admit that, then perhaps my ances tors are there. They said, 'Yes.' I said, I would not become a Mahomedan without some proof: and I do not see any. They replied, 'It is written, He is come, and he shall come after him, whose name is Mahomed.' Then I looked serious, and asked, where that was written? They said, In the Gospel.' Then we searched the Gospel through, but it was not there. Then they said, It is not written in the Gospel, but in the Koran for the Gospel.' I told them, I don't wish you to prove for the Gospel from the Koran, but to prove for the Gospel from the Gospel. In all my speech with them, and in every thing, I looked to providence; I had no protector but the Lord Jesus. They were civil enough, and we continued every day our conversation. At last they said, 'You are right, and you cannot become a Mahomedan because you have no doubt.' I told them that even the Koran itself spoke of Jesus Christ as God, and that in the resurrection and the day of judgment, he would not be silent like Moses and the prophets, but that he would prove himself the true Messiah, and bring all his followers to enter the kingdom of heaved. Then they wished me to look at the miracles which proved the truth of Mahomedanism. I asked where the miracles were. They wanted me to go to Mahomed's tomb to Mecca. I said, I have no objection to go, but what am I to do with all the Christians in England and Europe? How am I to bring them all to see the miracles that you say are to be seen at Mecca. They then said, they would pray for me, and I told them they were welcome to do so, and for themselves. I then studied the two books of Hafiz and Saadi, and my Mullah who taught me called me unclean, but he did not think my money unclean. After a time I thought it my duty to shew him that I was not unclean, and to make him sit down to eat with me. I did not tell him he was bigoted.

I could not tell him that he was following a false prophet. I said, I am sorry you call me unclean; let me prove to you that I am not. Through the mercy of God, he was convinced of the truth, but through fear of the people, he did not say so. He began to eat and to drink with me, and to sleep in the same apartment. When I was coming away, he said, 'For God's sake take me with you.' But I had not the means, and I could not carry a man eight hundred miles, from Bagdad to Syria. I told him to wait, and he would meet some better opportunity to come away, and to see the light of the Lord. When he came to me in the morning, he would be astonished to see the Bible by my side. He would say, 'Drop_that, and let us begin our lesson.' I told him that the Bible was most important; this must be first attended to. Your missionaries must act on the policy of St. Paul, and they will find their way through the Mahomedans, and be able to introduce Christianity. They are not idolaters; they are not short of education; their literature is extensive; they have great understanding, and to a certain extent they acknowledge the true God. What is, therefore, the duty of Christians? To go and meet, and converse with the Mahomedans. I have always felt for the Mahomedans, and therefore I began to speak for them at home. But I considered that I could no longer do any thing by myself, and therefore that I ought to come to England again, to solicit the benevolent Societies to do something, not only for Syria, but for all parts of the East. I know the means of this country, both from what I have read, and heard from friends. You could raise eight hundred millions to pay for the war, by which you succeeded in all your plans, and why cannot you now raise so much money to print nine hundred millions of copies of the Bible for the use of the population of the whole world?

The Rev. Mr. Cunningham said, They had often met in that hall for the purpose of attempting to redress some of the evils of human nature, and of all the classes of human

beings who were the greatest sufferers, he might mention the natives of Africa as the most ill treated. In mentioning this subject incidentally, it was not his intention to

look at this or that measure, but he was sure if the question were to be broached, there was not a hand in that hall that would not be immediately held up for the emancipation of the blacks. But leaving that subject, he would say that there was something that had been worse treated than the natives were, and that something was no less than the word of God. Of course, the meeting would wish him to prove that assertion, which, without any lengthened trespass on their patience, he should be enabled to do. The word of God had come down from heaven, some refused to take it-they were its enemies, they would not hear it ; but what did its friends do for nearly four hundred years? they buried it, and took the word of man in lieu of it. The Emperor Constantine attached so much importance to it, that he thought fifty copies of the Scriptures a gift worthy the acceptance of a great nation; but what, he repeated, did the friends of the word of God do! What did those fathers of the church, to whom the Right Rev. Prelate, the Bishop of Chester, had so well alluded, in the course of the morning, what did those fathers-or without meaning any disrespect to any portion of the Meeting, those mothers,-those old women of their day, what did they do with the word of God? Did they circulate the Bible amongst the people? Nothing of the kind; they shut it up, laid it aside, and gave their own opinions instead of it. He did not mean to say, that there might not be found amongst the fathers, some learning and some good traits here and there; but, at the same time, he would declare his own opinion, that he knew of no theological work of the present time, which contained half the nonsense that might be found in the ponderous volumes of those fathers; the writers could scarcely be found to agree on almost any point, they were inconsistent with each other, and they were often inconsistent with themselves. He should say, there was one position in which they seemed to be all agreed, and that was in interpreting the passage of the Old Testament, which speaks of the children of God intermarrying with the children of men, to mean, that angels came down from

heaven, and married the daughters of men. These were the volumes which he was asked to take in his arms and give up the Bible, the word which God revealed to men. Some of these Fathers might be placed in classes: one class were the Platonists, who would substitute philosophy for religion; the others were the Allegorists, who held that nothing was to be taken in the Scriptures in its literal sense. The meeting, according to these Fathers, could and did know nothing about the plain meaning of the Scriptures, nor must any one presume to assert the obvious meaning of the plainest passage, until the priest taught them its hidden meaning. This, then, was the kind of food which the Fathers would give them in lieu of the word of God. Then came the dark ages, and the time when Rome usurped the sovereignty of the world; and then, what was done with the word of God? What did the Council of Trent say? It said, that there were two modes of teaching the people; one they were pleased to admit was by the Bible, and the other was by tradition; and here he could not but pause for a moment, and express his sincere thanks and deep gratitude to that Right Rev. prelate, for the zeal and ability with which he had set himself forward against that wicked and dangerous doctrine that would put tradition in the place of the word of God. Truly did he honour him for the assertion of that vital principle, that the religion of this country was the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible. Really, when they found the contrary principle openly asserted, it was time that they should look their difficulties in the face. They were, on occasions like the present, accustomed to hear only the flourish of the trumpets, but they seemed to forget that the battle was to be fought, and the victory to be won. He liked in any kind of contest to have to deal with an open enemy. He then saw what he had to encounter, and could adapt his resources accordingly; but what he feared in the contest to which he alluded was, that insidious churchmanship which, under the guise of friendship, would put the Bible out of the world, and take the Fathers in lieu of it. He was argu

ing on a point the other day, and his opponent said, 'Oh, if you argue from the Bible alone, I don't wonder at the conclusion to which you come; if you argue with lean and scanty notices of God's truth, I do not expect you to agree with me.' However be might feel at hearing such a statement, it was throwing off the mask, and had at least the merit of candour. But would such language, or mode of arguing, have any effect on that mecting? Would it not rather induce them to take their Bibles, clasp them to their

bosoms, or lay them on the altar of this Society, which had guaranteed its estimate of their value, by its exertions in circulating them throughout the world? It was in that feeling that he attended here to-day, and he would exhort the meeting, as they valued their eternal salvation, not to allow themselves to be seduced from the truth: he would exhort them to take the word of God, and be guided by its unerring declarations, and they would not depart from it in time or eternity.

"Rectory, Hornsey,
April 1838.

"Sir, I take the liberty of requesting to know, whether you consider it to be the duty of a registrar of births and deaths, to go to any house or tenement where a death may have occurred within his district, upon receiving information thereof, and being requested to do so, in order to register the said death, or whether he has the power of requiring some person who was present at the death to come to him for that purpose.

"I also will thank you to inform me, whether a registrar is authorized to fix certain hours for the performance of his duties, and can refuse to register any death, or to deliver a certificate that he has done so to the undertaker or other person having charge of the funeral, at any hour of the day at which he may be applied to.

"RICHARD HARVEY.

"General Registry Office,

20th April, 1838.

"Rev. Sir,-In reply to your letter of the 18th instant, I am directed by the Registrar-General to inform you, that it is the duty of the registrar to go to any house or tenement within his district in which a birth or death has occurred, and there register the same, on the information of some qualified informant; but he is not authorized to summon parties to his own residence, or any other specified place for the purpose, nor to fix certain hours for the performance of his duties.

"If applied to, he is bound to register a death at all reasonable times in the daytime, and to give a certificate of registry thereof immediately afterwards, if required, pursuant to section 27 of the Registration Act. "THOMAS MANN,

In addition to his public engagements, Archbishop Usher diligently applied himself to his private studies, and published at different times his Answer to the challenge of Meilorse the Jesuit'—a

History of the learned monk Gotteschalcus;'- A treatise upon the tenets of the ancient Irish, Northern, Scottish, and British churches; '-A collection of ancient letters from Irish bishops and clergy, and a sermon entitled

Immanuel, or the mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God.' The following extracts from this sermon may illustrate the archbishop's style of preaching:

'How dangerous a matter it is to be at odds with God, old Eli sheweth by this main argument: If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him; but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall plead or entreat for him?' And Job, before him,. He is not a man as I am, that I should answer him, and we should come together in judgment: neither is there any days-man,' or umpire,

betwixt us, that may lay his hands upon us both.' If this general should admit no manner of exception, then were we in a woful case, and had cause to weep much more than St. John did in the Revelation: when none was found, in heaven nor in earth, nor under the earth, that was able to JULY 1838.

open the book' which he saw in the right hand of him that sat upon the throne, neither to look thereon.' But as St. John was desired then to refrain his weeping, because the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, had prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof:' so he himself elsewhere giveth the like comfort unto all of us in particular; If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.'

For as there is one God, so is there' one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all;' and who, in discharge of this his office of mediation, as the only fit umpire to take up this controversy, was to lay his hand as well upon God, the party so highly offended, as upon man, the party basely offending. In things concerning God, the priesthood of our Mediator is exercised. For every high priest is taken from among men, and ordained for men in things pertaining to God.' The parts of his priestly function are two,satisfaction and intercession; the former whereof giveth contentment to God's justice; the latter soliciteth his mercy, for the application of this benefit to the children

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