influence the actions of even the most holy of men. They suit our organization, and are mercifully allowed to our imperfections. A religious labourer, who works diligently to support his family from those affectionate instincts which God has implanted in our nature, would evidence a scrupulous rather than a well-informed conscience, in concluding that his religion was necessarily vain, because, in his toilsome avocations, the highest principle of action was not ever present to his mind. It is true that this proneness to act from secondary motives, rather than from the immediate impulse of love to God, ought to inspire that habitual humility and self-abasement which are inseparable from the Christian character: but it ought not to be construed into a necessary proof of the total absence of higher principles and affections. The full and undivided prevalence of those motives which influence angelic beings, would, probably, unfit us for this scene of probation. Their full development would constitute that perfection which would qualify their possessor for a better world. The natural air we breathe has the larger part of a deleterious quality, in order to adapt it for the use of our frail bodies, which could not long support the stimulus of undiJuted oxygen. Perhaps something similar, if we may so speak, is wisely permitted in the moral world, The holiest Christian is still a humau being surrounded with infirmities; and while he continues in the body must remain exposed to a mixture of evil in his best resolutions and most sacred actions. Like St. Paul, he will discover two adverse principles constantly operating in his bosom, and will have reason to exclaim, to the last hour of his mortal existence, "Oh! wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?" Yet this very circumstance, while it keeps him penitent aud humble, ought not to be construed into an evidence of his motives and principles being unrenewed. It is, in fact, a proof of the contrary; and it may furnish consolation to the Christian, when justly dejected by the mixed nature of his best motives, to remember, that the natural mind is never influenced by true faith and love towards God and Christ, so that where the better motive truly reigns, though too often with divided power, there is proof of a radical change of character, and a pledge of the final perfection that awaits him in the world to come. "What a Neither ought he, in examining into his motives, to try himself by extreme tests; or to place himself, in imagination, under difficulties which God has not seen fit to lay upon him in reality. self-deceiver am I!" said a penitent cottager: "for surely if I had the love of God in my heart, I could gladly wrestle with the martyr for his stake." The piety of the feeling was enviable; but the inference was unscriptural; for had God seen fit to send the trial, he could have given motives and principles adequate to sustain it. Among the inferences which the Christian will derive from the preceding considerations, a principal one will be the necessity of habitual prayer for the rectification of his motives. As the index on the dial plate cannot point correctly if the interior mechanism be deranged, so the conduct can be consistent only while the heart is under the influence of holy principles. To keep this moral mechanism in just order, requires the daily assistance of an unseen Hand. Happily we have a complete standard of motives in the sacred volume. At the foot of the Cross every devout affection and right principle loves to strike deep its sacred roots. In that hallowed soil the virtues of the Christian character flourish in their fullest vigour and shed around their most fragrant influences. Thither should we constantly re pair, that our faith and love, our hope and joy, our zeal and disinterestedness may advance towards higher degrees of maturity. At the altar of our Redeemer's sacrifice we should light the torch which is to cast a divine radiance around our path, and to guide us in peace and security to our eternal abode. Another lesson which the Christian should learn from these reflections is the duty of being cautious in arraigning the motives of others. "Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth." Actively employed in correcting himself, the faithful disciple of Christ will have little inclination or leisure to scrutinize the faults or failings of others; and,from a consciousness of the anomalies of his own heart, will learn to bear with a more gentle hand on many exceptionable points in the conduct of his fellow-Christians; who like him, perhaps, are secretly struggling with their sinful propensities, and are like him lamenting that they remain so long unsubdued. Habitual humility has been already mentioned as resulting from this conscious feeling of the imperfection of our best motives. The Christian will turn the very aliment on which pride and self-sufficiency delight to feed into a salutary medicine to correct their influ ence. As a consciousness of the fundamental spirituality of his renovated motives, will support him amidst frowns and misrepresentations; so a constant sense of their remaining imperfection will abase him in the midst of flattery and smiles. He is ready to exclaim, "Oh, if men knew all, how little would they apply this inflated language to so way ward and inconsistent a being! If, while all is fair on the surface, and the vessel seems steadily to glide over the sea of life towards the tranquil shores of eternity, they could see that under current which so strongly sets the contrary way, and imperceptibly keeps her back CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 217. in her destined course towards those realms of purity, how little would they feel disposed to lavish their eulogies upon a few acts of virtue or kindness contaminated by such innumerable imperfections!" Nothing, in fact, so much humbles the Christian, when under the influence of right feelings, as human applause; because the very extravagance of the commendation leads him silently to contrast it with the estimate which an Omniscient Being, who could analyze all his motives, must form of his actions. Whatever men may think of us, in the sight of God "every mouth must be stopped." The penitent can find no refuge when he thinks of the imperfection of his motives, except where he finds it when oppressed with the conscious demerit of his actions-in the bosom of a merciful Redeemer," who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, having been tempted in all points like as we are, though without sin." S. W. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. OUR Lord says, Matt. vi. 7, "But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do; for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking." The following extract, translated from the Chinese, shews in a striking manner the justness of the charge here brought against the Gentile nations. "A Canon delivered by Fuh.-[A prayer or charm to be repeated] for the exterminating of all misfortunes, and for the attaining of life in the pure land, To-lo-ne;' (to be repeated three times.) "Nan mo-o me-to-po-yay, to-takea to yay, to-te-yay-ta, o-me-letoo po-k'wan, o-me-le-to, seeh-tanpo-kwan. O-me-le-to, kwan-keanlan-te, o-me-le-ta, kwan-kea lante, kea-me-ne, këa këa ua, chëhto-kea le, po-po-ho." This prayer, or whatever it may be called, remarks the Indo-ChiC nese Gleaner from whom I have copied it, is perfectly unintelligible to every Chinese; not one out of a hundred even of the priests of Fùh, who daily use it in the temples, understanding the meaning. It contains the bare sounds of Indian words, expressed in Chinese characters. These, however, are supposed to possess a mystical and most wonderful efficacy, for the removal of all evil. The editor of the book from which it is taken, adds life; but also from the motive and view of the individuals in using them-namely," that they think they shall be heard," or derive vast benefit, "for their much speaking." It is evident from what is above-mentioned, that they expect not only present good, but also future happiness, for the sole merit which is supposed to be attached to their repetitions. This will be still farther evident from the subjoined extract, taken out of the same work. The book contains a number of plates, representing various forms of Fúh, sitting on a lotus flower. Each form is surrounded by six dotted lines, springing from the lotus at the bottom, which after the shape of a pear, terminates in a point at the top. To the last plate the follow On the right are nine plates, representing the lotus. The 5048 dots which their circling lines contain, are intended for the purpose of being marked with a red pencil, "This prayer is for the use of those who are travelling to life. The god O-ne-to [a name of Fúb], rests on the top of the heads of those who repeat this, in order to save them from all their enemies; to render them safe and comfort able in life; and to confer upon them any mode of future existing note is appended. ence, which they may, at the hour of death, desire. When a person has repeated it twenty times ten thousand times, then the intelligence of Poo-te begins to bud within: when he has repeated it thirty-one dot for every thousand or times ten thousand times over, he is at no distance from a personal vision of the face of the god O-me-to. In the dynasty of Tsin, while Yuen, the celebrated teacher of Loo-shan, was in the act of repeating this prayer, there came to him a divine person from the west, holding in his band a bright silver throne. He addressed Ynen thus: Celebrated teacher, thy days are ended; ascend this seat, and be carried to youder region of exquisite delights.' The people round about all heard the sound of harmonious music in the firmanent; and a marvellous fragrance, which ceased not for several days, was diffused all round." In the passage which this quotation is intended to illustrate, our Lord, remarks the Indo-Chinese Gleaner, condemns the epetitions of the heathen, not merely from their utter fruitlessness in producing any salutary impressions on the heart, or reform of hundred repetitions of the name of Fúh. After a long time, when the whole is filled up, they are to be again gone over with some other kind of ink. At the time of death, the plates, thus filled up, are to be burned to ashes, that they may pass into the other world, as a lestimony in favour of him who used them. Depending on the merit of this virtue, he goes to live in the pure laud.” The same work happily illustrates Prov. xxv. 3, "The heaven for height, the earth for depth, and the heart of kings is unsearchable,” by the following extract from the Mingsin - paou - këen, said to be taken from the Shoo-king. "The tish dwell in the bottom of the waters, aud the eagles in the sides of heaven. The one though high, may be reached by the arrow; and the other though deep, may be angled: but the heart of man, at only a cubit's distance, cannot be known: heaven can be spanned, earth can be fathomed; but the heart of man cannot be measured." E. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IN reading your Review of Mr. Horne's "Introduction," the following remarks of Bishop Horsley, on the literary pursuits of a clergyman, forcibly occurred to my mind. They are to be found in one of his parliamentary speeches, delivered before the House of Lords on a bill respecting the clergy. “It is a matter of the very first im portance, to abstract the clergyman from those occupations which would degrade his character in the eyes of the laity. It is certainly the spirit of all the ancient institutions, that a clergyman should be a clergyman, and nothing else. My lords, far be it from me to join my voice to the despicable cant of Puritanism; as if it were the duty of a clergyman to withdraw himself entirely from the commerce and society of the world, and that every moment of his time is sinfully employed, which is not given up to meditation and prayer, and studies strictly theological. My lords, there is no branch of learning that misbecomes a clergyman: he that would understand the Bible in such a manner as he ought to understand it who is to expound it, should be deeply skilled as the writer of a great part of it was, in all the learning of the Egyptians.' I have not scrupled to tell the clergy, ex *This expression may appear to many persons objectionable; but doubtless the bishop, both here and in a following sentence, intends by it to allude only to real Puritanism, such as prevailed in the days of Cromwell, and not to all serious religion as sometimes unjustly designated by this title, amongst those who do not take the trouble to make a distinction between true piety and hy pocritical pretences. A variety of excellent passages in his lordship's charges would seem to lead to this conclusion. cathedra, that a clergyman's time is not always mispent when he is studying the proportions of architecture, and the divisious of the monochord. For I assert, in contempt and defiance of all the whining cant of Puritanism, that there is no branch of abstruse science or polite literature, which may not be useful, which may not be even necessary, for the illustration of some part or another of the book which it is our duty to expound. And as to the intercourse with the world, I hold that none can be qualified to instruct the world without it: he who is to teach men their duty practically, must know human nature generally, and the peculiar manners of his country and his times." Should these remarks elicit from some pious and judicious correspondent, a temperate discussion of a subject of great practical importance, both to the clergy and their flocks, their insertion will not have been useless. Bishop Horsley's own splendid atlainments in biblical literature, prove how highly he valued such studies; and we cannot suppose that he wished to see the clergy devoting their minds to ordinary literature to the injury, but only as far as conducive to the benefit, of their professional character. The question is, to what extent can a Christian, and especially a minister, have intercourse with the world, and with secular studies for the purpose of being more useful, with out compromising that spirituality of mind which it is our duty as disciples of Christ to maintain? CYMRO. To the Editor of the Christian Observer. MUCH has been written at different times, in your miscellany, on the beneficial effects which might arise from our venerable prelates devoting as much time as they can gain from their other numerous and important engagements, to preaching in the churches and chapels of their dioceses. Their official sermons, if I may so speak, are usually conversant with professional topics: it is in their occasional and parochial sermons, that we best perceive the bent and habit of their mind. I am happy to introduce to your notice, if you have not yet seen, a discourse delivered, Oct. 31st, 1819, at the Collegiate Church of Manchester, by the Right Reverend the Bishop of Chester, on "the necessity and advantages of habitual intercourse with the Deity." There is not a word of controversy or politics in the sermon. The benevolent Bishop justly observes, in his prefatory notice, that "it was his wish, and he thinks it to be the duty of the ministers of the Gospel, not so much to advert to the passing events of the day, as to illustrate and enforce those general doctrines of Christianity which tend to make men better Christians, and by consequence better subjects and citizens." I think your readers will be gratified with the following extracts. After speaking of the miseries and calamities to which we are all subject in this scene of probation, his lordship re will doom us to a state of happiness or misery, inconceivable and eternal?" His lordship next proceeds to shew in what way the privilege of drawing nigh to God is to be enjoyed. narks: "If such be the true and proper light in which life, its events and circumstances, should be viewed, the just inference which flows from this doctrine, is, Draw nigh unto God, that God may draw nigh unto you. A precept more important, or more consolatory than this, is not to be found within the whole compass of the sacred writings. If this world be a transient checquered scene; if the present existence be merely a preparation for another, a journeying to our last home; but, if we still have it in our power to make God our friend,-with what abstractedness of mind, with what an entire zeal and devotion ought we to prepare ourselves to meet that Almighty Judge, who "That spiritual intercourse and communion with the Godhead, which it is the aim of the present discourse clearly to describe and recommend, though it be allied to, yet does it differ from, those more solemn acts of public and private adoration which are usually designated by the term Prayer.' Public prayer is the addressing ourselves to the Deity, at stated times, and in a set form of words; a duty, no doubt, the most imperative, and of the highest importance; and which ought by no one, and under no circumstances, to be negligently performed, much less dispensed with. And for the due discharge of this obligation, appropriate times, and peculiar places, have been appointed and set apart. We thus afford a public proof and example, that we endeavour to follow the precepts and practice of our Lord and his disciples. By the same means also we help to keep up that sense of God and religion, that propriety of manners, and that good order, which are sure to prevail most in those places where the Divine ordinances and worship are most regularly and solemnly observed. "Another mode of intercourse with God is by private prayer, on each returning morn and eve, either when we assemble together with our families, or when we retire to our chamber and are alone;-a duty this also of the greatest necessity and use, and which, though the observance of it has become more frequent, both among the laity and clergy, yet still is it by no means so generally practised as were in all cases devoutly to be wished for.-But that drawing nigh unto God, which we are about to consider, is distinct from, and in |