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spread their net. The application is easy. A sanctified heart is better than a silver tongue; a heart full of grace is better than a head full of notions; notional knowledge may make a man's head giddy, but it will never make a man's heart holy; that which most tickleth delicate ears, least helpeth diseased spirits. How are we to speak to God and live, much less to speak from God and to the people, that they may live? How holy had they need to be that draw near to a holy God! Ministers are called angels, because we should be as angels in our lives; but if angels fall, they turn devils. O, we should be holy as the holy angels. It is the foolishness of preaching that saves souls, but not foolish preaching! Christ taught, them as they were able to hear it, and as they were able to bear it. Mark iv. 33. Paul was excellent at this, "I had rather speak five words in a known tongue, than ten thousand in an unknown tongue." man may be a great scholar, and yet a great sinner. Judas the traitor, was Judas the preacher: and therefore, sirs, let me beseech you for your poor souls' sake, near those ministers that come nearest to Christ, the prophets, and the apostles. He is the best preacher that does the most good, and wins the most souls. You may go from men to truth, not from truth to men: for the best of men are but men at the best.

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Read the best books, for in them you will find the best things; and compare what is spoken in the books of men, with what is written in the book of God.

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EBLEY.

Sermons were preached here on Sunday, June 22nd, by the Rev. E. S. Hart, M.A., in aid of our Missionary Society. Considerable interest was excited in behalf of the institution, and the liberal sum of £10 was collected.

BRIDGETOWN.

August 24, two sermons were preached by the Rev. L. J. Wake, in aid of the Society. The collections amounted to Countess of Huntingdon's Missionnary £5. 5s. We beg to offer our thanks to the Rev. J. Shore, M.A., for the use of his church on the occasion.

THE MISSION TO TURKEY.

We would especially call the attention of our friends to the fact, that we are about sending out the first European Missionary to Turkey, and invite them to read the article at the beginning of this magazine. Surely this is an object that will secure the warmest sympathies and support of christians of all denominations. We understand the newly appointed missionary is the Rev. J. Reynolds, of Clare; a minister held in very high esteem among his brethren, and that, previous to his departure, he purposes visiting our churches, among whom, we feel persuaded, he will receive a cordial welcome.

THE CORONET AND THE CROSS.

The attention of our readers is especially called to the announcement of the above work in our advertising pages the first number of which will appear in October. A cheap and popular life of Lady Huntingdon has long been wanted, and we greatly mistake if this work will not meet with an extensive circulation. Its publication also in sixpenny numbers is an excellent plan and will doubtless induce many to become subscribers. We hope our friends throughout the Connexion will lose no time in forwarding their names through their ministers or booksellers, through whom they can be regularly supplied with the work, which will be complete in about ten monthly

numbers.

Portry.

"Abide with us: for it is toward evening, and the day is far spent."-(LUKE xxiv. 29.)

Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;

The darkness thickens. Lord, with me abide;
When other helpers fail, and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me!

Swift to its close ebbs out life's little day;
Earth's joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see-
O Thou who changest not, abide with me!

Not a brief glance I crave, a passing word!
But as thou dwell'st with thy disciples, Lord-
Familiar, condescending, patient, free;
Come not to sojourn, but abide with me.
Thou on my head in early youth didst smile,
And though rebellious and perverse meanwhile,

Thou hast not left me, oft as I left thee;
On to the close, O Lord, abide with me.

I fear no foe, with thee at hand to bless ;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is Death's sting? Where, Grave, thy
victory?

I triumph still, if thou abide with me.

Hold thou thy cross before my closing eyes, Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies;

Heaven's morning breaks, and earth's vain
shadows flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me!
Rev. H. F. Lyte.

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NOTICE TO OUR READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS. Communications have been received during the past month from the Revds. T. Noyes, E. S. Hart, M.A.; T. Anderson; Mr. W. H. Harris, Bristol, and W. H. Valder, Margate, whose narrative of Martha Edwards shall appear next month, and for which we are greatly obliged.

Books and useful articles have been received from Mr. Anderson, and about a dozen friends at Dover, for our next sale

We are glad to find our plan of gratuitious circulation of The Harbinger meet with the approbation of so many of our friends. One writes, "It is what I have long wished, but feared it would be of no use to urge it." Another states, "This is what we have long wanted among the poor members of our congregation." A minister informs us, "Though every shilling is an object to him, yet he takes in three copies monthly of The Harbinger." Let all our ministers and friends be imbued with the same spirit, and how vastly might its circulation be increased.

TO SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHERS.- We commenced this month by devoting a portion of our magazine to the Sunday School. We shall hope to do the same monty, and as no sphere of labour is more fertile, with interesting incidents, we shall hope to receive communications from our superintendents and teachers suitable to our pages. We again invite our ministers to forward useful and Connexional information for insertion. All communications to be addressed to the Rev. A. H. New, Leamington, as early in the month as possible. Advertisements to be sent to the care of Mr. Allgood, 47, Broad Street, Worcester, not later than the 22nd of the month.

THE HARBINGER.

OCTOBER, 1856.

THE ORIGIN OF THE PRESENT TURKISH EMPIRE.

The foundation of the Ottoman Empire, which at the present day holds its supremacy in Turkey, was laid by Othman, a native of Mesopotamia. He entered the Seljouk kingdom of Roum with his father Ertogrul, who was the chieftain of a small tribe of 400 Turkish families that emigrated there. In the year 1289, Othman was appointed governor of the market town of Karady-hissar, by Aladdin III, the last Seljouk Sultan of Iconium. In the year 1307, Aladdin died, and Othman secured the throne, and ultimately extended his complete supremacy over the other independent emirs of Turkey. In the course of his conquests over the Greek empire he took Brousa, and established his court there. But it was chiefly under the reign of his son Orkhan, who succeeded to the throne in 1328, that the Ottoman empire attained its pre-eminence. Orkhan was the greatest legislator of modern times. He it was who gave vitality to the institutions of his country, and founded a constitution which surpassed in grandeur all his rivals. Before three generations had elapsed, from the settlement of the small band of emigrants in Turkey, which his grandfather had brought over with him from Mesopotamia, he had raised the Turkish empire to a degree of greatness, which threatened to overshadow all the nations of the earth.

The secret of Orkhan's power is worthy of notice. As soon as he began his reign, he imposed on all the people he conquered, a tribute of Christian children. These he eagerly collected, trained, and disciplined within his own palace, to form the nucleus of his empire. Under his roof a college, conducted with all the order and talent of a college of Jesuits, was united with a range of barrack-rooms, in which a discipline prevailed as severe as that of Lycurgus. It was an immense Orphan asylum.

The Mohammedan law requires every moslem to educate unbelieving children who have fallen into the hands of the Turks, in the faith of Islam.

As the military usages of the Seljouk empire gave the Sultan a fifth of all the spoils and captives taken in war, Orkhan soon became

possessed of a numerous household of christian slaves, whom he might have sold, like the other Seljouk emirs, and hired mercenary troops with the produce, or filled his place with concubines and poets, and devoted himself to the pursuit of pleasure or fame. But Orkhan sought to extend the dominions of the Koran. His wars furnished him a large supply of children whom he was bent on converting for his purpose. He, therefore, sought to increase the number of these, by imposing a fixed tribute of children on every christian district he conquered. The pious moslems highly approved of the measure, and strange to say, it met with but little opposition from the Greek Christians! So low had the empire, of which Constantinople was the metropolis, sunk, through civil wars and fiscal oppression, as well as famine, that many Greek parents saw no mode of saving their offspring from starvation, but by sending them to the palace of Orkhan. Murad I. extended and systematised the institution of the tribute children, and it continued until the year 1685, when it was formally abolished.

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These young neophites were generally collected between the ages of seven and nine years, as the Mohammedan law strictly prohibited the forced conversion of prisoners who have attained the age of twelve. They were at first lodged in the Sultan's palace, and carefully instructed in the forms and principles of the Mohammedan religion under the ablest teachers, who studied their peculiar dispositions and capacities. They then entered on a course of elementary knowledge and gymnastics. As their minds were developed, and their physical strength increased, they were divided into several classes. Some, destined to become "men of the pen," were educated in legal and administrative knowledge; and from them the officials in the civil and financial departments of the empire were usually selected. Many became secretaries of state, judges, and viziers. Another division was disciplined as men of the sword ;" and the celebrated corps of Jannissaries, was first raised from this body. This college of "conquering missionaries," when formed by Orkhan, consisted only of 1000; but before the end of his reign it had increased to 3000; and when Mohammed II. took Constantinople, the number had reached 12,000. The tribute children were also numerous in the ranks of the artillery, cavalry, and police of the empire. During the early period of the Ottomans, the Sultans were educated with the tribute children, and history can show no greater examples of remarkable talent than that which they displayed under this system of training. Never indeed was so terrible an instrument of absolute power created so rapidly, and raised so completely beyond all external influences, as that which Orkhan formed. The tribute children were all members of the household of the Ottoman Sultans. They had no ties of family or country, and felt no responsibility but what they owed to the prophet, and the sultan, his representative. They were ready at his beck, to strike down the proudest nobles, and to trample on the prejudices of the courts of the Caliphs. Against Christian nations they were animated with the most fervent zeal for it was a principal part of their education to infuse an enthusiastic wish to extend the empire of Islam. Thus Orkhan made Christian parents the most active agents in destroying the Christian religion. Had the Greek Emperors, and

the orthodox priests of that period, given their youth as good a christian education as Orkhan gave his slaves and tribute children in Islamism, the attacks of the Turks might have been triumphantly repulsed, and Constantinople might still have been the city of a Christian empire.

It is for us to repair the dishonour of Christendom, by promoting as zealously the work of christian education among the children of the Turks, as they in former ages were eager to train the captive youths of the Greeks in the religion of Mohammed. Let all our readers ponder well the lesson which this brief historic sketch suggests. Let every earnest member of the church of Christ support our new Missionary enterprise in Turkey, until the whole of the population of the Ottoman Empire become christians, not in name only but in deed and in truth.

Clare, Sept. 12.

J. R.

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE.

"He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."--John vii. 38.

The scriptures show that the cordial belief of the glorious gospel of Christ lays the foundation of a new character. The natural character of man is unholy. The centre of his moral being is a fountain of impurity. There sin has the dominion. There the god of this world is enthroned. There is the spring-head of all the moral evil which flows throughout our world, diffusing desolation, sterility, and woe in its course. Hearken to the testimony of the great teacher. "But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man." This is the true testimony of Him whose eye is omniscient, and who knoweth what is in man. The soul of man, therefore, requires renovation. And this the gospel seeks to effect. It seeks to purify the source of human character, and thus to render all the streams flowing from the fountain pure, wholesome, clear as crystal. But what is necessary, in order to this radical change of character? The text teaches us that there must be faith in Jesus. The foundation of christian character

is laid in a cordial belief of the gospel. "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." This was the glorious design of His mission. All men are sinners, therefore, need salvation. The gospel shows that there is salvation in Christ, and in no other. But in order to realize this there must be faith in the Saviour. All the truly godly do believe in Him. Faith is an essential element in their religion. The truth thus embraced renews the heart, and of course changes the entire character. 2 Cor. v. 17.

The text teaches us the source of christian influence. This is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. "This spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given,

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