wise would not be communicated. If the plan was adopted by females, for whom especially it has been thought of, would it not be calculated to raise many from that dormant state, which is so very natural both to man and woman kind? To receive animating Christian letters from entire strangers, would it not be joyful? A correspondence to extend from Maine to Georgia, would it not be elevating and enlarging, and quickening to many a soul? The Southerners may have some useful ingenuities, that are foreign from our contrivances, and the Northern sisterhood may say something to them by way of exhortation. I have just thought, that it would be best to nominate officers yearly, and if convenient have new officers, their names appearing in the reports. Would not this have an energetic force upon the female society in every town? Would it not help to stimulate the young in acquiring a handsome education, so that in some future day, they might not only be candidates for office, but preside with ease and propriety. (I think if young ladies would improve their minds in knowledge, their spheres of usefulness would enlarge.) Would not such a scheme add influence and respect to religion, and inspire fathers with the thought, that their daughters should be educated as well as their sons? How the female character suffers through neglect! Can it

N

not, think you, Miss L--, be raised? Can not some one be a Mr. Spectator for us, and redress our wrongs?

Have I written chimerically altogether? If I have, do save me from ridicule and not expose this. Mr. B. is present, he desires to present you a compound of love and respect. He adds, plead this thing hard, that Christians should be finding school-masters, that will go into destitute places, and be a kind of missionary men. Is not your heart pained and agitated for our western wilderness? What can be done? Let us be limited in our expenses, liberal with our purses, fervent in our closets, ("the Christian's element,") and engaged every day in speaking a "word for Christ and the poor heathen."

By casting my eye over my letter I see plainly, that my fancied society is only the skeleton of an idea, but if it is this, and only this, who knows but in some future day it may be clothed with flesh, and dressed up, and travel over the United States.

I trust, my dear Miss L---, you are a member of Christ; if so, I conceive no impropriety in closing my epistle with this expressive address to you, "Whom having not seen I love."

ON THE

DUTY OF PRAYING IN SCHOOLS.

ADDRESSED TO SCHOLARS OF BOTH SEXES.

.......

"I will therefore that men pray every where."-St. Paul.

.......

THAT prayer is a duty, as well as an inesestimable privilege, no real Christian can doubt. And, indeed, few believers in revelation are disposed to object to it in its three forms or classes, denominated (according to the different circumstances of time and place) Public, Private, and Social.

But, notwithstanding the plain injunction given by the Apostle, in the words above, some doubts appear to exist in the minds of certain, as we hope, conscientious people, concerning one important branch of social prayer. I refer to that of praying in schools of small scholars, especially by females. It is, therefore, my present design to consider this practice; and to show,

I. That it is a reasonable service; and II. That it is also (not prohibited, but) implicitly enjoined in the Word of God.

I. I am to show, that the practice of praying in schools, and especially as adopted of

late by pious females, is a reasonable ser

vice.

Reason, unassisted by revelation, can indeed do but little towards bringing "life and immortality to light," or showing man the relation in which he stands to eternity. It is, however, sufficient to show the existence of a God, and a God of infinite perfections; for

"If a God there is, that God how great!"

It will show, that this God must be supreme, and act as a sovereign, in whatever way this Sovereignty be exercised; and that, on this great being all other beings, and among the rest man, must be absolutely dependent. Absolute dependence implies the greatest possible obligation. Man, then, is under the greatest possible obligation to conduct towards his Creator as his reason dictates that he is required by his Creator to conduct; and his reason tells him, that being wholly dependent, he is required to act as a dependent being, and to think and speak as a dependent being; or, in other words, that he ought in all his ways to acknowledge his dependence, otherwise, all his thoughts, words, and actions being founded on absolutely false principles, would not be those of a rational being. And this" acknowledging his dependence," contains in it, as I conceive, the essence of religion; and the acknowledging it in words, the essence of prayer.

So short is the chain of reasoning, which is sufficient to show that prayer, in the abstract, is a duty and a reasonable service for

man.

In this view of the subject, it is not at all strange, that the duty of prayer, or some kind of religious homage, paid to some superior being or beings, has been acknowledged by all ages and nations, as well Gentiles as Jews, Heathens as Christians. Hence, man was by Plato denominated a "a religious animal" -importing, that he rarely exists without some kind of religion.

Let it not be supposed that we are here placing all religions on a level; or at all sanctioning, as worthy of the name. those many absurd systems of mythology, senseless rites, and horrid practices, which have at different times and places obtained the epithet religious. These can only furnish so many fresh occasions for lamenting the sad effects of sin, in blinding the mind and hardening the heart of man; while we remember, "There is but one only, the living and true God," to whom all (religious) worship and adoration is due. They furnish, however, at the same time, a most unequivocal proof of what we intended to show by their induction, viz. That the duty of prayer is so exceedingly obvious, even to the most uncultivated reason, that even heathens were surprised to find a rational being