circumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free; but Christ is all, and in all." All this is done, again, by those who, read the second great commandment of the Law, "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself;"-who join, in words, in the prayer of the Psalmist, "Let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee;"-who hear the Apostle's command, "Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that you also have a Master in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him; "--who hear his exhortation, "Rejoice with them. Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep: remember those that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body;" --who hear him class men-stealers with murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers; and who read his affectionate language concerning Onesimus, a run away slave whom he had begotten to the Christian faith at Rome, as "not any longer a servant, but above a servant; a brother beloved, specially to me," says the Apostle to his correspondent Philemon; "but how much more, to thee, both in the flesh and in the Lord? If thou count me therefore as a partner, receive him as myself." All this is done, finally, by those who profess to believe that at the last solemn day, when masters and slaves will stand before the same tribunal of Christ, works of mercy will be especially produced as the proofs of faith and love. "For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye cane unto me.' And, what inceases the guilt, all this is supported by a systematic opposition to reform in the colonial assemblies-by an artful and in dustrious concealment and perversion of facts, false representations, and colourable excuses-by a pertinacity and folly which the authority of the king and the resolutions of the British parliament in vain attempt to subdue; and by an infatuation, which bears along the West-Indian body in blindly defending a system in open hostility with every principle of humanity, with every view of just policy, and with every dictate of religion. But this seems the natural effect of great crimes. Obduracy is the just infliction which follows habits of such a character. It remains for a free and religious nation like England to look the dreadful evil in the face, and to devise the efficacious remedy. I do not stay to answer the objection that the Christian tolerates such a slavery as prevails in our colonies, because the Jewish law modified the domestic bondage of early times, and stripped it of its most fearful characteristics-an objection which is the strongest possible confutation of itself. Nor do I condescend to refute the cavil, that, because the Apostles enjoined obedience on the first converts who were of the class of slaves, and commanded them to be faithful to their masters (which Christianity now does, oppressed as the Negro slave is), therefore the injunctions of mercy, and justice, and kindness, on masters, and princes, and legislators, (which would at once unloose the chains which we so much abhor,) are null and void! Nor can I with patience hear the unworthy sophism, that because Christianity and some sort of bondage may have co-existed since the first promulgation of the Gospel, therefore the most cruel and inhuman species of slavery ever known, admits of apology as not inconsistent with the Christian faith. Christianity is indignant at such an insinuation. As well might all the vices and evils which have co-existed with Christianity, because men have not received and obeyed her precepts, be imputed to her as their defender and patron. 'No; the only real patron of WestIndian slavery, is torpor and selfishness of heart, false views of policy, fear of the power and wealth of the West-Indian body, the revenue the blood-stained revenue-raised from the importation of colonial produce, the ignorance in which our carelessness leaves so many Englishmen of the horrid facts of the case, and the backwardness of man to discharge a duty towards an absent and unprotected class of sufferers. But these subterfuges are fast disappearing. The public mind is more and more aroused. The indignation of a generous people will not suffer much longer the greatest instance of oppression to go unredressed. The rising principles of true Christianity will pervade our legislature and our government. The fear of the Divine wrath for a great national sin, will overbalance the false fears of man, and the false calculations of a short-sighted policy. England will awake to its duty. All due consideration, indeed, will be given to the actual deed, will be given to the actual situation of our slave population, and the just interests of the slave owners and merchants; but the main duty of mitigating the condition of the present generation, and preparing for the manumission of the next, will be efficaciously discharged. And the country, which is multiplying its missions and circulating its Bibles abroad, will no longer be reproached with the monstrous inconsistency of neglecting nearly a million of its subjects in its own colonies at home. "So I returned, and considered all the oppressions that are done under the sun; and behold the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter." Eccl. iv. 1. "If thou forbear to deliver them Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. I FULLY concede to my geological friends, that Divine Revelation was not intended to instruct mankind in matters of science: still, if a revelation has been vouchsafed to us from the Creator, it cannot be really inconsistent with the phenomena of his creation. How then do scriptural geologists reconcile the occurrence of death among the animals on our globe during myriads of years, as is alleged, before the formation of man, with the descriptions of Scripture which have always been considered as making the introduction of death into the world, the consequence of the sin of Adam? Among the many pious and intelligent students of the justly popular science of geology, which is espe cially making rapid progress at both our universities and among our clergy, I trust some one will oblige me with a reply to this not unimportant inquiry. OXONIENSIS. Tothe Editorofthe Christian Observer. IN your Number for July (page 402), your correspondent ALCANOR, in his observations on "the canonization of executed felons," has justly exposed the absurdity and dangerous consequences resulting from the exaggerated statements in our public journals respecting the state of mind of criminals previously to their execution. That felons, without giving decided evidence of repentance and faith, should be allowed to profane the holy ordinance of the Lord's Supper an ordinance which was not intended by our blessed Saviour as a passport from a state of spiritual death to immortal life, but as a means of spiritual edification to his true disciples,-is a practice which no seriously reflecting person can approve. But while I thus far agree with your correspondent, I consider it unscriptural to regard the salvation of men, or their preparation for eternity, as a matter necessarily requiring a considerable length of time. Alcanor seems to take it for granted, that in no case can those epithets which the reporter for the Berkshire Chronicle employs to describe the "calmness" and "happy resignation" of Giles, be justly applied to "unfortunate" men similarly circumstanced; and he quotes Mr. Newton, to prove that a man's spiritual condition before he died is to be judged of, not by what we may gather from a death-bed scene, but by his life. Now, it will be conceded, that great uncertainty attends a deathbed repentance. There are so many powerful objects which force themselves upon the mind in the near prospect of death and eternity,-the review of a life spent in a course of sin, and neglect of religion; the recollection of mercies and privileges slighted and contemned; the day of grace almost suffered to pass by; and the fearful expectation of "the blackness of darkness for ever,"all demanding the immediate attention of the sinner, that he may well be supposed sometimes to give to the questions proposed by those who feel deeply interested in his welfare answers and professions which do not indeed proceed from a truly regenerate mind. On these accounts, then, the sentiment of Mr. Newton is perfectly just, that far greater evidence of true religion is to be obtained from a man's life (in which those circumstances above mentioned do not operate so forcibly, and in which his character is presented in various CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 311. points of light), than from his death. This, I doubt not, was what Mr. Newton meant, in the words cited by Alcanor. But, admitting this, is it true that repentance must necessarily be a work of much time? May not a sinner, in the space of a day, or a few hours, nay, in a shorter period still, repent, and through faith in the Saviour be accepted of God? Without going so far as to assert with Dr. Johnson (in another part of the work quoted by your correspondent), that conversion may be effected instantaneously, have we not reason to believe that many are converted, like the thief on the cross, in a very short time? Surely then your correspondent might have spared the sentiment-"if converts they are-of a fortnight's standing." Is their character to be decided by the length of time they may have professed to have received the grace of God? Is the arm of God shortened that he cannot save a soul from death in this short space? POETRY. HYMNS BY BISHOP HEBER. (Continued from p. 471.) J. R. TWENTY-SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. OH God! my sins are manifold; against Wilt thou release my trembling soul, that My foemen, Lord! are fierce and fell; they They render evil for my good, my paspurn me in their pride; tience they deride; Arise, O King! and be the proud to righteous ruin driven ! "Forgive! an awful answer came, " as thou wouldst be forgiven!" Seven times, O Lord! I pardon'd them, seven times they sinn'd again: They practise still to work me woe; they triumph in my pain; But let them dread my vengeance now, to just resentment driven! "Forgive!" the voice of thunder spake, or never be forgiven: " 66 4 S TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. From foes that would the land devour; From blinded zeal by faction led; And grant our church Thy grace to stand The spirit's help of Thee we crave, FOR ST. JAMES'S DAY. Though sorrows rise, and dangers roll Though conscience, fiercest of my foes, I love Thee, Lord! I love Thee still! Though Sinai's curse, in thunder dread, Peals o'er mine unprotected head, ̧ And memory points, with busy pain, To grace and mercy given in vain, Till nature, shrinking in the strife, Would fly to hell to 'scape from life; Though every thought has power to kill, I love Thee, Lord! I love Thee still! Oh, by the pangs Thyself hast borne, The ruffian's blow, the tyrant's scorn; By Sinai's curse, whose dreadful doom Was buried in Thy guiltless tomb: By these my pangs, whose healing smart, Thy grace hath planted in my heart; I know, I feel, Thy bounteous will! Thou lovest me, Lord! Thou lovest me still! IN TIMES OF DISTRESS AND DANGER. Oh God, that madest earth and sky, the darkness and the day, Give ear to this Thy family, and help us when we pray! For wide the waves of bitterness around our vessel roar, And heavy grows the pilot's heart to view the rocky shore! The cross our Master bore for us, for Him we fain would bear, But mortal strength to weakness turns, and courage to despair! Then mercy on our failings, Lord! our sinking faith renew! And when Thy sorrows visit us, O send Thy patience too! BEFORE THE SACRAMENT. Bread of the world, in mercy broken! That by Thy grace our souls are fed! AT A FUNERAL. Beneath our feet and o'er our head Is equal warning given : Beneath us lie the countless dead, Above us is the heaven! Their names are graven on the stone, Death rides on every passing breeze, Our eyes have seen the rosy light Our eyes have seen the steps of age The earth rings hollow from below, ON RECOVERY FROM SICKNESS. O Saviour of the faithful dead, With whom Thy servants dwell, Though cold and green the turf is spread Above their narrow cell, No more we cling to mortal clay, We doubt and fear no more, 'Twas hard from those I loved to go, Who knelt around my bed, Whose tears bedew'd my burning brow, Whose arms upheld my head! As, fading from my dizzy view, I sought their forms in vain, The bitterness of death I knew, And groan'd to live again. 'Twas dreadful when th' accuser's power Assail'd my sinking heart, Recounting every wasted hour, And each unworthy part: But, Jesus! in that mortal fray, Thy blessed comfort stole, Like sunshine in a stormy day Across my darken'd soul! When soon or late, this feeble breath No more to thee shall pray, Support me through the vale of death, And in the darksome way! When cloth'd in fleshly weeds again I wait Thy dread decree, Judge of the world, bethink Thee then That Thou hast died for me. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. By By IF our readers have tracked our course through the thorny mazes of the Synod of Dort, they have doubt less long since asked, what has become of our still surviving hero, Hall, Dean of Worcester? The new Arminians had been silenced, deprived, and banished from home and country, for not subscribing to the new and expressly Calvinistic Articles of the Synod of Dort; and it remains to be proved how far a different line of conduct availed Hall himself. Very little credit results to King James's agents at this synod; more especially as the English dignitaries who subscribed to the sentence against the "poor Arminians," might perhaps hereafter be traced to the same margin, and seen dropping their buckets into the same well. But what, it is asked, were the doings of our worthy Hall on this occasion? To his elegant Latin pen was consigned the task of a first address to that assembly and we find in it abundance of that complimentary style which was not among the least pernicious of the evils familiar, but we presume not peculiar, to the court of our English "Solomon." This, however, done, and the moment ar rived when the principles and practices of the synod were more fully to display themselves, it fell out that "the unquietness of the nights in those garrison towns," and probably, too, during this November season, those marshes and fogs with which the name of Walcheren has made us but too familiar, marvellously working, as the good Dean continues, "on the tender disposition of my body, brought me to such weakness through want of rest, that it began to disable me from attending the synod: which yet, as I might, I forced myself unto; as wishing that my zeal could have discountenanced my infirmity. Where, in the mean time, it is well worthy of my thankful remembrance, that, being in an afflicted and languishing condition for a fortnight together, with that sleepless distemper, yet it pleased God, the very night before I was to preach the Latin sermon to the synod, to bestow on me such a comfortable refreshing of revived, and I was enabled with much sufficient sleep, as whereby my spirits were vigour and vivacity to perform that service which was no sooner done, than my former complaint renewed on me, and prevailed against all the remedies that the counsel of physicians could advise me unto; so as, after long strife, I was compelled to yield unto a retirement, for the time, to the Hague; to see if change of place and house of our Right Honourable Ambassamore careful attendance, which I had in the dor, the Lord Carleton, now Viscount Dorchester, might recover me." Hall, pp. 84,85. Another account appears of this compulsory departure for the Hague in the pages of Mr. Nichols. "Good Bishop Hall, then Dean of circumstances [besides a reprimand for Worcester......who met with many other letting out his instructions] which were painful to a conscientious mind (and which he little expected to find when he penned the preceding Life), soon quitted Dort the paragraphs quoted in the 70th page of under a plea of ill health, but evidently under a feeling of disgust at what he had both seen and felt in that early stage of the business. For Mr. Hales states, at the conclusion of one of his letters from at the synod,) changed his sentiments on What Mr. Nichols would call the "sycophantic" attentions of the synod followed Dean Hall's valedictory address; with the gift of "a rich medal of gold*, the por This medal, which the bishop used to wear suspended on his breast, as appears |