THEIR CLERGY.

WHEN we were approaching the church of Chinganoor, we met one of the cassanars, or Syrian clergy. He was dressed in a white loose vestment, with a cap of red silk hanging down behind. Being informed who he was, I said to him, in the Syriac language, "Peace be unto you." He was surprised at the salutation, but immediately answered, "The God of peace be with you." He accosted the rajah's servant in the language of the country to know who I was, and immediately returned to the village to announce our approach. When we arrived, I was received at the door of the church by three kasheeshas, or "presbyters," who were habited in like manner, in white vestments. Their names were Jesu, Zecharias, and Urias, which they wrote down in my journal, each of them adding to his name the title of kasheesha. There were also present two shumshanas, or "deacons." The elder priest was a very intelligent man, of reverend appearance, having a long white beard, and of an affable and engaging deportment. (P. 116.)

Candenad, a church. This is the residence of Mar Dionysius, the metropolitan. He resides in a building attached to the church. I was much struck with his first appearance; he was dressed in a vestment of dark red silk, a large golden cross hung from his neck, and his venerable beard reached below his girdle. Such, thought I, was the appearance of Chrysostom in the fourth century. On public occasions he wears the episcopal mitre, a muslin robe is thrown over his under-garment, and in his hand he bears the crosier, or pastoral staff. He is a man of highly respectable character in his church, eminent for his piety, and for the attention which he devotes to his sacred functions. I found him to be far superior in general learning to any of his clergy whom I had yet

seen... His official designation is Mar Dionysius, metropolitan of Malabar.

In a conversation on the subject of ordination, the metropolitan's chaplains expressed their doubts as to Romish and English orders; but their conviction that "if there is such a thing in the world as ordination by the laying on of hands in succession from the apostles, it was probable that they possessed it ;" and that "there was no record of history or tradition to impeach their claim." They expected that in any official negotiation on the subject of an union with the church of England, "the antiquity and purity of Syrian ordination" should be expressly admitted.

THEIR WORSHIP.

In the evening the church (at Maveley-car) was lighted up for prayers, at which a good many of the people attended. Nothing objectionable appeared at this service. The priests pronounced the prayers without book, and chanted their hymns, having their faces turned towards the altar. They have no images; but on the walls were paintings from subjects of scripture-history.

Next day, being Sunday, I had an opportunity of seeing the whole service, morning and evening, as I sat in the chancel with one of their books in my hand: the people were very decently habited, and filled the church.

Again, at Ranniel, I attended divine service on the Sunday. Their Liturgy is that which was formerly used in the churches of the patriarch of Antioch. During the prayers there were intervals of silence; the priests praying in a low voice, and every man praying for himself. These silent intervals add much to the solemnity and appearance of devotion. They use incense in the churches. It grows in the woods around them, and contributes much, they say, to health, and to the warmth

I

and comfort of the church during the cold and rainy season of the year. At the conclusion of the service, a ceremony takes place which pleased me much: the priest, or bishop if he be present, comes forward, and all the people pass by him as they go out, receiving his benediction individually. If any man has been guilty of any immorality, he does not receive the blessing; and this, in their primitive and patriarchal state, is accounted a severe punishment. Instruction by preaching is little in use among them now...... They have some ceremonies nearly allied to those of the Greek church. Here, as in all churches in a declining state, there is too much formality in the worship. But they have the Bible and a scriptural Liturgy, and these will save a church in the worst of times. Yet, although the body of the church appears to be ignorant and formal, there are individuals who are alive to righteousness, and are distinguished from the rest by their purity of life, and are sometimes censured for their too rigid piety.

ACCORDING to a recent statement made by captain Swinton to the Royal Asiatic Society, the primitive Syrian Christians of Malayala now compose fifty-seven churches, comprehending about thirteen thousand five hundred families, or about seventy thousand souls ; while the Romo-Syrians have ninety-seven churches, comprising about ninety thousand souls. Since the days of Buchanan, the Church (of England) Missionary Society has carried on extensive operations in that part of India. "Their stations," says the Rev. Dr. Wilson,* “have now for many years enjoyed the services of able and pious. agents. The establishment of a college at Kottayam, for

*Of the Free Church of Scotland's Mission at Bombay.

the instruction of candidates for the ministry in the Syrian church, and which, through the kind offices of Major-General Munro, the resident of Travankur, now an influential elder of our own church, received a large endowment in land from the Ráni of that country, formed a part of the plan of the missionaries. At first it was

thought practicable to conduct their operations so as to preserve the integrity and authority of the Syrian church; but experience has shown the necessity of receiving parties disposed to leave its community for the enjoyment of a purer doctrine and discipline, into the English church. The excellent missionaries of the London Missionary Society at Quilon have likewise, to some extent, sought the good of the Syrians."

THE MARONITES.

THE state of the eastern church towards the middle of the seventh century had become most deplorable. Devastated by the ravages of war, famine, and the oppressions of the triumphant Moslemin, she was destitute withal of those internal consolations which Christianity has never failed to impart in times of the greatest gloom, wherever its doctrines have been held inviolate, and its spirit devoutly maintained; but, in her case, the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace was gone, and the light of truth was obscured by the cold shadows of heresy, the undue love of speculation in minds too ignorant of the letter, or too regardless of the authority, of scripture; while a reckless disposition for schismatic divisions, the spirit of partisanship, "bitterness and wrath, clamour, evil-speaking, and malice," all tended to restrain the grace, or to banish the presence, of the Divine Comforter.

Among the divines who received the decisions of Chalcedon, there were some who maintained, nevertheless, the doctrine of one operation in Christ; in other words, believing in the truth of the two natures in the Saviour, they did not consider that each nature had an operation of its own, but that as both natures constituted one person, so the modus of acting in or by that divine person was single, or individual; thus making the oneness of the operation a consequence of the oneness of the person. The first who gave a dogmatic expression to this sentiment appears to have been Theodore, a bishop of Pharan, in Arabia, who soon found a powerful coadjutor in Sergius, a Syrian of Jacobite origin, and then holding the patriarchal chair of Constantinople, who, as one false principle may seldom be held alone, in acknowledging his approval of Theodore's doctrine, advanced a