been at times made at Patras to check the good work. But as yet we have not experienced any serious opposition, and in general it has been manifest that our heavenly Father has overruled such efforts as have been made against our labors, to the furtherance of the cause. Friends have been increased and made known to us by these means, and in many instances the tendency has been to promote rather than check the spirit of inquiry.

Thus you see that a wide door has been opened at Patras for the circulation of the scriptures and evangelical books, and for the communication of religious instruction. And thus far the good work has been prospered; not indeed always in exact accordance with our calculations, but ever in such a manner as to leave on our minds the deep impression that the affairs of the

mission are in the hand of an infinitely wise Providence. The Lord has been better to us than our fears. He has often far exceeded our hopes.

Mr. Pasco subjoins, in conclusion,

Though it has pleased our heavenly Father, by the failure of my health, to remove me from a participation in the actual labors of the mission, I feel that 1 cannot, and pray that I never may, separate it from my affections. I would commend its objects and interests, and especially the dear family now left to bear its accumulated burdens and responsibilities alone, to the affectionate sympathies and prayers of the churches, and to the solemn consideration of such young men as are called of God to consecrate themselves to the work of missions.

Endia.

VIEWS ON IDOLATRY.

The following reflections on idolatry are extracted from the Calcutta Christian Observer. We do not lay them before our readers because we suppose they will be altogether new to them not because they do not know and believe the things stated in them-but because we fear there is danger of their being known and believed, and yet not so felt in their hearts as to stir them up to fervent prayer and zeal for the removal of the great evils here discussed. Is idolatry the great sin upon which God, in His word, dwells more than upon any other? Is it the sin by which He is in a peculiar degree robbed of His glory? Is it the source of more than one half of the wo which is, or has been, upon the earth? Does God himself declare it to be “a root that beareth gall and wormwood?" We know these things are so, and that the fibres of this bitter root are even now interwoven with those of the hearts of more than two thirds of our race, and that they are daily constrained to eat of its fruits, having, as the prophet has said, "no power to deliver their souls," or to say, "Is there not a lie in our right hands?" We know that though the poor idolater is not able to deliver himself from his delusion and misery, the gospel has power to do it; and that in the economy of salvation, we, if we are Christians indeed, are the agents

appointed of God to apply it to their relief. We know all this, and yet so great is the tendency of us all to "look each upon his own things," and to forget the things of the condition of the heathen-the things which their eternal welfare requires, and which God commands— that we have need that our minds be "stirred up to remembrance" from time to time, lest we fall into the condemnation of that servant who knew his Lord's will and did it not. For this purpose the following extracts are submitted for the consideration of our readers, with the entreaty that, in view of them, they will prayer fully inquire what the Lord will have them to do.

Of all the sins mentioned in the Bible, none has such a prominent place as idolatry. It seems as if it covered as much of the page of revelation, as it does of the surface of the earth. Every where it is to be met with. It stands out in bold relief on almost every page. The Old Testament is replete with the most appalling descriptions of it, with the most solemn denunciations against it, and with details of the most awful judgments which it has Nor is the New brought down upon men. Testament less occupied with it. There are several accounts of it in the Acts of the Apostles; one humiliating description of it in the first of Romans, and almost innumerable notices of it in most of the other Epistles. The history of the rise, the progress,

heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself amid the trees of the forest; he planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to burn; for he will take thereof and warm himself; yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread; yea, he maketh a god, and worshippeth it; he maketh it a graven image. He burneth part thereof in the fire; yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And the residue thereof he maketh a god, even his graven image; he falleth down to it, and worshippeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my god." Now, can we conceive of a greater prostration of intellect than this? and yet we, in this country, know that there is no exaggeration in this description of the prophet. On the contrary, we are certain that it is true, even to the very letter. We have indeed seen, if possible, still greater folly than this. How often have we beheld the people fanning the insensible block to keep away the flies; putting around it curtains, to preserve it from the musquitoes; singing it asleep at night, and doing the same to wake it in the morning; taking it sometimes to the river to bathe it; carrying it through the town on their shoulders; carefully mending its limbs when broken off, and doing a thousand other things equally ridiculous! And what debasement of mind is there, in supposing the great God to be sometimes hungry and thirsty, and needing to be supplied by his creatures with food and water; to be sometimes guilty of theft, of falsehood, of murder, and of adultery; to be sometimes burning with lust, and going about weeping and searching for the object of his affections; and to be sometimes amusing himself with the ball, with the bow and arrow, with the flute, and with the lascivious dance among impure milk-maids! But all this is true, and much more is true, which is worse than this. It were absurd to say, that these are not the effects of idolatry; but an evil species of idolatry itself. An evil species of idolatry they may be. We maintain, however, that such is the intimate connexion between all idolatry and the debasement of the mind, that let idols be set up in whatever country they may, and in whatever circumstances they may, the greatest humiliation of intellect will invariably follow. What will the reader say, when he is told that many Roman Catholics, with the bible in their hands, believe that the Virgin Mary has power over her Son to make him do as she pleases; that the saints are omniscient and omnipresent, they being capable of hearing a million of different petitioners at the same moment of time, and scattered throughout

every quarter of the globe; and that every trade has its presiding deceased patron. It may perhaps be difficult to point out all the connecting links between this insanity and the setting up of idols; but the fact is obvious. Idolatry makes reasoning man mad. It is an awful system, and it demands the abhorrence of every man who wishes his fellow creatures to occupy their proper place in the scale of creation.

But this is not all. The immorality attendant upon idolatry is still more painful than the mental imbecility created by it. Let us turn to the country of our sojourn. Is there an idolater in this vast empire, or indeed in any part of the world, who is a continual truth-speaking man? Is not the land full of falsehood? Look at the conduct of man to man-roguery and deception are almost universal. Look at the behavior of children to their parents! What neglect of them in their old age! What disrespect for them! and, frequently, what cruelty towards them! Listen to the language in continual use. There is not a man among them, who, when angry, will not utter the most vile expressions. Glance over their songs, (we will not say read them,) and how few, comparatively, will you find that are free from pollution. And it is but a little portion of the Hindu immorality that we actually behold. Its blackest parts rarely, if ever, see the light. It is well known that they have midnight assemblies, in which, and in the presence of their idols, the most deplorable scenes are exhibited-scenes such as never can be described by the tongue of a Christian, and of which even their own lips are ashamed to utter the details.

And to what are we to ascribe this awful depravity? Though, as we have already said, we may be unable to point the immediate connexion between these things and idolatry, yet we are verily persuaded that the one is the direct result of the other. Who, then, is there, that is worthy of the name of man, and who believes all this, that will not abhor the worship of idols as the foulest blot of creation? and who will not labor with his might for its extirpation?

None of the least arguments for the evil of idolatry is the circumstance of its being a delightsome thing to the great body of mankind. We know from experience, as well as from the Bible, that the nature of man is so radically bad, that he is utterly indisposed towards any thing that is good. But is he indisposed to idolatry? The very reverse is the fact. There is not a country to be found under heaven in which idols have not, at some time or another, been worshipped. Europe, Britain not excepted,

has been covered with them. Asia, for the most part, has been filled with them. And in Africa and America, devils, literally in name and in act, have been, and are even now, the objects of adoration. And not only this, peoples and nations who, by instructions and judgments, had been broken off from their idols, have, in the most easy and willing manner, returned to them. How often was this the case with the Jews. How lamentably, too, did the Christians, in former times, depart from the pure and spiritual worship of God. They once, almost to a man, with the exception of the Waldenses and Albigenses, wandered after the Beast; and even now, the majority of them are lying prostrate before it-its willing slaves and its ardent admirers. Not a few, also, there is too much reason to believe, of our own countrymen have, whilst dwelling in this heathen land, been really seduced into idolatry. The Scripture, too, speaks of idolatry as a delightful object to man. It calls his idols his "delectable things." It represents Image-worship, under all its forms and similitudes, the most pleasing to the unrenewed and polluted mind. And so dear is it to its votary, that he will starve himself and his family to support it, he will spend his time and strength to labor for it, and he will take long and almost incredible journies to be present at its festivals and temples. It is a thing which he will hug to his bosom; and will often sooner part with his life than relinquish it. See how resolutely the children of Israel held by their idols! Though they were denounced again and again for their idolatry, though the most grievous judgments fell upon them for this very sin, though they were visited with famine to such an extent, that women ate their own children, and though they were harrassed by the most bloody wars, yet all was ineffectual. If in one king's reign they were induced to pull down their idols, in the next they were moved to replace them. Look at the tenacity with which the Roman Catholics have held by their graven images; for though God hath scourged Christendom with fire, and smoke, and brimstone, and wars; yet, comparatively few have repented of the work of their own hands, that they should not worship devils and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which can neither hear, nor see, nor walk. And we, in this country, know how fast the hearts of the people cling to their gods. Though they are fully persuaded that an idol is nothing, and will readily express their conviction of the fact, yet who or what can induce them to renounce their follies? There is something so sweet to them in their abominations, that no human persua

sion will ever operate in leading them to give them up.

Now, it is impossible to account for all this, but on the supposition, that idolatry is in its nature opposed to the mind of the pure and holy God. Nothing of a different kind would thus attract, delight, and hold the affections of corrupted man.

Are these statements true? Are these the effects of idolatry-of that idolatry for the overthrow of which the labors, contributions and prayers of the churches are sought? Is this the system for which we are striving to substitute the pure and peaceful gospel of Christ? Is it indeed so debasing to man, and so dishonoring to our God and Savior who has given us pardon, spiritual peace, and the hope of eternal life? Then how ought we to labor and pray, and what ought to be the measure of our liberality? Have we found the faith of the gospel to purify the heart by love? How great then is the idolater's need of it, whose very acts of worship are too impure to be described on the Christian page! Is the hope of the gospel dear to us? The idolater is not only without hope, but he is even without God, and must forever remain so, if the Gospel is not sent to him! Does the light which Christianity sheds on our path through life, death and the grave, and on

our prospects in eternity, cheer us? With the poor idolater all is dark; he knoweth not whither he goeth! If these things are so, then how are we called upon by all our love to God and our perishing fellow-men, to send them the only remedy appointed to heal them of all their woes? Nay, more than this-we are not only called upon by the voice of our own affections, but by the voice of God himself, to send "the gospel to every creature." And when we are so called, surely we do well to take heed how we

hear.

CHRISTIANITY-ITS EFFECTS CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF MO

HAMMEDANISM.

Has the gospel power to subdue the hard heart, and enlighten the dark understanding of the votaries of idols? We have reason to rejoice that this question can now be answered in the affirmative, and that this answer can be sustained by such a cloud of witnesses, as, if they do not satisfy all who are, or have been, incredulous, must at least silence their objections, on this ground, to gospel missions. Formerly it was not so. When men of understanding and intelligence stated, as did the Abbé Dubois, that "under present circumstances there is no possibility of converting the Hindús to any sect