vespers in their season, and ceremonies at every hour, were proclaimed by the ding-dong of the chapel bells; and in these places many kneel before the visible cross, rendering to an idolatrous emblem the worship due only to the Eternal King.

The ministers of superstition assume the guardianship of Thomas the reputed Apostle's grave, and pretend to enrich the pilgrim devotees with his hallowed dust, to be carried to the most distant parts of India; and yet they shew his bones, according to the legend, fabricated almost two centuries since, preserved within a gold shrine. The Jacobite Christians dwelling here, when the Portuguese made their first intruding and usurping encroachments, all agreed in marking out this as the spot where the Apostle had been buried; but they affirmed that the bones had been carried away as relics to Syria; yet they venerated the place where he had rested from his labours; even the surrounding heathen join in this veneration, and gifts are still here offered on the reputed anniversary of his martyrdom. We need not remark how insignificant is the matter of debate, and how alien from the spirit of Christianity, is such superstition. The tradition serves to connect the history of the Syrian Christians with St. Thome, and to shew how their place and privileges have been encroached upon or usurped by the Roman Catholics.

It is affirmed, that the apostle Thomas sailed from Aden, in Arabia, not far distant from the Straits

of Babel-Mandeb, a port now in the possession of the British, and landed at Cranganore, on the western coast of Asia. Heber conjectured that his design had been to visit the Jews, who were settled in India prior to the Christian era, and to labour for their conversion: that he proceeded to the Coromandel coast, travelled to Mileapore, where he received and welcomed the crown of martyrdom. If such were the case, no question can be entertained of his fidelity, and that he endured joyfully the loss of all things, and the sufferings to which he was exposed, for the honour of his " Lord and his God." Yet we are almost disposed to regret that our dependence must be upon the possible correctness of tradition, and that our knowledge must be selected from popular tales. Were we permitted, we could wish that the acts and testimony of the favoured apostles had been the subject of inspired record, which should be handed down for the edification of subsequent generations. But God seeth not as man seeth, nor are his ways as our ways; while the primitive labourers have long since rested from their toils, their works have followed them. In the book of his remembrance are all their sufferings written: and they have a place in the Lamb's book of life; they now rejoice that their names were therein enrolled: for their Lord has granted to him who overcame to sit with Him on His throne, even as He also overcame, and is set down with the Father in His throne. Though no sculptured marble serve as the tablet for a record of their labours; though no pillared monument distinguish the abode of their sleeping dust; though no mausoleum indite the admiration of fellow-men; though history has hung out no escutcheon, emblazoned by the memorials of their heroic achievements; and though fame has surrendered to temporary oblivion deeds which turned the world upside down, their record is on High. The diffusion of Christianity, the existence of the christian churches, the long line of successive christian generations, the triumphs, the conquests of christian principle, are their memorial, their joy, their crown. And the unbelievers who would now witness with contempt the honour and distinction of the fishermen of Galilee, shall be required one day to hear with more attention, than if proclaimed by a thousand tongues, or with an angel's trumpet, their works of faith, their patience of hope, and their labours of love, when through faith they subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, and obtained promises, waxed valiant in fight, overcame through the blood of the Lamb, and came off as conquerors and more than conquerors, through Him who loved them. The Syrian Christians may have been in early days the crown of rejoicing for Thomas, called Didymus; and though the remnant discovered in recent times, as the Christians of St. Thome, have been poor and ignorant, as they were despised and persecuted, a brighter and more glorious era may yet await them; when they shall shine forth as the righteous in the kingdom of their Father, and display again an apostolic purity, and a primitive

simplicity and zeal in the service of their Redeemer, as their Lord and their God.

The creed which these representatives of an ancient line of Christians cherished, was not in conformity with papal decrees, and has with difficulty been squared with the thirty-nine articles of the Anglican episcopacy. Separated from the western world for a thousand years, they were naturally ignorant of many novelties introduced by the councils and decrees of the Lateran; and their conformity with the faith and practice of the first ages, laid them open to the unpardonable guilt of heresy and schism, as estimated by the Church of Rome. "We are christians, and not idolaters," was their expressive reply when required to do homage to the image of the Virgin Mary. They had piously commemorated men reputed as Nestorians in their liturgy, and adhered to the communion of the patriarch of Antioch or Mosul, who used to ordain their metropolitans or bishops. These shepherds were wont to traverse the distant regions, from Syria, and pass by sea to the coast of Malabar, where they were affectionately received. They were charged with addressing their adoration to two persons in Christ under one aspect : but Mosheim explains this word for aspect, barsopa as synonimous with the Greek word prosopon-so that this idea of aspect agrees with our signification of person. The same diligent historian mentions, to their lasting honour, that they were the most careful of all other societies, and successful in avoiding a multitude of superstitious opinions and practices which infected the Greek and Latin Churches. They read the daily lessons in the vernacular tongue, and had no restrictions upon the use of the same language for public prayer. The Jesuits accuse the Syrian clergy of India of practising marriage, and observing only the two sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper : of maintaining only two orders, or names of office in the church, the bishop and deacon, and of refusing to invoke saints, to worship images, or believe in purgatory: they also regarded the title of Mother of God to Mary, as most offensive. The Portuguese dominion of the eastern seas, enabled the Romish emissaries to cut off intercourse between the patriarch and the Syrian Christians: their bishops died, or were carried prisoners to Lisbon. Gibbon represents the metropolitan, or bishop of Angamala, as exercising a jurisdiction over fourteen hundred churches, and a pastoral care of two hundred thousand souls. La Croze states them at fifteen hundred churches, and as many towns and villages. They refused to recognise the pope, and declared they had never heard of him; they asserted the purity and primitive truth of their faith since they came, and their bishops had for thirteen hundred years been sent from the place where the followers of Jesus were first called Christians. In arms, in arts, as well as in virtue, they excelled the other natives, and enjoyed distinctions accorded only to heirs of the crown, or ambassadors besides themselves; their