who could not draw up a story essentially gross and anti-Christian, in periods which, detached from their context, might defy the keenest scrutiny, and who had not dexterity sufficient to retort upon his accuser the chivalrous motto, Honi soit qui mal y pense;-Do not interpret my book by the depravity of your own mind.

The truth is, that in one sense, the best novels are the worst. They do not repel by undisguised levity: they look innocent, and therefore men think they may be conscientiously approached. And where has been the harm? No definable harm, perhaps, has resulted; no immediate explosion of romantic imprudence; all is quiet and tranquil, as before. But if the novel-I assume such to be the case-has been read with ardour and fixed at tention, and with deepening interest as the circumstances of the story developed themselves, and gathered towards the catastrophe, will any observer of the human mind assert that no effect is produced? Are our minds so constructed as that they may be nailed, for hour after hour, to a work of fiction, but with no influence upon the passions? A great master of morals has given currency to the works of a novelist of the preceding century, by asserting that he taught the passions to move at the command of virtue. He would have written more accurately, had he supposed them to have fluttered under the excitement of high feeling. A state of excitement is the real effect produced by these writings, and which is not counteracted by some ten or twenty lines bringing up the rear of three volumes, and exhorting the reader to adore the loveliness of virtue.

I have seen enough of the world, sir, to convince my judgment of its selfish, alluring, and plausible character; and if a conviction of the understanding always governed the heart, I should perhaps venture farther than I now do, into the popular literature of this age. But I

cannot trust myself. I have gained such a share,at least, of practical wisdom, as warns me not to expose my passions to temptation. Though rendered somewhat torpid by time and serious engagements, I dread the still perilous influence of impassioned writers. They might yet persuade, or half persuade me, that this our present life is not exactly what the Scriptures, and my own experience and calculations, describe it to be; not a state of existence where to be really happy we must avoid being too impatient for happiness, where employment insures more pleasure than indolence, and where it is very possible to be contented without perpetual stimulus.

With regard to my immediate concern with the popular books of the day, I own that I have been greatly embarrassed about admitting certain admired performances into my family circle, from the difficulty of ascertaining whether any novel were admissible, and then whether I could, satisfactorily per mit my children to have at their command even those which are honourable exceptions to the general run of novels. Up to the present hour, I have certainly forbid the entrance even of these. And why? 1st, Because, although my children (if you will excuse this domestic egotism) possess, as I trust, many hopeful qualities, I by no means presume to look upon their characters as formed, or their minds as sufficiently pre-occupied with sacred instruction; and consequently I dare not intrust them with books which have, in my view, a direct tendency to secularize their feelings, to give them a premature acquaintance with the ways of the world, to stir up a busy curiosity to be better acquainted with a scene which, according to these stories, abounds with so much entertaining variety, and finally to cause them to feel a sensation of their own inferiority, at not having had a portion of the gayeties which diversify the lives of the wonderful

children and young persons there described. 2d, Because, finding that where a similar taste in reading exists, there will naturally follow a similarity of views in other things, I wish to draw a line of separation in books between my children and those families with whom an intimacy would be injurious. 3d, Because, whatever speed other children may have made, mine have not yet perused the standard, established classics of our country. My eldest daughter only finished Addison's critique on Milton five weeks since; and I tell her, that, according to the ancient code of lettered law, she must fairly purchase her right to run through the new publications by fairly studying the old ones.

It seems, indeed, that the books of to-day and yesterday, and such as are promised for to-morrow, are the only literature now in fashion. A lady reader, who occasionally vis sits my family, astonished me the other evening, when, after a two hours' criticism on the comparative excellencies of Lord Byron, Campbell, Walter Scott, Southey, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Moore, Leigh Hunt, Crabbe, Montgomery, Graham, and tribes of secondary names; this wide-reading critic did not seem to be aware that, about forty years. since, somebody had written the lives of other poets, and that his performance constituted the finest effort of critical skill in the language: and to increase my wonder, she had neglected to peruse, in passing, only Paradise Lost, Comus, Samson Agonistes, Dryden's Fables, Cato, the Castle of Indolence, and, if I remember right, the Night Thoughts. Every work of fiction in prose she had read, except Rasselas; and things of that kind."

46

A person familiar with current poems and novels, is no cipher, I understand, in modern science. This familiarity is the passport to abundance of parties. Abundance of parties! The very phrase indicates that there is something in the CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 185.

system of modern reading which, while it is valuable to the thoughtless creatures who bask and flutter in the sunshine of the world, is obviously hostile to those whose better principles flourish rather in retirement, and who, when they emerge from the shade, offer a most ungraceful exhibition of inconsistency to the stare and secret ridicule of the very multitudes with whom they venture to mingle in unsafe pleasures. It is urged against the present manners of the Christian community, that in many instances they transgress the boundary assigned to them in the last age; and that, whatever may have caused the transition, its results have been injurious to the conceding party, without any perceptible benefit to the opposite. I should certainly calculate upon such effects from the acknowledged improbability of softening any sworn enemy by half measures, and especially by a process which bore upon it the impress of artifice and timidity. Let us beware of endeavouring to win over the world, lest in the desperate manœuvre we quickly retire with loss, and the loss in this instance will be all oni one side. If we are not to think, to feel; to act, and to perish with the world, let a deep and wide interval yet exist between the habits, of pleasure of the two parties. It is the duty of Christian parents to deny their dearest, inmates those intellectual gratifications which cannot be separated from what has polluted many, and possesses at least the power of injuring all. Have we among us so little acquaintance with the philosophy of human nature, as to be blind to the effects of causes which act with noiseless, tranquil, unseen, and yet potent operation?

EXCUBITOR.

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. THE following is an extract of a letter from a gentleman who has

2 R

"Columbo, October 28, 1816. "I will now leave Goa, to say something of the Syrian Christians whom we visited, and of whom I will hereafter send you a more complete account. You will be surprised to hear that these Syrian Christians are at present neither Nestorians nor Eutychians. They disclaim the errors of both, and profess to believe Christ to be very God and very man. They, however, acknowledge seven sacraments. In baptism they use water only, and sign with a cross the eyes, nose, mouth, and ears; to signify, as they say, that these senses of the carnal man are to be obedient to the Cross. In the Lord's supper they use leavened bread, and stamp the wafer with a cross dipped in oil; but in neither of these sacraments do they use salt. They have two bishops, both residing at the same place; but only one of them appears to have any charge of the clergy. Their priests are ordained by the imposition of hands; and though they have but three orders, bishops, priests, and deacons, yet they have many different degrees in each order. understand there are three among the priests, and four among the deacons. They formerly bad archdeacons, but have none at present. They have many customs among them which mark them as an Oriental Church; but both their ceremonies and their doctrines have been much corrupted by the Church of Rome. They administer both bread and wine to the laity; * Vide Christian Observer for 1816,

p. 822.

I

but the elements are then mixed together. They do not believe in transubstantiation; though they

say the body and blood of Christ are verily and indeed taken by the faithful communicant. They do not believe in purgatory, but they believe that there is a common receptacle, a gehenna, for the souls of men after death, into which Christ descended, in the interval between his crucifixion and resurrection, and to which they think he alluded when speaking to the thief on the cross; and that Christ, at his descension, relieved the souls of all then there; and that the souls who have died since will remain there till the general resurrection, when they will be judged according to their deeds. In the mean time, the good are supposed to feel a pleasing hope of happiness, and the wicked a fearful looking for of judgment. They believe that certain saints and martyrs are in heaven above this receptacle, and yet not admitted into the presence of God. They pray through the intercession of saints; but strenuously deny that they worship saints, and will not allow any images of them in their churches, professing that salvation is through Christ alone. Their liturgy and whole service is performed in the Syriac language, which is understood only by the priests; they have, however, of late years, used in many of their churches the Malayalim translation of the Gospels, which was made chiefly by their present bishop, Mar Dionysius, (then Ramban Joseph,) under the superintendance of Mar Dionysius, who was the bishop in Dr. Buchanan's time. I was present at their performance of Divine Service on a Sunday, and which, I am sorry to say, partakes in some measure of the superstitious mummeries of the Papists. They use frankincense, chant the whole service, cross themselves often, elevate the Host. On the Sunday, they

have a very useful custom of reading a portion of the Gospels, in Malayalim, from the altar, and then briefly expounding to the congregation. They do not preach as Europeans do, nor use pulpits: they have no schools, and little means of teaching the poor; but this arises rather from their extreme poverty than from any unwillingness to teach and be taught. Indeed, consider ing the persecutions they have suffered from the Papists, and the proselyting ravages of Tippoo Saib, I am thankful and surprised that they still retain so much of genuine Christianity amongst them.

"The dress of the priests consists of loose white trowsers, with a white surplice and a red silk cap. The proper dress is of a dark colour; but they told us, that they were too poor to purchase it: each priest has a pastoral staff, generally tipped with gold. At ordination, the priests profess to sign the Canons of the Council of Nice, which are read to them by the bishop'; but they could not show us any copy of them. They, at the same time, swear to shave the crown of the head, and not to shave their beards; to fast on the fourth and the sixth days of the week: but they do not engage to lead a life of celibacy: this custom has crept in among them from the Romans. The bishop, Mar Dionysius, has lately sent a circular letter to his clergy, expressly stating that they are at liberty to marry some have actually availed themselves of this permission, and forty more have declared their readiness to do so when their circumstances will admit. Their incomes are wretchedly small, merely fees and gratuities. They all, both bishop and clergy, earnestly besought us to give them copies of the Scriptures, both in Syriac and Malayalim. I had with me a few copies of the Syriac Gospels, the type of which they con

sider as exceedingly beautiful. I hope the Bible Society will go on to complete that work: it is a highly useful, well-executed edition.

"The form and architecture of their churches is simple, and may be Syrian; the windows long and narrow, not pointed, as Dr. Buchanan implies. They possess very few books; I understood no printed ones but the Gospels in Malayalim; and, besides the Scriptures in manuscript, they have some sacred hymns and their liturgy, which are often obliged to be carried from one church to another for service. The copies of the Old Testament which we saw, wanted Nehemiah; and the New Testament had the Nestorian readings. Some books are also in their Canon which we do not call canonical,

"They were very much pleased with the Bishop of Calcutta's visit, and expressed a very earnest desire to put themselves under the protection of the English. Colonel Munro, the British Resident at Travancore, is doing a great deal for them he has established a collége for the better education of their priests, and employs many of them in his public office. I must not omit to mention one interesting and truly pious custom of these Christians. The father of a family collects his children around him in the evening; and, sitting on a sod on the outside of his cottage, he reads or repeats portions of Scripture to them. These, of course, consist chiefly of such passages as are most easily understood and retained in the memory-the parables, the passion and death of Christ, &c.-which he explains, and dilates on the doctrines and duties of Christianity as he is able.Here, then, is a promising harvest: if the Lord but send forth reapers, every thing may be hoped for where we find so much zeal and piety, and so much inclination to be instructed."

WHEN Theseus had exhausted all the efforts of genius in the hope of escaping from the labyrinth of the Minotaur, Ariadne put into his hands a simple clue by which he was able to trace out all the intricate windings of his prison. The moral which possibly the ancients, with whom signs were things, might have designed to convey by this fable was, that simple means are often able to accomplish that which might be in vain attempted by all the refinements of genius and knowledge. Such, at least, we conceive, is the truth which is illustrated by the sermon before us. We by no means cast any imputation on either the erudition or the talents of the reverend author, when we affirm that his honesty and common sense have led him to a plain, simple, and practical manner of treating the much-controverted topic discussed in this sermon, which promises more for the elucidation and establishment of Christian truth, than all the dialectics and ratiocinations of a severer learning. He has supplied the proper clue by which we may safely follow the windings of this theological labyrinth, and escape the monsters of controversy and heresy which watch at the mouth of it. shall allow the author himself to explain his views upon this subject.

"In the consideration of all questions in practical religion, there will

generally be found some fundamental principle to guide us in our inquiries. If this principle be rightly apprehended, smaller difficulties will commonly disappear, or cease materially to embarrass our judgment. We can scarcely, indeed, expect, without a presumption bordering on a claim to infallibility, to escape every error in the determination of any extensive subject. If we wait for this, we shall wait in vain: but if we are careful to seize the leading features of truth, as they are drawn in the holy Scriptures, we shall be successful shall be right, where it is most importin the main object of our studies; we' ant to be right, in the essential doctrines and duties of Christianity. Whereas, a contrary course is ordinarily the prelude to disappointment. If we begin our inquiries respecting any of the great doctrines of the Gospel, by a precise and minute adjustment of inferior topics; if we laboriously occupy ourselves in ascertaining, to a nicety, the degrees of probability on the one side or the other, in matters of doubtful disputation, whilst we pass slightly over the chief and controlling considerations connected with it, we are not very likely to

arrive at a sound decision. Refinements are lost on the great bulk of mankind, and lost upon ourselves. It is by great and energetic principles that the affections of men are moved; principles which, derived manifestly from the unerring oracles of God, and acting powerfully on the consciences and lives of men, though they leave behind them untouched various points of smaller im-' portance, yet at once gain and sway the heart." pp. 5—7.

This, then, is the clue by which we may hope to escape from the perplexing and dangerous tortuosities of those subtle reasonings by which men, more able than sincere, sometimes love to puzzle a plain question. We conceive that the principle on which this suggestion of the author will be found to rest, is perfectly sound: it proceeds, in fact, on the assumption that all which is essential to be known>: may be known by the honest and