Unhappily, there are illustrations, in the condition of the habitants of Canada and the hombres of Mexico, of the blighting influence of priestly rule, from which Providence has delivered us; and the contrast in the political character and position of these states and the neighbouring provinces and republics is such as to impress the world. How wonderful are these providences! How marked for their design! How glorious their issues! Read in such a light, a succession of wars, treaties, and purchases, extending through a period of three centuries, from the first discoveries of Spain, France, and England, is seen to have been directed by the divine hand, to rescue this country from the dominion of the Papal Church, that it might be intrusted, under God, to the guardianship of a great, free, Protestant nation. Such a trust can never be rightly discharged without the widest, freest employment of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in all the forms in which saving truth may be diffused. Thus alone can Papal despotism, infidel socialism, political demagoguism, and ignorant indifferentism be defeated or dispelled, and our free institutions be perpetuated.—American Messenger.

OUR MISSIONARY.

THE following is an extract of a letter from our beloved Bro. Barclay. The letter was addressed to Bro. Tyler, of Scottsville, who has kindly furnished us with a portion of it for publication. Although it was not intended for publication, we feel constrained to lay it before the brethren, knowing, as we do, their anxiety to hear from those, for whose safe deliverance from the storm and tempest they have daily petitioned the throne of grace.— Christian Intelligencer, Scottsville, Va.

VALETTA, (Island of Malta,) January 13, 1851. My Ever Dear Brother: We arrived here three days ago-" the Lord being merciful to us ;" and understanding that there is a vessel in port which will sail in the morning for Boston, I have returned to my lodgings in great haste, to scribble a few lines to you and several others, late as it is. I have despatched a few letters by the steamer that sailed yesterday, but had to pay as much as sixty-seven cents on some of them. By the present private opportunity, however, my portion of the postage will be only two cents, and yours five or ten cents. But fearful lest I shall not be able to reach the vessel before she is under sail, I shall not be able to give a quarter of a dime's worth of epistolary matter.

It would delight you to see how healthy and flourishing we all appear, after encountering so many trials and perils of the deep. We experienced another dreadful storm after leaving Falmouth, in which our ship suffered extensive, though, as the event has proved, not very serious injuries, which are now being repaired.

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We took Paul's plan, and went ashore to "refresh ourselves" for a few days, but will return to the ship in a day or two. It may yet be eight or ten days before we set sail. We trust in about two weeks thereafter, by the blessing of the Lord, to set foot on the land of the Pharaoh's.

I have never yet visited any place better worth seeing than this city. There is no part of London, or any city in the United States, that will at all compare with it in point of architectural adornment or picturesque beauty. It is, indeed, a city of palaces. St. John's Church exceeds any thing I have ever heard or read of. Its exquisite statuary and paintings, elaborate sculptures, and Mosaic work, rich gilding and tapestry, but, above all, the absurd and grotesque mummery and foolery of its priests, surpass all conception, and can scarcely be credited, even on ocular demonstration. There are a great many curiosities on the island, (amongst which is a subterranean necropolis, or city of the dead, extending more than eight miles under the ground!) But I have not time to mention them by name, much less describe them. Such a medley of languages as one hears, in this Babel of a place, is really astonishing. Arabic, Italian, French, Greek, Turkish, Moorish, and what not! My spirit is stirred within me, when I see its inhabitants so given to idolatry, for it is one of the strong holds of Romanism, and they often conse crate a wafer, god and fall prostrate before it, or, rather, bow down before it! I tried to converse with a priest this evening in Latin; but he was even too ignorant to speak in the vernacular of his own church! They profess to be the true disciples of Paul, and verily believe that all their forefathers were converted by him in one night. I have not yet visited St. Paul's bay, as they call the inlet where tradition reports that the apostle was shipwrecked; but we sailed close enough to it, to perceive that it answers all the indications required by Luke's narrative of that event; and unlike most Romish traditions, seems incapable of disproof, though there are several other places fulfilling equally as well all the required indications.

We had on our table to-day tomatoes, green peas, radishes, winter melons, (a luscious kind of musk melon,) strung figs, fresh oranges at three pence per dozen. * * Such a delightful climate I never felt. Persons are walking about every day with umbrellas over their heads, to protect them from the heat of the sun! We have just returned from Floriana, just outside of the fortifications, where we saw flowers and fruits in abundance.

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Oh, when shall the light of truth irradiate this benighted isle! But I am forgetting that I have several other letters yet to write to-night. Love to all the brethren, especially to Bro. Harris and his good lady, whose highly appreciated contributions to the cause of missions, I believe I entirely neglected to acknowledge. My dear brother, "feed the flock over which the Holy Spirit hath made you overseer;" watch, pray, and labor.

Love to Bro. Coleman when you see him. I wrote him a hasty scrawl from Falmouth, and left it with a lady to mail, but fear he never received it. Greet every one of the brethren, and especially the sisters, by name.

Julia is unwilling to let this hasty scratch depart without lading it with her love (the children ditto) to yourself and family, (including our dear old sister Tyler,) and but I have neither time nor space to mention, nor is it necessary, for they all know full well that we love them.

Give to dear Molly and Emma a petal a piece of a rose we plucked this evening, in the neighborhood of the spot where it is thought the apostle was wrecked.

Grace, mercy, peace, and every blessing be yours! Most sincerely yours, with Christian and personal affection,

JAMES T. BARCLAY.

THE BIBLE QUESTION IN TENNESSEE.

Written for the New York Chronicle, by the President of the Tennessee Bible Society.

BROWNSVILLE, Tenn., February 7, 1851.

THAT We ought to have such an English Bible, is as clear as that those speaking the English language, are under obligation to make the Bible the "man of their counsel;" to look to it as the light from heaven to dispel the darkness from all the road that leads us back from earth to God; to search it for all things which pertains to eternal life and heavenly bliss; and that holy men of God, who understand Hebrew, Greek, and English, and may be otherwise qualified, can be found, and are anxious to undertake the blessed work of a pure translation.

The failure to translate some words in the common English Bible, (but transferring,) and the mistranslation of others, induce many men (no doubt frequently honest) to teach heresy.

From the same source, arises the adhesion of many warm hearted and ardent persons to the traditions and doctrines of men, for the commandments of God; bitterness and ill-will between professed disciples of Christ. From which citadel of Satan, infidels cast the shaft, ever inflicting a deep wound in the cause of Christ, "that his disciples are more divided than they ;" and the wide and unnatural separation of those for whom Christ our elder brother, prayed "they might all be one." Will any one deny that these direful effects are produced? And will any one be so bold as to charge that God gave a Bible, with the desire of producing such unholy fruits? That a comparison between, even only a better translation, to say nothing of one that may be pure, and the present version, will tend greatly to remove these things that are so much deplored by all good men, is as certain as the principle established, both in philosophy and chemistry, "that the weak must submit to the more powerful," as certain as light is preferable to darkness, the whole truth to only a part, or that truth is more powerful than error, and will prevail," In preferring the charge of transposing some words, and mis

translating others, I am sustained by the testimony of numerous theologians of the present and several former generations, as it is well known to every man who is partially familiar with theological discussions of the present day. The translators of the present version were compelled, to too great an extent, to respect the opinions and wishes of King James of England, rather than the will of Jesus Christ, King of Earth and Heaven, to give a correct rendering of any thing that would militate against the theology, or the civil government, of their earthly master.

Let those who place so high an estimate upon James' version, as to consider the translators so nearly inspired as to make their production the only good one in English; though the language may have changed so much in 200 years, as that a writing of that date can scarcely be recognized as belonging to English; so nearly inspired, that their Bible cannot be made better; so much nearer speaking the mind of God, than that of man; procure from the British Museum, where it is preserved as a curiosity, a correct copy of the interdiction of King James to his men, chosen to translate the Bible into English, and place it along side the testimony furnished by Mosheim, that if James had lived a few months longer, he would have united with the Roman Catholic Church.

Let them take the history of England, and judge whether the morals of that Prince should induce any God-fearing man to look to him for a pure Bible. Grimshaw says of James: "He was possessed of considerable virtues; but scarcely any of these were pure, or free from the contagion of the neighboring vices. His generosity bordered on profusion, his learning on pedantry, his pacific disposition on pusillanimity, his wisdom on cunning, his friendship on light fancy and boyish fondness."

I would here ask all, who believe that the Bible in its purity teaches and maintains a republican form of government, was James the man, all things considered, to give us such a Bible, or would he rather give us one that would favor that religious sect which he believed would strengthen his monarchy, and his power as the Sovereign of England? It matters not how strong may be our prejudice, the history of the man drives us all to the conclusion, that he would make the Bible, to a great extent, subservient to his own aggrandisement. He must have it to enforce his DIVINE right to rule the nation under him Hence the leaning of the work, by mistranslation, to Episcopacy. Admitting that the translators were disposed to act honestly, where is the evidence of their qualifications as translators? Surely not in their Bible given to Englishmen. Their production bears too much evidence of their rather having followed existing translations, than their own independent rendering, to become a witness in favor of their ability to translate accurately. What proof have we that they were profound Hebrew and Greek scholars? I doubt whether evidence can be furnished that these languages were taught but indifferently in any of the colleges of England in that day.

But the Bible as we have it, has effected good, and done wonders which nothing short of eternity can unfold to us. It has been the instrument of converting millions unto God, that are now glorified

in heaven. This, by many, is considered a sufficient reason to oppose every effort at revision. Saying, "it has been good enough for our fathers, and why not for us?" One grand difficulty in receiving the above teaching is, the gospel is declared to be "the power of God unto salvation," and it has not been made clear as yet, that Gon can, and does save better, through a part of the gospel than the whole. Neither is it evident, that the human mind is more powerfully affected by a part of the truth than the whole; that our moral constitution compels us to receive more readily that which is wrapped up in mystery, than that which is made manifest. Or that men more readily believe through the weakness of doubtful testimony, than the force and power of that which is clear and definite. All, all men, even those who oppose revision, admit the numerous defects of our English Bible. And though nearly every babbler, whether with or without A.M. or D.D., attempts a correction of the book in preaching; and though many who murder the Queen's English try to look very learned, and say to their hearers, “The original justifies a different rendering from the text under consideration. It should read thus and so;" yet we are told "the book is good enough, and so nearly inspired in every phrase, that no man can be found who can possibly, all things considered, make it any better."

Since it has become so fashionable to translate the Bible, in almost every sermon, those who oppose the revision of the English Bible, that we may have a standard Bible in our language, have assuredly fallen upon the most certain plan to flood the world so far as the gospel may be preached in English, with translators qualified and not qualified, to the end of time.

The position that because "the Bible as it is, has done so much good, it should be let alone," is like the old exploded doctrine, "that because some men preached so well without education, none ought to be educated."

The Americans fought well at Bunker's Hill with pitch forks, clubs, bricks, stones, and such weapons as they could get; but would they not have done better with well charged muskets? What though the Bible has done such incalculable good? Is this good attributable to the errors it contains? Or do those errors retard its heavenly influence? It is certain that the errors contained have done no good, but much evil. Consequently it is the duty of every servant of God, of every man who reveres his will, to advocate the revision of our commonly received Bible, at as early a date as we possibly can have it done by competent men. From the above premises, there can be no possible reasoning that will, from expediency or any thing else, justify the continuance of errors that are already, or may hereafter become evident. Those who advocate the Bible's remaining as it is, ad infinitum, and yet admit that it presents only a part of the truth, would do well to look to the legitimate results of their position. Luke gives a part of the truth. In sending the gospel to the heathen nations, why do they not restrict their missionaries in their distribution to that book of the New Testament. Yea, why not carry it further, and say the first chap. ter of Luke is a part of the truth, therefore, none but that chapter shall be given to the heathen. That the Bible, as it is, has done so