the camp. Its ravages were confined to the natives, but the havoc it committed amongst the soldiers and camp-followers was dreadful, and the jackals and the vultures had a plenteous feast on the bodies we left behind. The scenes in the hospital tent were most fearful to witness, and constantly was the word passed through camp for the litter to convey a fresh patient to the doctor. At length men's hearts began to fail them, and a general gloom was cast over us; when a deputation of the native officers waited on the Commandant, and requested his permission for the performance of one of their sacred rites. As any interference with the religious prejudices of our men is studiously avoided in the Bengal army, and any means of restoring confidence in them seemed desirable, the Colonel gave his assent, and the ceremony I shall attempt to describe took place. "A fine goat was selected from those in camp, and after being decorated with garlands, he was placed in a circle of the highest caste men, who were employed burning incense and in many unnecessary or unintelligible ceremonies, while the priests chanted, in a sing-song tone, selections from their sacred puranas or shasters. The poor goat was then led three times round the circle of the camp, preparatory to being taken out some distance into the surrounding jungle, and there left a prey to the numerous wild beasts, and a propitiatory sacrifice to Kalee, the goddess of destruction." Nothing but the Scriptures can explain this strange rite. Your affectionate Cousin, LETTER II. A Teacher to an Absent Scholar. MY DEAR BETSEY,-I am very happy to hear good news of you, and that you still continue to attend the Sunday-school. That is right; never leave it till you must. It is very foolish in many young persons to run away just when they become old enough to receive substantial benefit. You ought to be very thankful that you have no home opposition in so doing, for I am sure both your father and mother are very glad to see you so attached to your teachers and your books. It is not so, I assure you, with all young persons. I read lately a pretty story of a lad who was much addicted to gaming, and careless about business; his name was Christopher Love. His pa Christopher was fifteen years old before he heard a sermon. rents were respectable, but not religious; and, as he was the child of their old age, he was permitted to follow his own inclinations. He indulged in sinful pleasure, and especially in gaming. When he was fifteen years old, Mr. E, a zealous minister, came into the town, and young Love was led by curiosity to go and hear him preach. The sermon made a deep impression upon his mind. He returned home (to use his own expression) "with a hell in his conscience." His father thought he was seized with a strange fit of melancholy, and advised him to seek amusement, especially his favourite one of gaming. This he declined doing, and begged permission to attend chapel on the next lecture-day. This was refused. In order to prevent his attendance, his foolish father locked him up in a high chamber, intending to confine him there till the service was over. Christopher procured a cord, and suspending it from the window, he let himself down by the side of the house, and went to the lecture. This was not the best mode of proceeding: his convictions, however, were deepened. On his return home, he found his father very angry with him. This distressed him, but not so much as did the thought of his father's perishing condition. Christopher became a Christian, and his poor father followed him to the cross of Christ. Your old companion, Peter Bis dead; for some time he had been decided for God, and united to the church. Supposing it had been you, my dear Betsey, would all have been right and ready? Your affectionate Teacher. The Cabinet. PRINCIPLES, PRACTICES, AND PECULIARITIES. RELIGIOUS principle is of the utmost importance to our churches: the very being of them depends on it. For, as they are not supported by the State for any temporal purposes, they cannot long subsist without it; or, if they do subsist awhile, they are unanimated carcases,—they have a name that they live, and are dead. God, as an infinite Spirit, is an object of contemplation, but not of vision. His excellence is visible in all the works of nature, and in all the ways of providence; and just and proper notions of his perfections, including the virtues that are necessarily connected with the revelation of those perfections to us, form that system of natural religion which St. Paul calls "the truth of God," and which, for its utility as far as it goes, should be inculcated among Christians. Christianity elucidates and confirms the truth of natural religion, and it also reveals other facts which the highest human penetration could never have discovered. Of this kind are the introduction, the extent, and the penalty of moral evil; the plan of redemption; the person of the Redeemer; and the present and future state and felicity of the redeemed. Christianity collects the Divine glories into a point in the person and offices of Christ, displaying a brightness so striking as to fix and affect every beholder, and at the same time cooling and softening the object, so as to render it at once the most magnificent and the most condescending, the most formidable and the most amiable object in all the compass of contemplative thought. Here God appears supremely terrible to sin, and supremely good to the sinner. In punishing our Substitute, he sits the inflexible Judge, surrounded with all the terrible pomp of omnipotence; and in pardoning the principals, he displays a love beyond the softest compassion of the tenderest heart. The knowledge and belief of these articles produce in the heart a disposition to unversal holiness, which expresses itself in a holy conformity to natural obligations, and to the positive institutes of religion; in a benevolent discharge of every social duty to our fellow-creaand in a regular veneration for ourselves. The good man views his high and holy calling, and rises superior to the slavery tures; of sin. Every idea that operates in this matter is a religious principle, and miserable is the state of those who are destitute of it. An unprincipled mind is an easy prey to every vice. Some individuals, void of the knowledge of the miserable moral state of man, are full of pride and presumption; others, destitute of faith in the atonement, are involved in distress and despair; while others are rioting in the excesses of this life, and violating every Divine command, to gratify their senses and their passions, through their fatal ignorance of a blessed immortality. If whole societies retain the ceremonies of religion, after they have lost their faith and knowledge, they resemble a dead carcase placed in a living attitude, and wrapped in a gaudy shroud. If, therefore, brethren, you value your own happiness, or that of your children, and families, and friends, and above all, that of the church to which you belong, you must inculcate religious principle; you must point to the Teacher sent from God, and say to those around you, "This is God's beloved Son; hear him." This leads us to the second article,-the importance of the practices of your churches. Beside the general practice of every moral virtue and of every Christian grace, you will pay a particular attention to those practices which have a tendency to instil the principles of religion. Make conscience of a regular attendance on public worship, as often as the church meets for this purpose. Attend diligently, with your families, to the word preached by your pastors: it is the power of God to salvation. Be present in your places before the worship begins; avoid dissipation and indolence while it continues; stay till the service is over; then meditate on it in retirement; turn it into prayer, or converse with one another on what you have heard. The last part of Divine service is a fine, expressive, significant part of it. The minister, who is the ambassador of Christ, spreads holy hands over you, and prays on your part that "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Ghost," may be, and declares on God's part that parental regard is, with you all, to which you cannot but say, Amen. Public worship among you receives no solemnity from architecture, instrumental music, history, or painting; yet it has a peculiar solemnity when it is performed with reverence and godly fear. John the Baptist was a plain, homely man; but Herod feared him, knowing that he was a just man and a holy. Keep up family religion, the reading of the Holy Scriptures, singing, and prayer; or the last, at least. A little forecast will gain you time for this twice a day, and study to make it short and agreeable, that it may not fatigue, but edify your families. Catechize your children and servants. How happy will you be to see the good seed bring forth in one child thirty, in another sixty, in another a hundred-fold! How happy, in your dying moments, to be able to say to a pious son, "I go the way of all the earth; but thou art a wise man, and knowest what thou oughtest to do!" Maintain private social meetings, for singing, prayer, and Christian conference; habituate yourselves to weep with them that weep, to rejoice with them that rejoice, to bear one another's burdens, and to promote one another's temporal interest. Deal with one another; employ one another; intermarry together; give one another advice and assistance; consider your whole species as your brethren, but regard your own community as your family. Finally, Be patient, prudent, and tender to one another's infirmities. Conceal them from the world; let the too common practice of whispering them among yourselves sink into disuse; pity and pray for the weak; exhort them by the mildness and gentleness of Christ to take heed to their ways, but by no means exasperate them. Time and patience have done wonders in recovering backsliders, while contrary dispositions, productive of violent measures, have been attended with scandalous effects. Pay particular attention, in the choice of your officers, to men of a soft, healing spirit; they are an unspeakable blessing to a Christian church: and of them learn to exercise that "meekness of wisdom" which an Apostle recommends. Lastly, brethren, allow us to recommend to you an attention to the peculiarities of your churches. You hold some truths which moral philosophers profess; some which the Greek Church and the Church of Rome hold; some which other Protestant Churches maintain; and others which are peculiar to yourselves. Do not neglect to inculcate those truths which others hold; if many teachers do virtuously, labour to excel them all. But particularly enforce truths that are peculiar to your societies, and for the sake of which you have separated from your brethren. Support the right of private judgment and liberty of conscience, in opposition to all human authority, in matters of religion. Acknowledge Christ alone as the Head of the Church, and maintain the sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures as the rule of faith. These general truths include the frame and constitution of your churches, the number and character of your officers, the mode of Divine worship, the positive institutions of religion, the terms of admission to the ministry and churchmembership, the free choice of your ministers, and the nature of your discipline. With the knowledge of these truths Providence hath entrusted you; may it be your holy ambition to say, when you give up your accounts, "Lord, thou deliveredst unto us five talents; behold, we have gained beside them five talents more." The principles that distinguish our churches are but little known to the bulk of our countrymen. Some look at them without examination; others view them through false mediums; and, which is worse than all, many who act upon them do but half understand them, and cannot at all defend them. The Lord make you spiritual men, judging all things, and able to give a reason for the hope that is in you. There is nothing in your principles destructive of the peace of civil society; nothing hostile to government. We have no dissertation in Scripture on the best form of government, whether it be monarchical or republican; we hold nothing injurious to any religious association; we distinguish between the constitution of a church and the members who compose it, and venerate the last for acting up to the best of their knowledge, while we reprobate the first as unscriptural in its frame, unsociable and violent in its temper, and unfriendly to the growth of religious knowledge, primitive morality, a chaste faith, and universal love. Be you diligent, brethren, to impart clear notions of these articles to your children; and not only labour to make them Christians, but strive also to form them wise, conscientious, and peaceable Dissenters,-ornaments to our churches, and comforts to yourselves. Be not unmindful, brethren, of the support of your societies. Your pastors ask no emoluments; your churches have none to bestow. Conscience makes us your ministers; and it is to your credit, as well as to your comfort, to enable us to "provide things honest in the sight of all men." Your voluntary tithes are our support; and your free contributions the support of your places of worship, and the relief of your poor. To enable you to discharge these duties, you must avoid the fashionable vices and the expensive luxuries of the times; you must try to excel in your several professions; you must be industrious in getting, and frugal in using, the blessings of Providence; you must commend yourselves to your fellow-citizens by ingenuity, |