The soft deep azure of the sky,

The sun in dazzling splendour shining, The dark-green foliage waving high, Sweet flowers of every form and dye,

In wreaths of wild luxuriance twining; The hum of insects on the breeze,

Their bright wings to the sun disclosing; The cattle-group beneath the trees, Enjoying the voluptuous ease

In which all nature seems reposing;
Loaded with sweets, the wanton air

Just stirs the leaves with gentle motion;
While scenes so tranquil and so fair
Lull to repose each anxious care,

And waken calm and pure devotion.
And has God deck'd this lovely scene
For man, who forfeited each blessing;
The earth in smiling beauty green,
The sparkling streams, the blue serene,
In all his boundless love expressing?
Lord, from whose bounty day by day

A thousand precious gifts are flowing,
To thee we consecrate the lay,
To thee our hearts glad homage pay,
With every grateful feeling glowing.
And as o'er hill, and dale, and grove,

The enraptur'd eye is fondly ranging,
We'll think on brighter scenes above,
Rich promise of a Saviour's love,

Where all is deathless and unchanging. H. A.

Miscellaneous.

THE CHURCH IN RUSSIA.-The following statistical view, derived from the most authentic sources, will be found to supply many important points of information, not furnished either by writers on Church history, or on the general history and geography of that colossal state. The established Church in Russia is commonly known by the name of the Orthodox Greek Church, but, at the same time, all other denominations are tolerated-Jews, Mohammedans, Lamaites, Brahmans, and Shamarites. Of the established, or orthodox Greek Church, the members may be said to amount to 31,782,000. The emperor is the head. With respect to its constitution and independence, it has no connexion with any of the four patriarchs of the Oriental Church. The will of the monarch is the highest point of appeal, but the business of the Church is under the management of the Holy Synod, in connexion with the minister for ecclesiastical affairs. To this supreme legislative court the consistories and clergy, both superior and inferior, are subject. The consistories are divided into three classes; each of these consistories stands under the presidency of an archiereiss, or one of the dignified clergy, and forms an eparchy. The clergy are divided into two classes, the secular and the regular clergy. 1. The secular clergy consist of the archihierei, or eparchs, such as metropolitans, archbishops, and bishops; the two former of which dignitaries are not confined to any particular sees, but depend simply on the will or favour of the monarch. Some of the dignified clergy are liberated from the charge of administering the affairs of the diocese to which they are attached, and there are others who have no eparchy in Russia, but live there as titled dignitaries. The lower orders of the clergy, such as protopriests, priests, and deacons, also belong to the secular class. 2. The regular

clergy consist of archimandrites, priors and prioresses, monks, nuns, and anchorites. Though the cloisters are not so numerous as they once were, there are still 480 monasteries, and 70 nunneries: the number of monks exceeds 3000, and of nuns about 1500. The number of churches in Russia amounts in all to 26,747; and that of the clergy to 67,900 persons. Taking, however, into the account the additional number of individuals attached to the clergy for the service of the church, not fewer than 158,475 persons are dependent on the altar for subsistence. These are, for the most part, paid out of the public funds, government having, since 1764, secularised the lands belonging to most of the churches and monasteries; some, however, still retain their appropriated lands. The great proportion of the clergy who receive their education in the ecclesiastical seminaries, and at the four existing academies, are exceedingly ignorant. Few of them are versed in the higher branches of science, and there is every reason to fear that fewer still are imbued with the genuine spirit of Christianity. Vast numbers of them are barely qualified to repeat the church service, and, were it not for the clerical habiliments, scarcely distinguishable from the lowest of the people. They are only permitted to marry once, and are prohibited from marrying widows. Their sons devote themselves to the same profession, and from them the demand for the future clergy is supplied: the archihierei are obliged to remain in a state of celibacy. No person who is a member of the national Church is allowed, whatever may be his convictions, to leave that Church and join any other communion; and all who join it from other communions must submit to become catechumens, and receive the rite of baptism according to the Greek forms.-Christian Remembrancer.

POPISH MISSIONS.-The following confession of the small results arising from popish missions in the East, is from the pen of the Abbé Dubois:-During the long period I have lived in India in the capacity of a missionary, I have made, with the assistance of a native missionary, in all, between two and three hundred converts, of both sexes. Of this number twothirds were parials, or beggars; and the rest were composed of sudras, vagrants, and outcasts of several tribes, who, being without resource, turned Christians in order to form new connexions, chiefly for the purpose of marriage, or with some other interested views. Among them are to be found some also who believed themselves to be possessed by the devil, and who turned Christians after having been assured that on their receiving baptism the unclean spirits would leave them, never to return; and I will declare it, with shame and confusion, that I do not remember any one who may be said to have embraced Christianity from conviction, and through quite disinterested motives. Among these new converts many apostatised and relapsed into paganism, finding that the Christian religion did not afford them the temporal advantages they had looked for in embracing it; and I am verily ashamed, that the resolution I have taken to declare the whole truth on this subject forces me to make the humiliating avowal, that those who continued Christians are the very worst among my flock. I know that my brother-missionaries in other parts of the country, although more active and more zealous, perhaps, than myself, have not been more fortunate, either in the number or the quality of their proselytes. -Letters of Abbé Dubois.

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people of God," particularly prefigured by the rest of the jubilee year, because to this year belonged the privilege of release from bondage, as well as debt, and of redemption of the possession which had been sold or forfeited. It is to this sabbath, which was prefigured by those enjoyed by the children of Israel, that I shall direct the attention of my readers.

This rest may be regarded, first, in its negative character, as a cessation from evil.

And what is the first evil from which this everlasting sabbath will bring release? Shall we not answer the question at once by saying, cessation from sin, rest from all temptations, or liability to evil? But is not this the privilege of the present world, of the Gospel jubilee as proclaimed on earth? Truly it is. From the guilt of sin, its heavy, severe, accumulating burden of debt, which we pray daily to be remitted, and for the remission of which a daily provision is made. But do we not rest also from the dominion of sin in the present world? Yes, we are called, blessed be God, to be holy; and holiness is of necessity cessation from sin in its power. But we are not delivered from the possibility of sinning. Some of the holiest servants of God have fallen; and while we have any remains of the old nature within us, we shall ever be liable to fall, in proportion to the strength of our natural or acquired corruptions. Even though preserved by Divine grace, through constant watchfulness on our part, from falling into sin in its worst characters, yet are we compassed about with innumerable infirmities, which sore let and hinder us in "running the race that is set before us;" infirmities of judgment, of affection, motive, and temper, by which we often fail perfectly to do the things which we would.

Now the highest desire connected with this rest, on the part of the people of God, is deliverance from the least remains of sin. Their idea of heaven is to be like God, perfectly conformed to the image of his Son. Every man sighs for a state most opposite to the evil which depresses him. The debtor sighs for deliverance, the slave for liberty, the sick for health, and the Christian for holiness. Release from bondage was peculiar to the year of jubilee; while remission of debts, cessation from labour, and instruc tion in God's covenant, were common to all the sabbatical years; and this seems eminently to prefigure the rest remaining to

us.

Hence the faith of patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, overlooking all intervening events, constantly anticipated the second coming of the Redeemer as the period of their perfect release from evil. "I know

that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though, after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God." "As for me, I shall behold thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied when I awake in thy likeness."

But this rest is a cessation also from all the consequences of sin. Here every fresh year makes some amongst us mourners, or threatens the loss of our chiefest earthly blessings. Losses of property, or health, or reputation, bereavement of friends more or less closely united to us, disappointments of projects fondly realised, some or other of a thousand sources of disquietude or sorrow, have marked almost every one of us as inheritors of Adam's curse, and have forewarned us of greater evils shortly to come. But this rest will be a cessation from the curse of sin itself. There will be no more sin there, and hence, of necessary and happy consequence, no more curse.

Let the tears of the mourner, then, cease to flow; an uninterrupted sabbath is coming, where the rest here broken shall be renewed; the losses of health, or friends, or property, abundantly recompensed; and every sound of mourning swallowed up in the songs of everlasting rejoicing. "He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all faces." Here the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain; but there shall be a creation upon which no change nor evil of corruption or sorrow shall ever pass.

But this brings us to a higher consideration of this future rest. It is not only deliverance from evil, but enjoyment of good; as the jubilee proclaimed, in its two peculiar blessings, not only deliverance from bondage, but restoration of property, repossession of the inheritance which had been sold or forfeited. Hitherto we have contemplated only a negative rest-cessation from evil both in the cause and effect. But there is a higher rest than this: there is the possession of heaven, a glorious inheritance; there is the vision of God the Father, Saviour, and Comforter, and the society of angels, and the hosts of the redeemed; the vision of God our Father, Saviour, and Comforter, the fountain of joy from which all our fresh springs proceed; the smile of a countenance which lights up the intelligent universe with glory, and which illumines every holy being, from the seraph and cherub to the least and last of the redeemed admitted within its rays. This is the sum, and centre, and source of that enjoyment, to be admitted into that presence: to behold that face-to dwell in the light of that reconciled countenance-to be regarded

by such a being with parental feelings of sympathy, tenderness, and love: "We know not what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Oh, glorious season, when the long-forfeited inheritance. of eternal life shall be restored; when, instead of paradise, the original possession, the heaven of heavens itself shall be bestowed; and instead of some signs of the favour of God, and partial communication with him, there shall be a never-clouded vision, an uninterrupted communion, an exaltation to the glory of the Son of. God himself; when, instead of beholding Adam in paradise, the head and instrumental author of our happiness and joy, we shall see the second Adam, the Son of God, in our nature, at the right hand of God, and exalting us to be kings and priests together with him. To be delivered from such danger, to be acquitted of such guilt, to be freed from such corruption, to be in possession of such an inheritance, to be admitted to such a presence-and all this as the purchase of such a redemption, the fruit of such humiliation, suffering, and deathand to see before us, in our own nature, the Author of it all,- we may conceive, in such considerations, something of the rest which remaineth for God's people.

We have still another source of enjoyment in the heavenly sabbath: the society of fellow-spirits to which we shall be joined. Every creature requires some of its own kind to share in its pursuits, to sympathise in its emotions, and to partake of its joys. Even in paradise it was not good for man to be alone, nor would it be good for him even in heaven. Hence his rest will not only be derived from the enjoyment of a higher nature above him, but of equal natures and fellow-spirits around him. Behold the host Behold the host of bright and holy intelligences-the sight of the glory of one of whom overwhelmed even the best of our brethren and companions in tribulation while on earth, and made them to fall down and become as dead men-possessed of such power, that one of them could slay a whole army in a single night-of such swiftness, that they fly more quickly to execute the commands of their Sovereign than the sunbeams issue from the orb of dayso holy, as to be filled with unceasing love to God, admiration of his character, delight. in his perfections, and with love to all their fellows, who cease not day nor night to cry holy, holy, holy! Oh, what society will the holy worshipper find here! they that are wearied with the imperfections of earthly worship, with the hinderances which beset them in the courts of the Lord's house below. What songs resound through that heavenly

temple! what order is there in the form of that heavenly worship! what beauty of holiness is the garment of these spirits! what united hallelujahs burst from those happy lips!

But there are other members of this heavenly society with whom this everlasting sabbath is to be spent: the friends we loved on earth, purified and refined above; the companions with whom we took sweet counsel; the partner of our bosom, who was our helpmate in the love of God; the children whom we presented to God, and watched over as his heritage; and the holy ones to whom we were joined in spirit, the goodly fellowship of the prophets, the glorious company of the apostles, the noble army of martyrs, borne into the heavenly world before us in spirit, and raised up together with us from the dust in the body; the society of the whole company of the redeemed, and that not sanctified only in part as here, but perfected and glorified. This is something of that rest which will be proclaimed to the people of God.

But who are this people? Let us take one characteristic drawn from the subject before

us.

Who of us delight in our periods of rest on earth, the sabbath of cessation from the things of time, and in contemplation of spiritual and eternal things? There cannot be a better test of our meetness for the rest in heaven, or a more sure characteristic of the people for whom the eternal rest remains. What are our preparatory sabbaths or days of rest on earth? Do we call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable?" Or is it weariness to us? do we long for its hours of religious service to pass, and for the return of the employments or amusements of the week?

66

Let this be felt as a certain truth, that just in such proportion as the love of the sabbath and the other commandments is written in our hearts, and manifested in our lives, just so much of preparation have we for the heavenly world. If we love the day of God, we shall live and delight in his eternal day in heaven; if we love his earthly courts, we shall love his heavenly court, where he is revealed face to face, and seen even as he is.

MOHAMMEDISM.-No. I.
Arabia-Inhabitants.

BEFORE entering into the details of the history and religion of that arch impostor, whose false doctrines have spread so widely, which are now professed by about one hundred and fifty millions of deluded votaries, and which oppose so strong a barrier to the dissemination of the Christian faith-a barrier,

however, which will doubtless eventually be overthrown, it will be necessary to take a short survey of the character and circumstances of that remarkable people among whom he was born. We shall thus be enabled to account more satisfactorily for the rapid progress of Mohammedism; and also to trace to their legitimate source many of those doctrines set forth in the Koran-" that endless incoherent rhapsody of fable," as it is styled by Gibbon, "and precept, and declamation; which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea; which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds."

In considering the peculiar character of the people of Arabia, we must recollect that little or no change has been wrought by the succession of generations on their habits and customs; they are still what their forefathers were ages ago. Amidst the rise and fall of empires, and the advancement of science, their wild tribes have undergone little improvement; and the wandering Arabs of the present day afford a perfect picture of those tribes which existed even before the appearance of Mohammed.

Arabia, the Kedem of the Scripture, and which has in all ages been remarkable for the independence of its inhabitants, forms that barren peninsula that lies between the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. It was divided by Ptolemy into three parts-Arabia Deserta, Petræa, and Felix; a division still usually adopted, though unknown to the Arabians themselves.* It is uncertain whence its present name is derived. Most generally it is thought from a Hebrew word, signifying the west, mixture, or traffic; but according to M. Volney, Arab, in the ancient language of those countries, signifies a desert or solitude.

According to the traditionary legends, the elder tribes, or pure Arabs (al Arab al Ariba), are descended from Joktan, the son of Heber, who is said to have taken up his residence in Arabia soon after the confusion of tongues, and there founded the kingdom of Yemen. The mixed Arabs, or Mostarabs (al Arab al Mostareba), are the descendants of Ishmael. "When Ishmael had attained man's estate," says Josephus, "he married a wife of the Egyptians (from whence his mother had her original), by whom he had twelve sons. These are they that began and made famous the nation of the Arabians, as well in respect of their prowess as of the dignity of Abraham" (Gen. xxv. i2-18).

The prophecy vouchsafed concerning Ishmael's posterity, when it was declared by the angel of the Lord to Hagar, "He will be a wild man (or wild-ass man); his hand shall be against every man, and every man's hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of his brethren," has been miraculously fulfilled, and bears one amidst a thousand testimonies to the accomplishment of the purposes of Jehovah; although the infidel has attempted to prove, that there is an utter discrepancy between that prophecy and the actual state of the Arabians. "In order to explain the prophecy itself, and thence to observe how perfectly it has all along been fulfilled, it must be remembered that (according to the know style of the Old Testament) what is here understood of Ishmael must be chiefly understood of his descendants, in the same manner as what Jacob predicts of Judah, and the rest of his sons,† was to relate to their posterity, and be characteristic of their several tribes. And therefore, to take notice of two of the most odd and unaccountable branches of his character, he will be a wild man,' or a man like a 'wild ass:' this (from the known properties of that creature) several interpreters have resolved into these qualities, fierce and cruel, loving solitude, and hating confinement of any kind.' How far this part of the character was verified in Ishmael,

·

The geographical divisions now adopted are seven-Hejaz, Tehama, Yemen, Hadramaut, Oman, Laksa, and Nejed. ↑ Gen. xlix.

who lived in the wilderness, and became an expert archer, his very condition of life shews us; and how properly it belongs to his posterity the Arabians, who, in every nation, have very justly obtained the appellation of wild, a slight inspection of history will inform us."*

"The perpetual independence of the Arabs has, indeed, been denied by Gibbon; but the exceptions to that perpetuity do not in the slightest degree invalidate the predictions of Scripture, as applied to the posterity of Ishmael. As a nation they have never been conquered; their subjugations have been partial and temporary; they escaped the yoke of the most powerful monarchies of antiquity; and in modern times the precarious jurisdiction of Turkey and Egypt scarcely extend beyond their frontiers. The sneer of Gibbon is thus refuted by the facts of history. The 'wild man' still spurns the chains of a foreign conqueror; still waylays the traveller by the fountain; and maintains himself, as in days of old, by violence and plunder, sweeping his troop of fierce bandits across the path of the merchant and the pilgrim."+

The manners and habits of the Bedouin Arab tribes, or natives of the desert, are now, as they have ever been, remarkable for a peculiar ferocity. They have in all ages been a race of freebooters; distinguished, indeed, for their hospitality under certain circumstances; but as to their general conduct, a lawless race, depending for their precarious subsistence on plunder. They have provoked the enmity of their neighbours, and live in a constant state of hostility towards all; so that there is no travelling in safety through their country except in large caravans, which are often plundered. The governor of Grand Cairo was at one time forced to keep four thousand horsemen every night on the side of the city next the wilderness, to secure it against their incursions; and even now the Turks are compelled to pay them a large tribute for the safe passage of their pilgrims to Mecca. Their mode of life, in fact, is in some particulars not very different from that of the clans in the northern parts of our own country, which were wont in feudal times to make, fearful inroads upon the property of their neighbours, and deemed it quite lawful to proceed to the utmost limits of plunder and rapine.

"The Arabs," says Sir Wm. Jones, "have never been entirely subdued, nor has any impression been made on them except on their borders, where the Phoenicians, Persians, Ethiopians, Egyptians, and in later ages the Othman Tartars, have severally acquired settlements: but with these exceptions, the natives of Hejaz and Yemen have preserved for ages the sole dominion of their deserts and pastures, their mountains and fertile valleys; they have also retained their primitive manners, language, features, and character, so long and so remarkably as the Hindus themselves. The present genuine Arabs of Syria, Yemen, and Hejaz, form a striking contrast to the Hindu inhabitants of those provinces: their eyes are full of vivacity; their speech voluble and articulate; their deportment manly and dignified; their minds always attentive; and their countenances strongly marked with a spirit of independence."§

As to government, the wandering Arabs scarcely know its name; they live in a state bordering on anarchy. Each tribe, indeed, has its chief sheik, and every camp is headed by a sheik, or, at least, by a person of authority or influence. This sheik, however, has no positive or actual authority, unless he be a man of skill and sense. According to Burckhardt, he does not derive any yearly income from his tribe or camp, but is obliged to support his rank at his own

Stackhouse. See also Bishop Newton on the Prophecies. + See Edinburgh Cabinet Library.

Called also Ahl el Hajr, or people of the rock; Ahiel Wab-er, the dwellers in tents.

Asiatic Researches,