his holy word, God should disclose to us more or otherwise than we have yet perceived.

devotional reading of the epistles, for the press purpose of correcting, confirming, or cidating our doctrinal views. This is no knowledge, like others we have spoken of, ter reserved for times of study than intru upon our hours of devotion. It is of thing be learned best, perhaps learned only on knees-I mean, that since they must be tat us of God, they can be learned only in his sence, with prayer on the lips, and devotion the heart-in the feeling, if not in the attit of supplication. Whenever you are agita with doubtfulness upon any point of be when some opinion you have heard distr your judgment, or disturbs your thoughts, no means put it aside as of no consequence unfit to be entertained-unless indeed it b itself frivolous and out of the purpose of G revelation-but take it with you at your n devotional reading-seek out some chapter 1 bears upon the point, study it as before G and earnestly intreat him that you may fin not the confirmation of previous opinion, ar ments to battle your opponents-but truthyou or against you, truth. Never, I beli were that our simple object, should we fail sought, to find it; and to become gradually lightened in every thing God in his revelat has made known. If you find doctrines cannot understand, believe them first, and w for more light to understand them by. there are sentences that have been differen

May all then, if they will, attain to this clear understanding of the scriptures, in doctrines perhaps for ages controverted, and no nearer agreed upon than they were at first? I do not know-But this I have observed-the ignorant, the unlettered, and the simple-minded, attain to it, and rest in it, and live by it, while wisdom cavils, and learning is at fault-and if you go to them with your thinkings, reasonings, and doubtings, they smile upon your folly, and tell you "it is so in the Bible, and they have no doubt the Bible is right." It is certain that none can attain to the right understanding of the scriptures, but those to whom God by his Spirit will unclose them-and this Spirit has been promised to all who diligently seek it. Is the deduction not that the knowledge of all truth is within the reach of every one who rightly pursues it? No limit has been set for intellect, age, or condition. Why this certainty of truth is so seldom reached, there may be many reasons. Instead of this simple, earnest reference to scripture for our establishment in disputed points of doctrine, we generally receive them in the first instance from men-some who happen to have influence at the time. Immediately they become our opinions; there is a sort of appropriation; we begin to value them as something of our own; we grow warm and eager in their defence; unconsciously to ourselves, a party feeling kin-interpreted, take them upon their plain dles in our bosoms, and the doctrines gain an interest with us quite apart from persuasion of their truth. When these opinions happen to be impugned, instead of going to scripture to see if we are really right, we get volume upon volume to confirm us in them, all who are supposed to differ being shunned as dangerous, or read with settled determination to find them in the wrong. Thus we grow warmer and warmer, surer and surer-for a little time. Our doctrines being founded on no actual certainty derived from the understanding of God's word, they are ever liable to terminate where they had their origin-in the influence of human opinion. Some stronger influence, or perhaps the mere effect of experience and reflection, discloses to us how very little ground we really had for what we so warmly maintained. Here again, if we were wise, we might go to the scripture to learn a better creed, or get a better foundation for the one we have. But it is not uncommon, instead of this, to find the heady controversialist, because himself was wrong, asserting that every body is wrong, or every body right-that all mean alike, and the points disputed are of no consequence-and he that before was violent for an unexamined creed, is now supinely contented without any creed at all. And from this it results, that a great proportion of people do not know what

sense, till the light of other scriptures reve to you a better. And having proved your nest desire to know the truth, by the hum simple, and teachable spirit with which have inquired of it before God, go not to prove it instantly on leaving your chamber, taking the word of the first person you m in contradiction to the word you have b reading: nay, nor the opinions of the wo united, could you get them to agree, agai the plain sense of the written word of G But if any thing should arise to make doubt the justness of your conclusions, go b on the first opportunity to the presence of G and to your Bible, and correct the opin where you formed it.

It is needless to say the Epistles contain great deal more than doctrines. They peculiarly valuable in that they contain dir tions for the life and conversation of Christia as distinct from other men. They are dressed to the saints and brethren exclusive as the head of each epistle expresses, and fu make known to us what the early followers Jesus were, as well as what God required th should be. This is most useful. We are tremely apt, particularly in our days of in perience, to fancy our case unlike to eve other-our feelings, difficulties and temptatio different. Yet if we will examine the Epist

From the Missionary Register.

SURVEY OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE
INLAND SEAS.

IN the Introductory Remarks for the last few years to this portion of the Survey, we have been led to call the attention of our readers to the conflict of the Antichristian Powers against the Truth, now raging on this great scene of the unfolding, and apparently rapid accomplishment of the yet-unfulfilled predictions of the Divine Word.

of

The political relations and proceedings the States here brought into collision with one another have recently assumed a new aspect; and all manifestly and directly tend to the destruction of the temporal power of the Mahomedan Antichrist, who raised himself and has triumphed only by the Sword. The rapid dissolution of that Strength of Dominion by which Mahomedanism has been upheld is truly remarkable: both Turkey and Persia are at the feet of the Christian Powers. The Crescent wanes before the Cross! While Turkey was receiving her death-wound, in the forced Pacification of Greece by the battle of Navarino on the 20th of October, the Russian Imperial Guard had almost at the same hour mounted the breach, made by the cannon of the army in a few days in the walls of Erivan, the supposed impregnable bulwark of Persia, and from which they had been repulsed in 1808 with great slaughter in a desperate assault made after a six months' siege: the surrender of Tebriz, the seat of government of Prince Abbas Mirza, im- | mediately followed; and terms of peace were dictated by the conqueror. That Power of the Christian World, which has long been suspended over the head of the Mahomedan, has thus fallen with weight irresistible: and it is perfectly plain, that, whether in Europe or Asia, on the arrival of that hour, in the overruling Providence of Him who makes Nations to serve His will while they mean only to serve their own, when it shall be deemed the interest of the Christian Powers further to weaken or entirely to destroy the temporal dominion of the Mahomedan Antichrist, that dominion lies at their mercy.

In the mean while, the Romish Antichrist continues, with that infatuation which marks him as judicially blinded, to multiply proofs that he is engaged in a warfare against the Inspired Word of God in which undoubted ruin and tremendous punishment await him; and it is not a little remarkable, that the great support of Mahomedan Delusion, the Turkish Empire, has also committed itself in direct warfare against the same Holy Word. The Turk has suffered himself to be hired by the Antichristian Jew, to persecute and oppress even to bonds and almost to death the Christian Jew: Nor can there be any

gers which surround them from Turkish
pression, brought into action by Romish
bery and Intrigue, a part of which we shall
before our readers; and we cannot but th
that men, who are thus toiling for the good
our Common Christianity, have a just cla
on the protection which could be secured
States to which they belong:-
them by the interference of those Protest

"There is a subject which intimately c cerns the Kingdom of Christ in this land, disclose our sentiments. The subject to wh which we have for some time been wishing we allude is that of TURKISH INTOLERANCE MATTERS OF RELIGION. We do not mean t intolerance which is exercised toward Mal lerance established BY LAW against any oтH medans themselves; nor do we mean any in but we refer to that intolerance which ACTUA of the Religious Denominations of the Empi things may be easily MADE to exist, wheth Ly exists, or which in the present state by the negligence or connivance, or wheth by the positive agency of the Government.

"Of late, a number of individuals, natives convictions of reason and conscience, felt the this country, have apparently from the sob selves bound to differ from the sect of religi in which they were brought up; and nearly these have suffered, on this account, persec knowledge and permission, if not the expre tion more or less severe, and this too with t command, of the constituted civil authoritie Holy Scriptures, issued in 1824, has opened "The Firman of the Sultân against superstition and bigotry a wide door for the cious and indisputable rights of Christian intolerance, in regard to one of the most pr This unprecedented Order has, in the hands evil men, been made the plea for breaking u several flourishing Christian Schools, burnin hundreds of the Book of God, and imprisonin and otherwise punishing those with whom th Book has been found. Owing to this Order, dividual Christian has, in the year past, calle has doubtless been, in part, that scarcely an at any of the Depôts in Syria to purchase th Holy Scriptures.

"With respect to the persecuted individual views, it is to be observed, that, in regard t who have experienced a change of religiou the Government, they stand in the same rela they were viewed as Infidels before, and the tion and possess the same character as before fore, does the voice of REASON say, that thos are viewed as Infidels still. Not only, there persons ought to receive from Government th same protection as before, but we find tha THEIR OWN BOOKS and judicial decisions de clare that all Infidels are to be considered as common class, and are therefore to be treate.

the Christian community, when an example of eminent sanctity and heroic zeal is defrau ed of its just honours; when a living epistle of apostolic piety is suffered to perish; or, to change the figure, when the lamp kindled by a holy life, which might have shone to posterity, is suffered to go out.

Oberlin was a man whom the Church of Rome, if it deserved the name of Catholic, would have canonized. Not that his piety was of the spurious kind which that Church delighteth to honour. He embraced a life of privation and poverty, but he was no mendicant; his habits were as austere as those of the cloister, but he was no monk. He wrought miracles, very different ones from those of St. Paris or St. Hohenlohe, but undeniable ones: they changed the face of nature and the moral character of a whole district. His virtue was of that lofty kind which springs from the calm and elevated enthusiasm peculiar to the Christian faith, and which we are too apt to suppose the exclusive attainment of saints of other times; as if religion itself could possibly degenerate in its genuine nature and efficiency, because we may have degenerated. Such a man could receive no honour from being ranked with the holy rabble of the Papal calendar; but it becomes Protestants to be not less solicitous than Romanists, to preserve and cherish the memory of those servants of Christ who have "obtained a good report ;" men, whom it were, indeed, folly to invocate, and impiety to worship, but whom it is good to remember, and noble to follow.

The English public are indebted to a small pamphlet, published in 1820, by the Rev. Mark Wilks of Paris, for the first distinct notice of this extraordinary man.* The late Rev John Owen had, indeed, in his account of a Journey on the Continent, made honourable mention of the venerable pastor of Waldbach; and a letter from him, without his name, appears in the First Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society. (No. XV.) At that period, Oberlin had been prosecuting for nearly forty years his pious and philanthropic labours in the recesses of mountains scarcely accessible to the traveller. He is simply styled, in the Report above referred to, a clergyman in Alsace." Mr. Wilk's charming little narrative made him better known to his Protestant brethren in this country, to which the names of foreign worthies are sometimes long in finding their way; and now and then, a Christian traveller has turned aside from the beaten route, and forsaken the rich scenery of the Rhine, to visit the Ban de la Roche and its venerable pastor. Oberlin, "le bon Papa Oberlin," rests from his labours; but the scene of his pious achievements has acquired a permanent interest independent of its wild and romantic scenery, and few spots better deserve to engage the attention of continental travellers. Before we proceed to give an account of the subject of these remarks, drawn from the Notice before us and other materials in our possession, a description of this singular tract may not be unacceptable. The Ban de la Roche is a mountainous can

ton of Alsace, forming part of the clivities and ramifications of the or Hochfeld, an isolated groupe of separated by a deep longitudinal the eastern side of the chain of The Haut Champ rises to an elevat feet above the level of the sea. W principal village, is placed on its the height of 1800 feet, and Roth feet The other villages, Fouday Bellefosse, and Belmont, occupy or less elevated. The temperatur tremely, according to the height a tion of the districts. At an elevat 1300 feet above the level of the sea corresponds to that of Geneva and Jura: this is called the warm reg that, as high as 2400 feet, is the t gion, in which the thermometer same temperature as that of Warsa At 2700 feet the climate is that o and Abo; and on ascending still hig becomes as intense as at St. Peter fogs, rain, and snow, commence in and the snow remains undissolve till the latter end of May or the June, when the wind blows from At Fouday, the harvest is about and at Waldbach, a fortnight later thau; while at Belmont, it is a than at Fouday. The whole cant between eight and nine thousa 48,400 French feet), of which, b and four thousand are covered wi thousand are occupied with pas remainder is enclosed. About 1 under cultivation, producing rye. tatoes, with a small quantity of fla laid out in meadow and garden gr beginning of the reign of Louis X of this tract was in the wildest sta inaccessible, there being no ro village to village, and scarcely a cultivation. About fourscore fa subsisted on the precarious produ in a state of wretchedness and yond conception. This obscure ritory participated, however, tog rest of Alsace, in a privilege der cient French provinces. When porated with France, it was sti treaty, that its inhabitants shou enjoy an entire liberty of cor while in Languedoc, the perse ants with difficulty found a spot mote from observation to celebr ship, in that country they p churches, and no restriction their assemblies.*

In the year 1750, the Luthera de la Roche received for their pa ber, to whose truly apostolic successor bears honourable testi this excellent man, in fact, wh the work which Oberlin so succe and completed. He found his p tirely destitute of the means o

many were returned to us."
the man to return it to the owner; and

Stouber was just beginning to see his ef
thus rewarded, when he was offered the
tion of pastor at Strasbourg. He accepte
it could scarcely be said to have emerg
and the Ban de la Roche was in danger of
lapsing into the melancholy state from wh
by that ardour for doing good which carr
"Where, in fact," remarks the Biographer
the individual above the fear of any obstac
Oberlin, "was a man to be found, anima
and at the same time, filled with hun
enough to aim only at being useful, without
piring to the glory of appearing so, and to
willing to bury, in the midst of these rocks, a
talents, brilliant hopes, and the remainder
among their rude inhabitants, distinguish
the case; and it was a sufficient induceme
his days? Oberlin perceived the urgency
that most persons would have disdained it; th
for him to undertake the duties of the station
to be remedied, rendering it, in his eyes, th
very misery and moral degradation which wer
more interesting."

struction. There were schoolmasters; but the office had sunk into contempt, and was filled by persons scarcely able to read. Stouber's first step was, to procure a schoolmaster competent to discharge the duties of the station; he then drew up a series of spelling and reading lessons. The peasants, we are told, on seeing the unconnected syllables, the meaning and object of which they were at a loss to comprehend, suspected that there must be concealed heresy and divination, and they long opposed the introduction of the lessons. On perceiving, however, that, by means of the new spelling book, the young children soon became able to read in any book presented to them, the adult members of the family, and even the parents, ashamed to be left behind, came forward and asked to be instructed also. Having thus far succeeded, Stouber's next solicitude was to make known the Holy Scriptures to the population which he had thus prepared for receiving them. He accordingly sent for 50 French Protestant Bibles from Basle; and, in order to put them within reach of a greater number of persons, he had each copy divided into three parts, bound in strong parchment, making 150 volumes, besides some other religious books. These he placed in the schools, giving the scholars permission to take them home; and thus, the Bible began to be read in families. Some of these small volumes found their way to the neighbouring Roman Catholic villages. The priests rigorously interdicted the perusal of them; but the prohibition served, in many eases, only as an incentive. The people proeured the Bible by stealth, and sometimes at a price very high for persons so circumstanced. A singular instance is mentioned in a letter from M. Oberlin, inserted in the Appendix to the Second Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society.

of August, 1740. His father sustained an of John-Frederic Oberlin was born on the 31s city. He was of an ardent and lively temperafice in the Gymnasium of Strasbourg, and he ment, and discovered an early passion for the was himself educated in the academy of that military profession. would mingle with the soldiers, and march While quite a lad, he with them; and having attracted the attention of the officers, he obtained permission to join father, however, had destined him for a learned profession, and he at length interfered, telling them in going through their evolutions. His the young soldier that it was time to renounce devoted himself to his literary studies. His this child's play for study and serious labour. Oberlin obeyed, and with the same enthusiasm military exercises, however, by strengthening and hardening his bodily frame, formed an important part of his preparation for the fatigues of the arduous service which awaited him as the faithful soldier of Christ. The circumknown, any further than as it appears from his stances of his religious conversion are not subject, not merely of pious convictions, but of gracious affections towards God. At the age papers, that he was, from his very infancy, the of twenty, he solemnly renewed his baptismal agreeably to the method recommended by Dr. consecration to God by a formal covenant, Doddridge in his "Rise and Progress.' Appendix to the present Memoir, there is displayed a rare union of glowing zeal and lively this interesting document, which is given in the faith with humility and self-distrust. principles by which he was governed, the spirit by which he was animated, through life, are here distinctly expressed. At all times," we

"A Roman Catholic entered a house in this place, talked upon indifferent subjects; and looking carefully about him, spied in the window a thick book with a lock; (he had heard that Bibles had this appearance;) he took it down; looked at the title, and asked, whether one could have such a Bible for a crown. When the owner answered Yes,' the Catholic threw down a crown upon the table, ran out hastily with the Bible, and away to his village, to the astonishment of every one. From that time, the demand increased continually. Several hundred small Bibles from Basle and Biel were partly sold, partly given, partly lent; and all the Biel Bibles in folio, as well as many in quarto, were procured from Switzerland, and dispersed among the Roman Catholics. Many copies, however, were taken by the Romish priests from the people, and burned. Sometimes a violent contention took place about it. Once, a priest surprised one of his people over the Bible, snatched it from him with bitter reproaches, and was going off with it, when the man, who had seen the world jumped up, snatched 19 1

are told, "his maxim was, Rien sama Di

from 41

In

The