as humble and devotional. In one portion, he
made an affecting allusion to their wrongs. `Thou knowest,' said the
good man, with a broken voice, `our state--that it is the meanest--that
we are as mean and low as man can be. But we have sinned--we have
forfeited all our rights to THEE, and we would submit before _Thee_, to
these marks of thy displeasure.'"

Mr Reid subsequently asserts, that the sermon delivered by the black
was an "earnest and efficient appeal;" and, afterward, hearing a sermon
on the same day from a white preacher, he observes that it was a "_very
sorry affair_," in contrast with what he had before witnessed.]

It may be fairly inquired, can this be true? Not fifty years back, at
the time of the Declaration of Independence, was not the American
community one of the most virtuous in existence? Such was indeed the
case, as it is now equally certain that they are one of the most
demoralised. The question is, then, what can have created such a change
in the short period of fifty years?

The only reply that can be given, is, that as the Americans, in their
eagerness to possess new lands, pushed away into the West, so did they
leave civilisation behind, and return to ignorance and barbarism; they
scattered their population, and the word of God was not to be heard in
the wilderness.

That as she increased her slave states, so did she give employment,
land, and power to those who were indifferent to all law, human or
divine. And as, since the formation of the Union, the people have
yearly gained advantages over the _government_ until they now control
it, so have they controlled and fettered _religion_ until it produces no
good fruits.

Add to this the demoralising effects of a democracy which turns the
thoughts of all to Mammon, and it will be acknowledged that this rapid
fall is not so very surprising.

But, if the Protestant cause is growing weaker every day from disunions
and indifference, there is one creed which is as rapidly gaining
strength; I refer to the Catholic church, which is silently, but surely
advancing. [Although it is not forty years since the first Roman
Catholic see was created, there is now in the United States a Catholic
population of 800,000 souls under the government of the Pope, or
Archbishop, 12 Bishops, and 433 priests. The number of churches is 401;
mass houses, about 300; colleges, 10; seminaries for young men, 9;
theological seminaries, 5; noviciates for Jesuits, m