ceived was very different, and that the Russians would probably be in possession of Constantinople.

S. That is not possible. Even should the Russians be in much greater numbers, if God gives His blessing to the Turks, they will be victorious. G. Yes; but if God gives His blessing to the Russians, will not they be conquerors? S. It is not possible that God should give His blessing to the Christians against the Believers. G. And what do you say of Navarino-Were not the Turks beaten by the Christians? S. The Turks were surprised, when they did not expect it. G. And they may again be surprised and beaten. S. The sword of the Sultan is long. G. It is but the sword of man; and war is a human concern: God wills it not. S. All comes from God; good as well as evil. G. That is the source of all your errors. God cannot be the author of evil. Because God is holiness itself, those who live in sin alienate themselves from the source of happiness; and thus themselves prepare their own perdition and eternal punishment, rendering themselves, by the complete depravity of their hearts, incapable of enduring the presence of a Holy God: it is for this reason that we affirm, that all men who are not regenerated by the grace of God are lost in this life; though their torments will only be at their height after death, when they will be incapable of diverting themselves with the objects of this world. On the other hand, those who are saved, are saved in this life: they know itthey feel it; and they are already happy in this world, although they have many trials: but their happiness will not be complete till they shall be delivered by death from all the defilements of this world, to live in uninterrupted communion with God. S. Yes, it is true. M. Consider for a moment whether Mussulmans are not under the divine malediction. If the question be respecting pestilence, oppression, and misery of any kind, it is in the country of the Mussulmans that we always find them in the highest degree, because they are the farthest from God. S. But there may be some good Mussulmans: the English are not all like you. M. It is very true. It is only those, who receive the Gospel into their hearts, and who believe in Jesus Christ, who are victorious over the world: others are, as you are, slaves of sin : but when there are a number of God's children in a country, the Lord blesses that country for their sakes. S. It is true that Mussulmans are now corrupt: but the first Mussulmans, in the time of Abou Beker, of Omar, and of Osman, were good. G. I grant that they were a little better than the Ottomans; but, if you had been better acquainted with them, perhaps you would be of another Oct. 1829.

:

opinion. You may see the difference that there is between Turks and Christians in this: you boast that the Mussulmans are not so divided as the Christians-that they defend and respect the Korân; and, nevertheless, you see that they are all given up to falsehood and impurity and you see that they are all discontented with their state, and terrified in the highest degree at the thought of death. On the other hand, if you look a little at Christendom, you will be soon sure that it is only those who neglect the Bible, and who do not in their hearts believe in Jesus Christ, who live in their sins and already feel, as you do, their sad consequences in this world. True Christians, who are attached to the Gospel, who follow it, and who sincerely believe in Jesus Christ the Saviour, renounce all their vices, because they are contrary to their renewed souls. They live in communion with God in holiness; and, consequently, are inwardly happy. If they are subject to evil in this life, they have the lively hope of eternal life to console them: and death, very far from terrifying them, is gain to them: they regard it as a messenger of good news. From all this it evidently appears, that pretended Christians, without the reality-like the Turks and all those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour of the World-are the slaves of Satan, of Sin, and of Death: they are already in a lost state; while true Christians are the children of God and already saved. [S. quoted some passages from the Korân.] G. I do not receive your quotations from the Korân as the Word of God. The Koran is full of falsehoods. S. Prove it. M. My dear friend, I know that you are miserable, and that you have neither peace nor rest. S. How do you know that? M. Are you not a sinner? Yes. M. Well, you can never hope to be pardoned and saved, but by Jesus Christ the Redeemer. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and because you do not receive Him, you are miserable and disquieted by doubt; and you will never find peace in your soul till you come to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. S. I can hardly follow you. I am day and night, as it were, in a desert: I have no inward peace: I am always searching for the truth, and it seems I can never find it. G. If what you say is true, it is the commencement of the work of God in your heart: take care not to resist it, for fear you should perish in your error. Only pray with all your heart, and God will not fail to grant your petition. S. I hope God will conduct me into the right way. G. Yes, if you pray to Him with all your heart: but take care that you do not prescribe to God the way by which He must conduct you, otherwise you will never see the light. 3 M

AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS.

Awful State of the People of Syria. THE REV. W. Goodell, after an appaling narrative of the quarrels and murders said to have taken place in a Convent near Erivan, thus speaks of the people, from whose shores he has been obliged to withdraw for a

season

I came to Syria with the hope that I should find at least some individual, however obscure, who sighed for the abominations that are committed, and who worshipped God in spirit and in truth and I do not now say that no such individual is to be found; but I can say in truth, that no such individual has been found in Syria by ourselves; (those, of course, excepted, who appear to have been benefitted by our instructions ;) and that all our researches have not brought to light ONE who appeared even ashamed or afraid to lie, and profane the Name and Sabbaths of the Most High. On the contrary, the more we have seen and heard, the more we have conversed with the people, and the more diligent our inquiries have been to ascertain their real state, the more painful has been the conviction and overwhelming the evidence, that, in all these Churches, Jew ish and Christian, there is none that seeketh after God.

He adds, in the true spirit of a Missionary

All this, however, instead of paralyzing our efforts, should only be considered as presenting a more affecting claim to them. It was because all had gone out of the way, that the Son of God came from heaven on His benevolent mission to earth. It was because all were enemies to the Divine Character and Government, that the first preachers of the Gospel were directed to go into all the world, beseeching all men everywhere to be reconciled to God. And it was because the people of Syria were supposed to be living in ignorance and sin, that any were sent forth to call them to repentance, and direct them to the Lamb

of God which taketh away the sin of the world. I know not how it is with others, but this consideration, more than any other, has brought relief and consolation to my own bosom, when the impertinence, ingratitude, unkindness, contempt, base conduct, and a thousand provocations of the people around us, have at times almost broken our hearts. Had they cherished heavenly tempers, we should not have been sent to them. It was because they were selfish, and proud, and covetous, and thieves, and possessing unholy characters and hateful extortioners, and inventors of evil things, tempers, that we came hither. They that be whole have no need of a physician, but they that be sick.

The Rev. Eli Smith, who joined the Mission in Syria a little time before it was suspended, writes

The

I have been gratified to find that those Christians, whom we have seen residing at a distance from the Maronites of Lebanon, shew less reluctance to have intercourse with the Missionaries. people and their ecclesiastics have manifested a readiness to converse upon religious subjects; and, though settled prejudice against us has appeared in various cases with more or less strength, it is not to be compared with that of the Moun. taineers: and, in one or two cases, we have flattered ourselves that we had found an individual inquiring, though negligently, after the truth. But many a Maronite of the Mountains will almost inquire of the passing stranger whether he is a Missionary, before he gives him the usual salutation; and if he knows him to be such, and intends to act as a good son of the Church, the most that he will do is simply to put his hand upon his breast, without opening his mouth. do not mean to intimate that there are not inquirers on the Mountains, for there are doubtless many; but fear induces them to conceal the state of their minds.

I

Of the Monks Mr. Smith draws this affecting picture—

We might easily excite a great tumult, by encouraging Monks to leave their convents; though we have reason to believe that a great number of them would be glad to do it: we know, however, culably more opposition, both from ecclethat their doing so would create incalsiastical and civil rulers, than any thing else; while it is very certain that this noise would be attended with little fruit:

for Monks are perhaps the most hopeless class of people in Syria; and their desire to leave their convents too often arises from any thing rather than a love of the truth. Many of them have fled to the cells of a convent, as the only remedy known and recommended to them in this land of darkness, for obtaining relief from those convictions of conscience, and satisfying that desire for the salvation of the soul, which, at favourable moments, force themselves on almost every youth, and which, in our country, lead so many to drink of the fountain of life. Here they are introduced to that system of heartless formality, and cold hypocrisy, and hidden iniquity, which soon substitute self-righteousness for conviction of sin; and, for a desire after salvation, a longing for worldly pleasures, which the despair of ever being able to gratify only increases and renders more intolerable. They are a people on whom I look with peculiar feelings of mingled compassion and disgust; and I have rarely felt myself nearer the confines of the world of darkness than when visiting their convents.

On this communication the Board remark

It is not wonderful, that the Christian Missionary grieves, when he sees the religion, which is his joy, and the blessed power of which to bestow light and purity and cheerfulness and peace on communities and individuals he has witnessed, become an oppressive burden. How different must such a Christianity appear to the Missionary, from the Christianity of his native land! Instead of being the liberty of the children of God, it is the yoke of bondage: instead of being deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, it is to its adherents affliction and iron. They know enough of sin to subject them to the goadings of conscience, and to make them resort to painful mortifications for relief; but they do not know the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world.

India within the Ganges.

MONGHYR.

BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

THE following narrative, by Mr. Leslie, will serve to shew the Difficulties to be encountered by newly

awakened Natives.

About a year ago, a fakeer, the heir to

a very large property in land, came to Monghyr, to attend the Court on some law business. Through the providence of God, he was brought into contact with some of our Native Christians, from whom he heard the Gospel, and received Gospels and Tracts. After his legal business was settled, he called on me; and, certainly, his appearance did not produce any very favourable impression on my mind. His body was rubbed over with dust, in the manner of fakeers: his hair was exceedingly long, and bound round his head in the manner of a turban; and in his hand was a string of large seeds, or the stones of some fruit, which he was counting over in precisely the same manner as the Roman Catholics do their strings of beads, and I believe for much the same purpose. I sat down and conversed with him; but did not discover in him any great disposition to inquire into Christianity. At length, we parted with the usual ceremonies; and he returned to his house, which is about 60 miles off, carrying with him the Gospels and Tracts. These he read and dispersed among all his friends: the consequence has been, that he has thrown away his beads, and washed the dust off his body; and, though he has not yet renounced his caste, he has declared himself a believer on Christ.

A great clamour has been raised, and he is threatened with disinheritance; which I suppose will be his fate, if he takes the last step, that of fairly casting himself among us. I greatly pity him. He is with us at present, and has been so for some time; and he frequently gives us much pleasure: but he is timorous; and I fear greatly for him.

A few weeks ago, he was, through some unintentional accident, thrown into confinement; which gave great triumph to his enemies and the enemies of Christianity. I wrote to the Magistrate on his behalf, stating the real circumstances of the case, which I knew; and had the pleasure to receive a very respectful reply, with the instant liberation of the man. The triumph, therefore, of his enemies was but short. But, on its becoming known throughout the whole town that he was liberated through my interference, the clamour became general, that he had become a Christian; and, almost day and night, he is besieged by the Brahmins and rich Natives, all poisoning his mind against Christianity. What will be the end of it I know not.

Should he not, however, embrace Christianity, still there is one good result Christianity has become much more extensively known. The disposition which he has shewn to embrace it has made it talked about, and inquired about by persons far and near.

BOMBAY.

AMERICAN BOARD OF MISSIONS.

FROM communications received from America, we have prepared a summary view of this Mission for the next Survey; but shall lay before our readers, in the mean time, some extracts from these communications, which will open to them the state of the Natives and the exertions made among them.

Decreasing Influence of the Brahmins.

We see much around us to excite our pity and to exercise our faith, and we are not without some things to animate our hopes. Though the Heathen Temples in Bombay are daily crowded with deluded and bigoted idolaters, and though we occasionally see decayed temples repairing and new temples building, yet those Europeans, who have been longest resident in the place, say that they can clearly see that a change is working its way among the Native Population. The Brahmins are gradually losing their influence over the mass of the people; who are beginning to read, and reflect, and judge for themselves. The number, who, from having learned to read, are prepared to receive the Scriptures and Tracts with advantage is greatly increasing.

Within a few months past there has been more excitement here on the subject of Christianity, than at any former period; and though this has arisen, principally, from enmity to the truth, yet we have reason to believe the things that happened to us have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the Gospel. In the course of this opposition, the nature of Christianity, with the object and labours of Missionaries, and the means which they use in endeavouring to persuade men to renounce idolatry and worship the God who made heaven and earth, was probably more clearly seen and understood by a large number of Pundits, Teachers, and intelligent Natives, than at any former time. How far any of these persons have become

convinced of the truths of the Gospel, it is impossible for us to say; but this we know, and it is a circumstance of no small importance in this place, and one which may well afford us encouragement, that many Brahmins have found, from mortifying experience, that the ascendency which they have had over the rest of the people for so many generations is becoming small, compared with what it once was; and it is already beyond their power, when acting in concert, to exert a controlling and permanent influence over the minds of other castes in matters of religion. Instance of the Fears of the Natives for their Creed.

We have just now occasioned a great excitement among many of the Natives, by having particularly urged those who attend at the Chapel to stand up in time of prayer; and by declaring, that from the end of this month we shall have no Teachers of Schools, but such as can agree to pay this external act of respect to the worship of God-Him whom they confess to be supreme. In connexion with at least one or two Missions, Hindoos kneel; and, in several others, they stand. For seven years, at Mahim, the Scholars and Teachers, as well as those on the continent, never objected to rising in time of prayer. Brahmins have, many times, done it, without being reproached. But the practice of sitting having been long adopted in Bombay, our proposal is extremely offensive: many have left, and more will undoubtedly leave us.

Many are endeavouring to have the principle universally adopted, that to stand in time of our worship is a violation of CASTE, and must be attended with final exclusion. But their real fear, as some of them confess, is, not the impurity of the act itself, but the tendency which a familiarity with our Books and Forms of Worship may have toward an ultimate renunciation of their religion.

In one of their councils, when it was agreed that a respectable Brahmin, in our employment, should be reckoned, for four days, as an outcast, and then be wholly shaved and purified anew, for having stood in time of prayer, there was a general shout from the common people, "Make sure of our Mahratta Religion !"

The measure taken with the Brahmin was almost overwhelming to him at first;