12. The Sabbath.

Charles W. Upham.

Edward B. Hall.

13. The Jewish Sacrifices. 14. The canonical authority and character of the epistle to the Hebrews. Eliphalet P. Crafts.

It would give us pleasure to express our sense of the merit of each of these exercises; but we do not feel at liberty to describe them more particularly, than by saying, that they were in a high degree honourable to the members of the institution and gratifying

to its friends.

Society for promoting Theological Education at Harvard Uni versity. The anniversary sermon before this Society was preached on the evening of Aug. 22, at the church in Federal street, Boston, by Rev. Mr. Tuckerman of Chelsea. The text was from Matthew x. 1. 5. 7. The collection taken in aid of the objects of the Society, amounted to $105.

General Association of Massachusetts.—This body met at Ashfield June 22, and adjourned June 23. Delegates were present from twelve associations in Massachusetts; from the General Associations of the Presbyterian Church, of Connecticut, and of New Hampshire; from the General Convention of Vermont, and from the Evangelical Consociation of Rhode Island. The Worcester Central Association was received into connexion. Narratives of the state of religion in churches connected with the body were given by the delegates, and votes passed approving the method of instruction by Bible Classes, and the efforts making by the presbytery of Hanover for endowing a Theological Seminary for the education of pious young men, for the Gospel ministry. The next annual meeting is appointed to be holden in Boston.

6

General Assembly. We have not yet seen a complete account of the doings of this body, at its meeting which was opened May 20. The report upon the condition of the Princeton Theological Seminary, states the number of students to be 118; and the benefactions received within the year for their support, to be $2166 08 in money, exclusive of other contributions. $2500 for the endowment of a Scholarship have been received from a benefactor in Elizabethtown, whose name is concealed. There are under the care of the Assembly 13 synods, 77 presbyteries, 1679 congregations, and 1027 ministers. The number of vacant congregations is 769; licentiates, 173; and candidates 195. The number of communicants added during the last year is 10,431, and the whole number of communicants 112,955. The number of adults baptized during the the year, has been 2120, and of infants 10,642. The amount of collections for missions has been $6.765; for commissioners' fund, 2,692; for the Theological Seminary, 1,465; for the Presbyterial fund, 370; and for the Education fund, 7,928.

American Colonization Society.-The receipts of this Society during its seventh year, amounted to $7020 94, and its disbursements to $6739 22. The Managers have at their disposal $20,000, a fund bequeathed by General Kosciusko in his will, for meliorating the condition of slaves in the United States. This fund is appropriated to the purchase of a Seminary Farm, where children are to be received to be trained for the colony. The party of colonists which sailed in February, from Petersburgh, Virginia, arrived in safety, with the exception of one woman and three children, who died on the passage, the former by a casualty. Dr. Ayers and Mr. Ashmun have resigned their agencies at the colony. Rev. Mr. Gurley, resident agent of the Society, went out in July to inspect the condition of the settlers. In several places collections were taken in aid of the funds on the recent anniversary of American Independence. The last intelligence which we have seen direct from the colony is contained in an extract from a letter of a lieutenant in the navy, dated May 29, 1824. It is as follows;

'On the 4th of April I anchored at Cape Mesurado, and visited the Colony of free people of colour, where I remained eight days, and have the satisfaction to report that I found them comfortably settled, and at peace with all the neighbouring nations. The number of inhabitants is two hundred and thirty-seven, seventy-eight of them capable of bearing arms, who are formed into a company, and muster, for exercise, every Saturday. They all have good houses, and some of them begin to cultivate gardens. They have also cleared a considerable piece of ground intended for cultivation. They catch in the river a variety of fine fish and plenty of oysters; they have an abundance of fine timber, and the soil is very good; and they all appeared to be quite contented with their situation. They probably enjoy as good health there as they would in any part of the world. Of the last emigrants, (one hundred and five,) all have gone through their seasoning; three young children only have died, and they with complaints incident to every climate and country.'

A letter from Dr. Ayres, lately superintendent of the colony, to Lieut. Stockton, states that the emigrants who went out with him were transported to Africa for less than $45 each. With a large ship,' he says, 'regularly and constantly employed in the trade, they could be taken for one third less, which would reduce the price to thirty dollars a head, and the last company of 105 persons were actually taken for $26 each. When the colonists shall have begun to cultivate large quantities of sugar cane, coffee, &c. and when they shall have extended their internal trade with the natives, so as to afford a rich return cargo, it will take off one half the remaining price, and reduce the passage to Africa to $15 per head.'

The most gratifying part of this communication relates to the climate of the spot fixed on for the colony. More than three hundred persons have been sent out to Liberia. Of the whole number of settlers only twenty five have died; and of these, five were killed in battle, two were drowned, one was killed by the fall of a tree, one was still born, one died of a mortification, and only fourteen by fevers. Of these deaths twelve were of the passengers of the Oswego. This vessel arrived there under all the unfavourable circumstances that can ever attend any expedition.'

'We arrived in the worst part of the year, just as the rains had commenced, without houses over our heads, without suitable food for the sick, without a bottle of wine fit to be presented to a patient. The new emigrants were obliged to take shelter in the few huts then erected, and to share them with those already there. At night their beds and mats were spread over the floor of the huts, and were deluged with rain three or four times every twenty four hours. The beds of some of the sick were never dry from the time they were taken ill until they died;' &c.

American Jews' Society.-An abstract has been published of the report made to the American Society for meliorating the Condition of the Jews, at its fifth anniversary meeting in New York, May 14. In a tour to the south, Mr. Frey, agent of the Society, had formed fifty one auxiliary societies, and obtained $4600 for the Treasury. There are 2000 copies of Israel's Advocate distributed among the auxiliary societies and individual subscribers. 72 Auxiliary societies have been organized during the last year, and there are in all 213 auxiliaries; and nearly $8000 have been during that time received into the treasury. The expenditure within the same period was $3975 30. It is proposed to appoint suitable persons, to be missionaries to the Jews in Europe, and agents to make known the objects of the Society.

Female Jews' Society of Boston and Vicinity. The eighth annual meeting of this Society was held in the month of May. The receipts for the last year were $997 86. The permanent fund of the Society amounts to $1620, and their disposable fund to $1230. The Society is waiting for a suitable Missionary to be sent to the Jews around the Mediterranean, under the direction of the American Board of Foreign Missions.' Missionary Herald.

This plan of sending a missionary to the Jews abroad has been opposed by Mr. Simon, agent of the American Jews' Society, who insists with great vehemence that it will be fruitless.

Baptist State Convention.-A proposition has been made to the Baptist churches in this State, to unite in an annual convention.

The objects are stated to be, 1. a better mutual acquaintance; 2. assistance to destitute churches; 3. the management of missions; 4. education for the ministry; and 5. concert with Baptists in other states. All intention is strongly disclaimed to interfere in the internal concerns of any church, or in questions between different churches.

Baptist Charities.-The 22d anniversary meeting of the Baptist Missionary Society of Massachusetts was lately holden in Boston. The report of the secretary represented it as prosperous.— The Evangelical Tract Society printed, during the last year, 66,000 tracts, and issued from its depository 77,400. The contributions and subscriptions within the same period amounted to $322 93.— 'The Massachusetts Baptist Education Society has now under. its patronage between twenty and thirty young men.'

Presbyterian Education Society.-In the Report presented at the sixth annual meeting of this Society, holden in the city of NewYork, we find the following remarks, shewing the necessity of exertion on the part of the richer portion of our country for the support of religion in the new settlements.

'We have entrusted the extension of our religious institutions to the voluntary and unassisted efforts of the people; and these efforts are to be made under the most unfavourable circumstances. Consider the manner in which our new settlements are formed. The first settlers are men of little or no property. They go into the wilderness, and are occupied for a long time in clearing the land for cultivation. It is usually several years before they are able to erect comfortable dwelling houses, and many more before they can enjoy some of the most common privileges of older settlements. During this whole period they are from necessity without schools, without ministers, without any of that influence or those institutions, which are the glory and the safety of older sections of the country. By the time that they are able to support these institutions, long habit has made them contented without them. With many, the expense is an objection'; and not unfrequently a new generation has sprung up, who are unacquainted with their value, and unwilling to make any sacrifices for their support. Under such circumstances, we should naturally suppose that infidelity and every species of errour would take root and flourish. Such is the fact. Every account represents the condition of the inhabitants in these settlements as deplorable for ignorance and irreligion.'

From the following summary it may be inferred that the state of the Society is extremely prosperous.

"From the preceding details it will be perceived, that of the Executive Committees and Auxiliary Societies connected with the

Board, sixteen have transmitted their reports, and that they have had under their charge, the last year, eighty six young men in different stages of their education. If we allow to those committees and auxiliary societies, whose reports have not come to hand, the same number of beneficiaries as were mentioned in their last communications, the result will be, that this Society, in all its branches, has had under its care in the course of the year, one hundred and three young men preparing for the Gospel ministry. The number mentioned in our last report was one hundred and two.

From the report of the Treasurer of the Board, it appears that the receipts during the past year have been seven hundred and eighty dollars and nineteen cents.

For want of more full and accurate reports, the precise amount of the receipts and expenditures of the branches of the society cannot be stated, but from the documents already come to hand, it appears that ten of the branches have received the last year more than five thousand dollars, and it would be safe to estimate the whole receipts of the society and its branches at more than seven thousand dollars.'

LIST OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

A Selection of Hymns and Psalms, for Social and Private Worship. Second Edition, enlarged and improved. Cambridge. Hilliard & Metcalf.

This is a reprint of the Hymn Book published some time ago at Andover, and generally known under the name of the Andover Selection.' It is really and materially improved, and may indeed be regarded, both in its materials and arrangement, as a new selection, possessing all the advantages to be expected from the greater experience of the compiler. It contains about ninety additional hymns, embracing most, we believe, of any value, which are to be found in any of the late collections, and which were not in this before. Among these we were glad to meet with Tate's 100th Psalm; Henry K. White's God's Power seen in the elements; Butcher's striking hymn, beginning, Bright orb of heaven, thy circuit stay; and the Morning and Evening Hymns of Bishop Kenn. Twenty-three of the additional Hymns are not included in either the New York or West Boston collection, some of which are of approved excellence. The compiler has also shown his judgment and taste in rejecting more than forty of the hymns in the first edition, as unworthy a place in this, leaving scarcely one that need offend the most fastidious. He has likewise availed himself of the opportunity to restore several of the hymns to their original form, or nearly so; and to alter and improve some others. See Hymns 5, 23, 170. We must express our regret, however, that he has not thought fit to give us both the versions of the Hundredth Psalm without the alteration of a word. As to the order, arrangement, and references of the pieces, we con