of the mountain glens. When collected, they amount to about four hundred souls, consisting principally of Namaqua Hottentots, intermingled with several families of the bastard race. The latter are generally the most wealthy and enterprising. Very large herds of cattle are possessed by many individuals. The two native Superintendants who entertained me, mentioned that upwards of four thousand head belong to this little community. The place is also well adapted to breeding horses, being exempt from the periodical distemper, to which that useful animal is subject throughout the greater part of the colony. Indeed, generally speaking, the summits of mountains are the only secure places for horses during the autumnal months, when the sickness prevails. The extent of land cultivated here is very considerable. About ninety muids of wheat (or somewhat more than two hundred and seventy Winchester bushels) had been sown this season, covering from three to four hundred acres; and from which, if the season were tolerably favourable, a return of from thirty to fifty fold was anticipated. Were there any accessible market for their surplus produce, a much larger quantity might be raised; for the frequency of snow and rain on this favoured mountain keeps the springs always running, and renders at the same time irrigation less indispensable. But as there are at present no means of disposing of any quantity of surplus grain in this quarter, the cultivation is necessarily confined to the immediate wants of the inhabitants. that the Missionaries labouring among the tribes of the interior, are generally persons of limited education, most of them having originally been mechanics: but it seems very doubtful whether men of more refined and cultivated minds would be better adapted to meet the plain capacities of unintellectual barbarians; and were such teachers ever so preferable, where could they be procured? On the whole, the Missionaries I have been acquainted with in South Africa, appear to me generally well adapted for such service. Most of them are men of good, plain understanding, and industrious habits, zealously interested in the success of their labours, cordially attached to the natives, and willing to encounter, for their improvement, toil, danger, and privation. A few instances, in a long course of years, of indiscreet, or indolent, or immoral persons having been found among the Missionaries, proves nothing against the general respectability of their characters, or the utility of their exertions. Imperfection will be found wherever human agents are employed. But such unfavourable exceptions are rare; while, among them, many persons of superior ability, and even science, are to be found: and I may safely affirm, that at every Missionary station I have visited, instruction in the arts of civilized life, and in the knowledge of pure and practical religion, go hand in hand. It is true, that among the wilder tribes of Bushmen, Korannas, and Bechuanas, the progress of the Missions has hitherto been exceedingly slow and circumscribed. But persons who have visited these tribes, and are best qualified to appreciate the difficulties to be surmounted in instructing and civilizing them, will, if they are not led away by prejudice, be far more disposed to admire the exemplary fortitude, patience, and perseverance of the Missionaries, than to speak of them with contempt and contumely. These devoted men are found in the remotest deserts, accompanying the wild and wandering savages from place to place, destitute of almost every comfort, and at times without even the necessaries of life. Some of them have, without murmuring, spent their whole lives in such a service. Let those who consider Missions as idle, or una The Kamiesberg is distant about forty miles from the west coast; and is considered to be from four to five hundred feet above the level of the sea. The Missionary establishment is within three hundred feet of the highest peak of the mountain. The climate is consequently very different from that of the plains below. Falls of snow are frequent during the winter, and the frost is sometimes so severe as to injure the young crops. For this reason, as well as on account of the sour grass, it is not very favourable for rearing sheep; and some of the more delicate fruits of the colony cannot be raised here. But its advantages are, nevertheless, great, and the salubrity of its climate proverbial. On the whole, it appeared to me availing, visit Gnadenthal, Bethelsdorp, Theowell-selected and a well-conducted Missionary station, highly creditable to its founders, and highly beneficial to the people under their control. Having now visited nearly the whole of the Missionary stations in Southern Africa, it may not be improper to express in a few words the opinion I have formed regarding them. The usual objections against them are, that the generality of the Missionaries are a fanatical class of men, more earnest to inculcate the peculiar dogmas of their different sects, than to instruct the barbarous tribes in the arts of civilization; that most of them are vulgar and uninformed, many of them injudicious, some of them immoral; and, finally, that their exertions, whether to civilize or christianize the natives, have not hitherto been followed by any commensurate results. Now my observations have led me to form a very different conclusion. It is no doubt true, polis, the Caffer stations, Griqua-Town, Kamiesberg, &c.; let them view what has been effected at these institutions for tribes of the natives, oppressed, neglected, or despised by every other class of men of Christian name; and if they do not find all accomplished which the world had, perhaps, too sanguinely anticipated, let them fairly weigh the obstacles that have been encountered, before they venture to pronounce an unfavourable decision. For my own part, utterly unconnected as I am with Missionaries, or Missionary Societies of any description, I cannot, in candour and justice, withhold from them my humble meed of applause for their labours in Southern Africa. They have, without question, been in this country, not only the devoted teachers of our holy religion to the heathen tribes, but also the indefatigable pioneers of discovery and civilization. Nor is their character unappreciated by the natives. Averse as they still are, in many places, to receive a religion, the doctrines of which are too pure and benevolent to be congenial to hearts depraved by selfish and vindictive passions, they are yet every where friendly to the Missionaries, eagerly invite them to reside in their territories, and consult them in all their emergencies. Such is the impression which the disinterestedness, patience, and kindness of the Missionaries have, after long years of labour and difficulty, decidedly made even upon the wildest and fiercest of the South African tribes with whom they have come in contact; and this favourable impression, where more has not yet been achieved, is of itself a most important step towards full and ultimate THE audacious attempts which are making, in opposition to the laws of the country, and in defiance of decency, to propagate blasphemous opinions among the populace, has of late been painfully exemplified in the conduct of an apostate Clergyman, of the Established Church, who still calls himself the REV. Robert Taylor, and whose trial and conviction have been lately reported at large in the newspapers. The place which was so long kept open by this man, in the city of London, outraged, in fact, more than any thing of the kind, the common sense and feeling of all sober and thoughtful men; not excepting even the more respectable part of our Free-Thinkers themselves. Whether the motive for the establishment of this infidel debating room was money; or that the main actor in the disgusting scenes exhibited there, had a passion for the noisy applauses of his vulgar audiences; or that he felt it safer to bring forth his pretended learned proofs of the spuriousness of the Sacred Writings before an unlettered auditory, than commit them to books, in which the exposure of his own ignorance, malice, or mendaciousness, would be certain of detection; or whether he had wrought himself up to a fiend-like malignity, so as to find his pleasure in the seduction of the unwary artizan and the young sensualist, it is of no consequence to determine. These motives might exist separately, or be mixed in different proportions; it is, however, a satisfaction to observe, that he has been found guilty by a jury of his country, and that he awaits a just judgment for his attempts to pollute and disorganize society. Much as those who instigated this prosecution had been vilified by the infidel and semiinfidel part of the press, we think that the thanks of the country, and especially of the inhabitants of the metropolis, are due to them; and that it is no small illustration of the excellence of the government under which we live, that whilst it protects us in leading "quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty," it is not so indifferent, as many would have it to be, to the connexion between religious principles, and the order and morality of society, as to suffer to pass without visitation those infractions of the wise laws of our ancestors by which that bond would be broken, and a flood of error and vice poured through the land. It is natural and consistent for infidels to clamour against such prosecutions; but when those join them who profess to reverence Christianity, we strongly suspect that their regard is rather in the lip than in the heart; or that, if we allow their sincerity, they have been carried away by plausible generalities, and by abstract notions of conscience and religious liberty, which have either no solid foundation in truth, or are incapable of bearing the test of practical wisdom. It is indeed a monstrous absurdity, to mix up questions of liberty and conscience with such cases as those of Carlile and Taylor. Those who thus prostitute these sacred names, put themselves out of all claim to be reasoned with; for if they think it a question of conscience, not whether a man shall publish a temperate book suggesting doubts, and inquiries into any branch of the evidences of our faith, and scrutinizing any arguments which may be founded upon them;-for there is nothing to prevent this, and this has been done often enough with impunity, and so largely that all that can be said against Christianity as well as for it, may be found in our language; but that it is a point of conscience with any man to revile and blaspheme; to collect, as in the case of Taylor, the young and the illiterate together for the purpose of employing his share of learning on subjects above their education, on purpose to mislead and seduce them; to utter the grossest falsehoods on the credit of his own acquaintance with the learned languages, as to what the authors of books written in those languages say, and what they have omitted to say;-if it be thought a matter of conscience in him by such Christians, that he should pour foul aspersions on the character of Christ, hold up the Bible not only as a false, but as a bad and corrupting book; that he and his nest of auditors should put down all free discussion in his own meetings when he had invited it, so as to endanger the life or limb of those who would have rebuked his blasphemies; and to set up some of his ignorant partizans to feign a defence of Christianity by weak and ridiculous arguments, that he might refute them amidst the plaudits of the brood of infidels collected together to be taught that all religion is a fable, and all the threats against vice old wives' tales; if, we say, any persons will gravely assume that this man was held in conscience to pursue this course, we leave them to the enjoyment of their opinion. To sober and sincere men, the permission of all this would be viewed both as a great calamity, and as an instance of national connivance, from which the late enforcement of good laws has saved us; and which we trust the good principles of the country will ever uphold. We know not how such views on these subjects as this trial has recently called forth from the press, in various parts of the kingdom, and which may be heard in its re-echo from superficial pretenders to liberality, can be maintained, unless by contending for consequences which even some of them would scarcely be bold enough to contemplate. In their way, unquestionably, the case could not be met, and the liberty desired by Carlile, Taylor, and the infidel faction which prompt and aid them, be accorded, unless the whole form of our laws and government were dissolved. These recognise the belief of a God, and a future state of punishment, and public morality as essentially connected with these great principles, and Christianity as the only effective and authenticated manifestation of them. We must, therefore, to meet such speculators, begin anew, and construct a government which holds no connexion with religion; which can administer no oath of conscience; and which can avail itself in nothing, nor strengthen its influence over the very morals of society, (for the preservation of which government itself is constituted,) by the fear of a Supreme Being, and a sense of responsibility in a future world. In one word, we are by such reasoners invited to try an experiment which no ancient or modern legislator ever dared to make,-(except for a short time by the French republicans,) to form a state, and a body of law, without religion. This experiment, thank God, is not likely to be made in our own country; and no man in his senses wishes it to be made. It becomes, therefore, a solemn part of the duty of every Christian man, to support that wise, and just, and scriptural application of the power of the magistrate, by which he is made "a terror to evil doers, and a praise to them that do well;" and in our judgment, the very worst kind of "evil doers" are those who teach that part of society who are most easily misled and corrupted, that there is no authorized rule for virtue and vice; that there is no God to judge the world; that good and evil are ideal distinctions, and that there is no future world. tory for this assertion, but was uttering a most wilful and gross untruth, intended to deceive by its very impudence. What shall be thought of this man of "education and talent," who takes an assertion of an obscure author, which he had never heard of had he not seen it in the work of a learned Divine, (Dr. Lardner,) that the Emperor Anastasius ordered the Gospels to be written anew, thereby correcting "the illiterate Evangelists;" and from this scrap of authority teaches the people, that our present Evangelic History is spurious? For if this assertion were true, and not a mere version of the Emperor's obtaining more exact copies of certain manuscripts, which, before the invention of printing, were liable to some mistakes in transcribing, a man of "education" and reflection must have known, that all the copies which Anastasius could command, were few in comparison of those which were circulated among all the churches of Christ; and that it was impossible that he, though an Emperor, yet with very limited powers in ecclesiastical matters, could prevail upon all the sects and parties then existing throughout the world, and beyond the bounds of his empire, to part with their old copies, and take his altered ones. But further, a "man of education" must have known, that no indications of this transformation into a better style exists in the present received text; and that in the original it still bears the full impress of having been written by men not polished in language, or following any classical model. What shall we say of a "man of education," who affirms that Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, effected a general alteration of the Scriptures, and accommodated them to the orthodox faith; but that he knew this to be false, and impossible? False, because the fact which he perverts to this wicked purpose, was that honourable act of Lanfranc, by which, before printing was invented, and when all copies of the Scriptures were written by hand, he, with the assistance of learned men, carefully noted and corrected the errors of the Scribes in the copies within his reach;* and impossible, unless Lanfranc could have obtained possession of all the copies of the Scriptures, diffused in distant parts of the world, to which, in those ages, there was much less access than at present. And how, again, ought that "man of education" to be esteemed, who quotes Beausobre, a Christian critic, as his authority for this; when Beausobre, neither in the place to which Taylor refers, nor any where else, says any thing of the kind? Again, what shall that "man of education" appear, but a criminal and a wilful seducer of the ignorant, who quotes from the Unitarian version the number of the various readings which are found in the MSS. of the New Testament, and yet suppresses the obvious argument, that these are the best safe An attempt has been made in various publications, we perceive, to create a sympathy in favour of that wretched man, who has last been convicted of blasphemy, by eulogizing his talents and his firmness; in some instances, for the insidious purpose of drawing attention to his opinions; though, as to others, we would charge them rather upon an affectation of liberality, with the syren song of which so many have, in these times, been seduced. That this apostate Clergyman has education, and some talent, may be granted; but his guilt is heightened by the wilful prostitution of both: for that prostitution is the less palliable in him, than in those whose want of mental discipline might have rendered their minds less sensible of those wilful departures from argumentative fairness and honesty, of which he has been so grossly guilty. For what shall be thought of the man of education and talent, who has asserted, in what he calls, "The Manifesto of the Christian Evidence Society," and which he desired might be read at his trial, that there are" formal acts and edicts of Christian Em-guards for the purity of the text; and also that perors, Bishops, and Councils, issued from time to time, for the general alteration or total renovation of the Scriptures, according to their own caprice?" A man of learning and research ought to have given these acts and edicts," or, at least, referred to them; neither of which he does, and neither of which he could do; for nothing of the kind exists, and he must have known that he had no authority in all his which follows, and which was under his eye when he made the partial quotation, "These various readings, though very numerous, do not, in any degree, affect the general credit and integrity of the text; the uniformity of which, in so many copies, scattered through almost all countries in the known world, and * Townley's Biblical Literature, vol. i. p. 358 278 For whom should we Weep.-Montgomery as a Sacred Poet. in so great a variety of languages, is truly astonishing, and demonstrates the veneration in which the Scriptures were held, and the great care which was taken in transcribing them." This, as a man of education, he knew, as every man of education knows; and also that very few indeed of these readings affect the sense of any passage; and that their number has been swelled only by the care to mark every little deviation of orthography, or the substitution of one equivalent word for another, and the omission and insertion of the article, and such comparatively trifling differences in the copies. It was for a sinister and obviously malignant intent, therefore, that the number of readings was held up to mislead the ignorant, and to produce an impression as to the uncertainty of the meaning of the text; which, with the exception of exceedingly few passages, and those containing no doctrine but what is found in passages about which there is no dispute, he knew did not exist. Finally, what shall we conclude as to this man of "education and talent," who, finding in the writings of Christian Divines, who of course had no motive to conceal so unimportant a fact, that some manuscripts from which the Complutensian edition of the New Testament was formed in 1514, at Alcala, in Spain, were afterwards sold by an ignorant librarian to a rocket-maker, asserts from this the impudent falsehood, that the manuscripts from which the received texts was taken, were thus destroyed. If this man did not know, that manuscripts of the whole or parts of the New Testament Scripture are to be found, of all ages up to the fifth century; that there are no less than five hundred MSS. of the Greek Testament in existence; besides the Ancient Versions formed from still more ancient copies, and substantially agreeing with those which now exist; and that, up to the age of the Apostles, there are writings extant abounding in quotations from the New Testament, where are his pretensions to such a degree of knowledge as to qualify him to speak at all on such subjects? And if he had that knowledge, he stands convicted of gross falsehood, which he dared not to have uttered, but in the ears of those whom he knew could not correct him, or on whom he could depend to hiss down any man who should go into his lecture-room to brand him with the falsehood? Every attempt therefore to create sympathy for such a wilful and malignant perverter, is worse than ridiculous: it is in a degree a participation of his crime. It is indeed alleged, that he is insane; and some curious instances occur of his having retracted his infidelity, and of having professed himself again a Christian. Whether these be signs of hypocrisy, or of aberration of mind, we cannot determine; but that there is "method in his madness," is clear enough; and he who can plot and lie to corrupt men's minds, knows enough to make him accountable to God and but offenders are not for that reason to pass with impunity. The second branch of the argument is delusive. The evil would not "die away;" we should have infidel debating clubs, and blasphemous orations in every town and village; and who should preserve the ears and the hearts of our sons and daughters, our apprentices and servants, and the populace generally, from the contagion? The fact is, that these prosecutions are most salutary. They tend to make the evil more noticeable, in the first instance; but they break up the systematic arrangements of Infidels to pollute and demoralize the nation. From the Home Missionary Magazine. FOR WHOM SHOULD WE WEEP? "Weep ye not for the dead, neither bewail him." Jer. xxii. 10. WEEP not for those whose race is run, Their prize is gain'd, their toil is past; Unflush'd by dreams of earthly sorrow, The feverish weight of life sustaining, Of tears, and sighs successive swelling. Lament the dawn, and not the ending, From the Home Missionary Magazine. MONTGOMERY is an exquisite writer: he is one of those poets who will be uniformly and most highly admired, while a taste for simple, pure, beautiful, and elevated poetry is culti vated. His productions are full of the richest and most fascinating beauties. He does not possess the nobleness; he does not exhibit the towering loftiness, the energetic power, the sublime and luxuriant imagination of some poetical writers; but, in respect of simplicity, tenderness, genuine effusions of melting pathos, lyrical flow and beauty, and lovely expressions, or rather portraitures of devout and celestial feeling, he is not surpassed by any in Montgomery as a Sacred Poet. the present day. In this last-mentioned respect, Montgomery is deserving of profound and peculiar regard. He prefers the most valid and powerful claims to public approbation; and, if he could confide in nothing else, this would be amply sufficient to secure him a large and an honourable meed of fame. As a writer of devotional poetry, or of poetry adapted to devotional purposes, Montgomery advances transcendently beyond the tame, commonplace, and lifeless versifier. He writes with the utmost freshness and spirit; there is all the play, vivacity, and energy of life; and there are all the lovely and pre-eminent qualities of a genuine poet, finely and most luminously exhibited. He often disposes an intelligent reader of his poetry, and one of congenial feeling, to institute a comparison between him and Cowper, and, in this respect, Montgomery would not suffer materially by the comparison. There is much of Cowper's sweetness-simplicitybeauty-energy-and devotional fervour. There is no cant; no indelicate or inappropriate language; no employment of what may be termed luscious epithets or phrases; there are no bold and improper allusions: no mysticisms; all is plain, solemn, pathetic, beauteous, and devotional, as "hymns and spiritual songs" should be. Hymns for divine worship should be exquisitely simple and unaffected. What can be more admirable for their plainness and appropriateness than the following lines from "A Sabbath Hymn;" I "While thy ministers proclaim Through their voice, by faith, may From thine house when I return, May my heart within me burn; And at evening let me say, 'I have walked with God to-day.'" Can any thing be finer or more impressive, "Sages! leave your contemplations, Seek the great desire of nations, Come and worship, Worship Christ, the new-born King.” "Poor mortals, blind and weak below into a Christian's feelings! A stanza so clear to God. "Between the Cherubim of old But God in Christ we now behold Through him who all our sickness felt, The subjoined lines strike sweetly upon the "O where shall rest be found, Rest for the weary soul? The bliss for which we sigh; There is a life above, Could any thing be more majestic in its "Hark! the song of jubilee, Loud as mighty thunders roar, When it breaks upon the shore:- Echo round the earth and main." Though these, however, are so interesting and charming in themselves, and convey so clear and impressive an exhibition of the enlightened and fervid piety, the refined taste, the pure, classical, and rich imagination of the writer, I cannot help expressing my decided partiality towards two hymns which have uniformly appeared to me pre-eminently beautiful. The first is termed the "The Three Mountains," so delightfully familiar to hundreds, which has imparted exquisite and the purest self, a hymn of striking and peculiar merit. I tranquillity to thousands, and which is, in itshall never have the pleasing impressions obliterated, which were produced on a certain occasion, when it was sung with the utmost pathos and beauty, and was correspondingly effective upon the minds and hearts of the immense assembly convened. Nothing can be more simple than this sacred piece, and yet it is, unquestionably, the production of a master of sweet songs in our modern Israel. It is pathetic-original-consolatory-and devotional, in a very high degree. The contrast between the "Three Mountains" is most beautifully main tained, and the concluding verse is sweetly and resistlessly impressive. |