throne of mercy, as it were, for the very purpose of dispensing the blessings of forgiveness. "The goodness of God leads him to repentance:" and then, with the most affectionate humility, at once he leaves off his rebellion, enlists himself into the service of so kind a Master, and, with the newly converted Paul, exclaims, "Lord, what wouldest thou have me to do?" This devoted attachment kindles into acts of open and decided piety. He feels his unspeakable obligations to redeeming love; and these obligationsare ever acquiring fresh strength, as he grows in a more thorough knowledge of the " desperate wickedness" of his own heart: he loves much, because much has been forgiven.

I doubt not but the workings of your own experience have some cor respondence with those I have described. You have now been happily led to flee from the wrath to come, and to embrace Christ crucified as all your salvation. But on the retrospect of former years, does it not strike you with amazement, that God did not "cut you down as a cumberer of the ground?" that he did not inflict the awful curse which your unceasing provocations had so justly incurred? that he persevered so long in a course of tender forbearance? and, above all, that at last he should fix upon you as a special object of his clemency, and "pluck you as a brand from the burning?" You must ascribe all the change in your condition-the condemnation from which you are rescued, and the blessings to which you are exaltedto the free, unsought, and unmerited love of God in Christ Jesus. O, my friend! let the range of your meditations often run in this direction. It will take eternity itself to unfold the manifold wisdom, and the matchless love of God, in the redemption of your soul; but, O! begin the work at present, and let the beginning and the ending of your reflections and your praises be, "Hear what the Lord hath done for me." Delight yourself in the Lord. It is, indeed, an interesting employment to think on the glories of his person, the excellencies of his_character, and the wisdom of all VOL.III.

his dispensations, especially in reference to yourself. It will expand your mind with the most sacred delight. It will, unconsciously, cultivate a spirit of prayer and devotion; and in thus holding communion with God, you will experience that "fulness of joy," which nothing earthly can bestow.

But, alas! methinks I can anticipate your lamentations. Are you not desirous of telling me, that through the deceitfulness of sin, you are often beguiled of your privileges, and robbed of those spiritual comforts for which your soul pants? It is your wish to love God from every consideration, but especially because he commended his love towards you, in that, while you were a sinner, Christ died for you. It is your wish to live in communion with your God, and to follow after that holiness without which no man shall see his face. But your imaginations are full of vanity, and your best endeavours after heavenly meditation are interrupted and marred by the frequent intrusion of evil thoughts. All this may be true enough in your case; for I firmly believe it accords with the experience even of the most advanced Christian. But allow me to say, that while you thus groan under the burden of remaining corruption, and are grieved on account of your natural aversion to what is good, you have reason to bless God for making you feel your proneness to evil, and teaching you that your entire dependence must be on his promised grace. At the same time that you confess and mourn over your imperfections, are you not powerfully affected with a sense of the Divine longsuffering, in bearing with thein, and in even sympathizing with you under them; and in the readiness with which our gracious God condescends to help the infirmities, and supply all the wants of his people? In short, as you grow in grace, you will always find growing cause to humble yourself on account of your manifold shortcomings, and to exalt the Saviour for the riches of his grace and love, so freely, so suitably, and so abundantly conferred. This is the tendency of the whole Gospel dispensation. The

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sinner is nothing, and can do nothing. Christ Jesus is all and all. The blessings which he died to purchase, and now for ever lives to bestow, are inestimable in their nature, infinite in their extent, and eternal in their duration. O, amazing boon! And these blessings are offered without money and without price. They are a gift, a free gift; the gift of the great eternal God to the creatures of his own formation; the gift of the heavenly Father to children, who are unconsciously upheld by his power, and fed by his bounty, and loaded with his benefits from day to day. What condescension! what love! And yet, strange to tell, both the Giver and the gift are alike despised by blinded, degraded, ungrateful man! This is a most affecting and humiliating view of human nature, But is it not a just one? We cannot look around us without perceiving innumerable proofs of its truth. Nor can even the renewed mind of a Christian free itself from the sad accusation of undervaluing that great salvation, which nothing could accomplish but the incarnation, death, and resurrection of the Son of God. How then shall those escape who despise the proffered mercy? Solemn consideration!

But study you, my dear young friend, to keep yourself in the love of God. Live habitually under the influence of your own unworthiness, and of his unspeakable goodness. God is love: it is your duty to love him in return with all your heart and soul. See that you never forget what he has done to save you from everlasting perdition, and to raise you to glory, and honour, and immortality. Remember the infinite obligations under which you are laid; and let it be your constant aim to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments; to serve him with a willing mind; to glorify him with your body and your spirit, which are his. Nor will you ever find that this is a hard service. On the contrary, the nearer you live to God, you will enjoy the larger measure of that "peace which passeth all understanding."

FIDELIS.

Hindoo Superstitions and Cruelties. (From the Missionary Register for July, 1819.)

VOLUNTARY TORMENT.

We shall extract a passage on this subject from the Abbé Dubois "Description of the People of India" (4to. London, 1817, pp. 413-416) It is our wish to make our readers acqainted with the cruel superstitions under which their Indian fellow-subjects are held in bondage, that, commiserating their wretchedness, they may pray and labour for their emancipation from the tyranny of that Evil Spirit, who hath his dwelling among the Heathen, and exults in the follies and cruelties which mark his reign.

"Vows, which are absolved by suffering mutilation in various ways, or by enduring bodily torments, are very common among the Hindoos. They are generally undertaken on occasions of disease, or any other danger, from which they suppose they can be delivered by their efficacy.

"One of the most common consists in stamping, upon the shoulders, chest, and other parts of the body, with a redhot iron, certain marks, to represent the armour of their gods; the impressions of which are never effaced, but are accounted sacred, and are ostentatiously displayed as marks of distinction.

"A practice very common among the devotees consists in laying themselves at their whole length on the ground, and rolling, in that posture, all round the temples, or before the cars on which the idols are placed in solemn processions. On such occasions, it is curious to see the numbers of enthusiasts who roll in that manner before the car, over the roads and streets, during the whole of the procession; regardless of the stones, thorns, and other impediments, which they encounter in their progress, and by which they are mangled all over. It is in this class of enthusiasts that some individuals are found, so completely inspired by the demon of a barbarous fanaticism, or seduced by the first incitements of a delirious glow, that they roll themselves under the car on which the idols are drawn,

and are voluntarily crushed under the wheels. The surrounding crowd of enthusiasts, so far from trying to prevent this act of devotion, loudly applaud the zeal of the victims, and exalt them among the gods.

"One of the severest tests to which the devotees of India are accustomed to expose themselves, is that which they call in many places 'Chidi Mari.' The name arises from this species of self infliction being generally practised in honour of the Goddess Mariamma (or Marima,) one of the most wicked and sanguinary of all that are adored in India. At many temples, consecrated to this cruel divinity, a sort of gibbet is erected, with a pulley at the arm, through which a line passes with a sharp hook at the end. Those who have vowed to undergo the rough trial of 'Chidi Mari' place themselves under the gibbet; from which the rope and iron-hook are let down. Then, after benumbing the flesh of the middle of the back of the votary, by rubbing it very roughly, they fix the hook into it; and, giving play to the other end of the string, they hoist up to the top of the gibbet the wretch thus suspended by the muscles of the back. After swinging in the air for two or three minutes, he is let down again; and, the hook being unfixed, he is dressed with proper medicines for his wound, and is dismissed in triumph.

"Another well known proof of devotion, to which many oblige themselves by vow, in cases of illness or other troubles, consists in walking, or rather running over burning coals. When this is to be performed, they be gin by kindling a blazing fire; and, when the flames expire, and all the fuel is reduced to cinders, the votaries commence their race, from the midst of a puddle of earth and water, which has been previously prepared for the purpose; running quickly over the glowing embers, till they reach another puddle of the same kind on the other side of the fire. But notwithstanding this precaution, those who have a tender skin cannot fail to be grievously burnt.

" Others, who are unfit for the race,

in place of going through the fire, take a cloth well moistened with water, which they put over their head and shoulders, and lift up a chafing-dish filled with live embers, which they discharge over their heads. This is called the Fire Bath.

"Another species of torture submitted to, in the fulfilment of vows, is to pierce the cheeks, through and through, with a wire of silver or other metal, fixed in such a manner that the mouth cannot be opened without extreme pain. This operation is called 'locking the mouth; and is often protracted through the whole day. While under this discipline, the votary repairs to the temple which he has come to visit, and pays homage to the god; or walks about, with ostentation, among the admiring throng. There are several temples frequented by this species of votaries; and numbers of devotees, of both sexes, are there seen, with their jaws thus perforated through the teeth, and their mouths completely locked.

"I once met a fanatic of this sort, in the streets, who had both his lips pierced through and through with two long nails, which crossed each other, so that the point of the one reached to the right eye, and that of the other to the left. He had just undergone this cruel operation, at the gate of a temple consecrated to the goddess Mari-amma; and, when I saw him, the blood was still trickling from the wounds. He walked in that state for a long time in the streets, surrounded by a crowd of admirers; many of whom brought him alms, in money or goods, which were received by the persons who attended him.

"There are a great nany other sorts of torture and bodily pains, thus voluntarily inflicted by the Hindoos, with the view of rendering their gods propitious. Each devotee chooses the sort which is suggested by an imagination heated with barbarous fanaticism; and, still more frequently, by the desire of acquiring a name, and becoming conspicuous among the people.

"Some make a vow to cut out their tongues; and acquit themselves of

their vow, by coolly executing it with their own hands. The custom is, when they have separated the half, or any other portion of that organ, at the door of the temple, to put it on a cocoa-shell, and offer it, on their knees, at the shrine of the deity.

"This disposition of the Hindoos, to bind themselves by vows to painful or costly works in honour of their gods, is visible in all unpleasant circumstances that befal them, but particularly in disease. There is heardly a Hindoo who, in that case, does not take a vow to perform something or other when he recovers. The rich make vows to celebrate festivals at certain temples. Those less opulent offer, at the Pagoda, a cow, a buffalo, pieces of cloth, or trinkets of gold and silver. Those who are affected with any disorder of the eyes, mouth, ears, or any other outward organ, vow to their idols a corresponding resemblance of it in silver or gold.

"Among the innumerable sorts of vows practised by either sex, the following, which is very common in all parts of the Peninsula, appears to me so curious as to deserve notice. It consists in the offering of their hair and their nails to the idol. It is well known, that the men in India have the custom of frequently shaving the head, and allowing only a single tuft to grow on the crown. Those who have taken the vow, suffer their hair and nails to grow for a long space of time; and, when the day of fulfilment arrives, they go to the Pagoda, and have their head shaved and their nails pared, which they offer up to the divinity whom they worship. This practice is nearly peculiar to men, and is held to be one of the most acceptable of all others to the gods.

"In concluding our remarks on the vows of the Hindoos, it may be proper to observe, that all such as relate to painful operations of the nature above described, with many others that are attended with bodily suffering, are always declined by the Brahmins, who leave the merit of them to the Soodras; and those of the latter class, who practise them, are for the most part fanatical sectaries of Vishnoo or

Siva, particularly of Vishnoo, who aspire by that method to the public admiration, rather than to do honour to the gods by such barbarous and ridiculous works."

On the foregoing, several reflections naturally suggest themselves.

We have here some among innumerable characteristics of religion without a knowledge of revelation. When the modern philosopher, born and educated under the unavoidable influence of Christian faith and morals, pretends to give the result of his own reflection, in a system of religion, as that of reason and of nature; the truly philosophic mind will hesitate before it admits the justice of the claim. It will look for a true picture of religion without revelation, to times and places destitute of the latter. It will naturally conclude, that they who are brought up in a Christian country cannot but have their views of religion more or less influenced by that system which prevails all around them, is incorporated with every social and civil connexion, and, in a greater or less degree, governs the habits and manners of society. Admitting their honesty, it cannot but believe that they will, at least involuntarily, be biassed by these circumstances.

When, then, as in all reason he should, the true philosopher looks to those who knew not, and those who know not, revelation, for the religion that can be formed without it, what presents itself? The above extract exhibits a fair specimen. Every new account from m the benighted region whence those humiliating narrations have been brought, adds further, and still further confirmation of the evidence they afford.

Does he plead the want of intellectual improvement as the source of these pitiable superstitions? Let him select his own portion of ancient or modern times, and make his own choice of the community ignorant of revelation-take times and places in which the human mind exhibited the highest cultivation of heathen philosophy. What, then, was the prevailing religion? What the religion of the philosophers themselves? What the influence which they could exert over the religion of those who felt for their learning the highest veneration, and adopted its dictates with the most implicit confidence? To the result of this examination-the more extensive, and the more minute, the better-the question may be fairly and confidently left.

How lively should be our gratitude to God that we are not exposed to the miserable delusions that the whole history of mankind declares to be consequent on religion, formed and maintained wit without a knowledge of revelation! That we are not the wretched votaries of a religion superstitious, cruel, blasphemous, and obscene; our thanks are not due to the light of human science. Time has been when that shined with a splendour never surpassed; and yet could not dissipate the blackness of thickest darkness in which the moral and religious world was enveloped. At the same time, there was a people, but children in human knowledge, who stood alone in the exercise of a religion which reason and reflection could approve. That people was the Jews. Save for the lively oracles which had been committed to them; very inferior were their means of moral and intellectual cultivation. These lively oracles raised them, in the purity and excellence of religion, high above all the nations of the earth.

If we would know what mere ethicks can effect, combined with deepest learning and research, and urged with every advantage of sound reasoning, of eloquence, and of authority, we have a fair specimen in the history of heathen nations.

Would we know what our Bible can effect, when it is the only instrument in the hands of humble, obscure, persecuted men, in their bold enterprize of shaking the faith of kings and emperors-meeting every opposition of prejudice, of interest, and of powerand changing the religious and moral system of the world,-history, here too, is full and express; testimony, direct and indirect, of friends and foes, is elear and strong. Let it be weighed

by a reasonable and impartial mind. The result will dictate the candid and grateful confession, that to a revelation from God, and that alone, we are indebted for the freedom we enjoy from the deplorable ignorance and superstition of pagan worship.

How awful the responsibility hence arising! A great and precious gift is bestowed upon us. We are required to improve it. Ten talents are given unto us. We are required to increase them. The requisition is attended with the promise of eternal reward for fidelity, and the threat of eternal punishment for neglect. Just as heavy will be this punishment: for the neglect that provokes it is an awful combination of iniquity. Its worst feature is its ingratitude in casting shame and reproach upon a pure and holy religion, provided, by the mere mercy of God, for our temporal and eternal good. Many of these wretched Hindoos themselves will rise up in judgment against professing Christians. They verily thought they were doing God service. They were instructed that such and such were necessary duties of religion. They knew no bet-ter, and from a principle of devotion and obedience, performed them. Christian reader, dost thou do like. wise? Light is the burden, and easy the yoke of thy religion. Its duties, requiring no other sacrifice than that of thy sins and sinful propensitiesno other suffering than the bringing of thy evil tempers into subjection to a rule holy, just, good, and happy-no other self-denial than is necessary to a mastery over thy appetites and passions, most essential even to temporal peace and comfort: these duties are perpetually urged upon thee. By authority from the Author and Giver of all good, sufficient grace is offered to enable thee to discharge them with fidelity. What effect does all this produce upon thy heart and life? The question is now put in the spirit of meekness and love. It will be put, hereafter, in the awful accents of majesty and power. It will be put when heaven and hell, both in view, will forbid a moment's delay in the reply.