Church of Scotland does not insist on actual membership as a requisite qualification on the part of a parent wishing baptism, and perhaps scenes, such as Dr Merle alludes to, may frequently occur. But they merit not his laudation, nor will any thinking person imitate him, and regard them as conclusive proofs of the order, purity, and discipline of the Established Church. Dr Merle is right for once when he says, "that the Scots recognise no godfather or godmother in dispensing baptism;" but he thinks that this is "going too far;" and his only argument for the Popish ceremony of god-parents is, that "it is natural that baptism should have witnesses." We thought the whole church were witnesses of the sacred rite; and in honesty we confess our ignorance, and declare that we do not know who was godfather to Lydia, or godmother to the jailer's household. The Ethiopian eunuch had no sponsors-nor can we divine where the three thousand, at Pentecost, could have found those anomalous and useless "witnesses," whose station and responses our author deems so "natural."

Indeed, the whole of what Dr Merle has written on Scotland is one-sided and defective. It is the crude and hasty effusion of a mind guided by impulse, and not by sober, cautious, and prolonged induction. The attempts at generalisation issue in the sophism of pronouncing judgment on a whole from a casual survey of an imperfect fraction. The same fallacy pervades the entire work; sweeping opinions are given without hesitation, but without evidence. There is no lack of boldness, of intrepid assertion, of magnified and hyperbolic statement. These things are more than the mere errors of a foreigner. They are the prejudiced decisions of one who professes to think calmly, and to judge impartially; and who, therefore, imposes upon them who resort to him for information.

The remarks upon Germany, in the volume before us, are good, so far as they go, -correct in statement, but not very comprehensive in range or grasp. The pages upon England betray several weaknesses, which we have not space to remark upon.

In conclusion, we may say, that Dr Merle is not the only traveller who has made such blunders. If we mistake not, the late Rowland Hill of Surrey Chapel once fell into the same error. During a journey in Scotland, he was betrayed into the hands of one religious party, whose views and opinions he adopted and published in an account of his tour. But his eyes were opened to the defects of his narrative, and the cause was pointed out. He promised to rectify his mistake on a second visit, and he fulfilled his pledge. The same

course is open to the historian of Luther. We should be grieved, indeed, if Dr Merle's other works were to be prejudiced by this unlucky publication, which may soon fall into oblivion, and never get beyond a first edition. Humanum est errare. And we hope that Dissenters who subscribe to the Continental Society, will think none the worse of it, though a prominent member of the Societé Evangelique of Geneva has, in his ardent haste to congratulate new friends of religious freedom, overlooked those who have "borne the heat and the burden of the day."

MEMOIR OF WILLIAM YATES, D.D., of Calcutta; with an Abridgment of his Life of W. H. Pearce. By JAMES HOBY, D.D. 8vo. Pp. 480.

London: Houlston & Stoneman

OUR Baptist brethren have reaped some of their highest honours from the spacious field of India. In their compassion for the teeming myriads of idolaters who people that extensive country, they were the first to rouse themselves from the apathy into which even the people of God, at the close of the last century, had fallen; and thus they may be said to have taken the lead in the missionary enterprise which, for the last fifty years, has distinguished and blessed the churches of Great Britain. It sometimes happens, in the warfare of this world, that the general who succeeds in gaining a victory is found incapable of following it up to any adequate result; that, intoxicated with the success of his first engagement, he and his troops become impatient of the tediousness and toil which are required to gather the fruits of the first decisive blow. This calamity has not overtaken the leaders of the Baptist Missionary Society. In the midst of much doubt and difficulty, they sent out their missionary Thomas, when they could scarcely hope that he would obtain so much as a landing-place on Indian soil. Notwithstanding the annoyances and troubles attending the earlier years of his labours, yet, encouraged by his partial success, the mission was soon reinforced by such men as Carey, Marshman, and Ward; and it has ever since continued to occupy a prominent place among the institutions which have been formed for the evangelization of the world.

The late Dr Yates, of the Baptist Calcutta Mission, was a worthy coadjutor of Carey, so well known, and so highly esteemed, as a translator of Scripture into various eastern languages; and the interests of the churches required, as his labours deserved, such a memorial as that which his friend, Dr Hoby, has here furnished. We know of no class of biography more truly

valuable than that to which the life of Yates belongs; relating, as it does, the progressive steps by which a young man, not of brilliant genius, not of extraordinary grasp of intelleet, but of sound common sense, earnest piety, resolute perseverance, and a superior natural capacity for acquiring languages, was enabled to raise himself from the position of a humble mechanic to a station, which, for the extent and permanence of its usefulness, is perhaps not surpassed by any other in the world.

William Yates was born at Loughborough, in Leicestershire, December 15, 1792, the year from which the Baptist Mission dates its rise. His earlier years, like those of many others who have risen to distinction by their acquisition of languages, were spent in circumstances by no means favourable for prosecuting such attainments. Like his senior associate already named, he stands out a contradiction to the old adage, ne sutor ultra crepidam,- -an adage worthy of the caste of India, where they both laboured, but which will not bear the light of a free country like our own. Certain it is, at least, that if literally applied, this ancient maxim would, in each of the two cases mentioned, have robbed the church of a most valuable missionary and Oriental linguist. Yates was bred a shoemaker; but, unlike Carey, and we suspect, unlike the majority of those who rise from handicraft labour to situations of literary distinction, he greatly excelled in his business. The fact is worthy of notice, for the correction of a mistake into which some young men of a reading turn of mind are prone to fall; he was not only a good, but a remarkable quick workman. "On one occasion he completed in one week as many pair of shoes as there are weeks in the years." Perhaps, however, his proficiency in the gentle craft is partly to be ascribed to the fact, that at this period his attention was not divided by any desire for erudition. His thirst for knowledge seems to have been excited by his piety. It was after his heart had been impressed by religion, and when he was endeavouring to make himself useful in addressing village meetings on religious subjects, he saw the importance of learning as a means of extending his usefulness, and with this view set himself diligently to its acquirement. Still working at his trade, as an apprentice to his father, he was permitted to spend four hours a-day at a classical school in his native town, where he made such progress that he was soon able to undertake the office of usher in another school. Thereafter, in 1812, at the age of twenty, he was admitted a student at the Baptist College, Bristol.

About this time the Baptist mission in India was creating a high degree of inte

rest among the churches of Britain. During the three years preceding 1812, the increase of churches consequent upon the labours of the missionaries, had been far greater than usual; and the work of Bible translation had begun to assume something like its proper character of importance. The fire which destroyed the mission premises at Serampore, March 1812, contributed still further to fix attention on the enterprise; and the expiry of the Company's charter in 1813, by giving a favourable opportunity for agitation in behalf of religious liberty in India, against "the ignominious tyranny of Leadenhall Street," extended and prolonged the excitement in behalf of the missionaries and their cause. The students at Bristol, as might be expected, participated largely in the healthful commotion raised by these events; and felt themselves moved toward the claims of foreign missions in a way they had never been before. Mr Yates offered himself for the work, and surveying the map of the world to determine what might be the most eligible field of labour, he inclined to Abyssinia as presenting the strongest claim-a preference, however, which he permitted to be overruled by the decision of the managers of the mission recommending Serampore.

In the course of his further preparation for the special field assigned him, Mr Yates was called to supply temporarily the place of Mr Sutcliff at Olney, both as pastor and as tutor of the Baptist academy there; and such was his acceptance with the congregation, that on the death of Mr Sutcliff, which occurred just before the young missionary arrived to occupy his room, many of the people were desirous that he should remain permanently as their pastor. Mr Yates, however, had steadfastly set his face toward the foreign field, and strongly discountenanced every attempt to detain him at home. A remonstrance from Robert Hall of Leicester, seeking to defer his departure for a year, that he might have time to look out for a partner for life, and that the directors might have an opportunity of finding a brother to be associated in his labours, proving equally ineffectual, he was designated to his work August 31, 1814, the ceremony taking place in Mr Hall's chapel. On the 14th October he set sail in the ship "Earl Moira," for his destination in India. We now quote from his biography :

"Voyages to all parts of the world-and, blessed be God! necessary voyages tooare now of such frequent occurrence, that it is a mere waste of time and space to give ordinary descriptions. So long has peace hushed into silence the turbulent nations of Europe, that solitary ships now stretch their canvass wings, and speed their lonely

flight along the pathless seas, at any hour, and in any direction, wind and weather permitting.' Nay, even in defiance of what is deemed unfavourable as to those uncontrollable elements, the days and the very hours of departure are determined long beforehand. It was not so in 1814; then the prowling privateer hovered around the ports of Britain, ready to pounce upon any solitary merchant ship that might dare to stray from its protecting convoy. Hence the period between the departure from Portsmouth and the arrival at Plymouth, October 26, was one of anxious suspense, whether the Duncan' had sailed with her fleet of cowering dependents; or if so, whether another man-of-man would receive an appointment and take merchant vessels under the protection of her guns; or whether, after all, the Moira,' with her crew of 300 Lascars, would be compelled to relinquish her voyage till the spring, were points of hourly discussion, whilst watching every fitful change of an adverse wind. At length it was determined to make a desperate attempt to gain the point in the wind's eye,' but it resulted only in encountering a night of storms, witnessing the utter unsuitableness of the Asiatic crew, one of whom was erushed to death by an accident, to the cold of a northern climate-the exhaustion of both captain and officers by being compelled to do the entire work of the ship themselves, and finally, being beaten back to within six miles of their former anchorage, there to repair extensive but not very important damages. It was a joyful night when at last they beheld the 'Duncan;' and, on the 28th, joined a fleet of fifty ships bound to the Brazils."

We recall these particulars of missionary voyaging thirty years ago, that due credit may be given to the excellent men who, in the face of such difficulties-now, happily, mitigated-went forward to the work of foreign missions. More than once, the crew and passengers of the Moira made a narrow escape from being captured by hostile privateers, but, at length, they reached in safety their destination at Calcutta.

The diligence with which Mr Yates followed his favourite pursuit-the study of languages-both during the outward voyage and after joining his brethren at Serampore, was most exemplary-unless, indeed, it be regarded as an undue stretch of human powers-unless his hardest labour had been his highest pleasure. It was not possible he could long keep up such a rate of progress as he describes in the following passage. If the quotation gives a fair specimen of missionary life at Serampore, we cannot wonder that such devotedness should have called down so eminent success :

"The way In a morning before breakfast I study Hebrew about an hour and a half. After worship I attend to Bengalee and Sanscrit. I have read about five volumes of Bengalee, and read all the Bengalee proofs with Dr Carey, having before compared them with the Greek. I have got through the Sanscrit roots once. I have not yet got through the grammar, but am reading the Ramayuna with my pundit. My afternoons are chiefly taken up with reading, or learning, Latin or Greek. I have read ten volumes of Greek since I left England, but not more than three of Latin. In the evening, after worship, I generally read English, or look over English proofs. I take my turn in all the services here, preach at Barrackpore, two miles over the river, once, and sometimes twice, a-week, to about twenty-five, a small but attentive congregation. We go to Calcutta in turn; it comes to me about once a-month. There are six services every Lord's day, so that it is necessary for some one to go from Serampore. I am now about to take my farewell of classieal reading as a study; after this month I shall not read classics any more, except for a little recreation after dinner. I must now devote myself to the Sanscrit. I have read almost through the Shaster, and must soon attack that frightful grammar in earnest."

I spend my time is this

On discovering his peculiar fitness for the study of languages, Dr Carey, Dr Marshman, and Mr Ward-the college of translators at Serampore-invited Mr Yates to become permanently their associate in that work. In this proposal, though it interfered with a plan he had formed of opening a separate station at some distance, he was induced to acquiese, partly, it would seem, as it favoured another project in which he now began to feel interested, in consequence of an attachment that had sprung up between him and a young lady, the daughter of a deceased missionary, and then resident in Dr Marshman's house. This lady became Mrs Yates in January 1816, and proved, so long as her life lasted, a suitable and most estimable helpmate to her husband.

Tribulations in which he needed such a companion were now at hand for Mr Yates. The death of Andrew Fuller, one of the founders of the Baptist Mission, and, till the last, the mainspring of its home operations, seems to have had the effect of throwing the machinery out of gearing. The three brethren at Serampore, not having the same deference for the English directorship, now that the gigantic mind of Fuller was taken from its head; or, perhaps, regarding that event as the removal of a chief obstacle to the accomplishment of a

previously cherished plan of independence, disowned the authority of the home committee, and seemed to set up as a separate institution under their own exclusive control. Though they had asked Mr Yates to associate with them in their labours, they were not long in intimating, that he was not to understand his position as equal with theirs; "howbeit he was not of the first three." He was told that he must look to the Society for support, while the elder brethren at Serampore "reserved to themselves the undisputed right of applying the products of the Mission establishment as they thought fit, in carrying out their missionary projects." When we consider that the mission premises were situated on Danish territory, and that the connexion with the home committee was established in brotherly confidence rather than on legal forms, it would have been hopeless, even had it been otherwise advisable, to oppose, except by friendly remonstrance, the purpose of the missionaries in this matter. The adjustment of the question occupied more than ten years, as it was only in March 1827 the formal separation took place between the Serampore Missionaries and the Baptist Missionary Society; when a deed was subscribed by the parties on both sides, constituting them two distinct and independent missionary bodies. The details of this afflicting business, which are compendized in the volume before us with satisfactory clearness, and in a fair and candid spirit, though with less fulness than we could have liked, form an interesting chapter in the history of Christian Missions. They will especially prove interesting and instructive to those who, as directors of such institutions, have occasionally to encounter troubles arising from the peculiar relation between the missionary agents operating thousands of miles away, and the churches which send them out.

Pending the controversy between the Serampore brethren and the committee, Mr Yates' situation was far from being happy. He was absent from the mission, supplying the place of Mr E. Carey, at Calcutta, when the brethren Carey, Marshman, and Ward, drew up and signed the declaration, afterwards transmitted to the committee, in effect declaring off from their control. On hearing of their resolution, he resolved not to return. But the small salary derived from home, though sufficient, under frugal management, for his support as a member of the mission family at Serampore, was wholly inadequate for his maintenance at Calcutta. In this difficulty he opened a boarding-school in the neighbourhood of the city; and three other Baptist brethren connected with missionary work having clubbed with him in the same family

establishment, he was enabled to get along for a time. The nature of the compact subsisting in this mission household will be seen from the following resolutions, mutually agreed upon by its four heads,--Mr Yates, Mr Penney, a missionary schoolmaster, Mr Carey, a preacher in Calcutta, and Mr Lawson, one of the younger members of the Serampore establishment, who had seen it his duty to follow Mr Yates in the separation :

"1st. That the exclusive object of the union is the propagation of the gospel among the brethren, and the promotion of each other's happiness in that work; and that families shall live together or not, as may be deemed most convenient. 2d. That we will act in unison with the society in England, and in conformity with the advices of the committee. 3d. That should funds so accumulate as to enable us to purchase premises, such premises shall be considered the society's; shall be bought on their behalf, vested in their names, with such trustees as they shall approve, and according to such formularies as they may direct, and such writings and deeds shall be placed under their own care. 4th. That we communicate to the committee at least twice in the year-four times, if materials should be supplied, a memorial coutaining a free unvarnished account of our engagements, our successes, and our prospects. 5. That in the disposition of our work, as missionaries, the talents and inclinations, and habits of each shall be particularly consulted, and the whole so arranged as shall be judged most eligible for the circumstances and conveniency of each individual. 6th. That we have a meeting once a-month, to consult about the best method to be adopted in pursuing missionary labours, and once a-month particularly to pray for a divine blessing on our undertaking. 7. That should any one of us be removed by death, those who are spared longest shall consider themselves bound to provide for the bereaved family to the utmost of their power, according to the directions of the society. 8th. That if through death, or a multiplicity of engagements, it should be thought necessary to have united with us another person, we will regard him as one of ourselves, and do all in our power to make him happy and efficient in his work."

This document, it will be seen, reflects the circumstances by which the subscribers were at the time surrounded. It is creditable to the meekness and gentleness of the parties concerned; and while its temperate tone gives evidence of the respect in which the triumvirate at Serampore were still held by the brethren who had left them, it seems also to bear witness to the stern rule

they had exercised over their younger associates. It has been said that there are king, lords, and commons, under all forms of governments. The split at Serampore would suggest the doubt that Presbytery or Prelacy, in what our Independent brethren reckon their most tyrannical aspect, may lurk under the cap of independency itself. At the same time it is simple justice to add, that throughout the controversy, as related by Dr Hoby, the spirit of christian zeal, and even of brotherly esteem and affection, was not forgotten; and the whole affair proves that when true christians fail to see eye to eye in matters in which their combined action is desirable, there is something in their common faith which can restrain and temper the animosity incident in such a case to fallen human nature. We confess, that in a review of the whole case, we are inclined to take the part of the younger brotherhood, and of the committee under whose sanction they acted; but in a question on which such authorities as Hall and Foster are divided, we will not pronounce a strong opinion.

It was in April 1818, the new fraternity at Calcutta sent home their first joint letter to the committee. Thereafter they were engaged laboriously among the 800,000 idolaters who form the pagan population of that great city, and erelong they extended their efforts to the surrounding country. With a view to relieve the pressure on the society's funds, the work of education for the benefit of the children of English residents and others, was combined with the more characteristic labours of a missionary establishment. The harmony and co-operation which prevailed in the household, thus unexpectedly brought together, make up considerably for the loss of their Serampore interest. Lawson writing tracts and preparing woodcuts for their illustration; Carey (the younger) preaching, and engaged in out-door discussion; Penney teaching the schools; Yates and Adam acquiring languages, and translating; Pearce superintending the printing press,-form, altogether, a delightful picture of the diversity of gifts which the one Spirit can engage and harmonize in the best of causes; while the success attending the labours of the brethren, attesting that the blessing of heaven was with them, afforded ample encouragement to perseverance.

It it seldom such a scene is permitted to continue long at once without encountering some of the evils which belong to this earthly state. One of the brethren (Dr Hoby, from what we think an excess of tenderness, does not tell us which) becomes entangled in the Arian heresy, through his intimacy with the famous Baboo Ranomohan Roy; and in consequence of the

Baboo having got the Baptist press to print some of his heretical tracts, Yates himself remained for a time under the suspicion of being tainted with the same views-a suspicion, however, which was soon satisfactorily removed. Death, also, soon began to make inroads into their little society, and removed Mr Lawson to his final rest, while Mr Carey had left them for another sphere of labour. On the party being reinforced by the arrival of other two missionaries from England, Mr Yates came to the resolution of taking a voyage to Europe for the purpose of recruiting his health, which, as might have been expected, had suffered much from his multiplied avocations. Some idea of his laborious life during this period may be formed from the statement, that within the ten years intervening between the establishment of the separate cause at Calcutta, and his embarking for home, besides regularly discharging the ordinary duties of a missionary in the way of preaching, he had prepared and published five different works in Sanscrit, three in Bengalee, one in Arabic, four in Hindostanee, and four in English.

We have occupied so much of our limited space with the notice of these earlier years of Mr Yates' missionary career, that we are forced to compress the remaining portion within a very summary statement. In his course homeward, having to take, in the first instance, a vessel for America, he landed at Boston, and had some delightful intercourse with brethren in New England, about the time (1827) when the work of revivals was proceeding so remarkably in that quarter. The result of this American visit was, the conferment, some years afterwards, first of the title of A.M., and afterwards of D.D., by the Brown University, in acknowledgment of his eminent attainments as an orientalist. Having reached England, and spent some time pleading the cause of the Mission, he returned to India, where he arrived February 4, 1829.

The controversy, which about this period arose between the brethren of the Baptist Mission in India and the Foreign and British Bible Society, is still fresh in the recollection of the churches in this country. In the several translations, no fewer than forty, which had been prepared by the Baptists, the word Bez had not, as in our English Bible, been simply transferred from the original, but had been translated so as to express the peculiar views of the Anti-Podobaptists in regard to the mode of baptism. Notwithstanding this departure from the common ground held by the friends of the Bible Society, such was the desire to have the word of God circulated in the vernacular idioms of the East, that the Directors of the Society, through their