court-house, and very frequently with a congregation of only four persons. He purchased a piece of ground in a favourable situation, and here, with his own hands, assisted by his two sons and a hired negro, he commenced the walls of a church. His private means soon failing, he performed several tours through the United States, and by dint of repeated applications succeeded in raising about 5000 dollars, including a small portion subscribed in Paris. With this amount he finally erected a handsome house of worship after six years of untiring labour. He superintended the work himself, in order that every part should be done with symmetry and stability. During the progress of his labours, about ten or twelve families became gradually interested in the church, and a parish was organized at an early period. After the completion of the edifice, about twenty pews were disposed of, and the patient missionary expects that in the course of years the church will be filled with worshippers. And what compensation, it will be asked, has he received? During a part of the time the board of missions has allowed him 250 dollars a year, and on an average his congregation has contributed about eighty dollars per annum. But of this he has expended annually from 100 to 200 dollars, and has sustained himself partly

by teaching a few pupils, and partly by a small private income.

I would not, however, produce the impression that all domestic missionaries, or even the greater part of them, are required to labour and deny themselves equally with the gentleman just mentioned. On the contrary, there are many instances in which a congregation grows to maturity in a few months, erects a handsome church from its own resources, and relieves the board of missions from all expense in the support of its clergyman. Yet it may be laid down as a general rule, that the domestic missionary must expect many hardships, and comparatively few earthly comforts. And while the devotion and the zeal of the foreign missionary receive due credit; the domestic missionary must expect little applause from men, and in all his trials must rest satisfied with the approbation of his conscience and his God.

CHAPTER XVI.

CHURCH BUILDINGS IN AMERICA.

Erroneous ideas in England.-Real condition of Church edifices. -Variety of places of worship.-Scene in an arbour at Gambier. Log-church. — Village Churches.- Organs. Pulpit and Desk.-Altar and Font.-Pews.-Sign of the Cross. -Christmas decorations.-Parsonages.-Burial grounds.City churches.-Western churches.-Splendid decorations.Church Building Society.

It is, I believe, a common impression in England that the places of worship in America are almost entirely of a temporary description, and that little expense is bestowed upon their erection or embellishment. Such, at least, were my own ideas previous to crossing the Atlantic; and my surprise was considerable when I found myself mistaken. The architecture of churches and meeting-houses improves, at least, in an equal ratio with that of the private dwellings. So long as all the tenements in a village are log-cabins, a log-church may naturally

be expected. But when the industrious inhabitants have erected more convenient abodes; when the frame building and the brick mansion occupy the site of the former contracted domicil, a corresponding and frequently a superior degree of improvement may be traced in the houses of worship. As the place advances in wealth and population, the churches assume a more imposing and ornamental appearance. The Gothic tower and the Grecian portico begin to arrest the attention, the organ performs its part in softening the feelings and correcting the taste, and hundreds of thousands are expended where a few hundreds were formerly considered a sufficient outlay. Yet in different parts of the United States different feelings and habits prevail in regard to this subject. The New Englanders, and their descendants in the west, pride themselves not more on their showy and convenient dwellings, than on their elegant, neat, and commodious churches. The Virginians and their offspring, on the other hand, are less attentive to external appearances. They are willing to reside for years in the most ordinary habitations, provided they can furnish a comfortable interior and an abundant table. Hence in the south and southwest the churches possess few architectural pretensions, but the clergy who occupy them are the more liberally supported and the more punctually paid.

Of places of worship there is an almost endless diversity. The Methodists and Baptists on extraordinary occasions conduct their devotions at campmeetings in the depths of the forests. A square of perhaps 200 feet is cleared from all underwood, and covered with rough benches formed of split logs. Around this square are erected a number of canvas tents, or temporary log-houses, and at one side is a large platform for the preachers, connected with a shed provided for their accommodation. Within the area the lofty aboriginal trees are allowed to stand, and at each corner tripods or similar contrivances are erected, upon the top of which large fires burn by night at the elevation of five or six feet above the ground. Such places of worship are truly romantic, and in the hot weather of summer would afford delightful occasional retreats, but for the wild enthusiasm which too often actuates the assembled multitudes.

Camp-meetings, as such, are never held by Epis copalians. Yet occasionally, for want of a church, our services are performed in the open air, and I recollect with pleasure an interesting occasion of this kind in Delaware county, Ohio. The place of worship was a beautiful orchard, and the time was the month of May, when the abundant blossoms of the apple and the peach filled the air with their delicious odour. A table for the communion was