rances, that these seasons are truly "showers of mercy," and the immediate work of God; though this they only assert, without attempting to prove it. Many cases of revival are given in detail, of which a few are said to have been the result of no extraordinary means, nor attended with any extravagant demonstrations. If this be strictly true, they are indeed singular cases. One of them we think it but justice to give at length, as the most remarkable. It is from the letter of Dr. McDowell, of Elizabethtown, New Jersey.

"The next revival, with which the Lord favored my ministry, visibly commenced in December, 1812. It was on a Communion Sabbath. There was nothing peculiarly arousing in the preaching. I was not expecting such an event; neither, as far as I have ever discovered, was there any peculiar engagedness in prayer, or special desire or expectation, on the part of Christians. I saw nothing unusual in the appearance of the congregation; and it was not until after the services of the day were ended, when several called, in deep distress, to ask me what they should do to be saved, that knew that the Lord was specially in this place. This was a day of such power (though I knew it not at the time) that as many as thirty, who afterwards joined the church, were then first awakened. And it is a remarkable circumstance, that the same powerful influence was experienced, on the same day, in both of the Presbyterian churches in the neighbouring town of Newark. It was also communion season in both those churches. This revival continued about a year; and the number of persons added to the communion of this church, as its fruits, were about one hundred and ten. The subjects of this revival, generally, were deeply and long distressed, and, in many instances, their distress affected their bodily frames. Frequently sobbing aloud was heard in our meetings, and, in some instances, there was a universal trembling, and in others a privation of bodily strength, so that the subjects were not able to get home without help. In this respect this revival was different from any others which I have witnessed. I never dared to speak against this bodily agitation, lest I should be found speaking against the Holy Ghost; but I never did any thing to encourage it. It may be proper here to relate one case of a young man, who was then a graduate of one of our colleges, and is now a very respectable and useful minister of Christ. Near the commencement of the revival, he was led, for the first time, reluctantly, and out of complaisance to his sisters, to a meeting in a private house. I was present, and spoke two or three times between prayers, in which some of my people led. The audience was

solemn, but perfectly still. I commenced leading in the concluding prayer. A suppressed sob reached my ears; it continued and increased. I brought the prayer speedily to a close, and cast my eyes over the audience, when, behold, it was this careless, proud young man, who was standing near me, leaning on his chair, sobbing and trembling in every part, like the Philippian jailor. He raised his eyes towards me, and then tottered forward, threw his arms on my shoulders, and cried out, "What shall I do to be saved?" A scene ensued, the like of which I never witnessed. The house was full, and there was immediately, by the power of sympathy I suppose, a universal sobbing through the assembly. He repeatedly begged me to pray for him. I felt so overcome with the solemnity of the scene, and fearful of the disorder which might ensue in the excited state of feeling, that I held this trembling young man for half an hour, without speaking a word. I then persuaded him to go home with me, and the audience to retire. His strength was so weakened, that he had to be supported. From that hour he appeared to give his whole soul to the subject of religion. He continued in a state of deep anxiety and distress for nearly two months, when he settled down in a peaceful state of mind, hoping in the Saviour." - Appendix, pp. 63, 64.

We have no disposition to speak lightly of such cases; but we see nothing in the most wonderful of them that requires us to believe in miraculous influence; nor can we forget, what some of these writers tell us, that even their confidence in the correctness of the reports of revivals has "been exceedingly diminished."

We come then to these results, and are greatly confirmed in them by the book before us. Revivals are peculiarly liable to abuses and great evils, by the admission of all. Their best influences can never be distinguished from the worst by their immediate effects; and their remote effects can seldom be traced with entire confidence. They exhibit nothing that cannot be explained by reference to human means and common principles. The spirit of God may be in the midst of them, but only as it is granted to all who sincerely ask and earnestly seek it. Connect these conclusions with another important point, to which we intended more particularly to refer, the definition which many of these men give of a revival. Take, for instance, Dr. Wayland's definition : 66 By revivals of religion I mean special seasons, in which the minds of men, within a certain district,

or in a certain congregation, are more than usually susceptible of impression from the exhibition of moral truth." It is admitted also, that private exercises are more important at such times, than at any other, and may be more effectual; that "there may be a true revival where all is calm and noiseless." Moreover we are told, that seasons of revival are marked by the amount of "religious instruction" given, a feature quite new to us. In the possibility, occurrence, and blessing of such revivals, we believe. We pray and would strive for them. Let men admit the dangers and evils that are admitted in this volume; let them lay aside the machinery and measures which are here censured; let them proclaim a revival there, and there only, where there is an increased soberness and active interest in all that is true, and spiritual, and imperishable, all that can exalt society and lead men to Christ and God, - then we will believe, and unite, and heartily rejoice.

ART. V.-1. Christian Messenger. By B. W. STONE and JOHN T. JOHNSON, Elders in the Church of Christ. 12mo. [Published monthly.] Georgetown, Kentucky, 2. The Millennial Harbinger, Edited by ALEXANDER CAMBBELL. 8vo. [Published monthly.] Bethany, Virginia. 3. The Evangelist. By WALTER SCOTT. [Published monthly.] 12mo. Cincinnati, Ohio.

THE first of these periodical publications is supported by the Christian Connexion; the other two by the Reformed Baptists, or Reformers, as they are commonly called. We shall throw together such slight notices as we have been able to collect from these works, and from other sources, of the history and principles of both denominations, and their prospects in the West.

The oldest society in the Christian Connexion was formed in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, in March, 1803. The brethren professed to renounce all impositions of mere human authority in matters of faith and conscience, and to come together on the common ground of believers in the gospel, each one reserving to himself the right, as a member

of the society, to interpret the gospel according to the light which God should give him. A similar movement, not from concert, but from a common feeling of impatience under the tyranny of established creeds and ecclesiastical judicatories, was made about the same time throughout the United States; in consequence of which the denomination almost immediately arose into consequence alike for its numbers and its zeal. In New England it consisted for the most part, in the beginning, of secessions from the regular Baptists; in the South, of secessions from the Methodists; in the West, of secessions from the Presbyterians.

The statistics of the body, from its want of organization, or a regular correspondence among its members, must depend, more than such computations usually do, on conjecture. Mr. Stone, writing in 1829, makes the number of congregations in the Christian Connexion in the United States to be fifteen hundred, and the number of communicants to be one hundred and fifty thousand; and allowing, as is usual in such estimates, at least four hearers, on an average, to every communicant, he concludes, that the whole number of souls actually under the influence of this denomination must exceed half a million. The Quarterly Register and Journal, in 1830, gives them one thousand churches, three hundred ministers, and thirty thousand communicants. Mr. Flint, in the second edition of his excellent History and Geography of the Mississippi Valley, published the present year, gives them two hundred ministers, eight hundred congregations, twenty-five thousand communicants, and two hundred and seventy-five thousand worshippers. The remarkable discrepancy in these estimates does not appear to have originated in any real or supposed decline of the denomination in numbers or influence, during the three last years, taking the whole country together. From the best evidence which we have been able to collect, it is probable that Mr. Stone has not much overstated the present number of congregations in the Connexion; but that he has overstated, by at least one half, the number of communicants, and, nearly in the same proportion, the number of souls otherwise connected with the societies. Mr. Clough, in his letter to Mr. Smallfield, says, that the minutes of the Conferences, in 1827, gave an aggregate of about five hundred ministers"; they may now amount to seven hundred and fifty.

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They are singularly fortunate in their name, not merely because it is the most proper in itself, and the first given to believers, and, as some contend, by divine injunction, but because, while it answers all the purposes of a distinguishing appellation, it has not the effect, in itself considered, like almost every other known in the church, to suggest and keep alive sectarian distinctions and jealousies. For a time, it is true, they had to submit, almost universally, and still have to submit in some places, to a mispronunciation of their name, being called Christ-yans; but this is passing away every where, as a mere vulgarism. While others are content to be called Calvinists or Arminians, Episcopalians or Presbyterians, they alone, one of the most recent sects, and, we may add, one of the most despised, will go down in history as "the Christians."

Of their distinctive opinions and sentiments it is not easy to speak, as each one appears to have brought into the Connexion the peculiar theological prejudices in which he was educated; and it has not been the aim, nor the policy of the party, to produce a real or seeming uniformity in matters of mere speculation. Neither have any pains been taken to define with accuracy and precision their general points of agreement, except as regards their unanimous rejection of creeds, and confessions, and ecclesiastical authority over faith and conscience. As might have been confidently expected, however, of a body who renounced all other guides, in the investigation of religious truth, but the word of God, they are understood to have become every where, with scarcely a single exception, anti-Calvinistic and anti-Trinitarian. In the Western country, where they have adhered, most faithfully, to the original principle of union, they continue to flourish, and are increasing at this moment as rapidly, perhaps, as at any former period; but in other places, it is understood that serious difficulties and misunderstandings have arisen, by which their progress has been checked.

The establishment of the Christian church in the West may be said to date from the secession of five Presbyterian clergymen from the regular presbyteries, with which they had previously been connected, in the neighbourhood of Lexington, Kentucky, and the formation by them of an independent association, known by the name of the Spring

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