asking him, But are you comfortable in your mind?' he immediately answered, Very comfortable-very comfortable' and exclaimed, Come, Lord Jesus Come.' He then hesitated, as if incapable of bringing out the last word; and one of his daughters, involuntarily as it were, anticipated him by saying, "Quickly!' on which her departing father gave her a look expressive of the most complacent delight. "On entering his room, I found him sitting on the sofa, surrounded by his lamenting family; with one foot in the hot water, and the other spasmodically grasping the edge of the bath; his frame waving in violent, almost convulsive heavings, sufficiently indicative of the process of dissolution. I hastened, though despairingly, to administer such stimulants as might possibly avert the threatening termination of life; and as I sat by his side for this purpose he threw his arm over my shoulders for support, with a look of evident satisfaction that I was near him. He said to me, I am dying: death is come at last: all will now be useless.' As I pressed upon him draughts of stimulants, he intimated that he would take them if I wished; but he believed all was useless. On my asking him if he suffered much, he replied, Dreadfully.' The rapidly increasing gasping soon overpowered his ability to swallow, or to speak, except in monosyllables, few in number, which I could not collect; but, whatever might be the degree of his suffering, (and great it must have been,) there was no failure of his mental vigour or composure. Indeed, so perfect was his consciousness, that in the midst of these last agonies, he intimated to me very shortly before the close, with his accustomed courteousness, a fear lest he should fatigue me by his pressure; and when his family, one after another, gave way in despair, he followed them with sympathizing looks, as they were obliged to be This was his last voluntary conveyed from the room. movement; for immediately, a general convulsion seized him, and he quickly expired.' It is unnecessary to dwell upon the character of one who so long held a very high place in the estimation of the Christian community in England. His name is hallowed in the remembrance of multitudes; and whether we view him as a man, a scholar, a Christian, or a minister of the Gospel, we feel ourselves entitled to say, that few men have earned a prouder, a more honourable, or more enduring reputation, than Robert Hall. THE JEWS IN CONSTANTINOPLE. "You would naturally suppose, as I did, that these people came to Constantinople from some part of the East, and brought with them their oriental language; After the extinction of the but this is not the case. Waldenses, in the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, the rage of the Inquisition was turned against the Jews of Spain; and having inflicted on them various persecutions and sufferings, an edict was at length issued for expelling them altogether from that country; and they set out to the amount of 800,000 persons, from this land of Egypt, not spoiling their enemies, but spoiled of all they possessed themselves. As the same prejudices existed against them in every Christian country at the time, they could find no asylum in the West, so they set their faces to the East, and returned to the They were place from whence they originally came. kindly received in different parts of the Ottoman empire, and the Turks afforded them that protection which Christians had denied them. They settled at Salonichi, Smyrna, Rodosto, and other large towns, where they, at this day, form an important part of the population. At Salonichi they have no less than thirty But the principal division of them came synagogues. to Constantinople, and were assigned a large district, called Hassi Kui, to inhabit, where they form a community of 50,000 persons. The Turks call the different people who reside under them by names indicative of the estimation in which they hold them. Thus they call the Greeks, Yeshir, or slaves, as they were considered to have forfeited their life at the taking of Constantinople, and hold it ever since on sufferance; the Armenians, Rayas, or subjects, as they were never a conquered people, but merged insensibly into the population of the empire; but the Jews they call Mousaphir, or visitors, because they sought an asylum among them. They treat them, therefore, as visitors, with kindness and hospitality. I give you this as the original and accurate distinction, though all the subjects of Turkey, who are not Turks, are loosely called Rayas. "As a further motive for good will, they mutually approach to an assimilation, much more nearly than any of the rest, in their religious opinions and observances. Their strict theism; their practice of circumcision; their abhorrence of swine's flesh; their language reads from right to left;-are all coincidences, which, to a certain degree, give them an identity of feeling which does not take place with the others. The Jews, therefore, are a favoured people, and held by the Turks in a degree of consideration which is very different from that which they receive in any Christian country at the present day. "In many towns in Germany which I have visited, they are prohibited by law from passing a night within the walls; and the law is strictly enforced, unless evaded by the payment of an exorbitant tax: in others, they are obliged to submit to degrading conditions and suspicious precautions, which are as frivolous as they are humiliating. They cannot travel from town to town, or exercise particular trades, without paying an extraordinary toll or tax, which is not exacted from other people. Even in England, there is a strong line of demarcation still drawn, and they are still considered foreigners; and in London they cannot be members of corporations, cannot open a shop, cannot practise particular callings without paying to the corporation exorbitant fines, which are demanded from nobody else. The prejudice which led to cruelty and persecution, is softened with the growing liberality of the age; but it still exists under a milder form, and is a wall of separation between them and a Christian community. In Turkey it forms no such barrier: the Jews freely exercise the most lucrative callings-they are generally the brokers who transact business for merchants, and the sarafs, or bankers, with whom the Turks deposit their property. They enter, particularly the women, into the Harams with merchandize, and so are agents of intrigue, and acquire extraordinary influence in Turkish houses. "On a hill behind the quarter of Hassa Kui, where they reside, they have a large cemetery ornamented with marble tombs, some of them exceedingly well sculptured in high relief; and the houses of the opulent are furnished and fitted up in a style of oriental magnificence. The lower orders, however, are marked by that peculiarity which distinguishes them in every other country; squalor and raggedness in their persons, filth and nastiness in their houses, their morals very lax, and ready to engage in any base business which the less vile would have a repugnance to. They are distinguished, like all classes in Turkey, by a particular dress: they wear a turban like a Turkish gentleman, but lower; and instead of being encircled with a rich shawl, it is generally bound with a mean cross-barred handkerchief; and their slippers, the colour of which is particularly prescribed to all Turkish subjects, are blue. The front of their houses is lead colour. They are inflexibly attached to their own religion, though many of them have apparently conform ed to Mahomedarism: such as have done so, still prae tise, in their own way, the rites common to both people. The Turk circumcises his child at the age of five or six, and makes it a gay public ceremony. The Jewish proselyte always performs it on the eighth day, and in private. Their Rabbins also visit them secretly, and keep up all their former observances. 66 Should a Jew be made a convert to Christianity, he becomes the immediate object of the most relentless persecution to his own people, so that his life is not safe. A very respectable man of that persuasion applied to me to be received into Christian communion, and in due time I baptized him in the chapel of the British embassy; but he earnestly requested that I should keep it a profound secret, and the day after the ceremony he left Constantinople for Poland. Indeed, their repugnance to Christians, particularly to the Greeks, displays itself on all occasions. When the venerable patriarch was hanged by the Turks, the Jews volunteered their services to cast his body into the sea: some fellows of the lowest description were brought from Hassa Kui for the purpose, and they dragged his corpse, by the cord by which he was hanged, through the streets with gratuitous insult. This circumstance, with others of a similar nature, so increased the former antipathy of the Greeks, that they revenged themselves on every Jew that fell in their way, at the commencement of the insurrection, with the most dreadful retaliation. "The mutual prejudice is so strong, that it gives rise, as you may suppose, to a number of accusations; and they charge each other with the most atrocious practices The Jews, you will recollect, in the early ages of Christianity, denounced the Christians as eaters of their own children—an accusation sanctioned by the impure and secret practices of some of the Gnostic sects. The Christians of Spain formerly stated that the Jews crucified adults on Good Friday, in mockery of our Saviour; and at Constantinople, at the present day, they are charged with purloining children, and sarificing them as paschal lambs, at their passover. It was one day at Galata, a suburb of Pera, where a great commotion was just excited. The child of a Greek merchant had disappeared, and no one could give any account of it. It was a beautiful boy, and it was imagined it had been taken by a Turk for a slave; after some time, however, the body was found in the Bosphorus; its legs and arms were bound, and certain wounds on its side indicated that it had been put to death in some extraordinary manner, and for some extraordinary purpose. Suspicion immediately fell upon the Jews; and as it was just after their paschal feast, suspicion, people said, was confirmed to a certainty. Nothing could be discovered to give a clue to the perpetrators, but the story was universally talked of, and generally believed, all over Pera. even have ten sons, I should not discover it to all, "They have a language and character peculiar to themselves: the first is Spanish, debased by Hebrew and foreign words into a lingua franca; and the second in which it is written is rabbinical, disguised by an alteration of some of the letters." DISCOURSE. BY THE LATE REV. ANDREW HUNTER, D. D., One of the Ministers of the Tron Church, and Professor of Theology in the University of Edinburgh. "For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God."-1 COR. i. 18. IN the immediately preceding verse St. Paul speaks of the commission which he had received, as an apostle, and of the manner in which this important trust was to be discharged. "Christ," says he, "sent me not to baptize, but to preach the Gospel." It is not however meant that his commission did not extend to the administration of haptism, for the apostles were expressly authorised to go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." The explaining the principles of the Christian faith, and the dispensing of its sacred rites, were vested in the same persons. It appears from other passages that St. Paul baptized some converts. But this was not his chief employment. He suggests that the principal object of his mission was to preach the Gospel, and to this object his attention and labours were almost unremittingly directed. He then speaks of the manner in which he was "The prejudice has also been greatly increased by a called to discharge this trust, "Not with the wisbook written by a Jewish rabbi converted to Chris-dom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be tianity, which is a great curiosity. It is entitled A Confutation of the Religion of the Jews,' by Neophytus, a Greek monk, formerly a Jewish rabbi. The original work was in the Moldavian language, and was printed in the year 1803; but it is said that the Jews, at that time, gave a large sum of money to the Hospodar, and the book was suppressed and destroyed. A copy, however, escaped, which was translated into modern Greek, and printed at Yasi in 1818, of which I had a copy at Constantinople. The first chapter is entitled The Concealed Mysteries now made Public.' The subject is the blood which the Jews take from Christians, and the purposes to which they apply it.' After detailing a number of the most extraordinary particulars, he concludes in the following words :- When I was thirteen years old, my father revealed to me the mystery of the blood, and cursed me by all the elements of heaven and earth, if ever I should divulge the secret, even to my brethren; and when I was married, and should made of none effect." By the wisdom of words, The first and most unpleasant part of this subject is, the unfavourable reception which the preaching of the cross has from those who perish. To them it is foolishness. By those who perish, is meant all who are under the dominion of sin, and who are deaf to the calls to repent and to believe the Gospel; all who either disregard the instructions and laws of God, or who prefer the enjoyments of a present life to those of religion and of eternity. The degrees of their guilt may be different. Nay, some of them may possess some qualifications that may render them respectable and useful in society; but whilst they are strangers to the power of religion, and are living in the habitual practice of any vice, they are liable to divine condemnation and punishment; they are amongst those that perish, or who shall be consigned to the abodes of misery, if they die in their present condition. If they have lived under the ministry of the Gospel, and have either neglected these means of improvement, or perverted them to the purposes of licentiousness, they shall prove to them" the savour of death unto death;" their guilt will be more aggravated, and their condemnation more severe. To them," the preaching of the cross is foolishness." They either hold it in derision, or pay no serious attention to the important purposes for which the sufferings of Christ were intended. A further description of the character of such persons is given in verses 22 and 23: "For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness." The Jews were highly offended with the representation that their Messiah had lived here in a state of great poverty and abasement, and that he had suffered an ignominious and painful death upon a cross. repugnant to the pride of their nation, and to their ill-founded expectation, that the Messiah was to be a victorious prince, who was to rescue them from the Roman yoke, and was to establish for them a great empire. The prophecies as to the glory and extent of Christ's spiritual kingdom, they erroneously explained, as relative to an illustrious temporal monarch. Though our Lord stated the true meaning of these predictions, and evinced their exact fulfilment in himself, yet neither his instructions nor his miracles removed their inveterate prejudices. Their minds were carnal, and their affections more set upon temporal enjoyments than spiritual blessings. So far was Jesus from flattering them with the prospect of security and prosperity, in consequence of their connection with him, he warned them of the approach of tribulation or persecution for his name's sake. "To the Greeks the cross of Christ was foolishness." By the Greeks is meant the Gentile nations, to whom the Gospel was early communicated, the most of whom spoke the Greek language. Though some in these countries felt the transforming power of divine truth, and acquiesced in the scheme of salvation through Jesus Christ, yet to the generality of them it appeared long to be foolishness. They consider It was ed it as absurd to suppose that a man, who could not save himself from ignominy and a violent death, should be able to raise his followers to the highest honour and felicity; that thousands or myriads of mankind should be indebted for salvation or happiness to one who had hung upon a cross. To the polite Greeks these assertions seemed to be foolish, and scarcely worthy of their notice, especially when they came from men of low birth and education. Had their discourses related to the discoveries and opinions of some profound philosopher, or to the achievements of an illustrious hero, they might have excited a greater degree of their attention, and procured the attachment of a larger number of the wise, the noble, and the rich. But the doctrine of the apostles had not these attractions to recommend it. They exhibited, indeed, a character more excellent than any that ever appeared in the world; but in a humble and suffering condition-destitute of grandeur, riches, or any of those external circumstances that can excite the admiration, or engage the affections of worldly men. They taught a religion which, though excellent in its doctrines and precepts, was repugnant to the idolatry, superstition, and vices of those to whom it was addressed. It may be said, perhaps, that this description is applicable only to the period before the establishment of Christianity in the Roman empire, or to those countries where the Christian faith has not yet been established. But it is not to be thus limited; for not only is the cross of Christ still to the Jews a stumbling block, but in this and every age there are many who deem it to be foolishness, or, at least, have no just ideas of the important ends which the humiliation of the Son of God was intended to accomplish. In no age has there been a greater number of infidels in countries professedly Christian, than there is at present. All of them do, of course, deny the doctrine of salvation by a crucified Redeemer, and some of them treat it with open contempt. To them may be added the Socinians, a numerous body of men, who represent the sufferings of Christ as intended for no other purpose than the confirmation of his doctrine, and to exhibit an example of patience and forgiveness of injuries to the world. Though these ends are doubtless of considerable moment, they might have been attained by the magnanimous spirit of the martyrs, under severe unmerited sufferings, and they fall short of what Christians in general consider as the chief end of the death of Christ,-an atonement for sin. But besides those who maintain opinions derogatory to the mediatorial character of Christ, are there not great multitudes that bestow no attention on this most important subject? They have no deep impressions of their own guilt and wretchedness, and of their need of a Saviour to deliver them from the wrath to come. They have no firm persuasion that Jesus Christ is the promised Messiah, and the only Redeemer of men. They have never cordially embraced him as their Saviour, nor submitted to his autho- | rity as their lawgiver and Lord. His Gospel and the interests of his kingdom are not dear in their estimation. The things of this world are much more the objects of their pursuit and attachment. They have no lively conviction of the dreadful malignity and demerit of sin, as exhibited in the death of Christ. They are insensible of the unspeakable value of the blessings, which the Son of God has obtained for a lost world, and of the strong obligations which men are laid under to "glorify him with their bodies and spirits that are his." Nay, very many of those, who are named by the name of Christ, shew no respect to his institutions and laws. Their lives are worse than those of many heathens. Though they may not deride the cross of Christ, to them it is virtually foolishness. To them Christ is dead in vain; they derive no benefit from his death, and counteract the important purposes for which it was intended. Thus it appears, that to those who perish the cross of Christ is foolishness. I will now shew, more particularly, in what respects the preaching of the cross of Christ is "to them that are saved the power of God." sufferings; the perfection of his obedience, and of given under heaven, by which men could be saved, but the name of Jesus. In every subsequent age it will be found that the number of genuine converts, or the degree of success of the Gospel, has borne a proportion to the purity and fidelity with which those peculiar truths of it, respecting the character and offices of Christ, have been illustrated and enforced. To them, therefore, let our attention be steadily directed, with earnest prayers that they may prove to the hearers the savour of life unto life. 1. As it is the chief or most effectual means of their conversion. Far am I from meaning to limit the Holy One of Israel. God may, and sometimes does, employ other means for producing this happy change. Sometimes sharp afflic-him crucified, declaring that there was no name tions have been rendered effectual in convincing men of their guilt and misery, and in leading them to that fountain which is opened for all manner of sin and uncleanness. Sometimes a word spoken in season by a friend has been carried home, with divine power, to the heart. Under the ministry of the Spirit a holy life or a bright example of piety and virtue has also been useful in adding to the Church such as shall be saved. But of all means none has been so blessed as the faithful preaching of the cross of Christ, and of the doctrines connected with it. In general philosophical dissertations or discourses on moral virtue and vice have made no lasting impression upon the hearers. They may have admired the ingenuity of the preacher, or his powers of reasoning and eloquence, but the heart has been unchanged, evil dispositions and habits have continued as strong as ever. Sometimes, though seldom, has an external reformation of conduct been produced. In general, the drunkard, the lewd, and those who are slaves to other vices, have not diminished in the least the indulgence of their passions. But much more powerful has been the efficacy of those discourses, that have laid open most fully the corruptions of the heart, as well as of the life; that have explained the extent, the spirituality, and sanctions of the divine law; that have shewn that state of guilt and misery, in which mankind are universally involved, and the gracious counsels of heaven for the recovery of our apostate race. Those discourses which have most clearly illustrated the divine nature and mediatorial offices of our Redeemer; the depth of his abasement, and severity of his Our 2. That the preaching of the cross is to them that are saved the power of God, will appear further, from considering its efficacy in subduing the power of sin in believers, and promoting their progress in the divine life. As the revelation of grace in the Gospel, is the chief instrument of the conversion of sinners, so it is of their gradual sanctification or advancement in holiness. Lord said to his apostles, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you." It is the truth, or evangelical truths, which he represents as making men free, or weakening the force of sinful inclinations. The Word of God is a precious and incorruptible seed, which bringeth forth abundant increase," in some thirty, in some sixty, and in some a hundred fold, to the praise and glory of God." In his intercessory prayer, our Lord prays for believers, "Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth." Faith in Christ is said to be the root of obedience, and as naturally bringeth forth holiness as a good tree bringeth forth good fruit. The obedience of wise Christians is the obedience of faith, and is proportioned to f the strength of that divine principle, which in some is much more vigorous than in others. "Now faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." "The Scriptures are profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished to every good work." But though the whole of revelation is of a practical and salutary tendency, those doctrines are peculiarly conducive to holiness, which respect the plan of our salvation by Jesus Christ. When these doctrines are preached explicitly and frequently, they never fail to exhibit their influence on the character of those who receive them, in gradually subduing any evil inclinations that remain in them, and counteracting the force of temptations, to which they have formerly yielded, in strengthening every divine virtue, and promoting their fruitfulness in every good work. It is among those who sit under such a ministry that there is to he found the greatest number of lively Christians, who are fervent in their devotions, zealous for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom, humble and watchful against temptation, exemplary in the discharge of relative duties, and eager to improve opportunities of active usefulness. Have you not experienced, Christians, that the more your minds have been occupied with the wonders of redeeming love, you have felt more lively contrition for your sins, and have formed more strong determinations to forsake every false and wicked way? Have you not been more warmed with gratitude to God for the riches of his grace, and with attachment to his institutions and laws? Have you not felt more strongly the obligations to universal holiness, when you have seen the divine law magnified by the obedience of Christ, and the holiness and justice of God awfully manifested in his humiliation and sufferings? When contemplating the cross of Christ, have you not been ready to say, we are not our own, but bought with a price; henceforth we will glorify God with our bodies and spirits that are his ?" "The love of Christ constraineth us thus to judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead, that we who live should not henceforth live unto our selves, but to him who died for us and rose again." No motives to a cheerful and unreserved obedience of the will of God, are so powerful as those which are drawn from the love of Christ. How sweet and persuasive to believers is the exhortation of St. Paul, in Rom. xii. 1, 2. "I beseech you brethren by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God." Believers "beholding, as in glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into his image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord." Thus is the preaching of the cross of Christ the power of God to them that are saved, in casting down imaginations, and every a high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Its energy is also manifested in yielding the best consolations under the afflictions of life, and the prospect of death. On a sick-bed, and on a death-bed, the vanity of all earthly comforts clearly appears. None of them can then afford any effectual solace or relief." Riches cannot profit in the hour of trouble nor ransom from the power of the grave." When the rich man dieth, he can carry nothing away with him, neither shall his glory descend after him. The mightiest monarch cannot arrest the progress of a fever, or ward off for an hour or a minute the stroke of death. All the affluence or possessions of the world cannot give ease from pain, and still less can they quiet the remorse and awful forebodings of a self-condemning mind. The pardon of sin, an exemption from future punishment, is not to be purchased by corruptible things, such as silver and gold. But, will philosophy, or extensive erudition, afford, in these interesting circumstances, any effectual consolation? No: if it is separated from religion, or the fear of God, it cannot. Not only has it essentially failed in bringing life and immortality clearly to light; but it can communicate to sinful creatures no assurance that their iniquities shall be pardoned, or that a holy God will not inflict punishment upon them. Philosophy may suggest, that these strokes are unavoidable, and that it will be unavailing to be impatient or complain. But it cannot support and exhilarate the soul with such pleasing declarations as the Christian faith affords, that whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and that these light afflictions, which are but for a moment, shall work for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." Can numerous and sympathising friends give comfort in a dying hour? Their tears and their offices of kindness are agreeable; but the thought of an approaching separation from them is painful. Their wishes and their exertions will be unavailing, to bring back from the gates of death. Besides, none of them can give any security from misery, or effectual consolation to those, who are not at peace with God. The attempt to delude or lull the conscience of a dying impenitent sinner, is cruel. None can reverse or suspend the execution of the decrees of God, that the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment. Where, then, is consolation to be obtained at that critical season, when the soul stands most in need of it? It is in the Gospel of Christ. There the most animating promises are suggested to every humble contrite sinner, however great may have been his former offences. He is assured that "the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, and that whosoever cometh unto God through him, shall in no wise be cast out:" "that there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus," and that there is strong consolation to them who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set |