His

to search the Scriptures. This led to reflection; and he soon perceived that he was writing for victory and fame, not truth; for that the Bible upheld the doctrines of his opponent and falsified his own. mind was too candid to hesitate; from that moment he resolved to quit the Maronites and to embrace the Protestant faith. But this could not be done with impunity. The Patriarch heard of his change of religion, and despatched a priest to summon him to the convent of Der Alma, under a promise of providing for him. On his arrival, he was examined as to his tenets, and pronounced a heretic. Asaad relates, that when he declared his senti-ments,' such a tumult and storm were excited in the company, that they seemed to be intent on overcoming him by dint of vociferation, rather than by argument, and on drowning his voice, rather than understanding his opinions.' The Bishop of Beyrout, who was sent for to discuss with him, after a conversation, in which Asaad refuted all his reasoning in favour of the Romish church, concluded by saying, 'You are possessed of a devil.' Enraged to the highest degree, the prelate entreated the patriarch not to suffer the delinquent to return to his diocese: while, with the bitterest anger, he reviled Asaad, saying, 'If you go among my people again, I will send and take your life, though it be in the bosom of your own family.'

6

Finding that his enemies were resolved to detain him a prisoner, though no attempt had as yet been made to confine him, the young convert determined to escape from their hands, and fled by night to Beyrout, where he was joyfully received by the missionaries. A few days after his uncle and three brothers visited him, and with many taunts and reproaches declared him to be mad. They tried to induce him to return home with them, but he refused; and such was the rage with which they were filled, that his elder brother, calling him aside, said, 'Even if the Patriarch and the Emir should do you no harm, if they make no attempt on your life, be assured we ourselves will do the work, so take heed to yourself accordingly.'

His mother next came to beseech

him to renounce his new opinions and accompany her home. In the first interview she was unsuccessful; but finally Asaad was persuaded to revisit the paternal roof. Here he suffered greatly; his brother tore in pieces his Bible and all his other books; and at length, in spite of many earnest entreaties, carried him by force to the Patriarch, who, on his arrival at Kanobin, caused him to be kept in close confinement in chains, and daily beaten.' The great cause of complaint against him was, that he refused to worship either pictures or the Virgin Mary.'

From this time the history of the persecuted Asaad was known only from an account written by a young sheik of Tripoli, who was much interested in his fate, and who received the following particulars from a priest, a relative of his own, belonging to the convent at Kanobin. After repeated discussions, during which Asaad was always reviled and beaten, he was put into confinement. Four times he contrived to effect an escape, but being ignorant of the road, he was on each occasion discovered and brought back. After the third ineffectual effort, he was for three successive days subjected by order of the Patriarch to the bastinado, then put in chains, and limited to a scanty allowance of food. In this condition he remained til his strength was much reduced, when he entreated his persecutors to have pity on him and open the doors of his prison. Some of the monks, moved by his supplications, pleaded for, and received permission to release him. After this Asaad once more made an effort to regain his liberty, but being apprehended and brought back, he was loaded with chains, cast into a dark filthy room, and bastinadoed every day for eight days, sometimes fainting under the operation, till he was near death. He was then left in his misery; he had a thin mat, the door of his prison was filled up with stone and mortar, and his food, six thin cakes of bread a day, and a single cup of water, were passed through a small loophole.' From this time he continued a prisoner. All the cruelty and torture he endured through a period of six years, failed to shake

6

his faith, and he was enabled to bear his sufferings with singular meekness and constancy, till death emancipated him from the fiend-like tyranny of man, and united him to

ance.

in its true light-unreasonable, intolerant, and persecuting.'

The American missionaries are very numerous in Syria: there are eleven labouring among the native Christians; there are three more missionaries at Cyprus, two at Jerusalem, and eleven, including females, at Beyrout. They are, says Mr. Elliott, publicly denounced in the Maronite churches, and the people are forbidden to sell to them, to act as their servants, or to hold the slightest communication with them.

THE Rev. William Bettridge(having been deputed, with the Rev. Benjamin Cronyn, by the Church in Upper Canada, "to make known to the Archbishops, Bishops, and Dignitaries of the United Church of England and Ireland, the destitute state of her members in the Canadas, and, with their permission, to take such steps as might be found most expedient to interest both the clergy and laity, in their favour, and excite in their hearts a desire, as they have the ability, to assist us in supplying the spiritual wants of our people, and in building up a branch of the United Church in those extensive provinces;") when on the eve of return, has published a statement of the results of his mission, of which the following are ex tracts.

'We have presented our humble memorial to our most gracious Sovereign the Queen; and have used every legitimate effort to procure a Bishop, and some alleviation to our spiritual wants. We have brought the state of our church personally under the attention of about two thousand of our clergy, and one uniform expression of interest has been the result. The Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin have given public proof of their persuasion that the prosperity of the colonial members of the Church is necessary to the well-being of the national Zion. The members of both Houses of Parliament have been supplied with a copy of the History of the Church in Upper Canada; the subject is considered by many of them worthy of the most

66

serious consideration. We have preached and held public meetings in more than one half the dioceses in England, and have travelled little less than six thousand miles.

'First, The object of our mission has been in a measure attained; information as been circulated, and the public attention has been consequently drawn to our destitute state. Relief, therefore,

cannot long be delayed.

'Secondly,-The" Society for the Propagation of the Gospel" has taken up the cause of the British North American Church in good earnest, has pledged itself to send out forty Missionaries; is now occupied in holding meetings, and sending preachers throughout the country; and, as I understand, purposes to employ a Clerical Secretary in every diocese, in order, that by a systematic parochial arrangement, the energies of the Church may be called into action. No real lover of his Church can read the published account of the proceedings at Willis's rooms, in June last, without unfeigned gratitude to God for the prospect of a speedy alleviation to our Colonial destitution. We want in Upper Canada, three hundred and sixty churches.

"Thirdly,-A "Queen's letter" has been granted for collections in all Churches and Chapels,-the proceeds to be distributed by the

66

Society for the Propagation of the Gospel." An urgent appeal was made to his Grace the Primate to obtain such a letter for Upper Canada exclusively. We shall doubtless have our share in the national

bonnty, and therefore it might not be considered expedient to anticipate, by private efforts, this public appeal.

'On taking leave of our numberless friends in England, I would place before them, and the public generally, the actual state of spiritual destitution of the British population in Upper Canada, the vast majority of which are of the poorer classes, and consequently utterly unable to procure spiritual instruction for themselves. Upper Canada is equal in extent to England and Wales, and is partially inhabited throughout this entire extend of country. The roads are always bad and frequently almost impassable. The population exceeds 500,000. The efficient Clergy, (I say efficient, for many have spent their years and strength in their "labour of love") amount to about sixty. To judge aright of our destitution, it may be necessary to speak of England's spiritual riches. The population of England may be estimated at fourteen millions, and the clergy at fifteen thousand. Assuming the facilities of communication to be equal in both countries, our proportion of Clergymen, according to the relative state of the population of the two countries, should be six hundred. We have therefore sixty attempting in a sphere occupied in England by fifteen thousand to do the work of six hundred. Take away thirteen thousand five hundred Clergymen from the Church of England, and then would the destitution here be equal to that which our fellow

countrymen and fellow-churchmen are enduring in Upper Canada. These are very plain but very appalling facts. We need a Bishop. Is it right that the Romish Church should have a Bishop and Priests maintained at the public expense in Upper Canada, where their followers form but a small fraction of the population, and that encouragement should be given to various sectaries in the province, while to our National Church the right and privilege of a Bishop should be distinctly refused? I know we have one Bishop in Lower Canada ;—but is he sufficient to take the Episcopal charge of a country 1400 miles in length, three times the size of England, and containing a population of 1,100,000 souls?

We need assistance in the maintenance of ministers, the restoration of the grant to the "Society for the Propagation of the Gospel," and an annual grant for clearing portions of the "Clergy reserves," for glebes, as the growing wants of the colony require. The evil we complain of is continually increasing; and so long as the subject remains in its present state there can be no peace in the province-because the Legislative council have unanimously and repeatedly deprecated the agitation of the question in the province. May the great Head of the Church inspire the members of his body here with the spirit of sympathy and love towards his destitute members in our Colonies!

THE following observations on the education given in National Schools, are extracted from an address delivered by the Rev. Hammond Robinson, on laying the foundation of the National School at Birkenshaw :

The principles of the Established Church are the principles of the Bible. Take, then, a simple instance of what we mean by educating in the principles of the National Church. The Church, in harmony with the Bible, enjoins that the Sabbath-day be kept holy. To educate upon this principle, is to instruct concerning the authority by which this command to keep holy

the Sabbath-day, is given; the propriety and advantage of keeping holy the Sabbath-day; and so to order and influence the conduct of the person under education, that he be obliged to keep the Sabbath holy. And this instruction and influence is to be continued so long, and in such a manner, that the authority, or right to lay down the rules may be well understood; the advantage of obedience thereto be perceived and felt; and until the habit or custom of keeping the Sabbath-day holy shall become easy, familiar, and pleasant, or natural. Thus it is apparent that the process of education in the principles of the Na

tional Church, that is, of moral and religious education, must, at best, be slow, progressing by degrees, carried on in a fixed, regular manner, and with perseverance, and as much as possible conducted by persons of cultivated minds, clear heads, and whose own character is that of true churchmen, formed to that knowledge of the principles of the Church, and that consequent virtue and godliness, to which the youth are to be formed.

'Take a more extended instance. The National Church, guided by the Bible, holds as a principle, that "all men are conceived and born in sin; " calls upon us, as a race of beings so circumstanced, to hear and understand what we must know, believe, and do, to escape the dread consequences of being fallen into such a situation; and instead of plunging us into overwhelming speculations about matters to us unfathomably deep, in which we are presently confused, baffled, swallowed up and lost, our National Church directs us at once to the plain means pointed out by Divine revelation, in the steady pursuance of which we may be regenerate and born anew, and become "members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven."

Let the educator well understand what the Church means by these phrases; he will then be able to educate his pupils in the principles on which these assertions are made by the Church; able to conduct the minds of youth to a gradual understanding of these subjects, as they are digested and contained in our Baptismal Services, our Catechism, and other documents of the Church; able to shew their foundation in Holy Writ; to lead the learner's mind to a practical conviction of their truth, and their application to

a

themselves; to regulate the heart and affections (as far as human means can do this) according to such knowledge; and to establish course of life therewith corresponding. He will thus give that instruction, and supply that influence (education) which is fully implied in the command, " Bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; ""train them up in the way they should go."

Here the question naturally ariseth, where are masters to be found, or how are they to be formed, who are, or may be, qualified to carry into effect the system of national Education, which comprises both the elements of secular learning and the principles of the Established Church?

After a laborious inquiry of a pretty long life, much devoted to this subject, we know not where to look, or which way to turn for assistance, in finding or forming-persons to undertake the constitutional education of our population in towns and villages, but to a well-educated national clergy.

'In England we want no Prussian normal schools, no cumbrous unweildy schemes worked by commissioners, no new systems. Experience has, however, at length forced upon the country a full conviction that we do want men, men qualified to work our common national and village schools, in order that our population may be trained to knowledge and virtue, and that a very great increase of churches and of parish priests is essential to the affording the means of a moral and religious education for the rising generations -that education which alone can produce a substantial improvement in the individual, domestic and social character of our population.

tion to the public generally is, that they should satisfy themselves by inspecting them.

"But excellent as is the general management of these institutions, and kind as is the general treatment of their inmates, there is something of importance wanting in connexion with them, before their moral influence will be as beneficial as they might and onght to be in raising the moral character of the labouring classes, and giving them that respectability which they possessed in former times, and which it is necessary they should again possess before we can hope for any material improvement in the character of our peasantry.

'The deficiency of our work house system is, that its classification has no reference to character, and the consequence is that there is little difference made between the good and the bad, the deserving and the undeserving-all receive nearly the same treatment. Hence it necessarily follows, that either the deserving will be treated too severely, or the undeserving too leniently. The original intention of the system was, that it should be more of a strict prison discipline; but as the public, very properly, would not consent to such a treatment for the deserving poor, the severity of the discipline generally has been so much relaxed, that it will be found that the system will only be a temporary check to pauperism, and that unless some other plan is commenced, and that speedily, the pauperism of the country will be as extensive and burden

some as ever.

"The present era is such an one of change and experiment, that a very considerable portion of the respectable part of the community are naturally afraid of fresh changes and experiments. That plan should therefore be sought after which shall not require any material change in the New Poor Laws, but which may at the same time, meet the wishes of those who desire to see charity, religion and morality, uniting to support each other. The intention of the legislature, in passing the New Poor Laws, was not to weaken the kindly feelings of the rich towards the poor, or to lessen the amount of almsgiving or the charitable expenditure of the country; but only to

direct it into a different channelto convert the compulsory and obnoxious tax of the poor-rates into the voluntary and generous offerings of the benevolent rich to the grateful and contented poor.

66

'Whilst the poor-rates are generally felt to be a burden, who does not feel that the maintenance of the deserving poor should not be so regarded? Let us then consider whether a portion of them might not be supported by the voluntary offerings the real charity of those, who, regarding this world's riches in the the light they ought, are ready to distribute, willing to communicate." Who can object to the ancient, longtried, and approved charity of our ancestors, in the form of Almshouses, the benefits of which have not passed away with their charitable founders, but still exist as lasting monuments to guide us their descendants in the beneficial disposal of our charity Some may object to such a plan that to be extensively useful it must be extensively adopted; the very hopelessness of ever succeeding so extensively is sufficient to deter the judicious part of the community from ever attempting to commence it. But let us lessen the difficulty by dividing and subdividing it, until only a comparatively small share of charity shall be expected from any one. And who will grudge that which is bestowed on the deserving poor? Every establishment of almshouses will be complete in itself, the benefit will not be destroyed because there may be but a solitary instance of such judicious charity in the present day. The amount thus voluntarily bestowed would not be altogether an addition to the charitable disbursements of the rich; as, in many instances, the deserving inmates of workhouses, would be removed into almshouses, where the expense of their maintenance would not be greatly, if at all, increased; and charity would be turned into its proper channel, being bestowed as a voluntary offering instead of a compulsatory payment, which alteration must be most gratifying both to the giver and receiver.

'Such a system would also make a distinction between virtue and vice, between the deserving and the undeserving. Let almshouses be