their confidence, to take occasion of inculcating, especially on the children intrusted to their care, their religious principles. The method of the apostles was much shorter; they did not find the least necessity for such artificial management.*

Nor was it only in South America that the Popish missionaries found it convenient to recur to these arts. Of how much consequence it has been for promoting

I have examined the pretensions of the Foreign missions of the Church of Rome at great length, in a Lecture (the 12th) in the series delivered in Glasgow in 1836-37, entitled "The Truths of Protestantism Contrasted with the Errors of Popery ;" and I have there shown that, for the most part, the statement as to the success of the Popish missions is grossly exaggerated; that supposing the success to be real, it is not worth having; and that very many of the missions have, in the course of a few years, turned out miserable failures. With regard more particularly to Paraguay, I showed, on the authority of the new edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and the Modern Traveller, "That when the Jesuits were withdrawn, the fabric soon fell into ruins, and the Indians relapsed into their idolatry and savage habits, just as boys drop their tasks the moment they are liberated from school." Again: "When the Jesuits fell, as at the death of a magician all his spells are said to be reversed, all his enchantments are broken, so the effects of their labours melted away, and have left few traces belind. They built upon the sand." Page 75, Lecture 12th.— EDITOR.

Since writing the above two years ago, I have learned from a French Roman Catholic journal, some curious facts strikingly illustrative of the decline and almost extinction of Popish Missions. The date of the information is little more than four years ago. According to a French priest, there are 180,000 adherents of the Church of Rome in Tonking, on the borders of China, for the instruction of whom, there are only two aged and infirm priests, one of them above ninety years of age. What sort of Christians must these be-without a Bible too! So of Cochin China, among 80,000 Roman Catholics, there are only two Bishops, and two Grand Vicars, one of the latter is paralytic, the other is never at home! In Siam, there is only one French priest, in a country from which, in the reign of Louis the Fourteenth, a strong representation came, that the monarch wished to be converted and all his people!! At Pondicherry, the alleged number of the flock is 140,000; the instructors, one Bishop, and five priests, on a coast of two hundred leagues!! Similar facts as to other quarters are given. The priest concludes with a statement, from which it ap pears that since 1791, the Popish missionaries had been reduced one-half How different the history of Protestant missions.-Vide New York Observer, September, 1834.—Emitor.

the success of the Chinese mission, that those charged with it were able mathematicians, astronomers, geographers, physicians, and natural philosophers; and how much their knowledge in the sciences conduced to procure them the attention and respect of the natives, all the world knows. Where was the man of these modern apostles, who could say, as the apostle Paul, the poor Hebrew artisan, did to the Corinthians, "I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified?" Short, we

may believe, would have been their abode in China, and in other places too, had they proceeded on this plan. But Paul needed not to depend on any human supplements or assistances whatever. Nothing indeed could be more unlike, or rather greater contrasts, in all respects, than the first ambassadors and the last, those of Jesus Christ, and those of the Roman Pontiff. The last were possessed of those accomplishments which preserved them from appearing despicable to any; the manifest superiority of their knowledge in the elegant, as well as in many of the useful arts, made them be respected as almost a superior order of beings, even by those whom they could not persuade to turn Christian. The first, on the contrary, on account of their low rank, and ignorance of the arts of civilized life, were acknowledged to be, in many respects, but weak and contemptible instruments, even by those who were converted by their ministry. This was evidently the case of him, who of them all, had the best pretensions to knowledge and education. Not to mention the pageantry, even the rich sacerdotal vestments used by the Romish clergy in their worship, are naturally fitted to make an impression on the senses, not only of barbarians, but of the weak and superstitious even of polished nations. How different must the ordinary and homely garments of the primitive preachers have

N

carry with them so Nor is this so trivial

appeared, worn constantly in their peregrinations! for they were not permitted to much as a change of raiment.* a circumstance as to some perhaps, on a superficial view, it will appear. Yet after all, with every human and natural advantage, what have been the fruits of the last labourers compared with those of the first? Have we not gotten ample reason, in this view also, to adopt the apostle's words, and, on contrasting Christ's humble delegates to the accomplished ambassadors of Rome, to say, "Where now, is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For God hath chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise, the weak to confound the mighty, the base and the despised, yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in his presence. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." If riches and learning, and the most refined policy, with the countenance and support of the secular powers, cannot, though combined, accomplish what, in opposition to all these, is effected with ease by poverty and illiterate simplicity, can we hesitate a moment in pronouncing, "This is the finger of God."+

*Matt. x. 10; Luke ix. 3.

While this argument is most conclusive, and plainly shows that miraculous agency must have been employed, and that to a great extent in primitive times, it must not be imagined that all methods of propagating Christianity apart from miracles are vain. At the time that Dr Campbell wrote, little had been attempted by the Protestant church towards the diffusion of the gospel. Since then various efforts have been made, and with very encouraging success, in different parts of the heathen world. Still, even where most successful, the contrast between primitive and present results is such as must convince every impartial mind that there were influences at work in the former, which we cannot command in the latter. In other words, that God revealed himself to the primitive teachers in miraculous power.-EDITOR.

THE

TRUTH OF THE GOSPEL DEMONSTRATED

FROM THE

CHARACTER OF GOD MANIFESTED IN THE ATONEMENT;

A LETTER TO MR RICHARD CARLILE,

BY

ALEXANDER CARSON.

THE last Tract on the Evidences, to which I shall call the attention of the reader, is entitled, The Truth of the Gospel Demonstrated from the Character of God Manifested in the Atonement; a Letter to Mr Richard Carlile, by Alexander Carson, 1820. The author of this most excellent Tract, is, as I have already noticed, a Dissenting minister in Ireland. He is favourably known to the Christian world, by his able services in the Apocrypha controversy; his exposure of German Neology, and his vindication of the law of Christ, in the matter of tribute paying. The person to whom his letter is addressed, is the unhappy Richard Carlile, who has for many years laboured assiduously, and but too successfully, through the press and the print shop, to spread the poison of unblushing infidelity. While, like Mr CARSON, I pity the man from the bottom of my

soul, I cannot at the same time help strongly condemning him, and charging guilt home upon his conscience. It is not by mere commiseration that infidels are to be reclaimed. Scripture condemns them as loving the darkness in preference to the light, and this should be held prominently before them.

One great charm of Mr CARSON's paper is, that it contains a clear declaration of the gospel method of salvation; and proves that the gospel itself supplies one of the best evidences of its own Divinity. Many works on the Evidences do not proceed so far. They may be said to be limited to externals. At least they never venture on the experimental. As far as they go they are conclusive, and render men inexcusable; but they do not go far enough; and by not bringing out the peculiar doctrines of the gospel, they lose a great part of their proof of the Divine origin of the Scriptures. To a man who understands and receives the gospel into his own heart, there is no evidence half so satisfactory, as just its adaptation to his circumstances and necessities as a fallen creature; but without actually experiencing this, one may see such beauty and harmony in the character of God set forth in the gospel, as shall convince him it could not have originated with man, but must have come from heaven. This is the view of the Evidences which Mr CARSON's letter presents; and, rightly understood, it is more wonderful than the morality of the Scriptures, which Rousseau confessed touched his heart. It is interesting to observe, that writers on the evidences are dwelling more and more upon the Gospel itself, as a proof of the Divinity of Christianity. The Rev. Dr Chalmers, and Robert Haldane, Esq, in their valuable works on the Evidences, may be mentioned as peculiarly distinguished in this department of the Christian Proof.

The only addition I could wish were made to Mr