nations and make them evangelically virtuous, has been established beyond a doubt. The hope of changing savages, into civilized men, by the force of law, by military discipline, or the influence of agriculture and the arts; or by any thing but the Gospel; has been relinquished. Thus the glory of converting the Heathen from sin to holiness will be ascribed not to blood, nor to the will of the flesh, nor to the will of man; but to the Cross of Christ.

Great preparation has been made in the Progress of the World to bring forward this event.-With the exception of the interior of Africa and of New Hol land, and of the Northwestern part of America, every country on the globe has been explored. Every considerable nation on the globe has been discovered. Owing to the improvements in navigation, every maritime country is easily accessible. The interests of commerce now unite all maritime countries which are civilized. An active and constant commercial intercourse subsists between the four quarters of the globe, All civilized and almost all barbarous nations, inhabiting the sea-coast, are now extensively devoted to navigation. Ports or trading establishments are now found at convenient distances on the borders of almost every maritime country. Civilized Man is now settled on the sea-coast of nearly every country and every island. The English language, the language which contains more of the elements of civilization and moral reformation than all others united; the language spoken by the two principal Protestant nations, by the two nations which have already done more than all others to bring forward the event in question, and on whose efforts more reliance is placed than on the efforts of the whole world beside; their common language is already

widely diffused over Europe, Asia, the Asiatic Isles, and America; has begun to spread from the S. and W. over the continent of Africa; and is already to a great extent the commercial language of this world.

Heathen nations to a great extent are subjugated by christian nations. All the North of Asia is now an integral part of the Russian empire. Christians at St. Petersburg can in this way act with ease not only on Kamtchatka and all the intervening regions, but on Armenia, Persia, Independent Tartary, and the empire of China. The subjugation of Hindoostan has opened the way for British learning and industry to translate the Bible into all the languages of Asia. That country is also a central point of means and of efforts for the annexation of that whole continent to the kingdom of Christ. Sierra Leone, the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, that of Port Jackson, and the Isle of France are similar stations; from which the servants of Christ can act with ease and effect on Africa, New Holland, and Madagascar.

The African slave-trade, that foulest blot on the character of this sinful world, is nearly exterminated. Great Britain, the United States, Denmark, and France, have prohibited it altogether. Spain has already prohibited it North of the Equator, and is pledged by treaty to give it up entirely after the first of May 1820. Portugal will then be the only power which permits it. No doubt the time is near when that country also will relinquish it, voluntarily, or by compulsion. ..One important result has arisen from the Slave Trade. Not less than two millions of Negroes are found in this christian country; and at least an equal number in the West Indies, and Guiana. In the three countries, many thousand blacks are converted to the

religion of Christ, and numbered among his devoted followers. Out of these African converts, the Church will select the future missionaries to Africa. For the conversion of no heathen population has so broad a foundation been laid. When this great work is begun in earnest, "Cush will make haste to stretch out her hands unto God."

The inventions of paper and printing are a substitute for the gift of tongues and the power of working miracles. The sciences of astronomy, natural philosophy, chemistry, and mineralogy, are now based on certainty; and, with the various mechanic arts, are advanced to a high degree of perfection. The facility with which mankind can be fed and clothed and furnished with the necessaries and comforts of life, owing to the many improvements in agriculture, the introduction of machinery in manufactures, and the diffusion of the cotton-plant, is wonderfully increased. construction of roads, and canals and the establishment of post-offices, facilitate the internal intercourse of all civilized countries. The Lancasterian system of education is making its way through Great Britain, Russia, Germany, France, and Hindoostan, and in no distant period will pervade the habitable globe.

The

The right of mankind to govern themselves has begun to be understood; and the claims of hereditary despotism, to be doubted. Our own country has had the honour of teaching mankind, that the great end of government is not the aggrandizement of individuals, but the good of the people at large. These principles are making a silent but sure progress on the European continent.

The present state of Europe compels its population in great numbers to plant themselves in regions yet

unexplored. Every field that is cleared, every road that is built, every tree that is felled, makes way for the coming of Christ.

Several important events have occurred in the Mohammedan world. The harmony originally subsisting between the Mohammedans of Turkey and Persia has long ceased. The Persians are now in great numbers infidels, as to the Koran and Mohammed. An extensive defection from the Mohammedan faith has taken place in the eastern part of Arabia. About thirty years since, Wahabee a prince of that region abjured that religion. Eastern Arabia has since followed his example. A momentary check has indeed been given to the power of the leader of this apostasy by the late victory of the Turks. But the light of Truth is making a sure progress; and the whole of that region may be viewed as rescued from the thraldom of the Impostor. In Western Persia near Shiraz, another apostasy began about twelve years since. Its adherents are called Sophis, and exceed 80,000 in number. They have openly renounced Mohammedanism, abolished circumcision, established separate places of worship, and adopted a peculiar dress to distinguish them from Mohammedans. It is an important fact also that the bulwark of the Mohammedan religion, the Ottoman empire, now lies at the mercy of its two powerful neighbours. Its overthrow, which is probably not distant, will crush the faith of the false Prophet, and open western Asia to every christian invader. Like "an ensign on the mountains of Israel," it will also summon the scattered tribes of Judah and Ephraim to that land, which christian prophesy allows us again to call "the Land of Promise."

For 150 years the power and resources of the Ro mish Church have been drying up, and by the French Revolution have been nearly exhausted. The vast

funds formerly belonging to the Mission college at Rome; by which the numerous missions in North and South America, in Western and Eastern Asia, and on the coast of Africa were supported; are spent. The Head of that Church, once the arbiter of Europe, is now the head of a petty principality in Italy. Even that is left him by sufferance.

The ascendency of the Catholic Church in the East is finally lost. Its influence in the South of Germany and in France is to a great degree destroyed. The existing insurrections in South America bid fair to deliver that continent finally from the influence of Popery.

The danger of power and wealth to the church of Christ, and of any connexion with civil government, has been dreadfully exhibited in the Church of Rome, in the Lutheran Church, in the churches of Switzerland and Holland, and in those of England and Scotland. In most countries where Establishments exist, the dissenters from the established religion now constitute a large proportion, and in some more than half, of the population. The end of Establishments is drawing nigh.

By a comparison of Manuscripts, with immense expense and labour, the genuine Text of the Hebrew and Greek of the original Testaments has in almost every instance been permanently settled. What the Bible, the Statute Book of the Redeemer's Kingdom, is, was a point necessary to be settled before the full establishment of that Kingdom.

The great controversy of the Church with Infidelity has been waged for the last two centuries. It is