2 Q. What has been the nature of the worship paid to these imaginary gods? A. Very foolish, impure and bloody. Q. Wherein is seen the folly and cruelty of heathenism? A. In the infliction of voluntary self-torture, and in the offering of human sacrifices. Q. Can you give some account of the different kinds of self-torture practised by the heathen? A. In some countries, it is a frequent practice to lie and walk on points of sharp iron; to hang suspended by large hooks fastened in the back; to hold the arms over the head until they become withered; to sit for years in the same position; to bore holes in their tongues and sides; and to throw themselves from a high place upon sharp knives. Q. What particulars can you state respecting human sacrifices? A. Infants are often thrown into rivers to be devoured by alligators; parents are left by their children to perish with hunger; women are burnt and buried alive with the dead bodies of their husbands, and multitudes, of all ages, perish by long journeys to idolatrous temples, or are crushed beneath the wheels of idol-cars. Q. What is the object of these cruel practices? A. To obtain the pardon of sin and the favour of the gods. Q. What proof can you give that sincerity in any religion will not insure salvation? A. The Scripture says expressly, "There is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved," but the name of Jesus. Acts. iv. 12. "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Prov. xiv. 12. Q. What are, some of the books which the heathen consider as sacred? A. Among the inhabitants of India, the Shasters and Vedas are the principal. Q. Where does the pagan religion prevail? A. Throughout the greater part of Asia, Africa, America, and some parts of Europe. Q. What is the number of Pagans? A. About five hundred millions. Q. Have we any reason to believe that Heathens and Mahometans will ever become Christians? A. Yes: for it is declared that "All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord." Ps. xxii. 27.—pp. 12, 15. CHAP. 2 exhibits the duty of Christians to spread the Gospel through the world. CHAP. 3 informs us what has been done in discharge of this duty.— This is the most instructive Chapter, and comprises about half of the work. It contains an account of the principal Bible Societies, of the principal Missionary Societies, and of the principal Missionary Stations. The operations of the several Societies are succinctly stated, and the result of those operations in the history of the respective Missionary stations. In this Chapter the answers to the several questions are very properly made shorter and more direct than in most of the other chapters, the nature of whose subjects will not admit of the like brevity. The remaining Chapters treat respectively of what remains to be done; the obligations of children to the heathen; and of the evidence that the Gospel is to be preached to all men. The subject of the last induces us to present it to our readers. THE GOSPEL IS TO BE PREACHED TO ALL MEN. Q. What renders it probable that the great work of evangelizing the hea then will ever be accomplished? A. The aspect of the times, both in christian and in heathen countries. A. The general diffusion of missionary information; the lively sympathy which exists in behalf of the heathen; the increasing liberality in support of Bible and missionary societies; the prevailing spirit of prayer for the coming of Christ's kingdom; and especially the means employed to interest the minds of children in the situation of the heathen. Q. What appearances in unchristianized countries render it probable? A. A readiness among many of the Jews to examine the New Testament; a growing dissatisfaction, among the Mahometans, with their Koran; and the universal anxiety, among the Pagans, for some surer ground of hope for eternity. Q. Will christian nations be willing to make the requisite exertion? A. We have reason to believe they will; since their conviction of duty has become so deep and so universal. Q. Will not Christians become weary in well doing? A. No: ever since missionary operations commenced, which was about forty years ago, their exertions have been constantly and rapidly increasing. The more they have done, the greater ability and readiness has been found, to continue exertion. Q. Can the requisite number of missionaries be furnished? A. Yes: There are now, in christian countries, many thousand pious young men ready to engage in this work; and, doubtless, many more will be raised up and fitted, in answer to the prayers of Christians. Q. May not the sickness and death of missionaries in foreign countries impede the progress of this work? A. They may impede, but cannot stop it. The death of one missionary has been the means of raising up many others to fill his place. Q. Will not the malice of wicked men and devils frustrate the attempts of Christians? A. No: "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision." Ps. ii. 4.-" The gates of hell shall not prevail against the church." Matt. xvi. 18.-"O ye people-take counsel together, and it shall come to nought; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us." Isa. viii. 10. Q. Will not the heathen refuse to receive the gospel? A. The spirit of God shall prepare the way. "Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power." Ps. cx. 3.-" The isles shall wait for his law." Isa. xlii. 4.—“ I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow and shall swear." Isa. xlv. 23. Q. Do not, then, the promises of God render it certain, that the whole world will be evangelized? A. Yes: His truth is pledged to accomplish it; and He will do it in his time. "Though the vision tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come, it will not tarry." Hab. ii. S.--" I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Ps. ii. 8.-"I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people." Rev. xiv. 6.—" All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship before thee." Ps. xxii. 27.-" For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." Hab. ii. 14.—O Zion! "Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. The Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising." Isa. lx. 1, 3. "Behold the measure of the promise fill'd; Bright as the sun, the sacred city shines; Praise is in all her gates; upon her walls, O Sion! an assembly such as earth Saw never; such as Heaven stoops down to see."-pp. 43, 48. The compilers of this work, in their Preface, speak with modesty of its execution. But we feel more inclined to commend the performance than to employ ourselves in pointing out its minuter defects. It is more free from inaccuracies than could have been expected in a work of this description; and evinces the possession of good materials for the compilation, and care in the selection of facts. We unhesitatingly recommend it to the careful perusal of the friend of missions, and especially to the notice of all, whether parents or teachers, who are at any time employed in the religious instruction of youth. We know not how the trifling sum which it costs can be disposed of to better advantage than by putting this little book into the hands of children. Its diminutive size might render an apology necessary for appropriating so much room to the notice of it, did not the importance of its subject, in our view, amply justify every thing that we have said. The Missionary Catechism, it appears, is published by the Yale College Society of Inquiry respecting Missions. Having seen another interesting publication intimately connected with the subject of Missions, The Memoirs of Simeon Wilhelm, put into circulation in this country by the same Society, we have been at some pains to make inquiries in relation to it. The object suggested by its title, we have learned, is effected by the exertions of its members to dispose of such works as are deemed peculiarly favourable to the cause of Missions. Apy profits, therefore, which may accrue from works which they publish themselves, go in aid of their object. Such an association among the pious students in a literary Institution, must have a happy influence upon their own minds, and tend much to the diffusion of a missionary spirit.* Entelligence. FRANCE.-BIBLE SOCIETIES. On Thursday, the 4th of December, 1820, the Protestant Bible Society of Paris held its second Anniversary in the Hall in which the Societies for the Encouragement of National Industry and for Mutual Instruction hold their anniversaries; His Excellency the Marquis de Jau *This work,we understand, is for sale at the Sunday School Depository, No. 59 Fulton-street. court, President, in the chair. After an introductory prayer from the Rev. Mr. Marron, the President addressed the Assembly as follows: "GENTLEMEN-To bring good men into communication with each other, to unite them by the bands of an affecting fraternity, to direct towards the same end their common efforts, and to impress on their labours the venerable seal of religion, such is the fruit of that spirit of association which effects so many prodigies in the country where the first Bible Society was formed. "Already humanity has gathered from it valuable results; information has been extended; the rising generation has received attentions which no one of the preceding generations had enjoyed; nations hitherto plunged in the darkness of idolatry have been brought out of it, and the glorious light of the Gospel begins to spread itself more generally over the universe. "The first impulse given to this effect by the Bible Society of London, found the minds of men disposed to receive it: its example has been imitated; America, Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Russia, Prussia, Sweden and Denmark, have formed in their turns Societies, all the labours of which tend to propagate the Gospel; and this Book of all Communions, offered to the public without note and comment, and in the versions sanctioned by usage, forms among all Christians a new bond of love and good will. "This great mean of approximating men to each other, precious in the eyes of every friend of humanity, is especially so in the eyes of Evangelical Christians; it must be so, above all, in the eyes of the Protestants of France. Disseminated over the whole surface of this vast kingdom, they stand in need of a centre to which they may attach themselves, and an object about which they may rally; their interests and their wishes must be every where the same: and where could they better find this mean of union, Gentlemen, than in the Bible Society formed by your concurrence ? "The word of God was in every age the only authority to which they meant to submit their faith, the only law to which they referred their opinions. "If the Press, incessantly active in our days, republishes works, whose authors have treated neither religion, nor the Divine book from which it emanates, with the respect which is due to them; it is by multiplying, it is by propagating the Holy Scriptures, that Protestant Christians will show how far they are from partaking of those errors. “Indignant at the crimes which fanaticism had committed in the name of religion, great geniuses had branded them with the stamp of reprobation. They have rendered to humanity, to civilization, and even to politics, services the most signal. But if, carried too far by an unreflecting ardour, they have been seen opposing to religion that philosophy which ought never to be separated from it; if too often there has been found in their writings the language of doubt, and even of unbelief, the Protestants, whose cause they have eloquently pleaded in the days of their oppression, ought not the less on that account to disavow a language which never was theirs. "When they claimed that equality of civil rights, and that protection in respect to religion, which they have at length obtained, it was always in the name of the Gospel, whose principles they were supposed to have misconceived; in the name of that Holy Doctrine, which recommends as strongly as reason and nature, the precepts of justice, toleration, and charity. "These claims, as we have just now said, have been listened to under the paternal government of the Bourbons: our Churches revive, our Academies flourish, our Pastors enjoy advantages and a consideration which their Evangelical labours deserve; schools are founded under the shadow of our churches, and our youths find, in the establishment of public instruction which they are enabled to frequent, a religious education conformable to the faith of their fathers. "But while, with joy, with a lively gratitude towards Divine Providence, and towards our own government, we cast a glance over our present situation, we cannot dissemble, that there are still men who find themselves offended with the justice which is rendered to us. Their tactics are nearly the same as those of our ancient persecutors. To assert, that the reformation is on the point of expiring; that Protestantism is approaching its last day; that already in a great part of the Protestant countries, Deism and Socinianism have taken the place of the doctrine of the Reformers; that all the discreet men, who remain in the different communions, are only anxious to re-enter under the power of Rome ;such are their means. Faithful inheritors of the maxims and wishes of their predecessors, they have not forgotten how much evil has been done to the Reformers by publishing, that there existed no longer in France Protestantism, or Protestants. Their attempts will be vain; the wisdom of the laws which rule us, and the Monarch who governs us, are certain pledges of this. Their unfounded declamations will injure us so much the less, as we will not descend into the arena in order to refute them; nor will we so far forget what we owe to ourselves, what we owe to the public repose, as to engage in discussions as interminable as they are unprofitable. "It is by our works, Gentlemen, that it becomes us to answer them. Let us publish, let us disseminate this gospel, whose principles they pretend to accuse us of having misconceived; let us press around this venerable monument of Divine wisdom, the only source whence we profess to derive our information and our faith; let us form around it a close and invincible phalanx; let us call upon all the members of our Communion to use the glorious right of reading it and meditating upon it, of that right which it will be henceforth impossible to wrest from Christians. At our voice let Bible Societies multiply, let them form Branch Societies, and secondary Associations; in a word, let the moment arrive in which there shall be no longer found in France a single cottage inhabited by Protestants, where we have not introduced and recommended the Book of life! "Your zeal has commenced this great work, your perseverance will complete it; the account which is about to be rendered to you of the labours of the year will convince you of the success already obtained, and give you occasion to hope for still further. "It is painful to me, in addressing these words of encouragement to you, Gentlemen, not to see any longer in the midst of you the worthy pastor RABAUT POMIER, one of the honoured censors of your suffrages. He had been a witness, in his youth, of the tribulations of the church of France; in his advanced age he has been a witness of the consolations |