"Alas for missionary efforts, so long as the grasping avarice of
the countries, whence the missionaries go, sets at nought every
Christian obligation before the very eyes of the people whom it
is sought to convert! Most devoutly do we long for the
auspicious day, when the pure religion, that distilled from the
heart, and was embodied in the life of Jesus, shall shed its
sacred influence on every human being; but, in our inmost soul
we believe it will not come, till the principles of religion
shall take a firmer hold on the affections of those who profess
to receive it, and rear a righteous embankment around their
sordid and stormy passions. When the missionary shall find an
auxiliary in the stainless life of every compatriot who visits
the scene of his labors, for purposes of pleasure or of
gain,--when he can point not only to the pure maxims and sublime
doctrines proclaimed by the Founder of his faith, but to the
clustering graces that adorn its professors,--then indeed will
the day dawn, and the day star of the millennium arise upon the
world."


During my short stay in Philadelphia on this occasion, I visited several
of its prisons, philanthropic institutions, et cet. These are
pre-eminently the glory of this beautiful city; yet as they have been
often described, I shall pass them by in silence, with the exception of
two, the Refuge, and the Penitentiary; which I briefly notice because I
may offer a few general remarks in another place, on the important
subject of prison discipline. The Refuge is an asylum for juvenile
delinquents, founded on the just and benevolent principle that offences
against society, committed by very young persons, should be disciplined
by training and education, rather than by punishment. In this