heart, and made me willing to devote myself, soul and body, to God for ever. 66 one Having an earnest desire of devoting myself to God, I was encouraged to do so in the way of a personal covenant. I found this method of dedication recommended in Guthrie's Trial of a Saving Interest in Christ. Judging this plan agreeable to the language of the prophet, that " shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob," &c. I determined to adopt it; and having retired to a place surrounded by hills on every side, I professed to choose the Lord as my God, Father, Saviour, and everlasting portion; and to offer up myself to his service, to be ruled, sanctified, and saved by him. This was followed by much peace and happiness of mind, with earnest desires to be holy, with a determination to cast in my lot among the despised followers of the Lamb, and with a concern for the salvation of immortal souls. "For two years I continued endeavouring to follow the Lord Jesus, and to keep a conscience void of offence towards God, and towards all men. Soon after this I renewed my dedication to God, wrote it down, and subscribed with my hand unto the Lord." A year after, I was received as a member of the church of Christ at Huntly. Since that, to the present time, (1812) I have passed through many exercises of mind, and have had every day to lament, that I carry about with me "a body of sin and death." I have had many doubts and fears about my salvation. Many have been my backslidings; but I have endeavoured to look to Jesus alone for pardon and salvation; and though I have often, through the power of temptation and unbelief, been ready to cast away my confidence, and say, "there is no hope;" yet, by the help of God, I continue to this day." My attainments in holiness have been, alas! few and small, this is the greatest burden of my soul from day to day: and, if I deceive not myself, there is nothing in the universe that I so much desire as holiness of heart and life-as conformity to Jesus in all things. I look on myself this evening as the chief of sinners, and place my whole dependence for a complete salvation, on the righteousness and Spirit of Christ. O may I "be found in Him at lastnot having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing." In the farther progress of the Ordination Service, on being asked what "induced " him to devote himself to the work of a Missionary, Mr. M. replied, when I say, that I do not engage "I trust I speak the truth in. ciency for it, nor from any notion it from any idea of my own suffithat I have had an extraordinary call, nor from any hope that I have of ease or aggrandizement in the world." In explaining what he meant by "an extraordinary call," he says, "I neither heard any voice calling me to go to the heathen; nor had Ĩ ever any dream that seemed to intimate my duty in this respect; nor did ever any particular passage of Scripture come with peculiar force to my mind, from which I could gather that I ought to undertake this work. No. If these things are necessary to constitute a call, then I am not called." But the method which Mr. M. took to satisfy his mind upon the subject, was so rational and worthy of imitation, that we hope we shall render a service to the missionary cause, as well as gratify other inquiring minds, by stating his conduct on this occasion in his own words. "The means I used in this perplexed state were prayer, consultation with Christian friends, and upplication to the Missionary Society. I set apart sometimes a day, sometimes part of a day, as circumstances permitted, as in the presence of God, to consider the nature and importance of this work, to examine my motives, and to solicit divine direction. I often and earnestly prayed that God would hedge up my way, and not suffer me to go unless he would go with me; and I said, "Here I am thou, Lord, hast a cause to promote among men-thou canst promote it without me, but I am willing to go any where, and do any work that relates to the coming of thy kingdom in the world, if thou wilt make my way plain before me; but if thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence." "Consultation with Christian friends was another means which I used. There were some difficulties in the way, arising from various circumstances; but the general voice was, "that application should be made to the Missionary Society on my behalf;" which was done by the Rev. Messrs. Morrison, of Huntly, and Philip, of Aberdeen. The result was, that a Committee of Ministers at Aberdeen was appointed to converse with me, and determine as they judged proper. "Having laid before me the parts of the work, and all things connected with it, they gave me a month longer to consider, and furnished me with further means of information. Dur ing that time I betook myself again to prayer, read the Missionary Transactions, the Life of David Brainerd and of Samuel Pearce. An Address to Young Men, in the Evangelical Magazine for April, 1805, I found of much service. "The conclusion to which my mind was brought was, as the Society wants missionaries, and as my earnest desire is to serve the interests of the church of God, I offer my services to them, willing to go forth to the ends of the earth, and to employ such talents as I possess, or may acquire, for the propagation of the gospel. This, Sir, was the substance of what I then wrote to the Committee at Aberdeen, who immediately sent word to me, to prepare to come to England, which I did; and have gone through the regular course of studies at Gosport, under the care of the Rev. David Bogue, my venerable tutor, to have sat under whom I consider as one of the greatest blessings of my life." After a few more questions, the ordination proceeded in the manner usual among Dissenters. His vene rable Tutor offered the ordination prayer, and Mr. Bennett, now of Rotherham, gave the charge from those appropriate words, "An ambassador is sent to the heathen.' Jer. xlix. 14. Other ministers engaged in prayer, &c. " Mr. Morrison having long solicited a colleague in China, the Directors proposed that station to Mr. Milne, who received the intimation with some surprise and trembling, but resigned himself into their hands. In the mean time he formed a conjugal relation with a young lady in the north of Scotland, and they sailed together. Sept. 4, 1812, from Portsmouth, for the Cape of Good Hope. At the Cape they met with J. H. Harrington, Esq. who was there on a visit with his lady. From these they received great kindness, and next sailed for the Mauritius, where he stopped to collect some information for the Missionary Society, relative to Madagascar, which is inserted in No. V. of the Appendix to Mr. Campbell's first Travels. July 4, 1813, they arrived safely at Macao, and were cordially received by Mr. and Mrs. Morrison. Here he commenced immediately the study of the Chinese language; but on the second or third day after he began, he received a verbal order from the then Portuguese Governor, to leave the island in eight days, which was followed by another shortly after, to go on board a vessel then about to leave the port, Remonstrances were made, and seconded by several gentlemen in the English factory, but in vain. The order was peremptory and must be obeyed; the Governor not acting from any personal motives, but, as was understood, under the influence of the Catholic clergy, who were alarmed at the arrival of a Protestant missionary, to whom they could show no indulgence, notwithstanding, at the same 7 time a great number of their own body were so hospitably entertain ed, and even kindly fostered in the heart of England. Leaving Mrs. Milne (who was permitted to remain) with some kind friends, Mr. Milne went in a small boat to Canton, where he remained the following season; but he was able to make but little progress till Mr. Morrison also removed to Canton, when under his judicious and kind instructions, and devoting his whole time to the language, he made a much more rapid progress; and on the Sabbath preached in his own hired house to such Europeans as thought proper to attend, as Mr. Morrison had before done in Macao; the Chinese never objecting to foreigners praetising their own religion, but rather despising those who have no religion of their own. On this occasion Mr. Milne remarks the duty of foreign nations, especially the English and Americans, to support a resident minister (not a missionary) in places where many of them reside for four or five months in the year without an individual to perform for them those offices of Christian kindness, which are attached to the ministerial profession. Mr. Morrison having by his individual labours brought the Chinese translation of the New Testament nearly to a close, it was completed and revised in the end of 1813. As Mr. Milne could not remain in Canton throughout the year, without danger of attracting the notice of the Chinese government, it was judged advisable for him to make a tour through the chief settlements of the Malay Archipelago, and circulate New Testaments and tracts. For this purpose, it was resolved to print 2000 Testaments, 10,000 Tracts, and 5000 Catechisms. Of these when completed, the greater part were placed under Mr. Milne's care for distribution in his journey. Leav ing his family under the care of his kind friends, Mr. and Mrs. Morrison, he went on board the ship "James Drummond," bound to Java, by way of Banca. On board this vessel were 450 Chinese emigrants, who landed at the latter place, where they hoped to mend their fortunes. Among these he dispersed twenty-five of the first New Testament ever perhaps completed in that language, and a good number of religious tracts. At Banea also, where many Chinese are employed in the tin mines, were distributed Tracts and Testaments, and others left in care of the British Resident, who treated Mr. Milne with great kindness. On the 10th of March, 1814, Mr. Milne arrived at Batavia, where, after lodging above a fortnight at one of the towns of that unhealthy city, by the kindness of the government he procured lodgings at a little distance from the town, and in the neighbourhood of Professor Ross, of the Dutch reformed Church, and Mr. W. Rohinson, a member of the Baptist Mission in India. Having letters of introduction to Governor Raffles, he furnished him with means of travelling through the island at the expense of Government, and gave him letters to the residents and principal British officers, and native princes, in the settlements through which he had to pass, and who all rendered him every assistance that he desired. Before leaving the island, he sent round by sea several boxes of books to the chief eastern ports, and took some large packages with him in the carriage in which he travelled, for distribution on the road. The Dutch Christians in Batavia treated Mr. Milne with great kindness, and gave him encouragement to hope that some of them, at least, would second bis endeavours. August 4, 1814, Mr. Milne left Java, arrived at Malacca on the 11th, and on the 5th of September again reached China, and was in much mercy restored to his family and friends. (To be concluded in our next.) LETTERS TO A YOUNG PERSON, It is, however, equally true, that the Jewish scriptures are not confronted by any contemporary testimony. For, while the Christian Scriptures are controverted by infidel writers, (the philosophers of those times when the New Testament was written, and we are there. fore obliged to examine the controversy with Celsus and others,) the writings of Moses experienced no such contradiction, for this sufficient reason, that no writings in existence came near their date by many cen On the Evidence of the Jewish Religion. turies. HOPING that you have not merely read, but mused deeply over the subjects of my two former Letters, (for Christianity dreads nothing but depraved passions and superficial thinking) I proceed to lay before you a hasty outline of the evidence of the religion revealed in the Old Testament; for this, as the elder of the two dispensations by which a written revelation was given to man, demands our first attention. In behalf of the Jewish religion we might plead prescription; for there is no religion in the world so old, by many ages; and therefore whatever now rises up and claims attention, may justly be called upon to show its superiority and its claim to supersede this, which is already in possession of our faith. It would be the more fair to put in and main tain this plea; because, in consequence of the high antiquity of this religion, carrying it up prior to all written records but its own, it has been objected, that it is not supported by any contemporary testimony. But, how should that writing which is older, by hundreds of years, than any other in the world, have the concurrent testimony of those who wrote at the same time? We might as well ask for the evidence of some of Adam's contemporaries, to prove that he was the first man. In proportion, however, as other records do come near to the age of the first written revelation, they confirm it, by giving hints of the same great facts which it records, and showing a state of society, which proves the world to be about the same age as is assigned to it by the sacred writers. The reasonableness of its history of the world furnishes an argument in favour of the Mosaic revelation. The Bible gives the first, and, I might say, the only rational account of the creation of all things, and especially of man. That history which the Greeks and Romans gave, and is most fully and elegantly unfolded by Ovid in his Metamorphoses, is manifestly taken from the revelation given to man in the book of Genesis; which is older by thousands of years. This, then, is the only record by which we know our original condition, and our present fallen state, which it so much concerns us to know, that every one who believes in a benevolent Deity, friendly to man, must attribute this discovery to his kindness and care. And, indeed, who else could tell us what was done five days before the first man was formed? The same Scriptures are the only original records of the flood, of which there are so abundant evi dences in the globe, and of which we could give no account, if the Scriptures had not handed down to us the history. The same may be said of the formation of the Lake of Sodom ; that singular body of waters, which all travellers in those parts describe. Nor is it less true, that by the Bible alone we are able to make any thing of that unique people the Jews. So singular is that people, and so unaccountable on any ordinary principles, that if the nation were not still in existence, infidels would say, "There never was such a people, and never could have been." Indeed, the thorough Deist, who is determined to cling to his unbelief, starts at the mention of the Jews as at the sight of a ghost, knowing that this is an untractable spirit, which he cannot lay by any spell or enchantment that he can command. But let us now consider the miracles by which the religion of the Old Testament was proved divine. These were such that they could never have obtained credit, if not true. They contain the four following criteria, or characters of truth, which Leslie has placed in so strong a light:-1. They were such things as men's eyes and ears could judge of:-2. They were not done in a corner, but wrought before a whole nation :-3. They have been commemorated by public acts and monuments:-4. These commemorations commenced from the very time the miracles are said to have been wrought. With regard to the first of these signs of truth; the Jewish dispensation was proved divine by mira eles of which men's senses could judge. The dividing of the Red Sea was not like the supposed miracle of transubstantiation; for every one could see and know whether the waters were divided, leaving a dry path, and whether he walked through or not. All could see whether manna covered the ground of a morning or not, and whether they ate of it or not. As to the second sign of truth: these miracles were not done in a corner, as many pretended miracles were, but from their very nature must have been in public, before all the people. As, for instance, the dividing of the Red Sea and of the Jordan; the giving of the law on Mount Sinai, the descent of the manna, and the fetching of water from the rock. When the false Messiah, Barchochebas, pretended to divide the sea for his followers, it led to his own confusion and destruction; and when the French prophets, in London, pretended to raise the dead, they were properly allowed to try in public, in St. Paul's Church-yard, and it ended in their exposure, so that their sect died away. The third sign of truth is, that these miraculous events have been kept in remembrance by public actions. The passover, a feast which the Jews keep to this day, is a commemoration of their miraculous coming out of Egypt; the feast of tabernacles, which they still observe, celebrates their forty years' abode in tents or booths, in the desert. Just in the same manner, the revolution under king William is annually celebrated in our own country. Lastly, these public commemorations commenced from the very time the miraculous events happened. If there had been no revolution under king William, it is manifest it never could have been commemorated. The passover was ordered to be kept from the time of the Exodus, or the departure from Egypt, and that it never could have been if there had been no such departure; nor could it have been in |