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with peculiar violence, and sometimes | teachers could possibly wish them to overwhelms everything in its course. be:-in short, folly ran its ancient The last eruption took place about a course, and human nature evinced century and a half ago, and destroyed itself to be what it always has been both Church and Throne with its tre- under similar circumstances. mendous force. Though irresistible, great and permanent cause, therefore, it was short: enthusiasm spent its of the increase of Methodism, is the force the usual reaction took place; cause which has given birth to fanatiand England was deluged with ribaldry cism in all ages. - the facility of and indecency, because it had been mingling human errors with the fundaworried with fanatical restrictions. By mental truths of religion. The formerly degrees, however, it was found out, imperfect residence of the clergy may, that orthodoxy and loyalty might be perhaps, in some trifling degree, have secured by other methods than licentious aided this source of Methodism. But conduct and immodest conversation. unless a man of education, and a The public morals improved; and there gentleman, could stoop to such disinappeared as much good sense and genuous arts as the Methodist preachmoderation upon the subject of religioners,-unless he hears heavenly music as ever can be expected from mankind all of a sudden, and enjoys sweet exin large masses. Still, however, the periences, it is quite impossible that mischief which the Puritans had done he can contend against such artists as was not forgotten; a general suspicion these. More active than they are at prevailed of the dangers of religious present the clergy might perhaps be; enthusiasm; and the fanatical preacher but the calmness and moderation of an wanted his accustomed power among a Establishment can never possibly be a people recently recovered from a re-match for sectarian activity.If the ligious war, and guarded by songs, common people are ennui'd with the proverbs, popular stories, and the fine acting of Mrs. Siddons, they go to general tide of humour and opinion. Sadler's Wells. The subject is too against all excesses of that nature. serious for ludicrous comparisons:About the middle of the last century, but the Tabernacle really is to the however, the character of the genuine Church, what Sadler's Wells is to the fanatic was a good deal forgotten; and Drama. There, popularity is gained the memory of the civil wars worn by vaulting and tumbling,- by low away; the field was clear for extrava-arts, which the regular clergy are not gance in piety; and causes, which too idle to have recourse to, but too must always produce an immense in dignified: their institutions are chaste fluence upon the mind of man, were and severe, they endeavour to do that left to their own unimpeded operations. which, upon the whole, and for a great Religion is so noble and powerful a number of years, will be found to be consideration-it is so buoyant and the most admirable and the most useso insubmergible-that it may be made, ful: it is no part of their plan to descend by fanatics, to carry with it any degree to small artifices, for the sake of preof error and of perilous absurdity. In sent popularity and effect. The religion this instance Messrs. Whitfield and of the common people under the goWesley happened to begin. They were vernment of the Church may remain men of considerable talents; they ob- as it is for ever;-enthusiasm must be served the common decorums of life, progressive, or it will expire. they did not run naked into the streets, or pretend to the prophetical character; -and therefore they were not committed to Newgate. They preached with great energy to weak people; who first stared then listened- then believed then felt the inward feeling of grace, and became as foolish as their

It is probable that the dreadful scenes which have lately been acted in the world, and the dangers to which we are exposed, have increased the numbers of the Methodists. To what degree will Methodism extend in this country?-This question is not easy to answer. That it has rapidly in

ereased within these few years, we bave no manner of doubt; and we confess we cannot see what is likely to impede its progress. The party which it has formed in the Legislature; and the artful neutrality with which they give respectability to their small number, the talents of some of this party, and the unimpeached excellence of their characters, all make it probable that fanaticism will increase rather than diminish. The Methodists have made an alarming inroad into the Church, and they are attacking the army and navy. The principality of Wales, and the East India Company they have already acquired. All mines and subterraneous places belong to them; they creep into hospitals and small schools, and so work their way nwards. It is the custom of the reIgious neutrals to beg all the little livings, particularly in the north of England, from the minister for the time being; and from these fixed points they make incursions upon the happiness and common sense of the vicinage. We most sincerely deprecate such an event; but it will excite in us no manner of surprise, if a period arrives when the churches of the sober and orthodox part of the English clergy are completely deserted by the middling and lower classes of the community. We do not prophesy any such event; but we contend that it is not impossible,-hardly improbable. If such, in future, should be the situation of this country, it is impossible to say what political animosities may not be ingrafted upon this marked and dangerous division of mankind into the godly and the ungodly. At all events, we are quite sure that happiness will be destroyed, reason degraded, sound religion banished from the world; and that when fanaticism becomes too foolish and too prurient to be endured (as is at last sure to be the case), it will be suc ceeded by a long period of the grossest immorality, atheism, and debauchery.

We are not sure that this evil admits of any cure, or of any considerable palliation. We most sincerely hope that the government of this country will never be guilty of such indiscretion

as to tamper with the Toleration Act, or to attempt to put down these follies by the intervention of the law. If experience has taught us anything, it is the absurdity of controlling men's notions of eternity by acts of Parliament. Something may perhaps be done, in the way of ridicule, towards turning the popular opinion. It may be as well to extend the privileges of the dissenters to the members of the Church of England; for, as the law now stands, any man who dissents from the Established Church may open a place of worship where he pleases. No orthodox clergyman can do so, without the consent of the parson of the parish, - who always refuses, because he does not choose to have his monopoly disturbed; and refuses, in parishes where there are not accommodations for one half of the persons who wish to frequent the Church of England, and in instances where he knows that the chapels from which he excludes the established worship will be immediately occupied by sectaries. It may be as well to encourage in the early education of the clergy, as Mr. Ingram recommends, a better and more animated method of preaching; and it may be necessary, hereafter, if the evil gets to a great height, to relax the articles of the English Church, and to admit a greater variety of Christians within the pale. The greatest and best of all remedies, is perhaps the education of the poor;

we are astonished, that the Established Church in England is not awake to this mean of arresting the progress of Methodism. Of course, none of these things will be done; nor is it clear, if they were done, that they would do much good. Whatever happens, we are for common sense and orthodoxy. Insolence, servile politics, and the spirit of persecution, we condemn and attack, whenever we observe them; but to the learning, the moderation, and the rational piety of the Establishment, we most earnestly wish a decided victory over the nonsense, the melancholy, and the madness of the Tabernacle.*

There is one circumstance to which we

have neglected to advert in the proper

God send that our wishes be not in European companies, about 164, bevain.

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A Letter to the Chairman of the East India Company, on the Danger of interfering in the religious Opinions of the Natives of India. By Thomas Twining. London. Ridgeway.

Vindication of the Hindoos. By a Bengal
Officer. London. Rodwell.

Letter to John Scott Waring.
Hatchard.

sides officers; and many British officers of the native troops were murdered by the insurgents.

Subsequent to this explosion, there was a mutiny at Nundy droog; and, in one day, 450 Mahomedan Sepoys were disarmed, and turned out of the fort, on the ground of an intended massacre. It appeared, also, from the information of the commanding officer at Tritchinopoly, that, at that period, a spirit of disaffection had manifested itself at Bangalore, and other places; direction. On the 3rd of December, and seemed to gain ground in every 1806, the government of Madras issued the following proclamation :—

" A PROCLAMATION.

"The Right Hon. the Governor in Council, having observed that, in some late inLondon. stances, an extraordinary degree of agitation has prevailed among several corps of

Cunningham's Christianity in India. Lon- the native army of this coast, it has been

don. Hatchard.

Answer to Major Scott Waring. Extracted from the Christian Observer. Observations on the present State of the East India Company. By Major Scott Waring. Ridgeway. London.

Ar two o'clock in the morning, July the 10th, 1806, the European barracks, at Vellore, containing then four complete companies of the 69th regiment, were surrounded by two battalions of Sepoys in the Company's service, who poured in a heavy fire of musketry, at every door and window, upon the soldiers; at the same time the European sentries, the soldiers at the main-guard, and the sick in the hospital, were put to death; the officers' houses were ransacked, and everybody found in them Upon the arrival of the 19th Light Dragoons under Colonel Gillespie, the Sepoys were immediately attacked; 600 cut down upon the spot; and 200 taken from their hiding-places, and shot. There perished, of the four

murdered.

his Lordship's particular endeavour to ascertain the motives which may have led to conduct so different from that which formerly distinguished the native army. From this inquiry it has appeared that many persons of evil intention have endeavoured, for malicious purposes, to impress upon the native troops a belief that it is the wish of the British government to convert them by forcible means to Christianity; and his Lordship in Council has observed have been believed by many of the native with concern, that such malicious reports

troops.

"The Right Hon. the Governor in Council, therefore, deems it proper, in this public manner, to repeat to the native troops his assurance, that the same respect which has been invariably shown by the British government for their religion and for their customs will be always continued; and that no interruption will be given to man, in the practice of his religious cereany native, whether Hindoo or Mussulmonies.

"His Lordship in Council desires that the native troops will not give belief to the idle rumours which are circulated by enemies of their happiness, who endeavour, place, the dreadful pillage of the earnings with the basest designs, to weaken the conof the poor which is made by the Metho-fidence of the troops in the British governdists. A case is mentioned in one of the numbers of these two magazines for 1807, of

a poor man with a family, earning only twenty-eight shillings a week, who has made two donations of ten guineas each to the missionary fund!

ment.

His Lordship in Council desires that the native troops will remember the constant attention and humanity which have been shown by the British government in providing for their comfort, by

augmenting the pay of the native officers, characteristic of their various castes. and Sepoys; by allowing liberal pensions to The sons of the late Tippoo, with many those who have done their duty faithfully: noble Mussulmans deprived of office at by making ample provision for the families that time, resided in the fortress of of those who may have died in battle; and by receiving their children into the service Vellore, and in all probability contriof the Honourable Company, to be treated buted very materially to excite or to with the same care and bounty as their inflame those suspicions of designs fathers had experienced. against their religion, which are mentioned in the proclamation of the Madras Government, and generally known to have been a principal cause of the insurrection at Vellore. It was

The Right Hon. the Governor in Council trusts, that the native troops, remembering these circumstances, will be sensible of the happiness of their situation, which is greater than what the troops of any other

part of the world enjoy; and that they will continue to observe the same good conduct for which they were distinguished in the days of Gen. Lawrence, of Sir Eyre Coote, and of other renowned heroes.

The native troops must, at the same time, be sensible, that if they should fail in the duties of their allegiance, and should show themselves disobedient to their officers, their conduct will not fail to receive merited punishment, as the British government is not less prepared to punish the guilty, than to protect and distinguish those who are deserving of its favour.

"It is directed that this paper be translated with care into the Tamul, Telinga, and Hindoostany languages; and that copies of it be circulated to cach native battalion, of which the European officers are enjoined and ordered to be careful in making it known to every native officer and Sepoy under his command.

"It is also directed, that copies of the paper be circulated to all the magistrates and collectors under this government, for the purpose of being fully understood in all parts of the country. "Published by order of the Right Hon. the Governor in Council.

"G. BUCHAN,

"Chief Secretary to Government. "Dated in Fort St. George, 3rd Dec. 1806.

this insurrection which first gave birth to the question upon missions to India; and before we deliver any opinion upon the subject itself, it will be necessary to state what had been done in former

periods towards disseminating the truths of the Gospel in India, and what new exertions had been made about the period at which this event took place.

More than a century has elapsed since the first Protestant missionaries appeared in India. Two young divines, selected by the University of Halle, were sent out in this capacity by the King of Denmark, and arrived at the Danish settlement of Tranquebar in 1706. The mission thus begun, has been ever since continued, and has been assisted by the Society for the Promotion of Christian Knowledge established in this country. The same Society has, for many years, employed German missionaries, of the Lutheran persuasion, for propagating the doctrines of Christianity amongst the natives of India. In 1799, their number was six; it is now reduced to five.

The Scriptures translated into the Tamulic language, which is vernacular in the southern parts of the peninsula, have, for more than half a century, been printed at the Tranquebar press, for the use of Danish missionaries and their converts. A printing press, in

Scott Waring's Preface, iii.-v. So late as March, 1807, three months after the date of this proclamation, so universal was the dread of a general revolt among the native troops, that the British officers attached to the na-deed, was established at that place by tive troops constantly slept with loaded pistols under their pillows.

It appears that an attempt had been made by the military men at Madras, to change the shape of the Sepoy turban into something resembling the helmet of the light infantry of Europe, and to prevent the native troops from wearing on their foreheads the marks

the two first Danish missionaries; and, in 1714, the Gospel of St. Matthew, translated into the dialect of Malabar, was printed there. Not a line of the Scriptures, in any of the languages current on the coast, had issued from the Bengal press on September 13, 1806.

It does appear, however, about the

at all, till the business was really and effectually done under these sermons by Mr. Venn and Mr. Romaine.

An awful and general departure from the Christian faith in the Church of England.

able pleasure to see upon the cover of your Magazine for the present month, an advertisement, announcing the establishment of a packet, to sail weekly between London and Margate, during the season, which appears to have been set on foot for the accommodation of religious characters; and in which 'no profane conversation is to be allowed.'

"A second volume of Mr. Cooper's sermons is before us, stamped with the same broad seal of truth and excellence as the cified Redeemer, who are in the habit of "To those among the followers of a cruformer. Amidst the awful and general de- visiting the Isle of Thanet in the summer, parture from the faith, as once delivered to and who, for the sea air, or from other con the saints in the Church of England, and siderations, prefer travelling by water, such sealed by the blood of our Reformers, it is pleasing to observe that there is a remnant, deratum, especially if they have experienced a conveyance must certainly be a desi according to the election of grace, who continue rising up to testify the gospel of in the course of the last summer, when a mortification similar to that of the writer, the grace of God, and to call back their shut up in a cabin with a mixed multitude, fellows to the consideration of the great and who spake almost all languages but that of leading doctrines on which the Reformation Canaan. Totally unconnected with the was built, and the Church of England by concern, and personally a stranger to the law established. The author of these ser- worthy owner, I take the liberty of recommons, avoiding all matters of more doubtful mending this vessel to the notice of my disputation, avowedly attaches himself to fellow-Christians; persuaded that they will the great fundamental truths; and on the think themselves bound to patronise and two substantial pillars, the Jachin and Boaz of the living temple, erects his super-honour of the dear Redeemer for its proencourage an undertaking that has the structure. 1. Justification by faith, without fessed object. It ought ever to be rememworks, free and full, by grace alone, through bered, that every talent we possess, whether the redemption which is in Jesus Christ, large or small, is given us in trust to be stands at the commencement of the first laid out for God;-and I have often thought volume; and on its side rises in the beauty that Christians act inconsistently with their of holiness," &c.-Ev. Mag. p. 79. high profession, when they omit, even in Mr. Robinson called to the knowledge of their most common and trivial expenditures, to give a decided preference to the friends of their Lord. I do not, however, anticipate any such ground of complaint in this instance, but rather believe, that the religious world in general will cheerfully unite with me, while I most cordially wish success to the Princess of Wales Yacht, and pray that she may ever sail under the divine protection and blessing;-that the humble followers of Him who spoke the storm into a calm, when crossing the lake of Gennesareth, may often feel their hearts glowing with sacred ardour while in her cabins they enjoy sweet communion with their Lord and with each other;-and that strangers, who may be providentially brought among them, may see so much of Jesus exemplified in their conduct and conthe beauty and excellency of the religion of

Christ under Mr. Venn's sermon. "Mr. Robinson was called in early life to the knowledge of Christ, under a sermon at St. Dunstan's, by the late Rev. Mr. Venn, from Ezek. xxxvi. 25, 26; the remembrance of which greatly refreshed his soul upon his deathbed."-Ev. Mag. p. 176.

Christianity introduced into the Parish of Launton near Bicester, in the year 1807.

"A very general spirit of inquiry having appeared for some time in the village of Launton, near Bicester, some serious persons were excited to communicate to them the word of life."-Ev. Mag. p. 380.

We learn in page 128, Meth. Mag. that twelve months had elapsed from the time of Mrs. Cocker's joining the people of God, before she obtained a clear sense of forgiveness.

say, 'We will go with you, for we perceive
versation, that they may be constrained to
that God is with you.- Your God shall be
our God, and his people shall henceforth
be our chosen companions and associates.'

A religious Hoy sets off every week for I am, Mr. Editor, your obliged friend and

Margate.

'Religious Passengers accommodated.To the Editor.-Sir, it afforded me consider

sister in the gospel, E. T."-Ev. Mag. p. 268.
A religious newspaper is announced
in the Ev. M. for September.-It is

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