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Methodist doctrines; not a few of them | cussion as to the value and extent of the are the same in character with those pub- general literature of the United States, it is lished by the American Tract Society- not out of place to say something respectsuch, for instance, as the "Saints' Rest." ing that part of it which falls under the The sales are not confined to the main de- head of Religion. pository at New-York, and the branches established at some other great centres of trade; its publications are retailed by all the travelling ministers of that extensive body, and thus find their way into the most remote log-cabins of the West. And who can calculate the good that may result from reading the biographical and didactic volumes thus put into circulation? Who can tell what triumphs over sin, what penitential tears, what hopes made to spring up in despairing hearts, what holy resolutions, owe their existence, under God, to these books? The amount of the sales of this institution and its branches was, last year, fully 125,000 dollars.

The Old School Presbyterians have also a Board of Publication, which has put forth not only a considerable number of doctrinal tracts in which the distinctive views of that body are ably maintained, but many books also of solid worth, which are gaining an extensive circulation among its own members, and the professors of the Calvinistic system generally. The receipts of this Board were, last year, 18,160 dollars, and its expenditures 18,409 dollars.

The regular Baptists, too, have their Tract and Book Society earnestly engaged in the good work of supplying their people with publications addressed both to the converted and the unconverted. The receipts of that Board were last year 9906 dollars, and its expenditures 9869. The Episcopalians, Free-Will Baptists, the Quakers or Friends, the Lutherans, and the Protestant Methodists, have all their own Tract Societies; the last two have their "Publication Committees" and their Book Establishments. Other denominations, also, may possibly have theirs. The amount of evangelical tracts and books put into circulation by all these "societies," "boards," and "committees," put together, cannot be exactly ascertained. Their value in money, I mean for what they are sold, can hardly be less than 300,000 dollars. They all help to swell the great stream of Truth, as it rolls its health-giving waters through the land. May God grant that these efforts may go on continually increasing from year to year, until every family shall be blessed with a well-stored library of sound religious books.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE RELIGIOUS LITERATURE OF THE UNITED
STATES.

WHILE it would be very foreign to the object of this work to enter upon any dis

And first, let me advert to that which, without reference to its origin, includes all the literature of a religious kind now circulating through the country. In this sense, our religious literature is by far the most extensive in the world, with the single exception of that of Great Britain. We have a population of 18,500,000; and, even including the African race among us, and regarding the country as a whole, we have a larger proportion of readers than can be found in most other nations. Indeed, I am not aware of any whole kingdom or nation that has more. Deducting the coloured population, we have 15,500,000 of people who, whatever may have been their origin, are Anglo-American in character, and to a great extent speak and read the English language. Not only so, but of these a very large proportion are religious in their characters and habits, as we shall show in another place; and, among the rest, there is a widely prevalent respect for Christianity, and a disposition to make themselves acquainted with it.

To meet the demand created by so large a body of religious and serious readers, we have a vast number of publications in every department of Christian theology, and these are derived from various sources. Some have been translated from German and French; some from the Latin of more or less ancient. times; some from the Greek; while many of our learned men, and particularly of our divines, read some or all these languages, and would think their libraries very deficient in the literature with which they ought to be familiar, did they not contain a good stock of such books imported from distant Europe.

Again, we have either republished or imported a great many of the best English religious works, both of the present times and of two or three centuries back. Such as seem adapted for popular use, and as many of a more learned cast as seem likely to justify their republication, are reprinted; while not a few copies of many more are ordered from Europe through the booksellers.

Some American reprints of English religious books, particularly of works of a practical character, have had an immense circulation. The commentaries of Scott, Henry, Doddridge, Adam Clarke, and Gill, have been extensively sold, and some booksellers owe a large part of their fortunes to the success of the American editions. All the sterling English writers on religious subjects, of the seventeenth century, as well as of later times, are familiar to our Christian readers; and the smaller

practical treatises of Flavel, Baxter, Bos- | But our literature, it is said, is not known ton, Doddridge, and others, have been very beyond the country itself; and this is to widely disseminated. Bates, Charnock, some extent true. But that few, comparaFlavel, Howe, the Henrys, &c., are well tively, even of the distinguished authors of known among us, as are also Jeremy Tay- any country, are known beyond its limits, lor, Barrow, Bishops Hall and Wilson (of might easily be shown in the case of Sodor and Man), and many more whom I France, Germany, Holland, Denmark, and need not name. As for more modern Italy. With the exception of the corps of times, the names of Thomas Scott and literary men, even the well informed among Adam Clarke are household words, and the English are little acquainted with the Chalmers is known to hundreds of thou- literature of those countries, and but for sands who will never see his face in this what they learn through the medium of the world. There are many others in Eng- Reviews, would hardly know so much as land and Scotland with whose names we the names of some of their most distinhave been familiar from our youth. In guished authors. No doubt the literature English systematic theology no names are of every civilized nation greatly influences more known or esteemed than the late An- that of all others; not, however, by its drew Fuller and Thomas Watson. And having a general circulation in those counalthough it cannot be said that every good tries, but because of the master minds who religious work that appears in Great Brit- first familiarize themselves with it, and ain is republished in the United States, a then transfer all of it that is most valuable large proportion of the best certainly are, into their own, just as Milton appropriated especially such as are of a catholic nature, the beauties of Homer, Virgil, and Tasso. and many of them, I am assured, have a wider circulation in the United States than in England itself.

The United States have unquestionably produced a considerable number of authors in every branch of literature, who, to say the least, are respectable in point of eminence.* Their being unknown to those who make use of the fact as a reproach to

something else than the want of real merit on their part; and if, upon the whole, they present only what appears to foreigners nothing beyond a respectable mediocrity,

*It would not be difficult to make out a tolerably long list of authors who must be pronounced, by those who know anything of them, to be such as would be a disgrace to no country; and many of writers on law in its various branches, we have Kent, them are not unknown in Europe. Among living Story, Webster, Wheaton; in medicine, Mott, Warren, Beck, Ray, Jackson, and many others; in theology and Biblical science, Stuart, Miller, Woods, the Alexanders, Hodge, Wayland, Robinson, Conant, Barnes, Stowe, Beecher, Schmucker, Hawks, the Abbots, &c.; in belles-lettres and history, Irving, Prescott, Anthon, Bancroft, Walsh, Cooper, Paulding; in science, Silliman, Hitchcock, Henry, Davies; and political economy, Carey, Vethake, Biddle, Raymond. to their being known to some extent, at any rate, in These are but a few, selected chiefly with reference Europe. Among the distinguished dead, we have Marshall, Livingston, Madison, Jefferson, Jay; Rush, Dorsey, Wistar, Dewees, Godman; the Edwardses, Davies, Dwight, Smith, Mason, Emmons, Channing, Griffin, Rice; Wirt, Noah Webster, Ramsay; Franklin, Ewing, and Hamilton. In the fine arts, we have had a West, an Alston, and have now a Greenough, a Powers, a Crawford; while in the useful arts, as they are called, we have not been without men of some renown, as the names of Fulton, Whitney, and oth

The United States have sometimes been reproached by foreigners as a country without any literature of native growth. M. de Tocqueville, arguing from general the country, may possibly be owing to principles, and, as he supposes, philosophically, seems to think that, from the nature of things, the country, because a republic, never can have much literature of its own. He forgets that even the purest democratical government that the world has ever seen, that of Athens, produced in its day more distinguished poets, orators, historians, philosophers, as well as painters and sculptors, than any other city or country of the same population in the world. He full well knows, however, that the government of the United States is not an unmixed democracy, and that in everything that bears upon the higher branches of learning, our institutions are as much above the control of a democracy as those of any other country. The grand disadvantage, according to M. de Tocqueville, under which our literature labours is, that authors are not encouraged by pensions from the government. But are these so absolutely indispensable ? Have such encouragements accomplished all that has been expected from them? Are they not often shamefully abused, and merely made to gratify the personal predilections of ministers of state? Besides, it is notorious that in England at least, where the government professes, I understand, to patronise literature, the most distinguished authors, in all its various departments, owe nothing to that source. As for the patronage of associations and wealthy individuals, it may exist just as well in the United States as anywhere else, and, in fact, is not unknown

there.

ers attest.

Nor are American books unknown in Great Britain, the only country in Europe in which they could be extensively read. In " Bent's London Catalogue" we find the names of 68 American works on theology, 66 in fiction, 56 of juvenile literature, 52 of travels, 41 on education, 26 on biography, 22 on history, 12 on poetry, 11 on metaphysics, 10 on philosophy, 9 on science, and 9 on law-in all, 382, which have been republished in England within the last ten years. Besides these, a good many books published in America are imported every year into Great Britain.

ment.

this may readily be accounted for by other | pers. The New-York Observer has 16,000 causes besides any hopeless peculiarity al- subscribers, and several of the rest have a leged to exist in the people or their govern- circulation of from 5000 to 10,000 each. They comprise a vast amount of religious The country is still comparatively new. intelligence, as well as valuable selections Much has yet to be done in felling the for- from pamphlets and books; and though it est and clearing it for the habitations of may be the case that religious newspapers civilized man. But a small part of our sometimes prevent more substantial readterritory bears evidence of having been ing, yet it must be confessed, I think, that long settled. Our people have passed they are doing great good, and are perused through exciting scenes that left but little by many who would otherwise read little leisure for writing. Few families possess or nothing at all of a religious character. much wealth. The greater number of our Besides these newspapers, there is a large institutions of learning are of recent origin. number of religious monthly and semiNone of them have such ancient founda- monthly magazines, and several quarterly tions as are to be found in many European reviews, in which valuable essays on subuniversities; our colleges have no fellow-jects of importance may be found from ships; our professors have their time much time to time.*

occupied in giving instruction; our pastors, The political papers† in the United lawyers, and physicians find but little lei-States, though often extremely violent in sure, amid their professional labours, for party politics, are in many instances auxthe cultivation of literature. We have no iliary to the cause of religion. While the sinecures no pensions-for learned men. editors of some, happily not many, are opThere is too much public life and excite- posed to everything that savours of reliment to allow the rich to find pleasure in gion, and even allow it to be outraged in Sybaritic enjoyments; and they have other their columns, an overwhelming majority sources of happiness than the extensive often give excellent articles, and publish a possession of paintings and statues, though large amount of religious intelligence. In even for these the taste is gaining ground. this respect there has evidently been a But to return to our proper subject, the remarkable improvement within the last religious literature of the United States: twenty years. Many of the political jourthe number of our authors in this depart- nals have rendered immense service in ment is by no means small. Many valuable works, the productions of native minds, issue year after year from the press, a very large proportion of which are of a practical kind, and unquestionably exert a most salutary influence. They meet with an extensive sale, for the taste for such reading is widely diffused, fostered as it is by the establishment of Sunday-schools and the libraries attached to them.*

the auspices of the Presbyterians of the Old and New *Two of these quarterlies are published under Schools; the "Biblical Repertory and Princeton Review," at Princeton, New-Jersey, which is the organ of the former, and the "American Biblical Repository," at New-York. The "Methodist Magazine and Quarterly Review," and the "Christian Review," conducted by the Baptists, are both valuable periodicals; and all four contain able reviews and essays. The "Christian Register" is published monthly; it is the organ of the Unitarians, and is conducted with much ability.

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newspapers and other periodical journals in the United States" was 1555, of which 116 were published daily (the Sabbath excepted), fourteen three times a week, thirty-nine twice a week, and 991 once week. The remainder, which were issued twice a month, monthly, or quarterly, were principally magazines and reviews. Of the newspapers, thirtyeight were in the German language, four in French, one in Spanish, and the rest in English. Several of and English. The circulation of these newspapers the New-Orleans papers are published both in French and other periodicals is immense.

To the religious literature of books must be added that of periodical works-news-nished by the Postmaster-general, the number of In the year 1839, according to the statistics furpapers, magazines, reviews—and nowhere else, perhaps, is this literature so extensive or so efficient. More than sixty evangelical religious newspapers are published once a week. The Methodists publish eight, including one in the German tongue, and all under the direction of their Conferences. The Episcopalians have twelve; the Baptists twenty; the Presbyterians of all classes, including the Congregationalists, Dutch and German Reformed, Lutherans, &c., about twenty more. This estimate includes evangelical Protestant papers only. In all, they cannot have fewer than 250,000 subscribers. The Christian Advocate (Methodist), published at New-York, has about 26,000; a few years ago it had 30,000, but the number diminished in consequence of the establishment of other Methodist pa

* I need not repeat here what has been said of the immense circulation of books by the Sunday-school and the Tract and Book societies, including the 45 Book Concern" of the Methodists.

Of the newspa

pers alone the subscriptions are at least 1,000,000.
And though the number is too great by one half or
three fourths, and though many are conducted by
men who are but poorly qualified for the responsible
and difficult task of an editor, yet there is no deny.
ing that even the poorest of them carry a vast amount
of information to readers in the most secluded and
distant settlements, as well as to the inhabitants of
editors in the mass, it must be acknowledged that
the most populous districts. And if we take the
they are very ready to lend their columns to the pub-
lication of religious articles, of a suitable character
and length, when requested by good men.
did Christians feel as they ought on this subject,
and do what they might, the "press" would be far
more useful to the cause of religion that it is.

And

the Temperance cause, as well as in every | society are, with few exceptions, stationed other involving the alleviation of human suffering.

Some of the literary and political Reviews of native origin are very respectable works of the kind; the North American Review, in particular, which has now existed more than a quarter of a century. There are also several valuable monthly Reviews. Besides these, the leading Reviews published in Britain, such as the Edinburgh, the London Quarterly, Westminster, Foreign Quarterly, Dublin, &c., are all republished among us.

CHAPTER XXII.

EFFORTS TO PROMOTE THE RELIGIOUS AND
TEMPORAL INTERESTS OF SEAMEN.

at foreign ports, such as Havre, in France, Canton, in China, Sydney, in New South Wales, Honolulu, in the Sandwich Islands, and Cronstadt, in Russia. It had chaplains at one time, also, at Rio Janeiro, Marseilles, and some other places.

Besides promoting the establishment of public worship under chaplains at seaports, the society. has strongly and successfully recommended the opening of good boarding-houses and reading-rooms for seamen when on shore, and the promotion of their temporal comfort in every way possible.

The efforts of the different associations for seamen have been greatly blessed. Last year, in particular, was marked by special mercies. In no fewer than ten or twelve ports there were manifest outpourings of the Holy Spirit on the meetings for religious instruction. A hundred and

chaplains at Philadelphia as having been converted under his ministry, and among these was an old man, ninety-nine years of age, who had been, from time to time, a drunkard for more than seventy years.

We have spoken of the endeavours made to send the Gospel to the destitute settle-fifty sailors were reported by one of the ments of the United States, both in the West and in the East, but we must not forget that the population of that country includes 100,000 men whose home is on the deep, and "who do business in the great waters," a number which must be almost doubled if we include those who navigate the rivers and lakes in steamboats, sailing vessels, and other craft.

The first systematic efforts made on a large scale, in the United States, for the salvation of seamen, commenced in 1812, at Boston. Since then much interest in the subject has been awakened at almost every port along the seaboard; and within the last few years a great deal has been done for boatmen and sailors on the rivers and lakes.

The American Seaman's Friend Society was instituted at New-York in 1827, and is now the chief association engaged in this benevolent enterprise. It serves, in some sense, as a central point to local societies formed in the other leading seaports, as well as those on the Western rivers, though they are not, in general, con

There are supposed to be 600 pious captains in the United States' mercantile navy. There are also several decidedly religious officers in the national marine, who exercise a happy influence on the service. The pious seamen belonging to the United States are now reckoned at about 6000; a most gratifying contrast to the state of things twenty-five years ago, when a pious seaman, of any class, was rarely to be met with.

The income of the society for the last year was $12,992, without including the receipts of the local associations, which must have been considerable. Its expenditures were $13,785.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CIPLE IN REFORMING EXISTING EVILS.TEM-
PERANCE SOCIETIES.

nected with it nominally. By a monthly OF THE INFLUENCE OF THE VOLUNTARY PRINpublication, called the Sailor's Magazine, it communicates to pious seamen much interesting information regarding the progress of truth among that class of men, with details of its own proceedings, and those of other associations of the same kind.

We have contemplated the Voluntary Principle as the main support of religion and its institutions in the United States. We have now to consider its powers of Chapels have now been opened for sea- correcting, or rather overcoming, some of men, and public worship maintained on the evils that prevail in society. And first, their account in almost all the principal let us see how it has contended with Inseaports from the northeast to the south-temperance, one of the greatest evils that west, chaplains being engaged for the pur- have ever afflicted the human race.

pose, and supported chiefly by local socie- It is not easy to depict in a few words ties. Those in the service of the central the ravages of drunkenness in the United States. The early wars of the Colonial age, the long war of the Revolution, and, finally, that of 1812-15 with England, all contributed to promote this tremendous

* There are no fewer than fifty of these local associations for the promotion of the spiritual and temporal welfare of seamen and rivermen in the United

States.

evil. The very abundance of God's gifts became, by their perversion, a means of augmenting it. The country being fertile, nearly through its whole extent, and producing immense quantities of wheat, rye, and corn, the last two of which were devoted to the manufacture of whiskey, there seemed no feasible check, or conceivable limit to the ever-growing evil, especially as the government had no such pressure on its finances as might justify the laying on of a tax that would prevent or diminish the manufacture of ardent spirits. Moreover, the idea had become almost universally prevalent that the use of such stimulants, at least in moderate quantities, was not only beneficial, but almost indispensable for health, as well as for enabling men to bear up under toil and fatigue.

soon set in motion to make its objects known, and able agents were employed in advocating its principles. Great was the success that followed. In the course of a few years societies were to be found in all parts of the country, and were joined, not by thousands only, but by hundreds of thousands. People of all classes and ages entered zealously into so noble an undertaking. Ministers of the Gospel, lawyers, and judges, legislators, physicians, took a prominent part in urging it on.

not found necessary to persons in health, but, on the contrary, injurious; besides which, it was of consequence that an example of self-denial should be given by those who could afford to buy wine, for the sake of the poor, who could not.

What need is there of words? The cause continues advancing to this day. To reach the poor, as well as to remove temptation from the rich, the rules of the Temperance societies within the last six or seven years have included "all intoxicating drinks." Upon this principle, wines of all descripThe mischief spread from year to year. tions have generally been abandoned, both It pervaded all classes of society. The on account of their being mostly impure courts of justice, the administration of gov- with us-being imported, and all more or ernment, the very pulpit itself, felt its dire-less intoxicating-and because they are ful influence. The intellect of the physician, and the hand of the surgeon, were too often paralyzed by it; and it might be said, that what some thought to be ordained unto life, was found to produce death. Poverty, disease, crime, punishment, misery, were the natural fruits which it brought forth abundantly. Society was afflicted in almost all its ranks; nearly every family throughout the land beheld the plague in one or more of its members. Yet for a long time, while all saw and lamented the evil, none stood up against it. But there were those that mourned, and wept, and prayed over the subject, and the God of our fathers, who had been with them on the ocean and amid the dreary wilderness, to watch over them and to protect them, heard those prayers.

But, in the progress of the Temperance reformation, little was done to reclaim men who had already become drunkards. And yet, at the lowest estimate, there were 300,000 such in the United States; many even reckoned them at 500,000 at the commencement of the Temperance movement. No hope seemed to be entertained with respect to these. To prevent such as had not yet become confirmed drunkards from acquiring that fatal habit, was the utmost that any one dared to expect. A few drunkards, indeed, were here and there reIn the year 1812, a considerable effort claimed; but the mass remained unaffected was made to arouse the attention of Chris-by all the cogent arguments and affecting tians to the growing evils of intemperance, appeals that were resounding through the and a day of fasting and of prayer was ob- country. served by some religious bodies. In the following year, the Massachusetts Society for the Suppression of Intemperance was formed, and its labours were manifestly useful. Still, "the plague was not stayed." The subject, however, was not allowed to drop. It was seen that the Society had not gone far enough, and that it would not do to admit of ardent spirits being taken, even in moderation. The evil of wide-spread drunkenness never could be exterminated by such half-way measures. It was proposed, accordingly, in 1826, to proceed upon the principle of entire abstinence from the use of ardent or distilled spirits as a beverage, and that same year saw the formation at Boston of the American Temperance Society. The press was * The word corn is almost invariably employed in America to designate the grain commonly called maize in England, and Blé de Turquie in France.

At length God, in his wonderful providence, revealed the way by which these miserable persons might be reached. And how simple! A few hard drinkers in the city of Baltimore, who were in the habit of meeting in a low tavern for the purpose of revelry, and had been drunkards for years, met one night as usual. All happened to be sober. Apparently by accident, the conversation fell upon the miseries of their life. One after another recounted his wretched history. All were deeply affected with the pictures of their own degradation thus held up to their minds. Some one proposed that they should stop in their career of folly and wickedness, and form themselves into a Temperance association. They did so. Rules were written and signed on the spot. They met again the next night, related their histories, wept together over their

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