to maintain his dominion. In America, where unheard-of efforts are now made to extend religion, missionaries of infidelity are openly maintained and sent forth to sow their poisonous seed through the cities, towns, and villages of the new world. In our own country the opposition to religion is exactly keeping pace with its revival. The people of God have been called to bear some share of the world's reproach. And efforts are making for the propagation of error, which would not have been made, had it not been provoked by the faithfulness of the church. For it is not in the nature of error to make any strenuous efforts to propagate itself, until it is roused to do so merely out of opposition to the truth. But surely it is unnecessary that the present audience should be encouraged against being disheartened by these things. If you attempt to make this church a faithful witness for Christ, lay your account with being calumniated as persecutors. If you endeavour to keep it unspotted from the world, expect to be abused as bigots. If you set yourselves to promote the fellowship of its members, you must bear the reproach of fanatics. And if you address yourselves vigorously to the work of missions, you must be willing to be accounted visionaries. It has been so from the beginning, and why should we expect it to be otherwise now? Nor wonder if you are called persecutors, under the name of charity-if you are abused as bigots, under the guise of liberality-if you are called fanatics, in the name of wisdom and if you are stigmatized as visionaries, in the garb of modera tion. Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, and his deadliest blows are dealt out against religion, in her own sacred name. All this is to be expected. And we should be careful, not so much to avoid it, as to meet it in the right manner and spirit—a spirit of sincere commissera. tion for those who are employed in so ruinous a work, of earnest prayer for them, seeing they know not what they do, and of untired devotedness to their service, that while they say all manner of evil against us, falsely, we may endeavour to do them good. In a word, let the church remember the word of God, "he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit"-"all that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall saffer persecution." PROGRESS OF THE GOSPEL IN POLYNESIA.-Waugh & Innes, Edinburgh, 1831, P. p. 360, 18mo. 3s. 6d. We are again called to the pleasing task of noticing another of those works on missions with which the press is now teeming. The missionary work is so steadily advancing, both in its sustained interest at home, and in its successful results abroad, and is so happily leavening the mass of society, that even our literature is beginning to feel its influence and own its power. It is one of the striking features of the present age, that the progress of the Gospel in even the most remote regions of the globe, is attract ing such general attention and creating such an avidity for information, that the ordinary vehicles of intelligence, such as monthly chronicles, missionary registers, quarterly extracts, &c. are now insufficient to meet the demand; and that a topic which, half a century ago, did not call forth a single volume, should now be in possession of so extended and varied a portion of our literature. We have now missionary voyages and missionary travels, some of them. of surpassing interest. We have missionary poems and hymns-histories of missions from the bulky volume to the humble tract-biographies of missionaries, both male and female-abundant accumulations of missionary sermons-dissertations on missions, either in the way of explaining, recommending, or vindicating the enterprise, taking the shape sometimes of inquiries into its progress, and at other times, of hints for its advancement. And we have plenty of both detailed and summary accounts of the propagation of the Gospel, either in connexion with particular societies, or in specific quarters of the globe. The various publications to which this one topic has given rise, would, indeed, of themselves form no insignificant library; and large as such a collection would be at the present day, it would be every year in the course of aug mentation, until that delightful promise, in which all these and kindred works originate, shall be fulfilled, and “the knowledge of the Lord cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea." We lately recommended to our readers a publication on this subject, detailing the progress of the Gospel under the auspices of the "Moravians in Greenland." We have now before us a sister-volume, detailing the progress of the same mighty instrument for the regeneration of the world, under the direction of the London Missionary Society, in an opposite region of the earth-the South Sea Islands. This neat little work forms the first of a quarterly series of "Historical, Biographical, and Miscellaneous Works connected with the Illustration of Christianity," which those enterprising publishers, Messrs. Waugh and Innes, have undertaken to lay before the public. It presents us with a promising specimen of the style and charácter of this projected series of religious publications, and we trust they will meet with a liberal support. The volume before us details, with considerable minuteness, and, at the same time, in a clear and lively manner, the progress of the Gospel and its glorious triumph over idolatry, in the three groups of islands, known by the name of the Georgian, Society, and Harvey Islands, forming the southern portion of what is now called POLYNESIA In the introductory chapter we have a very interesting account of the moral and physical state of these islands, prior to their reception of the Gospel. Our attention is next directed to the first missionary voyage to this quarter of the globe, in the celebrated ship, Duff, Captain Wilson, performed in the year 1797. The successive difficulties and discouragements under which the early missionaries laboured, are faithfully recorded; until we are at length conducted to that most memorable epoch, in the year 1817-the public abolition of idolatry, and the general reception of Christianity, when, to use the words of the writer before us,-"in the space of one year, the whole system of idolatry by which these lovely islands had been debased and polluted from the earliest times, fell prostrate before the glorious Gospel of the cross of Christ, and that, through the instrumentality of men who boasted no high, literary attainments-who were not gifted with what is styled genius, and were not deeply versed in the philosophy of the schools;-but humble men who, possessing that best of all endowments, good common sense, joined with native intrepidity and patient perseverance, were actuated solely by a love to the Saviour and a love to the perishing souls of their fellow-sinners." As a specimen of the style of the work, we subjoin the account that is given in the commencement of the sixth chapter, of the new cares, anxieties, and duties of these faithful and devoted men, whilst the islanders were in a state of transition from savage to civilized life. "Exquisitely delightful as the feelings of the missionaries proved, on witnessing what great things God had done by the mighty working of his power, their cares and anxieties increased in proportion. They experienced somewhat of that intensity of interest in the conduct of their young converts, which the apostle of the Gentiles so strongly expresses, when he says, 'Now, we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.' But this was not the only burden they were called to sustain. Society required to be entirely new modelled. Heathenism and its abominations were so interwoven with the whole structure, that no simple alteration of shape in the web would suit it to the circumstances: the warp and the woof required to be separated, and an entire new fabric produced. The relative duties of parents and children, of husbands and wives, of governors and governed, before utterly unknown, and now first attended to, required not only to be inculcated but regulated by the missionaries, whose advice became as necessary in the arrangement of civil intercourse, as in the important concerns of the spiritual life. Heretofore, woman was the degraded subject of a debasing superstition, which allowed her not to approach the precincts of its temples or the food sanctified by its sacrifices, the inferior minister to the grosser pleasures of her lord, with whom she was for. bidden to eat, and whose touch carried pollution to the very vessels used by man. The children, so far from being subject to parental discipline, were their own masters almost as soon as they could walk. The conjugal tie was esteemed of little moment by either male or female. The tyranny of the kings, priests, and chiefs was illimited; and the subjection of the common people more base than that of the ancient serfs of Europe. Private property could scarcely be said to exist, at least among the lower ranks; and even that of the higher was held merely by the insecure tenure of a tyrant's caprice. Above all, idleness and sensual enjoyment, encouraged by the bounty of an exuberant soil, whiled away the hours of the roving, thoughtless population. In all these respects, the change was entire; and as the prospects of a brighter world opened on their view, their path through this became diametrically opposite to the road they had previously travelled, and at every turn they required instruction. In consequence, the missionaries were occupied from morn to night, and even their hours of rest often intruded on, by inquirers of all ranks, with whose eager desires they found it frequently impossible to comply, and yet felt it almost equally impossible to resist." The remaining chapters of the book detail the subsequent progress of the Gospel in the several islands, and of their growing civilization down to the present time. "We need scarcely conclude with saying, that we cordially recommend this volume to our friends and readers. The only things we have to regret are, an occasional obscurity and confusion in the style-want of proper attention in the narrative, to the order of time—and above all, the want of an accompanying map, giving the corrected names of the different islands, and showing, with accuracy, their relative positions. We would gladly have exchanged, for this useful appendage, the engraved title-page, although the view therein is very beautiful and characteristic; and we are quite sure the expense of its execution would have been amply sufficient for the publication of a neat and corrected map. www A SHORT APPEAL to PROFESSING CHRISTIANS in the NINETEENTH CENTURY. BY THOMAS TOYE, Esq. Cork.-William M'Comb and H. Greer, Belfast. P. p. 24. 1832. Price 4d. THIS is an excellent little tract-scriptural, practical, and searching. Its professed object is to "humble the sinner, exalt the Saviour, and promote sanctification;" and in our judgment the means used to accomplish this object are wisely chosen and faithfully applied. The tract will be found suitable for the perusal of all, but seems peculiarly adapted for the elder children in our Sundayschools. SACRED POETRY: being a Selection of Gospel Hymns, for the Use OUR judgment is decided, that the Psalms of David, or other portions of Scripture versified, but not para.. phrased, should be the only songs of praise used in the public worship of God. We think so, because if once liberty is given to introduce the effusions of men, there is no limit to the error that may be thus insidiously brought into public worship. Still, however, we do not deny that sacred poetry, of human composition, may be employed by individuals for private edification, either by reading or singing. We have never yet seen such a compilation as we could absolutely approve; yet the little work before us bids as fair as any we know to command general approbation. It contains 102 hymns, selected from the most approved authors, and judging from a hasty review, they seem highly devotional and strictly evangelical. Obituary. Died at Ballymena, on the 21st ult. Agnes Cumming, in the 65th THE lives of private Christians, especially of the female sex,' furnish but few materials for biography. Naturally indisposed to court the public gaze, and mingling little in the bustle of the great world, their history presents but little to attract our admiration or regard, but the sustained and steady operation of Christian principle. The solemn influences of religion, like the dews of heaven, descend in silence, and the heart that has been mellowed by the droppings of the sanctuary is the hallowed residence of views and feelings too aetherial in their nature to be apprehended by the general understanding of mankind.. Acting on this conviction, we deem it necessary to mention but a few particulars, illustrative of the character of her whose death we now record. That character may be sketched in a few words. She was a notable exemplification of practical and unobtrusive piety. Early habituated to the contemplation of things invisible, her mind received an elevated tone and temperament that adhered to it in after life, and became an element, as it were, of its own existence. Naturally ayerse |