because it abused the privileges of religion and the gifts of God. There are those who view our religious privileges and our religious profession, the erection of vast societies, the nobles, and even princes of the land, putting their signatures, as it were, to the Bible, giving their solemn pledges to God and the world that they receive the religion of the Scriptures, and desire to extend this religion to every quarter of the globe, with unmixed satisfaction. We see it also with devout gratitude, but not without very considerable solicitude. We turn to Judea. We see there written, as in characters of blood, that neither religious priviJeges nor profession will, of themselves, save a nation. We tremble Jest our nation should fall into the perilous error of mistaking privileges for practice, and general profession for individual piety. If we are not mistaken, it is in a measure characteristic of the age we live in, that the national practice is below the national creed; that men calmly disobey the book of which they avow themselves the champions. Now this is the first stage of the evil we are describing: and if the public patronage of religious societies; if devout orations; if universal plaudits; if journeyings, and pamphlets, and sacrifices of time and money, for sacred purposes; if even the tears of religious sensibility, are made to supersede deep, vital, practical piety; then the privileges, the ordinances, the institutions, which might be a blessing, are a curse; the manna has become worms; and the plagues of Judea will be let loose

upon us.

Some future traveller will mourn over the fragments of our temples; will rake in them for relics of our ancient glory; and will hear, sighing along our ruined walls that warning exclamation, "Many that are first shall be last!"

But the view of the Holy Land presented to us by Dr. Clarke has impressed another topic upon our minds: our religion is not contented to shew us the wounds of a nation,

without commanding us to bind them up. How striking is the prophetical language when speaking of prostrate Judea! "All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I bave wounded thee with the wound of an enemy. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have mercy on his dwelling - places. Therefore their congregation shall be established before me, and I will punish all that oppress them. And ye shall be my people, and I will be your God." What a prospect, then, opens upon us! This land is not ever to remain desolate. The prostrate cities are to arise, and the ruined temple to be re-erected. God shall come again to his people. "The mountain of the Lord's house shall be established; and all nations shall flow into it." The prophetic volume thus disclosing to us the designs of Providence, we cannot but imagine that we discover signs in the times of its approaching accomplishment. We remember to have heard the late venerable Bishop of London, in almost his last public appearance, standing as it were upon the very verge of heaven, and thence perhaps catching some more than common glimpse of the glories within, use his expiring strength to stimulate his countrymen to become the apostles of the land of Israel: and we confess that this is the title, and this the apostleship, which we eminently covet for them. We delight to contemplate (if indeed any rays of joy may be allowed to mix up with our horror) the great shaking of the continental powers and churches, as a preparation for the restoration of the true Israel, for the universal establishment of the immaculate Church of Christ. We regard also the new spirit of our own country, the infusion of new energy into the purest church of the Redeemer, the creation of new and powerful instruments for the diffusion of religion, the resurrection (if we may so call it) of the evangelical doctrines in the Establishment, as so many indi

cations that God has chosen us to be co-operators in this great work. May our countrymen heartily obey the call! May those who seem almost to question whether there is not a redundancy of Bibles, and a superfluity of societies by which Bibles are distributed, cast their eyes upon Judea, and see, in that once privileged land, a people suffering a famine of the word of God. Let them remember that Christians have never repaid the ancient people of God, for the gift of their Scriptures, by the present of ours in their own language. Let them remember that the oracles of the promised land are now silent, the Urim and Thummim removed, the Shechinah withdrawn, the altar overthrown, and the fires extinguished. And, instead of indulging a penurious spirit in the distribution of these celestial treasures, let them, as they have freely received, freely give. Let them turn back the stream of divine knowledge, to fertilize the land in which it rose. If, again, there are others who conceive that our missionary efforts are fruitlessly exhausted in barbarous regions, let them contemplate in Judea a sphere precisely adapted to their conceptions. They may there find minds in every degree of intellectual debasement, from the wandering Arab to the superstitious Monk. They may there try every experiment upon man which zeal or benevolence can dictate. They may there, under the Divine blessing, attempt the work of evangelizing in

any of its stages; either, as it were, to hew out the Christian from the rock of Mahometanism, or to chisel and polish him up to the standard of the sanctuary from the disfigured forms of Popery, How grand a field for the disengaged ministers of our own Church! a sphere in which literature and talents might assist to do the work of religion; in which the genius of devotion may be still supposed to linger; in which a new spark might re-illumine old fires; in which the Missionary himself, instead of finding his zeal expending itself in the unpropitious atmosphere of idolatry, would feel it recruit as by the touch of its mother earth; would see in every spot some beacon for the apostate, some record of his faith, or some memorial of his God, "The age of chivalry is gone." Yes, and God be praised that it is gone-if by chivalry is meant the unhallowed mixture of religious fury and fiery ambition which prompted the crusaders in their enterprise and accompanied them in their march;-but the age of zeal is not gone; and true zeal has all the valour of chivalry, with none of its excess. It is this zeal, then, that we would call into action, and point to a particular object. It is to this we would display the banner of the cross. The soldiers of Christ have many and great objects: let them not forget that the gates of the daughter of Zion lament and mourn, and that she, being desolate, sits on the ground?

GREAT BRITAIN. In the press: Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon, 1700 to 1788, with an Essay on the Government and State of Spain, by W. Coke, Esq., in 3 vols. 4to. The Second volume of Historical Sketches of the South of India, by Lieut. Col. Mark Wilks Monastic Remains, by

Mr. Parkyns;-A History of Windsor and its Neighbourhood;-A volume of Sermons by the Bishop of Meath;-A volume of Sermons by the late Rev. Dr. Monkhouse ;Parochial and Domestic Sermons, by the Rev. R. Mant, in 2 vols.;-Roderick, the last of the Goths; and a second volume of the History of Brazil; by Mr. R. Southey?—

calculated that upwards of 1500 ladies and gentlemen were present. Lord Teignmouth was called to the chair, and shortly opened the business of the meeting. After the Secretaries of the Parent Society had explained the extent and variety of the claims of that Society on the public countenance and support, Lord Castlereagh proposed the usual series of resolutions for the formation of an Auxiliary Bible Society, and was seconded by Mr. Whitbread. The Resolutions were unanimously adopted. The other speakers, on this occasion, were the Chancellor of the Exchequer; the Right Hon. Geo. Rose; W. Wilberforce, Esq. M. P.; T. R. Kemp, Esq. M. P.; Rev. J. Townsend; R. Graut, Esq.; Rev. Mr. Saunders; Mr. Williams; H. Thornton, Esq. M. P.; Rev. J. W. Cunningham, &c. We shall not attempt even to characterise the different speeches which were delivered at this meeting. Suffice it to say, that on no similar occasion have we witnessed a more striking display of eloquence than on this, nor a more lively interest on the part of the company present. The business of the day was conducted throughout with a most gratifying cordiality and unanimity. Their Royal Highnesses the Dukes of York, Kent, Cumberland, Sussex, and Cambridge, were chosen Patrons;-the Dukes of Richmond and Bedford, Vice-Patrons; the Marquis of Buckingham, High Steward of Westminster, President; the Marquises of Lansdowne and Blandford; the Earls of Dartinouth, Harrington, Bristol, Hardwicke, Romney, Rosslyn, and Clancarty; Viscounts Castlereagh and Morpeth; Lords Grenville and Dynevor; the Speaker of the House of Commons; the Right Hon. N. Vansittart, G. Rose, R. Ryder, and Col. M'Mahon; and the very Rev. the Dean of Westminster, Vice-Presidents;-Samuel Thornton, Esq. Treasurer;-W.Wilberforce, Esq. M.P.; H. Thornton, Esq. M.P.; T. Babington, Esq. M. P.; S. Whitbread, Esq. M. P.; T. Kemp, Esq. M. P.; and R. Grant, Esq., Honorary Members of the Committee;--and the Rev. W. Gurney, the Rev. Dr. Winter, Col. Neville, and Major Handfield, Secretaries.

AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY FOR THE COUNTY OF SURREY.

In consequence of a requisition, signed by many respectable gentlemen (clergy and laity) of the County of Surrey, the Earl of Onslow, the Lord Lieutenant, convened a meeting of the inhabitants of that county, at the Town Hall, Guildford, on the 19th ult. for the purpose of establishing an Auxiliary Bible Society. Notwithstanding the inclemency

of the weather, the meeting was numerously and respectably attended. In the absence of the Lord Lieutenant, his relative, the Rev. G. W. Onslow, Rector of Send and Ripley, was unanimously called to the chair, who opened the business of the day by reading the requisition and by stating the important object for which the assembly was convened. The Rev. C. Jerram, Vicar of Chobham, next addressed the meeting in a speech of considerable length and ability. He began by lamenting the absence of the Secretaries of the Parent Institution, and the unexpected task which had consequently devolved upon him of explaining the domestic and foreign advantages to be derived from the British and Foreign Bible Society. He described with great perspicuity the objects of that noble institution, many of the benefits already derived from it, and the still more glorious effects that might be anticipated in future. He ably vindicated the Society from the objections which had been made to it, and concluded by making a forcible and affecting appeal to the hearts and minds of his auditors. The other principal speakers on this occasion, were Sir Thomas Sutton, Bart. M.P.; Geo. Holme Sumner, Esq. M.P.; the Rev. W. Rose; Gurney Barclay, Esq.; Rev. W. H. Cole; Rev. G. West; Rev. · Wilcox; Rev. G. Lefroy; Rev. J. Wilson; Rev. S. Percy. The Earl of Onslow was appointed President, and the following noblemen and gentlemen Vice-Presidents:Marquis Wellesley; Earl Spencer; Earl Rothes; Viscount Middleton; Viscount Templetown; Lord Grantley; Viscount Cranley; Hon. Col. Onslow, M.P.; Sir Thomas Sutton, Bart. M.P.; Geo. Holme Sumner, Esq. M.P.; Mr. Sergeant Onslow, M.P.; Charles Rose Ellis, Esq. M. P.; John De Ponthieu, Esq. M. P.; the Rev. the Archdeacon of Surrey. Treasurer, W. Haydon, Esq.; Secretarics, Rev. Joseph Wilson, Rev. Stephen Percy.

A report of the proceedings and a list of the subscriptions will immediately be published. Nearly 7001. has been already subscribed.

RUTLAND AND STAMFORD AUXILIARY BIBLE SOCIETY.

On Thursday, the 12th of November, a very numerous meeting of the Ladies and Gentlemen of the County of Rutland and its neighbourhood, was held, pursuant to advertisement, at the Grammar School, in Oakham; when the business of the day was opened by calling to the chair the worthy representative for that county, Charles N. Noel, Esq. Mr. Noel then explained the

object of the meeting, and entered at some length into the history of the Parent Institution; which, he said, had been originally viewed with jealousy; but as the real motives of the founders had become more thoroughly understood, and the beneficial effects of this liberal establishment been more fully experienced, these objections had in a considerable degree subsided, and the members of this numerous society had now the unspeakable pleasure of dispensing, far and near, the Gospel of Salvation, and of scattering their pious gifts over every quarter of the globe. "No man who hears me," said Mr. Noel, "needs my help to point out the value of the sacred volume, and every one who is sensible of the blessing of possessing it must feel his heart glow within him as he reflects on the successful labours of the So ciety which has united Christians of every denomination in the grateful work of communicating to the poor around their dwellings, and in the distant regions of the earth, the best of bencfits."

Mr. Hughes, who very kindly attended to assist in the formation of this Society, then rose, and with his usual eloquence enlarged upon the extraordinary success with which the Parent Institution had been blessed; and ably vindicated it from the imputations which had been cast upon it. He spoke with exultation of the prevailing wish, throughout this country, to propagate in all lands the knowledge of the word of God.

The Rev. H. Neville, Rector of Cottes

more, in a very energetic manner, testified his pleasure that this little county, which had always been distinguished for its loyalty, was now becoming elevated to a superior rank as standing forward amongst the patrons of religion.

Wm. Boltbee, Esq. of Ketton, took occasion to advise, as a very suitable appendage to the distribution of Bibles, that the attention of the county should be turned without delay to the forming of an Education Establishment, that the Bibles which they were now going to disseminate among their neigh bours might be thereby rendered more extensively useful.

The Rev. Mr. Baker, Rector of Lyndon, in a short appropriate speech, recommended the appointment of their present Chairman to the office of President; which was unanimously agreed to.

The Rev. Gerard Noel, Vicar of Rainham, in Kent, concluded a most impressive and animated address with a solemn and affecting appeal to his auditory on the great importance of the object for which they were assembled.

The other speakers were, the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, of Stamford, Wm. Johnson, Esq. of Stamford; the Rev. G. Foster, of Oakham; the Rev. Mr. Hardyman, Rector of North Luffenham; the Rev. Mr. Swann, Rector of Ridlington; the Rev. Mr. Jesse, and the Rev. J. Green, of Uppingham. But we are sorry that we are unable to give even the slightest sketch of their speeches.

THE NORTH.

THE present month has proved unusually eventful. The accounts from the North have presented one continued series of Russian victories and French disasters. In our last number we left Bonaparte's invading army in full retreat from Moscow, which had been re-occupied by the Russians, and suffering not only from the sword of the enemy, but from the intenseness of the cold, and from privations of every kind. This, however, seems to have been but the prelude of the calamitous tale, which the succeeding month

was destined to supply. The whole line of the retreat, from Moscow to Smolensk, which the French army reached about the 14th of Nov. exhibited, according to Sir Robert Wilson, scenes of destruction, without example in modern war, from the num ber of dead and dying men, and carcases of horses, many of then cut up for food, peasant's houses every where on fire, ammunition carriages blowing up, and quantities of wreck of every description. An intercepted letter of Beauharnois, dated the 8th of Nov. fully confirms this picture. "I am sorry to find myself," he says, " reduced to the