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Brown at last succeeded. We reëntered the car at six o'clock, and, without accident or hindrance, arrived safely in NewYork at dusk. On reviewing the day, the friends unanimously concluded that they had not had any more trouble with our "Five Points" than we would have had with one hundred children from any other quarter. Some were rather unruly; there was a little quarreling; but no bad words spoken, no marked and peculiar misconduct. And thus we learned anew the moral power of kindness. There was, there could be no authority other than that which love created; and we found that sufficient to control those who came from the homes where drunken parents raved, and uncontrolled passions had full sway.

Two ladies in their round of visiting called on a drunken mother, who, a few days before, had turned her five children into the streets at nine o'clock in the night. Shivering with cold, they were admitted into the missionary's office, and inade comfortable for the night. The woman was sober at the hour of the call, and while one lady kindly reasoned with her on her wicked conduct, the attention of the other was arrested by the little children, who had quite a baby-house under an old table. She gave one a penny -a look of joy, a whispered consultation, and the child darted from the room, the visitor supposed to buy something to eat. In a few minutes the child returned with a little looking-glass, which was placed in the baby-house with the utmost glee. Here was a fact remembered to be acted upon.

Thanksgiving day was appointed, and the ladies resolved to make the " Five Points" a scene of festivity and joy on a larger scale than had been attempted in previous years. Want of room makes it necessary to omit many interesting preliminary scenes-the gathering of the friends at the "Old Brewery," the arrival of provisions, (the gifts of various benefactors,) the washing and dressing of nearly three hundred children, and the preparation of the mammoth tent which had been pitched in the little park for the occasion. We can only describe the scene of the Thanksgiving supper at the Five Points," November 27, 1852:At half-past four all was ready. On our tables were sixty turkeys, with beef, ham, and tongue in proportion, and sundry chickens, geese, &c. Sufficient pies,

cakes, bread and biscuit, celery and fruit, and candy pyramids filled the slight intervals, and the whole presented an appearance inviting to the most fastidious appetites. Plates and cups were arranged around for more than three hundred; the lamps were lighted, and the signal given. Hundreds of visitors stood in silent expectation, and in a moment the sound of childish voices was heard, and they entered in regular procession, singing a hymn prepared for the occasion.

They took the circuit of the tent, and were then arranged standing around the tables. They stood with folded hands while all sang the doxology, and Mr. Luckey asked a blessing upon the occasion. Not a hand was raised, not a voice was heard, until the ladies and gentlemen who had charge of the tables supplied their hungry visitors with food. Then all was glad commotion, and then was the time for joyous tears. Three hundred and seventy poor, neglected, hapless children, placed for an hour in an atmosphere of love and gladness, practically taught the meaning of Christian kindness, wooed and won to cling to those whose inmost hearts were struggling in earnest prayer for grace and wisdom to lead them unto God.

They ate and drank without restraint until all were satisfied; then again formed, and commenced singing. In the central aisle was placed the stand containing the toys and cornucopias of candy, and another filled with oranges and apples. By these Mrs. C. R. Deuel and Mrs. William B. Skidmore were seated. The children marched by them in as much order as the dense crowd would permit, singing as they went, "We belong to this band, hallelujah," and in each hand the ladies placed a gift as they passed, until all were supplied. Then all the children left the tent.

There was now an interval of a few moments. The tables were hastily replenished, and then notice was given to the visitors that the company now about to assemble were the "outsiders," about whom we knew nothing, save that they were poor and wretched, and all were warned to take care of their watches and pocket-books.

They came in scores, nay, hundreds; they rushed in and surrounded the tables, men, women, children, ragged, dirty, forlorn. What countenances we read! And

the children who accompanied them miniature likenesses, both physically and morally. We spoke to them words of kindness and encouragement, and they partook until not a fragment was left, and then, without tumult, left the tent.

We felt, as we looked upon them :

""Tis fearful to look round and see this waste
Of human intellect-the dark lines traced,
Where every mark of mind the withering
breath

Of ignorance hath from the brow erased;
The apathy that shows a moral death,
The worse than death that lurks an eye of fire
beneath."

May we not praise our "Five Pointers”—the converts of the mission, tenants of the "Brewery," who worked for us without thought of pay or reward-our children, who, in behavior, were equal to the same number of children from any district-the poor outsiders, who in that atmosphere of love seemed for the moment to be humanized and softened? Not a plate was broken, not an article was missed, and we did not hear that a stone was thrown, though a large pile of bricks by the side of the park had awakened some apprehension. Surely we thus prove the strength of moral influences, for four years ago the same thing could not have been attempted.

the building, or to carry out plans of benevolence when it is finished. We plead with all to help-the philanthropic, the patriotic, the religious. All have an interest in this great experiment, for, as Dr. Potts remarked, (in his address at the laying of the corner-stone of the mission building,) this effort will arouse by its success, guide by its plans, and determine by its results, benevolent action in other cities of our Union, and perhaps even of the old world.

The Executive Committee of the Society are Messrs. Francis Hall, 46 Pine-st.. William B. Skidmore, 135 Hudson-st., Daniel Drew, 37 Wall-st., Henry Shelden, 124 Broadway, Leonard Kirby, Treasurer, 47 Cedar-st. Donations can be sent to either of these gentlemen.

THINGS WONDERFUL AND TRUE.

ITH a very near approach to truth,

WITH

the human family inhabiting the earth has been estimated at 700,000,000, the annual loss by death 18,000,000. Now the weight of the animal matter of this immense body cast into the grave is no less than 634,000 tons, and by its decomposition produces 9,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of gaseous matter. The vegetable productions of the earth clear away from the atmosphere the gases thus generated, decomposing and assimilating them for their own increase. This cycle of changes has been going on ever since man became an occupier of the earth. He feeds on the lower animals, and on the seeds of plants. which in due time become a part of himself. The lower animals feed upon the herbs and grasses which, in their turn, become the animal; then, by its death, again pass into the atmosphere, and are ready once more to be assimilated by plants, the earthy or bony substance alone remaining where it is deposited, and not even these unless sufficiently deep in the soil to be out of the insorbent reach of the roots, and plants, and trees. It is not at all difficult to prove that the elements of which the living bodies of the present generation are composed have passed through millions of mutations, and formed parts of all kinds of animal and vegetable bodies, and consequently it may be said that fractions of the elements of The Society still need funds; they our ancestors form portions of ourselves. have no money with which to complete-Working Man's Friend.

In conclusion, we remark, the present aspect of the mission is one of encouragement and hope from every point of view. The Sabbath-school is large and prospering, under the unwearied care of Mr. Ira Perrigo, who, in connection with Mr. and Mrs. Luckey, superintends the Wednesday evening singing school. A large infant class, conducted by Misses Browne and Luckey, is interesting and improving. Also an adult Bible-class, taught by Mr. Fessenden, of the Broadway "Tabernacle." The day-school, averaging an attendance of one hundred scholars, is prospering under the tuition of Mr. Cooley and Miss Bland. The whole region is under a plan of visitation by the missionary and his wife, aided by ladies of the Society. Many families have been reclaimed from the lowest degradation possible to human beings, and are now living in comparative peace and comfort. The mission-building on the site of the "Old Brewery" is rising higher and higher, and soon the topstone will be laid with shouting.

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The National Magazine.

APRIL, 1853.

BRITISH CRITICS-AMERICAN AUTHORS.

HE London Athenæum, in noticing Grace

by for

don, says some very ungallant things of Grace. Two close columns are devoted to a smart castigation of her vivacious genius; she is accused of "fustian;""many of her highest flights" are said to "be but in the style of Miss Martha Rugg's elegist;" her agreeable gossip about noted characters is considered especially offensive, and a side thrust is given at her whole country for this propensity.

"What the English generally reject as fustian (says the critic) the Americans cherish as fancy,-what we consider as indiscreet personality, they give out as interesting information. They beat the world hollow as gossips and Boswells: almost every poet and poetess having his paper to which he or she is welcome in proportion as he or she contributes leaves from yesterday's visiting journal or private diary. Those who fancied that the assumed name of the author of these volumes might promise talk about flowers, forests, lakes, and rivers, such as all English lovers of rural literature might delight in, will have been amazed and astounded if they chanced to see what any reader of the American journals might see-a letter from this same Grace Greenwood, published the other day, and dated from London. This letter described neither bee, bird, nor brook, but a dinner at the house of Mr. Dickens, and the singing of Mrs. Sartoris, who was one of the party. The writer, it would seem, is making the grand tour, and turning to account letters of introduction and private hospitalities for the entertainment of a home public. The child's love for Artnot always accompanied by the child's humility or teachableness-is sufficiently universal to be also noted as a feature in light American literature. Grace Greenwood ingenuously confesses that she knows nothing about music, but this does not prevent her from rhapsodizing concerning Herr Knoop, and Signor Sivori, and Mdlle. Jenny Lind. She dashes at pictures with a like confident eagernessgetting her lesson and making a market of it in the same breath-blushing at her own enthusiasm while she corrects the proofs of its record which is to go forth for the satisfaction and instruction of her countrymen."

That's severely said; but the severest thing about it is, that there is an item or two of severe truth in it. This avidity for personal details respecting literary, or indeed any public characters, is becoming almost a national appetite among us. It is a sorry indecorum in our literature-one of the many grievous responsibilities of Willis. Though we wince somewhat at the Athenaeum's lashes, it would be a relief to know that they could sober our national vivacity a little in this respect.

These animadversions have reference to Grace's "Letters." The critic is equally, but unjustly, severe on her "Sketches." If there is genuine talent to be found in any collection of American "fugitive" literature, it is in the Magazine "Sketches" of Grace Greenwood; they teem with vivid thought and good sentiment, and fairly revel in exhilarated animal spirits. The Athenæum admits that she is "not without quick instincts and lively descriptive powers," but pronounces her Sketches "slight annual ware-little sentimental stories, written, apparently, sometimes in imitation of Mr. N. P. Willis, sometimes in emulation of Fanny

Forrester." She is "sentimental, audacious, and unscrupulous ;" and finally, "Her books for children are better than her tales for adults, or her contributions to newspapers. When she forgets the poetics, pleasures, and passions of 'a real screamer,' (as the Kentuckians have it,) and writes simply and modestly of what she has known, seen, and felt, she writes agreeably."

A genuine specimen this of John Bull's characteristic hauteur-a trait which never appears worse in him, not even when turning up his nose in the French provinces or the Italian Duchies, than when it reveals itself in his literary criticism; the Athenæum presents frequent and amusing examples of it in notices of American works. He affords us occasionally some profitable hints, however maliciously given; for these we should be grateful, and, meanwhile, we may derive amusement from the freaks of his spleen.

Apropos of trans-Atlantic criticism on American works, we should make grateful mention of a generous reply by the London Christian Spectator to the North British Review's late critique on American poetry. We referred to the latter article in these columns, and should take pleasure in quoting the Spectator's reply in extenso had we sufficient room. It says of the North British's criticism :-"We remember nothing more disgraceful, more ungentlemanly, and more unlike the polish and refinement of a man of letters. William Cullen Bryant's poems, poor Edgar Poe's, Thomas Buchanan Read's, and Longfellow's, are passed before the reviewer in quick succession, and dealt with in a manner that equally violates the canons of criticism and the rules of good breeding." Of the "advice" which the North British addressed so gravely and pompously to our poets, the Spectator says:-"In reading this advice, running through three pages, we know not whether most to smile or to be indignant; to smile at the pert insolence and extreme Sir Oracleism of the whole, or to be indignant as the brazen hollowness of the man that could

interlard such insolence with scraps from Holy Writ." The Spectator waxes warm in his defense of Longfellow :

"As for Longfellow, he is done for,' clean and complete. Henceforth he will hide his diminished head. The reviewer has given him such a dressing, and done it with such glee, such intense satisfaction, has chuckled over his tomahawk exploits in such a fashion, that we are strongly tempted to think the whole article was written by Master Wackford Squeers, of Dotheboys Hall. It is his juvenile precocity in full development. O my eye! won't I give it to the boys! O, father, won't I make 'em squeak again! Those of our readers, and those who are not our readers, (for there are many sincere admirers of Longfellow out of our circle, albeit that is a widening one,) who have been accustomed to read in their families the gentle and loving poems of our best American writer, will be surprised at the grand anonymous, with a pompous 'we' for a pseu

donyme, dealing with him after the following fashion: Evangeline' is an ambitious poem,' 'written in lines that are intended to pass for hexameters," which are nothing else than the measured prose which was thought so much of in the days of our grandmothers,' in which said hexameters 'illustra tions from the Bible make up in sacredness for any degree of inaptitude,' and in which are conceits of scarcely a first-rate album rank;' and in which the life and doctrines of Christianity are brought in for artistical effect.""

The

The North British made egregious sport of Longfellow's glorious "Psalm of Life." Spectator (which, be it remembered, is a religious journal) thus speaks of it:

"There is a sweet poem,-the Psalm of Life,'which we have seen quoted by Dr. Hamilton, in his Life in Earnest,' and by Dr. Campbell, in his Witness,' and which our eldest son repeats to us frequently on a Sabbath evening, beginning with

Tell me not in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream,' &c.

"On this the reviewer says, We, the intelligent critics of the North British Review,' (sic) pronounce these verses to be pretentious, unprofitable, antiChristian trash;' and the young man' who said this in his heart to the Psalmist an unconscionable puppy! We might go on quoting more, but the task is too sickening: it is like sipping rhubarb and magnesia at dinner. More than once have we thought of bestowing a kindly and a genial notice of Longfellow upon our readers, but this reviewer has moved us out of our place to be wroth instead of fraternal. We ought to add that the cloven foot of the odium theologicum is not quite concealed beneath this rabid effusion of a most dull prosaic soul, apparently without one spark of poetry or enthusiasm. Mr. Longfellow, we believe, makes no secret of his being a Socinian: we should have guessed him to be such.' Thus saith the reviewer, and because Mr. Longfellow is a Socinian he cannot write good verses. Burns was a sot and a villain, but he was a Scotchman, knew the Assembly's Catechism, swore by the Solemn League and Covenant, and wrote capital verses, for, thank God, he was not like Longfellow, a Socinian, on whom this great tower in Siloam has now fallen."

THE

LETTER FROM REV. DR. DURBIN.

HE following letter, from a distinguished clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal Church, will be interesting not only to our Methodist readers, but our readers of all denominations, as it presents facts connected with the ecclesiastical history and prospects of the country, though relating to a single denomination:

MR. EDITOR,In your "Religious Intelligence" you have frequently given important items of Methodist missionary data. You have correctly stated, I believe, that the contributions of the Methodist Episcopal Church to the missionary cause average only about twenty-one cents per member. In answer to the question, Why has it not done more in the missionary cause? I offer your readers a few remarks.

It is not yet seventy years since the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in America. Up to 1784 she had no existence as a Church; there were about thirteen thousand members of the society scattered through the length and breadth of the colonies and the Canadas, the oversight of whom was committed to about one hundred men licensed to preach the gospel, among whom scarcely a dozen were ordained to the holy ministry. These societies assembled in private rooms for worship, and there heard the word preached. They had not probably one church edifice, or (as they were usually called afterward) a meeting-house in the land. In 1784 the Church was regularly organized in Baltimore, and a ministry regularly ordained. From this time, say sixty-nine years ago, we were a Church, and began to grow and spread as such. Of necessity our growth was by accessions from without, made by enlarging ourselves in the older communities where we planted Churches, and by advancing westward with the new settlements rapidly forming beyond the Alleghanies in the great basin of the Mississippi and its tributaries. Thus our whole movement was missionary, acting upon the people without us, and with those forming the new states and territories. In this stage of our growth we could not have done anything else; it was our necessity, the law of our condition and mission. We were, successively, in our infancy and youth, and advancing to maturity. In this condition our increase was necessarily from

without, not from within our own communion by the children born among us. This was our missionary work-confined within the borders of our own land it is true, but not the less a missionary work,

and a very great one too.

The first thirty or forty years after our organization as a Church were passed in this work of acquir ing a communion of our own-in gathering in members from the people among whom we executed our mission. Symptoms now began to appear everywhere that our Church was coming to maturity; the want of the institutions and arrangements of wellorganized and established communions began to be felt and expressed. Hence, circuits began to yield up their towns as stations; city churches, which had been associated as circuits, began to separate into distinct charges; conferences began to feel the need of schools and academies for their people born within the congregations, or acquired from without. In brief process of time colleges were required, and then universities, and they were produced; for the Church in her growth had arrived at that state when they necessarily arose within her limits, if she meant to maintain herself in the execution of her mission.

As she was thus executing her divine mission, some thirty years ago she entered formally into the modern missionary enterprise by the formation of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Her first formal missionary efforts were necessarily directed to her home work, and she did not enter upon the foreign work until Providence called her to estab lish a mission in Liberia, in Africa. Thus growing. first by spreading among the people and advancing into new countries, and then advancing to maturity by a rapid and vigorous internal growth, she, within a few years past, has become conscious of her mature and permanent existence in the land, and with this condition she is becoming conscious of her responsibilities and duties as a permanent living body as a Church, and is feeling that she is called to exercise her foresight and judgment, and to take her station and post as a mature and full-grown Church of our Lord Jesus Christ.

this maturity, and awoke to a consciousness of her It is only within a few years that she has reached

responsibility and duty growing out of her mature and strong condition. It could not have been otherwise, as will appear from this single fact:-Taking the whole body of Methodists in the United States, they have grown in seventy years from thirteen thousand to one million two hundred thousand members, besides the many hundreds that have died during the seventy years of her growth. A body growing so rapidly and vastly in so short a time could not have attended to anything but its own interior growth, and the perfecting of its own organization.

By

That you may conceive of the greatness of this growth, and the extent and vigor of the organization, I will note the population it includes. The lowest rule of estimate for the population of a church is three hearers in the congregation (including men, women, and children) to one communicant. this rule, the population of the Methodist Episcopal Church is one million two hundred thousand members; three hearers for one member would be three million six hundred thousand; add these two numbers together and we have four million eight hundred thousand people composing the congre gations and families of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Let us make a deduction of eight hundred thousand, and then one-sixth part of the whole population of the states and territories are now settled in the bosom of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and look to us for their religious instruction and comfort.

I have made this exposition simply to show that the condition of the Church since her organization has been one of unparalleled acquisition and growth, and that her whole attention and strength were necessarily absorbed in her own development; but, having attained to maturity, she is now called to wider and more vigorous action in the missionary

cause.

I cannot conclude these remarks on the progress, the present condition, and the future duties of the Methodist Episcopal Church, without referring to another product of her growth: I mean her growth in wealth.

About two months since I said, in a public missionary discourse, that the Methodist communion, taken as a whole body, was the wealthiest Church in

this country. This declaration was received with great surprise, general incredulity, and some little censure. A few weeks afterward, an abstract of the returns of the, census of the United States, taken by the General Government in 1850, was published, in which my opinion was fully sustained. It was ordered that the value of the property of each church should be returned in the census: the value of the property of the several churches may be fairly taken as an index of the wealth of their respective populations. This being the rule of estimate, we find the census returns make the Methodist Church the wealthiest in the land. I will give the whole table, and ask attention to the fourth column, headed, Total value of church property:"

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Average Value of

Property.

8,791 3,130,878 358 $10,931,382 $1,244

296,050 365 845,810 1,041
795,177 475 7,973,962 4,763
181,986 561 4,096,730 12,644
11,261,970 7,919
252,255 608
2,395

steady support of her ministry, and of all her great
enterprizes, call upon her pastors and leading mem-
bers to use their best and persevering endeavors to
train our people to a regular and systematic support
of all our Church enterprizes, according to the abil-
ity of each one. This is the secret of the great suc-
cess of our Wesleyan brethren in England in their
financial affairs; and will explain how the Roman
Catholic Church in this country creates such splen-
did church edifices, schools, and colleges. Every
man, woman, and child contributes systematically,
according to the ability of each. They do not re-
ceive large sums of money from Europe, as is sup-
posed by many; the money is contributed by them-
selves here in our midst. Let the Methodists take
note and learn. Thousands of them read your pages;
I present these thoughts for their reflection.
Yours, &c.,

J. P. DURBIN,

Our brother editor of the Water-Cure Journal, Dr. Trall, if an example of the effects-psychological as well as physiological—of brown bread and cold water, is certainly a "living epistle" in their favor. He "goes in" for nearly all the antis of the day, but does so with a degree of genial good sense and a rollicking sort of humor rarely met with among the modern spitfires of reform. His columns are well worth 2,953 reading for their jeux d'esprit. They are full of dramatic animation and pointed sense. Some of his single paragraphs are capital hits-as good as whole ordinary chapters. Here is one of his poorest :

11,987
2,383
856

Baptist

Christian...

812

Congregat'l 1,674

Dutch Ref d

324

Episcopal...

1,422

625,213 440

Free

361

108,605 300

Friends.....

714

282,823 393

1,709,867

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3,135

Rom. Cath. 1,112

620,950 558

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Swedenb'g

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Dunker

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885 1,114 18,449

Universal't

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1,174 1,339

3,576
2,283

Total.... 36,011 13,849,896 384 $80,416,639 $90,133

"The Fashionable Lady puts her children out to nurse, and tends lap-dogs; lies in bed till noon, wears paper-soled shoes, and pinches her waist, gives the piano fits, and forgets to pay her milliner; cuts her poor relations, and goes to church when she has a new bonnet; turns the cold shoulder to her husband, and flirts with his friend; never saw a thimble, don't know a darning-needle from a crowbar, wonders where puddings grow; eats ham and eggs in private, and dines off a pigeon's leg in public; runs mad after the newest fashion; dotes on Byron, adores any fool who grins behind a moustache, and when asked the age of her youngest child replies, Don't know, indeed; ask Betty. She is opposed to Woman's Rights, don't believe in Hydropathy, but thinks it genteel to be sickly, and vulgar to be in robust health. She sings, sighs, and simpers, chatters, giggles, and faints. She never en

I am aware that the remarks and results given above will surprise almost everybody, and confound many; but a moment's reflection will explain the whole matter. The general opinion has been that the Methodist Church is not rich, nay, even is poor, because but few remarkably rich persons are found in her communion. But we do not note the vast number of her members, viz., twelve hundred thousand, and the vast numbers besides that compose her congregations. The wealth of the whole body dis-joyed a full breath in her life, nor reads, or thinks,

tributed among so many hundreds of thousands does not attract attention in any one church, or city, or town, as is the case oftentimes in other churches. The great wealth of individuals in some other churches, and their munificent donations, together with the grandeur of their church edifices, attract public attention. In the Methodist Church this is rarely, if ever the case. Our people, considered individually as persons or churches, are not wealthy; but being sober and industrious, most of them have substance, and many of them are rich, and the aggregate wealth of so large a body is very great. This explains how we are, contrary to common opinion, the wealthiest Church in the country, as shown by the census of the United States.

I am aware that there will be some incredulity still on this subject, particularly in the Eastern States. Perhaps this may be partly removed by the following fact: our Church in the West and South is very far richer in proportion than in the East. Our people were in the West from the beginning, and grew up with the country, and increased in wealth with the wealth of the country. The greatest part of the wealth of the Methodist Church is in the West and South. She will shortly come to understand this matter, and act accordingly.

The conclusion of the whole matter is this: the

Church can never fulfill, as she ought, her great

mission, until the contributions of her people shall be as general as the distribution of her wealth among them. Now the great mass of our people do not contribute to any of the general or extraordinary objects among us, except the penny or shilling they throw into the public collection on the occasion. The well-being of the Church, the better and more

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