good of the Church, in practice, our method of proceeding in England may eventually be found the best: but it is unjust, it is outrageous, to revile a foreigner for venturing to think that a different policy is preferable, and expressing that opinion with temperance and respect. For myself I can only say, that if, after a sojourn in America, in speaking of American Episcopacy, I were to urge the strong tendency of an election for the high office of Bishop to produce intrigue, party feeling, and dispute among the Clergy;-if I were to state my exceeding dislike to making the Clergy dependant on the voluntary contributions of the Laity for support, and my belief that such a mode of provision would deprive them of that freedom of rebuke which I judge essential to the character of a Christian minister ;-if I were to object to the mixture of laymen in their lower house of convention;-if I were to state these things in the honesty of my heart, in a deep conviction that these were evils, and in an unaffected regret to see them in a church, for the excellencies of which, as a true Episcopalian, I had the strongest respect, and for whose continuance and extension I devoutly prayed; I should feel both surprised and grieved, that any man could be found who would proclaim me an abuse-hunter for thus expressing my honest belief. But if he went on to charge me with hypocrisy, because, believing these things, and stating my belief of them to my American friends while among them, I nevertheless hailed the friendship of the worthy and the good there, as a boon and a blessing, and enjoyed that Christian and rational intercourse with them, which is indeed one of the world's best blessings, and which is never diminished or destroyed between noble minds by difference in opinion, while each is assured of the truth of the other's heart and the soundness of his principles; if my accuser so misrepresented me, that those who read his statements, believed me to be mean enough to court hospitalities in a foreign land, and to repay the hospitable with abuse; my grief and surprise would not rise into indignation, but subside into contempt.A lofty mind may be led to love and to be indignant wrongfully, for love and indignation are passions of the noble mind, and it is the lot of man to err and to be deceived; but such a mind never lightly entertains suspicions of a mean and unworthy bearing, and is only brought by clear and irresistible proofs to admit that others can be guilty of conduct which it would spurn with indignation itself. Ir is probable this Divine Ode was written by David to commemorate his victory over Goliah," the presumptuous foe" who defied the armies of Israel, and cursed David by his gods; "Am I a dog that thou comest to me with staves? Come to me, and I will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field." Then answered David, who was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance," Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied." It may be observed, that it is not unusual to find in the Psalms of David, thanksgiving for creation, and for the superiority given to man over other creatures, connected with thanksgiving for Jewish victory, as in the Psalm before us. See Psal. xxiv. 8; lxxxix. 13; cxxxvi. 9, 10; cxlvii. Jehovah, our Lord, CHORUS. How glorious art Thou* throughout the earth! 1. SEMI-CHORUS. Thou who dost display thy glory in the skies Hast by means of children, even sucklings, ordained victory, To still the presumptuous foet! When I contemplate thy heavens,-the work of thy fingers, The moon and the stars, which Thou hast established, What is feeble-man that Thou dost bear him in mind, And what the son of Adam that Thou dost bestow upon him thy regard. 2. SEMI-CHORUS. Yet Thou didst make him but little inferior to God,§ Thou madest him ruler over the works of thine hands, All sheep and oxen, Yea, and beasts of the field, Birds of the air, and fishes of the sea, All creatures traversing the paths of the seas. Jehovah, our Lord, CHORUS. How glorious art Thou throughout the earth! S. ON THE VOWEL-POINTS IN HEBREW. MR. EDITOR,I am glad to find that you admit into your journal articles relative to the study and right understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures. My present object is to say a few words with respect to the system of writing Hebrew without the vowel-points;-a system which, to say the least, is extremely inconvenient, and may lead the inexperienced reader into error. It is obvious that the points as well as the accents are very useful, * Heb. How glorious is thy name. † Or, "out of the mouth." 1 Goliah. This and the following lines express exactly Gen. i. 26. "God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." to bor) Heb. put all things under his feet. 1 10 2 if not indispensably necessary, in reading the Hebrew, in order to ascertain the different significations of words similar to each other with respect to their characters; for several Hebrew words are differently interpreted, according to the diversity of accents, and change of the vowel-points. Thus, the words (earth) DD (heavens) (Egypt), and others of the same description, are differently pronounced, according to the place they have in a sentence: thus, in the pronunciation of these words, whenever they are accented with (1) a siluk, or (^) athnach, which indicate a pause; some of their short אֶרֶץ שָׁמָיִם becomes שָׁמַיִם vowels are changed to long ones, as מִצְרָיִם becomes מִצְרִים אָרֶץ becomes I shall, however, now confine myself to the points alone, and will shew how entirely the signification of many words depends upon the points being annexed to them, or not. For example, the three letters vary both in sound and the meaning they intend to convey, according to the way they are pointed; thus the said three letters, if read, constitute a compound of a preposition and interrogative pronoun, signifying with what, but if read they signify a high place or altar. The use of the points is further proved when we notice the variations in the verb; as, for instance, the verb (to learn) (learn thou) ▼ (he learned) (to teach) 12 (he taught) (to be taught), which are all formed similar, with the exception of the points, but they at one view shew whether it be the imperative mood, the infinitive, or the third person of the indicative, &c. &c. Again, the verby, according as it is pointed in the first form Kal, is pronounced, y, and signifies to answer; but in the second energetic form pihel it is ready, and means to afflict; and this difference will occur in almost every verb. Likewise with the points a great difficulty would arise in many cases in distinguishing whether a word be a verb or a noun; as, for example, the three letters are easily discovered by the points whether they signify to remember, he remembered, remember thou, a remembrance, a male, and many others. In conclusion, to shew the great use of the points, and to prove how liable we are to erroneous constructions of the meaning of words without them, I shall quote a striking passage from the Talmud, Baba Bathra, fol. 21. King David remonstrating with Joab for not having totally extirpated the Edomites, but having only put the males of that nation to the sword, the general in his vindication answered, he acted in strict conformity to the Mosaic law, which expressly says (Deut. xxv. 19.) meaning, * thou shalt blot out the male תִּמְחֶה אֶת־זכר עֲמָלֵק of Amalek," &c.; to which the king replied, We do not read the word you have mentioned, which signifies male, but we read it i signifying the remembrance; therefore you ought to have destroyed, the whole race; Joab replied, if he acted erroneously it was unintentional, for he had construed the word 7 denoting male, as he had been instructed by his teacher. TT Thus, on the interpretation, or rather the manner of reading a single word, the destiny of a whole nation depended, and they were saved only by the difference in affixing the points." I remain, most respectfully yours, % PROFESSOR HEINEMANN. POPERY IN COLOMBIA, MR. EDITOR,-It will be probably neither an uninteresting nor an unprofitable pursuit, to watch the progress of religious feeling in those countries which, having recently emerged from a state of severe despotism, both civil and religious, are now in the enjoyment of free political institutions and something like religious toleration,-I mean the late colonial possessions of Catholic Spain. Already have some conflicts occurred there (subsequently to the establishment of the new order of things) between the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, the result of which has in each case been, the submission of the ecclesiastical power to the constituted authorities of the country; but a most atrocious attempt has recently been made by a Catholic priest in Colombia, by the circulation of a pamphlet, entitled, "The Serpent of Moses," to inculcate the doctrine, that the extermination of all heretics was the bounden duty of every good Catholic. He supports this humane and Christian precept by applying sundry passages of the Old Testament, in which the Almighty commands his chosen people to stand apart and be separate from the idolatrous nations of the universe, and others, in which He expressly ordains the destruction of certain of those offending people, to the case of the Roman Catholics and Protestants of the present day and in plain and unambiguous terms, he calls upon the Catholics of Colombia to come forward and destroy all the heretics in the country. The publication of this pamphlet produced a strong sensation in the city of Caracas. The author was brought before the competent tribunal; the work was decreed libellous; its circulation prohibited; and the priest sentenced to pay a fine of a thousand dollars. I find the following article, written on the occasion, in the Colombiano, Caracas paper, of March last, and I send it you in the expectation that, as shewing the state of the public mind in that country, on an occasion and under circumstances so peculiar, it may be found worthy the perusal of those of your readers who take an interest in watching what I hope we may call "the Decline and Fall of the Romish Church." D. From the Colombiano, of the 22d of March, 1826, "The Roman Catholic Church has been famous, for ages, for its matchless skill in confounding the doctrine and discipline of the Christian religion, so as to identify two subjects which are of distinct and disproportionate interest. By its doctrine we understand those tenets which are enjoined by the Holy Scriptures, the observance of which we confess to be essentially necessary to our happiness both here and hereafter. By this definition, we mean not a mere set of words, affecting nothing but our belief, but likewise a body of laws to govern our actions in all the duties and relations of life. By its discipline, we understand a mere church system of government of those who believe in the doctrine: in reality, a body of civil laws controuling civil conduct, and dispensing penal punishments, a discipline which religious teachers have generally a personal as well as party interest in rendering as despotic as possible-in making themselves tyrants, and their followers slaves. Thus, whilst the doctrine of the Christian Church is imperative and immutable, we believe that its discipline may be variously exercised. We think every man herein free to choose for himself: that, in this particular he is not bound to adopt any thing which cannot be found in the holy volumes, on a fair and rational construction of the text: that he may include nothing as binding, which the wisdom, and sometimes the frailty or folly of man, has for its own ends endeavoured to add to the words of heaven. The reasonableness of this distinction needs but little illustration, Every doctrine, and every sect professing the same doctrine, has its peculiar discipline. These, as we have already observed, are perfectly distinct, although religious teachers have been found dishonest enough to make the latter a portion of the former, inasmuch as not only is their individual importance, but their daily bread augmented or diminished, with the number of their followers. Whilst religious teachers have thus an interest in exalting themselves into tyrants, they possess adequate and fearful means of doing so, among the weak and ignorant. They can work upon the superstition or fears of their followers,--appeal to their party spirit, or even their piety,-bend the doctrine to support the discipline,-represent the latter to be a portion of the former,-render both alike cases of conscience, and make their flocks regard it as much a matter of sin and divine displeasure to violate the one as the other. For these reasons it is, that whilst the laws of a sound Constitution hold sacred the doctrine of the Christian Church, they impose some restrictions to prevent religious teachers from sapping the foundation of civil rights, and imposing tyrannical laws on the people. To possess liberty, we must be protected, not merely from the tyranny of state functionaries, but of all men we must be shielded from the undue ascendancy of every corporation in the nation, whether ecclesiastical or civil. ་་ That a government cannot exist without religion, is an axiom often made manifest, and still more confirmed of late years by the French Revolution: but men, to be good citizens and even virtuous Christians, must be treated as rational beings in this particular; they must be allowed the exercise of their reason, be permitted to distinguish the worship of God from that which demonstrably is not the worship of God; from that which is the worship of man, designed for his own aggrandizement, and which would bring on both religion and the state, fearful evils. Let us place as many safeguards as we choose around the national church, let us even refuse all who dissent therefrom seats in our legislature, or high public offices; but in the name of that holy sdt gaitutteth i „tɔiquis 9m52 941 lo |