the wrath of Diana, and secure the conquest of Troy. When Agathocles besieged Carthage, its inhabitants, feeling the extremity to which they were reduced, imputed all their misfortunes to the anger of Saturn; because, instead of offering up children of noble descent, as custom required, they had substituted the children of slaves and strangers. To make amends for this defect in their religious service, two hundred children of the best families in Carthage were immolated to propitiate the offended deity.

We learn from the sacred Scriptures that among the Canaanites, in the time of Moses, this horrid custom prevailed,-perhaps more extensively than among any other people; and that by a powerful and strange fascination it extended to several neighbouring nations; nor did the Moabites and Ammonites, though descended from Abraham's kinsman Lot, nor the Israelites themselves, entirely escape its influence. When Mesha, the pastoral king of Moab, in the war against the three kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom, "saw that the battle was too sore for him," and that no effort of his would avail to repair his misfortune, in the extremity of his distress, and as a last resource to appease offended heaven, "he took his eldest son, that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt-offering upon the wall." (2 Kings iii. 26, 27.)

But we return to the age of Abraham. The difficulty occasioned by the command which had been given him, and which his prompt obedience had now brought to its climax, was one of which he was at the time unconscious; but it was an exigency which required the immediate interposition of Heaven. That interposition actually took place. As Isaac lay bound on the altar upon the wood, and Abraham grasped the knife to slay his son, "the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said,...Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me." As if He had said, "The trial is complete, without the actual sacrifice, which I now forbid." And in forbidding this consummation, he virtually forbade it, for all time, to all Abraham's posterity, and to all who would imitate the faith of Abraham. For, if Abraham was not allowed to complete a sacrifice which had been commanded, much less shall such a sacrifice be sanctioned or accepted when uncommanded. And it was because the custom of human sacrifice had, in the time of Moses, become common among the Canaanitish nations, that this virtual prohibition was then made express and emphatic; and that the Israelites were solemnly and repeatedly warned, not only against idolatry in general, but against adopting this branch of it in particular, the practice of which was declared detestable,—most heinous in the sight of God. "When the Lord thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land; take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou inquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise. Thou shalt not do so unto the Lord thy God: for every abomination to the Lord, which He hateth, have they done unto

VOL. XIV.-FIFTH SERIES.

E

their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods." (Deut. xii. 29-31.)

And we find, in fact, that, with the exception of a few apostate and idolatrous Israelites in the times before the Babylonish captivity, the prohibition has been observed; and human sacrifices, which have so extensively prevailed in the heathen world, have been effectually abolished wherever the Bible has been received, or the influence of Christianity felt.

(To be concluded.)

WESTMINSTER: THE PROJECTED NEW CHAPEL. THE city of Westminster contains a population of nearly a quarter of a million persons. For the purpose of a ready illustration of our topic, we may roughly estimate that this is nearly equal to the united population of Leeds and Bradford, taking the towns only, as distinct from the parliamentary boroughs. In these two towns Methodism provides chapel-accommodation for about twenty-five thousand persons: in the metropolitan city, the solitary Wesleyan chapel has sittings for four hundred and twenty adult persons, with a few additional inconvenient benches for Sunday-school children. Such is a broad statement of the case to which the Circular of October 11th, bearing the signature of the Rev. John Scott, refers; and to it we now invite the serious attention of our readers. Methodistically, this great population, along with that of Brompton, Fulham, Battersea, Chelsea, and Pimlico, is included in the Chelsea Circuit, which thus numbers within its boundaries at least three hundred and fifty thousand persons. Four years ago, by a very liberal estimate, Methodism, amongst this vast mass, offered accommodation for about two thousand two hundred persons, including Sunday-school children. At the present date, by great exertions, and with the aid of the Metropolitan Chapel-Building Fund, that accommodation has been raised to three thousand five hundred sittings, being about one per cent. on the population just named.

It is but fair to require that those who seek assistance beyond their own Circuit boundaries should show that local effort has not been wanting. The foregoing figures, we apprehend, do sufficiently evince this; more especially, as we observe from Mr. Scott's Circular that the Chelsea Circuit engages to contribute a thousand pounds towards the projected building.

It would, of course, be hopeless to attempt to provide for the spiritual wants of this huge district, as regards Methodism, by any single effort; and the aim of the present project is confined accordingly within far narrower limits. It may at once be stated that the district to be benefitted by the proposed new chapel would be chiefly the parishes of St. Margaret and St. John, in Westminster, containing a joint population of about sixty-eight thousand persons. Comparatively limited as is this area, it is perhaps the most remarkable spot in the whole modern world, and exemplifies more strikingly than any other that could be named the strength and the weakness of our social arrangements. On

its northern border rises the chief palace of our Queen, and debouching upon its ball-room glittering with a thousand lights, runs York-street with its workhouse, and its dens of lust and vice; here are the magnificent towers of the halls of our legislature, and there the bald and forbidding turrets of the gloomy Penitentiary; here we see the Abbey, rich in the storied associations of centuries, and there flares the musichall, resonant to the last flashy song; here is the palatial hotel of modern days, and there is the model lodging-house; here is the vast distillery, gay with its columns of polished granite, and provided with the most perfect apparatus for "poisoning Her Majesty's subjects by wholesale," and there, under its very shadow, are the squalor and the crime of Duck-lane and Leg-court; here the costermonger's cart must “move on" under the pressure of the New Streets Act; and there at the Victoria railway-station our modern Dives, far too refined to allow his dogs to lick the sores of his poor brother, fairly turns his back on Lazarus, and on the wings of steam rushes to his suburban viila at Croydon or Richmond.

In the very centre of this district was opened, seventeen years ago, our noble Normal School, which now reckons one hundred and thirty students within its walls, and receives through its gates every day more than a thousand children; and within a stone's throw of it stands the Romney-terrace chapel, upon the site of which it has long been desired that a sanctuary worthy of Methodism should be erected. By authority of the Conference recently held in Bristol, the Education Committee is now making an earnest appeal to the Connexion for aid in accomplishing this object, the precise nature of which cannot be better stated than by the following extracts from the Circular already alluded to:

"The Committee of Education now appeal to the Connexion. They propose to erect a chapel that will seat, including children, one thousand five hundred or one 'housand six hundred persons. The teachers, students, and other persons belonging to the Training College and Practising Schools, will require one hundred and fifty sittings; suitable accommodation ought to be provided for at least five hundred children; and as the parents of the children attending the schools belong mostly to the artisan and labouring classes, and to the poor, the Committee think that a considerable portion of the chapel should provide sittings which, if not free, can be let at a low rent, so as to bring them within the reach of all, except the very poor; and for them there should be a number of seats, quite free. The highest class of inhabitants in the neighbourhood consists of small shopkeepers and tradesmen; and of this class, the chapel should provide accommodation, at a moderate charge, for six hundred or eight hundred. The erection of such a chapel, with vestries for meeting classes, and a room underneath sufficiently large to accommodate a Sunday-school of four hundred or five hundred children, judging from the cost of chapels recently erected in London and elsewhere, cannot cost less than £8,000 or £9,000."

After much careful inquiry, the site of the present chapel has been thought the best available; and on that supposition the Committee thus states the expenditure that will probably be needed :—

"On the original freehold, £4,200 was owing; and a further sum of £4,368 has been expended in the purchase of other contiguous property, so as to render the site

sufficiently large for a new chapel. The Committee, however, supposc, that from ground-rents which will remain, and from the rents of two houses, which, though deteriorated as residences from their close proximity to the chapel, probably, need not be taken down at present, the interest of £2,000 may be provided, if left as a debt on the new building. The entire property is freehold; and, owing to the high value of property in Westminster, no such site near the Training College could be purchased for so small an amount.

"Taking, then, the cost of the site at £6,568; and supposing that the chapel be built according to the lower estimate of £8,000, (which, however, seems questionable,) the sum of £14,568 will be required, if the above-mentioned £2,000 remain as a debt; or £16,568, if the property be absolutely free."

From the beginning of the work of the Normal School at Westminster it has been felt that such a chapel was necessary to the completion of that Institution; and was not less demanded by the spiritual destitution of the locality. It need hardly be stated that, in the event of the successful completion of the undertaking, due care will be bestowed not only to secure the chapel as Connexional property, but also to maintain its special relation to the Normal School.

What we have already written may suffice to show the desirableness of erecting such a chapel, in this important district, on general grounds; but there are special considerations, having respect to the Normal School, which warrant this extraordinary appeal to the liberality of the Connexion. The educational work, by common consent of all parties, is rapidly increasing in importance and necessity; and schools and teachers are now being spread through the Connexion, as quickly as the one can be built and the other trained. And not only is this the case with the home-work, but to some extent the Mission-field shares the benefit of the work of our Normal Institution. On every continent of our globe are labourers, who were once students of our Training College; and, in fact, it was greatly owing to his knowledge of the results of their work expended on South Africa, that the Ex-President, the Rev. William Shaw, felt it his duty to urge this matter so earnestly on his return from that interesting sphere of Missionary exertion. India has its share, and can reckon up a little, but devoted, band; some of whom are occupying useful and influential positions in the midst of her great population; while towards the noble undertaking of Mr. Piercy in China the Training College has contributed four labourers, of whom one has found an early grave. Whatever contributes to enlarge the ideas of these young persons, gathered to Westminster from all parts of our land; to enlist their sympathies more thoroughly in the promotion of the great work of Methodism; to qualify them afterwards to conduct schools to the best religious effect; cannot be unimportant to the true interests of the Connexion at large; and this, the Committee observes, "is the direct end sought by the erection of such a chapel in Westminster as is here proposed." Already nearly one-third of the sum required has been promised; and "the Committee," we hope not without reason, "anticipate a kind and liberal response to their application." We most heartily recommend the perusal of the entire Circular by those to whom it has been or will be sent; and we

trust that the Committee of Education may speedily be put in such a position in respect to funds, as will warrant them in at once taking active steps to erect this long desired chapel at Westminster.

S.

JOHANNES HUS REDIVIVUS.*

EXACTLY four hundred and fifty years after John Huss was bound to the stake, and committed to the flames, and his ashes cast into the Rhine at Constance, the first instalment of his works in the Bohemian language appeared at Prague, the capital of his native country. Many of these have never before been printed; and we shall now be able to know him, not merely as a controversialist, writing and speaking in the Latin language, but as a man living, acting, and speaking among those of his own nation and his own language. We propose to give below the preface of Mr. Karel Jaromir Erben, the learned and careful editor of the Bohemian remains of Huss, Huss's own preface to his Postilla, or popular sermons, and a specimen of the sermons themselves, literally translated from the original.

K. J. ERBEN'S PREFACE TO VOL. I. OF THE BOHEMIAN WORKS OF JOHN Huss.

Very different judgments are passed upon both John Huss himself and his religious influence by persons of different parties, and a certain class of people in our day endeavours to conceal the truth; and obtain currency for perverse explanations, relying on the circumstance that there is no one who can ascertain the truth at the very fountain-head, and thus detect their falsehoods. Hence a critical edition of the writings of this man, who was so conspicuous above others in European history, appears to be the more necessary, in order that his real aim, his real line of thought, and his real spirit may thence be ascertained. The collected Latin writings of Huss were published partly at Nuremberg, in 1715, and partly at Vienna, in 1856; but some of them still remain in manuscript, while others, especially those in the Viennese collection, require to be re-edited with greater correctness. But we, at the present time, are especially interested in the writings, letters, and other productions of the mind of Huss, which were written in the Bohemian or Czeskish language, that they may now come to light for the first time in a more complete collection. Some of them, it is true, have been printed, viz., the Postilla, at Nuremberg, in 1563 and 1592, and elsewhere, singly; but these old editions are now excessively scarce, and, besides, to a great extent incorrect, containing many variations from the original text, caused by conforming the language to that current in their day: nay, there are among them things which are incorrectly ascribed to Huss.

"Besides the historical interest above mentioned, the Bohemian writings of Huss have no little philological importance. Huss was not only the reformer of Bohemian orthography, but also a reformer of the

From the "Journal of Sacred Literature."