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they have not always been viewed. Indeed, biblical information on several subjects of great importance, which future writers will avail themselves of, constitutes a. grand leading feature in the work. As our pages do not admit of following our traveller regularly, the best thing we can do is, to present our readers with a series of extracts, which, we doubt not, will lead many of them to examine the work for themselves.

Drs. Henderson and Paterson

left St. Petersburg on the 2d of March, O. S. 1821; and after reaching, by a circuitous route, Tiflis, the capital of Georgia, they returned to St. Petersburg on the 11th of February, 1822. During this journey, Dr. Henderson was a good deal affected by illness, chiefly ague; but he appears most diligently to have availed himself of all the means and opportunities of information which he enjoyed. The travellers were furnished by Prince Galitzin, with letters of introduction to the principal civil and ecclesiastical authorities of the Governments through which they were to pass; and also with an open letter, to be used in case any obstacles might be thrown in their way at any of the posting stations. These, with other advantages connected with the nature of their undertaking, afforded them every facility in prosecuting their journey. The first part of their travels led them into the province of Ingria, which is inhabited chiefly by Finns. This occasions the following account of the Finnish translations of the Scriptures.

"Into Finnish the New Testament was translated soon after the introduction of the principles of the Reformation into Finland, and printed at Stockholm, in quarto, 1548. Besides Luther's Preface, it contains another by the translator, Michael Agricola, at that time Bishop of Abo; in which he states, that the translation was made from the original Greek, with the assistance of the Latin Vulgate, and the German and Swedish versions. About the same time, a version of the

Psalms was undertaken by Paul Justen, rector of the High School in Abo; in way of exercise, and which, after having which work he engaged his scholars, by been revised by Agricola, was published at Stockholm, in the year 1551. It contains a curious address to the reader, composed in rhyme, and is, perhaps, the most ancient printed specimen of the kind in the Finnish language; in which a description is given of the pagan idolatry of the Finns, especially that practised by the inhabitants of Tavastahus and Karelia, or that part of Finland which comprehends the governments of Viborg and Olonetz, from the termination of the Gulph, and the shores of the Ladoga, to those of the White Sea.

ral detached portions of the Old Testament left the press; in his preface to which, the Bishop regrets the impossibility of his publishing more at that time, owing to the want of funds, but pledges himself remaining books, and to publish them, in to proceed with the translation of the case he met with encouragement from the sale of these editions. In consequence, however, of certain political obstacles, nearly a century passed away before the edition of the entire Bible in their ver nacular language. At length, in the year 1636, the Finnish clergy petitioned her majesty Christina, Queen of Sweden, to confer upon them this boon; on which, orders were given to prepare an accurate version, and the task was committed to Eschillus Petræus, Divinity Professor in

"In the course of the same year, seve

natives of Finland were furnished with an

Abo, and afterwards Bishop of that see, Martin Stodius, Professor of the Oriental Languages, together with Henry Hoffinan and Gregory Favorinus, two Finnish cler gymen, whose general learning, and critical knowledge of the Finnish language, peculiarly qualified them for being associ ated in the work. It was printed, in folio, at Stockholm, 1642. Of this version, another edition was printed at Turusa (Abo), 1683-5, in quarto, chiefly owing to the zealous exertions of Bishop Gezelius, who obtained from government an order for the appropriation of this important object of certain corn-tythes, which have since been known by the name of Bibel Tryck Tunnun.

"Of the New Testament, editions were printed, in 1732, in octavo; 1740, in duodecimo; and 1774 and 1776, in octavo; but, excepting two quarto editions, printed in 1758, and 1776, the latter of which was published by subscription, no further attempt was made to print the entire Scriptures, till the introduction of the Bible Society's operations into Finland, in the year 1811 previous to this period, no copies were exposed for sale; and it is stated, in a document drawn up at that time by autho

For twenty years

rity, that there was not then a copy to be obtained at any price."-pp. 7, 8.

Religious divisions are sometimes very troublesome among us; but that they are not less so even in Russia, where the authority of the church, and the despotism of the state might be supposed to keep every thing quiet; the following curious anecdote will show. It will also illustrate the influence of very trifling circumstances on most important events.

"About noon we reached the small district town of Krestzi, and stopping in the suburb, close to the post-house, we were shewn into a good-looking habitation, on the opposite side of the street. The peasant to whom it belonged was absent, but the reception we met with from his wife convinced us that we should not have been made more welcome had he

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been at home. With the whole population of the suburb, amounting to upwards of 1,000 souls, the family consisted of Staroværtzi, or dissenters of the old faith, the rigidity of whose principles operates as powerfully on their intercourse with all whom they consider to be inembers of the orthodox Greek church, as the contracted spirit of the ancient Jews did in preventing them from having any dealings with the Samaritans.' One of our number happening to have metal buttons on his travelling coat, and another having a tobacco-pipe in his hand, the prejudices of the mistress of the house were alarmed to such a degree, that all the arguments we could use were insufficient to prevail on her to make ready some dinner for us. compelled to do any service of this kind to such as are not of their own sect, they consider themselves bound to destroy the which loss, those who are more exposed to the intrusion of strangers generally keep a set of profane vessels for the purpose.

When

utensils used on the occasion; to prevent

As the proprietor of the house we had entered appeared to be in affluent circumstances, it is not improbable that he might have furnished it with something of the kind; but the tobacco pipe proved an insuperable obstacle to their

use.

So great, too, is the aversion of this people to snuff, that if a box happen to have been laid on a table belonging to them, the part on which it lay must be planed out before it can be appropriated to any further use. They live in a state of complete separation from the church; only they cannot marry without a licence from the priest, for which they are sometimes obliged to pay a great sum of money. NEW SERIES, No. 20.

The sacrament, as it is usually called, they never celebrate; and baptism is only administered to such as are near death, on the principle adopted by some in the early ages of the church, that such as relapse, after receiving this rite, are cut off from all hopes of salvation.

"The only copies of the Scriptures hitherto in use among them, are of the first, or Ostrog edition of the Slavonic Bible, printed before the time of the had long been forming, was ultimately completed by the alterations which that learned ecclesiastic introduced into the liturgical and other books of the Greek church in Russia. It has been asserted that there exist, among the Staroværtzi, reprints of this Bible, in which every jot and tittle is religiously copied; but the pertinacity with which they secure the continuance of the old Bibles in their families, and transmit them as the most precious treasure to their posterity, renders it difficult to obtain copies for collation. It is a curious fact, and to it perhaps may be traced any disposition at present existing among this people to cooperate in the labours of the Bible Society, that when the first stereotype edition of the Slavonic Bible was printed in St. Petersburgh, numbers of them, mistaking the word stereotype, and pronouncing it sturotype (old type), supposed that it new impression of their ancient Bible, and purchased a considerable number of copies, at the different depositories. Their predilection for copies of the old edition has rendered them exceedingly scarce in Russia; and when it happens that a copy is exposed for sale, it fetches several hundred rubles."--pp. 25—27.

Patriarch Nicon, when the schism, which

was a

In Moscow, Dr. Henderson and his companions spent about a month, the greater part of which, owing to the state of the weather, they were confined to the house. The most curious affair mentioned in their account of this famed city, which is used all over the empire. is the preparation of the sacred oil, What would our Ecclesiastical chemists think of the following process.

"The same day we went to the Patriarchal Hall, to see the ceremony of the. preparation of the holy oil. Here, over a stove constructed on purpose, we found two large kettles, in which the different ingredients were mixed, and kept in constant motion by six deacons, who stirred them with long rods of cypress, the handles of which were covered with red 31

velvet. This was the third day since the ceremony commenced, and another day would still be required ere the oil would be ready. This oil, which consists of the ingredients prescribed in the Levitical law, is not prepared every year, but only every third or fourth. When the fire

is kindled, and also when the ingredients are put into the kettles, the Metropolitan is present to give his benediction; and this he repeats, in a most solemn manner,

when the ceremony is about to be completed. During the whole time of the preparation, a succession of deacons keep up the reading of the Gospels; and should they read through the Evangelists, they commence afresh. To us, it was most interesting to behold a crowd of poor people leaning forward over each other, and listening to the words of eternal life.

"At the east end of the hall rose a stand, resembling that used in rooms for receiving flower-pots; the steps or shelves reclining or diminishing as they approached the top On these was placed a great variety of gold and silver cups, and flagons of various sizes, among which, at certain distances, was a vast profusion of lighted candles, which gave great brilliancy to the scene The most remarkable object in this splendid exhibition of sacred utensils, was a large flagon, made of mother of pearl, which still contains some of the oil brought from Constantinople, on the introduction of Christianity into Russia, ia the tenth century. It is preserved with great care, so that when only a few drops are taken from it, as on the present occasion, their place is supplied by some of that which had been prepared at a former period, by which means its perpetual virtue is supposed to be secared. Close to the stove we observed an immensely large silver urn; and on, a table on the opposite side of the hall, sixteen smaller ones, resembling the common tea-urn, only much larger. The oil thus prepared and deposited in these utensils, is sent to all parts of the empire, to be used for sacramental purposes."-- pp. 57--59.

The fourth chapter of the work contains an interesting account of the Slavonic Scriptures, a subject on which our previous information was but very imperfect, but which is too long to be extracted, and scarcely admits of abridgment. The same remark applies to the account of the Modern Russ editions of the Scriptures in the following chapter. We must, however, extract the following exposition of

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the causes, which, in the opinion of Dr. Henderson, have led to the painful changes that have taken place of late on the biblical opera tions in Russia. Whether he satisfactorily accounts for these causes, or whether his hopes of a revival of the work may be realized, it is not for us to say. Recent events are discouraging; but we console ourselves by the conviction, that the Lord reigneth.

"It is not unknown to the reading world, that, previous to the institution of the Bible Society in St. Petersburgh, the Jesuits had made such progress in imbuing the minds of Russian youths, and other members of the orthodox church, with strong predilections in favour of the dogmas of Rome, as necessarily to excite the attention of government, and lead to a closer and more unremitting inspection to their proceedings. It was not, however, till they had succeeded in corrupting the principles of a young nobleman of distinguished rank, and framed a system of intrigue against the Bible Society, that measures were taken to expel them from the empire. Possessing a magnificent college in the Sadovii Street, close to the house presented by his Majesty to the Society, they were so chagrined at the mark of Imperial favour displayed in that gift, that they became quite clamorous in their opposition to its principles and proceedings; in consequence of which, and their other delinquencies, an ukase was issued, similar in its effects to that of Darius the king, in which it was ordered: Now therefore Tatnai, Governor beyond the river, Shethar-boznai and your companions, the Apharsachites, which are beyond the river, be ye fur from thence; let the work of this house of God alone; let the Governor of the Jews, and the elders of the Jews, build this house of God in his place." Ezra vi. 6, 7. In less than two hours after their college had been surrounded in the dead of night by the gensd'armes, their papers were secured; and, had been provided for them, and placed being wrapped in sheep-skin shubes, which in the sledges in waiting at the door, they were speedily conducted over the frontiers.

nating with, or at least powerfully supConceiving these measures as origiported by his Excellency Prince Galitzin, then Minister for Ecclesiastical Affairs and Public Instruction, the Jesuits formed designs of the most deadly hatred against that worthy nobleman, and left no method untried by which they might lower him in

the opinion of his Imperial Majesty, and precipitate him from those stations of high official trust, which he had so long and so bonourably filled. As the President and most cordial supporter of the Bible Society, he became the object of their insidious attacks. Failing in their attempts to make any powerful impression on the minds of the Russian clergy, who, in proportion as they are versed in the writings of the Greek Fathers, must perceive the incongruity of any opposition being made to the reading of the Scriptures by the laity, on the part of those who profess so unbounded a reverence for these writings, the proscribed sect resolved to try what might be effected by political intrigue. The revolutionary spirit which had appeared in some countries of Europe, and the desire so strongly expressed in others of having certain ancient institutions re-modelled to suit the exigencies of modern times, appeared, to their minds, to furnish a powerful handle by which to gain their object. They now set every engine at work to impress the public mind, and especially those in power, with the belief, that between the members of the Bible Society and the Carbonari of Italy, the Burschensehaft of Germany and the English Radicals, there existed a real and systematic connection. While these emissaries were secretly active in conducting the wheels of the machine, by which numbers of the students were deluded throughout Protestant Germany, they were unremitting in their attempts to corrupt the public vehicles of information, introducing inúendoes into the statements given of popular movements, and harping on the tendency of Protestantism and Bible Societies to foment divisions, and produce civil and religious discontent. Nor did they stop here. By their agents in Russia, with which country they still maintain a powerful, though covert, alliance, and especially through the instrumentality of certain leading politicians, at the Conferences of Laybach and Verona, they did every thing in their power to lodge in the

mind of Alexander a conviction that Bible

Societies are politically dangerous; that the reading of the Scriptures by the laity cannot fail to disseminate revolutionary principles; and that the real, though concealed, object of their members and abettors, is the dismemberment of organized society.

"The mind of the august Monarch was too enlightened, and he was too well acquainted with the distinguished individuals in his own country who had established and were carrying on the operations of the Society under his own public sanction, to believe that there could be any real ground for such accusations, But, as

the Jesuits ultimately succeeded in forming a strong party in the Russian metropolis, to re-echo their criminations, it was deemed politic that the object of their inveterate enmity should resign those high posts in which he stood peculiarly exposed to the shafts of their malice. The Institution, by this measure, lost its noble and most indefatigable President; but, although its operations have not been subsequently carried on as heretofore, nothing in the shape of an attempt has been made to put it down: not even the slightest shadow of evidence against any of its members, as desirous of interfering with political arrangements, has been alleged, and the abettors of the mis-named Society of Jesus must first flatter the Greek clergy into the belief that they are wiser than Chrysostom, Basil, Damascene, and others of the Fathers, ere they can lead them, as a body, to act in flagrant opposition to such high and venerated authorities.

"Let the Divine Word only have free and unrestricted circulation among mankind, and, besides accomplishing its higher and more important design, the eternal salvation of the soul, it will secure, by the influence of an Invisible, but Omnipo tent Authority, as a present part of that salvation, the conscientious discharge of every relative duty. Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of them that do well. For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men; as free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. FEAR GOD. HONOUR THE KING.' 1 Pet. ii. 13-17."--pp. 131-135.

No part of this volume has interested us more than Dr. H.'s account of the Karaim, or Karaite Jews, a colony of which he visited, at an ancient fortress, a few versts distant from Baghtchisarai. They appear to be a much more respectable class of persons than the Rabbinical Jews generally are, and in some respects seem not far from the kingdom of God. We cannot extract either the history of this tribe, or the account given of their worship; but the following passage will convey some idea of their character.

"The Karaim are free from many of the superstitions to be found among the Jews in general, such as the transmigration of souls, the power of talismans, &c.; and, as might naturally be expected from their principles, the standard and tone of morals which their general deportment exbibits is quite of a different stamp from those of the Rabbinists. In their persons they are tidy; their domestic discipline and arrangements are correct and exemplary; and their dealings with others are characterized by probity and integrity. It

is one of their favourite maxims, that Those things which a man is not willing to receive himself, it is not right for him to do to his brethren: a maxim literally corresponding with that which our Lord pronounces to be the sum of what the law and prophets taught as the duty of man to man, Matt. vii. 12. How far the Karaim act up to this principle may be ascertained by the fact, that they are universally respected by all who know them and I never yet heard any person speak ill of them, except he was a bigotted adherent .of the Talmud. In the south of Russia, where they are best known, their conduct is proverbial; and I cannot place it in a stronger light than by recording the testimony borne to it by a Polish gentleman in Dubno, who informed me that, while

the other Jews resident in Lutsk are continually embroiled in suits at law, and

;

require the utmost vigilance on the part of

the police, there is not on record a single instance of prosecution against the Karaim for the space of several hundred years, during which they have been settled in that place!

"By the Rabbinists they are held in perfect abhorrence. Eisenmenger relates that he was eye-witness of this in Frankfort on the Maine, where he found a Ka

raite in the Jews' street, to whom they had been kind at first, taking him to be of their own sect; but the moment they discovered that he was one of the Sons of the Text,' they hissed him out of the street with contempt. In the time of Rabbi Benjamin, there existed a literal wall of separation between them in Constantinople: and I was struck, when visiting them at Lutsk, to find that they lived in a separate quarter of the town, altogether distinct from the other Jews, who never spoke of them without contumely; and they even declared, that if they saw a Christian in danger of being drowned, it would be their duty to make a bridge of a Karaite in order to rescue him. In short, they carry their enmity to such a pitch, that they will not receive a Karaite into their communion until he has previously made a profession of the Mohammedan or Christian faith.

"The Karaim, on the contrary, though

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It is gratifying to find, that some of these people are disposed to read the New Covenant Scriptures, as we trust it will not be

altogether in vain. But wherever we find Jews, in whatever form their religious sentiments are presented, we never fail to discover, "that blindness hath happened to Israel." The followers of the Rabbins, and the rejectors of their fooleries unite in rejecting the claims of Jesus of Nazareth, and seem to bear on their foreheads the brand of his displeasure. The time will come, we entertain no doubt, when this blindness shall pass away; but whether this shall be produced by ordinary or extraordinary means, or by a combination of both, we must leave it to

futurity to determine. In the city

in which we write, after the labours of twenty years, and the expenditure of a large sum of money-all that has been printed, preached, and given, seems to have produced as yet no shaking even among the dry bones. The tenth chapter of Dr. Henderson's work contains some important suggestions on the best mode of conducting Missionary labours among this people. He gives us an account of the remains of Atel, a few miles distant from Astrakhan, which is represented as originally the seat of a people governed by a succession of Jewish kings. But though Dr. Henderson refers to a work of Buxtorf, and some Arabic authors on the subject, we very sceptical, at least in regard to the story which he extracts from them. Should Professor Frähn's elaborate investigation reach us, perhaps our unbelief may be cured. The account is curious.

are

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