In submitting to the General Conference this second quadrennial report, the managers cannot refrain from an expression of gratitude to God for the signal success He has given to the sacred cause in which they have been engaged-for the confidence and support they have received from their brethren and friends-and for the enlargement of the missionary fields, particularly among the natives of our country.

That this glorious work may go on and prosper more abundantly, the managers beg leave respectfully to suggest to the general conference the propriety of adopting measures to ensure a more vigorous, general, and simultaneous exertion among the several annual conferences, that all, both preachers and people, may combine their strength and influence to carry forward the kingdom of righteousness and peace among the inhabitants of our lost world.

The Committee of the General Conference, to whom this report was referred, remark as follows:- From this statement, namely, that $3,537 72, had been expended for the preceding four years more than had been received, it will appear evident that, for the energetic prosesution of the missionary enterprise, plans must be adopted and pursued with vigor and unanimity;' for, while some of the annual Conferences have done much in aid of the missionary cause, others have done but little, and some nothing at all;' and by an inspection of the above report it will be perceived, that nearly one third of the whole amount was raised within the bounds of the New-York Conference. With a view, therefore, to enlist more effectually all the Conferences in this benevolent enterprise, the General Conference recommended, 'that within the bounds of each annual Conference, there be a Conference Missionary Society auxiliary to this Institution, with branches, under such regulations as the Conferences respectively shall prescribe.' In consequence of this recommendation, together with the enlargement of the missionary field, a new impulse was given to the circulation of the life-blood of this flourishing branch of the Church, new missions were established, and a more vigorous action generally felt throughout the entire body. But while prosperity generally attended the exertions of the Society, and additional friends were raised up to aid in its forward march, some difficulties were thrown in the way of its operations among the aboriginal tribes, particularly the Choctaws and Cherokees. No human eye could have foreseen the effects which the action of the general government had on the domestic peace and national tranquillity of these people. So many of them having embraced the Christian faith, and become at least partially civilized, it was fondly hoped, by the friends of Indian improvement, that they might be built up as a civil and religious community, and thus have been preserved from that deterioration which had so generally followed these people on the advance of the white population. In the

breaking up, however, of these settlements, these hopes seemed to be blasted. But God looketh upon the mountains, and they melt down before him. Though they suffered a temporary loss by their removal, and a dark gloom was cast over their future prospects; it is still hoped that these things may work together for their good. Those who were scattered abroad by these means, are now collecting together west of the Mississippi, and forming a community of their own, under such regulations as they shall see fit to adopt; and some of those men of God who were instrumental in their conversion have gone with them, preferring to share in their sacrifices and sufferings, rather than to leave them to become a prey to the destructive errors and vices of heathenism. Thus a way is opened in that vast wilderness west of the Mississippi, for the introduction of the Gospel among the native tribes ; and whether they are destined, by an inscrutable Providence, to an utter extermination, or to be preserved as a monument of Divine forbearance, we shall have the satisfaction of having been the means of snatching some of them as brands from the burning, and of having exerted ourselves for their present and eternal good.

But we return from this cursory glance at the state and prospects of these aboriginal missions, to notice the progress of the Society. The following, which was presented to the last General Conference, will show the state of the funds for the four preceding years :The Third Quadrennial Report of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

For a full view of the transactions of the society for the past four years, the managers beg leave to refer the General Conference to the annual reports of the society during that period. In obedience to the constitution of the society, the following account of the moneys received and expended is presented :

Leaving a balance in favor of the society for the four years of $4,460 62, and showing an excess of receipts over the four preceding years of $26,489 90.

It will be seen from the above exhibit, that there has been a diminution of the amount of funds for the last three years, although there has been more received this year than last. The causes of this decrease in the funds of the society are worthy of grave inquiry; and it is believed that the chief cause is in the fact, that the managers have been obliged every year to report a balance in the treasury. It is hoped,

however, that the present General Conference will provide for the removal of this cause, by complying with a recommendation of the managers for a more extended and efficient prosecution of foreign and domestic missions.

The signal success which has hitherto attended the operations of the society, while it affords matter for gratitude and praise to God, inspires the managers with confidence in striving to go forward in this good work: and so long as such vast fields are continually opening for missionary enterprises, and the General Conference shall provide for their cultivation, the managers pledge themselves to use their best endeavors to support and encourage them, by their prayers and by their efforts, to supply the pecuniary means.

These suggestions from the board of managers, together with the general conviction which was felt for more extended operations in this branch of our work, induced the General Conference to provide for opening new missions, and for the more energetic prosecution of this department of labor; and the annual report now before us shows that these measures have had a very salutary influence. According to the report of the treasurer, $17,097 05 have been received into the treasury, and $20,117 27 expended, making an excess in the expenditures over the past year of $7,458 28. This shows that the missionary spirit is becoming more and more active, and that there is a disposition in the religious community to meet the pecuniary demands of the society.

Twenty-eight new missions have been commenced during the last year, most of which bid fair to reward the laborer for his toil and sacrifices. Measures have also been adopted for the opening of a new mission among the Flat Head Indians beyond the Rocky Mountains. With these extensive fields before us, and those encouragements arising from past success, we have every motive for persevering efforts in this holy cause.

CATHOLIC CONTROVERSY.

It is probably known to most of our readers that a controversy of a very important character has recently been commenced in the city of New-York, (as also in Philadelphia,) between the Rev. Dr. Brownlee, of the Middle Dutch church, on the Protestant side, and the Rev. Drs. Powers and Varela, and the Rey. Mr. Levins, on the side of the Catholics. Whatever may be the effects of this controversy on the interests of true religion, it seems quite manifest that it can have no very beneficial effect upon the temper of the gentlemen who are en

gaged in it. This we judge from the specimens which have passed before us. Though neither party appears to be wanting in talent to manage his cause, nor of logical tact in repelling or evading each other's argument, there appears no little adroitness on the part of the Catholic writers to avoid the main points of controversy, and especially to shun those points on which they must be conscious that they are the most vulnerable. Eight letters have already passed between them without having yet settled the Rule of Faith.'

That all Protestants agree in taking the canonical Scriptures, in their most plain, literal, and obvious sense, to be the only rule, and at the same time a sufficient rule of faith and practice, has been long known, equally by Protestants and Catholics; and that the latter superadd the traditions of their Church as forming a part of this infallible rule, is a fact of equal notoriety; why then spend so much time, and exhaust the reader's patience, in discussing this point? We must confess that the Catholic priests display no little tact, but at the same time some want of that candor which should characterize a Christian polemic, in pressing upon their antagonist the proofs of the inspiration of the Bible. Is this a mooted question between the parties? Is it yet to be settled whether the sacred Scriptures were given by Divine inspiration? Whatever the Deist may claim in behalf of his skepticism on this question, when he enters the arena of controversy with the Christian, surely a professed minister of a Christian Church, when controverting with another Christian minister, has no right to press this question. Nor can he, in fairness, hold his antagonist under obligation to run through the whole field of argument, to collect all the materials which lie scattered over this vast field, to fortify himself against the attacks of infidelity. In doing this, therefore, in the present instance, the Catholic priests, as it seems to us, have given us reason to suspect that they are fearful of the tremendous artillery which their antagonist might bring from this sacred magazine, to bear upon the tottering edifice which has been so long propped up by the force of human skill and power, and which they have so often felt was in no little danger of tumbling over their heads. What! Shall a professedly Christian polemic put on the harness of the infidel, and demand of a minister of Jesus Christ the proofs that the Scriptures are the word of God, before he will measure with him his strength?

But we perceive the sad dilemma of these champions of Romanism. They have been taught to believe that the only channel through which the evidence of the Divine inspiration and authenticity of the holy Scriptures has been transmitted to us, is the Roman Catholic Church; and hence by forcing their antagonist upon this debatable point, they would drive him to the necessity of subscribing to their own favorite

dogma, that something besides the Scriptures themselves, forms a rule of faith for Protestants as well as for Catholics. Dr. Brownlee, however, was fully prepared for them even on this point. While he allows, as he ought, that we are indebted to the Church, as it existed among the Israelites, primitive Christians, &c, for the records of our salvation, he refutes successfully the false notions entertained by the papists, that that branch of the Church which acknowledges the infallibility of the Pope of Rome, has been the only depositary of these sacred records. He contends, moreover, and that very justly, that this forms but a very small part of even the external evidence of the Divine authority of the Holy Scriptures. Superadded to the testimony derivable from prophecies fulfilled, from the miracles which attended the announcement and establishment of both the Mosaic and Christian dispensations, he contends for those internal marks of truth which every where pervade the Book of God, and which irrefutably proclaim the Divinity of its origin-that the sublimity, purity, and the admirable fitness of the doctrines of the Bible to the condition of man, as well as the morality and justice of its precepts, are irresistible evidences in favor of the Divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures. And though the relative position in which Dr. Brownlee stood, laid him under no obligation to enter into this argument, yet he has not shunned to meet it with manly firmness, and thereby to show that the subtle Deist would have no better chance to escape from his grasp, should he see fit to grapple with him, than these bold champions of modern Catholicism can have, however dexterously they may wield the controversial sword.

There is one point, however, in which both sides seem to be equally vulnerable. We allude to the divisions, both in sentiment and practice, as well as in affection, which have taken place among both Protestants and Catholics. The latter endeavor to impugn the Protestants' rule of faith, and to show that it is insufficient to settle points of controversy, from the fact that there always have been and are still such a variety of sects among them, differing so widely as do the Lutherans and Calvinists, these last and the Arminians, the Presbyterians and Episcopalians, the Trinitarians and Unitarians, &c. On the other hand, with a view to retort upon their antagonists the force of this argument, the Rev. Dr. Brownlee presses his opponents with the well-known facts that the Catholics have been and are still as much divided among themselves as the Protestants-that pope has been arrayed against pope, going even so far as to fulminate against each other the thunders of excommunication-one erasing from the decrees of the Church what had been advanced by his predecessor as infallibly right-that the Jansenists and Jesuits were not less violent in their disputes against each