probation of all present. What will be the actual result of such an effort, can only be known when the effort, has been made.

Without endorsing all the details of the foregoing plan, we cannot resist the conviction, that if carried out in the appropriate spirit, it must result in the winning of many souls to Christ. All observation shows that there is nothing in christian conduct that tends more powerfully to awaken the conscience of the impenitent, than the belief that the people of God are in earnest. When the

careless soul first opens to the fact that some faithful Christian is indeed filled with vivid apprehensions of its danger, and is laboring and praying for its salvation, the long slumber of sin is disturbed, and the inquiry is exeited "What must I do to be saved?" Happy would it be for the church, if effort divecled to specific cases were more common, and the people of God relied less exclusively on mere general results.

INDISPENSABLE AID.

MICHIGAN.

PERSEVERANCE under diffICULTIES.

I have received only ten dollars in cash on my salary during the past year. Although the times are hard at the east, yet the brethren in the ministry there, know comparatively little about privations. My wants and those of my family have been supplied, so far as the necessaries of life are concerned; but debts have accumulated which possibly may distress us before they can be discharged. Yet the field is too interesting to be abandoned to the devil. I feel no dishave a prospect of a competent supposition to leave the ground if I can port.

From a Missionary Report.

Your letter was duly and gratefully received. Its reception was the occasion of joy to my people, as well as to myself and family; for our continuance here depended upon it. None but those, whose means of living are limited, and who are in straightened circumstances, know how to prize the necessaries of life, and much of its conveniences and

tunity for learning the value of the common blessings of divine providence; and I hope we have not thus been instructed in vain. When I last wrote to you, my family had been for months visited with sickness; but God who is rich in mercy to all who call upon him, has appeared for us, and restored us to usual health, which we would cheerfully devote to his service.

Your letter was gladly received. I had almost come to the conclusion to abandon the field for want of sup-comforts. We have had some opporport. The congregation are behind in their last year's subscription nearly $150, and I am that much in debt. My situation is distressing to me. The necessaries of life we have in abundance, but the consciousness of being involved, is what makes my situation painful. I should have abandoned the field at the close of the last year, had it not been that I loved this little church and felt that if I should leave, it must go down. I will not go away, if I can be sustained. This community needs the influence of our little church, and its influence is evidently being felt for good. In behalf of my church, I thank you for the amount paid ine last year, and the amount promised for the present year, and I trust we shall soon be able to refund the whole with interest, and compound interest, too.

I have in several instances visited neighboring churches, which are destitute of the stated ministrations of the Gospel, and preached to them, and endeavored to edify and comfort them, for which I have received many thanks.

There has been the usual attention to the means of grace, and I think I may say in truth, that there is an increasing desire manifested among

my people, for Gospel privileges; and that they are as willing, according to their ability, which is indeed small, to aid in supporting the Gospel, as any people I have ever been acquainted with.

A CANDIDATE FOR THE MINISTRY.

One of our young men who is distinguished for talents, and so far as we can judge, for piety also, has recently gone to Hudson, Ohio, to prepare for the work of the ministry, and we have several others, perhaps not less promising, who would be glad to accompany him, but it seems as if they could not be spared by their parents at present, who are in great need of their services for the support of their families. Should their lives be continued for a few years, some of them I think will surmount every obstacle, now in their way, with respect to obtaining an education for public usefulness.

with such thrilling narratives as we often meet with in the journals and reports of foreign missionaries, and at the present time, when a state of depression has settled upon every branch of business, and when people of almost every class are struggling with difficulties and embarrassments of a temporal nature, we are too frequently unable to report to you any great advancement in their spiritual concerns. In regard to our own church and people, however, there has been a state of things, in some respects, more encouraging than usual.

There has been, during the past season, an addition of some eight or ten members to our church, mostly Some of these promise to by letter. be useful and efficient members. But still we want, and greatly need some who have a more elevated and endurwhich are obvious, a high degree of ing standard of piety. For reasons moral courage and piety, which burns with such ardor that nothing can extinguish it, is not of very frequent occurrence in our western churches.

We are pleased when the missionaries take pains to select and bring forward suit-Speculation has had its day--and this

able candidates for the ministry. Such are more likely than others to settle in the West, and, other things being equal, they are also, on some accounts, the better adapted to that field of labor from having been reared on it. It is particularly needful that such efforts be made from the fact, that in the eastern states, at the present time, comparatively few are encouraged to offer themselves as candidates for the ministry. If the annual supply of these be cut off, in a few years there will be a corresponding deficiency of ministers. To guard against the effects of this deficiency upon their own field, the ministers in the West should do all in their power to bring forward suitable laborers for the ripening harvest around them.

From Rev. S. Cochrane, ville, Mich.

day has gone by-but its footsteps
are still seen in the ruinous havoc it
has made, and in the disastrous track
it has left behind; and years to come
will feel the tremendous consequences
of the shock. Then comes the hard,
but indispensable labor of building
houses, clearing lands, making fences,
and procuring the means of subsis-
tence for the first two or three years
in a new country. And for the last
excitement has swallowed up every
six months past, the rage of political
thing else. These are some of the
causes which extinguish the flame of
to bleed at almost every pore.
piety among us, and cause the church

A BIBLE CLASS.

Still, however, during the summer past, a good attention has been paid Vermont-to the means of grace. Our meetings on the Sabbath have been well attended, and the preaching of the word has been listened to with apparent interest. But perhaps the most profitable exercise that we have attended to, has been our Bible class. So long as

Ministers located in this western country do not generally pass through a great variety of scenes. We of course cannot furnish you

my health permitted, the lesson of the class was attended to as a third exercise, at five o'clock. The meeting was usually as well attended as the other exercises on the Sabbath; and all who were present, whether professors of religion or not, generally took a part in the lesson; and many of those who make no pretensions to religion, have seemed to feel a deep interest in the examination of religious truth. During the spring and former part of the summer, we were occupied with an examination of the ten commandments. These we took up in all their different bearings. We usually spent from three to five Sabbaths on each commandment of the decalogue. By examining the law thus fully, we have been led to see very clearly that it is indeed holy, and just, and good.

be some effort made next winter to secure a house of worship in process of time. Money at present is out of the question in Michigan.

The church at Albion is better off in regard to a house of worship than the congregation at Concord, having in the early part of this summer completed a small yet commodious session house.

The cause of temperance in both places is advancing. In Albion we have two temperance stores, and one temperance tavern. We have societies on the plan of total abstinence in both congregations, very respectable as to numbers. Frequent efforts are made to keep the cause alive, and with considerable success. All the benevolent institutions of the day are warmly cherished by the churches. though their limited means prevent them from doing much.

On the whole, I think the aid rendered by the A. H. M. S., is accom

From Rev. E. Child, Albion and Con- plishing all the good which could

cord, Mich.

I commenced labor in Albion and Concord, about two years since. The churches were about equal in numbers, containing about twenty-four members each. Since that time they have gradually increased till they number-thechurchin Concord,about 40, and the church in Albion, about 56 members. There have been, within that time, precious revivals in both congregations. Within the last six months there has been no peculiar religious interest in either society. But there has been a good attendance upon the ordinary means of grace. The institutions of religion may be said to be in a flourishing condition. There are usually some at every communion admitted to the churches by letter or profession, or both.

We labor under a great disadvantage at Concord, in not having a meeting-house. At present, we meet one quarter of the time in a schoolhouse, which is a tolerably comfortable place. The other quarter, we occupy a room that is far from being comfortable, yet the best that is to be obtained. There will probably

rationally be expected. The work of giving the gospel to dying men is a glorious work, and whether we do it by declaring the precepts of the Gospel ourselves, or aiding others in doing it, we shall have our reward.

GRATEFUL RECEPTION OF AID.

I have received my commission: and I assure you that it was received with grateful acknowledgments to your Society for the timely aid thus proffered me in my present embarrassed situation. My mind feels relieved from the pressure of troubleand I look on your Society as an angel of mercy to minister to the afflicted consolation and hope amid depression and want.

REMARK.

It will be perceived from the general character of the extracts which we have given above of letters from Michigan, that the situation of the churches and ministers calls for the sympathy and aid of their eastern friends. An active friend of Home Missions,

who has done much by his counsels and personal aid to cheer the heart of many laborers in that field, writes to us under date of Oct. 23d

What Michigan ministers are to do this winter, the God in whom they trust, alone can tell. At the synod, last week, your agent, Mr. Curry, was present and made an address; and then we all talked, and wept, and prayed, and resolved to toil on. Oh, how different the lot of ministers and Christians in Boston and New-York!

CANADA.

From Rev. David Dobie, don, L. C.

a young woman from Ireland, able indeed to read, but who had never received any common school instruction. During the funeral service, it was observed that she wept; but an attempt having been made to converse with her on the concerns of her soul, she instantly suppressed her emotions and put on an air of the greatest apparent indifference. In the course of the meetings, which were frequent about that time, it was often remarked that all in the settlement seemed affected but herself. Yet she never directly opposed the work. When addressed, she would reply in a monosyllable or a laugh, as though what was said might be true, but she was determined to continue in her Hunting-present faith, as well as practice. An individual of the same creed as herself had publicly renounced it; but even this event had no effect for the present. Her mind seemed to be proof against the Gospel. None of us had the faintest hopes of what I am now about to record; for it appeared in vain to hope.

My labors have formerly been confined principally to the village and the two neighborhoods, in which most of my people dwell. But on the 1st July, the Lord opened to me another field, little visited by any christian minister; thickly inhabited; and in the language of some of themselves, perishing for lack of knowledge. It is eight miles distant. Invited to preach there by a member of another church, and thinking, by the blessing of God, thus to extend the borders of Zion, I sent them notice that they might expect a sermon once a fortnight on Sabbath evening. The first meeting was crowded and attentive; and the feelings of some, there is reason to believe, have gradually become more tender and solemn. Whether I shall be able to supply them regularly is uncertain; but the importance of the field is such, that no pains should be spared, so long as there remains any prospect of doing good.

FRUIT AFTER MANY DAYS.

It will be remembered that the work of grace which commenced amongst this people in March last, was traced to the death of a little child. [See H. Miss. for June, 1840, p. 33.] In the family in which it died, there lived a Roman Catholic,

How wonderful is the arm of the Lord! We have been rebuked for our unbelief by the wonders which he has wrought. When we had ceased to remember that poor benighted soul, God in his rich mercy was effectually drawing her to himself-that all the glory might be his own. She had felt keenly the death of the little child. It was the first arrow that ever pierced her heart; although she successfully, for a time, concealed the wound it made. The next arrow came from hymn 83, of the village collection. While this hymn was singing she had, unobserved, burst into tears and retired to another room. She here spent a season of deep agony. But the veil yet remained upon her heart untaken away. Nevertheless, conviction for sin had commenced, and ripened at length into repentance. A painful impression, she knew not how, had taken firm possession of her mind, that her religious connections were about to be sundered and destroyed. This was to be traced to the incompatibility between holding on to the errors of Roman Catholicism, and a