could have no power over our persons. We adore the goodness of God in preserving us amidst danger; and hope that our deliverance will prove an incitement to our zeal, diligence, and activity in the cause of our Divine Master. On Lord's Day, the 23d, we had a very heavy squall, which constrained us to lay-to for three or four hours; and on the Tuesday it blew another dreadful gale. "The floods, however, may lift up their voice, the floods may lift up their waves; but the Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea." We reached this island in safety on the 3d of January. "Oh that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.”

Extract from a paper by Sir W. Jones, in the Asiatic Researches, on the Propagation of the Gospel in Hin

dostan.

"As to the general extension of the pure faith of the gospel in Hindostan, there are at present many sad obstacles. The Musselmen are already a sort of heterodox Christians. They are Christians, if Locke reasons justly, because they firmly believe the immaculate conception, divine character, and miracles of the Messiah; but they are heterodox in denying vehemently his character of Son, and his equality as God with the Father, of whose unity and attributes they entertain and express the most awful ideas, while they consider our doctrine as perfect blasphemy; and insist, that our copies of the Scriptures have been corrupted both by Jews and Christians. It will be inexpressibly difficult to undeceive them; and scarce possible to diminish their veneration for Mohammed and Ali, who were both very extraordinary men, and the second a man of unexceptionable morals. The Koran shines indeed with borrowed light, since most of its beauties are taken from our Scriptures; but it has great beauties, and a Musselman will not be convinced that they were borrowed. The Hindoos, on the other hand, would readily admit the truth of the gospel; but they contend that it is perfectly consistent with their Shasters. The Deity, they say, has indeed appeared innumerable times, in nany parts of this world, and of all worlds, for the salvation of his creatures. Though we adore Him in one appearance, and they in others, yet we all adore, they say,

the same God; to whom our several worships, though different in form, are equally acceptable, if sincere. We may assure ourselves, that neither the Musselman nor indoo will ever be converted by any Missionaries from the church of Rome, who withhold the sacred Scriptures: and the only mode of causing so great and desirable a révolution, will be to translate them into Sanscrit and Persian, and quietly to disperse the work among the natives; with whom, in due time, it could not fail of producing its effect."

Extract of a Speech pronounced by the Prefect of the Lower Seine, on the Opening of a Second Protestant Church in the City of Rouen. [Translated from the Official Gazette, the Moniteur.]

"I believe no people, in modern times, has presented, in a religious point of view, a spectacle so touching and affecting as that of France; and when we consider with what promptitude the spirit of benevolence has succecded in both branches of the family of Christ to our late excesses, we are tempted to deplore the lot of humanity, which appears destined to attain to truth and happiness, by tediously traversing through a crowd of errors and of crimes. The Christian religion has been exposed from its cradle, if I may be permitted so to speak, to the storm of domestic dissention. All divine in itself, but entrusted to men, whose passions have, in every age, obscured more or less its genuine spirit, this religion of meekness and love has too often had to weep over disasters of which it was wrongfully made the pretext or excuse. In vain hath the voice of a few wise and good men been lifted up against the delusion of the multitude. They who so easily stray from the paths of truth and peace, are not so soon reclaimed; and to cite only the example of the last century, which has been but one perpetual cry in favour of Toleration, but which expired without leaving behind a single trace of it, but on paper, no one will presume to name the last ten years of that remarkable century as the epoch of toleration.

"The eloquent speeches, and still more admirable laws of the Constituent Assembly, indiscreetly intrusted for execution to the furious rage of parties, served but to dig the gulph into which both Catholic and Protestant worships, with their ministers and altars, were indiscriminately hurled. It was, how

ever, found more easy to demolish churches than to chain the conscience. This distressing state of things continued till the Concordat; when Religion, still bleeding of her wounds, seemed almost to despair of aid. She invoked in vain an arm sufficiently powerful to rear her temples; and to re-assemble, from all corners of the land, her dispersed worshippers. It was demanded, that this solemn restoration of religion should take place; and that she should re-appear in her primitive purity as the friend of government, and not its rival,

enforc

ing the civil duties on the foundation of Christian truths; and preaching to mica the sublime and beautiful precept of love, which, to avail myself of the words of sacred Scripture, is both the law and the prophets.

The spirit of the present enlightened age required more than a mere toleration for the two main branches of Christianity, which alike grew out of the parent stock. According to the Catholic worship, the honours due to age, it claimed equality of rights for the Protestant Reformed Churches; because the law only looks on men as citizens: it stops at the bar of conscience, protects all religious opinions, and judges none. How many difficulties seemed to oppose this noble project! On the one hand, Protestant resentments, confessedly too just, the certain fruit of all persecution; and, on the other hand, obstinacy to uphold every thing naturally excited by a furious zeal to destroy every thing, Iafidel opinions obstinately maintained by some of the leaders of the Revolution, the Catholic religion tora to pieces by internal dissentions, and the flocks of the Protestants without pastors. On a sudden all resentments were bushed, the passions calmed, and the veil which covered Religion fell off. Both parties lament past errors;, and every heart is opened to partake of each other's joy. For the first time, perhaps, the Protestant Churches hail the return of the Catholic worship; to which the majority of France professed attachment. They can see without regret, the celebration of their festivals and the pomp of their ceremonies, while the hymns of Zion resound afresh, under the ancient and wide spreading oaks, till the Government can allot to the Protestants their promised churches. I shall never forget the vow of the citizens of Rouen, who now hear me, that they would throw no obstacle in the way of the religious liberty of their Catholic brethren.

"This day, without doubt, for the first time, the Protestant magistratesof Rouen, attached to the worship of their fathers, came into the midst of this second new church, to realize the blessings of this religious peace, to mingle their prayers with yours, and to chant in common a hymn of praise. But gratitude for this great benefit, attachment to our country, the precepts of morality, and the divine Book which inculcates the love of the brethren in every page, Do not all these belong to Catholics and Protestants in common? Let us then, as fellow-laborers in the same harvest, reap together in peace, till God shall teach us all to see and think alike. He is patient as he is eternal; and how should the feeble works of his hands presume to sound his unfathomable decrees! If on this occasion I might be permitted to glance on the past, how might we regret that these tolerant principles were not known three centuries sooner! Happy would then have been the era of the Reformation! How many evils would have been prevented! Who can tell but that the very name of Protestant Reformed should never have been pronounced? Who can say but that all the children of the same fa

But

mily would now have been fellow-worshippers round the same altar? our separation is no rivalship. The two worships, equally protected and equally honoured, have nothing to dispute about: each has received from the law all that is necessary to its preservation and liberty. Already, no one asks to which sect the citizen belongs. It suffices us as magistrates to know that he is a citizen.

"Thus is accomplished, under our eyes, that which had drawn down persécutiou on the heads of our ancestors, who were courageous enough only to wish it.

This grand triumph of religion will, doubtless, be the first title to glory in the nineteenth century; and at some future day it shall be said, that which was sought in vain for ages, that which Justice and Policy dictated and so many wise and good men required, that which even the great and illustrious Henry the Fourth desired in vain, is at length accomplished! The moment is at length arrived for Catholies and Protestants to dwell together in peace, and to be avenged of each other by binding up each other's wounds: no more to stain the bloody pages of History with the rage of sectarian zeal; but, united in bonds of love, to shew that love of the breinren which our holy religion has long sille

sanctioned under the divine name of Charity. Let us then adopt this for our motto; and, discovering to all around us the affections it inspires, posterity shall perhaps forget the evils committed in its hallowed name!

JAMAICA.

WE long since intimated our hope, that the persecuting law enacted in Jamaica, prohibiting the poor negroes from enjoying the consolations of the gospel in public worship, would not receive the sanction of the British Government; and we are glad to find that it was, in April 1804, disallowed by the King in Council. The draft of another bill, on the same subject, was prepared; and transmitted to Jamaica to be laid before the House of Asseinbly in that island. That house, however, in December last, passed a rosolution to the following effect: “That

any attempt to direct or influence their proceedings, in matters of internal regulation, by any previous proposition on what is under their consideration, is an interference with the appropriate function of the house; which it is their bounden duży never to submit to.”

The former act being anaulied, the pious people of Jamaica trave quietly resumed their religious meetings; and we hope that Divine Providence will still protect them in the peaceable enjoyment of their Christian privileges!

KARASS.

THE Directors of the Missionary Society in Edinburgh, have received advice, that Mr. Cusine died in October last; and was interred at the buryingground belonging to the Mission. The brethren hope for a reinforcement to their number during the following sum

mer.

I THANK you for the perusal of Mr.. ---'s letter. Of the inutility (which he asserts) of printing Bibles in the Irish language, I have my doubts. I have been credibly informed, that there are many hundreds of thousands of the Irish who speak their native tongue, and do not understand the English language: many thousands more than there are of the Welch, who do not understand English. If this be the case, I am persuaded that no instruction can be conveyed to them but in their native language. The common people, in every country, understand that language only in which they daily converse. Many of the Welch have been taught to read

English, who, at the same time, can receive no religious instruction but in their own language. I have known: many Welch servants in London, who, though they could converse with you very readily about the common concerns of life, have confessed to me, they could not make out one sentence, intelligibly, of an English Sermon. Mr.

-'s observation, that "the common people cannot read the Irish language," only proves that they have been exceedingly neglected; and that means should be speedily adopted to teach them to read the language they understand. Till then, I grant that Bibles will be of no use to them. But, instead of not supplying them, let them bave Bibles; and also be taught to read them. To abolish the language is impossible, without the supposition of the destruction of millions of souls, through ignorance. It must be the work of ages. But such a supposition cannot be entertained for a moment, in a Christian's mind. Mr.--'s remark," That