitted to the several ecclesiastical bodies with which they were connected. These examine the candidate anew for their own satisfaction, and have the sole power of licensing to preach the Gospel. Hence in our theological seminaries there is free admission to the classes of young men belonging to churches of various Christian denominations, because our seminaries do not interfere with the prerogatives of churches in the affair of introducing to the Gospel ministry. We endeavour to cherish

a spirit of foreign missions, and all the young men are voluntarily associated in a society of enquiry in reference to that subject. We have no separate institution for foreign missions. You see those who have devoted themselves to the service of Christ in India, Greece, Palestine, or the Sandwich Islands, studying and praying by the side of those of their brethren who feel that they have not a constitution nor talent for foreign service, and therefore deem it their duty to till the wastes at home, and remain to sustain by their influence and their prayers, their brethren that shall toil in distant fields. We think this better than to disjoin them, as thus the diffusion of an apostolic spirit, and the cherishing of Christian fellowship would be hindered. Those who remove to missionary stations at home or abroad, come under bonds to maintain a correspondence with those of the society who remain. I have known the letter of one dying missionary to these societies bring out at once several volunteers to go and mount the breach, and carry on over the ashes of their fallen friend, the battle of the Lord of hosts. Besides, we wish to maintain the conviction that the Christian ministry is everywhere a mission, and no qualification less than "forsaking all for Christ," will answer the purpose any where. We make no distinctions. We must have "amen of God" at home as well as abroad. The natural ordinary increase of our country is more than 365,000 souls per annum. Taking into account the deaths of the labourers now in the field, we require 4 or 500 ministers annually, for "home consumption." Taking no account of the fields of foreign labour constantly opening. All this and much more, must be done too by voluntary Christian liberality, without a farthing from the state. Was ever Christianity more thrown upon herself and heaven? And "heaven is blessing us, for the battle is the Lords." The energy of piety is mightily increasing at home, and friends are raised up for us abroad. Let me thank you again for the interest you have taken in the Christian enterprizes of this land, and may the richest blessings of heaven descend on your head, and on the unknown benefactors who have remembered us in the land of our fathers! Thus in duty bound, shall ever pray,

Your friend, LUTHER HALSEY. P. S.-In getting up a new institution in a new country, there is much to do besides study, and in this country the clergy are characteristically and necessarily polytechnic men. This will be my excuse for the defect of counting house promptness in answering your favours; but I do as

sure you neither your favours nor yourself will ever be forgotten. Certain of our benefactors ought to be particularly remembered, such as Mrs. Poynter, Messrs. J. B. Wilson, Phillips, Pike, &c. I would request, in the language of John, greet the friends by name." From the papers we learn the changes going on in your country, and in their issue we feel an interest most intense. The events of the present age have baffled all forecast, and we cast ourselves on the providence of God as our only repose "He reigneth," and we may 66 rejoice." But there is another reason which gives us an interest in the convulsions of Europe. They are affecting our own nation by throwing into our bosom, a quantity of emigrants without any parallel. Among these is an immense number of Papists, who enter warmly and immediately into political affairs. What will be their influence is only known to God. Only one thing is obvious to us, that it imposes on Christians a double necessity of moral enterprise, that the influence of holiness may keep peace with the enormous advance of a motley population. And I do perceive that Christian effort is evidently becoming more energetic and successful daily. But we need the co-operation, and the prayers of our transatlantic brethren.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE RELIGIOUS WANTS OF THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

There are, in Great Britain and in Europe, those who look with interest and hope on the great experiment of human society which is now in progress in the Republic of the United States. That experiment, which has been supposed and announced as complete, unexpectedly thrown forward in time, and its grand theatre removed from the shores of the Atlantic into the valley of the Mississippi. It is now placed beyond a doubt, that, within a generation to come, the millions of the Atlantic States will be obliged, by the federal compact of the Union, to surrender their destinies to the outnumbering millions west of the Alleghany Ridge, or in the Mississippi Valley. The rush of immigration to the new and rapidly rising states of the west has already given them more than four of the thirteen millions of the population of the United States. In 1810, the population of the valley was 1,078,325; in 1820, it was 2,230,607; and now it is more than 4,000,030; and the motives for emigra

tion from east to west are stronger than

ever.

The population of the United States doubles every twenty five years, according to past history; and there is no reason to suppose that the increase will be less in future. Taking, therefore, the present population at 13,000,000 (a year ago it was 12,796,649,) in 1856 it will be 26,000,000. Darby, who is of the highest authority in the United States for statistics, says it will be 26,000,000 in 1850. If the gain of population in the Valley, therefore, over the Atlantic States shall continue with equal strides, (and the proportionate gain increases every year) in much less than thirty years the balance of population and of influence will be west of the Alleghanies, that is, in the Valley. Of this there can be no reasonable doubt. And it is more likely to occur within twenty years.

To give a just idea of the relative importance of the Mississippi Valley, it may be observed, first, with regard to its territory, that out of 2,457,000 square miles, comprehended within the jurisdiction of the United States, about 1,500,000 lie in the Valley; 350,000 in the Atlantic States, or east of the Alleghany Ridge, which is the east line of the Valley; and the residue on the Pacific, west of the Rocky Mountains, which make the west line of the Valley. The Mississippi Valley, as belonging to the United States, extends from 24° 27' north latitude, to 50° north latitude, and comprehends, east and west, forty degrees of longitude. All the waters of this immense region are tributory to, and make the Mississippi, which disembogues into the Gulph of Mexico at New Orleans. The longest line of inland navigation, from the mouth of the Mississippi, is 3,500 miles. Many of the tributaries of the Mississippi, before they are lost in this mighty river, have a free navigation some hundreds of miles; some of them 500, some 1000 up to 2000 miles, and of many degrees between these numbers. The Valley can be penetrated by steam, in every direction, almost to its boundaries, east and west of the Mississippi River. In 1817, all the navigation of the Mississippi, from New Orleans, upward, was done by about twenty barges, of 100 tons each, making only one voyage up and down in a year. Now (1831) the navigation of the same waters employ not much less than 250 steamers, averaging175 tons each-many of them measuring 300, and 400,np to 500 tons-a few ranging from 500 to 700 tons each. These boats will make five and six trips up and down in one year between New Orleans and the

most distant points of navigation, ranging from two to three thousand miles in one direction. This calculation of course makes allowance for delays of business at different ports, for lading, unloading, &c. The ordinary run, for example, between New Orleans and Cincinnati, is eight days down and twelve days up; and to Pittsburgh, about 500 miles above Cincinnati, three days more must be added for ascending.

As to the geographical face of this Valley, its eastern and western margins only (which are from 1500 to 2000 miles asunder) are mountainous; the whole region, from east to the Mississippi, and from west to the same line, gradually making into one vast plain, exhibiting here and there an undulating surface, and varying inclinations, sufficient for an easy and healthful flow of the numerous rivers with which the Valley is marked. The fertility of the soil, and the various physical resources, are incalculable. It is an immense region of the heaviest forests, of the most extended and open prairies, and of the richest land in the world-besides all its geological and mineral treasures, which are occasionally and gradually developing. The comparative ease of obtaining a livelihood, and the facilities of wealth, are so much greater in the Valley than in the harder soil and more exhausted resources of the East, that the motives of peopling and crowding the West are morally sure to prevail.

It may be seen, that the Alleghany Ridge makes not only a natural division, but constitutes a sort of moral boundary, in the United States. From that line west, all sympathies, and all passions, and all energies unite with the rivers, and send forth their products upon the wide world, from the mouth of the Mississippi. It may also be seen presumptively, from the nature of man, that the sudden peopling of such a region, from such motives, is likely to leave the arts of civilization and the means of intellectual and moral culture as much in the rear, as its own amazing and unnatural growth is in advance of the ordinary progress of society. A mighty flood of population is seen abandoning schools, and churches, and all the multiplied advantages of a long established and improved state of society, and plunged into a vast wilder ness, where the intellectual, and social, and moral advantages they have sacrificed, are to be created, they know not how, nor when. And they easily and soon learn to be content without them. And it nobody cares for them but themselves, it requires no prophet's ken to

foresee, that they are inevitably lost to the nobler purposes of human society, and fast combining the elements of their own ruin.

Such virtually is the almost reckless enterprise, which is now so rapidly peopling the Valley of the Mississippi, from the Atlantic States of America, and from various parts of Europe. And the people of that region feel their importance. They know that, in a few years, they will controul the destinies of the Union; and every wise man sees, and every philanthropist must regard the doctrine, in view of such a state of things, with trembling solicitude-that intelligence and virtue, pervading and ruling the entire population, are the only pledge of security to a government like that of the United States. And, consequently, if the means of intellectual and moral culture are not forced into the Mississippi Valley by the efforts of the benevolent, one generation to come will find the government of that mighty Republic in the hands of an ignorant and depraved people. That great social and moral experiment, which had been supposed already complete, is, by unforeseen occurrences, converted into a problem yet to be solved. Thirty years ago, no man on earth could have seen that such would have been the present condition and prospects of the United States. Nothing can save that government and that country but an almost unexampled enterprise of a combined, resolute, and persevering Christian philanthropy, that shall force upon the Valley of the Mississippi, and plant over its vast regions, the means of an adequate intellectual and moral culture. All the world, who feel interested in a thorough confirmation of the rights of man, and in the result of one of the most important experiments of human society which the world has ever witnessed-all who can appreciate the worth of civil and religious freedom, may justly be called upon to look to and to guard that sacred entrenchment of freedom, which is so unexpectedly and so evidently put in peril.

The writer of this article is able to say, from his certain knowledge, and from an expenditure of deep sympathy on this subject, that the Lane Seminary, at Cincinnati on the Ohio, now in the cradle of its infancy, has been brought into being by the best of counsels and the best of feelings - and that, in his judgment, there is no single effort of the kind, combining so many advantages for the redemption and salvation of the Valley of the Mississippi-provided it can be adequately endowed and furnished, and adequately patronized.

The Subscriber begs leave to say, that he does not obtrude this subject on the British public, as being under the constraint of a mission of solicitation-for it would be far more convenient to himself, personally, to be excused from the office -although he thinks it worthy of any man's devotion-yet, being urged by an imperious sense of duty to discharge an errand incidentally committed to his trust, he hopes, and is disposed to persuade himself, from the intrinsic, and as it seems to him, the self-evident merits of the appeal, that it will meet with a favourable regard. It does seem to him so much a common cause with all who are looking, and hoping, and praying for a better state of the world, that he is unwilling to suppose the appeal will be sent back as belonging only to citizens of the United States. Should not Christians feel, as their Master has declared, that "the field is the world?”

The question is not whether the Valley of the Mississippi is able to take care of itself? It is decided that it will not. And Christians, in the Atlantic states, seeing and feeling that they must stand or fall with the great western valley, are now rousing up all their energies to save that region. And it is by the East, that the redeeming power attempted to be organized and applied to the West, is principally sustained. Every thing which can be done, will be done, and is doing. But the work is great, the necessity urgent, and the remedy, if it come in season, must come speedily. Finding no small portion of the population of that new region made up of European emigrants, it seems but a matter of justice to say to Christians in Europe :-Will you help to save your own people?—But we will not speak of it as a claim of justice, nor as a suggestion of propriety. We would rather rest the cause on a more generous principle:- You have books. Your world is a great factory of books. We have little time to make them. You, that are authors, give us a copy, or a triplicate of your productions. You. that have libraries, standing undisturbed upon the shelves, from year to year, think how many volumes you can spare, and neither your own minds or purse, nor the minds or purses of your heirs, be the poorer for it. And we assure you the world shall be richer. And every day some American youth, aspiring after knowledge and a fitting for usefulness, as he opens the volume, will recognize, with grateful remembrance, the name of the donor.

You that have money, endow us a professorship-as there is one of great im

portance yet unprovided for-and it will be most grateful. What you do for us, is not so much less for yourselves. It is so much more for the world. Indeed, the more we do for those at a distance, the more are we disposed to help those nearer home.

As Lane Seminary is properly an academico-theological institution, all books within the range of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew literature-all books of pure and general learning -- all books proper to a public theological library - in a word, all books suited to the accomplishment of a liberal education, and to a preparation for the Christian ministry, will be of essential service. Any books or apparatus adapted to the different departments of natural philosophy will be useful.

Donations to this object, with proper directions, may be deposited at the house of the London Missionary Society, Austin Friars; or by the Rev. Calvin Cotton, 38, Sidmouth Street, Gray's Inn Road.

AN ADDRESS FROM THE SOCIÉTÉ EVANGELIQUE OF GENEVA TO THE CHURCHES, UNIVERSITIES, AND FAITHFUL BRETHREN OF PROTESTANT CHRISTENDOM.

Geneva, Sept. 10, 1831. THE Société Evangélique of Geneva, composed of ministers and members of the Reformed Church of that city, desires to apprize all the Reformed Churches, through the medium of this address,, of the foundation of a school of theology, which will be opened to students of all denominations of Christians.

The Association deems it right to explain briefly the principles which it has adopted, and the motives which govern it.

1. The course of instruction in the school will be founded on the only infallible declarations, those of the Word of God, and will be conformable, in all the essential points of Christianity, to the doctrines of the Church of Geneva, as settled according to the Holy Scriptures, at the period of the Reformation. To point out more expressly the views it entertains of the topics which have been lately a matter of controversy, viz. those which regard the grace of God, the nature of the Saviour, the work which he effected, and that which he still carries on for the salvation of his

people, the Association declares its

strict adherence to the doctrines which the Protestant Churches of Holland, England, Scotland, France, and Ger many profess with one accord in their