comium pronounced by our Lord upon one of their sex-" She hath done what she could."

Professors of religion, on entering a manufactory, have too often imagined that they were lost among the throng of strangers, and were in some way released from the obligations which they recognized when among their friends, to walk not according to the course of this world. I shall not, I hope, be charged with censoriousness, if I say, that pastors abroad err most sadly in not encouraging the youth of their churches who are about to remove to these scenes of peculiar temptation, to become connected at once with some church of Christ in the place of their expected residence. What though their stay is to be but temporary, do not their best interests and highest usefulness plainly require that they should enjoy the Christian vigilance and sympathy of some church of Christ, and feel themselves responsible, to the extent of their influence, for its enlargement and purity? Facts speak on this subject with convincing and terrible eloquence. Delinquent professors of religion cripple the power of the gospel in these communities far more than all the combined opposition of avowedly irreligious men. Nowhere is it so true as here that if all the inconsistent professors of religion could be exchanged, each for ten open, boisterous enemies of the truth, piety might proclaim a jubilee at the brightening prospects of her cause.' In such places no safeguard of Christian character can be wisely dis

pensed with. And it is surely no small security of Christian consistency, to feel one's self publicly and solemnly committed before the community among whom he resides, to live as becometh godliness. A simple introductory line, making them acquainted with some pastor of a church, would, under God, have saved numbers who have found, in manufacturing towns, the grave of their character, usefulness, and hopes.

To enlarge on the peculiar duties of professing Christians in manufacturing establishments, would be to anticipate other portions of this volume. One thought I cannot forbear to suggest. The friends of the Redeemer in such places, are most loudly called upon to quench the spirit of sectarian party strife. Party spirit in religion, always a calamity, is here a most blighting, withering curse. It works with a

virulence elsewhere unknown, especially in villages of the smaller class, where rival denominations struggle for existence. While, therefore, every Christian indulges his predilection for his own place of worship, and feels himself specially responsible for the prosperity of that branch of the church of Christ with which he is directly connected, let him love the cause of Christ more than that of a sect, and strive to make inroads on the kingdom of darkness, rather than to win adherents to his own detachment of the sacramental host.

The responsibility which devolves upon those, who,

To

as directors of companies, agents, and superintendants, control our manufacturing institutions, can scarcely be overrated. They cannot be insensible of the direct interest which they and their employers have in the religious and moral character of the institutions over which they preside. And many of them, it should be told, have exerted the influence, demanded by an enlightened policy, as really as by the higher law of duty to God. But there are those to whom the language of truth must be that of respectful though firm and urgent remonstrance. any of this description into whose hands this volume may fall, I would say-Think not lightly of evangelical religion. Despise not the efforts of its friends. Give its institutions your active and efficient support. Hallow the day of God, and let it not be violated under your authority, sanction, or connivance. Let no demands of avarice wrest this consecrated day from the holy ends to which the temporal welfare of society, no less than the laws of God, require it to be devoted. The time may come when you will feel the need of the enlightening, soothing, and subduing influences of the Sabbath, the sanctuary, and the Sabbath school, to stand between you and the radicalism, which, in its jealousy of wealth and distinction, shall prostrate law and social order, and wreak its blind malice on the splendid achievements of your capital and skill. The signs of the times are surely portentous enough to bid you beware of doing any

thing, in person or by proxy, to arrest or obstruct any of the instrumentalities which God has appointed for bringing his moral government to bear upon the consciences and hearts of men.

You may despise the Sabbath and the public worship of God.

But a just God will hold you to account for all the good which an opposite course would have secured, and for the positive mischiefs which your station and influence give you the opportunity thus to inflict upon society around you; and none will be to blame more than yourselves, should it appear at no distant day, that in prostrating the Sabbath, you have sprung a mine, of which yourselves and those whom you represent are the very first victims.

It cannot be too often repeated or too deeply impressed, that the special presence of the Holy Spirit in his renovating power is the only ultimate ground of hope for the continued purity of these institutions. They must be the scenes of perpetual revivals of religion, or abodes of moral infection and spiritual death. Let then those pastors and Christians who are called to live and labor in these important fields of benevolent exertion, make it the burden of their efforts and prayers to secure the shedding down of celestial influence like the rain and the dew. If the obstacles are peculiar, so also are the encouragements. The useful arts are with us as yet in their infancy. Their relation to morality and religion is now fast assuming a shape and complexion which will be re

tained when maturer growth shall have developed their giant energies. No one can be in a position to observe the rills of influence by which the character of these institutions reaches and affects the whole community, without feeling that we are authorized to bespeak in their behalf the prayers and sympathies of all Christians. Let our Home Missionary Societies bestow special attention upon the manufacturing villages whose population and resources are inadequate, without foreign aid, to the support of an evangelical ministry. Nor let our older towns withhold their aid when needed for the erection of houses of public worship. It should be understood that the wealth of such places is for the most part owned and represented, as to religious objects, elsewhere; that the mass of those on whom devolves the support of religion, are young men and women, with no capital but their enterprise, their industry, and their time; and that, relatively to their population, such places have generally less ability than any others for enterprises requiring so heavy an outlay of capital, as the building of suitable houses of public worship. We could tell of sacrifices made for such objects by those whose earthly all is their daily wages, such as the owners of hoarded wealth in our older towns would turn pale to think of. Furnish them with meeting-houses, and such places will be found foremost in devising and executing liberal things. Their characteristic enterprise in business will show itself in religion. Put them, in this respect, on a