his faith in Christ.

Additional printers having arrived from India, the printing establishment was considerably in creased and, in the autumn, the Rev. C. H. Thomsen arrived, to commence a Malay Mission (the importance of which had been long urged by Mr. Milne), and applied himself sedulously to that object.

In January 1817, a new range of warehouses and printing-offices was erected, having become necessary from the enlargement of the concern. Mr. Milne's next step was, as had been préviously agreed, to publish a kind of Magazine, called "The Chinese Gleaner." No. I. is dated May 1817, and was printed at the Mission press. It was proposed to be published quarterly, and to contain extracts of the correspondence of the Eastern Missionaries, and miscellaneous notices relative to the philosophy and mythology of the Indo-Chinese nations. This work was calculated to produce the double effect of showing the Chinese, from their own writers, the folly and wickedness of their idolatry, and convincing Europeans of the necessity and importance of the Chinese Mission. The circulation of this work commenced at 500, and increased to 1000 or more monthly. It reached nineteen or twenty Num·bers before Mr. Milne's death.

In June of this year (1817) arrived Mr. Medhurst, as assistant to Mr. Milne in the Chinese Mission; but, within two months after his arrival, the latter, partly for his own health and partly on ac-count of his afflicted partner, who

had gone thither a little before him, sailed for China, where he landed September 3d, and did not return till the following February. During this period some of the Missionary labours were necessarily interrupted, as Mr. Medhurst could not be supposed in so short a time sufficiently qualified to fulfil all the duties of an experienced Missionary, especially in China.

Previous, however, to Mr. Milne's leaving Malacca, he had translated the Book of Joshua; and while in China he translated the Book of Judges. An Exposition of the Lord's Prayer, which had been partly delivered in weekly lectures in a small temple at Malacca, was also here finished; beside which he wrote a tract "On the Folly of Idolatry" Mr. Morrison and his old colleague, Mr. Milne, being now once more brought together, they jointly drew up some regulations for the future conduct of the Ultra-Ganges Mission. A friend having given 4000 Spanish dollars for the express purpose of building an Anglo-Chinese College, they also devoted a spot upon the Missionary premises at Malacca for its erection. Another friend of the cause offered 400 Spanish dollars, as the foundation of a fund for the Widows and Orphans of this Mission, to which each Missionary was to contribute one dollar monthly.

During the same year, Mr. Morrison finished his translations of Ruth and the Book of Psalms; and some progress was made in other books of Scripture: he also translated into Chinese the Morning and Evening Prayers, from the English Common Prayer Book. During this period also, Mr. Morrison revised Mr. Milne's Scriptural translations, and prepared them for the press; and they agreed upon a division between them of the remaining books of the Old Testament.

Mr. Milne, as the junior Missionary, choosing the rest of the historical books, as the more easy, and Mr. Morrison undertaking the books of Solomon and the prophets.

The health of Mr. and Mrs. Milne being considerably improved by the change of climate and the kind attention of their friends, they now returned to their proper station, and landed at Malacca, Feb. 17, 1818. Here they found Mr. Thomsen, who had also returned from a voyage in the December preceding; and Mr. and Mrs. Slater, who had come from England by the way of Java, where Mr. S. had been detained by the Batavian fever. Mr. T. and Mr. M. resumed their respective labours, and Mr. Slater applied to the study of the Chinese language. Sept. 14, three more missionaries, (Mess. Milton, Beightop and Ince) with their wives, arrived from England, two of whom applied to the study of the Chinese, and one to the Malay.

About Michaelmas this year, (1818) Malacca, according to treaty, was restored to the Dutch government; and the mission being recommended to their protection by the English, was received with great kindness. Nov. 10. the foundation was laid of the Anglo-Chinese College, on which occasion both the English and Dutch authorities condescended to attend.

During this year, Mr. Milne got through his translation of the books of Samuel and Kings, and wrote some new tracts and short discourses. A new Chinese school was opened, and Mr. Medhurst took the charge of the school and printing-office. Mr. Milne (as also Mr. Morrison) was honoured with a gratuitous diploma of D.D. from the University of Glasgow.

Feb. 6. 1819. Mrs. Milne laid-in of her last child, named Farquhar. At first she appeared to recover ra

pidly, but soon fell back, and died on March 20, ❝in humble hope (as Dr. Milne expresses it) of eternal salvation through Jesus Christ." An interesting Obituary of this excellent woman may be found in the Evan. Mag. for 1820, p. 13—15.

During the spring and summer of 1819, Dr. Milne finished the historical books of the Old Testament; and on the 25th of November the whole of the Old Testament was completed. The same year a mission was commenced in the Island of Sincapore, in the straits of Malacca, which was conducted by Mr. Milton.

As a proof and specimen of the piety and missionary spirit of Dr. Milne, we give the following extract from a letter written about this time (1820) to a friend in England.

"Our schools prosper; knowledge increases; some hear the word. Ten or fifteen heathen, however, we consider equal to a congregation of several hundreds of professing Christians. The whole Scriptures are now rendered into Chinese. Many thousands of tracts, and other publications, have been widely circulated. missionaries; young men-hard stuMany fields are open. We want dents-flaming souls, to set this dull part of the world on fire, for though we live under the line, the people's hearts. are cold as ice. Spiritual death reigns around. Pray for us, and for the outpouring of the Spirit in UltraGanges India. Though we see not success yet, we faint not-we plough in hope. The Millennium is doubtless approaching: though we shall not see it, we resolve to labour to hasten it on. God has no need of us; but he confers great honour upon us, in suffering so vile and unworthy creatures to have any share in this glorious work. Java, Sincapore and Penang, are all-important fields, both have lately been visited with the for the Chinese and Malay. We Cholera Morbus in these countries, which has carried off multitudes; yet

LETTERS TO A YOUNG PERSON, ON INFIDELITY.

LETTER IV.

My dear Youth,

You have considered, I doubt not with due attention, the evidences of divinity which accompanied the revelation of the Old Testament, given by the ministry of Moses, arising from the miracles which he wrought, or rather, which God wrought by him; and you are now disposed to give full consideration to the evidences which arise from the prophecies contained in the Jewish writings.

That no mere mortal could tell, with absolute certainty, the events which will happen to individuals or to nations, for ages to come, is too obvious and indisputable to need proof. Absolute and unlimited prescience is an attribute of Deity, and a certain portion of that quality appearing in any production shows its author to have been favoured with communications from the divine Fountain of that knowledge.

Among the prophecies contained in the Old Testament, we may particularly mention those which concern the Jewish nation. When Is rael was about to enter Canaan, Moses forewarned them, that if they should imitate the sins of those nations which they were about to dispossess, they should, like them, be cast out of the country; and, rising to animated strains, he foretells their fate in the most awful manner; show ing that, in the horrors of the siege of their capital, women should eat their own children, and that the nation should be outcasts throughout the whole world, and be a byeword and a hissing.

Now the Jews are carrying about with them, through all the earth, those Scriptures which contain the prophecies of their dispersion and miseries; and thus they carry about the proofs of their own wickedness,

which exhibit them as the marks of the arrows of Divine vengeance. Wherever, then, you see a Jew, you see the proof of the truth of his religion.

As that religion was designed to introduce a Messiah and Saviour for the soul, and they have rejected that Saviour, the religion ceases to be, in the hands of the Jew, available for the salvation of his soul. That the Jews have not invented those prophecies we may be sure; for they speak too much against themselves, and clearly support the system of the Christians, which they abhor.

I forbear to enter into the evidences of the inspiration or divinity of the ancient Scriptures, arising from the prophecies concerning Nineveh, the reduction of which to its present state was predicted while it was, as it were, the seat of empire.

While Babylon was sitting as queen, and was the imperial city, the mistress of the earth, the prophets of the Old Testament predicted its present state, that it would be the habitation of dragons.

At the very hour that Tyre was the mart of the earth, and their merchants were princes, enriched by the merchandize of three quarters of the globe, the same prophets foretold that she should be destroyed, and become a naked rock in the sea, just serving for fishermen to spread their nets upon, and dry them in the sun: such is the present state of that far-famed spot.

Of Egypt, the seat of the earliest and most splendid empire, the Old Testament foretold, that it should be reduced to the lowest degradation, to be always a base nation, under a foreign lord.

See the fulfilment of it, in Egypt, subject first to the Persians, then to the Greeks under the Ptolemies, afterwards to the Romans, next to the Saracens, and now to the Mamelukes, - slaves

bought in the market, and from thence raised to be the sovereigns of the country.

While the first great empire, the Babylonian, was yet standing, the prophet Daniel foretold the rise of three others, the Grecian, the Macedonian, and the Roman; and that the last should be broken into the ten kingdoms which now form the European states: all attempts, to form a fifth empire ever since have proved abortive.

The book which thus pourtrayed the state of the world, for ages before the events took place, must have been dictated by the Infinite mind, to whom are known all things from the foundation of the world.

But one thing is remarkable in those predictions, that the Jewish religion predicts ours. This I hope will be seen more fully, when we come to the evidences of the Chris tian religion.

Let us now consider the contents of the Jewish Scriptures, for proof of their coming from God. They describe fully and circumstantially the events they record. This is a clear mark of truth; while the vague generality of Moore's Almanack is a proof of the vanity of its pretensions to occult science. Time, place, and manner are so detailed in the Scriptures, that it is evident the writer was confident of the truth of the statement, and never feared contradiction.

The people who lived at the time the Scriptures were written, must have known whether the things they relate were true or not, such as the crossing of the Jordan, and the fall of the walls of Jericho; and their reception of the writings show that they knew them to be correct.

It was impossible to forge them at any other time than that at which they profess to have been written. Take, for instance, the books of Moses, which declare that they

were ordered to be laid up in the ark as soon as written, and that they were written as soon as some of the most remarkable events recorded in them happened. Now, it was impossible to forge them afterwards, because any man would say, "These books declare that the Deity, by whose order they were written, ordered them also to be laid up, as soon as written, in the ark; and those books have but just been composed, and have not been in the ark from the period of which they speak."

They bear the most striking marks of truth and sincerity, and none of deceit. They tell the faults of their own writers. Moses tells of his passion; and of Aaron, his brother and fellow-ruler's sin; and the faults of their great men, the ancestors of the Jews. At the same time, these writings condemn lying and deceit, and declare that God is a God of. truth, and the punisher of falsehood; so that if they are a deception, the writers condemn themselves to infamy here, and perdition hereafter.

These writings are followed by other histories, which confirm those of the Scriptures, as far as profane histories go.

In addition to this it must be observed, that the laws and religious system of a whole people, and its public documents, are not so easily forged as private papers might be.

The preservation of the Jewish Scriptures show that they are genuine; for, from the conviction of their divine origin and authority, this singular people have numbered not only the words, but the very letters, that they might be able to detect any alteration or omission.

In addition to this, the Samaritans, who hated the Jews, preserve their laws with great care; so that if the Jews wished to alter them they would have been detected by their vigilant foes; and, to crown