have a very useful custom of reading a portion of the Gospels, in Malayalim, from the altar, and then briefly expounding to the congregation. They do not preach as Europeans do, nor use pulpits: they have no schools, and little means of teaching the poor; but this arises rather from their extreme poverty than from any unwillingness to teach and be taught. Indeed, consider ing the persecutions they have suffered from the Papists, and the proselyting ravages of Tippoo Saib, I am thankful and surprised that they still retain so much of genuine Christianity amongst them.

"The dress of the priests consists of loose white trowsers, with a white surplice and a red silk cap. The proper dress is of a dark colour; but they told us, that they were too poor to purchase it: each priest has a pastoral staff, generally tipped with gold. At ordination, the priests profess to sign the Canons of the Council of Nice, which are read to them by the bishop; but they could not shew us any copy of them. They, at the same time, swear to shave the crown of the head, and not to shave their beards; to fast on the fourth and the sixth days of the week: but they do not engage to lead a life of celibacy: this custom has crept in among them from the Romans. The bishop, Mar Dionysius, has lately sent a circular letter to his clergy, expressly stating that they are at liberty to marry: some have actually availed themselves. of this permission, and forty more have declared their readiness to do so when their circumstances will admit. Their incomes are wretchedly small, merely fees and gratuities. They all, both bishop and clergy, earnestly besought us to give them copies of the Scriptures, both in Syriac and Malayalim. I had with me a few copies of the Syriac. Gospels, the type of which they con

sider as exceedingly beautiful. I hope the Bible Society will go on to complete that work: it is a highly useful well executed edition.

"The form and architecture of their churches is simple, and may be Syrian; the windows long and narrow, not pointed, as Dr. Buchanan implies. They possess very few books; I understood no printed ones but the Gospels in Malayalim; and besides the Scriptures in manuscript, they have some sacred hymns and their liturgy, which are often obliged to be carried from one church to another for service. The copies of the Old Testament which we saw wanted Nehemiah; and the New Testament had the Nestorian readings. Some books are also in their Canon which we do not call canonical.

"They were very much pleased with the Bishop of Calcutta's visit, and expressed a very earnest desire to put themselves under the protection of the English. Colonel Munro, the British Resident at Travancore, is doing a great deal for them: he has established a college for the better education of their priests, and employs many of them in his public office. I must not omit to mention one interesting and truly pious custom of these Christians. The father of a family collects his children around him in the evening; and sitting on a sod on the outside of his cottage, he reads or repeats portions of Scripture to them. These, of course, consist chiefly of such passages as are most easily understood and retained in the memory-the parables, the passion and death of Christ, &c.--which he explains, and dilates on the doctrines and duties of Christianity as he is able.Here, then, is a promising harvest: if the Lord but send forth reapers, every thing may be hoped for where we find so much zeal and piety, and so much inclination to be instructed."

devout inquirer; that our great Instructor, although he has veiled the truth to him who would look down upon it from the lofty eminences of human science, reveals it to him who approaches in the attitude of conscious infirmity and devout humiliation. And this principle, we venture to say, is more frequently exemplified even in the discoveries of art and science than the mere scholar is willing to allow. We probably owe the art of printing, for instance, to one whose profession authorised the expectation of no such gift to the world of letters. The machinery also, to which the manufactures of our country are principally indebted, is the discovery of a common workman; and that philosopher, who in our own days has most enlarged the boundaries of science, who has improved the instruments of philosophy to an extent which raises this age above every other in the annals of astronomy, who has given us a familiarity with the heavens of which Kepler never dreamed and to which Newton never soared, owes his discoveries still less to the circuitous efforts of scientific research than to the simple and humble labours of common sense. These men have reached the interior of the temple of science, not by breaking through its walls at some elevated points, but by stooping to the low and narrow door of self-distrust and humiliation by which it is appointed to be entered. But whatever may be the case in other instances, our position is eminently true in religion. There are usually certain prominent and leading truths connected with every important question, on which he who keeps his eye steadily fixed, and his heart really intent, will not be suffered to wander fatally wide of the mark. And here, perhaps, we may be permitted to say, that we should have been happy if the work of the reverend author had afforded him an opportunity of entering more

widely upon the discussion of the two following topics:-in the first place, why men are so apt to run away from the consideration of the great fundamentals in morals and religion;-and, secondly, what are the evils which have arisen in the present controversy from thus merging the great in the subordinate topics of the discussion. It is not, of course, for us to presume to supply the author's place; but we will take the liberty of touching for a moment upon these two points.

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The great cause then, as it appears to us, by which men tempted to pursue what may be called the accidents of moral questions, and to leave their substance untouched, is, that a decision as to the first may have no bearing upon the life, but that a decision on the last may and must be conclusive as to their state and character. matters little to the worldly man, for example, whether we ought to stand or kneel in prayer; but it matters infinitely to him whether devout prayer be a duty or not.

It

Another temptation which inclines men to investigate chiefly the minuter parts of a subject is this-that they conceive they shall obtain a higher reputation for learning and refinement, than by dwelling upon the parts that are more prominent. The operation of this cause may be perceived in literature and art. In the advanced stages of literature, for instance, and after the stock of obvious images and sentiments has been exhausted, how generally are writers seduced into an artificial and affected style of composition, not always because their taste is worse than that of their predecessors, but because they are willing to try a new road to fame, and to aim at the only distinction which it is now possible for them to attain ! In like manner, in works of art, how soon does the laborious skill of the Flemish school succeed to the nobler manner of the Romannot always, perhaps, through a de

terioration of taste, but frequently from a desire of reputation. But it is in morals and religion that the evil is most predominant. Hence the subtle discussions of the old schoolmen and of the modern casuists-men who ought to have had both wit and honesty sufficient to prefer questions of practical utility to those laborious triflings which too often occupied their whole at'tention.

But a third and most efficient cause of this error, is the ungene rous desire of sophists and partizans to hide the truth, by spreading over it the cobwebs of minute distinctions. A man of simple mind is marching in a right line to a sound conclusion. A polemic detects him in the fact, and discovers at once that this right line is the road to conclusions the most opposite to his own. He therefore contends, that the straight road is the wrong road-that the level path is the path of ruin-and that the very ease with which he advances is a proof he cannot be treading in the rough and arduous ascent which leads to the almost inaccessible temple of Truth. Misled by such representations, perhaps, the plain man yields to the conviction that he ought not to walk so well.

We would urge on many of our readers, and especially on the young and unwary, the considerations which we have here stated. Truth is ordinarily simple; and it is rarely, and for no good purpose, that the goddess is invested with a cloud. The well in which wisdom is said to lie hid, is rarely too deep for an honest and industrious mind to fathom it. When, therefore, difficulties are spread over a plain truth, by any one who is, at the same time, a scholar and a partizan, the reader should consider them but as the dust of warfare, which is raised to conceal the march of an advancing enemy.

But let us touch for a moment on the other point; namely, the

actual evils which have arisen in the controversy upon regeneration, from too often merging the main doctrine which it involves in subordinate topics of discussion. Hence, we conceive, it is that the great question, whether or not our own hearts are converted, has been postponed by many warm polemics, and their admirers, till the contest about lower matters is decided. Hence, again, it happens, that many writers and verbal disputants obtain a reputation for religious zeal, who care, perhaps, for little but the defence of their own particular systems. Hence, also, it is that many of these advocates have exhausted their time and strength in fighting for points, the adjustment of which would not, in the smallest degree, assist in the decision of the main question; and this not in the spirit of men who have undertaken to decide on subjects of vital importance to the whole family of man, but as they would enter the lists in a gladiatorial exhibition. Hence, in a word, we are threatened with the sad consequence, that this controversy, which, under the Divine blessing, might be made to promote the interests of truth and the salvation of souls, may pass away and leave many of those who were most deeply engaged in it in their original state of darkness and indifference. We always indulge the hope, that when this sort of moral earthquake takes place, many contrite inquirers will be found at the feet of the mi nisters of religion, asking, “What shall I do to be saved?" "And if in this hope we should now be dis appointed, we are persuaded that one of the main causes will be, that some of the disputants themselves, and still more of their readers, have fallen into the error which we are deploring.

But it is time that we should return to Mr. Wilson, the great object of whose sermon is to shew the infinite importance of that change of heart which must be wrought by the Holy Ghost in every unconverted