were centuries ago, regarding the ministry, the sacraments, and consequently the government of the church. Where all this disagreement shall end is concealed from us. It is not for us to know the times and the seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power.' What we have to do is so much the less a secret, that it is clearly and powerfully revealed to us in the word of God:For the Son of Man is come to save that which was lost. How think ye? If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety-and-nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?' Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.' 'Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.' 'Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.'

"We have to make a difference between those who wish to hold fast by our confession of faith, and those who wilfully abandon it. If anyone agrees with us in all the principal points of faith, but holds, in other respects, opinions in which we for conscience' sake cannot join him, we know that we may not on that account reject him or shove him away from us. How many are thus going astray at this time! It is no excellence that men are headstrong in little things: such an obstinacy, wherever it exists, is weakness, and not strength. If there were strength in the heart, it would not feel such anxiety about these little things; and if there were strength in the understanding, it would not hold forth, as of primary importance, what perhaps ought to lie far away among secondary matters.

As far as Peter and Paul separated from each other, so far disciples can separate, even in this day, and yet be allowed to be disciples. So differently as Paul and James expressed themselves, so much can disciples also in this day vary from each other in expression and the way of expressing themselves, without any of then thereby ceasing to be true and living members of the church. Of the word of God we will not yield one jot ; for what is not ours we cannot give away. If anyone require us to treat the word of God so daintily that we preach some of it, and suppress other parts, such counsel we do not follow; for the Lord has not charged or permitted us to

take away, or to add anything thereunto. We cannot even esteem all forms of doctrine alike, that are built on the same foundation; because, on the same foundation can be built not only gold, silver, and precious stones, but also wood, hay, and stubble. A form of doctrine may be built of the most inflammable materials, and will then be burnt in the end.

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"At the side of those who love our confession of faith, often perhaps with more ardent love than many of us, there are others gone out from us, who reject both us and our form of doctrine, and do not hesitate, in so doing, to use the severest and most insulting words. regards ourselves, nothing happens to us but what is good and right, if accounted worthy to be reproached for the name of Christ; but it may well cause uneasiness, if the words of Christ are reviled; especially, if it should happen in consequence of our own carelessness, neglect, or indolence in instruction and exhortation. It is of special importance that we try to acquire such a stock of knowledge as is wanted, that we may not be altogether inferior to our opponents in this field, who are rich in words. It is important that the Minister 'hold fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers.' In everything else we are taught, both by the word of God and the rules of our own Church, less to seek than to flee those who will not be corrected; less to raise than to avoid foolish questions and genealogies, and contentions and strivings about the law, for they are unprofitable and vain;' less to strive than to shun intimacy with those who have not the doctrine of Christ, lest we be 'partakers in their evil deeds.' With him who disturbs the peace of the community, or occasions public vexation, those have to do to whom God has given the sword in hand; but our weapons are not carnalthey are spiritual. The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.' We must, however, see that we be not ourselves the cause of men's ignorance, and thereby leave them a prey to the first coming adventurer who will exercise his ingenuity or his ability on their minds. Has it not occurred, even within our own circle, that doctrines have been promulgated with an appearance of success which Heathenism itself had outgrown? And does not this show

great deficiency either in our efforts or in our progress in spreading Christian enlightenment?"

[The Bishop then proceeds to touch on various subjects of a more special and local interest, such as the state of educa tion in the diocese, the care of the poor, various duties belonging to the Clergy, both as regards the bodily and spiritual wants of the community, meetings of the Clergy, &c., &c.; and closes thus:] "Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which He hath purchased with His own blood.' And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified.'

"JOHN HENRY THOMANDER. "Lund, July 17th, 1856."

EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH OF THE KING OF SWEDEN, AT THE OPENING OF PARLIAMENT, OCTOBER 23D.-A toleration grounded on their own unaltérable conviction, and their respect for the spiritual belief of others,characterizes the Protestant church; and, in particular, becomes that people whose hero-King, the great Gustavus Adolphus, with illustrious victories, and at the sacrifice of his own blood, laid the foundation of freedom of thought in central Europe. The statutes which restrict religious liberty, and the free exercise of religious worship, ought, therefore, to disappear, and the common law thus to be brought more into harmony with the aim of the constitutional law. (Sect. 16.) A proposal for this, also for the doing away with the inflic tion of expatriation, and for the improving of the criminal law in other portions of it, will be laid before you.

As a suitable acknowledgment of the rights of woman is a new security for her fulfilling her mission in society, I intend to propose that, in accordance with the law of other countries, unmarried women of twenty-five years of age shall be counted entitled to act in their own right......

The regulations adopted by last Parliament regarding the manufacture and sale of ardent spirits [i. e., the increase of the duty two-and-thirty fold] have been attended with the happiest consequences, both in economical and moral

respects. I have been rejoiced to find that the general opinion has powerfully sustained the serious step which was taken for putting a check on a deepseated abuse.

A SPANISH EXILE.-After nine months' imprisonment, (says the Buona' Novella,) Signor Ruet has been condemned by the tribunal of Barcelona to perpetual banishment from his country, for the grave offence of having believed in the Gospel, and of having spoken and acted according to his belief.

The effect upon the mind of the sufferer of this unjust sentence may be seen from some lines at the beginning of a letter:-"God be thanked that He has counted me worthy to be raised to the rank of a witness for Christ Jesus, and, after nine months' imprisonment, to be condemned to banishment from this dear land which gave me birth. Mention this to my brethren at Turin, telling them to rejoice, and to pray for me that the Lord may deign to give me faith, strength, and constancy, to go on with the work which has been begun in Spain. For I do not give myself up as vanquished: to-day the tribunal sets me free, to-morrow I shall return to the good work. Afterwards they may come to seize me again; but, as soon as again released, I shall return to my labour, until the Lord count me worthy to obtain rest from persecution."

TURKEY, AS IT WAS, AND AS IT 18.-The Rev. Dr. Hamlin lately stated, at a public meeting: The great war, recently terminated, has accomplished one object, which was very little in the design of politicians,-it has protected our Mission. Unquestionably it was one of the designs of the Czar to annihilate Protestant Missions; and the fact that Protestant Missions were nowhere better understood than at St. Petersburg, is a fact of much significance. England has exerted a great influence on this Mission. Such books as Baxter's "Saints' Rest," Doddridge's "Rise and Progress," Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress," and others by English writers, have been translated and greatly blessed. That wonderful tract, "The Dairyman's Daughter," was blessed to the conversion of two Armenian Priests, and they originated the Protestant church in Nicomedia, which has since given birth

to another, and is extending its branches far and wide. It is impossible to say how far the influence of that little tract may thus be extended throughout the whole Turkish empire. The object of the Mission, at the outset, was to bring over the Armenian Clergy to evangelical views, and matters seemed for some time to advance prosperously in that direction. But, as soon as they observed that the effect of evangelical Christianity would be to take the people from under their power, their friendship was changed into enmity, and persecution arose first in 1837, and afterwards and more fiercely in 1838. At that time, the Missionary work seemed to be at an end. Immense political influence was brought to bear upon the Sultan Mahmoud, who ordered the American Missionaries to leave the country. They refused, however, taking their stand upon a law of the empire, which even the Sultan could not, of his own power, revoke. The American Government gave its protection to the Missionaries as citizens, and ultimately, they gained their point. From that time' the great question of religious liberty in Turkey had occupied the Sultan to the present day, and on the final solution of that question depended the fate of the Turkish empire. Since 1838, there had been immense changes in Turkey, especially in regard to the freedom of the press. Then, the press was bound by the power of edicts and anathemas, though even then books and tracts were sent from Constantinople to all parts of Turkey. But now the power of anathemas had ceased, and the religious press was as free in Turkey as in England or America. The Scriptures, and books and tracts of every kind, could be sent into every city and village of the empire; and already the distribution had been so extensive, and so much blessed of God, that no one had been able to find a city or village in Turkey where there are not some rays of Divine truth. The demand for the issues of our press is now so great that we cannot meet it, and many of the publications are now entirely out of print. This instrumentality is of immense service in the present position of Turkey, from the quiet, unobtrusive, and yet effectual, way in which it works upon the minds of the people. In 1838 there was no Missionary school in existence in Turkey; now, there are at least seventeen in the capital alone, taught by pious Teachers. They do not all belong to the American Mission: there are schools supported by the people of Scotland, which are doing a great work

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among the Jews; and in these schools Christianity is faithfully taught. There must now be more than one hundred Missionary schools in the Turkish empire. The Armenians have six or seven weekly newspapers, and three monthlies of their own; and education and intellectual life are making progress among them. With a free press, what may we not do among that interesting people, dispersed as they are among the whole population of the Turkish empire? But the great work accomplished by the Missionary labours there is best seen by the thirty-one Protestant churches formed and spread through all parts of the Turkish empire, at a distance from each other, but admirably situated to be centres of light to the surrounding darkThese churches are truly Missionary churches, as having the Missionary spirit in themselves.-Dr. Hamlin gave several interesting illustrations of the untiring zeal of the members of these churches, referring particularly to the case of a village, the inhabitants of which were noted for their savage manners, but among whom a devoted band of these Protestant Armenian Christians managed to obtain a footing, after they had been eight times repulsed and driven from the village with violence. The church in that same village had so prospered that the place of meeting was now quite inadequate to accommodate the crowds who gathered to hear the Gospel, and many perched themselves upon neighbouring houses outside to catch the words of the Preacher. These Missions among the Armenians have exerted great influence upon the minds of the Mohammedan population.—When I commenced my work in Turkey none of us could get a Mohammedan to listen while we talked of Christianity; for he looked upon it as synonymous with idolatry and immorality of every kind. The Mohammedans saw the Greeks and Armenians worshipping pictures of the Virgin Mary in their churches, and confessing to their Priests, and receiving absolution. "These people," said they, are polytheists: they worship images, they worship their Priests, they worship bread in their mass." Nothing can give an adequate impression of the scorn, hatred, and utter abhorrence with which every Mohammedan views these idolaters. And again, unhappily, the tyranny of the Mohammedans over the Greeks had made that nation resolute to cheat and defraud those whom they could not successfully oppose; and thus the Mohammedans had come to look upon Christians as

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were the writings of Old-Testament Prophets, whom the Mohammedans themselves acknowledge as Prophets, he desired him to read about Moses, Abraham, and Solomon. He did so, and still the Governor told him to read on. asked him then to read some of the songs; and, the Colporteur having read many of the Psalms, the Governor always expressing his delight, and telling him to read on, he was next desired to read about the Messiah, and as he proceeded to read in the New Testament, was still desired to read on till he at last stopped, saying that his mouth was so dry, he could read no longer! The Governor had kept him reading for eight hours, and every feeling of enmity against the Colporteurs had disappeared by the end of the interview. Any Colporteurs who now came to that village made a point of calling on the Governor, with whom they read and prayed; and it was hoped that salvation had come to that palace. The importance of the Armenian Mission would be seen when it was remembered that they came into constant intercourse with the Turks every day, and several times a day, in their own houses, and had thus opportunities of acquainting them with the truths of the Gospel without hindrance. So friendly are the Mussulman population to the Protestant Armenians, that, when they were expelled from the so-called Christian quarter of a city by their own nation, they were taken under the protection of the Mussulmans, who lodged them in their own houses, saying that they would protect them so long as they were persecuted for refusing to become idolaters. I myself had a volunteer guard of heavilyarmed Mussulmans to protect me against a threatened attack of Armenians. Not an Armenian dared to insult me; and, when I took my departure from the city, the Mussulmans commended me to the protection of Allah. In another place the Armenians commenced to destroy the houses of their Protestant fellowcountrymen, and, after they had completely destroyed two houses, they came to one which bordered on the Mussulman quarter. The Mussulman women rushed to the rescue, saying, "These idolatrous Giaours are taking down the houses of the Christians who will not worship idols;" and, driving back the mob with stones, they finally dispersed them, and delivered the Armenian breth ren. With regard to the present position of our Missionary work, with a free press, free schools, and free churches, we have every encouragement hopefully

dishonest, and addicted to immorality of every kind. The Missionaries saw, therefore, that the only way to reach the Turkish mind was by giving them the example of a regenerated Christianity on their own soil. The Armenian Mission had effected this; and the result might be seen in the fact that now about a hundred Bibles were sold every month in Constantinople alone; and that in Syria, and wherever a Protestant church was established, the sale of the Scriptures was going on extensively. The Mohammedans say to the Armenian Protestant Christians, "You do not worship images; you do not lie, or steal, or get drunk; and surely, then, you are not Christians," showing what their conception of Christianity hitherto had been. Now, the Mohammedans saw that there was a pure Christianity. As an illustration, I may mention that one of our Armenian converts was offered half of his bill, when he presented an account to the servant of a Turkish Effendi, -the practice being to give only a half or a fourth of what was asked, and probably giving too much even then. This Armenian, however, refused to accept what was offered to him; and the noise of the altercation coming to the ears of the Effendi, he asked what was the matter. His servant told him that here was an Armenian, who had been offered as much as a half of his whole bill, and would not accept it. The Effendi knew the man, and said to his servant, "Do not you know he is a Protestant? Hereafter pay every Protestant bill in full, without saying a word." Moreover, the Colporteurs can now claim the protection of the Government wherever they go, and are gaining access to the Turkish mind in many ways. Α Turkish Governor had said that he would stone the first Colporteur who dared to come to his village; and a pious man, a Colporteur, hearing of the threat, went directly to the place, depending upon the providence of God to deliver him. He entered the palace, and, after waiting in the hall of audience till the Governor observed him, he said, in reply to the demand, "What do you want?" that he had come, having heard what the Governor had said. The Governor replied, "If you have heard that you will be stoned, why do you come here?" "Because," was the reply, "the books which I bring teach men to be good, and their circulation will do good and not harm." The Governor made further inquiries, and, learning that among the books in the Colporteur's possession,

to prosecute our labours, and there is no department of the work which might not be almost indefinitely extended, had we but the means.

COLPORTAGE IN AMERICA.-At a meeting lately held at Radley's, Bridge-street, London, the Rev. Dr. Cooke, Secretary of the American Tract Society, stated that the system of colportage originated about the year 1840, with only two agents. There were now 662 agents in connection with the American Tract Society alone; and, adding those of other institutions, there were at least 1,000. He dwelt on the beneficial influence which the system of colportage had exerted on all departments of evan-, gelical enterprise. It had promoted Christian union, quickened the sense of personal Missionary responsibility among laymen, stimulated popular education, and stayed the tide of a vicious periodical literature. On each of these points he enlarged. In many parts of America the footsteps of the Colporteur might be tracked by the chain of little school. houses which had risen up in his path. The change in the character of American periodicals, as compared with what they were in 1841, was truly remarkable. Booksellers had been made to feel that the publication of vicious trash was a losing business; editors of papers had found out the elevation of the popular taste, and they shaped the supply to the demand. Infidelity had received check; in fact, it had now no organized existence, and the openly infidel periodical press of the United States was narrowed to one paper of limited circulation. The sceptic was, by habit, beyond the reach of the pulpit; but this system went to him at his own fireside, and not the books only, but the example of selfdenial in the Colporteur reached his conscience. Many of the Colporteurs were themselves converts from infidelity. Among Romanists also colportage was an effectual means of evangelization, not by the instrumentality of controversial argument, but by direct address to the heart. The work was emphatically one of prayer and faith. At head-quarters there was a daily prayer meeting at twelve at noon, at which all the employés of the Society-printers, binders, secretaries, and clerks were invited to spend twenty minutes; and thus the books went forth baptized with an energy which formed the life and power of the movement. Dr. Cooke communicated some interesting statistical information. Thus, during the past year, the agents had

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visited 638,000 families, embracing a population of 3,500,000. With 294,000 of these families prayer or religious conversation had been held. 526,800 books had been sold. 152,000 books, valued £10,000, had been given away. 12,800 lectures or cottage-meetings had been held. 46,000 of the families visited were without any religious book except. the Bible. 30,000 had no Bible. 94,000 were Roman Catholics. The entire number of visits paid to families in the States from the commencement of the agency, had been 5,500,000, and the aggregate distance travelled by the Colporteurs 10,000,000 miles.

SOUTH AFRICA.-(From the Rev. T. Arbousset, of the Paris Missionary Society. Morija, May 8th, 1856.)—, The Basuto tribes seem to have turned over quite a new leaf. The young men especially appear so desirous of learning' to read, and also to write. Our churchmembers here reckon three hundred, and the candidates for baptism arise to forty, with inquirers in great numbers, both small and great: even an ex-cannibal Chief and his wife are to be found among them.

At Beershebak's station the communicants are more numerous still, and the class of catechumens reckons no less than one hundred and thirty-five.

Your Committee would like to hear about our distributing copies of the Psalms. Let me, then, tell you, that almost every reader in our schools has already one in his hands, and seems to prize it not a little. Many of the old people, also, have procured it.

In 1848 the Morija station established a kind of local Missionary Society, with a view of spreading the saving knowledge of the Gospel throughout this district. It reckons nearly one hundred men, who go exhorting and distributing books in the two hundred and seventyeight villages allotted to them. These people have been formed into twenty-one. small bands, all more or less fervent and active.

They held their Annual Meeting in February last, in the garden of this establishment, on a most beautiful day, under trees loaded with fruit. There each of the evangelists received a copy of the Psalms, as a mark of encouragement. One of them, holding his copy up, asked, "What is this? A shield many thousand years old, but as good as new; and ever new! With it I will fight against sin, myself, and all. O, what an amazing book! I open it at