Turks were again defeated, with considerable loss. By these events, so disastrous to the Ottoman, the garrison of Silistria lost all hope of relief, and on the 30th of June ca pitulated-yielding to the victorious Russian general 10,000 prisoners, exclusive of the inhabitants of the town, 256 cannon, 2 three-tailed Pachas, 100 stand of colours, the fr tilla on the Danube, with military stores and ammunition to a very large amount. The Turks have still two or three fortresses on the Danube, but there is every probably that they will be speedily either abandoned or captured; and thus the Russians will ca only have a free passage through the whole country, but be able to reinforce their ma army with most of the numerous corps that have hitherto been employed in sieges Count Diebitsch has sent a flag into Shumla, whether to summon it to surrender, r to propose terms of peace, or to spy out its strength and defences, is matter of conjecture, but not known. He has received the thanks of his royal master, with a new order of merit, and a present of six cannon. If he lacked popularity before, it will now return upon him in full tide. We have not been able to ascertain with any thing like a curacy the number of killed and wounded, in the sanguinary conflicts of which we have given this summary account-it is large, and such as is fit to make the friend of humenity shudder. We think that the Sultan, in the present campaign, must have lost the service of at least 50,000 of his very best troops. He is acquainted with his losses, and is said to show an unflinching firmness in view of them all. We have no doubt that Austria, Britain and France, are now urging the Emperor of Russia to make peace. But to this he will be little disposed in the midst of his victories, and if disposed, be could not do it without dishonour, and the displeasure of his own subjects, unless the Turk should make such concessions as he will never make but in the last extremity Known to God alone is the issue of this great concern. ASIA AND AFRICA. These large and populous sections of our globe afford us nothing to chronicle in our present number. AMERICA. BUENOS AYRES.-It appears that the Indians, who are very numerous in this republiek and on its borders, taking advantage of the civil war which has been raging for some time past, have desolated the country to within a short distance of the capital. The last accounts represent the regular invading army as having retired to a considerable da tance from the city, and that hopes were entertained that negotiation would succeed and peace be restored. In the condition of the other republicks of the south, we have noticed no change of importance during the past month. The empire of Brazil also remains in statu que. UNITED STATES.-It appears that the city of New Orleans is suffering under oc? country's scourge, the yellow fever. A recent rumour, which we hope will prove utfounded, represents Charleston, S. C. as also threatened with pestilence. All our northern cities have, we believe, as yet, entirely escaped. Tornadoes, hail storms, and partial inundations, have occasioned serious losses in some small sections of our land, but, taken at large, we have been highly favoured in the season of the year; and we doubt if the fruits of the earth were ever more abundant in our country than they are at present. Surely we are the people of all the earth who are most deeply indebted to "the Giver of every good and perfect gift," and the most loudly called on to manifest our gratitude by our obedience to his commands, and the observance of his laws-by "doing justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with our God." We are happy to observe a spirit waking up in our country in favour of the claims of the poor Indians. We do hope it will become general. Their cause is very ably pleaded by a writer whose signature is William Penn, and whose essays are now in i course of publication. He has already proved beyond contradiction or reasonable controversy, as we think, not only that the Indians have a natural indisputable right to the lands which they now claim, but that they have had these lands assured to them by treaties, as solemn and sacred as any we can form-treaties in which they have uniformly been considered as possessing a national character and national rights. We trust that these views and sentiments will yet become so prevalent, before the next meeting of Congress, as to influence our national legislature and government to interpose, and to prevent a threatened treatment of the Indians, which if it take place, will subject us to the merited reproach of the whole civilized world, as well as expose us to the just judgments of that God who is the avenger of the oppressed and the helpless. An obituary notice of Mrs. Margaret Thomson, which came too late for our present number, shall appear in our next. THE CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. OCTOBER, 1829. Religious Communications. LECTURES ON THE SHORTER CATECHISM OF THE WESTMINSTER AS SEMBLY OF DIVINES-ADDRESSED TO YOUTH. LECTURE XLII. (Continued from page 387.) 5. "God maketh himself known" in his ordinances, his word, and his works both of creation and providence; and the "profaning or abusing" of these, is a real violation of the third commandment, and should be considered as being forbidden by it, as truly and strictly, as any one of the profane acts already specified. I know not of a more shocking violation of this precept, than one which has sometimes taken place even in a Christian community-the making of a ludicrous exhibition of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Nor is the use of this ordinance merely for secular purposes, or in any careless, light, irreverent, or even formal manner, other than an instance of awful profaneness. Laughing, whispering, and all behaviour indicative of disrespect or disregard to the publick or social worship of God, by those who are attending on its perform ance, is, in like manner, dreadfully profane-Yea, the indulgence of wandering thoughts in prayer or praise, whether social or secret, must be considered as partaking of the sin forbidden in this commandment. Neither must I omit to menVOL. VII.-Ch. Adv. tion, that every false professor of religion, especially if he knows himself to be such, leads a life of habitual profaneness; and that he who dishonours his profession by acts palpably inconsistent with it, is, in every one of these acts, chargeable with the sin we are now considering. Our Larger Catechism justly states that the Word of God is profaned and abused, "By misinterpreting, misapplying, or perverting any part of it, to profane jests, curious and unprofitable questions, vain jangling, or the maintaining of false doctrines; abusing it-or any thing contained under the name of God, to charms, or any way opposing God's truth, grace, and ways." I cannot forbear to remark to you, my dear youth, that there is much of this profaning of the word of God in some poetical and other writings; and in the conversation of some men from whom we might expect better things, by making allusions to facts or texts of sacred Scripture, to illustrate ordinary and sometimes very trivial subjects. The political speakers and writers of our country, seem to me to be peculiarly chargeable with this sin; and they not unfrequently manifest their ignorance, as well as their guilt, by affecting to be acquainted with the purport of a text or a fact, of which they discover that they know nothing but some popular mistake or misapplication. Those who are fond of seiz 3 I ing every occasion that offers to show their wit, as they suppose, by some ludicrous application of a passage of Holy Writ, would do well to remember a remark of Dr. Johnson, in his life of Pope, of whom he says "That he was not scrupulously pious in some parts of his life is known, by many idle and indecent applications of sentences taken from the Scriptures; a mode of merriment which a good man dreads for its profaneness, and a witty man disdains for its easiness and vulgarity." The works of God may be, and often are, so abused, by employing them to pamper lust and sensual appetite, and to minister to unlawful pleasures, as to involve the sin of profaneness. The glutton and the drunkard, and those who in any way abuse their own bodies by their vices; those who make sport by tormenting irrational animals, or who treat them cruelly in making use of their labour; and those especially who sell, and purchase, and enslave their fellow men, dishonour and insult their Creator, by their ill treatment of his creatures. Those also who murmur and repine against any of the dispensations of God's providence, whether personal or in relation to communities, and however afflictive or inscrutable they may be, do implicitly and profanely find fault with their Maker. How often, in so common a thing as the state of the weather, do you hear some persons speak of it, in a manner plainly indicative of a murmuring discontent? This is profane. It is finding fault with the order of God's providence, which is always just and right. Under any disappointment or affliction indeed, we are not forbidden, but rather required, to recognise and be sensible of a suffering state; but we are, in all cases, to do it with humble submission to the appointment of Him who does all things well; and never, in language, thought or feeling, to arraign any of his dispensations or allotments. Let us now consider "the reason annexed to the third commandment," which is, "That however the breakers of this commandment may escape punishment from men, yet the Lord our God will not suffer them to escape his righteous judg ment." The statement which you have heard in the former part of this lecture, shows clearly that very many of the violations of this commandment cannot be punished by men, because men cannot know themThey are known only by the guilty party, and by the all-seeing God. Other violations there are, which, although known to men, cannot easily, nor perhaps properly, be subjected to human penalties. And many there certainly are, which might be punished, and for the pu nishment of which human laws have been enacted, which nevertheless, through the delinquency of magistrates, and the influence of corrupt publick sentiment, go altogether unpunished. There is no vice, I think, that is so generally tolerated, and so little punished, as that of profaneness-partly, as I have just remarked, from its very nature; and partly because so many are either grossly guilty of it themselves, or too little sensible of its guilt in others, and of the offence which it offers to that great and good Being against whom it is directly pointed. In foresight of these facts and circumstances, the great and all-wise Legislator has sanctioned this section of his moral code, by declaring that he will in an especial manner take into his own hands the infliction of the proper penalty, even "his righteous judgment," on all its transgressors; and has pledged his veracity and his omnipotence that" they shall not escape." Verily, this is the most fearful of all sanctions or comminations: and yet its equity is manifest, since the sin which is threatened is committed immediately against God, and receives its whole punishment from him alone. In itself, also, it is a very aggravated sin, espe cially when committed by those who enjoy the light of divine revelation, by which the glorious Majesty, as well as the infinite goodness and mercy of God, are clearly exhibited. This idea appears to be intimated in the precept, by the words, "the name of the Lord [in the original, Jehovah] thy God;" implying that those who were addressed, were not in a state of ignorance, like the heathen, but were acquainted with the essential glory and excellence of the Supreme Being, as revealed to them in the very name Jehovah ;implying also that Jehovah had manifested himself to them, as in a special sense their God-their covenant God, laying them under the strongest obligations to a holy and reverent use of his name. You need not be informed, my young friends, that we who live under the light of the Gospel, by being better acquainted than the ancient Israelites were, with the grace and mercy of God in Christ, are under even stronger and more tender obligations than they were, to yield him our profoundest rever ence and warmest love. The sin, therefore, of treating him with disrespect, and with a sort of defiance, by taking his name in vain, must, among us, be peculiarly aggravated. "Thine enemies take thy name in vain," says the Psalmist. All profaneness manifests enmity to the blessed God, of whose holy law it is a flagrant transgression: and as sure as there is a judgment seat before which his enemies shall appear, so sure it is that then this sin, of which they now think so little, and which often escapes even without censure from men, shall receive a special notice and a tremendous punishment. Not only, therefore, avoid all profaneness yourselves, but pity and pray for those who are guilty of it. "Cast not your pearls before swine," by hasty, and indiscriminate, or unseasonable rebuke; yet, consider it as a sacred Christian duty, to endeavour to seek and seize a favourable opportunity to admonish those whom you know to be profane, of their guilt and danger. A word seasonably, seriously, and tenderly addressed to them on this subject, may, under the divine blessing, awaken reflections which may terminate in true repentance: and "let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way, shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins." BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF JOHN JAE NICKE; Pastor of a Church at (Concluded from p.394.) Jaenicke preserved an entire consistency of character: you found him the same man in the pulpit and in the study. When he began a sermon he commonly intimated in what manner he should divide his text; but he very rarely adhered rigorously to that division: very often he gave himself up to the emotions of his heart, without restricting himself to any plan. He mingled, as he did in his familiar conversations, the exhibition of his ideas with anecdotes, which served to illustrate them, and with the recital of numerous remarkable occurrences. This, doubtless, resulted in a discourse exceedingly dif ferent from the most of modern sermons, but which, notwithstanding its singularity, produced the most happy effects on those hearers who came not to criticise his style, but to profit by his instructions, his piety and his experience. He always spoke of the Saviour or to the Saviour: He constantly set forth the excellence of Him who had called him out of darkness into marvellous light. "That is a singular man," said one who saw him in the last years of his life," he can speak of nothing but of his Saviour." Although he could but lisp of him (as he habitually expressed it,) he was not long satisfied to speak of him as an absent being: the impression of his presence came upon him so powerfully, that he was forced to break out into strains of adoration and thanksgiving. Jaenicke was simple in his habits, as well as in his discourses. To be useful to his parishioners, he did not scruple to give himself up to the humblest offices. Even in his advanced age, he constantly visited the poor and the sick, who inhabited those parts of the city which were the most distant from his dwelling. But you could not discover, unless by accident, his acts of charity. Thus it happened that a physician was one day called to a very poor man, who had nobody to take care of him. A medicine was prescribed; and as it was necessary that it should be taken that very evening, the physician inquired of his patient how he would be able to send the prescription to the apothecary. The sick man said that he could easily find the means of sending it, but appeared afraid to mention the person whom he would charge with the message. The physician insisted that he should tell; and at last it came out, that the old pastor Jaenicke himself, came every evening to make up the poor man's bed, to prepare his nourishment, and to provide for him other necessaries. On another occasion, he received from a gentleman of wealth, a liberal present for a poor man who lived at a considerable distance, and a few sous for the person who should have the charge of carrying it to the pauper; but Jaenicke carried it himself, that by adding the sous to the dollars, he might a little increase the treasure of his parishioner. We cannot recite more than these two instances of the charitable acts of this humble pastor; but how many did that life in which they were found, present to the eyes of God! After Jaenicke had consecrated himself, with entire devotedness, to the duties of his ministry for oneand-twenty years, a new vocation of a different kind, and not less beset with difficulties, demanded his attention. At the time when infidelity was spreading its deadly influence through Germany, as it had done in France, Christians began to perceive the necessity to associate and labour together, for the advancement of the kingdom of God. Laymen and Clergymen, cast as it were into a common stock, and devoted to the same purpose, whatever influence their standing in society, their fortunes, their talents, and their character, had given them. M. de Schirnding, of Doubrilugk in Lusace, especially distinguished himself for a long time, by a zeal which feared no sacrifices. He had published a great number of religious treatises in German, in French, in the Polish, and in other languages; but he thought that he ought to make his large fortune subservient to some work more lasting, and that the founding of an institution for Missions, at Berlin, would be more useful than any other. He formed a close friendship at this time with Jaenicke, communicated to him his plan, and proposed to him to second it, by accepting the direction of the new establishment. Missions were no new thing to Jaenicke: His brother, who had passed his preparatory studies at Halle, had gone to preach the Gospel in India, and had died a little before this at Palamcotta, after having seen with joy, the blessing of the Lord granted to his labours. These circumstances had no small influence in disposing Jaenicke to favour the project which M. de Schirnding submitted to him. They two undertook the work, and in 1800, seven young men were admitted into the Institution. But scarcely was it opened, when it was threatened with entire ruin. A reverse of fortune came upon the generous founder; and he was obliged to retain the funds which he had offered: and as these were the only |