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attempted to proselyte this lady, all her prejudices would have been up in arms; had my behaviour been unbecomingly light or causelessly austere, she would have been either disgusted or repelled, and her precon

ceived notions of Protestants would have been confirmed; she saw and heard what satisfied her; thus, even in social intercourse, the public teacher should always be a Christian instructor.

Essays, Extracts, and Correspondence.

VIEWS OF EASTERN LIFE.

THIS Volume* is one of considerable interest, but it is not exactly what the title would lead the reader to expect. It is lively and sketchy, everywhere displaying good sense and much humanity; but it is defective in its religious bearing. The evangelical sentiment is very imperfectly developed. There is, indeed, no proof that the writer thoroughly understands the Gospel. He is duly alive to all that is passing around him, and describes well; but the sympathy displayed on behalf of the souls of the perishing soldiery amounts to very little. The following are specimens of the more amusing portions of the work.

THE ARMENIANS.

The

The worship of these Oriental Christians seems half-way between Islamism and Romanism. I speak of the first impression made by the external ceremonies. churches contain ornaments and images, but are in general very simple. The Armenians prostrate themselves during their prayers in the Mussulman manner. A man at the door lights a little taper when a worshipper enters the church. This taper blazes at the door, together with many others, on a small stand. The worshipper, on retiring, gives a small payment to the porter. We find everywhere a religion of forms and money. In this church, I saw none but women, who, on entering, were careful to take off their shoes, in the Mussulman fashion. On seeing this, the words of Scripture recurred to my mind, "Take thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place where thou standest is holy ground;" but I have since learned that this custom has nothing to do with religion, but is merely a cleanly habit, necessitated by the extreme dirt of the streets throughout the East-by the floors of the mosques and the churches being covered with rich carpets-and by the Oriental practice of prostrating themselves, with their faces on the ground, during their prayers.

A STUDENT.

While, during a walk to Stamboul, I was examining the Egyptian obelisk of the Hip"The French Pastor at the Seat of War." By EMILIEN FROSSARD. James Nisbet and Co.

podrome, a young man, dressed as a Turk, came up to me, and volunteered some information in bad French. "Are you a Turk?" I asked him. "No." "Where were you born?" "At Constantinople." "Then you are a Turk?" "No, I am not a Mohammedan." "Are you then a Greek?" "No." "An Armenian?" "Romanist?" "No." "Protestant?" No, I have no country or religion, but I am a student." "What are you learning?" Languages; and when I know three, I shall attach myself as dragoman to some embassy; then I shall have a religion and a country!"

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TURKISH MOSQUES.

The buildings of which I give you this cursory description face the east, looking towards Mecca, and a little monument called "Mirah" marks the point towards which the faithful should turn during prayer. The interior of a mosque is extremely simple. The image of no living creature is permitted, Mussulmans having a horror of anything approaching idolatry. The only ornament permitted is tracery copied from the vegetable kingdom; and the patterns thus formed are known by the name of arabesques, a name denoting their Eastern origin. Carpets, more or less rich, cover the floors. Hundreds of lamps hang from the roofs, many of which are ornamented with precious stones. In one of the aisles of the edifice is a raised pulpit, from whence the tables of the law are read every Friday. Men and women, without distinction of age or rank, enter the mosques when they choose, and place themselves where they like. They pray either apart or together. When they join in worship, they follow the lead of some officer of the mosque, or some pious man. Mohammedanism permits no priesthood. The Ulemas are only interpreters of the Koran, answering to the doctors of the law amongst the Jews. While praying, the Mohammedans sometimes stand with their hands raised above the head, sometimes the body bent as if bowing, sometimes prostrate, the hands and face touching the ground. Their prayers, in general, are short, and recited in a monotonous tone.

The Mosque of Solyman was built about the middle of the sixteenth century. It is surmounted by four minarets of unequal height, two of them being surrounded by three balconies, tastefully decorated with open tracery. The exterior court is surrounded by magnificent columns, most of them formed of a single block of marble or

porphyry. In the interior are four very large antique columns, remains of the ancient splendour of Byzantium. The circumference of the base is four yards, and their height is in proportion, according to the Grecian order of architecture. In olden times, one of these columns supported the statue of Venus, another that of Justinian; and it is supposed the two others supported the statues of Theodosius and Eudoxia.

When we entered this place, we found an assembly of five or six hundred men and women, collected in groups on the ground, round low pulpits in which were seated professors, who taught, as we have since been informed, one, theology; another, logic; another, political economy; Turkish geography; &c. The pupils were seated or lying on the carpets. Some held books in their hands, and appeared attentive and intelligent. The lessons finished, while the learners dispersed, some young men, whose appearance I could not help admiring, approached us, and seemed inclined to turn us out of the mosque, but the older men interfered, and seemed willing to protect us. For ourselves, we put a good face on the matter, and without departing from the respect due to a place of worship, we maintained the rights belonging to our nation, without whose intervention this magnificent edifice might already have been destroyed. We were thus allowed to finish our visit in peace. On leaving, we saw some of the young fanatics who had wished to drive us away, and we soon changed their ill-humour into courtesy by fearlessly approaching them, and making signs that we should like to examine their books. They hastened to show them to us, explaining to us how they were to be read.

"BAKCHICHE."

As I had to-day another hour to myself, I went through a little side-door, by which I had seen the Mohammedans enter their place of worship. Half-a-dozen Turks came up to me, to tell me in half-a-dozen languages that I must take off my boots. This operation finished, a little hump-backed, squinting old man took possession of me; he dragged me along; I became his property-it was all I could do not to become his prey or his victim. Every one has read in the history of "Sinbad the Sailor," his meeting with a little bald old man, who fixed himself on him, and clung to him like a nightmare. Just such a little monster of a cicerone seized upon me in the enclosure of St. Sophia. I could not release myself from his obsequious tyranny, therefore I submitted. My guide made me hurry through the immense peristyle, where I should have wished to stay a while, to admire the grandeur of the nave and its vaulted roof. We then, after crossing a damp corridor, reached a door, the keeper of which was there holding a heavy key in his hand. "Bakchiche!" he exclaimed. "Here," said I, generously putting a small silver piece into the hand of the Mussulman. "Eleven piastres more," he demanded. I protested against this extortion; the keeper insisted; I refused. I tried to take back my piece of money, but felt the hand of the barbarian close like a vice. I scolded in French, and

was answered in Turkish. I exhausted my vocabulary, but all was useless; they would not allow me to enter, they would not restore my money, nor allow me to go out; I was the prisoner of five tall Turks, bearded like Pandours. Not knowing now what argument to use, I pronounced before the officials, in a firm and severe tone, the magic word, "Francese." I took my note-book from my pocket with a determined air, and pretended to be putting down a description of these men. They now consulted together, grew mollified, and drew towards me! The little hump-backed man patted me on the shoulder, repeating, in a wheedling manner," Bono Francese!" while the biped Cerberus turned the key, and made the heavy door creak on its hinges. I passed by them magnificently, throwing my bakchiche on the ground, like one who wished to make himself respected by these rogues, and I entered the "Gynaïkites" by a flight of such very easy steps, that they seemed intended for the talika of the favourite Sultana.

DERVISHES.

An

Not far from Sali Bazar, in passing in front of an edifice of humble appearance, my attention was attracted by sounds unaccustomed to my ears,-a sort of jerked rhythm, of a rude and impassioned character. individual, posted before the door, observing the interest I exhibited, made me a sign to enter. After the ceremony, which obliges every visitor to take off his shoes, I found myself in a small octagonal chamber, where four strong hearty men, beneath whose beards I should have expected to recognise the features of common butchers, rather than the seraphic faces of ascetics, worked themselves up to the frantic dances of the howling dervishes. I was actually in a téké (a dervish monastery). The four monks in a row, with their arms entwined, advanced together two or three steps, and, bending themselves forwards, pronounced these words, which they repeated at each movement, "Allah hou! Allah hou!" They had just got to the end of their exercises. The perspiration rolled down their faces, and their eyes appeared to start from their sockets, and their voices sounded like those of our hoarse boatmen. I saw them resume their fur cloaks, which they had put off for the occasion, and each returned to his home, like a workman who has finished his laborious task. It is well known, however, that the exercises of the howling dervishes do not end here, though I was not witness to any of those frightful scenes in which they stab each other with daggers, pierce the flesh of little children, whose mothers bring them for that purpose, with larding-pins, trample upon the bodies of devotees, and surrender themselves to tortures, in which they find food for their fanatic devotion. Alas! to what a state of things are not our feeble minds exposed, when they have no other guide than that of a degraded imagination.

TURKISH WORSHIPPERS.

After having taken off our shoes according to custom, we were introduced into an octagonal hall, which, like a riding-school,

presents a concentrical gallery for the purpose of separating the strangers who occupy the external circumference, while the dervishes retain for themselves the interior. An upper gallery corresponds in the same manner, only it is not permitted to strangers to ascend there. After some minutes of waiting in silence, we observed to pass sixteen dervishes of different ages, and dressed in different manners, like the Turks we met in the streets, except that the dervishes always wear the felt cap, which I have described elsewhere. The dervishes placed themselves symmetrically around the inner space, and seated themselves cross-legged on the ground like tailors. Then commenced the Mussulman ritual, directed by the superior, a man still young, of a mild and pensive countenance, delicate and serious, marked by a beautiful Arab expression. We soon heard a rapid and harmonious recitative intoned, then the signal given for prayers; then the dervishes made the responses, lifting the palm of the hand towards heaven, raising themselves, bending themselves, and prostrating themselves, with the face to the ground, after a regular and gymnastic fashion. Prayer over, the dervishes, advancing in procession, came to salute the superior respectfully by threes, and thus made the tour of the hall. Each having resumed his place in an upright position, after a moment of silence, we heard proceeding from the upper gallery music produced by a symphony of flutes and tambourines of extreme softness.

On hearing the first sounds of the music, the dervishes unrobed themselves as if by magic of their upper dress, which fell about their feet, and they appeared dressed in a long white flowing robe reaching to the ground, very ample at the bottom, joined with a very high waist to a spencer of the same material. Thus equipped, they put themselves in motion, pirouetting upon themselves in a slow manner regulated by the music, and turning at the same time round the hall. During this rotatory motion, the dervishes kept their heads bent towards one shoulder, an arm elevated, with the palm of the hand directed towards heaven, the other arm inclined with the fingers turned towards the earth. We soon heard the tune increasing in rapidity; and the dervishes, quickening their motions at the same time, had the appearance of large white bells, or perhaps still more like some fantastic birds about to take their flight. A still quicker motion caused them for a moment to look like pegtops asleep. This exercise lasted about ten minutes, after which the dervishes stopped on a sudden, made another procession round the room saluting their superior, who, up to that time, himself motionless, also took some turns by himself in a slow and measured mannerthen each one again put on his daily dress, and resumed his ordinary occupations.

CHRISTIANITY AND CIVIL FREEDOM.

CHRISTIANITY has done much for civil freedom. Christianity brings with it principles which men value more

than life; and wherever it has entered the domains of tyranny-whether in imperial Rome, or under a persecuting church, or in barbarous Madagascarthe tyrant finds at once men who will not do his will. He slays, but he cannot bend them. Thus it sets up barriers against the will of tyrants, and lays the first stone in the foundation of liberty. "And Peter and John answered, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God"--this answer, so familiar to us, so sublime as it first was announced to a world who knew nothing but to worship according to the traditions of the elders or the decrees of the government-embodies the elements of earth's noblest deeds. It is as if its very words were not so much words as martyrdoms, Bartholomew's massacres, Huguenot and Puritan expatriations.

Christianity started the human mind on its present career of independent inquiry, activity, and progress. Teaching every man that to his own master he standeth or falleth, imposing on him a responsibility which eternity alone measures, and which he cannot divide with another, it necessarily throws him off from proscription to think and act for himself. Never has Christianity penetrated a country, nor a cottage, nor a cabin, without awaking the mind to carnest thought, and drawing out its energies to earnest action. The Protestant Reformation is an instance on a large scale. It was then that Christianity stood over the grave of free inquiry, as Jesus at the grave of Lazarus, and cried, "Come forth." Forth came that spirit, and the grave-clothes of superstition were cast away. has gone abroad no more to die; she has roused men to action; she has ripped up old errors; she has torn away abuses; she has dug up buried truths; she has multiplied inventions, increased wealth, diffused comforts; she has changed the face of the world, Though she has often forgotten, and sometimes stabbed the benefactor that raised her from the grave, and, allying herself with the selfish and the devilish, has committed excesses at which Christianity weeps, yet it was Christianity that started her career, and that ever is striving to restrain it, that it may be only a career of blessing.

She

It is a singular fact, commented on by Guizot, that, at the very time when, in the church, the spirit of free inquiry was

going forth, in the state, power was rapidly concentrating in the monarch, and, from the confusion of feudalism, the governments were changing into the likeness of Oriental despotisms. But the freedom of inquiry awakened by Christianity could not long exist without being brought to act on the state. And history shows, in quick succession, English Puritanism, the settlement of New England, the English Revolution, the American Revolution, -all results of the collision of mind freed by Christianity, with the growing despotism of the state.

Thus, not the Puritans alone, to whose influence in advancing liberty, even Hume testifies, but in all the history of Christendom, the church has been ahead of the state, and taken the lead in its progress; it has occasioned the opposition to tyranny which has specially marked the last two hundred years; it has originated, and in some respects to a degree guided the career of activity to which, with such almost fearful energy, the human mind is now roused.

Christianity alone infused into popular progress the sublime element of the rights of man-rights belonging to man not by grant of rulers, nor by accident of birth, or wealth, or nature; but belonging to him as man. Tory journalists of the old world still deny that there are any such things as inalienable rights-that there is any equality of man. But these are realities. Their foundation, and their only foundation, is the teaching of the Gospel, Honour all men, the grand Gospel doctrine of the brotherhood of man. They have no meaning except as derived from the Gospel, which teaches that we are all the offspring of one father, subjects of one law, fallen under one condemnation, redeemed by the same Saviour, equally bound to love all as ourselves, and destined alike to the same judgment. Our Declaration of Independence, so far as it teaches the equal rights of man, is but an application to civil affairs of that principle of universal love which Christ taught. The idea in question, and kindred sentiments, have become popular of late. Demagogues and infidels love to harp on them. The fact shows how powerful is the hold which they at last have

gained on the human mind. But let them who use them know that these sentiments are the creatures of eternity -the gift of Christianity to man.

GUIZOT ON THE NEED OF TRUE CHRISTIANITY IN FRANCE.

IN his capacity as President of the "Society for the Encouragement of Primary Instruction amongst the Protestants of France," M. Guizot delivered a speech, which was immediately published by the Journal des Debats and other political papers, and produced a great sensation. It was violently attacked by the Jesuit journal, the Univers, adding yet another honour to the illustrious orator.

M. Guizot discussed that important question, that a return to the Christian religion is necessary for his country, because it is the only way to produce faith, hope, and charity; three things absolutely indispensable, whether for the salvation of souls, or for the order and happiness of the state. Evangelical faith alone can give fixed stability to agitated and restless minds, which are now floating on the ocean of human systems, and find nowhere a safe harbour. Christian hope is no less necessary to the men of our time; for they have tried everything, undertaken everything, and having met everywhere with bitter deceptions, are sunk into despondency. despondency. What must be done to give them strength and activity? Show them the infinite hopes of eternity, which meet at once the wants of time and of eternity. Finally, charity must be restored; it is charity which brings peace in the midst of conflicts provoked by diversity of opinions. would be in vain to seek for peace in the operation of a brutal despotism, which imposes silence alike on all parties. Our modern societies cannot be long deprived of liberty. Now, by what means can we obtain peace with liberty? By no other means than by sincerely practising Christian charity, because charity respects the convictions and sentiments of every one, and employs no other weapon than that of persuasion. All these observations of M. Guizot bear the stamp of his ele vated intelligence and his excellent judgment.

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The Christian Ministry.

POWER OF THE PULPIT.

To the Editor of the Christian Witness.

DEAR SIR,-Permit me to make a few additional remarks on the subject of preaching.

The pulpit yet continues to be a great power in this land. It might be, and ought to be, its greatest power; but, of late years, the press has been gaining upon it, and its mighty force has not been brought out as that of its chief rival has been. A most interesting inquiry surely is,-What means can be adopted to restore the pulpit to its proper place and just pre-eminence? The first thing to be done is, practically to renounce the injurious mistake, that eminent attainments in general scholarship are indispensably necessary, or even desirable, for all preachers. I greatly fear, that the union of all our colleges with the London University, has largely contributed to the diminished efficiency of our ministry, by operating to divert the minds of the students from their great work and business, to studies of a more secular and profane character, as well as by infusing into their minds the ambition of literary eminence. To this I ascribe, in a very considerable degree, the reduced power of the Congregational pulpit. By power, in its application to the pulpit, I do not mean intellectual force, analytical subtilty, or even argumentative strength, by which a select few may be gratified; but rather the power of persuasion, of fixing the attention, and impressing the hearts and consciences of all classes in a congregation, by the intense earnestness with which the preacher delivers the message of mercy, pouring out his own soul in tones of melting tenderness and subduing pathos. The great end of all true eloquence is persuasion, and the great secret of persuasion is to manifest, in a natural unaffected manner, genuine heartfelt emotion.

The Apostle of the Gentiles was a man of the most ardent natural temperament, and his preaching was evidently distinguished by the most impassioned earnestness. When pleading his cause before Felix, so fervent were his tone and manner, that Felix

exclaimed: "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning doth make thee mad;" and he had to defend himself from the charge of insanity brought against him by his judge, Acts xxvi. 24, 25. He appealed to the Thessalonians, that he had treated them with all the tender love and gentleness of a nursing mother, willing to impart to them not the Gospel of God only, but his own soul also. In his first epistle (ii. 1,2) he says, "Ye yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you, that it was not in vain; but... we were bold in our God to speak unto you the Gospel of God with all our strength;' so Dr. Owen translates the words. "The words not only signify with intense labour and earnestness, but may mean here exposed to the greatest danger, at the peril of our lives."-Dr. Adam Clark.

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He thus bespeaks the prayers of the Ephesian believers, "Praying always

for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel... that I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak," Eph. vi. 18-20. He spake the word "with all boldness," and, at the same time, with the most affectionate tenderness, and "with many tears."

That greatest of modern preachers, George Whitefield has been brought before the notice of our churches in the Addresses and Sermons delivered at the Centenary Commemoration of the opening of Tottenham-court chapel, lately published. He regarded it as "a place for the Gospel," and says, "I pray the friend of sinners to make the chapel 'a soul-trap' indeed to many wandering creatures," pp. 5, 9. The following extracts from the three sermons delivered on the occasion will show how fully all the preachers agree in their judgment concerning the peculiar character of Whitefield's preaching:

Dr. Leifchild says: "There was a power in these doctrines from his lips to the listening crowds that hung upon them, that was truly amazing. Thousands upon thousands were brought to * Works, 1851, Vol. xiv., p. 51.

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