in divine grace, to live in love with all christians of every denomination. I will be more careful to refrain from all expressions of reproach and censure toward those who may differ from me. I will endeavor to lessen that shyness, and moderate those jealousies and aversions, which prevail among christians of different sects; and, especially, will I do this among my people. In my preaching, conversation, and example, I will more cautiously avoid exciting and cherishing suspicions and prejudices. Convinced that the scriptures are a complete and the best formulary of faith, as well as duty, I will endeavor that they shall constitute the confession of faith for admission to the church. To those who may treat me with neglect and unkindness, I will show meekness and moderation, and I will never revile any who revile In my ministerial functions, I will study more attentively the wants of my people, and faith

me.

fully apply, according to my best discretion, the truths adapted to their case. In addresses to the divine throne, I will use no party words and expressions, will avoid all wrath and disputings, remembering that prayer is no proper occasion to teach doubtful opinions, or to show dislike or excite animosity towards fellow christians. I will endeavor so to conduct the devotional exercises of the sanctuary, that all may join as with one mouth and one voice. Considering that the time is short, that soon 1 must follow these who have gone to the bar of judgment, I will be more prayerful, studious, and diligent, and will more faithfully and zealously endeavor to promote the temper and virtues of the gospel in myself and others. While I follow them,who,through faith and patience, inherit the promises, I will especially look to Jesus, my great forerunner, and patiently run the race set before me. CLERICUS.

apprehensive that they shall have no children they promise that if five should be granted them, the fifth shall be devoted to the Ganges.

In 1801 some Europeans witnessed these sacrifices, at which they supposed 3000 natives were present. They saw eleven men, women, and boys, thus destroyed. One boy of about 12 years of age made his escape the first time he was cast into the river by swimming, but he was again seized by his own parents

and committed to destruction. One of the Europeans asked a Fakeer why so many were cast into the river. He answered, that the head Fakeer had ordered it for the prosperity of their respective families.

In 1812 the British Government in India gave a check to the practice of sacrificing children by a law, which rendered those, who aided in forcing any individual to become a victim to this superstition, liable to punishment as murderers. But the custom for aged people voluntarily to sacrifice themselves, was held so sacred by the Hindooshad been of so great antiquity, and was thought to be so important in relation to their future happiness, that the government forbore to pass any law to prevent the continuance of the custom. The government found

on examination, that the sacrifice of children was not enjoined by their sacred books, and that the voluntary sacrifice of the aged was sanctioned in these books; they therefore abolished the one and not the other. If the other shall ever be abolished, it will probably be done by the influence of the gospel.

ty

See Evan. Mag. p. 423. Are we amazed at the stupidiof the Hindoos? Why so quicksighted to see the faults of heathens, and so blind to our own? Is it a greater evil to offer ten human beings in sacrifice to the river Ganges, than to offer ten thousand to intoxicating li quors and the idols ambition, revenge, and false principles of honor? Let us first cast the beam out of our own eye, abandon our own wicked customs, and then do all we can to reform others.

A GENTLEMAN travelling some years ago in England, called at the house of a friend. A young minister was there, who was just going out to preach in the neighborhood. The good lady kindly offered him a glass of spirits, which he accepted. An elderly man who was present thus addressed the preacher: "My young friend, let me offer you a word of advice respecting the use of liquors. There was a time when I was as acceptable a preacher perhaps as you now may be; but by too frequently accepting the well designed favors of my friends, I contracted a habit of drinking, so that now I never go to bed so

ber, if I can get liquor. I am indeed just as miserable as a creature can be on this side hell.”. About two years after the traveller called again-inquired for the unhappy man, but his intemperance had brought him to the grave.

This account may be a useful admonition not only to ministers, but to men of every class; and particularly to men whose business calls them frequently into the way of similar temptations. Many persons of amiable characters, useful talents, and temperate habits while young, have been ruined after entering on public business, by indulging themselves

in a frequent use of intoxicating spirits. The mere sight of one thus ruined, we might hope would have a salutary effect on every beholder. But when such instances are frequent in society, like other common events, they are little regarded. A habit, when once formed, is not easily overcome, and no vicious habit is perhaps less frequently conquered than that of intemperance. Let it be duly considered, how

many valuable men have ruined their health, wasted their property, reduced their families to poverty and woe, destroyed their characters, and shortened their days, by this one vice; and who that is not already in the habit, will not tremble at the thought of becoming a slave to his appetite! Let him that thinks he standeth take heed lest he fall. Presumption in this case often proves fatal

"WITH gratitude to God and the British nation, the Committee presents itself for the fourth time before a liberal public. Its office on this occasion, though still painful, will not be unmixed with duties of a pleasing nature. It will have to record numerous authentic documents, selected from its correspondence of the application of the funds entrusted to its care. Germany, delivered from the horrors of war, is yet deeply involved in its oppressive consequences. The sums hitherto received, amount to £88,700-the grants to 83,100.❞

The Report next gives a particular account of the distributions of the funds, in Hamburgh, Hanover, Saxony, Silesia, Prussia, and Lusatia.

In this Report we have various extracts of letters from magistrates and clergymen on the continent; some of them expressing the deplorable state to which the inhabitants are reduced, and others acknowledging with the most grateful sentiments, the benefac tions which had been received from Great Britain. From a large number the following have been selected:

tween 3 and 4000 clergymen, who generally speaking, distinguish themselves by their literary attainments, their evangelical spirit and loyalty. The campaign of last year has almost entirely ruined two thirds of this class. They were first greatly exhausted by almost constant and oppressive quartering of troops; and when in September and October last, the theatre of the war was almost entirely confined to Saxony, the clergymen lost nearly every thing which had been left; their harvest was consumed, their stores destroyed, their habitations plundered, their books burnt, their fruit trees cut down, and their furniture spoiled. Some worthy old men, who dared to resist the ill treatment of their wives and daughters, were killed, and others obliged to make their escape to the forests, completely stripped. After the battle near Leipsic, a nervous fever rapidly spread through the villages, which proved so destructive, that in many church yards, no room was left for the great number of corpses; deep holes were dug for them in barns and gardens. In some villages scarcely an inhabitant was left; and in the district of Dresden alone, 500 orphans are counted, in whose behalf the parish ministers must make an appeal to

public charity. The peasant and the citizen may perhaps soon procure, in some degree, the means of subsistence: but the unfortunate clergymen are entirely impoverished, oppressed with debts, weighed down by grief and sorrow, and without prospect of income for several years to come. No class of the sufferers seems more deserving of a share in British generosity than the Saxon clergy.

Extract of an appeal to the benevolent in behalf of suffering humanity in the Principality of Fulda.

No imagination is sufficiently lively to conceive the misery spread every where by the flying French army, on their retreat. The nearer they approached the borders of Germany, the more furious their excesses, the more relaxed their discipline. There is no need for a guide to find the road from Leipsic to Frankfort. On both sides of this long road of blood, all lies wildly mixed; broken carriages, clothing of all kinds, feathers of ripped-up beds,broken utensils, fallen horses, and dead soldiers, deformed by the torments of death.-Most of the houses in the villages and suburbs on this road, have not only been entirely plundered, but deprived of all timber and reduced to shells. Many have been burnt to the ground, and the beautiful village Buttlar, on the Ulster, is entirely in ashes.-Its inhabitants, brought to beggary in a few hours, stand there with grief imprinted on their faces, and raise in despair their hands to heaven. Already a whole month has elapsed since those days of terror; yet no human being, no domestic animal, no poultry, nay, not even a sparrow was to be met with; only ravens in abundance, feeding on the corpses, were seen. Since then some human beings with the remain der of the cattle have returned to their ruined dwellings; but both carrying with them the seeds of the most dreadful maladies. Many places in Fulda have since lost the tenth, nay the sev enth part of their whole population, and likewise their remaining cattle, through those maladies; and yet no end is to be seen of this inexpressible

misery. Many villages are threatened with entire depopulation. Nothing remains but an appeal for assistance to the benevolent.

From the Prince of Anhault.

Dessau, March 31, 1814. You may easily imagine, gentlemen, how welcome this aid is, when I frankly confess to you that of late I have been deprived of all means to relieve the unfortunate. This is the more painful to me, as during my 50 years' endeavour to see my people hapру, I never had greater occasion to relieve them than at present, when I am rendered incapable of doing it. I therefore hasten to fulfil the duties of expressing my most cordial thanks for this proof of the noble sentiments that characterize the English nation. Be assured, gentlemen, that the distribution of your benevolent donation shall be made according to your intention, in the most conscientious manner.May God bless you all for your benevolence! This is the most ardent wish of my thankful heart. With everlasting gratitude and profound esteem, I remain gentlemen, &c. &c.

The PRINCE OF ANHAULT.

From Mr. Hornby to R. H. Mar-
ten, Esq.

London, May 5, 1814. I arrived here last Tuesday, and during my tour through some parts of Germany and Holstein, I have inquired to what a degree your benevolent proceedings have alleviated the miseries of the late war. The instances are numberless and most gratifying. I have had at Lubeck particular intercourse with the Rev. Mr. Geibel, Mrs. Pauly and the Burgomaster Mr. Overbeck; and all give me the fullest assurances that your benevolent intervention has saved hundreds. These poor, unhappy objects, bereft of every thing, nay in many instances half naked, without discrimination of age or sex, turned out in the most inclement season; their house and yard pillaged and burning at their backs; have literally crawled into Lubeck, and thrown themselves at the doors of several inhabitants, exhausted and imploring immediate re

lief. Your benevolent provision met almost all exigences. With the means supplied through your Committee, hundreds have been put into comfortable beds, nursed with wholesome food, clothed warmly, and life preserved, which a few hours, in many instances, would inevitably have extinguished. I have witnessed the most sincere testimonies to individual and public gratitude.

By accounts contained in the Report of the Committee it appears that Lubeck was appointed as a city of ref. uge for the exiles from Hamburgh; that 4390 persons, in distressing circumstances, were provided for by a committee in Lubeck, "who for the moment saved their lives." In the second report of the Lubeck committee, it is stated-"In the beginning of Feb. ruary we had more sick than healthy in the general receptacles, and the mortality became every day greater."

Who can read these accounts of distress, occasioned by war, and not adore the mercy by which this region has been preserved from similar scenes of woe! Or who can refuse to pray, that the days of vengeance may be shortened, and the time speedily commence, when wars shall cease to the ends of the earth?

"Religious Tract Society" in
Great Britain.

WE have been favored with the fifteenth Report of the Committee of this Society. It gives a most animat. ing account of the prosperity and usefulness of the institution. It appears from the report that in May 1812, the Parent society was aided by 54 Auxiliary societies. The publications of the society had been sent as messengers of the gospel of peace into every quarter of the globe; where in many instances they had been not only thankfully received, but had evidently produced most important effects: especially by promoting a desire to obtain the holy scriptures.

The committee have caused a selection of tracts to be printed, with cuts on one side of the sheet, to be affixed

on the walls of cottages, manufactories, public houses, ships, and other suitable places.

The Evangelical society of Stockholm continues with unabated zeal the distribution of religious tracts. About 142,000 tracts have been distributed in the Swedish language.

At the solicitation of pious friends in Russia and Holstein, the cominittee has forwarded a supply of tracts for distribution to the prisoners of war in the Russian empire. Fourteen of the tracts of this society have been translated into the Russian language by a pious and noble lady, who has had six of them printed and circulated chiefly at her own expense.

After taking a survey of the increasing circulation of tracts in the Russian empire, the committee observe to the society:-"The names of Petersburg and Moscow will not be less known in a religious than in a political history. The spirit of the Bible Society shed its blessings over Russia, even when Moscow was in flames; and the tracts which issued from your depository, have enlightened and consoled its inhabitants amidst the desolation of their city."

Several letters, lately received from Germany and Switzerland, contain the pleasing information, that the religious tracts have been extensively circulated among both Catholics and Protestants. The extraordinary distresses which many thousands in various parts of Germany and Switzerland experienced in the course of the last winter, have led numbers to serious reflections, which have been cherished, strengthened and increased by the religious tracts put into their hands. Sick and wounded soldiers have been particularly attended to.

The character of the tracts is thus described in the report:

"A genuine religious Tract, adapt. ed to the purposes of your society, is a composition which concentrates the whole practical spirit of the Bible into the compass of a few pages. It may address the reader in the form of precept, or narrative; of imaginary or authenticated facts. But it is ever clothed in the garb of holy sobriety.