the means of the Managers shall be such as to justify attention to their poor brethren in those parishes.

With such opportunities for the exercise of this interesting and important charity, it is hoped that the mem, bers of the Society will not only be prompt in the payment of their dues, but that every one will feel it a duty and a pleasure to exert her influence in procuring new subscribers, and in soliciting donations.

The object is most benevolent. It is to provide for the poor and ignorant the bread of life and salvation, and to furnish them with the means of an enlightened and animating worship of their Lord and Redeemer. His grace and blessing may be expected to accompany such efforts, however humble. To his guidance and protection, therefore, the Managers commend the members and the affairs of the Society.

Signed, by order of the Board, E. RUDD, President. E. WILLIAMSON, Secretary. Elizabeth-Town, Whit-Tuesday, 1818. The Report having been read and accepted, the Society proceeded to the election of officers for the ensuing year, when the following were duly chosen :

Mrs. RUDD, President.

Mrs. Col. OGDEN, Vice-President. Mrs. W. DAYTON, Treasurer. Miss E. WILLIAMSON, Secretary. Managers.-Mrs. WM. D. WILLIAMSON, Mrs. WM. R. WILLIAMSON, Mrs. C WILLIAMSON, Mrs. RIVERS, Mrs. MORSS, Mrs. MITCHEL, Mrs. J. DE HART, Miss L. ROBERTS, Miss P. OGDEN.

gant style. The ornaments and furniture of the altar, desk, and pulpit, with a suit of gallery curtains, were a present from the ladies of Trinity Church. It is an axiom in politics which has never failed, that where females are enlightened and pious, society is happy. Surely woman bringing her offerings, and ministering at the altar, pleases God, and secures the affections of man. The very infant catches the forms and the spirit of inspiration from a mother, and they have an effect on his conduct in every stage of life, and last until life is no more.

The whole of this Church, we understand, has sprung up from the spontaneous liberality of munificent individuals, assisted by a wealthy manufacturing company. The opprobrium-that corporations are bodies without a soul-we trust, by such examples, will soon cease to be a pro

verb.

Its

We congratulate the friends of the Church upon its flourishing state in this country. It has grown by the strenuous exertions of its members, and the blessing of Heaven. friends have never received, and indeed have never asked, any special aid from government. They appealed to reason, and they trusted in God. Men tired of the fitful, changeful, and uncertain forms and modes of worship, and disgusted with the thousand distinctions, without a difference in tenets, which are abroad in the world, are seeking and finding that repose and vourable to religious reflection in the quiet from dissension, which are fabosom of the Church. The services at this dedication by the Bishop and his Clergy were of the first order. The morning service by Dr. GARDINER, was performed in his best manner, which is a model of accuracy, force, refinement, and grace. The parts by Bishop GRISWOLD were impressive and solemn. His sermon on the propriety of dedicating temples to God, was beautifully illustrative. Though we are not within the pale of the Church, and believe that other men may be pious as well as they who are, yet its purity, solemnity, stability, and free

dom from dissensions, make us wish for the time when its legitimate influence shall be extensive, and its resources abundant.

The sermon by the Right Rev. Bishop (says anothér communication, received after the above was in type,) from John ii. 13. and three following verses, was suitable to the occasion. He was particularly urgent in recommending to the members of this new Church a spirit of brotherly love among themselves, and of Christian charity towards those who differed from them in opinion. He pathetically enforced the necessity of framing our lives, and regulating our consciences by the pure doctrines of the Bible, uncontaininated by the devices of man. It was, indeed, a discourse befitting a Christian shepherd to deli ver to his flock, a discourse which every seriously disposed Christian hearer might be benefitted by. The congregation was numerous, and a large proportion attended at the service of the altar. The Rev. Dr. GARDINER was the assistant priest; the attendant Clergy, Rev. Mr. EATON, Rev. Ma CARLILE, and others..

The consecration of this Chapel will be an era in the history of Boston. It is the first Episcopal Church that has been regularly consecrated; for. at the period when Christ Church, Trinity Church, and the Stone Chapel were devoted to the service of God, there were no Bishops in the new world, nor any person duly authorized to perform the solemn and very proper ceremony. St. Matthew's Chapel is a plain building nearly finished; its situation is most delight ful, commanding prospects in every direction calculated to raise in the mind devout thoughts, and to make us exclaim as we gaze admiring round,

These are thy works, Parent of good, Almighty, thine
This universal frame so wondrous fair;
Thyself how wondrous then!

FOR THE CHRISTIAN JOURNAL.

THE Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the State of Rhode-Island was holden at St.

Paul's Church, in North-Providence, on Tuesday, the 2d June, 1818.

Clergy present.

Right Rev. A. V. GRISWOLD, D D. Rector of St. Michael's Church, Bristol.

Rev. I. L. BLAKE, Rector of St. Paul's Church, North-Providence. Rev. N. B. CROCKER, Rector of St. John's Church, Providence.

Rev. G. TAFT, Deacon, officiating at Christ Church, Gloucester. Rev. S. WHEATON, Rector of Trinity Church, Newport.

Lay Delegates present.

From Trinity Church, SAMUEL WHITEHORN, STEPHEN T. NORTHAM, and BENJAMIN B. MUMFORD.

From St. John's Church, THOMAS LLOYD HALSEY, ALEXANDER JONES, ABNER DAGGET, and JEREMIAH LIPPITT.

From St. Michael's Church, JoHN G. HARDING, HENRY DE WOLF, and LEMUEL C. RICHMOND.

From St. Paul's Church, NorthProvidence, ELIPHALET SLACK and DAVID WILKINSON.

From St. Paul's Church, NorthKingston, and the new Churh, SouthKingston, LEMUEL BIRGE.. From Christ Church, Gloucester, OWEN, jun. and ANAN

THOMAS EVANS.

Prayers were addressed to the Throne of Grace by the Rev. Mr. WHEATON, and a sermon was delivered by the Right Rev. Bishop Gris

WOLD.

From the parochial reports made to the Convention, on the condition of the Church in the state of RhodeIsland, the following is a summary: Baptisms-Trinity Church 30; St, John's Church 13; St. Michael's Church 19; St. Paul's Church, NorthProvidence, 30. Communicants added, Trinity Church 12; St. John's. Church 7; St. Paul's Church, NorthProvidence, 12. Present number of Communicants-Trinity Church 125; St. Michael's Church 162; St. John's Church about 160; St. Paul's Church, North-Providence, 46.

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Since the Convention of 1817 an

Episcopal Society has been formed in Gloucester, and is now incorporated by the name of Christ Church. The Society contemplate building a place of worship as early in the ensuing year as the season will admit; and a committee has already been appointed to make, in the meantime, the necessary arrangement for said building. The village in the town of Gloucester contains about 300 inhabitants; and the Rev. Mr. TAFT officiates at said village, in a hall designed for public purposes. Within a few months a new Church has been begun at Tower-Hill, in South-Kingston, where Mr. BIRGE, a candidate for Holy Orders, officiates as a Lay Reader one half of the time; officiating the other half at St. Paul's Church, North-Kingston. It is expected that the Church at Tower-Hill will be ready for consecration in the latter part of autumn. The Church in Rhode-Island is in a more prosperous condition than at any previous time; and the members of this part of Zion are manifesting a becoming zeal, in manly exertions, to enlarge her borders, and restore her waste places.

Resolutions were passed authoriz. ing Bishop GRISWOLD to employ a Missionary to labour in the state, under the patronage of the Convention; and recommending that a sermon be preached on the subject of missions, and contribution had in aid thereof, in the' different churches, on the second Sunday in June.

Resolutions were passed recommending Sunday Charity Schools in connexion with the different churches of the state, and under the direction of the Rectors thereof.

The services of the day were performed with a dignity suitable to the occasion, mind, and to inspire devotion. mind, and to inspire devotion.

and the whole scene tended to arrest the

On the following day one third of the pews were offered for sale, and brought the sum of eleven thousand dollars.

The edifice is an oblong square, 65 feet by 75, principally Gothic in its style of architecture. Its interior arrangement is peculiarly pleasing and convenient. The building, indeed, generally, is an honourable monument of the taste and liberality of the congregation, and constitutes no inconsiderable ornament to the town itself. To those who take an interest in the improvements of the town, it must be pleasing to perceive this addition to the funds of our public buildings; while to the friends of religion, it is matter of gratulation that the spirit of enterprize should expend some of its efforts on houses devoted to the public worship of God.

Ar an ordination held on Thursday, June 25, at St. Michael's Church, Marblehead, by the Right Rev. Bishop GRISWOLD, the Rev. BENJAMIN B. SMITH, Rector elect, and the Rev. GEORGE LEONARD, of Windsor, (Vermont,) were admitted to the Holy Order of Priests; and GEORGE OTIS and CALVIN WOLCOTT were admitted to the Holy Order of Deacons.

On Friday, June 26, a new, Church, in the town of Windham, county of Greene, was consecrated to the service of Almighty God, by the name of Trinity Church, and the Rev. EZEKIEL G. GEAR, Deacon, ad

mitted to the order of Priests by the Right

Rev. Bishop HOBART; and on Sunday last, in Christ Church, Hudson, the Bishop ad

mitted the Rev. GREGORY T. BEDELL, Deacon, to the order of Priests, and Mr. THOMAS OSBORN, to that of Deacons.

Redhook, Dutchess county, July 7, 1818.

THE Corner stone of an Episcopal Church, to be denominated St. Paul's Church, was laid this morning, in this place. An address was delivered on the occasion by the Rev. HENRY ANTHON, and the Divine blessing implored upon the undertaking. It is expected that the Church will be finished, and ready for consecration, sometime in the month of May next.

ERRATA.

Page 120, second column, line 28,"first" should be fourth, page 122, first column, line 33,-" true divine" should be "Jure divino"; page 136, second column, last word of the note, "Protestantism" should be Puritanism.

Printed by T. & J. Swords, New-York.

No. 13.]

In discoursing on the subject of devotional forms, I will lay down three propositions, and support them by proofs.

I. That forms of prayer are law ful.

II. That forms of prayer are expedient.

III. That the condemnation of them is unchristian, and grossly wicked.

First Proposition-That forms of prayer are lawful. That must be acknowledged as lawful, as a Christian exercise, which has the example of Christ to plead for it; and we can never walk more safely than when we walk as our Divine Master walked.

Our blessed Saviour having determined to give his human body as an expiation for sin, and, by this sacrifice, to bear our sins in his own body on the tree, prepared himself for this wonderful act of humiliation. He had eaten his last passover with his chosen disciples, and then taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he said unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me; and he went a little farther and prayed; then returning to his disciples, and finding them asleep, he admonished VOL. II.

[VOL. II.

them, and went away again the second time and prayed; and came and found them asleep again, and he left them, and went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Whoever will consider the charac, ter of Christ, the occasion that called forth the ardent expression of his pious devotion, and the manner in which it was performed, will see and acknowledge the force of his example as proof of our first proposition, that forms of prayer are lawful.

If any occasion could require va riety of expression, if ardency of feeling would necessarily prompt it, if sincere devotion demanded it, would not Jesus have known and practised it?

Have we not in this example of our blessed Saviour both an argument for defence and a rule for the practice of forms of devotion? Had we no other proof, would not this alone be suffi cient to put to silence the enemies of forms of prayer?

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But we have other proofs: for our Saviour and John the Baptist both taught their disciples a form of prayer: for the disciples of Christ said to their Master, Teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, &c. See St. Luke xi. 1—4.

Is it sufficient to prove, that we cannot pray acceptably in the words of our Saviour, to say that St. Matthew records this differently?

The

I know that our translation renders the passage in St. Matthew, after this manner, therefore, pray ye. Greek word, rendered after this manner, is Ouras, which literally denotes thus; which is enough to prove, that the translation is too free to build an 25

express language of our Saviour, as recorded by St. Luke.

This not only proves that this was a form, but it shows also the propriety of using it, not only as a pattern, but as a form the most full and comprehensive; and so adapted to all occasions, that the omission of it appears something like a contempt of the command of God: and the substitution of human language for divine bears strong marks of pride and arrogance. Therefore, however excellent other prayers may be, the omission of this causes a chasm which a pious soul feels cannot be supplied by any of human invention.

Having thus proved that forms of prayer are lawful, I proceed to the second Proposition-That forms of prayer are expedient.

When we meet together for the solemn worship of Almighty God, the greatest object of our meeting is, to supplicate pardon, mercy, and grace for ourselves, the Christian family, and the world.

Social worship must be joint worship, or that in which pious souls can conscientiously and devoutly join.

To know what this is to be, both as to sentiment and expression, gives the devout worshipper a good opportunity to lay open his heart to the influence of holy affections, and ardent desires to the Father of mercies.

If we were to admit that extempore prayers were always correct in sentiment and in language, their very novelty would engage so much of our attention, as to leave little room for the exercise of pious affections. And is it not a fact, that we hear them with much the same sensation that we do a sermon? Do they generally contain so full an expression of our wants, and those of our Christian brethren? and are they so adapted to the state of every sort and condition of men, as such as have been composed by a number of wise and good men, that have for ages been means of nourishment and strength for pious and devout souls ?

All men who lead the public devotions of congregations, are not correct

and learned and prudent in their language and expression.

Public prayers partake of some shades of the peculiarity of the doctrines which men profess; and if we join with all, with Lutherans and Calvinists, Armenians and Socinians, we are in danger of offering incongruous, and not unfrequently absurd, petitions to Almighty God.

To remedy all these evils, to regulate the devotion of ministers and people, is it not a dictate of sober reason, harmonizing with the practice of our blessed Saviour and his holy apostles, to collect from the pious prayers and supplications of primitive and evangelical Christians, such means of public devotional exercises as are sanctioned by the word of God, and best calculated to impress our minds with reverence, solemnity, and devotion; in other words, to take such prayers as have been selected by the pious martyrs of the Church to which we belong, contained in our evangelical liturgy, a composition for the exercises of the devout soul, that, amidst the various revolutions of the Christian world, has stood the assaults of infidelity, schism, and heresy, and, pure as unaloyed gold, shines with greater brightness the more carefully and minutely it is examined?

Having thus proved the expediency of forms of prayer, I proceed to the third Proposition-That the condemnation of them is unchristian and grossly wicked.

To condemn the practice of Jesus Christ, is to condemn Jesus Christ himself. Jesus Christ prayed by a form when he went away again and prayed the third time, saying the same words. To condemn a form of prayer then, is to condemn Jesus Christ. Is not such a practice unchristian? Is it not grossly wicked? Who that has any devout exercises of soul, will be guilty of such a sin?

Can enthusiasm and bigotry so darken and brutalize the soul, as to make it susceptible of a crime at which decency is shocked, and piety shudders? O God, forgive such offenders, for they know not what they do!