sistency of christians, many of us would be struck dumb. If "our treasure be in heaven, our heart will be there also." And if our heart be there, since it is "out of the abundance of the heart

the mouth speaketh," our conversation will be about heavenly things. How different, however, is the case. On this subject there are two or three very beautiful verses, which I have just read, in a collection of hymns, by Thomas Kelly, (I know very little about the author, the volume I quote them from, belongs to a sister of Robert Trail's) in which, although there is no great strength of conception, or beauty of imagery, there are contained some strains of lively piety and christian feeling, expressed in very simple language. Such, I think, are these verses, paraphrased from, or rather suggested by, Malachi, iii. 16. "Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another," &c.

1. Why should believers, when they meet,
Not speak of Christ, the king they own;
Who gives them hope that they shall sit
With him for ever on his throne?

2. Is any other name so great

As His who bore the sinner's load?
Is any subject half so sweet,
So various, as the love of God?

3. 'Tis this that charms reluctant man,
That makes his opposition cease;
Beholding Love's amazing plan,

He drops his arms, and sues for peace.

4. "Twas so with us, we once were foes,
Were foes to Him who gave us breath;
But He whose mercy freely flows,
Has saved us from eternal death.

5. We look with hope to that great day,

A sight of Him will well repay
Our labors and our sorrows here.

6. Of Him then let us speak and sing,
Whose glory we expect to share;
In heaven we shall behold our King,
And yield a nobler tribute there.

I cannot help mentioning, that I, last week, received a letter from our friend, Mr. Tvery richly imbued with christian feeling. Political economy, and even church establishments, were fairly cast in the shade; and there was an earnestness of affection, and warmth of feeling manifested, while writing on the grand subjects of our common faith, and expatiating on the endearments of christian friendship, of which you would scarcely believe our phlegmatic friend susceptible; and with which, only such subjects could inspire him.

The account Mr. T gives of the employment of his leisure hours, sufficiently explains (to me at least) this increased spirituality of his mind. He has been, for some time, paying daily visits to "the house of mourning." Two of the people he has been accustomed to visit, have died during the summer;-of none of them he thinks he had hope in their death.

In the month of September, he went to London, on a visit to his friend, Mr. Adam; in the course of which, he spent a few days with me,-the last of my earthly intercourse with him. The following extract of a letter from Mr. Adam, to me, notices this visit, and some of the objects which occupied his attention during the following winter, after his return to St. Andrew's.

"At the close of the session he persuaded me before leaving for England, to spend a short time with his friends at Perth, which I did; and before returning again the following winter, I persuaded him to pay me a visit in return, at Homerton. During this visit, he was introduced to Dr. Morrison and Mr. Townley, and openly expressed the wish he had fostered previously in his bosom, to devote himself to missionary labors. We returned to college together, and being linked by a new bond, a common desire to benefit the Heathen, we applied ourselves afresh to our general studies, and to a thorough investigation of every thing relating to missions. For this purpose we searched the sacred scriptures, and summed up our inquiries under the heads of precepts, prophecies, examples, and promises. We also perused Brown's History of Missions; Horne's Ward's, Milne's and Judson's Letters; the Lives of Martyn, (which he read repeatedly, and eagerly drank into his spirit,) Brainerd and Chamberlain; Ward's History of the Hindoos, &c. During this winter our society flourished, and several essays were read, not only by ourselves, but by others, some of whom we believed to be inquiring after the path of duty; and, as I perceived, were not a little influenced by the powerful and affecting manner in which John pleaded the claims of the Heathen. With a sedulous attention to his engagements at the college, he found time to visit the sick, to give his assistance at some little meetings formed for the religious instruction of the poor during the week, and occasionally to supply some village stations, where there was preaching on a Sunday. I had forgotten to say, at the beginning of this session he labored diligently for a time at

the Chinese, and actually accomplished, by his unaided endeavors, a translation of the First Chapter of St. John's Gospel. Attention to so many different objects rendered it absolutely necessary that he should relinquish the least pressing, and consequently, as I believe, he laid it by, and never afterwards resumed it."

In a letter to his father, from London, he gives some account of his visit, and of his future plans. It contains also some remarks on my respected friend, Dr. Morrison, which are so just, that I cannot keep them back. I believe the character and manners of that devoted individual have not been properly understood, and in some quarters have been treated with a degree of unintentional injustice. His long and retired residence in a far distant country, and his absorption in the great object which he has so ardently and successfully pursued, sufficiently account for certain marked peculiarities, which I am convinced had no foundation in any obliquity of temper, or disposition. Justice to one of the most enlightened and devoted servants of Christ, which this or any age has furnished, requires that I should bear this testimony, while I introduce the observations of my young friend.

Marshgate, Homerton, Oct. 20, 1825.

My dear Father;

In company with Mr. A. I called on Dr. Morrison a few days after my arrival, who received us with that bluntness by which his manners are characterized, which has by some been represented as approaching to rudeness; but which is evidently not the want of kindness, but a superiority to those

petty expressions of it which are often used, in our too-refined age, as a covering for coldness and indifference. Neither did I find in Dr. Morrison, as some of our friends had represented to me, an overweening conceit of his own sphere of exertion. What he said of missions, had more in it of calm rationality, and less of enthusiasm, than I should have even expected from a man who had spent seventeen years in a heathen country. Dr. Morrison very kindly offered to introduce me to his students at the Missionary Society's rooms, in Austin-friars, where the Doctor attends three days in the week, to give instructions in the Chinese. I have attended there, with a few exceptions, every day since my arrival, and have seen as much of the mode of studying the language as may enable me, should I wish to pursue it, to do so alone. Dr. Morrison has

offered me a loan of the books that are requisite, which are very expensive, (the Dictionary alone having been published at thirteen guineas;) and has also made me a present of a small work, which he has just published, entitled the "Chinese Miscellany. With these helps, I hope to do some-. thing to the language this winter, in St. An-. drew's, and should I never make any actual use. of it, it will be a good mental exercise. I have not yet called on Mr. Wilson, but intend to do so before I leave; but I think it likely that with my present views, my case does not come within the province of any of the home theological academies. My plan is to return to St. Andrew's, to devote the winter to my ordinary studies,—give a little time to Chinese, and more especially along. with my dear friend John Adam, to consider very