their tenderest sympathies often excited, by the privations and sufferings, in respect even to the necessaries of life, to which their families were subjected. Sometimes, in their journeys, on sitting down at the tables of their brethren, to enjoy their hospitality, a recollection of the sufferings of their families at home would destroy their appetite, and fill them with grief. They could receive but little earthly reward; the country being new, the churches small, and the people hardly able to support themselves, much less to expend a large amount on the preachers."—p. 25.

We will now briefly enumerate some of those causes, which, as it seems to us, have contributed, under God, a share of influence in causing this portion of our Zion thus to "lengthen her cords and strengthen her stakes." We say, under God, for we would devoutly acknowledge him to be the giver of all good gifts; the fountain from which emanate all spiritual blessings. If preachers have been raised up, churches planted, and converts multiplied, or if any good thing has been accomplished by his people, it is the Lord who hath done it, and to his name will we give glory. Whatever causes of prosperity, therefore, we may mention, we wish to be distinctly understood, as regarding them all as being infinitely subordinate to the divine blessing. "Paul may plant, and Apollos water, but God giveth the increase." A multitude of the ablest ministers in the land might have entered this country, with thousands of God's most devout and faithful people, and without the divine blessing, all their labor had been fruitless. The country might, as now, have teeined with a million of human beings, but, instead of hallowing the Sabbath, and waiting upon God in the ordinances of his house, infidelity, and irreligion, and vice, would be their distinguishing characteristics.

We would mention, as being among the causes which have contributed to the prosperity of our churches in western New York, 1. The removal into that country, at the period of its first settlement, of many pious and estimable people, by whom a religious character was impressed upon society. In many of the townships, the formation of a church was almost coeval with the existence of society. By this means, all classes were educated to respect Christianity, and to attend on the means of grace.

The growth of our churches in western New York was evidently most powerfully stimulated by emigration;

and yet, of this important fact, there is very little intimation given in the work before us. When about to be apprised of the fact, that a church was constituted in a certain place, at a given date, we are told that the pastor of some church, at a distance of twenty or forty miles, or a missionary, finds in a given place some twelve or twenty brethren and sisters, covenanted together, perhaps already, to maintain the worship of God, and he recognises them as a church, in gospel order; but, as to where these disciples were made members of the visible church of Christ, the reader is left entirely to the vagueness of conjecture. Almost the only data given to guide us on this point, are found in the brief memoirs of twenty individuals, distinguished for usefulness in these western churches, inserted at the end of the volume.

Of these twenty individuals, all ministers of the gospel, except one, sixteen were natives of New England; eleven were from Connecticut, four from Massachusetts, and one from Vermont. Of the remaining four, three were from the State of New York, and one from England. Fourteen professed religion in New England, and thirteen there entered the ministry. Seven were born of Pedobaptist parents, and three received ordination while in the Pedobaptist connection, all of the New Light order. Nine are mentioned expressly as having had pious parents; one was the son of a Baptist deacon; two were the sons of Baptist ministers; and one was the son of a Congregationalist minister. The memoir of Salmon Morton, one of the two who professed religion after they left New England, and who subsequently entered the ministry, sheds some light on the circumstances under which the church in Madison was constituted. Salmon Morton was the son of Deacon Abner Morton, of Athol, Mass. In 1797, Deacon Morton removed, with his family, to Madison, Madison Co., N. Y. Young Morton was hopefully pious when he left his native state, but did not make a profession of religion until after a residence of about two years in Madison. He is said to have been baptized about two months after the constitution of the Baptist church in that place, and was the first individual who received Christian baptism in the town. The supposition is, that a number of members, under circumstances similar to those of Deacon Morton, and it may be, members of the same

church with him, had made a settlement in the place, and had associated together as a church of Christ. With this church young Morton united, after having been baptized on a profession of faith, and was soon called to the pastoral office in the same church. Under similar circumstances were most of their early churches founded. No account of the formation of any church has been attempted by our authors, except the first fifteen. To the first two allusion has already been made. We here insert, in the precise language of the narrative, a description of two others:

"First Church in Otsego.-On the 18th of December, 1794, Elder Furman and four brethren, being invited, convened and examined the religious character and circumstances of certain brethren in the town of Otsego, twelve in number, and gave them fellowship as a church of Christ."-p. 12.

"Church in Charlestown.-In this place, a number of disciples, at an early period, covenanted together to maintain the public worship of God, and in September, 1793, they received fellowship as a church of Christ, numbering about ten.”

The multitude of members of Baptist churches, who emigrated to this country, were chiefly from the older churches on the eastern border of the State, and from the several New England States.

2. The first ministers, who entered this country, were men of superior ability, and were possessed of uncommon ministerial endowments. Their literary qualifications, we admit, were not great; but then, they had age and experience, were men of much prayer, and were deeply versed in the doctrines of the Bible. They were, in short, good ministers of Jesus Christ, "nourished up in the words of faith and good doctrine," and were filled with compassion for the sheep of Christ's fold, whom they found in the wilderness. The men who have been prominent in our churches in western New York, both ministers and laymen, from their origin up to the present tine, furnish an example of "continuance in well-doing," and of personal sacrifice to promote the diffusion of evangelical piety, rarely surpassed. They lived not unto themselves, but unto him who died for them. Nor in their efforts to do good, did they live exclusively for the present generation. Their plans of benevolence were comprehensive and far-reaching. They were careful, moreover, to lay a good foundation.

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Knowing the temptations of a people in a new country to desecrate the Sabbath, and to neglect family devotion, they made it a part of the covenant of every church which they constituted, that the several members should religiously observe the Sabbath, and that all heads of families should maintain in their houses the worship of God, by reading the Scriptures and vocal prayer; and they labored night and day to promote a salutary discipline in the churches.

3. There was great unanimity in counsel among those who gathered the first churches in western New York, and who subsequently laid the foundation of their benevolent institutions. The Otsego Association, the oldest in the country, and from which most of the earlier associations were constituted, was, for a long period, the centre of influence, in which those brethren were accustomed to meet, and mature their plans for future usefulness; and, subsequently, when the field of their observation was enlarged beyond the influence of an association, they united in the formation of a missionary society, which has been matured into an institution, whose pecuniary ability is equal to $18,000 per annum. At a later period, they established a theological seminary, in which there are now between one and two hundred young men, all hopeful candidates for the Christian ministry; and, still later, they called to their aid the weekly periodical press, which has attained to a circulation of five or six thousand copies. In all these undertakings, each of which has proved abundantly conducive to their prosperity, the principle of their success has been, union in judgment and feeling.

4. Missionary efforts. To this instrumentality are our churches in western New York indebted, perhaps, as much as to any other. In no section of our country has the experiment of domestic missions been more fully and successfully made, than here. Baptist churches, in this country, have been accustomed to missionary efforts, from their origin. The records of their doings, however, in this department of labor, are but scanty in periods previous to the formation of associations. The care of unsupplied and feeble churches, and the preaching of the gospel in destitute places, were originally objects of primary importance with our associations. No other organizations than these are known to us to have existed

in the Baptist denomination, previously to the beginning of the present century. The Massachusetts Domestic Missionary Society was formed in 1802, and is the oldest institution of its kind, known to us in this country. The second, was the Lake Missionary Society, formed by our brethren in western New York, and to which allusion has already been made, the same being now known as the Baptist Missionary Convention of the State of New York.

The first missionary to western New York, so far as we are informed, was the Rev. Caleb Blood, sent by the appointment of the Shaftsbury Association, though the amount of funds at their disposal was not sufficient to defray the travelling expenses of their missionary. He entered on his mission August 24, 1802, was from home three months, and preached about as many sermons as he was absent days. He directed his course westward through the central part of the State of New York, until he had advanced about one hundred miles west of the Genesee river, when he took a northerly direction, and crossed the Niagara, into the province of Upper Canada. He descended the Niagara to its confluence with the waters of Lake Ontario, and thence passing the head of the Lake, he penetrated some distance into the interior. Having proceeded as far as his time would permit, he retraced his steps to fulfil his previous appointments.

In December of the same year, the Rev. Joseph Cornell entered on a missionary tour, under the patronage of the Massachusetts Domestic Missionary Society. He commenced his labors near the source of the Black river, and travelled in a northerly direction, until he reached the St. Lawrence, which he crossed, and spent a number of weeks in that section of the province of Upper Canada. Returning to the State of New York, he traversed the State in its entire breadth, near the centre. He was absent six months, and travelled, on missionary ground, one thousand miles, preached in forty-seven townships; in forty-one of which he found no settled minister of any denomination; and in thirteen of these townships no minister of the gospel had ever before entered. At one point, he had gone a distance of six hundred miles without meeting a single minister.

Mr. Blood had the honor of being the first ordained minister who preached the gospel in the province of Upper Canada. On a certain occasion, he received a request