hand, waiting for the opportunity of presenting it. He was apprehended, and was going to be immediately executed, but the Emperor, having overheard the matter in his pavilion, cried aloud, saying "If the petition be for himself, let him die; if for another, spare his life." Upon inquiry, it was found that the generous soldier prayed for the lives of his two comrades, who had been taken a sleep on the watch. The Emperor nobly forgave them all. Christian soldier! emulate the heathen: and remember thou hast to do with a God who heareth prayer, who never forbade thy approach at any hour, and who "never said to the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain."

The same author observes, that a censure was passed on that Athenian who, in the true spirit of self-love and narrow patriotism, prayed thus-"O Jupiter! rain upon the fields of the Athenians," while he lost sight of the wants of his neighbors. Let not Christians commit the fault which a Pagan reproved. See the widely extended plains on which not a drop of heavenly rain descends; pity five hundred millions perishing by the drought, and implore the Almighty to open the bottles of Heaven, and cause the parched desert to flourish, as the garden of the Lord.

I sincerely rejoice in the revival of a spirit of prayer for the spread of the Gospel, and the salvation of sinners at home and abroad. It is a token for good. I trust it is an evidence of our advancing in grace. "The man who stands upon the ground, cannot look over the next hedge;" and thus the carnal mind is contracted, seeking only "its own;", but grace elevates the soul, and the higher the believer ascends the hill, his prospect is more and more enlarged; he can see the condition of his fellow-men, and by prayer procure blessings for them. Thus he rises, until he partakes of the nature of the heavenly orbs, which shed their benign influences over all the world. PRECATOR.

[From the London EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE.] Letter to Mr. Robert Cowie, a Director of the Missionary Society in London, dated Basil, Nov. 7, 1798.

Honored Brother in Christ,

RECEIVED on the 10th of October, your favor of the 24th of August, with which you was pleased to accompany the letter of the Directors of the English Missionary Society; and both letters were directly communicated to the members of our committee. The contents were of such importance to us, that we held an extraordinary meeting on the 31st of October, wherein the two letters were read, under sensations of the most heartfelt joy and gratitude towards God, and the following resolutions were unanimously passed:

I. To insert your letters, together with a letter of the Directors of the Dutch Missionary Society, and some other missionary accounts, into our journals, for the general information of all the brethren of our society, and to have several hundred copies of them printed separately.

II. To call upon all our brethren in a particular printed address, here inclosed, to join with us in supporting the glorious missionary institutions in England and Holland, by ardent intercession and charitable contribution.

III. To make the beginning of it in the circle of our dear brethren here at Basil, by gathering a mite for that purpose.

Be pleased then to accept the inclosed bill of 121.We know very well how small this sum is, if we consider it in relation to the greatness of your work; but. we know also, that it is a gift of love, offered with a cheerful heart, which you will not disdain to receive, as the Lord looked graciously upon the mite of the widow. Our dear English brethren will look more to the heart, from which the willingness proceeds, than to the gift itself; they will receive with love, what is

given with love; they will see in it a proof and token, how much it is the desire and prayer of their brethren abroad, that Zion may be built.

We felt ourselves particularly honored by the resolution of the general meeting of your venerable society in the month of May, by which you have been pleased to choose the president of our society for the time being, to be one of your directors. But our present situation being such, as to make it necessary and adviscable to use every wise precaution, and to avoid even the shadow of interference in politics, permit us to ask the favor, that all the members of our committee, as one person, as one heart and one soul, may be united to you in the ties of brotherly love, to engage and assist in promoting the great concern of the heathen, as much as lies in their limited power.

As the oldest member of our committee, the Rev. Dr. Herzog, a venerable professor of divinity, above 70 years of age, in whose house we hold our meetings, has undertaken, in a particular letter of his own, to signify to you the sentiments of respect, love and gratitude, which our hearts feel towards the directory of your society-our letter shall be chiefly employed in answering your question, What is the present state of religion in Paris, and other parts of France, as well as in the Netherlands ?

We are not able to give a full and satisfactory account on this subject, as we have no intimate acquaintance at Paris, or in other parts of interior France. Only from our friends and brethren in that country which was formerly called Alsace, and in Montpeillard, we know for certain, that there are, here and there, among the Roman Catholics, but chiefly among the Protestants of those parts, many worshippers of God in spirit and in truth, and living members of the body of Christ. Of these, there are also some faithful ministers in towns and villages, who are not ashamed of the gospel of salvation, and who are also allowed to enjoy the pleasure

of seeing their work to be not in vain in the Lord.Two of them are particularly remarkable.

One is a venerable old man, upwards of 90 years of age, of the

of the appearance of a Patriarch, who, in that advanced period, is still so vigorous and active, that he writes letters and treatises full of the anointing Spirit. The heart of this second Simcon, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and for the speedy dawning of the glorious kingdom of God, was filled with lively joy and hope, at hearing the account of the origin and blessed progress of your Missionary Society. The other is a young, active, and pious man of 27 years of age, the minister of a numerous congregation in Alsace. He was put into prison in the horrible time of Robes pierre, and in danger of his life; but being faithful to his Lord, he was delivered from the jaws of the lion, and led home in triumph by his congregation, where his labor, bestowed on the young and old, is still abundantly blessed.

All that we can say in general of the religious state of France, is this-that, by all accounts, the corruption of religion and of morality in most places of this large country, is great indeed. And this was naturally to be expected. Not to mention other causes, it ap pears, from a recent calculation, that 28,000 clergymen have emigrated from France. There were amongst them undoubtedly many bad and superfluous sensualists; but at the same time it is to be lamented, that many towns, and particularly village congregations, have no religious instruction at all, and are, in a literal sense, flocks without a shepherd. For those clergymen that have taken the oath, have lost the confidence of the people; and those that will not take the oath, are not tolerated. Add to this, that government endeavors to abolish more and more, the Sunday and Christian festivals, and to introduce the celebration of the Decadi. They have not, however, succeeded in this, and many celebrate the Christian festivals with a still greater zeal than before. According to the news

papers, in the year 1797, even at Paris, the memorial days of the suffering, death, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior, were celebrated with a striking conflux and devotion of the people; the temples of reason being empty, and the Christian churches quite full.— We must, however, adore the holy and righteous judgments of the Lord, who has given, by this revolution, a fatal blow to Popery, to the Hierarchy, to superstition, and to the vain ceremonial worship; although it is grievous to observe, that infidelity, still more terrible in its effects, has powerfully raised itself upon the ruins of superstition; and that with the dross also the pure gold has mostly been thrown away. The reign of unbelief, however, will not last long. It is impossible that the heart of man can suffer itself to be deprived of all the pillars of comfort and hope; it must have something to rely on; it feels the want of an Almighty Deliverer and Savior in public and private distress.-What a happy thing would it be, if this sense did bring the people to a living faith in Christ; and there is reason to think, that it will not be quite ineffectual. In many places of France, there appears to be excited a longing desire after the word of God, and Providence finds ways and means to satisfy it. We received but lately the joyful news, that, from French Switzerland, many thousand Bibles, and other edifying Christian writings, have been sent and distributed in France, chiefly in the Southern Provinces, and that there exists a private Society for that very purpose, by the seed of the word of God, to propagate a better religious knowledge in France.

We and our German brethren have had an opportunity, by the frequent marches and quarters of French. troops in our country, to observe, that, in the midst of ignorance, fierceness, and contempt of God and Christ, which, alas! in many is too apparent and striking, there are some still to be found, in whom the sense of religion and Christianity is not entirely extinguished. We have had the satisfaction even to hear