Into Eternity, (Like as a speck of water's lost with in the sea :) Immeasurable, shall become, No reckoning require, So vast, immense will be it's sum, A NOW, How very loud, Time's value teach. Tick tack, in each stroke Time, doth fly, Yet oft we feel a void, How many hours have I pass'd unemploy'd, Great would be in amount, And much of satisfaction, now bestow, Away from my mind wear; DISEASE COMMUNICATED BY LEECHES.The editors of a German medical journal, desire to intimate to their readers, that leeches which have been applied to patients affected with syphilis, are capable of communicating the discase on being used again. Several apparently well-authenticated cases of this disease having been communicated to children by leeches that had been applied to a syphilitic patient, have been published in the foreign journals. In this country, it is very common for apothecaries to apply the same leeches to several patients. When a leech throws up a little blood on being applied to the skin, previously to its adhering, the patient may conclude for certainty that it has been used.-Foreign Review. CREED OF THE SIAMESE. The prevailing creed among the Siamese is Buddhism-one of the forms of worship which have exerted the most extensive and permanent influence upon the destinies and opinions of mankind. The moral precepts of the Siamese are comprised in ten commandments, remarkable enough to be repeated. 1. Do not slay animals. 2. Do not steal. 3. Do not commit adultery. 4. Do not tell lies nor backbite. 5. Do not drink wine. 6. Do not eat after twelve o'clock. 7. Do not frequent plays nor public spectacles, nor listen to music. 8. Do not use perfumes, nor wear flowers, or other personal ornaments. 9. Do not sleep or recline upon a couch that is above one cubit high. 10. Do not borrow nor be in debt.-American Quarterly Review. PUBLISHED BY COWIE AND STRANGE, PATERNOSTER ROW; Harjette and Savill, Printers, 107, St. Martin's Lane, Charing Cross. THE A RELIGIOUS AND LITERARY JOURNAL. AS EVERY MAN HATH RECEIVED THE GIFT, SO MINISTER THE SAME ONE TO ANOTHER." No. 23.] THURSDAY, JULY 2, 1829. SERVICES AT THE ORDINATION OF THREE MISSIONARIES [PRICE 3d. SENT BY THE EVANGELICAL MISSIONARY SOCIETY OF PARIS, TO THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. THE ordination of the three missionaries sent by the Evangelical Missionary Society of Paris, to this country, whence they are to proceed to the Cape of Good Hope, under the care of Dr. Philip, took place at the church of Filles-Sainte-Marie, in Saint-Antoine-street, at two o'clock in the afternoon of May 2, 1829. A numerous auditory filled the church, long before the religious service began. The three missionaries, Messrs. Lemue, Bisseux, and Rolland, sat in front of the pulpit, with the Bible open before them. In a circle to their right and left, sat the Rev. Messrs. Marron, Monod, sen., Juillerat, Monod, jun., of the reformed church of Paris; Messrs. Goëpp, Boissard, Jogle, of the church of the confession of Augsburg; the Rev. Messrs. Alègre, of Le Havre; Bellot, of Arras; Duvivier, of Asinières-les-Bourges; Martin, of Bordeaux; William Monod, of Saint-Quentin; Montandon, of Luneray; Née, of Marsauceux; Paumier, of Rouen; Ramu, of Geneva; Réville, of Dieppe; Rosselloty, of Châtillon-sur-Loire; Soulier, an aged minister; Stapfer, professor and minister of the gospel; and Clottu, minister of the gospel. Count Ver Huell, President of the Missionary Society, sat in the centre. At a quarter past two, Mr. Marron, President of the Consistory of the reformed Church of Paris, ascended the pulpit, and pronounced the following prayer: "This is the house of God! this is the gate of heaven! Oh, our God, enable us, in accordance with the feelings of the holy patriarch, to appropriate this language to ourselves in this place! We rejoice in the solemn occasion which has assembled us, we congratulateourselves that we are here, as in thine abode; here the gates of heaven are opened to our view, of that VOL.' I. kingdom which is truth and virtue, mercy and peace. That kingdom thou hast established in this world by thine anointed One, and, by thy grace, it is preparing us for glory. All other kingdoms have successively passed away: they will successively pass over the earth as a fleeting shadow. Thy kingdom, O my God! the kingdom of heaven, has eternal foundations, and it will never pass away. Time, yielding to eternity, will introduce thy people into a state of immeasurable and interminable blessedness, in the dispensation of perfection. The patriarchs, the prophets foresaw, and predicted this reign, even in the most distant ages; thy angels proclaimed it at Bethlehem; and we hail it with transports of joy, in those words of our Saviour on the cross: It is finished! It is finished! But, oh, our God! have we then nothing more to desire? Have thy power, thy wisdom, thine infinite goodness completely fulfilled all our prayers? Lord, thou guidest us here below by hope and faith. If we have sorrows, they are alleviated by these. Within what narrow bounds is our terrestrial pilgrimage circumscribed! We are impatient, because we are mortal. A thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, when it is swallowed up in the abyss of the past, like a watch in the night. Teach us, then, Lord, to wait with confidence, with resignation, the accomplishment of thy celestial decrees; and dispose us to concur in them, beneath thy paternal auspices, with the whole extent of our means. Thou wilt have us work with thee in the progressive extirpation of the tares of falsehood and vice : this is the honourable task of every Christian; it is in particular the solemn office of the preachers of the gospel. May each of us in the circle of his engage 2 B ments and relations, appreciate his duties, and perform them with a zeal proportioned to their importance. May each of us obtain from thee that invaluable commendation, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Lord, new labourers are prepared to enter thy vineyard; they have devoted themselves particularly to that part of thy vineyard where the most lamentable sterility prevails: they expect nothing but tribulation, sacrifices, and dangers; martyrdom itself does not terrify them in the best of causes. Support them to the utmost of their need! may nothing shake their devotedness or their courage! crown their efforts with desirable effects! may their expectation, may our common expectation from thee not be fallacious! All we, who are here assembled, have but one interest, one desire. But, Lord, regard with special favour the ministers who are assembled here to confer ordination on our new brethren in the ministry; an ordination which good order and discipline require, which shall promote our common edification, and impress on them a character not less indelible than authentic. We call to mind that injunction of the apostle of the Gentiles, Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other mens' sins. Lord, we have been careful, as much as lay in us, that these candidates for the most sacred of all enterprises, should receive an education, and a preparation suitable to their religious design; we have ascertained, to the best of our power, their principles, their conversation, their voluntary and persevering determination; fulfil in them the work of thy good pleasure, and may this day be to them, be to us all, a day of the sweetest remembrance, of the most heartfelt thanksgivings! may these young candidates for the apostleship, having piety for their vocation, zeal for talent, and virtue for eloquence, give thee in return a multitude of souls, won to obedience to the crucified One!-Bless every where the work of gospel missions, the irrefragable effect of that awakening of a religious spirit for which we cannot sufficiently bless thee! Hasten, Lord,-hasten to the full extent of our wishes, the time promised in thy oracles, when there shall be one fold, and one shepherd; when the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the channels of the sea! Thou hast promised to thine anointed the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession. May the work of Bible and Missionary Societies concur in the approaching accomplishment of thy word! Bless, in a particular manner, the establishment which this church, inspired with a sacred rivalry, has formed within its bosom. Bless him who is entrusted with its superintendence! increase his zeal, and enlighten his prudence; his sole ambition is to be at once the example and the guide of those who are confided to his care. Bless all those who are associated in its direction, as paternal governors! May no difficulties, no opposition, slacken, their pious exertions! Is there any approbation superior to that of our own conscience; to that of enlightened coadjutors in every thing that is liberal and good! to thine, O my God, who dost so often console the righteous, and punish the injustice and cavils of a vain and corrupt world! Hear us, Lord! answer us, for the sake of thine Anointed! He himself intercedes with us, and in us, and him thou hearest always. Amen. A choir, who were collected. in the heart of the assembly, then sang the following verses of a Hymn on Missions: "Ye messengers, ye heralds of your King! Lift up your voice salvation to proclaim; Be this your hope, be this your glorious aim, To rescue those around you perishing: To Christ, to his dear feet the wand'rer bring. See all around the whitened harvest rise, But, lo, the ready reapers are but few Ah! let us now our pious zeal renew; Then as we gaze around in sweet surprize, For Christ rich sheaves shall bless the church's eyes. How beauteous on the mountains are thy feet, O son of peace! O faithful man of God! Blest is the savage place which thou hast trod, There shall thine eyes a thousand beauties meet, And Christ's disciple in the convert great. After the singing, the Principal of the Mission College, who was appointed to perform the ceremony of ordination, ascended the pulpit, and addressed the following discourse to the three missionaries. That solemn hour, my dear friends, is then arrived that hour, after which you have so ardently sighed, and on which we delighted to fix our contemplation, as the prize and the crown of your missionary preparation; that hour, which we have so often unitedly implored the Lord to permit us to see, and which to you is the door that opens before you the glorious career of ambassadors for Christ among the Gentiles; that hour is arrived, and our hearts beat with joy. And yet, singular contrast! that hour warns us that the moment of separation is come, and that in a few days will have ceased that intimate communion of christian friendship, which has united us during the course of your studies. Whence does it proceed, that we can rejoice in that which leaves the world inconsolable-a separation? You have already replied, my brethren; it is because we love each other as immortal beings, in God, and for eternity;-it is because we have subordinated our passions to one great, one supreme affection-to love to Him who loved us when we were enemies, and who gave his life to deliver us from our iniquities; it is because you depart, not like the children of the world, to amass perishable riches, and to found the edifice of your fortune, or your glory; but to win souls to Jesus Christ, whose call has vibrated effectually in the inward recesses of your heart: His interests are become yoursHis glory is your glory-His joy your joy; you cannot be indifferent to what he wishes, that is to say, the salvation of souls for whom he shed his blood, now in the church, the spiritual kingdom of the Saviour. Where we live on faith, hope, and love, there is no possible separation; and at this moment, in which we, in some sort, bid each other farewell, we already meet at the foot of the tribunal of Christ, of whose glorious advent we are in expectation. And now, dear friends, what shall I say to you, this day, on which, without doubt, I address you for the last time? What must I say to you, in the presence of this committee, whose affection and tender interest you know, and before this assemblage of brethren and sisters, who pray for you and with you? I ask you this question, because I have been for some time uncertain what I ought to say to you; not, you will understand, because matter failed me, but my embarrassment arose precisely from the abundance of subjects which presented themselves to my mind. Ought I, in the ordination service, to apply my mind to represent to you all the greatness of your vocation; or limit myself to pointing out your duties? Would it be better to enumerate the difficulties which attend those duties; or to present to you the means of overcoming them, which the Lord has put within your reach? As my mind was divided between these different subjects, it occurred to me that I might reconcile them all,' and unite them in one and the same meditation, by discoursing to you of that love to the Lord Jesus, which ought to be the soul of your missionary life, according to that word of the apostle: The love of Christ constraineth us, 2 Cor. v. 3. When the Saviour of the world, a few days before his ascension to glory, was with his disciples on the borders of the Sea of Tiberias, he gave them, with a view to his followers in every age, a grand lesson on the nature of the vocation wherewith he called them, and also on the temper and frame of mind by which alone they could worthily fulfil it. To this effect he addressed to his disciples, in the person of Peter, a question, on the meaning of which we propose this day to dwell. And what is that question? Do you think that he proposed some point in theology; that he wished to know whether Peter understood the gospel scheme; that he asked whether he had sufficiently studied the art of speaking; that he examined him' on sonie other branch of human learning? No: he only asks this simple question: Peter, lovest thou me? and this question he repeats three several times, with an inexpressible seriousness, to make him understand all the importance which he attached to the answer it elicited. And this, my dear friends, is the question which he addresses to you to-day, by my mouth :-My friends, do you love me? Does my love constrain you, as it formerly constrained my disciple Peter, my apostle Paul, those models of missionaries? If the love of Christ dwells in you, as we know it does, I need not, so to speak, describe to you the grandeur of your vocation, enumerate its duties, warn you of its difficulties, speak to you on the means of subduing them; for with that love you have everything-absolutely every thing, and this is what I propose to shew you, by the help of the grace of God. Christians, you who have come with so much eagerness to this service, may not the discourse addressed to these young brethren interest you? In hearing us display before them the magni tude, but difficulty, of that office with which they are going to be invested, by the imposition of hands, will not your love for them increase in proportion to the sacrifices they will have to make in the fulfilment of it, and will you not feel the need there is that you should raise your prayers with ours to the Father of mercies, that he will shed on them an abundant measure of the graces of the Holy Spirit? Oh! ask that they may be consecrated by God, and not by men. Let us all, then, unite our hearts together in prayer, and open them to solicit and receive a benediction from on high. Amen; so be it! I. In the first place, my dear friends, The love of Christ will give you that freedom of mind necessary in your labours, by nourishing your soul with the food it requires. You are going to leave parents, brethren, friends, and country, all of which are dear to you, and although you are Christians, citizens of a heavenly city, you cannot avoid feeling an oppression of heart, at the thought that you must break the visible ties which bind you to these endeared objects. In a foreign land, surrounded with beings who understand you not, and with whom you can have no sympathy until they become Christians; deprived of a thousand indulgences; obliged to break a thousand little habits which were become almost a second nature; in that untried region so revolting to the feeling heart, the remembrance of your family, the image of the paternal roof, and the recollection of your country, always accompanied by so powerful an enchantment, will present themselves in still more lively colours to your mind, and will infuse into your soul a secret sadness which you will have a difficulty sometimes to dispel. It is beneath the sky of an unknown land, in those moments of silent retirement where the soul feels itself isolated, and when casting its eyes with anxiety around, it feels that something it can scarcely define, is wanting; it is then, we call aloud for the aid of friendship, and friendship not replying, we are reduced to the necessity of feeding on recollections. Were these moments frequent or prolonged, they would destroy your courage, and deprive you partially of that moral and spiritual energy, which is needful for the missionary, in a career in which he must labour with joy, if he would labour with success. And what feeling will be capable of sup plying all these wants of your heart, of indemnifying you for all your privations, of filling the void which absence from your relatives and friends will have created, of making you even triumph and leap with joy in the midst of self-denial? One feeling alone, energetic, powerful, productive of a thousand enjoyments,— your love to the Lord Jesus. II. The same feeling will sustain you also in the studies in which you will still have to engage, in order to attain your desires. Your studies, my dear brethren, are far from being terminated; for the languages which you have learned during the course of your preparation, are but the key that will open to you the acquire ment of those which are still more difficult. In acquiring the former, you had within your reach a great number of helps, and the study of them, although comparatively dry, was attended with more than one enjoyment. But in learning the various dialects of the country where you are going to preach the cross of the Saviour, you will neither have the same advantages, nor the same assistance. These languages are still poor and unformed; they have no literature; you will find no master to smooth their difficulties; it is in conversation with the natives, and by dint of industry, that you will be reduced as it were to guess them, and to master them. And how incomparably more painful will this study be rendered by the view you will have of the ignorance and moral misery of these poor pagans! You desire to enlighten their minds, to bring them to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, to speak to them of his love to sinners, to induce them to forsake their vices; your heart will speak, but your mouth will remain dumb; your tender compassions will be excited towards them, but your tongue will be tied, and not able to tell them in an intelligible manner, that you love them, that you desire their salvation. Hence will arise conflicts, and conflicts the more violent as they will be those of love wrestling against natural difficulties. In this dry study, how will your courage persevere ? How, with the calmness indispensable to your progress, will you be able to preserve the fervour which is necessary to triumph over obstacles of more than one kind,and in the midst of your holy impatience, how will you possess your soul in peace and strength?-By your love to the Lord Jesus. |