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as on a base, seven other lesser towers are built in regular succession." We might give many other similar traces of the Sabbatical institution from this chapter, but we presume many of our readers would be disposed not to lay much stress on them.

In the seventh chapter, entitled, "Testimony of Secular Men to the Fitness and Blessedness of the Sabbath," we have some very valuable statements made, both by professional men and tradesmen, as to the utility and importance of the Sabbath, both in its temporal and spiritual point of view. This part of the volume we would earnestly commend to the serious attention of the readers of the work. The volume closes with some excellent practical remarks.

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London: Houlston & Stoneman, DR JABEZ BURNS excels most men of his day in preparing, with little trouble to himself, a popular and useful work. This has been attested by the liberal sale of the numerous works published under his name within the last few years, and it is corroborated by the "Notes" before us. With scissors and paste, a practised eye in selecting profitable or telling extracts, and a tolerably ready pen in stringing them together, he will make you a volume that shall probably be worth a publisher's looking after, in a tenth part of the time a genius would take to prepare a treatise for the trunk-maker.

The larger portion of his "Notes of a Tour" is taken from travellers' guides, steam-boat companions, reports of public institutions, and publications of a similar nature; but, under the author's plastic hand, these varied materials are formed into a shape that will serve as an acceptable memorial of his American tour.

From the nature of his tastes and pursuits, as well as from the occasion of his visit to America-being a deputy to the "Triennial Conference of the Free-will Baptists" there-Dr Burns takes note especially of matters pertaining to religious, educational, and benevolent movements. On the slavery question he has borne, it would seem, a bold and faithful testimony. His account of the Oberlin Institute is highly interesting, as are also several notices of the slave system and its horrors. The book contains some fresh information, which will well repay perusal..

THE AFFLICTED MAN'S COMPANION; or, a Directory for Families and Persons afflicted with Sickness or any other Distress. By the late Rev. JOHN WILLISON, Dundee. With a Biographical Sketch of the Author.

SKETCHES of the LIFE and LABOURS of the Rev. GEORGE WHITEFIELD; to which are added Two Discourses, preached in the year 1739.

London and Edinburgh: Johnstone. THESE Volumes belong to the cheap series, issued by the Committee of the Free Church, "for the publication of the works of Scottish reformers and divines." Than Willison's Directory, no uninspired book, perhaps, is more frequently to be met with in the sick-rooms of Scottish Christians; its clear arrangement, rich scripturality, and homely style, rendering it a favourite companion under every form of affliction. Even its diffusiveness, which might make it wearisome to the mind in strong and vigorous health, is grateful to the invalid, who, in many cases, is incapable of close mental effort. In a new edition, published under the sanction of a body whose origin dates from A. D. 1843, a few notes might profitably have been appended, letting in, upon some points in Willison's volume, a little of the additional light which Divine Providence has furnished concerning them during the last half century. Why, for example, should a Committee of the Free Church seem to countenancehis reprobation of a Toleration Act?(P. 28.) The biographical sketch notices Willison's connexion with the Erskines prior to the first secession; and makes the best case possible of his continuing in the Establishment, after he and a majority of

the Assembly had failed to obtain, on solicitation from government, a repeal of the Patronage Act, which he had joined the five brethren in condemning. In speaking of the first secession, the writer describes it as "that separation from the church which has ever since been lamented by the wise and the good of either party." Was ever twaddle more coolly penned? That separation the wise and the good of all parties have held to be an eminent blessing to Scotland and to the world, by filling the land with a race of sound and faithful

ministers; and an instrument of distinguished blessing to the Church Establishment itself,-acting as a check on its corruptions, and stimulating into action whatever of spiritual life remained within it.

The Sketch of Whitefield and his Labours, though not strictly coming under the description of "Works of Scottish Reformers and Divines," will be one of the most popular volumes in the series. It contains a capital digest of the leading passages in the life of the great orator, missionary, and philanthropist.

Religious Entelligence.—Foreign.

SIAM.

THE progress of Christian missions in this dark eastern country is, according to the latest intelligence which we have seen, not much more encouraging than it has been from the beginning. The people are not only debased in mind, by the deep and benighting superstitions of Budhism, which is the professed religion; but, in the general

prevalence of customs and habits the most ruinous to morals, they are rapidly approaching to a condition of corruption and wretchedness which they could not long survive. One would think that, unless they are saved by the healing influence of the Christian faith, they must soon become extinct through the poison of their own vices. Addictedness to narcotics and intoxicating drinks, gambling, theatrical amusements, and the abominations of their religious festivities, are their besetting sins. The station of all the missions is in the capital, Bankok; a city of 500,000 inhabitants, more than three-fourths of whom are Chinese. The missionaries have been permitted from the beginning to carry on their work with little interruption. There have been a few hopeful conversions during the past year, and there is some apparent progress toward religious toleration. "I never felt," says one of the missionaries, " SO much courage to labour for the Siamese as at the present moment. Every day's observation renders it more certain, that the truths of the gospel were the subject of much thought and inquiry among many who are accustomed to reflect upon what they read and hear." "The principal change observable," another missionary remarks, "is an apparent taking of sides in regard to the truth preached. The number who hear by way of complaisance is diminished; while the few give to it a somewhat anxious attention." The call for Christian tracts is increasing, and even the priests in general willingly receive and examine them; while

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a number of the very chief of these priests have repeatedly sent to the missionaries, requesting a complete set of all their publications, frequently specifying all the portions of the Bible. Some of them have, with apparent sincerity, expressed doubts respecting their own system. The translation of the Scriptures into the Siamese is steadily advancing. An almanack has been published by the missionaries, having appended to it a brief outline of astronomy in Siamese, which has led many to express doubts respecting their own system. attendance of Siamese pupils upon the schools of the missionaries has been very limited, in consequence of the numerous temples being all public schools, open to every one without charge. The converts hitherto have been chiefly Chinese; but there are among the Siamese also several individuals who are serious inquirers. And the brethren have as yet discovered no evidence that the Siamese law makes it a penal offence to forsake the religion of the country, and embrace another system of belief. The three societies who have missions at Bankok are all American.

SANDWICH ISLANDS.

THE latest intelligence from the American missionaries, in this most interesting group of the Pacific, continues to intimate the steadiness and progress of the work both of civilisation and Christianity in them, so far as they are occupied by the missionaries. Of the ten islands of the group, the five largest have flourishing christian congre gations, schools, and every other means of spiritual culture spread over them. There are now twenty-five churches, and the present number of church members is nearly 23,000; the number admitted during last year could not be computed at less than 800. And, in general, the religious character borne by the church members is such, as to show that the Lord has wrought a great and marvellous work among this

people. Daily evidence of this is presented, in the increasing light, the established principle, the orderly walk, the grounded faith, and the active benevolence, of many. The churches are becoming gradually consolidated. The good and the bad, the precious and the vile, are forming more distinct classes, and the line of demarcation is more and more discernible between them. There is ground of confidence that the gospel of Christ is established on so firm a basis, fixed in the understandings and the hearts of thousands, that the gates of hell shall never prevail against it. The churches have their trials. Many of the highest hopes and fondest expectations have been blasted; but the faithful administration of discipline has been carefully attended to, and made effectual by the Head of the church. At one principal station, several of the chiefs, after having been long under church censure, have given such evidence of a desire to walk with the people of God, as to be restored to christian fellowship. The common schools are now wholly supported by the natives, and also some of the mission boarding-schools, of which there are no fewer than 300 in all. The native churches are beginning to take upon themselves the entire support of the ordinances of religion enjoyed by them; so that the Mission Board at home will now be gradually relieved, and the Sandwich Islanders will assume the character of a christianized people.

LABRADOR.

FROM the last communications of the Moravian missionaries in this northern settlement, we now glean a few particulars, showing the present condition of their missions, and the principal occurrences during the twelve months prior to the last visit of the Harmony. From Hopedale, the southernmost station, they write, that among their Esquimaux flock, although they have not to record any remarkable awakenings or spiritual revivals, yet it has been evident to them, that their labour has not been in vain in the Lord. Fewer deviations from the right way had occurred than for many years past; and of those who, in the course of the previous year, forsook their fellow ship and left their neighbourhood, for the sake of gain, not a few had returned to them, bewailing their folly and sin. The examination of the schools, on the 24th March, afforded satisfactory evidence of the improvement made by the children; many of whom showed themselves well grounded in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, and also in scriptural knowledge At Nain, the next station to the north, the schools were diligently attended, during the winter, by about 100 children;

the majority of whom afforded pleasure to their teachers, by their attention and good behaviour. In the Esquimaux households, not only has the laudable practice of family worship been generally observed, with evident blessing; but many of their members have been in the habit of assembling during the past winter, of their own accord, for the purpose of spiritual intercourse and mutual exhortation, to live to Jesus, and to show love and confidence to their teachers. The revised manuscript of the prophetical books of the Old Testament, exclusive of Isaiah, was forwarded at this time to England, with the view of its being printed. Their communicants are 86; the entire number of souls under their care, 288. Okkak is the next station; where, as at all the other stations, they and their people had enjoyed an ample supply of provisions, their Esquimaux having been uncommonly successful in the chase, by both sea and land. The winter was severe, and the summer so hot as to produce a variety of disorders, which the missionaries improved for the benefit of their people. The children attending school numbered 130. Hebron is the station farthest north. In the course of the year there was observable, in the majority of the people, a greater relish for the word of God, an increased willingness to receive instruction and reproof, and a more earnest desire to walk according to the gospel. Not a few were added to the church, and no one was excluded from its privileges. The visits of their heathen neighbours were more frequent than usual during the past year, and one or two individuals took up their residence among them.

GREENLAND.

WE shall also give a few details from the latest reports of the different missionary stations here which have been published, showing the actual condition in which the missionaries find the work of God among their flocks. From New Herrnhut they write, that their feeble services are not without evidences of the divine blessing accompanying them. They have not so much reason to complain of the want of general intelligence among their people, nor of their imperfect knowledge of scripture, as of the want of earnestness in the search and desire after spiritual blessings, and of faithfulness in the application of the truths they have learned. Their native assistants afford them pleasure, and aid them materially. Three of them are distinguished for gifts and grace, and for their ability in testifying the love of Christ to their countrymen, from the experience of their own hearts. Among their female helpers they have also some valuable and

faithful souls. At Lichtenfels they complain of a want of really qualified native assistants; a defect which they mainly ascribe to the dispersion of their Greenland flock, and their absence from them during the greater part of the year. Owing to this, many of the children and young people remain without school instruction. Even at those outposts where there is stationed a native helper, capable of giving instruction, the attendance of the children at school is both scanty and irregular; parental discipline being at a very low ebb, and but little effort being made to compel the children to attend school. It is difficult to supply all the out-stations with native assistants for service, but they have made an arrangement to have at each outpost a native assistant and a schoolmaster stationed as soon as possible; and they have already made a good beginning of the new system. In regard to the distribution of the Scriptures, they have endeavoured that every family should be provided with a New Testament. The wandering life which their people lead in summer, impedes their advancement in useful knowledge, and their progress in the path of life. The spiritual course of their congregation during the past year was little disturbed from within or from without; it was, upon the whole, a period of both spiritual and temporal blessing. At Lichtenau the missionary had during the winter been much engaged, as in some former years, in the translation of religious tracts for the benefit of their Greenland youth; but he had not got the revised translation of the New Testament completely ready for the press. The dispersed members of the flock resided at no fewer than seventeen different places. At one of these out-stations, a very valuable native helper had been removed by death; a loss so distressing, that they found it difficult to cherish the proper spirit of resignation. He was every way qualified to be a leader among his countrymen : the order which he maintained, in conducting both their meetings and schools, was delightful; and the progress made by his pupils, especially in reading, was hardly inferior to that of their own scholars. The congregation consisted of 673 persons; of whom 265 were communicants, and 248 under twelve years of age. From Fredericksthal, the last station, they write, that the previous autumn five families from the heathen came to them, and remained with them, to their great joy. Their children attended the missionary's class, and were to him objects of great interest; nor did the labour bestowed upon them appear to be expended in vain. They would feel inexpressibly thankful, could they obtain a proper supply of really qualified native assistants to look after the scattered sheep, and

instruct their children; but, in help of this kind, they were still deficient. The thirteen heathen families, who had come to them the previous year, continued to reside with them, and the adult members had bccome candidates for baptism.

SWITZERLAND.

We have one or two additional facts, of very painful interest, to record, as to the progress of the cause of religious liberty in the Canton de Vaud. As it rested with the Grand Council, or Legislative Assembly of the Canton, to renew or not renew the powers with which they had last year armed the Executive, or Council of State, for sup pressing dissent, an intense anxiety was felt, and many prayers offered up, in Britain as well as there, in regard to the issue. In accordance with the usage which prevails in the Vaudois Legislature, the several documents on the subject of religious liberty had been referred to a committee, who were charged to report thereon to the Grand Council. The committee consisted of five members; and, of these, there was only one dissentient upon the report given in, which was to the effect, that the committee conclude,-" 1. That religious toleration should be granted; taking, at the same time, the most energetic measures against proselytism. 2. That the Council of State be invited to put its decree, of the 28th of March last, in harmony with the decree of the Grand Council, of January 22, 1848, touching the plenary powers relative to religious meetings, by expunging Article VII." On this report a debate took place in the Legislative Assembly, which lasted two days, and ended in the rejection of the report by a majority of eighty-two against forty. The effect of this decision is, that religious toleration, even with the hazardous qualification annexed to it in the report, is refused; and the Council of State are allowed to take their own course in their persecution of the demissionary pastors, and other dissenters. The committee considered that that Council had, in their Article VII., exceeded their powers. They justly contended, that it was for the judicial, and not the executive, authorities, to enforce penalties upon any individual, and especially without hearing. In the Grand Council, one speaker pointed out the clauses of the constitution to which the decree of the Council of State stands directly opposed; and other speakers advocated, on broad and general grounds, the principles of religious liberty. All was in vain, however; and but one third of the Council, and those not all the friends of religious liberty, were found to oppose the despotic proceedings of the Council of State. Op

pressive measures have already been taken against several ministers.

DEATH OF MISSIONARIES.

THE removal of several labourers from the missionary field, has been recently reported by different societies. Western Africa has had another early victim, in the Rev. Robert Lean, of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, who had just commenced his missionary career at Gambia, under circumstances of great promise. The same society reports the removal of the Rev. John M'Kenny, the zealous and efficient superintendent of their missions in Australia, who had previously laboured in South Africa

and Ceylon; and also of Mrs Cross, widow of the late Rev. William Cross of the Feejee Mission, who had resided latterly in Paramatta. The London Missionary Society has lost their excellent missionary, the Rev. John Rodgerson, Borabora, removed by scarlet feyer, after a short illness; also the Rev. John Locke of Graham's Town, South Africa; and Mrs Mead, who had laboured, with her esteemed husband, twenty-eight years in the Travancore Mission; and who, from her thorough knowledge of the Tamul language, was able to render the most valuable service among the native female population of that district of India. May the Lord of the harvest send forth other labourers into his harvest!

Entelligence.-United Presbyterian Church.

MEMORIAL TO GOVERNMENT ON THE EN-
DOWMENT OF THE IRISH ROMAN CATHO-

LIC CHURCH.

To the Right Honourable Lord John Russell, and other Members of her Majesty's Government, the Memorial of the Committee on Public Questions appointed by the United Presbyterian Synod, Sheweth;

THAT your Memorialists represent an ecclesiastical body, comprising 500 congregations and a population of about 400,000 souls-holding the doctrines of the Westminster Confession-Presbyterian in their form of government-and self-supporting in their mode of maintaining the ordinances of religion, believing that the church of Christ should be equally independent of state endowment and control.

In the view of your Memorialists, the present condition of affairs in Ireland imparts new and peculiar importance to certain ecclesiastical questions affecting the interests not of Ireland only, but of the empire at large.

One of these questions concerns the propriety and practicability of endowing the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church.

In a late speech from his place in Parliament, by the head of her Majesty's Government, this question was adverted to in terms which evince to your Memorialists an intention to introduce a measure of endowment, when circumstances shall be found to favour it; and which further show that circumstances will be considered as favouring such a measure, as soon as the Roman Catholic priesthood shall signify their consent.

In the opinion of your Memorialists, the requisite condition may be anticipated at

no distant period. As the rejection of state aid is no principle of the Roman Catholic Church; and as the acceptance of such aid is the practice of that church wherever such aid has been granted, the question with the Irish priesthood of acceptance or non-acceptance becomes one merely of expediency. In this case it does not seem uncharitable to assume that their scruples would not be hard to overcome, were the lure of state endowment in good earnest presented to them.

While cherishing the kindliest feelings towards our Roman Catholic fellow subjects, and rejoicing in their perfect equality of civil privilege with their Protestant countrymen, your Memorialists, nevertheless, entertain the opinion that the proposed measure is liable to the gravest objections.

To all such endowments your Memorialists are decidedly opposed, from the views which they conscientiously hold, and which their practice exemplifies, regarding the proper relations of the church and the state. It is the opinion of your Memorialists, that the duty of the state does not extend to the maintenance of the ordinances of religion, or to the salarying of its ministers, of whatever creed or profession; that the grant and acceptance of such aid is a violation of the law of Christ, and operates injuriously towards all parties concerned-as it secularizes things spiritual, creates distinctions between man and man inconsistent with even-. handed justice, and engenders jealousies and many complicated questions, embarrassing to civil government, and at variance with the peace of society.

While your Memorialists deem it a false. principle to exact from any man the means of supporting a religion which he does not profess, they consider the wrong as perpetrated in an aggravated form, when such

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