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pious speech in reply, in the course of which he mentioned that the only three men who opposed it in the General Association were a Mr. Church, a Mr. Lord, and a Mr. Devotion. Dr. Smith was also opposed to it, and had caused it to be cast out in the Synod of New-York and New Jersey. But our Southern ministers, fresh from a great revival, were zealously in favour of it, as were the members from the west of Pennsylvania. So that the resolution was carried by a large majority.

"The only difficult and unpleasant cases, which came before the Assembly of 1791, were the following. A certain minister had been guilty of a great crime, which was not mentioned; after a season of the deepest sorrow and full confession and profession of repentance, he was restored by the Presbytery of Newcastle by which he had been deposed. He soon afterwards removed up the North River, carrying with him clear credentials. But after a while the report of the crime followed him; the Presbytery within whose bounds he now was found the charge to be true, and brought a complaint against the Presbytery of Newcastle, for dismissing the member as in good standing, who had been thus guilty. There was much warmth among some of the old men about this matter. Dr. Cooper was not, I think, a regular member of the Assembly, but spoke as a correspondent. A severer countenance I never looked upon, and in debate his words were sharp as a two-edged sword. He made a reply to a speech of Dr. Samuel S. Smith, which was very tart and cutting. The other case was a complaint of Newcastle Presbytery against that of Lewes, because the latter had

taken under their care and licensed a candidate while he was under censure of the former.

"Our ministers were warm from a great revival, and for a year or two had been engaged in organizing a plan for sending out missionaries. Indeed the Synod of Virginia had at this time four or five young men in the field. These were

Nash LeGrand, William Hill, Cary Allen, Robert Marshall, and John Lyle.

"While in Philadelphia I was frequently at the house of old Mrs. Hodge, the grandmother of Professor Hodge. Here John B. Smith and his family were entertained, and here I saw also the widow of President Finley of Princeton, who was at this time entirely blind. Dr. J. B. Smith remained in Philadelphia, as the Third Presbyterian Church (of which the writer was afterwards pastor) had given him a call, after the death of Dr. Duffield."

It was now the month of June, and as the weather was extremely hot and the roads were dusty, the little party determined to lie by during the day and travel by night. They crossed the Blue Ridge at Black's Gap, by the light of the moon, which was then near the full. But after midnight they began to feel sleepy, and having cleared the mountain sought for some lodging-place. Part of the company found a house on the right; Mr. Graham and his young companion went further, and turned into a farmclearing on the left. It was a log house, and the family were asleep in bed. But in conformity with the hospitable customs of the land, the mountaineer arose and admitted them, and took charge of their horses. The guests were

shown up stairs, or rather up a ladder, to a loft under the roof. Here they were made acquainted with the German fashion of sleeping under a bed, in lieu of other covering. The next day Dr. Hall proposed to introduce them to a case of somnambulism or irregular mental action, which carried some appearance of the supernatural. The person was a young woman of the neighbourhood, who every day at a certain hour seemed to fall into a trance, and uttered wonderful things.

"We pushed hard," says the narrative, "to get to the house by the hour of her paroxysm, which was one o'clock. Her name was Susannah Orendorf, and she was the daughter of a farmer near Sharpsburg. The young woman was reclining on a bed, very pale, and clad in white. She was attended by an elder sister, who with the parents agreed in asserting that she had eaten nothing for five or six months, and that the only thing which entered her lips was a sip of sweetened water, of which a tumbler stood near her on the table. This was considered miraculous by many, and the Methodists preached about Susannah, and related her sayings in their sermons. Multitudes came to see her; some above a hundred miles; so that there would sometimes be two hundred people there at one time. After coming out of one

those around her what

of her epileptic fits, she would tell she had seen in heaven; and so credulous were some that they came to ask whether she had seen certain friends of theirs who had lately died. On this point, however, she could give no satisfactory information. Some wished to know which religious denomination was most approved in heaven.

SLEEPING PREACHER.

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The girl answered more discreetly than could have been expected from her education-for she was very ignorant—saying, In the other world people are not judged of by their professions, but the sincerity of their hearts, and the goodness of their conduct.' Some very noisy persons came from Newtown to see her; and as a great company was collected they engaged in devotional exercises. One of their number, John Hill, a man of great muscular power and a stentorian voice, exerted himself to the utmost in prayer, keeping time with one of his feet and both his hands. When he was done, Susannah asked him, 'Why do you speak so loud? Do you think the Almighty is hard of hearing?'

"At nearly the same hour every day, after a little convulsive agitation she seemed to fall into a swoon, ceased to breathe, and lay calm and motionless as a corpse. As she recovered herself a sound was heard, as if issuing from her breast, and she commonly awoke singing. We asked her for some account of what she had seen in her last visit. Without hesitation she began a narrative of her journey to heaven, which greatly resembled some of Mohammed's descriptions. She went over a very high and beautiful bridge, which appeared to be made of ivory. She entered paradise, where she beheld the angels flying about in all directions, and heard companies of them singing. On her arrival she was presented with bread as white as snow and exceedingly delicious, which she ate every day, and by which she was nourished, so as to have no need nor appetite for earthly food. The most remarkable occurrence was that a beautiful and majestic person, whom she took to be our Saviour, came

to her, and gave her a white flower, which she took to be a token of his love. On being requested to sing one of the tunes which she had learnt in heaven, she complied without reluctance; uttering in a soft and somewhat melodious voice a strain, which however consisted of only a few notes continually repeated. Being then accustomed to learn tunes by ear, I caught up this strain, and could repeat it, but have long since forgotten it. This was no doubt a case of epilepsy, which continued more than a year, and then gradually left her; but she did not live long after her recovery."

In looking back on this visit to the great city of America, Mr. Alexander was accustomed to say, that he found less of that warm and impulsive religion which the revivals of Virginia had made dear to him, than he expected. But he often recurred with pleasure to the animated piety of Joseph Eastburn, and of Mrs. Hodge, a venerable Christian lady of Philadelphia.