shrinking firmness, his undying love. Let us be actuated and filled with those motives-love to God and love to man-which engrossed his soul, and made it burn as a flame of fire.

NECESSITY OF A SPECIAL, DIVINE INFLUENCE, IN THE CONVERSION OF THE WORLD.

THAT practical disregard of a Divine Providence, which is so common among men, is not learned from the Bible. You open that book, and on every page God appears a living, present, acknowledged reality.

When the Israelites had gained a signal victory over the Philistines, the prophet Samuel "took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." When Zerah, an Ethiopian, with an immense host, had invaded Judah, Asa, the pious king, did what every ruler should do, cried unto the Lord, and said, Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power; help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude." On a similar occasion, Jehoshaphat "proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah, and set himself to seek the Lord, and said, O our God, will not thou judge them, for we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do; but our eyes are upon thee." After the afflicted Jews had returned from Babylon, and had begun to rebuild the temple in weakness and in fear, the prophets Haggai and Zechariah were directed to encourage their desponding hearts, and assure them that the Lord was with them; that the silver and the gold were his; that the work was to be done, not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts; that the difficulties, though they were like a great mountain, would be removed; and that the head stone of the edifice would be brought forth, with shoutings, "Grace, grace unto it."

The best men in every age since, have felt and acknowledged their entire dependence on God. The early history of New England, if a history of any one truth, is of this, habitual reliance on the power and mercy of God. In the dark days of rebuke and blasphemy, when fear was without, and trembling within, our fathers did not go down to Egypt for help, nor stay on horses, nor trust in chariots; but they gathered the people, sanctified the congregation, proclaimed a fast, called a solemn assembly, and sought the Lord with all their heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and mourning; for they knew, they had known it a thousand times, that the Lord was gracious and merciful, and slow to anger; of great kindness, and repented him of the evil; that though the morning might be one of clouds and of thick darkness, yet it would come to pass that at evening time, it would be light. In a certain instance, a requisition was made on a town, which took away for the distant war all the young men, with a single exception. Before they marched, the venerable pastor addressed them, with words of exhortation, from the passage, " as captain of the Lord's host, am I now come." During their absence, the old men, the mothers and wives, the sisters and little ones, met in a weekly prayer meeting, to look to the God of armies in their behalf.

Divine assistance is needed in all the departments of human life, and in

all the varieties of human employment, but it is specially and pre-eminently needed in every thing which appertains to the building up of Christ's kingdom. The Christian church are now engaged, not in war and destruction, but in an enterprise of mercy for lost man. They are erecting a temple, not of precious stones, of cedar, and of gold, but a temple of living stones, whose foundation is at the cross of Christ, and whose top stone will be laid in heaven, amid the blest voices of "numbers without number."

The work of the world's conversion, is in its nature a mental work. Sinners are to be persuaded to become reconciled to God. Reasonings and arguments are to be presented to the human understanding. A conflict is to be maintained, not of flesh and blood, but of mind with mind, and heart with heart, and conscience with conscience. Error, in its thousand forms of obliquity and darkness, is to be confronted with the truth. Deeplyseated prejudices are to be rooted up. Long current maxims are to be abandoned. Habits of thinking, consecrated by high antiquity, are to be exchanged for those directly opposite. Obstinacy is to become meekness, conceited ignorance docility, the pride of opinion the lowly mind which was also in Christ Jesus. Now these are no trifling difficulties. That individual, who has spent a long life in earnest effort to subdue and discipline his passions, will tell you, if he tells the truth, that he is conscious of much, very much remaining prejudice, and conceit, and obstinacy of opinion. What must be the state of mind then in the multitudes, who have spent many years, not in subduing, but in cherishing prejudice and selfish feeling? How deep and how dreadful are those clouds of error which rest on the minds of a great majority, even of learned men, in reference to moral and religious subjects!

It is comparatively easy to compel a nation to receive a new set of ideas, with the alternative of submission or death. But to accomplish a silent, peaceable revolution in men's opinions, and to do this universally, is a different thing altogether. "Pass over the isles of Chittim and see, and send unto Kedar and consider diligently and see, if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed its gods, which are yet no gods?" Hath a nation, we may ask, changed its opinions, which are yet no opinions?

The work is, in its nature, a moral work. Its great object is to make men happy by making them holy. The repentance which is proclaimed, is reformation from sin; the faith, that which purifies the heart; the hope, awakened in the soul, the hope of dwelling in the everlasting purity of heaven. The Saviour announced, is holy, undefiled, separate from sinners. The highway which it is opening through the world, is the way of holiness, over which no unclean one shall pass. The river, at which it invites the thirsty nations to drink, is a pure river, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and the Lamb.

The disorders which sin has produced in the soul of man, are very great. There is an aversion to serious reflection. There is a strange unwillingness to know the real extent and malignity of the disease. There is a voluntary return to sin, when it has often filled the soul with the keenest remorse. If, in some bright moment, the happiness of the favor and friendship of the Almighty is perceived, how soon does the heart return, with a dreadful eagerness, to sense and sin! If an earnest and determined attack is made on the wicked propensities, what irritation, what discontent it produces in the soul! How the enmity of the heart to the severe discipline of the Christian life is awakened! Nevertheless, all these difficulties are to be removed. All this opposition is to be overcome, not in a single individual, but in the whole race.

This has been shown in part

This work is, in its nature, a great work. already, but it may be seen still more clearly by the exhibition of a few facts. In its great outlines, depravity is the same among all nations; but owing to a variety of circumstances, it has assumed in different places, very different forms. Among the people of one country you will see one reigning passion, one master vice; in another, the blending of several; in the whole heathen world, you will observe certain common features, strong general resemblances; in the nominally Christian world, certain other characteristics.

A few years since a Birman general ordered 500 soldiers to be buried alive, simply because they had been sent by an officer whom he disliked. The order was instantly obeyed. Cruelty is a predominant feature in this nation's character. From another country, every thing foreign has been carefully and totally excluded. The demon of jealousy there reigns. A fundamental principle in a religion professed by 90,000,000 of the human family, represents the happiness of a future state as sensual and debased; thus offering no reward to virtue, and giving a high premium to vice, it annihilates, at once, the distinc ion between right and wrong. Sensuality, enormous sensuality, is, of course, the characteristic of the whole Mohammedan world A large class of professed Christians, believe in the merit of human works; think to purchase for themselves and for others salvation, by laying up a large stock of good deeds. Consequently, spiritual pride, or an inflated self-esteem, is one reigning peculiarity of the papal church.

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If we cast our eyes on Protestant nations, we shall find that their character is made up in a great degree of the forms of Christianity, without its living power; boasting in the name without the fruits; believing in general, and yet opposing in particular. How many publications, and how many men, will laud Christianity in general to the skies; and yet, come to a particular institution, like the Sabbath, without the observance of which the religion itself cannot exist, and you will find them bitter opposers! In its progress to universal dominion, Christianity will, probably, be called to meet with the severest struggle in nominally Christian nations. How few of these nations conduct any of their important measures on the principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ! How few statesmen prefer the good of the whole human race to the glory and happiness of their own country! How few legislators are in the habit of private prayer, before the decision of questions, on which the happiness or misery of millions is depending! How few of our rulers have any serious and practical regard to the example which they set, and to its unutterable influence on multitudes beneath them! How few questions are decided with a real, intentional, declared regard to the eternal principles of right and justice! Now in all these respects there is to be a change. The law of nations will be made to harmonize with the law of conscience and of God. The religion of Christ will be made to breathe its hallowed influence through all the doings of councils and of cabinets. Power will not create right. The appeal will be to the unerring standard of the Bible. Men, in the highest stations in society, will not be afraid to acknowledge their dependence on the great Source of light and wisdom. In estimating, therefore, the difficulty of the work, we are not to look simply at a mass of depravity, however dark and appalling. There are systems of error and iniquity, each fortified and consolidated by their appropriate defences. It is as if the spirits of darkness had had each assigned to them a specific, appropriate work, in which they had exhausted their mighty intellect of evil, in horrid ambition to surpass one another in the work of perdition. Each has been, for 6,000 years, paving a way to the

pit, for the lost children of men-ways strowed with all the allurements of sensual pleasure, or covered in midnight darkness, or watered with tears and blood.

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In the face of such difficulties, whose heart would not utterly fail within him, were the work to be attempted by human power? Who would not, in despair, give up the enterprise? The hindrances in the conversion of a single soul are immense. What must they be in the regeneration of a world? But thanks be to God, it is not by might, nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord of hosts. There is a mighty agency at work in this world, which we do not see with our eyes. We cannot discern the form thereof, we can see no image, but the same omnipotent Power which operates silently in the world of matter, operates in the world of mind. who formed the mind, can change the mind. He knows the secret springs of thought and feeling. He can scatter the thick mists of prejudice, and reveal to the soul the perfect beauty of truth. He can induce men to abhor themselves, and repent in dust and ashes, and as their eyes open on a holy Saviour, to exclaim, “Whom have we in heaven but thee, and there is none on earth that we desire besides thee." He can open the two leaved gates and cut in sunder the bars of iron. He is with kings on their thrones, and is able to abase those who walk in pride. The systems of heathenism and idolatry, though grown up to heaven, he can consume with the breath of his mouth and destroy with the brightness of his coming. Through all the abominations in Christian countries, he can send the healing waters of the river of life. The political and civil maxims which are false and erroneous, in Christian nations, by his almighty influence, can be made to give way to the pure and heavenly precepts of the gospel of Christ.

THE BRITISH MINISTRY.

FROM the following table it appears that the average duration of each ministry for the last eighty years, has been four years and five days. It is computed up to the 14th of July, 1834; Lord Melbourne's appointment.

MODERN ARMENIA.

WE have derived a number of interesting facts respecting Armenia, and the modern Armenians, from Avdall's History of Armenia, Neumann's Translations from the Armenian, Saint Martin's Memoires sur L'Armenie, and the Introduction to the English edition of the Travels of Smith and Dwight.

Armenia Proper, comprises the whole of the valley of the Araxes, the country between the Araxes and the Kür, (the ancient Cyrus,) the valley of the Eastern Euphrates, and part of the elevated basins of the lakes of Van and Oormiah; its boundaries on the side of Kürdistán and Aderbaiján, being doubtful and varying at different periods. Ancient Assyria appears to have answered pretty well to modern Kürdistán. The region of the Northern Euphrates, now comprised in the pashalik of Erzroom, anciently Upper Armenia, seems always to have been more or less politically connected with the western kingdoms. Altogether, Armenia is computed to extend about 430 miles in longitude, and 300 in latitude. The following table exhibits some of the principal ancient and modern divisions.

The early history of Armenia rests on absurb or uncertain tradition. The principal native authority is Moses Chorenensis, who flourished in the fifth century, and who drew up a history of his country, commencing with Haic or Haig, the son of Togarmah, the grandson of Japhet; and brought down to the extinction of the pontifical power in the house of Gregory the Illuminator, A. D. 440. The history of Moses was translated into Latin by William and George Whiston, sons of William Whiston, translator of Josephus. Gibbon says, "Deficient as Moses is in every qualification of a good historian, his local information, his passions and his prejudices are