1 which you approve, and contain sentiments congenial with your own. It is the knowledge of this that makes the Magazine so hateful in the estimation of some around you, and brings reproach on you for reading and admiring it. If I service. Your situation, however, is without doubt a dangerous one; and my most earnest advice to you is, "Stand fast." You must not yield one point; for, if once a breach is made, you will find the enemy much more irresistible; his assaults will be perpetual; and, having gain-may so express myself, this little ed some advantage, he will be encouraged to increase his plots for your harm, until he is crowned with farther success. Again I say, "Stand fast;" you have no cause to fear the issue; for, however weak and insufficient of yourself for the conflict, remember the Lord is on your side; and, trusting on him, in due time you will be made more than conqueror. But I feel much for you, my dear friend: your God is trying the strength and sin cerity of your faith; and I would wish you to rest assured, that, al though you experience such mental pain and uneasiness on account of Mr.--'s presence in the fa, mily, perhaps you may some day have to bless the Lord for allowing all his taunts and jeering, feeling that by means of them your faith has been stablished, your watchfulness and circumspection kept alive, and a spirit of prayer promoted, which is the source of every other blessing. If you outlive the storm, which I trust you will be -enabled to do, I am fully persuaded that the plant of divine grace will strike its roots deeper in your heart, and bring forth more abundant fruits to the praise, and honour, and glory of your blessed Redeemer. In another part of your letter you express yourself as if you apprehended the necessity of ceasing to take in the Christian Guardian. I sincerely hope you will give up all idea of such a measure. That publication is a decidedly pious one, and from its perusal I doubt not you have received both profit and pleasure. You read it because its pages are stored with truths of book is one of the staffs with which you are travelling on your pilgrimage heavenward. Are you not sensible, that, in suffering yourself to be disarmed of this, you sustain a loss? It is not only a loss to you, but it is a gain, a great gain, to your opponents. It will afford them opportunity of boasting over your defeat, and of glorying in their own victory. Their rejoicing will be the greater, because, although they may often entreat you to alter your opinions, and change your books, &c. depend upon it they never expect you are to do so. From experience I can affirm, that this is actually the case, and the knowledge of it gives me great encouragement to walk in the ways of the Lord with firmness and decision. The reason which your friends adduce for your discontinuing the Guardian, is entirely fallacious: and I think a very little consideration will convince you, that if you yield in one point, instead of gaining another on that account, you will only be the more likely to lose both. I rejoice to learn that you have some intentions of taking the sa crament of the Lord's Supper, This is a most solemn ordinance, and I trust the nature and object of it have engaged your most serious reflection. By openly partaking of the appointed symbols of the broken body and shed blood of your once crucified but now exalted Saviour, you make a public profession of your allegiance to him as your divine Master, and of your faith in the efficacy of his atonement. You renounce every self-righteous plea, as at the foot of the cross, and dedicate yourself, soul and body, to the service of Him who hath redeemed you by his blood. If you have heretofore formed resolutions of obedience to the divine commands, it becomes you sincerely to renew these in a firm dependence on Almighty strength, and to determine henceforward to be more crucified to the world and all its alluring pleasures; to be more in earnest about the salvation of your immortal soul; to be more zealously desirous of following after that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord; and, in short, to be more dead to sin, and more alive to righteousness, through Jesus Christ. You must not be ashamed to own him as your Lord before men, nor dread the reproach which may be cast upon you for his name's sake. Take encouragement from the words of our Saviour himself: "Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil falsely against you for my sake; rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you." (Matt. v. 10, 11, 12.) You have made choice of whom you are to serve: let nothing shake your determination, but persevere with firmness; and the more conscious you feel of your weakness and inability to walk in the paths of righteousness, you will experience the greater comforts in laying hold of that precious promise, "My strength is made perfect in weakness;" ;" "My grace is sufficient for thee." I rejoice, indeed, that the Lord hath upheld you hitherto; rest assured, he still continues a refuge for all who trust in him: his eyes are ever on the righteous, and his ear is at all times open to their cry. Lay all your wants at his footstool-implore his assistance-and in due time you will receive all the support of which you stand in need. In regard to your partaking of the sacrament of the Supper, I would only add one advice if you are convinced that it is your duty to devote yourself to the Lord in this way, let nothing deter you from doing it." The fear of man bringeth a snare." Our duty to God is much more imperious than our duty to men; and the interests of the never-dying soul must not be sacrificed at a human shrine. Considering the quarter from which you have met with opposition, perhaps this may appear a harsh assertion; but weigh the matter well in your own mind, study carefully what the Scriptures say, and then I am sure you will be convinced that I am right. Interested as I am in your welfare, and especially in the welfare of your soul, I have ventured to express myself thus plainly; and commending you to the Lord, and to the word of his grace, which alone can preserve you from the dangers with which you are encompassed, I shall conclude by addressing you in the words of the Apostle to the Ephesians: "Finally," my dear friend, " be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." (Eph. vi. 10, 11.) Write me your sentiments with freedom, and ever believe me, &c. 1 SHORT CHARACTER OF BOOKS. Plain Discourses delivered to a Country Congregation. By the Rev. William Butcher, M. A. Rector of Ropsley, Lincolnshire. Two Vols. Hatchard, London. Price 10s. WHILE volumes of sermons have been continually published, yet few, if any, seemed adapted to plain people; and for some years the Village Sermons of Mr. Burder, a pious and respectable Dissenter, have been the only ones that well-disposed persons could read to their children and servants. The compositions of many able and excellent men are above the capacity of the illiterate. Mr. Butcher has supplied this deficiency by his Plain Discourses. His mode of treating his subjects is simple and scriptural; his views of doctrine are strictly in unison with those of our Reformers: on original sin, justification by faith, sanctification, and final perseverance, he speaks the sentiments of our Articles, literally and grammatically understood. Those of our friends who are in the habit of reading to their poor neighbours, will find these Discourses well adapted for that purpose; and we trust the pious author will receive sufficient encouragement to induce him to publish more of the same kind. Though we should be sorry that our younger brethren should preach these sermons instead of their own compositions, yet we would recommend them as the best model we know for the use of country congregations. The author has spoken his sentiments with a manliness that does him credit. We were particularly pleased with his sermon on St. John, x. 27-29; from which dis course, as well as many others, we should have been happy to have quoted, were it consistent with our plan. We were pleased to find that these volumes are well printed, and sold at a moderate price. The Velvet Cushion. Cadell and W. Davies, London. Second Edition. pp. 186. THIS popular volume had come to a second edition before a copy was received by us, otherwise we should not have been deficient in our attentions to our old friend the Velvet Cushion. As Churchmen we have been so long in the habit of using our own, which is now grown old, that we felt pleased at reading a history which, in many of its leading features, may be supposed the account which would be given by most velvet cushions that have escaped the ravages of time. Regarding this as an interesting publication which well deserves to survive as long as a love to the Establislıment remains, we would point out to the author the distorted picture which he has given of a Calvinist, under the character of Munster, all whose eccentricities he himself accounts for by acknowledging, that there was " insanity in his family." Now, this would sufficiently explain all that he describes, without attributing it to his religion. We no more approve than the author unguarded statements of doctrine, without showing their practical tendency; but we strongly object against drawing such a picture as will be applied to numbers, when perhaps in the whole kingdom there would not be found one who might be singled out as the original. That the Velvet Cushion speaks respectfully of what is called Calvinistic statements, we rea dily admit; and it must indeed have strangely forgotten its earliest and best possessors, had it spoken otherwise, We likewise think that the account of Munster's daughter partakes too much of the nature of romance to suit the dignity of the subject, and has no necessary connexion with the general tendency of the work. If the author, at the suggestion of the Eclectic Review, has left out the passage at page 17, respecting "churches, houses, and barns," which has given offence to his dissenting readers, we hope that, in a third edition, he will pay some attention to the feelings of a large body of his brethren in the Church, who are as conscientious in the discharge of all the relative duties as the old Westmoreland Vicar, although they hold that a man is justified by faith only, and that good works "do spring out necessarily of a true and lively faith," A Sermon preached 'at the Parish Church of St. Bride, Fleet Street, on Thursday, Nov. 10, 1814, before the Church Missionary Society for Africa and the East, on Occasion of the Departure of the Rev. John Christopher Sperrhacken, and the Rev. John Henry Schulze, as Missionaries to the Western Coast of Africa, together with several other Persons attached to the same Mission. By Daniel Wilson, M. A. Minister of St. John's Chapel, Bedford Row, and Chaplain to the Right Hon. Lord Viscount Gala way. pp. 50, Price 1s. 6d. Seeley and Hatchard, London; Keene, Parry, and Johnsør, Dublin. SOME subjects are of suçlí a na ture that they require all the powers of an author to give them in terest; others are in themselves so interesting, and have so often been handled by able and judicious writers, that it requires no com mon ability to elicit matter sufficiently new to give the stamp of perpetuity to that which owes its principal value to the occasion, The subject of missions is of this description; it has been so fre, quently dwelt upon by divines, both in and out of the Establish ment, that, but for its own nature, it would appear to be exhausted. Mr. Wilson has met the subject as a man whose mind has fully entered into it, He seems possessed of a missionary spirit; and while his heart glows with the prospects of the missionary's eventual suc cess, he enters feelingly into his difficulties. If a thorough knowledge of the cause which the preacher stands forth to advocate; if a scriptural statement of truth, and accuracy of reasoning combined with brillian cy of imagination, must command attention, then will this discourse, which unites these qualities in a high degree, be read with general interest by the religious pub.. lic; and we shall have a very low opinion both of the head and heart of the man who, after perusing it, could be indifferent to the cause of missions, MISSIONARY DEPARTMENT, AND RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. EXTRACTS FROM NO. XXVI. OF PERIODICAL ACCOUNTS RELATIVE TO THE BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, JANUARY-JULY 1813. State of the Translations by the Baptist Missionaries. In giving a sketch this year of the state of the translations, it may not be improper to follow some kind of geographical order, and to mention first those which are spoken in the middle part of India; and then advert to those spoken in the south, in the west, in the north, and to the east of Inlia. We begin with those spoken in the middle part of India, under which description may be included six; the Sungskrit, the Hindee, the Brij-bhassa, the Mahfatta, the Bengaled, and the Orissa laigüages. 1. The Sungskrit. This language claims the first place, both from its being the parent of most of the other dialects, and because it is understood throughout the whole of India, although at present the colloquial medium of no particular part. In this language the New Testament has been in čirculation nearly three years; and the accounts we have received furnish instances of its meeting with a cordial reception froth Brahmins, whose pride would scarcely have suffered them to receive it in a vulgar dialect. The Pentateuch was published about two years ago, and the Historical Books were in the press sõhie time before the late fire: they are now nearly completed. 2. Hindee. In this language we mentioned, in our Memoir of the last year, that we had put to press a second edition of the New Testament: this edition consists of 4000 copies. The earnestness with which the first edition was sought, seemed to render so large a number necessary, which we have still reason to believe will scarcely suffice till a third and improved edition can be prepared for the press. The fact is, indeed, that we have been obliged to give St. Matthew's Gospel of this new edition away separately, to satisfy the wishes of the people while printing the rest of the New Testament. With the Scriptures of the Old Testament we have also been en abled to go forward in this language: the Pentateuch is now printed off, and the Historical Books put to press. 3. The Brij-bhassa is spoken in the upperprovinces of Hindoost'han, and contains, perhaps, a greater mixture of Sungskrit Words than most of the other dialects of the Hindee it claims the Deva-nagured as its own proper character. In this dia lect brother Chamberlain began a version of the Scriptures above two years ago, in which he had last year finished the Gospels. Since his removal to Sirdhana, he has revised them, and we are about to put St. Matthew's Gospel to press. This version is likely to be more acceptable to the people of the Dooab, than either the Hindee or the Hindoost'hanee versions: 4. The Mahfatta. In this language the whole of the Scriptures are translated; and this year we have been enabled to bring the Pentateuch through the press: The Historical Books are also now in the press, and in considerable forwardness. Of the utility of this version we have increasing testimony; among which, a fact lately come to our knowledge, furnishes a reniarkable instance. At Nagpoora, the capital of the Berar Mahratta dominions, a gentleman, friendly to the Scriptures, gave a copy of the New Testament to a brah min, a man of high estimation. He received and read it; but discovered no peculiar regard to the Gospel, till about a fortnight before his death, when he openly declared that he gave up all hope in his own religion, and trusted only in the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his life a ransom for sin= ners. His astonished family expostulated with him, and even manifested resentment, but all in vain; the dying man had obtained a view of the Friend of Sinners, and he appeared to cleave to him to his last mo ments. This effect was produced entirely, by the divine blessing, on his perusing the Scriptures. It does not appear that any one ever conversed with him on the subject of Christianity. How wonderful are the ways of God! How does he delight in magnifying his holy word! 5. The Bengalee. In this language the New Testament has gone through three editions. These being quite exhausted, and the desire for the Divine Word in Bengal exceedingly increased, we determined to put to press a fourth edition, to consist of five thousand, the largest number we have ever yet printed. The printing of this edition is in great forwardness; and we hope a few months will give it to the desires of the people, whom we have now often the pain of sending away without a book when they come seeking one, as we have scarcely a single copy of the former editions left. Even this edition will receive many emen |