earth; and we disclaim any knowledge of a single act in their management of this great charity which has the most remote sectarian bearing. But the confidence justly reposed in their integrity, has a tendency to throw into their hands unlimited power; and this power will be delivered to their successors, and from the nature of the case, will be a rich blessing, or a tremendous curse to posterity. What security have we, that this mighty engine of life or death, of salvation or perdition, will for half a century remain in the hands of men possessing the same spirit? We answer, none, except the integrity and prudence of frail man. The promise of God assures us that he will always have a Church. But whether the descendents of this family or that family, the successors in this corporation or that corporation, shall maintain the pure doctrines of the gospel, and feel their power, we know not.

3. The first article in the constitution of the American Education Society, defining the manner of obtaining membership, connected with the second, authorizing the Directors to form a permanent fund of " bequests, legacies, donations, and grants, thus appropriated by the donors," and of any other property of the Society, at pleasure, we consider very liable to abuse, and highly dangerous. The first article is as follows: viz. "Any person who shall subscribe, and shall pay into the treasury at one time, one hundred dollars, or if a clergyman, forty dollars, shall be an honorary member; and shall have a right to sit and deliberate in all meetings of the Society. But all members hereafter added to the Society who shall be entitled to vote, shall be chosen by ballot, at an annual meeting."

To this article, we should have no material objection, if it were not connected with permanent funds of an indefinite amount; because there would be little or no temptation to abuse; but as it is so connected, it appears truly alarming. We are disposed to attribute the origin of this article to the

best motives; to suppose (for we have no knowledge of the fact) it was intended, by giving the present members the power of choosing their successors, to prevent the management of the Society from passing into unfaithful hands. Whatever may be the effect of this arrangement in preventing or retarding the perversion of the funds from the original purpose, it certainly increases the power of the Officers and Directors to an almost unlimited extent. It enables them, if so disposed, to select the persons who are to vote in choosing Officers and Directors; so that in fact they might as well be elected for life, with the power of nominating their own successors. Suppose that at any time a majority of the acting members of the Society are in favor of the measures adopted by the Directors, the Directors can, through their friends, have new voting members chosen, favorable to the same course; so that it will in the end amount to the same thing, as to give the Directors the power of appointing their successors. The distant members, who have a right to vote, can seldom attend the anniversaries; so that from the nature of the case, the election of officers and new members, can always be under the control of those residing near the place of holding the annual meetings. If at any time, the concerns of the Society should be mismanaged, it is evident from the very terms of the compact, that the branches and distant contributors, have no means of effecting a reformation; because they have voluntarily surrendered their rights into the hands of a body politic in the State of Massachusetts. And as this corporation can hold real estate, whose annual income shall equal ten thousand dollars; can increase permanent funds, and scholarships, to any extent; can dispose at pleasure of the annual surplus of the auxiliaries, and the monies returned by beneficiaries, and has also a veto on the appropriations of the branches; its power must become immense,* And the organization is so adjusted, the machinery * See Rules, Chapter vi. 9.

is so admirably arranged as to concentrate the whole power in a single point; so that the hand of an infant, touching a lever in Boston, can control, and manage, and direct the whole Christian community, south and west of the Connecticut, interested in this concern.

As long as the Directors remain, such as we believe they now are, intelligent, active, and devoted to the cause of evangelical doctrine and vital piety, every thing, which the interests of the Church and of the world demand, will be done. But if the fountain should by any means become corrupt; if the mighty reservoir, whose streams are intended to pervade and refresh, and fertilize every part of our vast territory, and even to flow to Africa and Asia, and regions yet unexplored, should be poisoned, how shall its deadly overflowings be checked; what antidote can be cast in to restore the salubrity of the waters? No human power or human skill, it seems to us, can be of any avail; because no external force can touch the internal spring which moves the whole machine. Let the American Education Society proceed as it has commenced; let it accumulate in its own hands all the funds destined for the education of pious, indigent young men, and then the character and qualification of a large portion of the ministers of the gospel in the United States, will be suspended on the piety and integrity of a few men located in the same vicinity. Every man, and every corporation, think power to be safe in their own hands. But who can guarantee that no change will take place in the sentiments and character of the next, or succeeding generation? It may happen, (for it has often happened,) that one man of talents and influence, may change the religious views and feelings of a whole neighborhood or city. If such a change should take place in the Board of Directors, how shall the sacred funds of the American Education Society be snatched from their grasp? The danger of committing permanent funds of a large

amount into the hands of bodies politic, from the frequency of perversion, has become proverbial. No guards or precautions, heretofore invented, have been found effectual. And what security, not previously tried in vain, is given in the case before us? We say, none. The power is in the hands of a few men, not responsible to the donors nor to the Christian community at large, responsible only to the voting members of the Society, whom they can create at pleasure. The security is even less than what has repeatedly been ineffectual. Funds devoted to sacred uses, and guarded with creeds and formularies, and subscriptions, have been perverted from the object of the pious donors; and that, too, when those into whose hands they originally came, were men of incorruptible integrity and ardent piety. We could appeal to a well known instance, in the vicinity of Boston. Can it be a doubtful question, whether the funds belonging to the Hollis Professorship in Havard University, are now used for a purpose totally at variance with the intention of the original founder? Who could have thought fifty years ago, that so entire a change would have taken place in the sentiments of those who manage the concerns of that venerable and splendidly endowed institution?

Piety and talents are the only qualifications prescribed in the charter and constitution, to limit the appropriation of the funds belonging to the American Education Society. Admitting that genuine piety is one of the best religious. tests that can be proposed; yet the opinions of men are so various respecting it, that this qualification cannot possibly be any restraint to a corporation, wishing to introduce into the ministry, young men hostile to the fundamental principles and spirit of the gospel. We would confide in the judgment of the present Directors, and also of their examining committees, as far as they are known, yet we must again repeat, we know not who are to be their successors.

As this institution is intended to "continue for genera

tions and ages to come," and as consequences the most tremendous, that can be conceived, must follow from a perversion from its original design, it becomes us to examine well the foundation on which its security from abuse rests. We ought not to be dazzled with its wonderful success and the good which it has already achieved, so as to lose sight of remote consequences. We should recollect the profound remark of the Roman Senator, Omnia mala exempla ex bonis initiis orta sunt. Nations never voluntarily resign their liberties into the hands of a known tyrant. They must be dazzled with the splendour of foreign victories-They must see the spoils of conquered cities brought home in his triumphant chariot. They must share in the corn and the wine he distributes in profusion-and then they will hail him as their master, and bind themselves with chains, which neither they nor their children's children can burst asunder. Religious vassalage is commenced and consummated in the same manner. An open and confessed heretic seldom begins the work of corruption; but he succeeds to the confidence and power acquired by some zealous and faithful servant of the Lord Jesus, and then he employs the authority with which he is invested in spreading around him moral pestilence and death. Men of corrupt principles have not usually zeal enough to commence a religious charity, or liberality enough to contribute the necessary funds: but when the funds are collected, they see an object sufficient to excite their ambition, and they are not deficient in expedients to gain the management and control of what men of a different spirit have accumulated. Suppose such an event should happen in regard to the American Education Society-it is not more unlikely than some things that have occurred in the same vicinity not fifty years ago and then all the power and resources now lodged in the hands of the present gifted and eminently devoted Secretary, and of his equally distinguished counsellors, would be brought to bear against the cause of evangelical