trampling under foot a number of associations calculated to yield them that harvest of pleasure they most desire? We know, indeed, that the gratifications which religion thus yields to the refined taste are among its very smallest fruits. But still we urge the point, because we wish to shew the irreligious, that they are but clumsy architects of their own little fabric of happiness, that they are not worse Christians than philosophers, and that the enemy of religion is the enemy of taste. We urge it also to shew those of the young who may conceive that religion is calculated to give a sort of torpedo touch to the more refined sensibilities of our nature, to extirpate by a sort of Vandal attack all the gratifications of taste, to disenchant the scenery with which the creative hand of painting and poetry surprises and delights us; that religion is strong even at her supposed weak point; that she is rich even where she is confessedly the poorest; that she is the friend of all innocent pleasure, the ally of genius, the living fountain not less of our daily gratifications than of our eternal joys.

A topic not less important than this remains still to be noticed. It appears (if indeed it could ever be disputable) incontrovertibly from this essay, that the beauty and sub. limity of all objects depend much upon the associations with which they are connected. Now this proposition is so extensively true, that even religion may be disfigured by the medium through which, or the society in which, it is seen. It is indeed true that the really philosophical will learn, as in certain optical illusions, to correct the effect of a refraction such as this; and not charge upon the object the defects of the medium. But since all men are not philosophers, and therefore this sort of correctness cannot be expected, how ill do those serve the interests of religion who shew it to the world through a medium which must distort its proportions or

change its complexion; or who present it in society by which it cannot fail to be disgraced! This subject admits of much enlargement. It may, however, be sufficient to hint at some of those disfiguring processes to which we have referred. Some thus degrade it, for instance, who teach its truths in a vulgar, canting, or needlessly technical phraseology: Others do it like dishonour, by associating it with absurd peculiarities, unauthorised demands, or capricious prohibitions; who send it abroad in a large-brimmed hat, cut off the lappels of its coat, or deny it a bow to its neckcloth. But far deeper are the wounds which those inflict upon it who display it to the world shorn of those moral graces, those charms of temper and affections, which are some of its appointed passports to the heart. Are there not some who teach the world to associate frowns with religion; who clothe its neck with the thunders of disputation; who invest it with the porcupine coat of an irritable temper; who throw into its eye the glare of envy, and into its cheek the hue of jealousy; who arm it with the knife of controversy, and satire, and censoriousness? We dare not trust ourselves to complete the sketch. It is a sort of portrait wholesome neither to conceive nor to contemplate. Rather would we call upon the friends of religion to present her to the world in all the native "beauty of holiness." How sublime are the associations with which she is transmitted to us, both in the language of Scripture, and in the person of Christ! Let then the guardians of these "oracles of God," and the followers of this Master, adhere to the language of the one and endeaour to reflect the image of the other. It is a rule of eternal obligation, both as to the language in which we describe and as to the portrait which we exhibit of Christianity," see that thou make all things according to the pattern shewed to thee in the mount:" see that all be cast in the moulds of heaven. Whilst we re

proach the enemies of the Gospel with their aspersions upon religion as if offensive to taste, let us beware of supplying any ground for them. If her lessons are to have universal currency, we must teach them in the universal language of intelligence and good taste, and not in the patois of a party. If she is to be raised to the throne of the world, her soldiers must muster, not under the petty flags of faction, but under the mighty banner of the Cross. She must be presented to the world invested with her own infinite and immortal attributes; and we trust that, led by the hand of God, they will see the star, and worship.

We here take our leave of Mr. Alison, and of the topic to which he has directed our attention, with some regret that our limits do not admit of a wider excursion with him. His book would be improved, we think, by one or two additional chapters on the unnoticed parts of his subject to which we have adverted; by a general abbreviation of the chapters already in our hands; by the simplification of some of his sentences; and, above all, by his treating at length, as he is bound, both in the character of a philosopher and a clergyman, upon the topic so inadequately touched by us-the importance of religion to the most exquisite enjoyments of taste. These defects, however, with the exception of the last, are but small spots in a brilliant performance. We should be glad to learn by a volume of sermons from the same hand, that the author thinks as justly upon the ology as on belles lettres; that he is an equally formidable enemy to all prejudices and errors; and that (if we may venture upon the allusion), having slain "the lion and the bear" of unsound philosophy, he is as terrible an assailant of the "giant" enemies of religion, of religion, infidelity, worldliness, dissipation, and indifference.

CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 122.

THE title of the present article will probably so prise many of our readers. They will be greatly disappointed, however, if they are led to expect from it a discussion of the comparative excellence of the systems of education of Bell and Lancaster, to which the sermon of Dr. Marsh, prefixed to this account, might be supposed to invite us. They will be no less disappointed, if they look for a critique on the tracts of this Society, for an exposition of its various claims on the public gratitude and support, or for a statement of the circumstances in the management of its affairs which may tend to diminish the weight of those claims. We mean to direct the attention of our readers to the single point of the information which the Society has this year thought proper to give to the public respecting the Syrian Christians of Malayala. We briefly alluded to this subject in the abstract of the Society's Report in our last number, p. 59, intimating an intention to consider it more fully hereafter. Be it therefore known to our readers, that the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge have published, in their last Report, some particulars concerning the Syrian Christians, which have been transmitted to them by their missionaries in India. The Society had put a question to these missionaries, whether it would be practicable to employ the Syrian Christians in their Indian mission in conjunction with them, the German and Danish missionaries. The reply to this inquiry, as stated in the Society's Report, we will now lay before our readers.

"In reply to a query, whether Syrian priests could be employed in the missions, they (Messrs. Kolhoff and Horst) enclose a memorandum, stating their reasons why they de cline a union with those priests, as P

cable to employ the clergy of the Syrian church in the Society's missions, "they being sectaries of the Nestorian and Eutychian principles, praying idolatrously to the Virgin Mary and to the Apostle St. Thomas, and laying a great stress upon many very superstitious ceremonies. Be

fore they could be employed in a Protestant mission, they must themselves," he observes, "be converted from the error of their ways, of which little if any hope could be entertained."

The missionaries therefore, it is obvious, have no knowledge themselves of the Syrians, who live in a country far remote from them; but they had found some notices of them in looking over the journals of their brethren the Danish missionaries, between the years from 1725 to 1738, as appears from the extracts above mentioned, where no allusion is made to any communication of a later date. These former missionaries also had not themselves visited the Syrian Christians; but they had seen, as appears by the extracts from their journals, some Syrians evidently of the Romish church, who came to Madras on a pilgrimage to St. Thomas's Mount, as is usual with the Roman Catholics in India. That the only Syrians they saw were of the Romish church is fully proyed by these very extracts, which ascribe to them the use of "missals" and "mass," the acknowledgment of "the supremacy of the pope," and "subjection to a Portuguese bishop," &c. &c. Such Syrian Christians as have joined the Church of Rome are well known to be in a degenerate and most illiterate state, and they are justly so described by the missionaries. But it does not appear that they ever saw one of those Syrian Christians of Malayala who continue separate from the Church of Rome. They state, indeed, their having seen a Nestorian Syrian priest; but he also must have belonged to that church, for he spoke of the adoration of the mother of God," and

informed them, that he had been ordained by Mar Gabriel, a Nestorian bishop, who" celebrated mass," and used a "missal," and who, we are afterwards told, when solicited to unite in the true orthodox doctrine, answered "in a papistical strain." The journals of the Danish missionaries further record, that they had some correspondence with Valerius Nicolai, a Dutch minister at Cochin, respecting the Syrian Christians. It appears that about the year 1729, Mr. Nicolai had written several letters to a Syrian bishop, one Mar Thomas, with a view to reclaim him from an error in doctrine by proofs from holy writ, (the bishop maintaining, as is alleged, a tenet of Eutyches, that Christ had but one nature), but this bishop had declined giving any answer till he should receive permission from his patriarch in Syria.

From the perusal of these journals the Society's present missionaries had come to the conclusion, that the Syrian Christians of Malayala are Nestorians, and worship the Virgin Mary," and that, therefore, they cannot be admitted to "an union of faith with themselves.'

It

Such is the account which, in the year 1811, the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge have thought proper to publish respecting the Syrian Christians of Malayala. Its publication, however, could only have been proper on the supposition that no more recent and authentic accounts of this interesting people could be obtained. is possible, indeed, that the worthy missionaries of the Society, who'are chiefly Germans, and have little intercourse with the English in India, were ignorant of the existence of any such accounts. But it seems hardly possible that, to some members at least of the Board for managing the affairs of this society, it should not have been known, that in the year 1805, the Madras Government sent the Rev. Dr. Kerr, senior chaplain at the presidency of Ma

dras, on a special mission to Malabar and Travancore, (before Dr. Buchanan visited those countries), in order to investigate the state of the Syrian and other 'hristians; and that theofficial Report which this esteemed and much-lamented clergyman made to Lord William Bentinck, was afterwards published under the authority of the Supreme Govern ment of India. If they had paid the slightest attention to this Report, it would probably have prevented their present publication. It would, at least, have prevented their charging the Syrian church of Malayala with the errors of Rome; for it would have clearly pointed out to them the distinctions which exist among the Christians on the Malabar coast, and must have convinced them that the accouut which they have given to the world, under the sanction of their authority, referred principally, if not wholly, to the Syrian Roman Catholics, and not to the true Syrian Church of Malayala. An extract from the Report of Dr. Kerr will prove this point.

"In the creeds and doctrines," he observes, " of the Christians of Malabar, internal evidence exists of their being a primitive church; for the supremacy of the pope is denied, and the doctrine of transubstantiation never has been held by them. They also regarded, and still regard, the worship of images as idolatrous, and the doctrine of purgatory to be fabulous. Moreover, they never admitted as sacraments, extreme unction, marriage, or confirmation. All which facts may be substantiated on reference to the Acts of the Synod, assembled by Don Alexis de Meneses, Archbishop of Goa, at Udiamper, in the year 1599.'

66 are

"The Christians on the Malabar coast," he proceeds to state, divided into three sects; 1. The St. Thome, or Jacobite Christians. 2. The Syrian Roman Catholics. 3. The Latin Church."

"1. The St. Thomé Christians still retain their ancient creed and

usages, and consider themselves as the descendants of the flock established by St. Thomas, who is generally esteemed the Apostle of the East. Their ancestors emigrated from Syria, and the Syro-Chaldaic is the language in which their church service is still performed. They admit no images within their churches, but a figure of the Virgin Mary with the child Jesus in her arms, which is considered merely as an ornament, and not a subject of idolatrous worship."

It has been long believed, that these Christians held the tenets of the Nestorian heresy, and that they were obliged to leave their own country in consequence of persecution. However, it appears, that the Creed they now hold denies that heresy, and seems to coincide in several points' with the Creed of St. Athanasius, hut without its damnatory clauses. The service in their church is performed very nearly after the manner of the Church of England; and when the Metropolitan was told, that it was hoped that one day an union might take place between the two churches, he seemed pleased at the suggestion.

The character of these people is marked by a striking superiority over the heathens in every moral excellence; and they are remarkable for their veracity and plain dealing. They are extremely attentive to their religious duties. They are respected very highly by the Nairs; and the Rajahs of Travancore and Cochin admit them to rank next to the Nairs. Their number, it is generally supposed, may be estimated at seventy or eighty thousand. The direct protection of the British Government has been already extended to them; but as they do not reside within the British territories, I am doubtful how far it may be useful to them. To unite them to the Church of England would, in my opinion, be a most noble work; and it is most devoutly to be wished, that those who have been driven into the Roman pale might be recalled to their ancient church; a measure