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the arrangements of their household, with a view to the better observance of the Sabbath; to provide that every one of their domestics may have the opportunity of keeping it holy, by attending once at least on Divine worship; and on no account whatever to countenance the breach of it by permitting articles for the use of the table to be brought into their houses at all on that day. We implore such as employ the poor at weekly wages, to make a conscience of paying them in time, so that at least on the preceding day they may be enabled to purchase what they require. Moreover, we will not hesitate to declare, in his name whose ministers we are, that he alone has a title to look for honesty and fidelity in his servants and dependants; whose care it is, both by authority and example, to command his children, and his household, and all as far as his influence extends, that they should serve the Lord alway, in his Sabbaths, in his sanctuary, in the ordinances of his holy religion, in all the ways and works of the Lord."

Amidst the awful desecration of the Lord's-day, it gladdens our hearts to see that so many of our countrymen are alive to the extent of this enormity, and anxious for its removal. We rejoice to witness some partial, even though we fear they may for the present prove unavailing, efforts to lesson the amount of Sunday travelling by public carriages. It is the duty of each Christian to do what he can in his own sphere, even if his exertions should not be so widely beneficial as he could wish. We believe that one of the most effectual plans hitherto discovered for promoting the due observance of the Sabbath, as well as the other points mentioned in the St. James's address, is the institution of regular visiting societies. The clergy in our large towns can do little single handed; but much by making proper use of the agency of pious and ju

dicious laymen. May the blessing of God prosper all their endeavours!

FRIENDS OF THE HEBREW
NATION.

A society under this title was established last summer, which commenced its operations by forming an asylum to which Jews inquiring into the truth of Christianity might resort. In this asylum they are instructed in the Christian religion on the seventh and first days of the week. On the other five days they are kept in employment at some trade, the profits of which go to the support of the institution. Twelve out of fourteen of the inmates having applied to receive the ordinance of baptism, which was administered by the Bishop of London, in St. James's church, after previous examination of the candidates by him. His lordship has accepted the office of patron of the society.

LADIES' HIBERNIAN FEMALE

SCHOOL SOCIETY.

Our readers will find in our volume for 1823, p. 805, an account of the character and objects of this very useful unostentatious society, and may refer to subsequent details in our pages for some interesting particulars of its proceedings. We regret to perceive from the advertisement on our cover, to which we refer our readers, that the funds of the institution are quite inadequate to its benevolent and Christian objects. Above ten thousand girls receive daily scriptural instruction, under its care, and are brought up in habits of order and industry. The want of funds not only prevents new applications meeting with attention, but will compel the committee to lessen the number of schools now assisted, unless, by the blessing of God upon the efforts of the friends of the society, the public are induced to supply the present deficiency in its resources.

VIEW OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS.

DOMESTIC.

SERIOUS apprehensions have been entertained respecting the health of his Majesty, who has been seriously indisposed, but, we are happy to add, is better.

We have not much to record of the proceedings in parliament, owing to the adjournment for the Easter holidays. The most remarkable incident is Mr.

R. Grant's motion for placing English Jews upon the same civil footing as other classes of the community. The motion, though opposed by government, was carried by one hundred and fifteen votes to ninety-seven; but it is stated that government will oppose it more seriously at the next reading, and that, even should it pass the Commons, it must fail in the House of

Lords. The motion was opposed by Sir Robert Inglis, Mr. Battley, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Perceval, the Solicitor General; and advocated by Mr. T. Macaulay, the new member, in a first and very effective speech, Sir J. Mackintosh, Dr. Lushington, Lord Morpeth, and Mr. W. Smith. The general argument against the measure is, that Christianity is the law of the land, and that Jews are not Christians; the general argument in its favour, that among persons equally bearing the burdens of the state, religious distinctions ought not to be allowed to interfere with matters of civil privilege; that the argument used in the case of the Roman Catholics of a divided political allegiance is inapplicable here; that therefore the restrictions upon the Jews are a species of religious persecution; and that at all events the Jews ought not to be placed in a worse condition than they were by the measures which have thrown open the constitution to their fellow-subjects. We shall have an opportunity of resuming the subject.

Mr. Peel has brought in his bill to consolidate the laws respecting forgery. He proposes to remit capital punishment in some cases to which it is now applicable; but we lament that the legislature does not either abolish it in all cases, murder only excepted, or at least confine it to cases of great atrocity and violence. The subject, we rejoice to state, has been brought before parliament, and is to undergo a full disucssion-we trust with an auspicious result.

FOREIGN.

FRANCE. No political event of importance has transpired since the prorogation of the chambers.-We mentioned in our last volume (p. 633) the sentence of fine and imprisonment pronounced against M. Chatelain, the conductor of the Courier Français, for a paragraph in which he said that the Madonnas of Raphael are divine, though their altars are half overthrown; and that the paintings of the communion and transfiguration would survive, if the fragility of their materials allowed, "when Christianity itself shall be abolished." M. Chatelain has appealed to a higher court; and the sentence has been reversed, on the ground that though it may be painful to those who believe a doctrine to hear it denied, the denial is not a legal offence unless accompanied with offensive language. The royal court of Aix, in adjudging punishment for a reprint of the same article, but accompanied with some sarcastic remarks, decides that "the simple negation of a religious dogma, without contumely, would have been no offence against the charter."

GERMANY.-The Duke of Saxe Meiningin has lately issued a law that religious differences shall not affect the political privileges of any of his subjects professing Christianity. Specific regulations are to be drawn up in the case of the Jews. The

"Evangelical Church " (Lutheran and Reformed united) is to be the established religion, but all other sects are to enjoy perfect protection.

DENMARK.-The Hamburgh Correspondent contains the following pas. sage: - "From Copenhagen, we learn that, in consequence of the regulations successively introduced into the Danish West-India Islands, the Negroes are now placed upon nearly an equal footing with the Europeans; thus their emancipation may be considered as accomplished. Marriages between them and Europeans are permitted many Negroes carry on trade, and enjoy the same privileges as Europeans: great numbers are employed in counting-houses, and some even are placed in public offices. Even the right of property with regard to Negroes who are still in bondage, is gradually falling away. If at an auction a Negro offers a price for his liberty, it is considered disgraceful at St. Croix to bid above him, and many have thus bought their liberty for a trifle."

UNITED STATES.-The discussions respecting the Indians have disclosed some facts not to the honour of the American States. It appears that when a treaty is to be contracted with the Aborigines, it has been the practice to allot large sums of money in order to keep the chiefs, their families, and retainers in a state of conviviality and too often drunkenness, for days and weeks together, till by bribes and artifice the object has been accomplished. The exposure of such a fact will, we trust, prevent its recurrence.-The controversies respecting the tariff still proceed with great animation. It is remarkable that nations are seldom content to accommodate themselves to the station which Divine Providence has allotted to them. The United States, with abundance of land and a thin population, wish to turn manufacturers instead of agriculturalists; while Great Britain, with a dense population cooped up in a small island, thinks it better to live on its own dear corn than to purchase corn cheaply with its manufactures, thus feeding tens of thousands of its starving population. The American prefers wearing dear home-made clothes, and letting his corn perish in his warehouse; and the Englishman eating dear home-grown corn, and leaving his manufactured goods to a similar fate; whereas both, by a simple exchange on the principles of Christian reciprocity, might benefit each other and injure no one. When will nations learn what every page of the New Testament so beautifully teaches, "Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, even so do unto them?"

BRAZIL.-The Roman-Catholic religion being no longer exclusive in Brazil, and all other creeds being tolerated, a law is under consideration by the legislature, to make marriage a merely civil ceremony, with such religious observances as the parties may prefer.

ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.

A CLERGYMAN IN THE WEST; NAUTICUS; MELANCTHON; THEOGNIS; C. W.; MONTESINOS; A FRIEND; MODERATOR; A—A; R. C.; AN INQUIRER; G. D.; and M. E.; are under consideration.

We are as much "lovers of truth and fair play" as the correspondent who signs himself so, and we have honestly consulted both in the statements which we have given on the condition of Unitarianism. Let the public judge between us. T. B. should not be displeased at our having printed poetry in a small type, for the sake of getting the lines into a column instead of extending them across the page. If a work give a stipulated number of pages and employs a small type, the purchaser gains the additional matter for the same sum, while there is a large extra expense for printing. We ought not to be blamed for being over honest. Two of our Numbers contain the matter of many a ten or twelve shilling volume. Would D. F. duly consider the origin of tithes, he would not call them "unjust," even if he continued to think them "inexpedient." If he himself built a church, and, as a condition of its being consecrated, agreed to endow it with a tenth part of the produce of his lands for ever, those to whom those lands came, either by bequest or purchase, with this settlement upon them, could not complain of injustice. He had a right to do what he would with his own. The land is purchased subject to the incumbrance. Nor is force put upon the tenant, the rent being adjusted by the neat, and not the gross, produce. The effect upon the application of labour and capital to agriculture, and upon the spiritual affairs of parishes, are distinct questions; but we speak at present only of the charge of "injustice.” We have not ability to give a clerkly solution to H. B.'s question, but we will relate to him an anecdote which bears upon it. At the synod of Dort, Gomarus said that Episcopius had falsified the doctrine of reprobation; for that no man taught as he alleged, that God decreed to cast men away without sin, but that God did decree the means as well as the end; for as he predestinated man to death, he predestinated him to sin, the only way to death; on which Hale, in his memoranda of the synod, remarks, that "he mended the question as tinkers mend kettles, making the hole worse and worse." We are content to leave these matters where we find them in Scripture, without attempting to mend them with theological "tinkering." We approve the Apocryphal Lessons as little as Sosipater, and earnestly wish we were well rid of them; but while they continue appointed by the church to be read, a clergyman is not at liberty to change them on his own authority.

SUPPLEMENT TO RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.
BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

THE extracts shew the great importance of Local Associations, which we should be glad to see established in every village in the kingdom. The "Negro-English" Testament has been received with great joy by the Black and Coloured population of Surinam.

ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY.

The Reporter is chiefly devoted to an authentic account of the much calumniated colony of Sierra Leone. Had not this colony been established at the time of the abo.. lition of the slave trade, and upon principles which do not allow of slavery upon its soil, it would have been impracticable to carry the abolition into effect, even to the unhappily limited extent which it has already obtained. Its anti-slavery character has, however, been so great an offence in the eyes of the lovers of the slave-trade and slavery, that no arts have been left unemployed to traduce it. That its internal policy has not been well regulated is certainly no fault of missionary or anti-slavery societies. The paper before us sets the matter in an impartial light, and to its statements and proofs we refer our readers. We cannot think of Sierra Leone without humble thankfulness to God, and gratitude to the Church Missionary Society, and other pious and benevolent friends of Africa, for the large measure of benefit, civil, moral, and, above all, spiritual, which, after every deduction, has attended their labours in this interesting colony.

Since writing the above, we find that the Reporter for May is in such a state of forwardness that we hope to be able to append it to the present Number. It contains an exposition of the emptiness and mockery of the alleged colonial reforms, which the advocates of Slavery have vaunted of to blind the eyes of parliament and the country.

REFORMATION SOCIETY.

The extracts exhibit much interesting information respecting the state of Popery in this country, and the efforts of the Society to stem its progress.

ERRATUM.

P. 252, last line, dele gladly, and insert it before pulpit, second line above.

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MEMOIR OF FERDINAND CAULIER. except omitting some of the repeti

For the Christian Observer.

WE have much pleasure in lay

ing before our readers the following simple narrative, (see the Archives du Christianisme for August 1829,) with scarcely any alteration, except transferring it from a French to an English dress.

The reproach of the prophet, "The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart," is often even now too well merited. We do not wish to incur it as respects the zealous, modest, and unknown Christian, who is the subject of the present memoir. In the sight of God, the peasant and the monarch, the learned and the unlearned, are on the same level; there is no difference but that which their faith, their love to God, their charity, and the holiness of their lives, place between them. Ferdinand Caulier was a simple peasant; but this peasant was a remarkable instance of the grace of God, and now "shines forth as the sun in the kingdom of his Father." It is to bear our tes timony to this wonderful gráce, and for the edification and encouragement of our readers, that we insert the following notices. We derive them from various sources; and thinking that they would be more interesting in their original form, we have made no alteration in them,

CHRIST. OBSERV. No 341.

tions which would necessarily occur.

An honest countryman, an inhabitant of a hamlet near the vil

lage of N, found in 1810, in

a corner of his house, a small Bible which had long been there without the knowledge of any one. Like all the other inhabitants of the neighbourhood, he was a RomanCatholic, and did not even know the name of the Reformed religion. This man was religious in the sense which the Church of Rome attaches to the word. The discovery of a religious book excited his attention. He read it diligently with his wife; and very soon a remarkable change took place in their religious sentiments, but they kept it secret. What struck them first was the little resemblance which they perceived between their religion and that of the Bible; and as they read, fully believing the Bible to be the word of God, the discrepancy which they perceived between its doctrines and their former faith, gave them great uneasiness, and led them to suspect that the path in which they had hitherto been conducted might possibly be a wrong one. The more they read the Bible, the more this suspicion was strengthened. At last it became a certainty; they had read with attention the word of God; they found in it neither pope, nor priest, nor massés, nor confession, nor purgatory, nor any of the 5 M

Very

mummeries of Popery. Their conscience warned them that they ought to quit a church which taught them so badly; and for the first time the bell which summoned their neighbours to mass found them disobedient. The neglect which they began from this time to shew to the worship and practice of the Church of Rome, was soon noticed: their relations first wished to know the cause of it; and when they learnt that this change was owing to the word of God, they asked also to read it. The little Bible passed into their hands; they read it, and in a short time it produced the same effects upon their minds. soon this precious volume, perhaps the only one which was to be found in the neighbourhood, went from hand to hand; and every where, without any other aid than that which God grants to his own sacred truth, it obtained the same victories. The number of persons which it thus detached from the Church of Rome having become considerable, they wished to unite themselves together. In 1811 a little church was built at their joint expense, and from that time this interesting flock, a remarkable monument of the efficacy of the sacred Scriptures, began to be visited by that venerable pastor, the elder Devisme, whose memory will long be cherished by the Reformed churches in the north of France.

Louis Caulier was one of those who thus quitted the Church of Rome. He had at that time two children, a son and a daughter, who had been carefully educated in the faith of that church, but who, of their own accord, although still very young, wished to follow their father. The son was called Ferdinand, and is the subject of the present me. moir.

Although the zeal of these new converts, and their attachment to the religion of the Bible, was great, they were as yet strangers to what constitutes the essence of Christianity, to that new birth, without

which our blessed Lord has declared no one shall see the kingdom of God. They had seen their former errors, but they had not yet been enabled to seize the first link in the chain of the truth as it is in Jesus. They still believed, we will not say with the Church of Rome, (for it would be unjust to confine to that corrupt church that fatal error,) but with all who are ignorant of the fall of man and the justice of God, or who admit these doctrines without perceiving their consequences,-that man is able to procure his own salvation; that he must be the author and meriter of it. Thus therefore, while on the one hand the Reformation from Popery made progress among them, and their little flock increased every year; on the other, the Christian life was not at all exhibited, and the love of the world still governed them nearly as much as formerly.

M. Devisme, being the minister of numerous churches, scattered throughout many departments, could but seldom visit this, one of the least in numerical importance; so that his ministrations could scarcely penetrate the bosom of this little community with the doctrine of salvation by faith in the blood of the Son of God. Besides which, he died a very few years after the formation of this little church. Some servants of Christ indeed visited them occasionally, but not remaining long among them, there appeared no change in their religious condition. "This was the case to the year 1819," continues the pastor to whom we are indebted for these statements, "when it pleased the providence of God to conduct me to them. From my first visit, it was easy to discover the state of religion among this little flock, and to perceive the error with which I should have chiefly to contend. I began immediately in my sermons, and in my private conversations, to dwell chiefly upon the justification of a sinner by faith, without the works of the law. I endeavoured

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