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sion. It is God's usual method to connect revivals of religion with the prayers and fidelity of Christians in those places where revivals occur; and it might be proper to say that Christians have no reason to expect a revival in such places, while they remain in a great measure indifferent to this object, and neither pray nor labour for it with becoming zeal. But is it not going too far to assert that this is God's only method of building up his cause? that a revival will never be experienced and sinners converted until Christians awake and cry mightily to God for the descent of his Spirit? In other words, that God will not pour out his Spirit upon a congregation but in answer to solemn and special prayer by his people for this object? Such language is often employed, but we think it unguarded: it is warranted neither by the tenor of God's promises, nor by the events of his providence. He does more for his people often than they ask, and sometimes surprises them by a mercy which they neither looked for nor requested. I could mention several important revivals of religion, (nearly twenty,) if an ingathering of souls into the Redeemer's kingdom ought to be so denominated, which were not preceded, so far as human eyes could discern, by any special spirit of prayer on the part of the Lord's people. They were manifestly asleep when the heavenly bridegroom came, and were roused into action only by his almighty voice calling dead sinners from the tomb.

Such events do not happen to exculpate the unbelief, the slothfulness, and stupidity of Christians, but to display God's sovereignty, and to overwhelm us with the boundless riches of his mercy.

I know it may be said that it is not easy to determine whether such revivals as I

have alluded to were not, after all, the immediate answer to prayer. Some person, however obscure or unheeded, may have prayed for them some time or other, if not immediately preceding their commencement. This, indeed, is possible; though no evidence can be produced of the fact. But, were this admitted, one thing is certain: the churches, as collective bodies, were asleep; and this is enough for our purpose. It shows that the blessing was not necessarily suspended on their prayers -at least those solemn and earnest prayers to which the promise of God is evidently made. God has promised, for the purpose of encouraging his people to pray; and he fulfils his promises in such circumstances, and often with such particularity, as to inspire his people with confidence and joy; but this hinders not the display of his sovereign mercy towards individuals and communities whenever and wherever he may judge it will subserve the purpose of his glory. Let us beware then of taking ground which he himself has not taken, and of dealing out assertions concerning the operations of his grace which neither his word nor his providence will sustain. At the same time, let us also beware, that our very caution do not betray us into lukewarmness and unbelief; and that, under à pretext of divine sovereignty, we excuse our want of zeal in the cause of man's salvation. We act under a fearful responsibility, and danger awaits us on every side. Our only safety lies in making God's word the rule of our faith, and his glory the end of our actions. May he give to us that humble, inquisitive, and impartial spirit which is intimately connected with successful investigation, and which will be the surest pledge of our understanding and obeying the truth.

Literary and Philosophical Intelligence, etc.

Liberia.-We have received the Liberia Herald of the 7th September. The settlement continues to flourish. The annual election of Vice Agent, two Councillors, High Sheriff, Treasurer, two Censors for Monrovia, and two for Caldwell, Committecs of Health for Monrovia, Caldwell and Millsburgh, and Committees of Agriculture for the same places, took place in the beginning of September. The elec tion for a Vice Agent was a close one.A. D. Williams, the successful candidate, receiving 152 votes, and G. R. McGill, his opponent, 139. The Herald says that the election passed over in peace, "and though we have no broken heads or limbs to record, it was not owing to the want of zeal

on the part of the friends of the candidates." A good example is set by this infant empire to nations that are older and should be wiser. During the month of August, the thermometer ranged at Monrovia from 70 to 78 degrees, with but very slight variations in the course of any one day. The commerce of the settlement is constantly on the increase. Vessels from Great Britain touch at the port almost weekly. The masters of American vessels, as they become better acquainted with the coast, pay but little regard to the seasons; and it is stated that during the greater part of the last periodical rains there was much activity and bustle in the business part of the town.-N. Y. Com. Adv.

Gold Mines in Egypt.-A letter from Alexandria, in Egypt, dated Aug. 12, states that M. Linant, a French traveller, has discovered a rich mine of gold in the mountains that run along the Isthmus of Suez. He conveyed 9 chests of the ore to Cairo, some of which, on being smelted, rendered one-fifth of pure metal. The most productive of the mines of Peru do not afford a larger proportion.

The following is a statement of the coin struck at the mints of France from the commencement of the reign of Napoleon:

Imperial coinage,
Coinage under Louis,
XVII.,

fr.

C.

1,415,854,495 50

1,004,163,169 75 Do. under Charles X., 685,430,240 50 Do. under Louis Philip, 279,852,948 50

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The Paris mint struck, 104,900,000 50 44,122,566 50 42,162,207 25 17,261,778 10,176,180

Lille do. Rouen do. Lyons, do. Marseilles do.

The mints of Paris, Lille and Rouen, are the only ones that struck gold coin. In the specie in circulation are comprised not only the 3,385,200,854 fr. 25c. struck since the reign of Napoleon, but also, the old coin and that of the Republic. This specie has not remained in France, as French coin is to be met with all over Europe. But the loss is compensated by the introduction of foreign coin into France. Hence it is evident that France possesses the greatest portion of the metallic circulating medium.

Thirty millions of bushels of barley are annually converted into malt by the breweries of Great Britain; and upwards of eight millions of barrels of beer, (of which more than four-fifths are strong,) are brewed annually. This enormous consumption attests the fondness of the people for the beverage of their forefathers. -London Mirror.

Education of the Blind.-The situation of no class of sufferers deserves more commiseration, and generally excites more sympathy, than that of the unfortunate blind, who are deprived of that sense, which, of all others, perhaps, is the source of most enjoyment to those who have it in vigorous exercise. They who were deprived of sight in early life, prior to the cultivation of the mind by education, suffer comparatively, in a greater degree, perhaps, than those in whom blindness is a natural consequence of age, but whose minds, well furnished, afford materials for reflection. To supply this deficiency, is truly desirable; and it appears that a person well recommended and acquainted with the art of instructing this class of sufferers, is at present in the city, ready to engage in the business, if encouraged to do so. We do not know whether the design of the Wills' Hospital embraces the education of the inmates; but we presume it would naturally have had a place in the benevolent mind of the founder of that in

stitution; if so, a better opportunity than that now afforded, by the presence of Mr. FRIENDLANDER, of obtaining a suitable instructor, may not soon offer. We were not aware of the number of the blind in the United States, until induced by the notice of his being here, we examined the last census, which furnishes in- . formation on the subject. It appears from it that there were in 1830-5444 of this class in the United States, viz: 3974 whites, and 1470 blacks, being about one in every 2363 persons of the whole population. From a hasty calculation, it appears that the coloured population of this class are more numerous in proportion than the whites; as the whites are one in 2650, and the coloured one in 1584; the proportions are very different in the different states. In Pennsylvania, there are 503 blind, viz. 475 white, and 28 coloured; being about one in every 2680 of the population. What proportion are of a suitable age to receive instruction, cannot be accurately ascertained.-Hazard's Register.

Heligious Intelligence.

The small space to which we are obliged to confine our Religious Intelligence for the present month, we fill with an article from the London Missionary Chronicle, for October last. We select this article because it relates to a missionary station, of which we be

lieve the most of our readers have heard but little. It gives a very affecting view of the moral princí ples, as well as religious superstitions of the Chinese-a people whom some infidel writers extol for their ethicks-It is, we think, worthy of notice, and certainly is

very gratifying, to find Mr. Medhurst saying, in the close of his report-"My dear partner, and our four children, together with our valuable coadjutor, Mr. Young, have all been preserved from sickness and danger for a considerable period." Batavia has usually been considered as the grave of Europeans. Yet here is a family of seven individuals, that "for a considerable period" have not even been visited with sickness-at as an unhealthy a misionary station. probably as any one in the world. With a suitable precautionary system, we believe that missionary enterprises, under the blessing of God, may be prosecuted, without such terrifick apprehensions from unhealthy climates and places, as are too generally indulged.

BATAVIA.

Extracts of a Letter from Rev. W. H. Med

hurt, dated Batavia, 30th Jan. 1832. Honoured Fathers and Brethren,

Amid the multiplied changes continually occurring in human affairs, and the inroads death is perpetually making in the ranks of mortals, your agents at this station are still enabled to hold on their accustomed course without any material interruption. Our divine Saviour has graciously prolonged our unworthy lives, and preserved us in health and activity up to the present period. The usual routine of missionary duties has been gone through, and no available opportunity wilfully neglected, of endeavouring to communicate the saving knowledge of the gospel to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death;-but still we cannot but feel our need of a revival, and of a double portion of the spirit of all grace, to prevent our desponding under the long trial of our patience, and to invigorate us while waiting for the early and the latter rain; particularly as we see so little good resulting from the long-continued operations at this station, and the heathen mind still remaining proof against repeated efforts to bring them acquainted with the truth as it is in Jesus. Those only who know the worth of immortal souls, and who feel the stirrings of a Saviour's love, can have any adequate conception of the sorrow and anguish that fill the missionary's mind, when, going from house to house, day after day, he meets the same cold reception, observes the same chilling indifference, and is dunned by the same stale objections,

which have been answered a thousand times, and still a thousand times recur, as if they had never been refuted. To keep up the spirit of vigorous effort in spite of opposition, is easy, compared with the maintaining of it amidst inattention and neglect. Grace and prayer alone can keep alive the flame of missionary zeal amid such discouragements-oh, that the Lord would visit us in mercy, and make all grace to abound towards us! And, oh that every well-wisher to missionary objects would be fervent in prayer on our behalf, and give the Lord no rest till he come and rain righteousness upon us!

Missionary Labours at the Station. Notwithstanding, however, the despondhave been compelled to commence this ing and self-condemning tone, in which I communication, yet have we had, during the last half-year, some reason to thank God and take courage. The English congregation, on Sabbath mornings, has maintained, yea, increased, its usual numbers, and a proportionate degree of seriousness and attention has been visible. Two of

our English friends have, within the last few months, given decided evidence of a work of grace on their souls, and have joined us in celebrating a Redeemer's love. One of these has been brought by affliction to seek an interest in the best things, and the other has been constrained to devote his youth to God as the most reasonable service. The Malay service, every Lord's day at noon, has been conducted as usual by Mr. Young, who has kept charge likewise of the Chinese schools, and, by his devoted piety and discreet demeanour, has increasingly endeared himself to all around. The three members of our native church continue steady, while their number is likely to be increased by a few additions from among the native Christians here. The service, formerly mentioned as conducted in the Dutch church, every alternate afternoon, has been continued, as also the lecture in the open air to the convicts, whose numbers have lamentably increased to upwards of five hundred. Their wild untutored minds seem sometimes impressed, and their attention considerably arrested by the truth. On Friday evenings, a sermon is preached in the Malay language, and on Tuesdays a prayer meeting is held in the same tongue. Depok is visited occasionally, and evidence of good appears.-In addition to these stated services, daily visits are made to the natives in the streets, campogns, and bazaars, for the purpose of conversation and tract distribution; on these occasions, when a few are found collected together, or even one seen seated alone and unemployed, the opportunity is embraced for the introduction of sacred things, and for the exposition of the main doctrines of the gospel. The certainty of

future retribution, the demerit of sinful men, the need of a Saviour, and the suitableness of the gospel to our state and wants, are the main topics.

Defective and erroneous Notions of Moral Obligation entertained by the Chinese at Batavia.

The chief difficulty with the Chinese seems to be, to make them at all sensible of their guilt and danger, principally because sin, in their estimation, is a very different thing from what it is in ours; the word sin, in their language, being synonynious with crime, and those things only being accounted sinful which are cognizable and punishable by human laws;thus murder, arson, theft, and adultery, are considered sins; but lying, deceit, fornication, gaming, drunkenness, pride, anger, lust, and covetousness, together with all bad passions of the human heart, which do not proceed to any glaring act injurious to our fellow-creatures, are none of them considered in the light of sins. Whatever Chinese moralists and philosophers may assert and teach, Chinese men and women in common life do not regard these things as criminal, do not strive against them, nor feel any misgivings on account of their prevalence in their hearts and lives. I have heard them openly and unblushingly plead for the policy and even` necessity of deceit in business, without which, they pretend, that they could not live; fornication I never heard condemned as unlawful, so long as both parties were willing to live in that state, and no connubial engagement was infringed thereby; gaming is the more strongly pleaded for on account of its being licensed by law; and drunkenness, with its cognate vice, opium-smoking, can be looked upon as no offence, in their estimation, so long as the intoxicating drug or liquor is purchased with their own money. Indeed, no evil disposition, which can be concealed from human observation, is considered by them as criminal; and, in their reasonings among themselves, their blinded consciences fail not to excuse without accusing them for their transgressions. The law of God has been frequently laid before them, in all its strictness and impartiality -but it is not so easy for a Chinese to apprehend the ground of its authority, or to receive it as a divine communication on the mere words of a stranger; particularly when, instead of recommending itself to their judgments, all the precepts of the first table, and not a few of the second, when explained in their utmost latitude, run directly contrary to their preconceived notions of religion and morality. The only faults which they ever tax themselves with, are, in reality, no faults; such as the quitting their native country while their parents are alive, dying without posterity or laying up for their wives and

children; also treading unwittingly on an ant, eating beef, or allowing hungry ghosts to starve;-convictions of conscience for such like offences sometimes seize them, but these, instead of furthering, only hinder their sincere humiliation for sin, and heartfelt repentance on account of it.

Their Modes of purifying Conscience, and Ideas of future Punishment..

Again, when convinced in the slightest degree of sin, they have so many methods of pacifying their consciences, and putting far off the evil day, that it does not follow that concern should be manifested for their eternal safety. Those who do believe in a hell think that only the worst of criminals and vilest of mankind will be consigned to that awful place, the punishment of which they are still far from considering eternal. But the greater part of them do not believe in a hell, because they do not see it; and though they are in the constant habit of sacrificing to the dead, providing for hungry ghosts, and conveying money, food, and apparel, through the smoke for the use of their deceased relatives in Hades, yet they have not the slightest apprehension of being themselves consigned to that dismal place, and make no attempts to escape from it. They believe, indeed, that they may be punished by coming out into the world again in another and a worse shape than that which they now inhabit-that they may even be beggars, slaves, dogs, horses, or the meanest reptiles, yet, as consciousness will then cease, and, whatever they were or may be, no recollection of the same does or will accompany them, they are, therefore, the less concerned about their fate in this respect, and the apprehension of it has no salutary effect on their conduct and lives. The retribution which the Chinese most dread, is the reprisal that may be made on their posterity in the present life: they are sometimes greatly alarmed lest, in consequence of their fraud and oppression, their children and grandchildren should suffer, and the widow's mite and orphan's portion, which have been by them kept back by fraud, shonld be wrung out of the purses of their posterity after their decease. Such a motive as this, however, is too weak to bring them to entertain any serious alarm; and, without being aware of their danger, we can hardly expect them to be earnest in fleeing from the wrath to come. Thus we never hear any bewailing their lost condition-their whole concern is, What shall we eat? &c., and none saith, Where is God, my Maker?-or what shall I do to be saved? No opportunity has been omitted of making known the Saviour,-of representing his sharp sufferings, bitter death, amazing love, and unlimited power to save; but, though these things be insisted on

over and over again, these people seem to have no heart to them.

Their Indifference to the Offers of the Gospel.-Instance of their Superstition. All the day long have we stretched forth our hands to a disobedient and gainsaying people-oh, that the Lord would appear in the thunder, in the whirlwind, or rather in the still small voice, speaking to the hearts of this people, and melting them into obedience by the all-constraining influence of a Saviour's love.-The following instance of attachment to idolatry may serve to show the blindness and ignorance of these people: a man's house, in a neighbouring village, being on fire, and there being just time to save a few of his most valuable commodities, he rushed in and rescued-not his goods-but his parental

tablet, which stood on the altar-piece, leaving his valuable clothes and merchandise a prey to the flames. He was thus reduced to beggary, and was obliged afterwards to take refuge in a wretched hovel, exhausted with disease and hunger, still clinging to his parental tablet, which he had saved at so much peril and at so great a cost. This tablet is nothing more than the name of a parent, with the date of his birth and death, engraved on a piece of wood, which they look upon as a kind of representative of the deceased, offer to it the daily meed of incense, and rely on the same for health and prosperity. The Catholics, in China, on the accession of a convert, insist on the destruction of this tablet, as a proof of an entire rejection of their former faith.

View of Publick Affairs.

EUROPE.

The latest European dates are from Britain (London and Liverpool) of the 23d and 24th of October, and from France two or three days less recent. We have hitherto been of opinion, that a general war in Europe was not likely to grow out of the collisions between Holland and Belgium, or those between the conflicting parties in Portugal. The last accounts, however, appear more warlike than any we have before seen of late. Indeed, the captain of a vessel arrived at Charleston, S. C., direct from Amsterdam, reports that hostilities had actually commenced between Holland and Belgium. But as he left Amsterdam on the 20th, and we have Liverpool papers to the 24th of October, which say nothing of actual war, we may believe it had not then commenced. All accounts however agree, that every thing short of war begun, had taken place.

BRITAIN. The British Parliament has been in recess since August last; and the only important article of news from Britain, which we have seen during the last month, relates to the fitting out of a powerful fleet, of about twenty vessels of war, some of them of the largest size, for blockading the Scheld; with a view to coerce the Dutch to agree to the award of the five great powers in relation to the controversy which has so long existed between Belgium and Holland. The British fleet is collected at Spithead, where it is expected that it will be joined by a French fleet, destined to co-operate in the contemplated blockade. We think there are strong indications that the present ministry are losing their popularity in Britain.

FRANCE. By a royal ordinance the French Chambers have been convoked for the 19th of Nov. ult. A new ministry has been formed, at the head of which is Marshal Soult. He is decided in favour of coercing Holland to accept the proposed arrangements in regard to Belgium; and it is said has declared that if the Dutch resist, he will lay the keys of the citadel of Antwerp on the table of the Chamber of Deputies on the day of their meeting. "Let not him that putteth on the harness, boast himself as he that putteth it off." The new French ministry, it appears, are decidedly opposed to what is called the liberal party, and disposed to sustain the measures and the throne of Louis Philip, at every risk. In the expected operations against Holland, Britain and France act in concert. French troops, however, had not entered Belgium at the date of the last accounts; although every preparation had been made for the purpose. SPAIN. There have been great overturnings lately in Spain. The king has been apparently at the point of death, and indeed there was a short period, it would seem, when he was supposed to be actually dead. It turned out, however, to be only a state of suspended animation, and he has since been recovering his health. But during his illness his ministers availed themselves of his delirium, or unconsciousness, to obtain his signature to a repeal of the decree he had previously published, abrogating the Salique law in Spain, and appointing his daughter as the heiress apparent to his crownthe queen to be regent during the daughter's minority-The object of the ministry was

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