hearts of all seeking and sorrowful of the world;" and every renewal spirits and rolling years, which of the memory of these wonderful witness so many unhappy changes men, by such works as the present, even in faith, and zeal, and charity, will but call for renewed acknowexhibited them still in the unwea- ledgments to God for his mercies ried career of disinterested and in these lands, in raising up and excessive labours for the benefit thus qualifying such instruments of mankind; living the same life for the work of reviving the spirit of lofty benevolence, and walking of primitive Christianity, and for by the same rule, in the presence so rich and fruitful a benediction of several successive generations. upon their labours. Thus they were made "the lights

[To be continued.]

MOORE'S LIFE OF WESLEY.

Extract of a letter received from one of our aged and respectable ministers. I HAVE been gratified in reading Moore's late life of the Rev. Mr. Wesley. He has beautifully and correctly transmitted to posterity the original doctrines of Methodism. Are not some of us, Americans, too legal in our exhibitions of religious truths? Do we not hold

Christ at too great a distance? The word saith, "He is nigh thee," &c. Do we, as formerly, urge the necessity of a direct evidence from God of our justification, or that we are put in possession of that perfect love which casteth out fear?

REMARKS OF AN ITINERANT PREACHER. MESSRS. EDITORS,-A constant reader of your Magazine, who sincerely desires its general circulation, would, if possible, contribute some little aid toward its permanent establishment and influence. I have been frequently astonished to find that the friends of Methodist institutions and others, are making efforts to run down this excellent work, and cannot possibly comprehend but one reason why it is so; and that is this, that the editors of this work so constantly shun subjects of a polemical character.* If there be any

other reason, it must be that worst of all reasons, viz.: that some men are seldom pleased with any thing, except it has a relation directly, or remotely, to their honour or temporal emolument.

We would remark for the encouragement of our correspondent, and other well wishers of this work, that our list of subscribers has been very considerably enlarged the present year, and that the number is continually increasing; so much so, that we now have to increase the number of copies by adding one thousand to our former number. But still, what are seven thousand, the number we now print, among upward of three hundred and twenty thousand church members; which, allowing five members to a family, include upward of sixty thousand families. Allowing that one half of these are unable to pay $1 50 a year for the Magazine, there will still remain thirty thousand, who certainly might possess themselves of this work. And nearly this number of the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine is annually circulated among

After these preliminary remarks, it is my intention to furnish you with one or two anecdotes, which may probably be of use to some of your numerous readers.

In the course of my travelling, some time since, in the western part of the state of Ohio, I reached a populous frontier village, which like many of the the European Methodists, though their number of church members is not so great as ours. We hope the time is not far distant, when every family throughout our extended connexion, shall be furnished with this miscellany, that they may read of the wonderful doings of Almighty God, and be refreshed.

As to what our correspondent says about the aversion of the editors of this work to controversy, they have freely declared themselves on that subject, that it was never intended, at least since the present incumbents have occupied this place, to exclude a temperate discussion of any point of Christian doctrine, which the Methodist Episcopal Church considers either important or essential to the preservation of Christianity, nor to shrink from repelling any assault on those points of doctrine and church

backwoods villages, has been built suddenly; and to travellers has the appearance of a city in the wilderness. In this village there was an appointment for a meeting, which was to commence on Friday and continue until sabbath evening. Prior to the appointment of this meeting, there had been a very considerable religious excitement through the village, and the thinly inhabited township; many were inquiring what shall we do to be saved? The people came together in crowds, and the meeting commenced with the smiles of heaven; for from the commencement, the friends of Zion were wont to say, Alleluia! the Lord God omnipotent reigneth! This meeting continued to increase in gracious and impressive influence until sabbath evening, at which time the Power of God descended "like the rushing of a mighty wind," which shook the bodies and souls of saints and sinners. While this awful power was pouring down among us, convicted, weeping, penitent sinners, were rushing to the altar, and crying, Lord save or we perish. The lamentations, tears, and prayers of this immense crowd of mourners, called forth the sympathies and religious efforts of preachers and members, who hurried away to the altar, that they might "weep with those who weep, and rejoice with those who rejoice." I suppose you will say, and your numerous readers will say too, that this was certainly a Methodist meeting: be This was the way that Methodism commenced in the days of the venerable Wesley and Whitfield; and government which, all are agreed, belong essentially to the vitals of our own church: (see Vol. VI, p. 10, 11.) and this sentiment we now again avow, and promise to admit into the columns of the Methodist Magazine any discussions of the above character. And we would remark here, that we are not conscious of having excluded any such articles; but we still think, that those controversies which only tend to stir up strife, especially among children of the same family, ought to be frowned down by every lover of peace and unity, as being only productive of variance, wrath, and many other nameless evils.

it so.

Let those who value the interests of vital Christianity above their own private interests, come forward in favour of any one doctrine, which goes to promote holiness among mankind, such as the divinity and atonement of Christ, the depravity, moral agency, and responsibility of man, justification, sanctification; or a scriptural defence of Episcopal church government, well supported by vouchers, and we pledge ourselves to give them a patient hearing; and also to give others, through the medium of the Magazine, an opportunity of determining on the truth and justness of their positions.

it is my sincere prayer that we may never be ashamed of the piety, fervour, and zeal, which glowed in the souls of those honourable founders of Methodism. Some of their sons, I fear, have undertaken to embellish the system established by them, with a speculative philosophy; which, when taken into the atmosphere of divinity, is like a glimmering taper when compared to the sun moving in the majesty of his strength.

Perhaps you are still looking out for the promised anecdotes. The first is connected with the meeting which I have been trying to bring into view. At this meeting there was a converted Indian, and who had come a considerable distance to see how white men worshipped the Great Spirit. He was a chief of considerable influence in the tribe to which he belonged, and was sent as a delegate to transact business of a religious character for his friends and brethren, who, with him had embraced the religion of the gospel; and there can be no doubt but he was worthy of the trust committed to his charge, for he was doubtless a man of fine natural abilities, whose mind had been very much improved by his acquaintance with white men, Indian agents and others. This new convert enjoyed the meeting with unusual pleasure until sabbath evening, when he appeared disgusted and astonished, the cause of which was as follows:-we said the meeting was held in a frontier village, in which the people had commenced a spacious meetinghouse, but were not able to finish it before the

But we certainly think that our high responsibility, arising out of our station as conductors of a work which is supposed to speak out the sentiments of a church, such as ours, in which we know there is a diversity of opinions respecting some points of lesser moment, imposes on us a necessity of exercising a prudent caution in the selection of matter; and that, therefore, no one ought to think himself aggrieved if his piece be judged, on account of its involving some delicate subjeet about which honest and intelligent minds may very innocently differ, improper to meet the public eye. Much less should we feel ourselves justified, especially when it is considered that we have given offence in an honest attempt to vindicate an individual, by admitting pieces having a personal bearing. We think that every man's character should be held sacred, until a competent tribunal has pronounced an impeachment. Those who delight in this merciless warfare, may find a few public vehicles through which they may hurl their deadly weapons. As for ourselves, we feel the force of the apostle's injunction, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord."-Editors.

commencement of winter; and the weather being cold during this meeting, the people made the best arrangements they could for the comfort of themselves and friends, which was to have live coals set in different parts of the house in iron vessels of various sizes, but they were mostly in the aisle. On the memorable sabbath evening, alluded to above, while the mourners were weeping, and their friends singing and praying at the altar, there was a company of careless young men crowding backward and forward, making merry by talking, &c. To think that young men in Christendom should have no more religion, sense, or politeness, than to treat their friends in this way because they were singing and praying, is alarming. But among the persons who were sitting round the vessels of coals to warm themselves, was the Indian, who was conversing with some of his friends on the subject of religion, when some of those frolicksome young men came forward to light their cigars, laughing and talking as if they were in a pandemonium. This well-bred Indian sat for some time and looked at them with apparently as much alarm as if a company of spectres had made their appearance. He finally broke silence with the Indian noteof admiration, crying, "Waugh !" adding, "these young men bad too much, -these young men bad too much." He said, "These young men, and others like them, have not been blessed with good preachers, if they had they would not be bad too much." He then said to the company, by way of figure to represent a good preacher," Some men," said he," preach. with all their heart;" placing his right hand at the commencement of his left hand, showing the whole of his hand, which went to say, they were wholly given up to their important business and high calling. "Then" said he, "the people will be good."-"Some men," said he, moving his right hand to the centre of his left, "only preach with half their hearts, they do some good;" he then moved his right hand to the centre of his middle finger, still keeping in view his figure, saying, with peculiar emphasis," mighty little." He then moved his hand to the end of his fingers and paused about a minute, at the close of which he had prepared his lips for the purpose, when he blew a tremendous puff, and cried out, "It's all wind."

Now, Messrs. editors, I close with the observations of a minister of high standing; which appear to me to be in perfect harmony with the observations of this pious Indian chief. He was speaking of the small effects of preaching, while he seemed to be astonished that such vast numbers of men were engaged in a cause so good and so glorious, involving so many important interests, and that so little is accomplished. After casting about for some time to comprehend the cause that produces this painful effect, the result of his inquiry seemed to be this; that there were as many superficial as genuine preachers; and if genuine preachers succeeded in awakening sinners, and setting them out to seek pure and undefiled religion, these languishing, half-hearted, worldly-minded preachers were always building half way houses, and inviting the awakened seekers to turn in and compose themselves in their asylum, saying, that as to those high attainments these gentlemen were talking about, they were all a species of farcical fanaticism: and this he thought must be the cause why we have so many superficial, drinking, proud, worldly-minded Christians. And you know, and we all know, that this kind of preachers and Christians help to destroy religion and to establish infidelity.

I have now one favour to ask, and then I shall close; and that is to rally your friends through the medium of your Magazine, and let us determine at least to demolish these half-way houses from New-Orleans to the river St. Croix, through the Atlantic as well as the other states of the union; for even there these half-hearted gentlemen are building half-way houses. For heaven's sake let us get down these houses before they are finished in that new country. But if you wish to learn how we shall know these gentlemen, one mark they always may be known by is this-they want light work and heavy pay. For you know the prophet puts greedy and lazy dogs together. If you ask what is to become of these gentlemen who keep these half-way houses, I answer, if they will not repent, let them go to the law, to medicine, to merchandise, to agriculture: any thing will be better than peopling the regions of hell with immortal souls. . This, from your friend,

AN ITINERANT PREACHER.

CHARTER FUND.

Charter Fund, "for the relief and support of the itinerant, superannuated, and worn out ministers and preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America, their wives and children, widows and orphans." Incorporated by the state of Pennsylvania, January 13, 1797.

RELIGIOUS AND MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

STATE OF METHODISM IN THE WEST.

We have received a copy of the minutes of the Annual Conferences, printed at Cincinnati, from which we collect the following items respecting the progress of Methodism in the bounds of the Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and Tennessee Conferences:

OHIO CONFERENCE.