these believe them, without understanding the subjects on which they treat. "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."-Romans viii. 7. This ruling principle of the human heart, enmity against God, is no where more conspicuously displayed than by the parties who delight in the reading of these works. For enmity against God leads to enmity against his pure and holy word; and as these works tend to lessen the purity of the divine word by explaining or sneering away its spirituality, so they thereby lower it down to the vitiated appetites of mankind. With all the semblance of wisdom, they teach men to pique themselves upon the elevated ground they have taken, (far above the vulgar canting herd of praying Christians,) which restores to them that dignity and consequence in creation, so genial to pride, and so remote from the hateful and demeaning doctrines of the fall, and aloof from the humiliating intervention of a Saviour. What a fool's paradise is this! created to be blown away by the breath of affliction or the portals of eternity, which in a moment may appear, and ere long will appear, and opening realities to the soul, chase this transitory vision back to its original night! To build is one thing; to pull down is another. A headstrong mob may demolish in a day the fabric which called forth the skill of the first architects, and cost the labour of a hundred men during a thousand days. Here we have the acts of men with men; but the acts of men opposed to the Infinite, have results widely different from these. Man may and does frequently demolish, according to his own view of things, the edifices which have been erected by Jehovah but his edifices are instinct with life; and while men, however multitudinous and strong, triumph in the idea that they have achieved their demolition, they rise again, and stand up in their original strength, uninjured by the rude assault, and in their turn assail, appal, and overwhelm the adversaries. This is true to the very letter with the word of God: men may and often do triumph in the idea that they have utterly overturned this living word; whereas it is merely quiescent for a moment, for in an hour they think not of, it will arise, and terribly appal their souls with the spectre of its resurrection. When, therefore, we deal with the living word, we deal with a reality, which, like the God who gave it, is unaltered and unalterable. Jesus said, "Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, 346 but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."Matt. v. 17 to 20. What madness then are sceptical and infidel writings! they will recoil upon and overwhelm the writers themselves, and that at no distant period from their production. It is true, this catastrophe is often veiled to us by the shades of death. David exclaimed, "I saw the prosperity of the wicked: for there are no bands in their death; but their strength is firm. They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain.”—Psalm lxxxiii. But he afterwards adds, "I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood. I their end. Surely Titou didst set them in slippery places: Thou castedst them down into destruction. How are they brought into desolation as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. As a dream when one awaketh; so, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image." What useful purpose then can the reading of such works as these subserve? Some will answer, "I love to know what can be said upon such a subject." In the exercise of caution and circumspection, an inquiring mind may read them with such a view as this, and receive no harm; yea, warned by their arrogance, he may estimate a meek and quiet spirit at a higher price than he did before; but can this be imagined by the most sanguine liberal, to be the general result of sceptical and infidel reading? No! no! A man who constantly reads such works must himself be a sceptic or an infidel, whether he has discovered it or not. man is often the last to discover his own errors; such a reader may fancy, therefore, that all is well, while all who know him mourn his fall. Fuel added to a flame increases the intensity, until the heat melts down every fusible substance within its reach; and can a depraved heart escape the fusion, when daily exposed to such an ordeal? How many dip into these works, who are enticed forward, until the appetite is increased in the using, and they can A ཞག།་ 347 Human Sacrifices in India. relish no other, but feast upon them to surfeiting and ruin! The besetting errors of the age in which we live, are scepticism and infidelity; these arise out of what is termed, "the march of intellect." Men are more generally informed in this age, than in any other recorded in history, and, alas, more proud, more confident, and more resolute. Seminaries, wherein every species of instruction are given, abound; and learning is put upon the shortest route to eminence: hence we have numbers of eminently learned men, and multitudes of every grade, from these down to the A-B-Cdarian. "The schoolmaster is abroad," every youth may sip of the fountain, and numbers take copious draughts at his hands, of the bitter as well as the sweet waters; for this fountain, by the inventions of men, contrary to the pure fountain of life, is so constructed, that it does at the same head send forth sweet waters and bitter. The same seminary sends out the Infidel and the Christian; the same bishop lays his hands upon the evangelical candidate for holy orders, and the sceptical candidate, who merely professes what he does not really believe; because each is qualified by the rules of the schools, having his due portion of human learning; the same church frequently contains a true minister of Christ, and a mere worldling priest, unequally yoked together in the same services, each reading the same form of devotion in the presence of the living God. Thus does the schoolmaster take the field, marshal his hosts, command the march of intellect, and make a forward movement, in complete armour, towards the enemy. But, alas, instead of a united onset upon the opposing army, his forces break into bands, headed by potent leaders, and each combats each with might and main; some having actually wheeled completely round, and joined the arch apostate against the Prince of Life. "When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war." Here then we have, marshalled in the field, Greek against Greek, headed on the one side by the prince of the power of the air, with all his subject hosts, and on the other by the Prince of Life, with the power of the Holy Spirit; ours, therefore, is the age when deeds of prowess must be done, or darkness will triumph, and the prince thereof reign without a rival over men. The battle is begun, shouts of victory already ascend from each of the contending hosts; for many a partial overthrow has taken place, and deeply is the field san 348 guined with the blood of the slain. On which side do I mean to enlist? This is a question which every man ought to ask himself: and to this question it behoves every man to obtain a direct answer from his own soul. To write for scepticism or infidelity, is to fight for the prince of darkness to pore over such writings, is to pay the warriors for their services in the field: with might or with money, to aid such a cause, is rebellion against the Prince of Life. Choose ye, therefore, life or death; both are before you, and the Great Arbiter is at hand; a reward according to their works is with Him, and however quiescent He may be at the moment, He will arouse Himself to reward His faithful ones, and to deal out vengeance on the enemy. "Therefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having overcome all, to stand. Stand, therefore, hav. ing your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints," Eph. vi. (To be continued.) THE COVENTRY SOCIETY, FOR THE ABOLITION OF HUMAN SACRIFICES IN INDIA. (February 224, 1830.) In Feb. 1829, a public meeting was held in the County Hall, in this city, to petition parliament for the abolition of the Suttee; at which the worshipful the Mayor presided. The petitions, which were very numerously signed, were presented by one of the members for the city, and the highly respected Bishop of this diocese. Various petitions to parliament were presented during the last session, and, among them, three were from females, which were favourably received. A similar society has been formed in London and Birmingham. It would be gratifying to state, that every county in the United Kingdom possessed at least one such Institution. On this subject, and others of equal importance, and kindred connexion, several very interesting publications, namely, “The Suttee's Cry to Britain;" "The Pilgrim's Tax in India;" "Infanticide in India;" "India's Cries to British Humanity," &c. under the patronage of this society, have been widely circulated. It From India, daily defiled with innocent blood shed like water, intelligence of an interesting description is communicated. The following letter has been received by the Secretary, from the private Secretary of Lord W. Bentinck, dated Government-House, Calcutta, Dec. 22, 1828 :-"I am directed to acknowledge the receipt of your letter to the Governor-General, dated the 7th of April last. His lordship desires me at the same time to present to you his best thanks for the copies of your pamphlets which accompanied it, and to assure you that the one on the Suttee question relates to a subject, which has engaged his particular. attention." The Missionaries in Calcutta, and its vicinity have petitioned the Governor-General on the subject of the Suttee. appears by a communication from Bengal, bearing date Feb. 17, 1829, that some prohibitory regulations have been actually issued. Letters from Serampore and Calcutta, in May and July last, do not mention this prohibition of Suttees; it appears, therefore, probable, that it is on a limited scale, as an experiment. This however is a fact of great importance. The following notice, says a Missionary in India, in March, 1829, appears daily in the papers:-"The Governor-General invites the communication of all suggestions tending to promote any branch of national industry; to improve the commercial intercourse by land or water; to amend the defects in the existing establishments; to encourage the diffusion of education and useful knowledge; and to advance the general prosperity and happiness of the British Empire in India." Surely a brighter day has dawned in the East! let the friends of humanity and religion improve it. Let the friends of humanity be deeply impressed with the nature and extent of human sacrifices in the East, and they will not relax in their efforts till these abominations are "buried midst the wreck of things that were." Still six or seven hundred females are annually burnt or buried alive in British India, besides what fall a sacrifice to this horrid practice in the allied and independent states; according to the philanthropic Col. Walker, " 3,000 infants are annually murdered in Western India ; thousands still perish in pilgrimages, allured to shrines of idolatry, (rendered more celebrated by British connexion and support,) or are hurried down in a state of sickness and debility to the Ganges, and there cruelly murdered, and yet no inquisition is made for their blood." Why does Britain permit 350 these atrocities? "Blood has a voice to reach the skies." It cries to the Senate of our land, "Relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." The cry of mercy for India “has reached the British Isles, and reverberated from her shores :-it has sounded in the ears of her Legislature; it is heard in the midst of our City; it is a loud and a bitter cry." Let cities, towns, and villages, petition for the exertion of British humanity and justice, to abolish every species of human sacrifice in India; and when the public voice is temperately and reasonably expressed, we may rest assured that it will not be suffered to plead in vain. ADULTERATION OF BREAD. ALTHOUGH pure and nutritious bread is so necessary to health and life, there is no article more liable to sophistication. The practice of mixing potatoes with the dough has been already noticed. Potato-starch is used for adulterating flour. Of this I have a positive proof, even in the present day. A few months since, an eminent flour-factor shewed me a powder which he said had been sent him as a substance which might be mixed with flour without discovery, and requested me to examine it, declaring his intention, at the same time, of publishing the transaction. Inspection alone was sufficient to convince me that the powder was potato-starch, and a few experiments soon decided the point. This fraud has no other bad effect than in lessening the quantity of nutritious matter which a given quantity of the bread should contain, beside the extortion of charging full price for an article of less value. Inspection by a high magnifier will detect potato-starch in flour, by its glistening granular appearance. We have heard of bones burned to whiteness, and ground to an impalpable powder, being used to adulterate thirds flour, which, being of a somewhat gritty nature, will disguise the grittiness which it is almost impossible to deprive bones of, be they ever so laboriously ground. This fraud is easily detected; for if much dilute muriatic acid, that is, spirit of salt mixed with water, be poured on such flour, there will be an effervescence or boiling up; and if the liquid be thrown on a filter of paper, the portion which runs through the paper will let fall a heavy white deposit, if pearlash be added. Chalk and whiting are also adulterations which, in small quantity, are often mixed with flour, and although such admixtures are not noxious to health directly, they are injurious in many ways. They may be readily detected by pouring on a large quantity of dilute sulphuric acid, that is, oil of vitriol mixed with six or seven times its weight of water; if an effervescence ensue, it is proof that there is adulteration; and if after filtration, as before directed, the addition of pearl-ash to the clear liquid produce no muddiness, or a very slight degree of it, the presumption is, that the adulteration was chalk or whiting. A SABBATH IN FRANCE. 232 By the Rev. J. W. MORRIS, Author of the Memoirs of Andrew Fuller.-(From Affection's Offering, 1930.) ARRIVING at a considerable town on the continent, in the middle of June, 1829, I was not a little surprised to find the superstitious observances of former times stil continued, but with an evident design to revive the interests of Catholicism, and Alum is a well-known sophistication of support the declining power of the priests. bread, not used on account of its quantity, The sabbath morning was fine, and great but to disguise a bad quality of flour; it is preparations were made for the celebration said to whiten ill-coloured flour, and to of one of the principal festivals, la fete de harden and whiten bread made from flour Dieu, in commemoration of the Ascenwhich has been malted. By some respect- sion. The French are not remarkable for able bakers it has formerly been used, and | cleanliness, as is well known; dirt of every might still be used, if there were not a law description is thrown from the houses into against it, with perfect safety in so small a the streets, where it is suffered to accumuquantity as half a pound of alum to one late till it becomes exceedingly offensive, cwt. of flour, it could not be in the least being seldom removed more than once a degree injurious; for this would be but week. This indecent and unhealthy pracnine thirty-fifths of an ounce to the quartern tice, however, is not peculiar to France; it loaf. When used in double this quantity, generally prevails in Catholic countries, as as it often is, it becomes discoverable to the if it were the appropriate emblem of their taste when the bread grows stale. Be this religion. In Ireland, where French manas it may, we can easily detect alum in ners are unknown, the same disgusting cusbread, for it is only in bread that it need be tom is pursued, to an equal extent with our suspected, by pouring boiling water on it, continental neighbours. letting it cool, pressing out the water, boiling it away to one-third, allowing it to cool, filtering it through paper, and adding to the clear liquor, some solution of muriate of lime. If a considerable muddiness now appear, it is proof of adulteration, and none other can well be suspected than alum. Muriate of lime can readily be prepared by pouring a little dilute muriatic acid on more chalk than it can dissolve, and after the effervescence ceases, filtering the liquor through paper. What passes through the filter is ready for use as a test. Salt, which in small quantity is absolutely necessary to the flavour of bread, is used by fraudulent persons as an adulteration; for a large quantity of it added to dough imparts to it the quality of absorbing, concealing, and retaining a much greater quantity of water than it otherwise would. Bread made from such dough will, on leaving the oven, come out much heavier than it ought, and the additional weight will be merely water. Fortunately the taste of such bread is a sufficient index to its bad quality; it is rough in its grain, and has this remarkble quality, that two adhering loaves will generally separate unevenly, one taking from the other more than its share.-Dr. Lardner's Cabinet Cyclopædia, Vol. III.; being a Treatise on Domestic Economy, Vol. I. On the morning of the day alluded to, la fete de Dieu, carts and scavengers were employed to clean the streets, under the superintendence of an officer of police, who required every housekeeper carefully to sweep the front of his dwelling as he directed. The principal streets through which a religious procession was to pass, were then lined with white linen, suspended from the fronts of the houses, and strewed with leaves of the fleur de lis. Temporary altars were erected at distant intervals, covered with white linen, and adorned with pictures, pots of flowers, large wax candles, and a crucifix. Green boughs were planted behind the altars in form of a crescent: in front a carpet was spread for the priests, who on their arrival consecrated the place with holy water, the swinging of empty censers, shedding a profusion of rose leaves, and performing other gesticular ceremonies. The procession commenced in the forenoon, amidst the roar of cannon from the ramparts, and other military demonstrations. The concourse of people was immense; the lower classes traversing the streets, and those of a higher grade witnessing the fete from their windows. The procession was lined on both sides with a long train of children, walking two abreast with an open mass-book in their hands, the boys wearing dark coats, the girls dressed in white caps and neckerchiefs, and some of them covered with lace veils. Superintendents or teachers attended them, some in black, others in white flannel hoods and dresses, with beads and crucifixes suspended from their sides. The interior was formed of a long train of monks and priests in their respective vestments, alternately singing psalms, and being relieved by martial music. In the centre was born the hoste, under a crimson canopy, supported by a number of ecclesiastics. The whole procession was headed by the military, many of whom appeared with arms in the centre, and brought up the rear with a flourish of drums and trumpets. On the approach of the hoste, the people bowed themselves, and continued in a bending posture till it had passed by. For my own part, I was so stupified with amazement, that I neglected to pay the accustomed homage to the hoste, scarcely knowing whether I was in Christendom, or on the plains of India, witnessing one of the fetes of Juggernaut. A police officer awoke me from my reverie, by putting forth his wand, and calling out, "Otez votre chapeau." A Frenchman standing near and observing it, shrugged up his shoulders, and laughed at the officiousness of the police. I moved my hat, and walked on. 354 in Protestant states, except among a certain class of church-going people, who visit the temple as a sort of apology for the excesses they intend to commit, and so contrive to make what they call their peace with God. Catholic worship begins here as early as five o'clock in the morning, when the chapels are thronged by the lower class, and even milk-women may be seen entering the sanctuary with their pails, preferring rather to attend public prayer in the midst of their business, than wholly to omit the devotions of the day. Yet as soon as the multitudes descend the steps of the porch, they are met by ludicrous fiddlers and songsters, and find no difficulty in immediately joining in the mirth and revelry. Such is modern France, and such the farcical religion which Catholicism has produced. The people generally, all perhaps but the grossly illiterate, evidently regarded the ceremony as a mere farce, or sort of religious entertainment, and would have laughed the priests out of countenance, had it not been for the presence of the military, which formed by far the most imposing part of the spectacle. There was no zeal, no fervour, no enthusiasm of any kind; nothing could be more formal and monotonous. Nearly all the figures in the scene exhibited a character, phrenological and physiognomical, of impenetrable dulness and stupidity, of heads without brains, and countenances without the slightest degree of animation. Meanwhile the streets were full of tumultuous noise, laughing, talking, trifling, till the procession moved on to the great church, where mass was performed, and hundreds rushed for admission. This done, the rest of the day is devoted to gaiety and dissipation, and the sabbath becomes the vainest part of the week. Trade is carried on, with windows and doors partially closed, mechanics follow their employments, carriers deliver goods from the country, taverns and tea gardens are crowded with visitors, and the theatres conclude the profanations of the day. A most unaccountable mixture of levity and devotion presents itself, such as is unknown 136.-VOL. XII. Yet with all this strange composition of character, there is a species of public morals in which the Catholics of France appear to excel. They are vain and frivolous, guilty of petty frauds and impositions, readily disregard the hospitality due to strangers, and have, no doubt, their share of other vices; but public crimes and brutal outrage are seldom heard of. More of these are brought to light in one week at Bow. street, than are known in any town of France for a whole year, the capital alone excepted. The streets here are generally still and quiet at ten o'clock, and people retire to rest without any anxiety about doors and windows; the outer doors are slightly fastened, and the upper windows often left wide open, with bed-clothes and other articles hanging into the street; yet such is the general security and confidence, that no danger is apprehended, and no violence committed. In Alfred's reign, the glory of the British annals, it is said, that a person might travel with untold gold in his possession; but such times have scarcely been heard of since in England. Yet in that part of France which I have visited, a similar state of things still exists, in spite of all the meaner vices. If you visit a retail shop, money may be seen lying about in heaps, and completely within reach, yet there is not the least apprehension of danger. Women come from market with half a peck of loose copper money in a skep or open basket, slung at their backs, protected neither by the eye nor the hand of the owner; yet they walk about at their ease, amidst crowds of people, without fear of sustaining any loss. Such facts speak strange things in favour of Catholic France, and the facts themselves are indisputable, Some of the 2 |