country which embraces, besides others, the vast Territories of Texas, Iowa, Oregon, Minnesota, and California; where Romanism and Mormonism, and Infidelity and Speculation are doing their work; doing it rapidly; doing it, we fear, permanently; a country which, with its wealth, and its energy, and its resources, will soon look down on the narrow region between the Atlantic and the Alleghanies, and hold at her disposal, in a very great degree, the destinies of the Christian and the heathen world."

STATISTICS OF CHURCH MEMBERSHIP. The following "Note" was appended to the manuscript copy of the Rev. J. Few Smith's sermon, which has just been published in the November number of the American National Preacher. Owing to the length of that discourse, it is necessarily omitted in the printed copy for want of room. As the statistics contained in it serve to illustrate some portions of the sermon, and are too valuable to the reading public to be lost, permit me to request its insertion in the Evangelist.

EDITOR OF AM. NAT. PREACHER.

In

The following statistics, prepared and read at a public meeting by one whose acquaintance with the subject entitles his statements to the highest confidence and respect, will throw light on some points alluded to in the discourse. preparing them, use was made of the Minutes of the Presbyterian General Assembly, Old School, for 1851, of the Presbyterian General Assembly, New School, for 1853, and of the Congregational Year Book :

Whole number of churches connected with these denominations, 5,896; of these 1,149 did not exceed 25 members.

The Minutes of the New School General Assembly, for 1854, give the whole

number of churches at 1,661.

Whole number not exceeding 100, 1,104, or just about two-thirds of 1,661.
A glance at these statistics, will show why so many of our churches are unable

to support the ministry.-Evangelist.

Popular Readings.

CLOSED IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE DEATH OF

MR.

PASSING a fashionable store in one of our crowded thoroughfares, this morning, I saw posted upon its closed shutters the above thrilling but familiar an

nouncement.

Go with me now to the late residence of its proprietor, where lies robed in the habiliments of the grave, that once strong, active, and thriving man of business.

The sad and gloomy appearance of the house, as you enter with noiseless tread-the tearful faces of that bereaved family, bear solemn witness that its head is gone.

And as you stand over the couch on which has been placed that death-stricken form, you realize with vivid distinctness the terrible import of those words, "closed in consequence of death."

Those eyes, which but a few short hours since looked with loving tenderness upon that now heart-smitten companion, and their offspring, are closed-those lips, from which were wont to come expressions of love, paternal affection, and friendly regard, are closed. Those ears, which were open to the cry of distress, or the words of endearment or affection, are closed. All "closed in consequence of death."

His joys and sorrows, business transactions and bargains, his social and business relations for this life, and his hopes and fears for the future, are all closed; probation with him is closed, and he who has been the principal actor in all these scenes, the prosperous merchant, the devoted husband and father, the faithful and tried friend, has gone to render up an account of his deeds done on earth. And that account is finally and forever closed. "Closed in consequence of death."

J. H.

WORKING OF THE MAINE LAW.

THE experience of Connecticut during the period in which the Maine Law has been in operation, has greatly confirmed the convictions of the friends of the measure. Governor Dutton has written a letter on the subject, which we should be glad to have every doubtful mind to ponder. We should have been glad to publish it before the election, in the hope that its striking facts might influence some voter; but it will not be without its weight at any time. It is as follows:

"I hazard nothing by asserting that no candid enemy of the law will deny, that it has proved more efficient than its most sanguine friends anticipated. It has completely swept the pernicious traffic, as a business, from the State. An open groggery cannot be found. I have not seen a person here in a state of intoxication since the first of August. In our cities and manufacturing villages, streets that were formerly constantly disturbed by drunken brawls, are now as quiet as any other. The change is so palpable that many who have been strongly opposed to such a law, have been forced to acknowledge the efficacy of this. At the late State Agricultural Fair it was estimated that on one day from 20,000 to 30,000 persons of every condition in life were assembled, and not a solitary drunkard was seen, and not the slightest disturbance was made the effect was so manifest, that the law has been regarded with more favour since than it was before.

"The statistics of our courts and prisons prove that criminal prosecutions are rapidly diminishing in number. Some jails are almost tenantless. The law has been thoroughly executed with much less difficulty and opposition than was anticipated. In no instance has a seizure produced any general excitement. Resistance to the law would be unpopular; and it has been found in vain to set it at defiance. The longer the beneficial results of the law are seen and felt, the more firmly it becomes established. The ridiculous idea, so industriously circulated, that the sanctity of domestic life would be invaded, has been shown to be a mere bugbear. The home of the peaceable citizen was never before so secure. The officers of the law have no occasion to break into his dwelling, and he is now free from the intrusion of the lawless victims of intemperance.

"Connecticut, by her own law, and the laws of the adjoining States of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, is now effectually guarded against the invasion of one of the worst enemies of the human race on all sides except the west. The principal obstacle in the way of complete success consists in the importation of liquors from the city of New York into this State in casks and demijohns professedly for private use.

"May we not indulge the hope that this evil may soon be remedied, and that as the Empire State is the first in population, wealth, and influence, she will stand foremost in this great effort to repress immorality and crime, and to promote the happiness of the human race. Certain I am if her citizens once try the experiment of a stringent prohibitory law, all the gold of California would not tempt them to abandon it.

"With the highest respect,

"Your obedient servant,

"HENRY DUTTON."

A BEAUTIFUL SIMILE.

JONATHAN EDWARDS describes a Christian as being like "such a little flower as we see in the spring of the year, low and humble on the ground; opening its bosom to receive the pleasant beams of the sun's glory; rejoicing as it were in a calm rapture; diffusing around a sweet fragrance; standing peacefully and lowly in the midst of other flowers." The world may think nothing of the little flower -they may not even notice it; but nevertheless, it will be diffusing around a sweet fragrance upon all who dwell within its lowly sphere.

TO AUTUMN.

BY KEATS.

SEASON of mist and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom friend of the maturing sun,
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch eaves run;
To bend with apples the mossed cottage trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core:
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more later flowers for the bees,

Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o'erbrimmed their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft beneath thy store?
Sometimes whoever seek, abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
Thy hair soft lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reaped furrow sound asleep,
Drowsed with the fume of poppies, while the hook
Spares the next swath with all its twined flowers;
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep

Steady thy laden head across a brook;
Or by a cider-press with patient look,
Thou watchest the last oozings, hours by hours.

Where are the songs of Spring? Ay, where are they?
Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,-
While barred clouds bloom the soft dying day,
And touch the stubble plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnat mourns
Among the river sallows, borne aloft,
Or smiling as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs bleat loud from hilly bourns,
Hedge crickets sing; and now with treble soft,
The redbreast whistles from a garden croft.

THE VOICE OF AUTUMN.

BY W. C. BRYANT.

THERE comes, from yonder height,

A soft repining sound,
Where forest leaves are bright,
And fall like flakes of light
To the ground.

It is the autumn breeze,

That, lightly floating on,
Just skims the weedy leas,
Just stirs the glowing trees,
And is gone.

He moans by sedgy brook,
And visits, with a sigh,
The last pale flowers that look,
From out their sunny nook,
At the sky.

O'er shouting children flies
That light October wind;
And, kissing cheeks and eyes,
He leaves their merry cries
Far behind.

And wanders on to make

That soft, uneasy sound
By distant wood and lake,
Where distant fountains break

From the ground.

No bower where maidens dwell
Can win a moment's stay;

Nor fair untrodden dell;
He sweeps the upland swell,
And away!

Mourn'st thou thy homeless state,

Oh, soft, repining wind!
That early seek'st, and late,

The rest it is thy fate

Not to find?

Not on the mountain's breast,
Not on the ocean's shore,
In all the east and west;
The wind that stops to rest
Is no more.

By valleys, woods, and springs,

No wonder thou should'st grieve,

For all the glorious things

Thou touchest with thy wings

And must leave.

DANGER FROM POPISH EDUCATION.

A GENTLEMAN in New York who is in circumstances which qualify him to judge correctly on this subject, has recently called our attention to a matter of the greatest importance. It is the insidious influence of Rome in some of the female schools of this city; nor is the evil confined to New York. There is more or less of it to be seen in all our great cities. We will make the case so plain to our friends "that he may run that reads."

It is this: certain foreigners, chiefly French ladies, who are Roman Catholics, have established female seminaries, in which, as they affirm, the pupils have great advantages for learning the "accomplishments"-music, drawing, and especially the French language. They profess to have, and do have, foreign teachers, chers. who speak French, and other foreign languages. A great effort is made to create the impression, as false as it is common, that these things can nowhere be so well learned as at these seminaries, just as if Protestant French people, Italians, and Germans can not be found who can teach the French, Italian, and German languages, and also music and drawing, as well as Roman Catholics from France, Italy, and Germany !

Well, what has been the consequence? Many Protestant families, especially those of the richer and more fashionable classes, have been induced by these professions and representations to send their daughters to schools where the teachers of the "accomplishments," especially the French, are for the most part ladies, who are zealous adherents of the Romish faith, and often secret, if not open, propagators of its dogmas and rites. They avail themselves of the favourable opportunities which they have to instil into the uninstructed minds of these youth, the dangerous and deplorable errors of Rome. The poison operates silently, but effectively, as subsequent years reveal.

The gentleman to whom we referred, informs us that he occasionally looks into the Roman Catholic Church in Eighth Street (within whose walls the great and good Dr. Mason preached the glorious Gospel when it stood in Murray Street), in which Rev. Dr. Forbes, once an Episcopal minister, is the officiating priest, and recognizes among the auditors not a few ladies who were once pupils in Madame C's celebrated school, and others of a similar description. Many of these ladies belong to old Protestant Dutch and American families, who were brought under the influence of Rome in the way which we have just described.

Still more and no better: in the schools in question, it has been a common thing for the keepers of them to invite their pupils, whether boarders or dayscholars, of sufficient age (especially the former), to their soirees, at which they are introduced to young gentlemen-merchants, merchants' clerks, etc. from foreign lands, by conversing with whom they may, it is boasted, improve their French, Italian, etc. Well, what has happened? Just what might have been expected, and was intended. Many of these young ladies, of old Protestant American families of wealth, have married foreigners, Roman Catholics for the most part. In this way Rome has gained a foothold in several of the influential, fashionable families which are nominally Protestants. These encroachments of Rome are frequently made in families that are not only of a fashionable and worldly character, but also of a class of Protestants who have by a sort of instinct, or from a want of all proper Protestant instruction, a strong leaning toward Romanism.

The danger which Protestants run in sending their children, especially their daughters, to Roman Catholic schools, is strikingly and deplorably illustrated by what has been going on in this city for the last twenty or thirty years. When will they be wise? Roman Catholic Seminaries! we have seen many of such schools, male and female, in various countries, and we have never yet seen one which we would call a first-rate school. They may give more attention to the French language-we speak of those in this country which are intended for the education of the "higher," or, rather, "fashionable" classes; but they fail sadly in the more important branches. They are superficial establishments in all respects. This is true of the Roman Catholic Colleges in this country, even of those