THE HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY has, during the past month, been favoured with ONE THOUSAND POUNDS, unsolicited-a sum which has seasonably relieved the Committee from a heavy burden, and enabled them to resolve on employing two additional Missionaries. They record this instance of liberality as a kind interposition of Providence, and as an example worthy of being imitated by those who possess an abundance of this world's goods. Twenty-six applications for Missionaries still remain on their list.

The Naval and Military Bible Society. -We are grieved to find, from a paper which has been handed to us, that the funds of the Naval and Military Bible Society have, during the last three years, failed considerably, while the demands upon their Christian benevolence have been greatly increased. A diminution of nearly £4000. is stated as the result of a comparison between the last three years of the war, and the same space of time just elapsed. We cannot permit ourselves to doubt the success of the appeal," which the Committee has just made to the feelings of the religious public, and we hope that the receipts of the Society will speedily be carried even beyond the amount of their most prosperous period.

Northamptonshire Association.--The ministers of the Northamptonshire Association held their half-yearly meeting at Market, Harbro', on Thursday, Sept. 25. Two sermons were preached in the morning, by the Rev. B. Hobson, Welford; and the Rev. W. Morgan, Kilsby. The afternoon was devoted to business, the chief object of which was the reorganization of the County Missionary Society, which is about to be formed in aid of Missions. The Rev. J. Robertson, of Stretton, preached in the evening.

Conflagration at Sarepta.-We are exceedingly sorry to hear that our Moravian brethren have sustained a severe calamity in the destruction of the larger portion of their settlement at Sarepta, by fire.

"On the 9th of August last,' "it is stated in their circular, "about one o'clock in the afternoon, a fire broke out in one of the outhouses of the tobacco-manufactory, and as all those premises were built of wood, and by the long-continued drought and heat had become like tinder, the flames spread with such rapidity that all human help proved vain; and in the short space of four hours and a half, the shops, with all the buildings belonging to the manufactory, the apothecary's shop, the large distil

lery, the warden's house, the two large houses of the single brethren, with all their shops and farming premises, and twenty-four dwelling-houses (comprising three-fourths of the whole settlement) were laid in ashes. Thus twenty-eight families, all the single brethren, seventy in number, and about twenty families of workmen and servants, were bereft of their habitations. When the fire had reached the most dangerous place, between the single brethren's house and the closely adjoining out-buildings of the Minister's house, it pleased God to grant success to the unwearied exertions of those who came to our assistance, and to put a stop to the progress of the devouring element, otherwise in half an hour more, the whole settlement of Sarepta would have been converted into a melancholy heap of ruins, and all its inhabitants left without a home. But,' as the Bishop, Brother Benjamin Reichel expresses himself in his letter, dated August 14th, our gracious God, who found it needful to treat us with paternal severity, would yet, according to the purposes of His love, not lay a heavier burden upon us than we were able to bear, but preserved to us our beautiful Church, and so many dwelling-houses, that, on the 10th of August, all the inhabitants, both members of the congregation and strangers, could be provided with a place of refuge. The single brethren removed into the church, the single sisters supplying them with victuals; and all the rest of the sufferers were likewise furnished with food and lodging. Our worthy brother Wullschlegel, master of one of the manufactories belonging to the shop, anxious to save as much of the property as possible, exposed himself too long to the flames, and was burnt to such a degree, that he departed this life two days after. An aged single sister, Sophia Frantz, a servant in the inn, escaped into the street without harm, but the fright had such an effect upon her, that she died of a fit in the street."

An appeal has been made by the Brethren to the liberality of the religious public in this country, and we trust it will not be in vain.

"Sarepta is a settlement of the United Brethren, in Russian Asia, near Czarizin, on the Wolga. It was first established in the year 1765, by five brethren from Herrnhut, in the hope that it might be the means of bringing the Calmucks and other tribes in the vicinity, to the knowledge of the truth. The populatoin has by degrees increased to nearly 500 inhabitants. The attempts made during the first fifty years of its existence, to

effect the conversion of the surrounding heathen, did not prove successful: but a subsequent effort in the year 1815, to which the brethren were encouraged by a liberal grant from the Directors of the London Missionary Society, has been blessed, to the conversion of several souls, and the gathering of a small flock of Calmucks, who are at present en-camped in the plains adjoining Sarepta."

On the 17th September a new Independent Chapel was opened at Grantham, Lincolnshire. The Rev. R. Alliott, of Nottingham, preached in the morning from 2 Chron. vi. 9--18.; the Rev. W. Gear, of Market Harbro', in the afternoon, from Psalm xlv. 3, 4; and the Rev. E. Parsons, of Halifax, in the evening, from Acts xxvi. 29.

The following day the Rev. Alfred Dawson, late of Hoxton Academy, who has been instrumental in raising the present interest, was ordained. The Rev. R. Soper, of Louth, commenced the service by reading and prayer. The Rev. E. Webb, of Leicester, delivered the introductory discourse, and asked the usual questions. The Rev. R. Alliott, of Nottingham, offered the ordination prayer. The Rev. Dr. Harris, of Hoxton, gave the charge from 2 Kings iv. 5. last clause. The Rev. R. Hall, of Leicester, preached from Rev. xxii. 17. The Rev. W. Gear, of Market Harbro', concluded.

In the evening the Rev. Dr. Harris preached from Isaiah xii. 3. The Rev. Messrs. Roberts, of Melton; Wright, of Stamford; Cecil, of Nottingham; Foster, of Chesterfield; Newman, of Carleton; and Williams, of Newark, took parts in the various services.

Darwen, July 24, 1823.--The Rev. R. Littler was ordained to the pastoral office, over the Congregational Church assembling in Lower Chapel, Darwen. The Rev. T. Raffles, LL.D., Liverpool, delivered the introductory discourse. The Rev. P. S. Charrier, Liverpool, offered the ordination prayer, with imposition of hands. The Rev. W. Roby, Manchester, gave the charge. The Rev. J. A. Coombs, Salford, preached to the people. And the Rev. G. Harris, Bury; the Rev. J. Fox, Bolton; the Rev. D. Carnson, Preston; and the Rev. R. Fletcher, Ebenezer Chapel, Darwen, conducted the remaining devotional exercises. The Rev. J. Ely, Rochdale, preached in the evening. The attendance was numerous and respectable, and the services peculiarly interesting and impressive.

Sept. 16, 1823, Mr. Robert May, (from Hoxton Academy,) was ordained over the church of Christ at Stansted, Essex. Mr. Jennings, of Thaxted, began with prayer and reading the Scriptures. Mr. Hunt, of Chelmsford, delivered the introductory discourse, pro

posed the usual questions, and received the confession of faith. Mr. Thornton, of Billericay, offered the ordination prayer. Dr. Harris, of Hoxton, delivered the charge. Mr. John Clayton, of the Poultry Chapel, London, preached to the people. Mr. Chaplin, of Stortford, concluded with prayer.

The ordination of the Rev. John Blackburn to the pastoral charge of the Congregational Church, East Sheen, Mortlake, six miles from London, took place the 9th of September last, when the following ministers assisted :-The Rev. J. Thomas, of London, commenced the service with prayer and reading the Scriptures; the Rev. W. Henry, of Tooting, delivered the introductory discourse, which described the nature of a gospel church, from Heb. iii. 6.; the Rev. W. Seaton, of Wandsworth, proposed the usual questions, and received the confession of faith; the Rev. D. Washbourn, of Hammersmith, offered the ordination prayer; the Rev. J. Leifchild, of Kensington, gave the charge; the Rev. J. Morison, of Brompton, preached to the people; and the Rev. J. Knight, of Kingston, concluded with prayer.

Died, on Tuesday morning, the 23d of September, at Woodbridge, aged 57, the Rev. Benjamin Price; having been for 24 years pastor of the Independent Congregation at the Quay Meeting in that town. Mr. P. was originally a member of the Rev. G. Burder's church at Coventry, and was first settled at Oakham, in Rutland, where he laboured for several years, till in 1799 he removed to Woodbridge. He was much respected by those who were not attendants on his ministry for his unobtrusive line, and peculiarly qualified by talent and integrity for the discharge of his pastoral duties. For many months before his death he underwent much bodily suffering, accompanied with a distressing disease of his eyes, which often threatened him with total blindness. Several weeks before his death he fixed upon Rom. viii. 18. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present, &c." as the text for his farewell discourses, and requested the Rev. W. Ward, of Stowmarket, to preach from it, but to abstain from all reference to himself. Mr. P. has left a widow and thirteen children unprovided for. It was an affecting sight to see ten daughters and two sons following their father to the tomb, surrounded by a large concourse, of every communion, who came to unite their sympathies with the afflicted family.

We are happy to add, that several clergymen, and other members of the Established Church in the neighbourhood, with a liberality that does them the greatest honour, are promoting a Subscription for the family, which has already reached a respectable amount.

Ir we were called upon to exhibit the true character and the disastrous effects of tyranny and bigotry, we should not fix on the excesses of the Papal government, nor even on the iron-handed sway of the tribunal of Torquemada, as affording the most striking illustrations, but we should point at once to the boasted siecle of Louis the Fourteenth of France. That monarch's reign displayed a singular combination of discordant qualities. Affecting to be the munificent and large-minded patron of literature, he was the fierce and fanatical persecutor of liberal opinions and of private conscience: magnificent in his tastes and habits, he was mean in his prejudices and superstitions: lofty and imperious in his feelings and his public acts, he was a shackled slave to the domination of his confessor. A libertine and a devotee, an aspirant after universal monarchy, and a mal-administrator of his own kingdom, Louis the great, in an age of mental illumination, revived the atrocious and narrowminded policy of the dark ages; he invoked the foul spirit of Dominic, and renewed the bloody crusades of Languedoc, in the murderous visitations of the Cevennes. The memory of earlier oppressors may claim some mitigation of censure, since they only acted up to the temper and the maxims of their times, but the grandson of Henry the Fourth should have taken for his model

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the character of his illustrious ancestor, and regulated his policy by a generous and comprehensive system. If he were ignorant of the rights of conscience, it was, at best, a voluntary ignorance, since they had been explained and enforced by the great writers of the Reformation, and, in England, they had been urged with admirable eloquence and energy, by the brilliant and high-minded men whose immortal works appeared during the period of the Commonwealth. Nor was his own kingdom so poor in honourable and accomplished characters, but that it might have supplied him with able and honest counsellors, who would have shown him the way of rectitude and true glory. But he sought them in the wrong direction; he had been trained in an erroneous school; his notions of fame and distinction were of the vulgar cast, and he found their gratification in the invasion of his neighbours, and in visiting his Protestant subjects with privation, exile, torture, and death. A right feeling of the dignity of his reign, and the security of his throne, would have moved him to cherish that meritorious class of citizens; to protect them in their civil and religious immunities, and to account such men as Basnage, Bochart, Claude, and Du Bosc, among the brightest ornaments of his kingdom. He judged differently, however, and, in the opinion of his priests and parasites, more wisely;

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he drove from their native land, thousands of industrious artisans, who carried to rival countries the manufactures of France; he wasted their homes and their fields with fire and sword; he gave up their wives and daughters to violation, their pastors to banishment and to death; and he obtained, in reward of these high achievements, from his miserable flatterers, the titles of the second Charlemagne, and the modern Theodosius.

At this gloomy period, the Protestant churches of France were under the guidance of able and exemplary ministers, and their affairs were conducted with an admirable union of firmness and discretion. Claude and Du Bosc seem to have been the principal agents in their public transactions, not from any arrogated eminence, but by the common consent both of the clergy and laity. The first appears to have been their great polemic. On all occasions where theological skill was requisite, he was put forward. He wrote the historical defence of their community; he engaged in the controversy with the Jesuit Nouet; he encountered, en champ clos, the formidable Bossuet, and, by his antagonist's own confession, at one period of their dispute, drove him to the wall; in short, wherever knowledge and dexterity in argument were required, Claude was looked to by the French Protestants with cheerful confidence, as the unconquered and unwearied defender of their cause. The talents of Du Bosc appear to have been of a different kind, though equally distinguished, and quite as important to the well-being of the Reformed churches. His exterior was striking. He was tall and well made, his presence was majestic, his manners were graceful, and he was master of a ready and persuasive eloquence. Under the trying circumstances which involved the body to which he belonged, these

qualities were invaluable, inasmuch as they fitted him in a peculiar manner for the arduous task of negociating with the French court and administration in behalf of his persecuted fellow-Christians, Hence he became the political representative of the Synodical churches, and, in the most difficult transactions, conducted himself with exemplary firmness and discretion. The most tempting offers were made to him by the partizans of Rome; carte blanche was repeatedly tendered; he was told to take his choice of all that was within the king's command, but none of these things moved him, and he seems, in truth, to have counted these things but loss, in comparison with holding fast his faith and a pure conscience.

This eminent man was born at Bayeux, in Normandy, Feb. 21, 1623.

His parents were highly respectable in station and in character. His father had been twice married, but of thirteen children, the subject of this memoir was the youngest, and the sole survivor. He studied at the Protestant Colleges of Montauban and Saumur, and at the early age of 23, was appointed to the church of Caen, where he had for his senior colleague, the celebrated Bochart. His brilliant qualities soon extended his reputation, and strenuous endeavours were repeatedly made to induce his removal to Paris. His flock, however, were not willing to lose his services, while he seems to have been unfeignedly reluctant to leave his pastoral charge, and the efforts of the most important church in France were ineffectual, though supported by the pressing representations of several individuals high in rank and influence. His first published sermon, "The tears of Peter," involved him in a vexatious strife with the Romanists, who were exceedingly annoyed by some of the strong expressions