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371 cents, either or both, at the wish of the subscriber.

Art. 4. Females, or other persons disposed to aid the funds of this Society, shall receive the amount of their subscriptions in books, on the same terms as members.

Art. 5. The Rector or Minister of the parish, shall be ex officio President of this Society.

Art. 6. There shall be elected at each annual meeting, a Vice-President, a Corresponding Secretary, a Recording Secretary, a 'Treasurer, and nine Managers.

Art. 7. The President, the VicePresident, the Secretary, and Treasurer, shall be ex officio Managers of this Society; and five of the Managers shall be a quorum sufficient to transact business.

Art. 8. It shall be the duty of the Managers to fill their own vacancies, to form their own by-laws, and to take such measures as they may judge best calculated to promote the objects of this Society.

Art. 9. There shall be a stated meeting of this Society on the second Tuesday in January of every year, when an annual Report of the Managers shall be laid before the Society; at which time the subscriptions shall fall due. Special meetings shall be called, as the Managers may direct, of which they shall give public notice. Art. 10. No alterations shall be made to this Constitution, unless it be proposed in writing at a meeting of the Society regularly convened, and be acceded to at a subsequent meeting by a vote of two thirds of the members present.

At the adoption of the Constitution, the following gentlemen were elected a Board of Managers for the ensuing year.

Rev. Alexis Peter Proal, (ex officio)

President.

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Aaron Haring, Esq. Nicholas Philpot, Elias Prindle, Charles Coan, Aaron Fritcher, William Yost, Joseph Cuyler, and James Lobdell.

To the Publishers of the Christian Journal.

GENTLEMEN,

I REJOICE to find, that notwithstanding the difficulties you have had to encounter in the course of your excellent Miscellany, you have resolved that the Church shall not yet be deprived of it. I should be ashamed to anticipate any objection, on the part of the subscribers, to the additional price. The least reflection must satisfy them, that your former terms could not possibly be continued, unless the regard for the Church which dictated them, were answered by the manifestation of like regard on the part of its patrons, by great punctuality in the remittance of their dues. This, I regret to find, has not been the case; and it would be unreasonable, indeed, to expect you to prolong an experiment which has completely failed, so much to your personal sacrifice.

The change of form of the Journal, I humbly conceive to be a very judicious one. The increase of the size of the numbers will, as you justly observe, admit of greater variety of matter in each.

There is one department of the work, which should, I think, of itself, secure the united exertions of Protestant Episcopalians for its continuance. I mean that of ecclesiastical intelligence. It may be rendered a depository of all facts and documents illustrating the history of the Church, and its situation in every part of the union. Her scattered members will thus preserve, as it were, a constant acquaintance with each other, will encourage each other in the common cause, and provoke each other to honourable and pious emulation. The Journal will thus produce incalculable benefit to the Church, and be a faithful register whence posterity may gain an accurate knowledge of her history.

Will you allow me, Gentlemen, to indulge the feelings dictated by a deep sense of the important and interesting character of this department of the Journal, by respectfully and earnestly soliciting, in its behalf, the attention of the secretaries of the several conventions, and Protestant Episcopal religious societies, of the Rev. the Clergy generally, and of all who may be able to make any communications connected with this valuable object ?

Need I say any thing to my brother churchmen respecting our duty to encourage the Christian Journal? If we love the Church to which we belong, are attached to her evangelical doctrines, her divinely constituted ministry, her scriptural, holy, and edifying worship; if our hearts are warmed with charity, the characteristic of true religion-charity which prompts regard for the spiritual welfare of our fellow men, and an anxiety to have them partakers of our privileges and advantages; if we desire to promote God's honour, by diffusing pure and undefiled religion; if we have that love of the Redeemer which dictates a grateful amen to his fervent prayer for the unity of his Church; if we love the souls of men, and would contribute to the means of their escaping eternal misery, and attaining to eternal bliss; - I see not how we can be backward in encouragingeach in the sphere of his ability-a work so well calculated to further these objects, as the Christian Journal. We may all do this, by our own subscriptions, by exertions to get those of others, and by what is obviously of most essential importance-STRICT

EST PUNCTUALITY IN PAYMENT. Those

of us who can, without much inconvenience, should bestow our exertions as agents. Others, again, may consecrate their talents to the God who gave them, by contributing religious and moral essays, narrations, &c. Here a respectful appeal is particularly made to the Rev. Clergy. But it were delightful to anticipate an union with them, on the part of intelligent and pious laymen. The Church whence ours has sprung, and whose

spiritual character it should be her unceasing effort to maintain, has, in every age, exhibited the noble spectacle of laymen evincing their pious gratitude, for the invaluable benefits derived from education in her communion, by laying on her altar the fruits of genius, enriched with science, and sanctified by grace. May I be allowed to hope, that the pages of your Miscellany will frequently exhibit the imitation of so noble an example?

I cannot but trust, Messrs. Publishers, that the Christian Journal will convince you, that you have not vainly calculated upon the determination of the members of our Church, not to suffer the failure of the only periodical work devoted to her evangelical views of the religion of Jesus Christ.

With warmest wishes and prayers for your success, I remain, Gentlemen, very sincerely your's,

New-York, Feb. 10, 1819.

N. L. K.

Some Account of the Episcopal Church of Scotland.

It should ever be remembered that the Church in the United States is indebted

to her sister Church in Scotland for her first enjoyment of the evangelical ministry in all its orders; Dr. SEABURY, her first Bishop, having received consecration from the hands of the Bishops of the said Scottish Church. This fact is indecently represented in a late work, as his "having been invested, or imagined himself invested, with certain extraordinary powers, by the manual imposition of a few obscure and

ignorant Priests in Scotland."* It may be

a satisfaction to our readers to hear the

testimony which the great and good Bi shop HORNE bore to the character of these Priests, and the Church in which they ministered.

"THE last considerable affair," says his biographer, Mr. Jones, of Nayland, " in which he concerned himself while Dean of Canterbury, was an application from the Bishops of the Episcopal Church of Scotland; three of whom,

* American Unitarianism, p. 15.

in the year 1789, came up to London to petition Parliament for relief from the hard penalties under which they had long suffered. This they ventured to do, in consideration of the loyalty and attachment they had lately professed toward the King and the Constitution.

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"It was my lot likewise not to be an unconcerned spectator in this business. Through an intimacy which had long subsisted between myself and gentleman of great worth and learning in the county of Kent (the Reverend Nicholas Brett, of Spring-Grove), I became acquainted with the Bishop of Edinburgh, Dr. Abernethy Drummond, of Howthornden, and had frequently corresponded with him. As soon as he came to London with his colleagues, on the business aforesaid, he wrote me word of his arrival, and explained the cause of the journey they had undertaken. Being myself of too inconsiderable a station to be of any immediate service to them in a matter of such importance, I thought it the most prudent step I could take, to forward the letter to a great person: who, with his usual goodness and discretion, undertook to be an advocate for them; together with many other persons of high respectability; and their petition was at length brought to such an issue, as excited great thankfulness in the petitioners, though it did not exactly come up to the wishes they had form ed at setting out.

"There was no small difficulty in making some persons understand who and what these poor petitioners were: and the case, notwithstanding all that has passed, may still be the same with many at this day. I therefore hope to be excused, if I enlarge a little in this place on their history and character, as they appeared, and was known to Dr. Horne, whose good opinion will be remembered as an honour, and may be of some use to them hereafter.

"He had considered, that there is such a thing as a pure and primitive Constitution of the Church of Christ, when viewed apart from those outward appendages of worldly power,

and worldly protection, which are sometimes mistaken, as if they were as essential to the being of the Church, as they are useful to its sustentation. The history of the Christian Church, in its early ages, is a proof of the contrary; when it underwent various hardships and sufferings from the fluctuating policy of earthly kingdoms. And the same happened to the Episcopal Church of Scotland, at the Revolution in 1688; when Episcopacy was abolished by the state, and the Presbyterian form of Church government established.* By this establishment the Bishops were de prived of their jurisdiction, and of all right to the temporalities of their sees. But in this forlorn state they still continued to exist, and to exercise their spiritual founctions of their episcopal character: by means of which, a regular succession of Bishops, and episcopally ordained Clergymen, has been kept up in Scotland, under all the disadvantages arising from a suspicion of their being disaffected to the crown, and attached to the interest of an exiled family. While attempts were making in behalf of that family, a variety of circumstances rendered it impossible for them to remove this suspicion, notwithstanding the many inconveniences and hardships to which it exposed them. All they could do was to conduct themselves in such a quiet manner, as might at length convince the government, they had nothing to fear from a Scotch Episcopal Church, and consequently that there was no necessity for the execution of those severe laws which, on different occasions, had been enacted against it.

"At last the happy period came, which was to relieve them from this

embarrassing situation. The wisdom and clemency of his present Majes

* It is notorious, that the violence of the adverse party against the Episcopal Church in Scotland began before the government under King William was settled: when it could not be known by experience whether they would join with it or Before the Convention met, their Clergy were forcibly driven from their churches, and their possessions seized.

ty's government encouraged them to hope, that an offer of their allegiance would not be rejected: and as soon as they could make that offer in a conscientious manner, they had the satisfaction to find, by the King's answer to their address, that it was graciously accepted: in consequence of which, they could not but hope, that the British Legislature would take their case into consideration, and see the expediency of relieving both Clergy and Laity of the Episcopal communion in Scotland from the penalties to which they were exposed in the exercise of their religion.

"With this hope, three* of their Bishops, as I have said, came to London in the year 1789; and, notwithstanding the ample recommendations they brought with them from their own country, they found it a work of time to make themselves and their application properly understood. It would have been barbarous, after the die was cast, to have thrown any discouragement in their way: but I was of opinion, from the beginning, that they were come too soon: more preparation was requisite than they were aware of. The penal laws had reduced the Scotch Episcopal Church to a condition so depressed and obscure, that it could scarcely be known to exist, but by such persons as were previously acquainted with its history. Among these, none entered more willingly than the then good Dean of Canterbury. As soon as he heard of the arrival of the Scotch Bishops at London, he was anxious to let them know how heartily he approved of the object of their journey, and kindly offered every assistance in his power to bring the matter to a happy conclusion, He paid them every mark of attention both at London and Oxford; and, when they set out on their return to Scotland, without having attained their object, he expressed, in very affectionate terms, his concern at their disappointment, and told them, at part

* Dr. John Skinner, Bishop of Aberdeen; Dr. Abernethy Drummond, Bishop of Edinburgh, and Dr. William Strachan, Bishop of Brechin.

ing, not to be discouraged: for, said he, 'your cause is good, and your request so reasonable, that it cannot long be denied.'

"In February, 1791, after having taken his seat in the House of Lords as Bishop of Norwich, he wrote a friendly letter to Bishop Skinner, of Aberdeen, assuring him and the other members of the committee for managing the business of the Episcopal Church of Scotland, that any help in his power should be at their service: and speaking of their applying anew to both Houses of Parliament, he said, 'It grieved him to think they had so much heavy work to do over again; but business of that sort required patience and perseverance.'

"It was said about this time, that the Lord Chancellor, Thurlow, withheld his consent to the Scotch Episcopal bill, till he should be satisfied, by some of the English Prelates, that there were really Bishops in Scotland. When Bishop Horne was waited upon with this view by the committee of the Scotch Church, and one of them observed, that his Lordship could assure the Chancellor they were good Bishops, he answered with his usual affability and good humour, Yes, Sir, much better Bishops thar: I am.'

"A clergyman of Scotland, who had received English ordination, applied to him, wishing to be considered as under the jurisdiction of some English Bishop; that is, to be, in effect, independent of the Bishops of Scotland in their own country; but he gave no countenance to the proposal, and advised the person who made it quietly to acknowledge the Bishop of the diocess in which he lived, who, he knew, would be ready to receive him into communion, and require nothing of him, but what was necessary to maintain the order and unity of a Christian Church; assuring him, at the same time, that, if he were a private clergyman himself, he should be glad to be under the authority of such a Bishop. One anecdote more upon this subject, and I have done.

"From the present circumstances of its primitive orthodoxy, piety, po

verty, and depressed state, he had such an opinion of this Church, as to think, that, if the great Apostle of the Gentiles were upon earth, and it were put to his choice with what denomination of Christians he would communicate, the preference would probably be given to the Episcopalians of Scotland, as most like to the people he had been used to. This happened, as I perfectly recollect, while we were talking together on the subject of the Scotch petition, on one of the hills near the city of Canterbury, higher than the pinnacles of the Cathedral, where there was no witness to our discourse but the sky that was over our heads; and yet, when all things duly considered, I think no good man would have been angry, if he had overheard us.

"If the reader should wish to know more of the people of this communion, let him consult an Ecclesiastical History of the Church of Scotland, by Mr. Skinner, father to the present worthy Bishop of Aberdeen; a history comprehending a plain and unaffected detail of facts very interesting and amusing: and I hope he will be also convinced by the narrative I have here given, not only that the Bishops of Scotland are true Christian Bishops, but that the Bishops of England, from the part they kindly took in the affair, do little deserve the clamour which some have raised against them, as if they were so dazzled by their temporalities, as to lose sight of their spiritual character, and bury the Christian Bishop in the Peer of Parliament."

both himself and his horse; and told him that if he loved himself, he should be merciful to his beast. Coming to his musical friends at Salisbury, they began to wonder that he came into company so soiled and discomposed. When he told them the occasion, one of the company said that he had disparaged himself by so dirty an employ. He replied, that the thoughts of what he had done would prove music to him at midnight; and that the omission of it would have upbraided, and made discord in his conscience, whenever he should pass by that place; for if I be bound to pray for all that be in distress, I am sure I am bound, so far as it is in my power, to practise what I pray for. And though I do not wish for the like occasion every day; yet let me tell you, I would not willingly pass one day of my life without comforting a sad soul, or showing mercy. And I praise God for this occasion. And now let us tune our instruments.

FOR THE CIIRISTIAN JOURNAL.
COMMUNICATION.

The New-York Evening Post of
Feb. 13, contains the following from
the Connecticut Gazette.
"To the Editor of the Connecticut Ga-
zette, printed at New-London, of
Feb. 10.

"SIR,

"The loss of Mrs. Harriet Lewis, whose distant death was announced in your paper of last week, is, you are sensible, deeply felt, not only by her relations, but by the people at

Anecdote of the Rev. George Herbert. large in this place. Such was her life, that the poor within her acquaintance now rise up and call her blessed.. Many religious institutions too will call to mind her repeated acts of munificence. Still her liberality in life is but very partially known. With the same retiring spirit, in which her bounty was then given, she, at her death, made large bequests; which, from the nature of them must be publicly known; though she was solicitous rather that they should pass unnoticed. By the consent of her friends

ATTENDING the private music meeting at Salisbury, he one day saw a poor man, with a poorer horse, who had fallen under his load. They were both in distress, and needed present help; which Mr. Herbert perceiving, put off his canonical coat, and helped the poor man to unload, and after to load his horse. The man blessed him for it; and he blessed the poor man. Like the good Samaritan, he gave him money to refresh

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