A A = A 3 — ■ — V ^_ o o ! <_ — I o i —— m o = = 33 = O 2 1 = O /i — — ^ > 4 ■ 2 ! —^~ CD 3) 7 - — X 2 1 4 1 1 — — ■< 3 u Adams .i, tli ister of God BV 2075 3 MAN, THE MINISTER OF GOD A SERMON 7'ELIYEEED BEFORE THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF NEW-YORK AND BROOKLYN, APRIL 15TH, 1855 BY REV. WILLIAM ADAMS, D.D., PASTOR OF TTIE MADISON SQFAKE PEESBTTEEIAN CinJECH. yulltsfjcti On ifjc Socfctc. NEW-YORK: AIMON MERWIN, BIBLE HOUSE, ASTOR PLACE. 1 855. JOHN A. GRAY, PKQJTEB, 95 and 01 Cliff Street, N. Y. SERMON Psalm 144 : 1. " Blessed be the Lord my strength, which teacheth my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." The Christian religion is not the only religion which has obtained pre valency in the world. Though it be the only system which has truth for its nature and God for its author, there are other religions which dispute with it the empire of the world. There are Gods many and Lords many. Mohammedanism, Buddhism, and Brahmanism exert their sway, at this time, over hun- dreds of millions of the human family. It is one of those problems which often task the faith of the thoughtful, Why is it that the only religion which has been revealed from the one living and true God, now so long after that revelation was finished, is yet em- braced only by a minority of the human species ? With some of the more aged and extended forms of false re- ligion we have become partially acquainted in our at- tempts to propagate the Christian faith. It is certain that they have attained to a great longevity, and accu- mulated prodigious power. Their roots are strong and deep. They become objects of interest to us, because of their antiquity. They deserve a profound investiga- tion, not only that we may understand how best to con- duct our warfare against them, but because we would know to what secret they owe their immense dominion . We call them folly, delusion, falsehood. Such we be- lieve them to be. But herein is a oreat marvel, that these very follies delusions, and falsehoods have reigned for so many centuries with so few signs of change and dissolution. Follies, delusions, falsehoods though they be, they certainly demand a most careful analysis. Per- haps we have not inquired into their construction with sufficient patience and candor. It may be that we have been content to dispatch them with a general and in- discriminate reprehension. "What if we should discover that there was in each some element of truth which is the secret of its vitality ? What if it should be found that these false systems are not false altogether ; but that there is in the heart of each some dislocated truth, to which the mass of associated error owes its preva- lence and power ? Such, doubtless, is the fact. Error pure, unmixed, has no promise of continuance, and no principle of preservation. A falsehood is nothing. It has no basis on which to rest. If it can attach itself to a truth, as parasitical plants suck their sap out of i\\<> trunks of trees, it may nourish long by the force of a foreign nutriment. It has no life within itself. Sepa- rate from its support, it perishes inevitably and irre- trievably. But truth, like its Author, is self-existent and eternal. It is a reality subject to no change and no decay. Like the pure essences of heaven, it is vital in every part. In its own nature, it is clear as a ray of light from the sun, having no affinity with fog or di But there is a vast difference between truth itself and the conceptions and uses of truth on the part of fallen man. The truth itself may be thrown out of propor- tion ; dressed up in borrowed deformities ; w T rongly com- bined, exaggerated, perverted, dislocated. Falsehood may be foisted upon truth in such a way as to borrow from it force and vitality. This is what we mean in regard to the false religions of the world. Not that we regard with any favor the latest assumption of philosophical infidelity, that Mohammedanism and Buddhism are as really crea- tions of God as Christianity itself. What conception more revolting than this ? We hold them to be gigan- tic fabrications of falsehood. We believe them to be the master-pieces of Satanic invention, conceived by su- perhuman intellects, the adroit and crafty policy of the Prince of the power of the air. The more clear our conviction of this, the more certain is our belief that their infernal author has studied to impregnate them with all the truth he could purloin from the true faith ; thus cementing and binding together what, without the foreign element of truth, would have fallen apart and fallen down for want of adhesion and strength of parts. Truth so combined is out of place. Its immense .strength is employed in an unwelcome service. It be- comes like mighty Samson, forced to grind in the mill of the Philistines, preparing the very aliment which renews and perpetuates the vigor of its own enemies. That very truth belongs elsewhere. It belongs t>> the true religion of the true God. Working mischief, and -applying strength to falsehoods, when combined with Isehood, it will work good and good only when com- bined with other truths, and nothing but truths. Th scattered forces of truth, which the arch foe has distri- buted about in unnatural alliance among the " armies of the aliens," ought to be concentrated where they pro- perly belong — in that burning focus of all truth, practi- cal Christianity. When we set ourselves to inquire after those means by which the religion of Jesus Christ may acquire a more rapid extension, it is right to avail ourselves of an inquiry into those vital forces which have supplied false religions with their amazing power and momentum ; and, discovering these, to bring them back to their true position and relations. If they have proved so powerful when out of place, who can say how powerful they will be in their proper place? If so vig- orous and efficient when pressed into a foreign service, who can predict their might when restored to the free- dom of their native home ? To borrow wisdom from an enemy is a discretion and a right recommended even by classical antiquity. But here we propose only to call back to its original position, out of its forced and foreign combinations, the truth of the Bible ; leaving the false and the wicked with which it is conjoined to sink to its own place by its own gravity.* To show the practical bearings of these observations, I propose, on the present occasion, in the briefest possi- ble analysis of one system of false religion, to show what power there is in a certain idea or sentiment, which is the vital energy of Mohammedanism — a senti- * It is now a considerable time that my mind has been directed to this subject, as deserving more attention than it lias hitherto received ; and for many sugges- tions am I indebted to the valuable Boyle Lectures of Prof. Maurice, delivered in ion some eight years ago. nient working in that conjunction only for evil — yet a sentiment full of force and from which the world has every thing to hope, and by which the Church has every thing to achieve when it is restored to its proper location in connection with the religion of Jesus Christ. No one will pronounce Mohammedanism always to have been a weak superstition. It was masculine, mar- tial, and energetic. It overspread kingdoms. It mas- tered a large part of the world. It was no dreamy Oriental mysticism. It conquered the fairest regions of the earth. It had learning ; it had arms ; it had men worthy of the name. For four centuries the world could boast of no such men as the successors of the false prophet. It has had a long life ; and though that life is now waning into superannuation, dotage, and im- becility, yet it deserves our consideration what could have given to a system of falsehood and pretension such amazing strength and prevalence. 1. It was the first and most obvious mode of ac- counting for the history of Mohammedanism, that it pushed its conquests by mere force of arms. Its strength was made to reside in military organization . and in martial power and bravery. It is certainly tru< that those who propagated the Ottoman faith were diers, and soldiers of undaunted courage. But this is a solution of the question proposed ; only its removal to another degree of distance. For when we hear of military valor and martial organization, we wish to know in what behalf they are enlisted, and by what motive they are inspired. We understand how patriot- ism makes the soldier brave; how the sense of right and justice has nerved the arm of many a warrior iii the wars of liberty. Military arms are powerless but for the motive swelling in the breasts of those who wield them. Our faith as Christians is that truth is more powerful than the sword; and that the very weakest thing in the world is a soldiery without truth or right upon their side. 2. Others again have endeavored to account for the spread of Mohammedanism by alleging its affinities with the elements of a depraved nature — affirming that there is in man a constant tendency toward false- hood and impiety, sensuality and deceit; and this pro- pensity is abundantly competent to account for the power and perpetuity of all which addresses it. But is it not a part of our religious belief that truth only is mighty ; that falsehood and vice always tend to debase- ment, enervation, and impotence ; so that when man is most sensual he is most imbecile and despicable ? This, therefore, can not afford us the satisfactory solution which we seek. We can not find the secret of power and longevity in that which invariably tends to corrup- tion and death. 3. Others still have sought for the power of this tern in those just and truthful sentiments which it has obviously borrowed from the Jewish and Christian systems. Later than both, the Koran is indebted to both for its doctrine concerning the unity of God, the divine commission of Moses and Jesus Christ, in short, for all the facts which are true, and all the principles which are good which it contains. Its author was un- doubtedly acquainted with the Old and New Testa- ments. He frequently cites from the Pentateuch and Psalms. lie sets forth the doctrine of the judg- 9 merit in language strikingly resembling that of Paul on the same subject. He prescribes prayer, and inculcates many moral precepts of the utmost excellence. But these are like nuggets of gold and precious stones amid dirt and rubbish. They are not the substance of the system. They are associated with much that is puerile, fanciful, and absurd, even beyond the ordinary range of an Oriental imagination. These resemblances and echoes of truth are not sufficient in number or prominence to characterize the book. That book owes more to the music of its Arabic rhythm, and the jingle of its alliterations, than to any substantial truth. Shall we then fall back on the personal character of Mohammed himself, and find a cause for the spread of his faith, where a popular writer of our day has made it to reside, in a propensity common to our nature to admire and worship heroes, of whom the prophet of Mecca was one of the most remarkable ? But this rhetorical concep- tion leaves out of view the main thing in the case — the anomaly which demands an explanation. Mohammed always affirmed that he was nothing but a " witness and servant of God, and that all the truth which there was in him was derived from that to which he testified. The very symbol of the Moslem was the denial of all man- worship, and every one of his followers was read} draw his sword to put it down and exterminate it from the world." Pursuing the inquiry in another direction, taking a survey of the world at the time this scourge descended upmi the nations, may we not conclude that there was a principle of truth in the conception of the Ottoman faith, which, for along time, had been overloked by the 10 Christian Church. — a truth of sufficient potency to vital- ize even imposture and falsehood ; a truth brought into strange and unnatural alliance with ambition, pride, and sensuality ; yet a truth still, and for a long time mighty to conquer, till overlaid and mastered by the superin- cumbent and associated falsehoods, the system became the effete and helpless thing which it is at present ? I do not mean that Mohammedanism proceeded from God ; or that the author of this stupendous imposture was in any sense commissioned of the Almighty, save as the Pharaohs, and Herods and Pilates, Cyrus and Attila, storm, fire, and earthquake, have been made to do his will ; but this I mean, that the idea which the False Prophet incorporated into his creed, and emblazoned on his banner, false in its application to himself, false in the mode of its execution, altogether false in its associ- ations and uses, is nevertheless a sublime truth ; and in its only true position and relations as connected with the only true religion, it contains the vital force of all Christian propagandism. Verily tliere is a God, and man is his minister. That belief had almost died out from the world. Abstract notions of God were in abundance, but no faith in a living and active Governor of the Universe. Even in so-called Christian countri the sense of God's personality had well-nigh evaporated amidst the worship of images, philosophical theories, and vain and foolish controversies. It was in such a state of things that the Arabian soldier came forth from his sultry sands, flaming before the world this startling announcement : Verily tliere is a God } and J am Ids soldier. What power there was in that concep- tion is to be learned in the path of his conquests on 11 three continents. So long as that original and energetic announcement was adhered to, his arms were invincible. He set himself up as the exterminator of idolatry, and idolatry went down before him as stubble before the fire. He turned with scorn and derision upon the empty pratings of idle priests, calling themselves by the name of Christ ; and, while they were sleeping in inglo- rious ease, or occupying themselves in the most usel< of speculations, he swept them away in the redness of his anger. Imposture had stolen a brilliant blade from God's own armory ; and though it was wielded by a hand to which it did not belong, its celestial temper wa« proved by many a successful blow before its edge was dulled and blunted. When this original idea was hale and strong, then the very pretensions which it under- laid were borne along to conquest ; and, when it was cast aside, then Mohammedanism sank down into the pitiable state of fatalism and sensualism in which it ex- ists to-day. Mohammed was false when he claimed that he v commissioned of God as was Moses and as was Jesus Christ. He was false in every pretension and wrong in ever} 7 aggression; wrong as to the objects he should com- bat ; wrong in the weapons he employed. He was right in the manly thought that man's life is a battle in the vice of the living God ; he was right in the idea that there is much in the world which is never to be so much as tolerated, and against which, as the mission of life, we are to wage a war of extermination. We bring <-k that weapon from its ancient abuses and per-, qs to teach our own hands how to Avar ami our lin- gers to fight. That idea, which, according to nil histori- 12 cal proof, was the motive-power of Mohammedanism, working there only for the propagation of error and imposture, yet an idea full of force, is one by which the Church has every thing to achieve, when it is restored to its proper connection with the religion of the Son of God. Anywhere else it is out of place. Anywhere else it is power misapplied. But here it be- longs ; and here is ample scope for its utmost energy. Philosophy has for a long time indulged in speculations concerning the problem of evil. It may be a long time yet before the problem is solved to the entire sat- isfaction of the understanding. The Persian dream of Dualism ; of two antagonistic deities, the God of light and the God of darkness, the God of good and the God of evil, does not solve the riddle. That symbol of the Moslem is true. There is one only living and true God, Evil exists, and we are in God's name to fight against it. God himself is no indifferent spectator of it. He hag forbidden it, denounced it, opposed it, restrained it, and in his own time will defeat and punish it, Every Christian believer is God's own agent to drive sin from the world. Christianity is active antagonism against all manner of evil ; and that man who has not discovered the meaning of this truth has not yet learn- ed either the peril or the glory of life. There is one warfare from which there is no dis- charge, in which we are engaged as individuals; there is another in which we are enlisted as organic parts of the Christian body. No sooner do we become conscious of our own exist- ence, than we find ourselves in the presence of manifold evils necessitating resistance or endurance. The good- 13 ness of God toward us is not displayed in the form of weak indulgence. His object being to discipline, ma- ture, and purify our nature, we are subjected to many trials, exposed to many conflicts, tliat the evil which is in us may be overcome, and the good developed and strengthened by exercise. The process begins in our very childhood. We early discern that we are in a world where our own will is not supreme. Our hands are taught to war and our fingers to fight. We meet what is painful, and arm ourselves to bear it. We are called to what is difficult, and strengthen ourselves to do it. We are assailed by temptation, and we must be strong to resist it. We are beset by importunate de- sires, and we must be earnest to exterminate them. Sorrows, calamities, and despondency are in our path ; and, unless we fight manfully the good fight of faith, they will press us to the ground. Homer and Virgil have described in the most lively episodes of their im- mortal epics, the varied encounters of their most distin- guished heroes. The courage of Achilles, the strength of Ajax, the valor of Hector; the thews and sinews of the wrestler in the ring ; the brawny arm which wield- ed the cestus or hurled the javelin ; the great battle- fields of the world where plumed and prided bravery has played its part — all these have been chronicled in history and song; but such displays of mere animal strength and carnage are but the paint and decoration of theatrical shows compared with those 1 sublime con- flict^ not with flesh and blood but with spiritual wick- edness, which the soul of the humble and the good waging under the eye and with the aid of the invisible God. Our divine Lord met and vanquished our com- 14 inon foe in the wilderness of Temptation , and, in the scenes which there occurred, we have a type of that struggle and victory to which we are each and all sum- moned in the battle of life. There was here no crowd of applauding spectators ; no strains of martial music dilating the soul with inspiration ; it was a solitary wil- derness ; it was spirit wrestling with spirit ; it was sin subdued by holiness ; sense by faith ; and no victories are to be compared with those which have crowned the stern and awful conflicts of the soul. Many an humble home, many a solitary chamber, many a lonely heart, has been the scene of spiritual contests and triumphs, which have been the admiration of angels, who have veiled their eyes from the miscalled glories of Pharsalia and Austerli'tz. The world has not seen them ; ap- plause does not . attend them ; .yet are they the critical acts and true heroism of the human soul. To this spiritual strife is every individual summoned by the voice of God. At the time of his conversion he is taken into the armory, and equipped with every imple- ment of spiritual war. Then is he sent out to fight the good fight of faith. He will encounter suffering, and he must disarm it with resignation. He will be assailed by temptation, and is bidden to conquer it. He will be solicited to evil, and he must overcome it. He will be subject to wrong, and he must bear it with meek- ness. The gaunt forms of despondency and despair he must drive away ; he must conquer the world, the devil, and, what is more, himself. With decisive energy he must contend with every form of evil within — confiding in Supreme Power. When objects of sense overpower him by their vividness and nearness, he must still be- 15 lieve in that which is invisible, and faith must hold the mastery. He must intrepidly dare every thing that can oppose and attack him, retaining his purpose un- shaken to the last, and in the very act of death fight- iug on, and fighting through, till he obtains the crown and the palms which are promised to him that over- cometh. While our individual life is a battle with temptation and sin, as churches we organize our forces for more direct and efficient aggression upon the kingdom of Satan. The late Dr. Arnold has described the Christian Church as an association of Christian believers for the extinction of moral evil. If the definition does not in- clude the whole truth, (which it does not pretend,) it certainly contains a great truth ; and it would be diffi- cult to mention any uninspired authority to which our feelings would incline us to render more of respect than the genial and catholic writer whose words are here quoted. This idea of the Christian body has not re- ceived all the consideration which it deserves. Never- theless it includes within itself the secret of growth and prosperity for the Christian Church. In entering that we enlist in military service. We take the sacramental oath to fight the good fight of faith. Sin will never be extirpated by miracles, nor by the ministry of angels. We are God's ministers : we are God's soldiers : and we are to do battle against all the works of darkness Here is something which needs to be done ; and man needs something to do. First, let us understand what is to be exterminated. Sin in all forms, individual and organic. It is an infidel sentiment that we have no concern with the sins and 16 crimes of our race beyond the necessity of self-preserva- tion. Great concern Lave we ; for we are God's soldiery to destroy them. We are forbidden to fellowship them, to tolerate them ; and required to reprove them, to op- pose them, and to drive them away. Our warfare is not against men, but the sins of men. "We are to be careful that no malign emotion mingles with our Christ- ian zeal, for this would be to convert Christian philan- thropy into profane fanaticism. The energy of our warfare is not to supplant the sweetness of our charity. To have our hatred of all sin in intensest vigor, while benevolence towards our fellow-men is unalloyed by one hostile sentiment, is a combination of virtues which can be found nowhere else than in the precepts and example of our Divine Lord. Neither are we to mistake as to the nature of the weapons which we are to wield. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual, yet mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Teutii, Light, and Love these are the potent engines by which the fortresses of evil and sin are to be demolished. They that take the sword perish by the sword. The king- dom of Christ is not of this world: nor is its ex- tension to be promoted by any of the powers and agencies of the world. Our antagonists are spiritual wickednesses in high places, and by spiritual weapons only can they be vanquished. We abjure at once and for ever all secular force and physical power. In the great battle of the Lord God Almighty, the Church has nothing on which to rely under her Invisible Lord but the simple and naked truth. This is the sword of the Spirit. This puts to flight the armies of the aliens. 11 This pierces to the dividing asunder of the joints and marrow. This is a weapon which God himself has fur- nished, and we must wield it on the right hand and left. With these few qualifications as to what we are to oppose, and the means by which we are to oppose it, let us receive in its full power the sublime idea that, as a Church, we are to be the executors of the Almighty in the extinction of all evil. The Christian religion, that great blessing and reformatory hope of the world, is an aggressive agent ; and its own prosperity is gradu- ated by the activity of its onsets against sin. Like a little leaven is the Gospel in this regard, that its reform- ing power works gradually, from one degree to another, but not by the same passive process is that progress ac- complished. It is only as war is prosecuted actively and energetically that the Church is safe in the posses- sion of her own territory and life. A defensive war never has sufficed for the growth of the Church : barely for her own existence. Soldiers in camp, with cannon limbered, guns stacked, the enemy gone, and the cam- paign at an end, are the most mutinous, dissipated, and wretched of men. The fire in their bones has gone out, and every thing is relaxed for want of stimulus. Too familiar we can not be with this great truth, that it is only when the Church is in march and action in as- sault upon sin that there is any sign of spiritual life What power there is in the sublime sentiment that man is the executor of God's will upon the earth, in conflict with evil, we have seen when that sentiment was in most inauspicious association with falsehood and fanaticism. What power there is in it, we might show again when later in history it was allied with folly, when the Crusa- 2 18 ders felt themselves impelled by tlie call of God to res- cue the Holy Sepulchre from the hands of the infidels. Who shall measure the power which is in this sen- timent when allied with sober truth, with no admixture of folly or falsehood, and the whole Church shall arise in one vigorous sortie to extinguish the impostures, fal- sities, and woes of the world ? Just so soon as the followers of Mohammed sepa- rated the two terms which compose the original sym- bol of their faith, divorcing their own energy from a belief in God, their religion lapsed into that very form of fatalism which it is at present, sitting in perfect apathy and indifference, the helpless victim of evils which it pretends not to combat, and from which it en- deavors not to escape. Quite too much of the same fatalism is there in the Christian Church. Mistaken views of God's sovereignty reconcile too many to the undisturbed continuance of stupendous evils. The sen- timent has often been stated in terms like these : " If the Being, whose power is Almighty, has willed to per- mit on earth the protracted existence in opposition to him of the enormous evils of heathenism, why should we be called upon to vex and exhaust ourselves with a petty warfare against it ? If it were His will that it should be overthrown, we should soon, without having quitted our places and our quiet, in any offensive move- ment towards it, feel the earthquake of its mighty catastrophe ; and if such is not His will, then we should plainly be putting ourselves in the predicament of willing something which He does not will, and mak- ing exertions which must infallibly prove abortive."' * John Foster. 19 Of one disposed to reason after this method, we would inquire, Whether he means to say that Paganism, in all its forms, is not antagonistic to God, and inimical to man ? In no sense can you intend that they are in accordance with God's nature, and objects of His complacency. It is simply because they are suffered to exist under the government of an Omnipotent Being, that you consider yourself exempt from all obligation to oppose and destroy them. "Why not apply the self-same reasoning to all forms of physical suffering against which we are struggling through all of time ? A paroxysm of pain is ~an evil ; would you not do all in your power to relieve it, simply because it exists in a world under the presidency of Omnipotence ? When Jenner undertook by vaccination to prevent the small-pox, which had decimated the globe, was he war- ring against God ? Noxious gases from time imme- morial had accumulated in mines and proved fatal to thousands of colliers ; was Sir Humphrey Davy a pro- fane antagonist to God and man when he invented the safety-lamp, and cured the mischief \ When Benjamin Franklin discovered the nature of the lightning, and the method of conducting it innocuously to the earth, v, he a bold and presumptuous intruder upon the purposes of God, exposing himself to the curse and fate of old Prometheus ? The simple truth is, whatever is evil to be assaulted with right good earnest. Enough to know that any tiling is truly hostile to man, to justify us in contending against it with all our might, and all our strength, with all our skill, and all our patiei We have only to be convinced that heathenism is an evil of a most deplorable kind, to demand of us a con- 20 centrated, manly, uninterniitted attack upon it so long as we live. We need not ask to be sharers in divine intelligence before we affirm that God never has been an inactive spectator of the world's falsehoods and idolatries. With the history of the world before us we can not affirm that the God in whom we believe, like the Brahm of the Hindoos, has been sleeping in passive acquiescence over human sins and sufferings. What has not God done these many centuries to express his implacable hostility towards all the abominations of the heathen ? Never has He permitted idolatry or imposture of any kind to exist in the world unrebuked, unmolested, and unpunished. What judgments has he inflicted on the nations that would not serve him ! God permit heath- enism ! Never, never, in the sense of being indifferent to its presence or tolerant of its practices. What plagues, what reverses, what direful calamities, what humiliations, depressions, and contempt have visited the nations which have been the great patrons and upholders of falsehood ! Darkness and day are not more palpably distinct than those parts of the world, at this hour, inhabited by heathenism and Christianity. On the one rests the frown of the Almighty, and on the other the Lord has commanded his blessing, even li^ht and life. As we would not defeat the very object at which we aim, our assaults must be conducted with Christian wisdom. Without that heavenly quality, the attril >utes of which are well defined, by the pen of God, purity, persuadableness, charity, impartiality, and freedom from hypocrisy, all our onsets are folly. God himself 21 describes theni as stupendous folly. Without wisdom which, iu pedigree and quality, has no affinity with mere human policy; wisdom which cometh down from above ; wisdom such as our Divine Lord displayed in his dealings with perverse and wicked men, wdiere the adroitness of his manner excites our admiration equally with the power of his rebuke : wisdom, such as was exercised by the great Apostle to the Gentiles in the versatility of his address, becoming all things to all men ; without this celestial safeguard, in all our bravery, we do but blow the fire and ashes in our own eyes, and expose ourselves to the recoil and mischief of our own enginery. Not only is there need of union among men enlisted in such a warfare, but our belief is, that just to the degree in which Christian men and Christian denomina- tions are engaged in a hearty and zealous propagand- ism of " the common salvation," in the same degree do they lose sight of all minor distinctions in an essential unity and catholicity ; and so far as these active exer- tions are relaxed, do they drop into that lower tempera- ture in which the cross-play of subordinate interests and rivalries exerts a strong attraction and repulsion. It is a well-accredited fact that good men of divers de- nominations meeting on heathen shores for the purpose of diffusing the one religion of Christ, agree to a gene- rous oblivion of those differences which elsewhere might have repelled them apart; manifesting a most cordial unity of sentiment and action; loving and confiding in one another: for so vast is the pressure of surrounding heathenism, that nothing beside can be thought of, as the dark night allows no distinction of colors ; and. 09 we may imagine, animals of all varieties of temper and species cowered harmlessly together in the same dens and caverns, when surrounded by the waters of the deluge. In the great wars of the world this principle of essen- tial union is most happily illustrated. When great interests are at stake, and great necessities are urgent, differences of extraction, of creed, of language have all been merged in one common organism. At the battle of Blenheim, under the combined leadership of generals so diverse as Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough, regiments of English, Dutch, Danes, and Austrians, s ac- companied by chaplains Lutheran, Calvinistic, and Capuchin, organized into one mass, moved as one man against their common enemy under Tallard. Prior to the American Revolution, it was a difficult and doubtful problem whether colonists so heterogene- ous in origin, language, and ancestral memories could be amalgamated together into one community. When the struggle for independence actually came, the problem was solved immediately and for ever. Amidst the urgencies of a common cause there was neither time nor place for casual differences. The Puritans of New- England, the Hollanders of New- York, the Danes, Swedes, and Germans of Pennsylvania, the Cavaliers of Virginia, the Romanists of Maryland, the Huguenots of Carolina, men of all creeds and extractions, stood side by side, in fraternal confidence, throughout the perilous contest for a common freedom. Had that great public action been deferred till such time as all political par- tialities and religious preferences and local interests had been adjusted, it would have been deferred for ever, 23 and those who now constitute this one and undivided country would have been left disintegrated and repellent. Zeal for the promotion of our common Christianity, is the certain and infallible method of fusing the people of God into a strong and happy unity. Before that grand distinction which divides Christendom from Heathendom all other distinctions fade into nothiugness. The parti-color of one's uniform is a small matter in the grandeur of that mighty mass which is moviug on to bat- tle and victory. It were difficult even to imagine how a soldier in the flush and impetuosity of a general onset should think more of the pattern of his own arms and accoutrements, than of that one flag under which all are marshaled, and that one conquest for which all are urgent. Whenever denominational and local differences are rife, we have the surest sign that there is no onward movement against the common foe. The times in which, we, my brethren, are called to engage in this great contest are most auspicious and hopeful of success. Changes have passed upon all the false religions of the world. There is too great an agedness of error in their massive construction to expect that they will crumble and fall at a touch ; but they have lost the energy of youth, and the impulse of a warmer blood. Just now they show no signs of strength or ag- gression. Mohammedanism is not pushing its conquests now, as when it planted its unreceding foot in Spain, and was so proud and mighty in the city of the Caliphs. Whatever the issue of the strife, which is now in pro- gress in the East, the fate of that religion which was once radiant in the Alhambra, and upborne amid the gorgeous splendors of the Orient, would seem to be in- evitably sealed. We can not discern any form of reli- gion between the rising and the setting sun, which at this present time shows indication of advancement and gain save that which bears the name of Christ. The old trunks of error do not appear to be sending up new off-shoots, nor striking out new and vigorous roots. There is one fact which argues more and better for the successes of Christianity than has generally been sup- posed. According to the special guarantee of God him- self, whoever, at any time or place, is truly regenerated into sympathy with his Maker, is to be kept by His mighty power steadfast in allegiance. There is no de- flection from the right side to that which is wrong throughout the human family. There is but one division in the race of man, and the only change that occurs is from disloyalty to truth and godliness. The eye of sense may judge otherwise. Men may appear to be the advo- cates of the Christian faith, and from that appearance they may lapse into opposition. But, in truth and in fact- they have changed in appearance only. Julian, what- ever names he bore, and whatever professions he made, was never but on one and the same side of this great controversy. So of all who have apostatized, as it is called, from the cause of Jesus Christ. That apostasy has had reference to names, and dress, and position, but not to the unchanged qualities of the man himself. The steer which fell was not a star. A hopeful circumstance is this in the arithmetic of our aggressive forces. "Wher- ever, throughout the world, there is one true convert to the faith of Jesus Christ, a vacancy is made which never will be supplied by any exchange from the soldiery of the cross. These changes from the ranks of rebellion Vo we know are many. From all parts of the world the report is made of the young and the old who are de- serting the kingdom of Satan, and passing into the liberty and service of the Redeemer. An importance is attached to every such well-authenticated fact, by the circumstance now alluded to, that the place deserted will never be filled by any true disciple and soldier of Jesus Christ. Because of God's special promise and decree, changes can occur only in one direction, and from one side only of these opposing forces. Not only have we these auspicious signs and compu- tations to stimulate our ardor; but the prestige of former victories is on our side. The religion of Jesus Christ was never yet vanquished nor subdued. Per- secution has deluged it with blood, and trampled upon it with her iron heel ; but when the meek and unresist- ing form was supposed to be dead, it began to thrive with a new vigor, deriving strength from opposition, and drawing lustre from reproach. There is not a form of idolatry, of imposture, of falsehood, or of supersti- tion, which has not already been encountered and made to succumb before the truth of Jesus Christ. The reli- gion we profess is no novelty — no fresh recruit — but a veteran faith, which has proved itself invincible on a thousand fields. The aged mythologies of the old world, propped up by the buttresses of imperial power, fell prostrate before the unarmed disciples of Jesus Christ. From city to city, from country to country, from conti- nent to continent, has this faith advanced; from Anti och to Ephesus, to Corinth, to Athens, to Rome; from conquering to conquer has it gone, unimpeded by force, unsubdued by power, and undaunted by opposition; 26 nor is there one dream, one fable, one faith, not one form of false religion, even though it was engrafted on to the life of states and empires which has not fallen be- fore the one true religion, which itself has never yet known a defeat. Vulgar infidelity has scoffed, and learned skepticism has argued ; but the Christian faith has marched steadily onward. Many a man who has expended his genius and talents on the overthrow of Christianity has terminated his cheerless life in an ex- plosion of despair ; but the cause of Jesus Christ has moved onward still. The bloated corpse of Paine rots in his dishonored grave; but thousands of Christian children sing their Sabbath hymns, as though that foul and filthy atheist had never lived. Frenzied impiety has predicted the death and dissolution of the religion of Christ ; but, lo ! this celestial form seems endowed with a new vigor, crosses the ocean, and plants her ban- ner on the islands of heathenism, on the old fortresses of India, and claims anew the whole world as her own. Believing that these claims are just and true, we bear her company, and espouse her cause. In this warfare we are not alone. AH the good in the universe are with us. The spirits of the old martyrs are on our side. Legions of loyal angels befriend us. The memo- ries of ten thousand conquests inspire us. God himself is with us; and often in hours of gloom, he opens our eyes to see, in every valley and on every hill, horses of fire and chariots of fire, the ever-present pledges of Omnipotent help and certain triumph. In our at- tempts to demolish heathenism and extend the Christ- ian faith, we attach ourselves to no doubtful or Quix- otic scheme ; for the oath of the Eternal assures us, ■21 that all the kingdoms of this world shall be subju- gated unto his Son ; that all enemies shall be put under his foot ; and that He shall reign for ever and ever. Let us make it the creed of our lives : Verily there is a g % od, and ave are his ministers. tliere is one Christ, and we are his soldiers. There is but one true faith, and we are its heralds and agents, to give it an universal triumph. TWENTY-EIGHTH ANNUAL HEPOET OF THE NEW-YORK AND BROOKLYN FOREIGN MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION. God has graciously brought us to the twenty-eighth anniversary of this Society. During another year has Ho been pleased to spare the lives of its officers, to con- tinue its monthly meetings, and to smile upon its operations. To-night, we would devoutly recognize His hand in all our mercies, and raise our memorial of thanks- giving. " Hitherto, hath the Lord helped us." The report of the Treasurer shows a slight falling off in the receipts of the year. This is to be in part accounted for, from the peculiar embarrassments experienced in almost every department of business — on the one hand, cutting off or diminish- ing the sources of pecuniary profit, and calling the benevolent, on the other, to meet new and imperious claims from multitudes among us, suddenly thrown out of employment and reduced to want. And yet, considering the character and position of our churches, the number of their members, and the means which God has put into our hands, it is to be asked in all seriousness, Whether wc aro rendering unto the Lord according to the bene- fits done to us? Connected with this Society aro thirty-four churches, with not less than thirteen thousand members. Into its treasury wo bring our annual offer- ing for tho world's evangelization. This offering may be regarded as the measuro of our gratitudo to God for tho blessings of tho Gospel. It is our practical estimate of its glorious hopes and matchless worth. It is the test of our sincerity, as we pray, "Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Can we look at the amount wo have given — can we think of the few and small sacri- fices wc have made to raise it, with no sense of humiliation, as wc contrast it with the large-hearted benevolence of Ilim, "who, though he was rich, yet for our sal * became poor, that we through his poverty might be rich" ? 30 When the groat Missionary Apostlo would rouse the -wealthy disciples at Corinth to larger measures of Christian liberality, ho began by affectionately reminding them of " the grace of God done unto the churches of Macedonia," He could bear record of them, that, to the extent of their power, and even beyond it, they had contributed to the treasury of the Lord. With no spirit of invidious compari- son, — with the hope that we may be incited to abound the more in this grace also, it may not be improper to say that in a neighboring city, eleven churches, only five of which can bo considered by any means wealthy, gave to the American Board the last year, $28,000. A number of churches, less than one third of those asso- ciated with us, and certainly not exceeding a corresponding number of ours, either in membership or in means, have contributed over $G000 more than ourselves. Yet not one of these has injured itself by its efforts. Not a member of them all, it is believed, supposes that he has gone beyond his duty or his ability, in sending the Gospel to the heathen. The cause of Missions, dear to all who love our common Lord — dear in propor- tion to the love they bear Him — makes a strong appeal to a mercantile community. Our intimate and extended business connections with people of every tongue and clime ; our sailors and agents, visiting every shore ; our ships, traversing every sea ; the commerce of the world pouring its treasures at our feet — to say nothing of the representatives of other lands, which daily crowd our wharves and throng our busy streets — all seem to summon the Christians of theso sister cities, twin seats of such energy and enterprise, to a loftier standard of effort and self-sacrifice for the world's conversion. While the appeal is thus made to those of larger pecu- niary resources, to bring not only themselves, but their silver and gold with them to the altar of God, may not every church devise measures for bringing the claims of this great cause in more direct contact with each individual heart ? May we not hope to see every Christian household becoming, in effect, a missionary society where, in connection with the great truths of the Gospel, there shall be taught also tho world's need of the Gospel, and tho efforts which aro made to secure its final triumph ? — where not only tho head of the family shall bring his larger gifts, but every member also shall be encouraged to take part in tho work, and the youngest of the Saviour's fold shall make their sacrifices, and bring their offerings to increaso the " Children's fund for tho education of heathen children" ? If, from looking at things at home, we turn our eyes to the great field of the world abroad, wo find much to stimulate us to more earnest prayer and greater efforts in the missionary work. We have loved to cherish the thought that tho conversion of the world to God is to bo brought about by tho gradual effusion of evangelical truth, until the moral darkness shall disappear, tho colossal fabrics of superstition silently moulder away. and the leaven of tho Gospel be diffused throughout the earth. It were indeed delightful, if wo might anticipate the unchecked and triumphant progress of means and agencies npw in operation, until, by the gentle, but larger outpourings of the Holy Spirit, tho great work shall be accomplished, and "tho kingdom and domin- 31 ion, and tho greatness of the kingdom under tho whole heaven," gradually and oalmly pass into the possession of the " people of tho saints of the Most High." But perhaps this may not be. God is teaching us in his Providence that, if there is a senso in which his kingdom comcth not with observation, there is also a senso in which he "will shake all nations" before "tho desire of all nations shall come." Tho heathen are indeed to bo given to our Divine Messiah for an inheritance, and tho uttermost parts of tho earth for his possession ; but wo know not how many aro to bo broken with a rod of iron, or how many are to be dashed into pieces beforo they will submit themselves to his sway. On one occasion our Saviour himself alludes to the struggles that shall attend his final triumph by saying, " I came not to send peace on earth, but a sword." In the prophetic vision of tho Monarch of Babylon, the imago of gold and silver and brass and iron and clay, which repre- sented the kingdoms of the earth, was broken suddenly in pieces by the " stone, cut out of tho mountain without hands," to show not only to him but to us, that tho God of heaven shall set up a kingdom before which all others shall be broken, wliile it shall stand for ever. And such is the teaching of history. Egypt was filled with desolation beforo tho exodus of Israel. The land of Canaan was swept by the besom of destruction to prepare it for tho planting of God's people. Babylon, Nineveh, Tyre, tho mighty empire of Alexander, were all overthrown before the coming of Christ to tho world. The storm of persecution must burst upon the Church, and Jerusalem bo destroyed to scatter the disciples, " everywhere preaching the "Word." Tha Roman Empire must be rent by civil commotions, beforo Christianity could bo enthroned in the palace of the Csesars. It needed centuries of barbarous warfare, of national upheaving and convulsion, to prepare tho way for tho coming of Christ in the Protestant Reformation. England must be revolutionized for tho origin and progress of Puritanism. Europe and America were to be shaken to their centres before the coming of those great revivals of religion which gave birth to all the benevolent institutions of our age. Tho past is prophetic of tho present and tho future. The year wo have closed presents, in many respects, a strango contrast to any and all that have preceded it. Europe once poured her myriads upon Asia, to wrest from tho grasp of the Moslem tho land where the Saviour taught and died. But wo sec nations, then the foremost in assuming the badge of tho cross, who gave their richest treasures, and noblest sons, and choicest blood, to rescue tho sepulchro of Jesus from thoso who denied his name, now forgetting their old ani- mosities, and banding themselves together for tho support of decrepit Islamism. Wo catch from afar tho noiso of tho struggle; we look with deep anxiety for tho result; but wo behold in the Eastern sky as yet no bending of the rainbow of peace. Tho striking down of one leader in tho great conflict lias only prepared tho way for another, who solemnly pledges himself beforo the world to carry out the ancient policy of his houso and race. All Europe seems mustering her hosts to battle. It is not for our eyes to see tho end. But wo know what tho end shall 32 be. We know that "the Lord God Omnipotent reigncth." We know that in his Bight " tho nations are as a drop of a bucket," and are " counted as the small dust of the balance." We know that He has given the kingdoms of the world to his crucified Son, that his "counsel shall stand," and Ho "will do all his pleasure." But we know not what convulsions shall precede and usher iu the complete fulfill- ment of his glorious promises. The Church may yet see, as she has not hitherto done, how the tempest, the earthquake, and the fire, are all necessary before she will hear and obey the still small voice of tho Divine Spirit. Perhaps in our own country there may yet be shakings as fearful as those which toss the nations of the Old World. Perhaps tho small cloud of war which we now discern in our South- ern horizon, may yet overspread the land, and burst upon us in fiery storm ; or if wo are spared the fierce and bloody conflicts which are raging elsewhere, the shaking and winnowing of the Church may be carried on in other ways. Certain it is that the trial will come. She may soon bo brought into circumstances where sho will be compelled, practically and at once, to choose between her riches and her religion, her gold and her God. Never before as now has God so opened the world to religious effort-. India, with her hundreds of villages which have already renounced idolatry, is calling for Christian teachers. China, with a third of the world's population, is asking for the men and the word of God. Japan, long trampling on the cross, waits to have it planted on her soil. Ethiopia is stretching out her hands. The isles wait for God's law. Our brethren in every field, weary and toil-worn, their ranks sadly thinned by death, with broken health and implor- ing voice, are calling for help. Can wo turn away and call ourselves Christians ? Our blessed Lord stands before us. He bears on his sacred person the marks of tho sore and fiery struggle through which ho has passed for us. Wo hear his sol- emn words, " Go, teach all nations." "Tho field is the world." He points to the riches which we heap together so carefully, and demands of each of us, " Lovest thou mo more than these?" Is it not time, then, when in all tho movements of Providence, we mark the forth- 1 a of a Divine Hand aud the ripenings of a gracious purpose, when duty and responsibility wcro never so urgent, opportunity never so inviting, and mis- sionary labor never so largely blessed — is it not timo for other, larger, loftier stand- ards of Christiau liberality and devotedness ? Is it not time to re-construct our system of charities upon a scalo corresponding to the vast events which arc taking place, and the glorious results which are to bo secured? Is it a time for tho fol- lowers of Christ to content themselves with insignificant offerings and feeble endea rors, . ben overy thing about us speaks of the birth-pangs of a regenerated world ? Wo would be humble for the past. We would bo faithful for tho future. We would give ourselves in a new consecration to our God. We would gird ourselves afresh with his strength for tho doing of his holy will. AW- would grasp with a stronger liiiih the promises of his grace. And whether the massive fortresses of error aro to remain standing in their strength, until tho seventh circuit of the Israel 33 of God, and then* to fall prostrate at the trumpet's blast— or whether their lofty towers shall one by one crumble silently into dust, the great result is sure. The Redeemer is yet to see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. The proclamation is yet to be made with great voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdoms of the world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and ho shall reign for ever and ever." A. A. WOOD. 34 THE FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY OP NEW-YORK AND BROOKLYN In account current with their Treasurer, Almon Merwin. Dr. To Cash paid for carriage-hire, " 3000 copies Dr. Cheever's Sermon, $9 200 76 00 entered in account at sundry times with James M. ) Gordon, Treasurer of the A.B.O.F.M., \ By Cash, from the following sources : From Allen-street Presbyterian Church, April 1, Brick " 1854, Broadway Tabernacle " to Central Presbyterian " March 31, Church of the Puritans, 1855. Eastern Congregational Church, Eleventh Presbyterian " Eourteenth-st. " " $6G3.28, and u eluding pledges yet uncollected, $1103.28, Fourth-avenue Presbyterian Church, Harlem " " Houston-street " " Mercer-street " " Madison-square " " $2604.15, and including pledges yet uncollected, $3704.75, Manhattanvule Presbyterian Church, North " " Presbyterian Church on University Place, Seventh Presbyterian Church, Sixth-st. " "... Spring-st. " " ... Thirteenth-st. " "... West " " ... "West 23d-st. " "... Sundry donations in New- York and Brooklyn, Bedford Congregational Church, Brooklyn, Church of the Pilgrims, $1260, and including pledges yet uncollected, $2560, Clinton-avenue Congregational Churcb, Brooklyn, Elm-place " First Presbyterian Plymouth Congregational Park " South Presbyterian Second " South Congregational Third Presbyterian "Warren-st. Mission "Williamsburgh 1st Presbyterian Hoboken N. J., " ft (( II (( (I u (I II II (I E. & O. E, New- York, March 31st, 1855 Examined and found correct. "Walter S. Griffith, Lewis E. Jackson, 209 76 21,322 69 $21,532 45 Cr. $166 869 169 317 1846 102 100 73 04 32 23 26 44 00 663 28 642 83 76 88 53 08 6244 50 2604 75 50 87 200 00 162 80 50 00 145 44 104 28 232 59 177 06 2337 74 12 76 1260 00 32 41 830 46 483 49 49 79 1004 00 300 00 65 82 67 56 31 23 70 00 7 81 17,317 12 4215 33 A. Merwin, Treasurer. $21,532 45 Auditors. 35 RECEIPTS OF THE SOCIETY. The following statement exhibits the receipts of the of New-York and Brooklyn, from its organization in IS From 1827 to April, 1S36, (nine years,) it ii euuiii ii " 1838, CI ii March, 1839, . it 11 I! II April, 1840, March, 1841, . i: 11 11 April, 1842, " 1843, . ii 11 " 1S44, ii 11 " 1845, . u II " 1846, ii II March, 1847, . ii It " 1848, ii u II 11 AprU, 1849, . 1850, Foreign Missionary Society 27 to April, 1850: $86,931 28 19,068 72 11,195 12,433 10,131 11,721 15,937 10,432 42 14,018 10 11,974 88 53 07 33 17 73 10,42 9,867 11,834 19,536 14,217 10 59 70 56 58 Total in 23 years, $269,725 76 The following is a view of legacies paid into the treasury of the American Board from New- York and Brooklyn sinco the organization of this Auxiliary : h( year ending March 31 1834, from New- York, . . $964 60 u ii a 1836, u It 250 00 ii ii ii 1838, ii It . , . 1350 00 ■I ii ii 1839, ii II . 2865 00 it ii !! mo, it II , . . 5602 86 ii it 11 1842, ii Brooklyn, 133 78 ii ii 11 1843, I! ii , a . 100 00 ii ii II 1844, 11 ii 100 00 ii a It 1846, II New- York, • . 100 00 it ii II 1847, II Brooklyn, 500 00 ii a 11 1848, (1 New-York, . • . 3094 38 ■ i it II 1849, "1 $1 Brooklyn, 265 00 100 00 j- 1365 00 u ii 11 1850, II New-York, , . . 100 00 II a 11 1852, 11 ii . 20 00 II it 11 1853, II ii . , . 885 00 1! ii 11 1851, II u • . 3264 00 36 RECEIPTS FOR THE YEARS 1351, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855. Year ending Year ending Year ending Year ending Year ending April 13, March 31, March 31, March 31, March 3i, 1851. 1852. 1853. 1854. 1855. Allen-street Presbyterian Church N. T. $151 17 $129 00 $137 07 $1S6 40 $166 73 Bleecker-st. (4th Avenue.,) " " 896 22 875 06 781 00 935 49 Brick Presbyterian, " " Broadway 1 abernacle " " 666 75 933 14 911 88 941 S7 869 04 265 45 258 01 284 24 278 03 169 32 Central Presbyterian " " 903 22 687 40 1,016 82 392 06 817 23 Church of the Puritans, (Cong.,) " 851 66 1,252 27 454 60 2,174 73 1,846 26 Eastern Congregational Church, " 17 67 19 09 31 57 52 94 102 44 Eleventh Presbyterian " " 78 36 8S 85 109 34 170 OS 100 00 Fourteenth-st. " " 469 73 997 38 1,519 01 063 28 Fourth-avenue Pr. " " 642 S3 Harlem Presbyterian " " 31 00 76 60 53 47 81 64 70 8S Houston-st " " " 9S 55 25 50 19 50 76 75 53 08 Mercer-st. " " " 3,149 95 [5,139 11 6,726 86 6,404 93 6,244 50 Madison-sq. " " " 50 00 1.126 76 2,604 75 Manhattanville Presb. " " 6 44 17 00 North " " " 19 52 30 00 72 27 50 87 Presb. Ob. on University place, " 393 00 250 00 850 00 500 00 200 00 Seventh Presbyterian Church, " 287 IS 203 77 190 53 306 9S 162 80 Sixth-street " " " 50 00 50 00 spring-street " " 198 27 81 76 12S 17 159 00 145 44 Thirteenth-st. " " " 65 95 38 06 39 34 222 70 104 28 West " " " 496 20 406 60 368 59 502 42 232 59 West23d-st. " " " 25 00 102 65 103 42 177 06 $S,570 12 .$10,95S 95 *13,2S9 45 $16,274 4^ $14,979 38 Bedford Congregational Ch., Brooklyn. 12 44 11 89 15 10 19 59 12 76 Ch. of the Pilgrims, (Cong.,) 1,655 73 2,065 23 2,42n 21 2,267 59 1,200 00 Clinton-av. Cong. Church, " 27 00 40 00 351 31 215 64 Elm-place Cong. " S3 41 First Presbyterian " 751 45 830 58 935 87 1,322 99 S30 46 Fulton-av. Cong. " " 45 00 60 00 66 25 Plymouth " " " 493 28 452 46 303 12 445 00 488 •!!» Park-place " " K 49 78 South Presbyterian " 1,036 12 1,219 32 2,476 94 1,033 25 1,004 00 Second " " " 821 18 56 28 942 18 446 27 800 00 South Cong. li 16 52 28 07 65 82 Third Presbyterian " " 100 00 138 63 111 70 215 23 07 56 Warren-street Mission Church, " :'.l 23 First Presb. Church, Wiliamsburgh, 40 00 68 75 72 00 63 24 70 (Kl Iloboken Presbyterian Church, 7 81 $4,937 20 $5,327 64 $7,704 95 $6,123 72 $4,215 32 Sundry donations in New-York and ) $2,845 50 $1,823 23 $1,917 11 $1,298 38 $2,337 74 Total, $16,352 SS $1S,109 52 $22,911 51 $23,696 68 $21,532 44 Note.— Of the $22,911.51 reported for the year terminating March 31, 1S53, the sum of $6850 was a special contribution for the debt of the Board iu 1852. 37 LIST OF OFFICERS FOE THE TEAK 1355. PRESIDENT. DAVID HOADLET, VICE-PRESIDENTS. ANSON a. PHELPS, CHARLES J. STEDMAN, JOHN RANKIN, OLIVER E. WOOD. CORRESPONDING SECRETARY. Rev. AUGUSTUS A. WOOD. RECORDING SECRETARY. ALMON MERWIN. TREASURER. ALMON MERWIN. Allen-street Presbyterian Church, Brick " " Broadway Tabernacle, " Central Presbyterian " Church of the Puritans. u Eastern Congregational Church, Eleventh Presbyterian " Fourtecnth-sl. " " Fourth-avenue " " Harlem " " Houston-street " " Mercer-street " " Madison-square" " Manhattanvilk " " North DIRECTORS. . John P. Prall, Josepii W. Lester. . A. L. Ely, C. H. Merry. . W. G. West, Israel Minor. . W. P. Cook, James W. Duxxixi;. , Jas. C. Woodruff, H. 0. Pinneo. . Noaii T. Swezey, Lewis Ciiichesi bb. . . Alex. McNey, J. H. Bulen. . . W. E. Dodge, J. F. Joy. , . Alfred Post, Edward Chester. . E. Ketch um, James Riker, Jr. . S. Derrickson, Davld Sti:\ ens. . W. W. Chester, G. Mannixi! Ti; utj . F. Bull, A. 0. Van Lenxi:p. , . R. C. AKDEKWa . 0. II. Lee, James Reeve. Presbyterian Church, University place, . . W. W. Stone, J. K. Myers. BY 5J075" f\3 Seventh Presbyterian Church, Sixth-street " u Spring-street " it Thirteenth-st " i: We6« " u W(?s< 23c?-s<, " 11 Bedford Cong. CJuirch, Brooklyn, Clinton-av. " " " Church of the Pilgrims, li Elm-place Cong. Church, ti First Presb. ii ii Plymouth Cong. a it Park a ii Second Presb. ii ii South ii ii South Cong. it ii Third Presb. ii a Warren-st. Mission " ii First Presb. Church, Williamsburgh, First. Presb. Church, Hoboken, 38 Charles Merrill, H. B. Littell. Francis Duncan. Joseph S. Holt, A. S. Ball, M.D. John C. Hines, "W. J. Johnson, M.D. Lewis E. Jackson, Benj. Salter. Henry D. Crane, Gurdon Burchard. D. 0. Caulkins. Edward T. Goodall. Saml. E. "Warner. Jas. W. Raynoe. Sidney S. Sanderson, S. F. Phelps. F. "W. Burke, Alfred S withers. Rufus R. Graves, Isaac N. Judson. J. T. Howard, Arthur Nichols. A. Smith, Augustus Robrlns, M.D. Charles Clarke, Lucius Hopkins. "Walter S. Griffith, John M. Smith. Solomon Freeman, Mr. Parsons. "W. W. IIurldut, J. C. Halsey, M.D. Geo. H. Williams, N. H. Holt. Joseph F. Tuttle, J. W. Buckley. A. W. Rose, Joseph Boynton. AA 000 242 724 3 THE LIBRAKV UNIVERSITY OF C