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of omission or commission; if we neglect so to search the Scriptures and our own hearts that those sins which our individual habits, or the customs and sanctions of the world have rendered "secret," may first become known to us, and he then abstained from; if we do not earnestly pray for the grace of the Holy Spirit, and strive by his assistance, to mend our lives, and cleanse our hearts. A barren faith is far from sufficient: I know not indeed, if it will not add to our guilt, if we do not act up to the degree in which we are enlightenedt. We are taught by the example of St. Paul to count not as if we had already apprehended, but forgetting those things which are behind, to reach those things which are before‡; and St. Peter instructs us, that besides faith in the promises of God through Christ, "giving all diligence," we should add to our faith, virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness:" and why?"For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." There is no condemnation, St. Paul asserts, for those that walk after the Spirit; not, observes Paley, for those who merely have the Spirit, but those who follow its impulses, who steadily and resolutely obey good motions within them, whatever it may cost. "All the language of this remarkable chapter (Romans vii.) proceeds in the same train; namely, that after the Spirit of God is given, it remains and rests with ourselves whether we avail ourselves of it or not§." We are farther commanded, (and the apostle conjures us" by the mercy of God," to yield obedience,) "to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God; which is our rea sonable service". I might fill a volume with transcripts of the many texts of Scripture of the same purport and bearing; but I have just called to mind one of so marked a nature, as proceeding from the lips of our Saviour himself, that I cannot forbear annexing it. Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.” Matt. vii. 21. What, that will is, the texts previously quoted, and the whole tenor of the Gospel, sufficiently manifest. Being myself influenced by the hopes and fears which the promises and denunciations of the Gospel hold out, and being myself persuaded, at all sober moments, (for I find my reason very frail, and my heart very false to it,) that preparation is the first and great business of human life, I am most anxious to induce you to attach equal importance to those momentous subjects. For myself, I confess without any false humility, that I walk in the ways of religion which are so new to me and I fear, often so distasteful—with devious and tottering footsteps; but still I endeavour, with God's grace, (for which I constantly pray,) to move forward. I cultivate sincerity and earnestness, I examine my heart, rouse my conscience to the performance of its functions, strive to walk watchfully and carefully, and I trust, continue in no known sin. Moreover, I endeavour to render obedience to the revealed or intelligible will of God, the great actuating principle of my life, and to cherish that feeling towards him which our Scriptures render" love," but

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By secret sins (often alluded to in Scripture) I understand those offences, of which, from habit and consequent hardness of heart, we are not ourselves conscious. We know that the moral sense may become gradually so blunted, that the commission of the most heinous may not in any degree weigh upon the conscience.

+"And that servant which knew his Lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required." Luke, xii. 47, 48. Philippians, iii. 13.

|| 2 Peter, i.

§ Paley.

Romans, xii.

FF

which gratitude perhaps would better express*. I aim at all this: how often I miss my object, fall short, and err-God and my own conscience only know. My frailty and folly ought to make me humble, and I trust they have that blessed effect; but they also set me to pray vehemently, and constantly for the assistance of the Holy Spirit; and if He be pleased to visit me, to be most careful not to grieve Him to depart. How far you exercise yourself in this manner, you yourself only know. I am not ignorant that you have made one very great step in adopting the habit of daily pray er, and I am not, I hope, like the self-righteous pharisee, who thanked God he was not as other men were; but still I cannot close my mind against the apprehension, that you indulge in many habits and frames of mind, which are, to say the least, extremely hazardous to the safety of the soul; and that you have not as yet so far made practical use of the very considerable illumination which it has pleased God to make to shine upon your mind, as to bring home the precepts of the Gospel to your every-day life, to renounce every practice and indulgence which you know to be wrong, and to make the will of God your guide in all things.

And yet it is necessary that you should take this decided part. We are forbidden to "halt between two opinions :" "if the Lord be God," we must "follow Him." We must "search the Scriptures," if we believe that in them we have the words of eternal life; and having examined the chart by which our course through life, to be safe, must be steer. ed, it is in the highest degree unwise to follow its directions only in part, to hug any favorite habits which it denounces, to truckle to customs sanctioned or applauded by the world which it condemns, or to endeavour to reconcile the service of God and mammon ;—a phrase doubtless including, together with riches, all the vicious and seductive propensities of our fallen nature. Our Maker has himself declared that He is " a jealous God," who insists on having the first place in our affections; we know that He is inef fably pure and holy; and how then can we expect Him to share our hearts with habits and feelings utterly hateful to Him? Real repentance (without which God will receive no one) consists in keeping no terms with sin, that is, with known sin; and if it be sincere, and founded upon really Christian principles, it will administer such a stimulus to the conscience, that few sins of conduct or feeling will be practised, or allowed to lurk in the heart undetected. A real convert, when once convinced that such habits of thought or action are offensive to God, will not permit himself to indulge in them; and he will carefully examine his mind and life to ascertain, whe ther his conduct and its springs be of good or evil; and struggle to free himself from the treacherous sophistry that we too often employ to reconcile ourselves to some darling vice or bad habit. Hear what Paley says, "With respect to positive external good actions, we have said, that they must depend in some measure upon occasions, and abilities, and opportunities; but observe, it is not so with the breaking off of our sins, be they what they will. That work must wait for nothing. Until that be effected, no change is made. No man, going on in a known sin, has any right to say that the Spirit of God has done its office within him. Either it has not been given to him, or having been given, it has been resisted, despised, or neglected."-" The essential and precise difference between a child of God and another, is, not so much the number of sins into which he may fall, (though that undoubtedly be a great difference, yet it is not a precise ditference, that is to say, a difference in which a precise line of separation can be drawn ;) but the precise difference is, that the true child of God allows himself in no sin whatever." There is much more to the same effect in the

"Towards the author of an obligation that is infinite, thankfulness is the only species of love that can exist."-Paley.

two sermons, from which the above extracts are severally quoted*; and in a third, "On Insensibility to Offences," Paley proves that the callousness which habits of unchecked sin produce, is in no respect a defence or palliative of the sint. Now my dear I should deserve the curse denounced by Job upon him, "that speaketh flattery to his friends," if I did not candidly tell you that you have many unchristian habits to overcome. Your rank in life, your situation as a married man, the domestic happiness of your home, and your matured good sense, prevent you from indulging now in those open and heinous vices, with which your youth was too conversantas I confess with shame and penitence my own was. But still you have much to struggle with. Your temper is naturally fierce; your sense of injury peculiarly nice and strong; your anger or resentment comparatively unrestrained; and you are intolerant of and uncharitable to those men, towards whom you do not feel cordiality, or who appear impertinent, forward, and familiar. If God bear with them, and with ourselves, (for that is the consideration which should work most strongly upon a humble and grateful heart,) how trifling in comparison are any outrages which our fellow mortals can commit against us! and this holds with regard to the grossest injuries between man and man. But you speak, and I fear sometimes act, with bitterness, against those whom you dislike from very slender causes. Indeed, the very feeling of antipathy is a breach of Christian charity; and, as such, we should guard against admitting it into our hearts, or encouraging it to dwell there. On the contrary, we should strive to rid ourselves of it, as well as to subdue all fierceness and implacability of disposition, and that prompt and keen spirit of retaliation, too natural to us all. In these respects, I repeat, all men are especially frail; but still if we be sincere Christians, we must cultivate charity in its most extended sense, since, without it, all religion is " as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.” (See the whole of 1st Corinthians, xiii.) Remember, too, the blessings described by our Saviour in the sermon on the mounts, to appertain to "the poor in spirit," "the meek," "the merciful," and "the peacemakers;" and the promise and the threat held out in the following verses: "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses]]. Oh! my dear friend, reflect with me,

"On the Influence of the Spirit," part 3. "On the Doctrine of Conversion.”— Paley's Works, vol. v.

"I fear it may be said of most of us, that the class of sins which compose our account with God are habitual sins, habitual omissions, and habitual commissions * What then are the reflections suitable to such a case? First, to join most sincerely with the Psalmist in his prayer to God, "O cleanse thou me from my secret faults." Secondly, to see in this consideration the exceedingly great danger of evil habits of all kinds. It is a dreadful thing to commit sins without knowing it, and yet to have those sins to answer for. That is dreadful; and yet it is no other than the just consequence and effect of sinful habits. They destroy in us the perception of guilt, that experience proves. They do not destroy the guilt itself, that no man can say, because it leads to injustice and absurdity."

"But I (Jesus) say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you; that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth his rain on the just and on the unjust." Matt. v. 44 and 45. “Recompence to no man evil for evil;""Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves." Romans xii.

Matt. v.

| Matthew vi. 14, 15. There are some texts still more strong, and, if possible, more awful. "He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now." 1 John, ii. 9. "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him." Do. iii. 15. "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar." Do. iv. 20. I hope and trust that your antipathies do not extend to that hatred to which the above texts refer; but all indulgence of a kindred feeling is criminal, and very apt to lead us, step by step, to more decided sin.

how heinous and countless our sins have been, which God's free mercy alone can wipe out; and let that consideration overwhelm, as it were, all recollection of the few and trivial offences which our fellow sinners may have committed against ourselves.

Upon the same grounds, you should, I think, strive to repress those ebullitions of passion which lead you to be violent with your servants. They may need correction occasionally, but it should be inflicted calmly and deliberately, with the object, too, of deterring them from future misconduct, or of example to their fellows, (in either case, with a view to their general benefit, not to vent angry feelings for what is past or irretrievable.) Retri bution is not the legitimate end of any human punishment, public or private. Our sober reason in this respect must confirm the doctrine of holy writ"Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, saith the Lord." Romans, xii. 19. Depend upon it, there is no instance of conduct so trifling as to warrant, or even palliate, a neglect of divine precepts. He who strikes another in anger, sins in the same manner, though in a less degree, as he who kills a man under the same emotion. "Be ye angry, and sin nott," saith the apostle, knowing that indignation is often irrepressible, and sometimes even necessary and proper; but we are commanded to keep it within such bounds, as to avoid transgression. The less we indulge the passion, and the more habitually we keep it in subjection to our reason, the less likely we are to overstep the line of demarcation. It is dangerous to suffer ourselves to approach a narrow barrier of that nature too closely; and it is always a triumph when we can engage habit on the side of self-control. (To be concluded in our next.)

IV.-A Scheme for representing the Déva Nagari and Persian Alphabets in Roman Characters.

It has been already shewn, in a general way, that the substitution of the Roman in place of the Indian Alphabets, is as possible and practicable, as it is unquestionably expedient. And it now remains to ascertain and exemplify the particular mode in which the substitution may be best effected.

This is the more necessary at the present time, since different methods have been proposed by different men eminent for their talents, and profound as oriental scholars-and since inextricable confusion must ensue, unless those who advocate the contemplated change, agree as to some fixed and uniform system of notation.

Whoever wishes for information relative to the earlier attempts by Davy, Williams, and Halhed, to express Indian in Roman characters, is referred to the first volume of the Asiatic Researches. In the same volume is an elaborate account of the system adopted by the celebrated Sir William Jones. The labours of Dr. Gilchrist in this field

The following text shows that the veriest trifles, [or what appear so to us,] in duty and conduct, cannot be neglected or dispensed with safety: "Woe unto you scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, for ye pay the tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, and mercy, and faith; these ought ye to have done, and not left the other undone."

+ Ephesians, iv. 26.

See the last number of the Observer: the Courier of 2nd April: the Hurkaru and India Gazette of 3rd April: and the Englishman of the 4th and 5th April last.

are very generally known. Foster, Carey, Shakespear, Haughton, and others have also lent their aid in solving the problem that regards the best practical method of adapting the Roman to the Oriental alphabets a problem for the most successful solution of which a premium has been held out by the Asiatic Society of Paris.

All of those now named have adopted and applied, with more or less success, certain prosodial, accentual, or algebraic symbols. Recently, however, Messrs. Arnot and Forbes, in several valuable elementary treatises, published in London, have suggested the adoption of a system of writing like the Hindee-Persi-Arabic, to which several Oriental nations have partly contributed, by calling in the aid of two or three of the European alphabets most generally known." Hence, an Italian letter, a Spanish letter, a Persian letter, and Greek letters have been intermixed with Roman letters. This may possibly be the readiest way of conveying to self-taught Europeans some idea of the sound of each letter; but assuredly it is not the most comely to the sight, nor the most suitable in practice.

On the whole, after the maturest consideration of the subject, it appears beyond all dispute, that Sir William Jones' system, with such alterations and modifications as experience has suggested, is not only the simplest in itself, but the most convenient in practice, as well as the most susceptible of universal application. And it carries with it one special recommendation, that it is already familiar to every Oriental scholar, in every part of the known world. It is therefore proposed to adopt and apply this system, altered and modified, to a certain extent, to all Alphabets whether of Sanskrit or Persian origin.

These being the two chief sources of all the Indian alphabets, it is expedient primarily to represent them. For these being once successfully represented, all the rest will easily follow; since no other Indian Alphabet contains sounds radically dissimilar. And the few anomalies that do occur, will best be explained under each of the alphabets that are only so many branches springing from the two parent stocks.

I. The letters of the Roman alphabet, which may be successfully employed for the representation of the Sanskrit and Persian alphabets, are the following:-a, b, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, y, z. But these, even when used singly, are employed so irregularly in English orthoëpy, that it is absolutely necessary at the outset to fix the precise sound which in the proposed scheme they are intended invariably to express.

Short Vowels.

a, has uniformly one sound, and that is the shut or short a; or ǎ, as represented by lexicographers. It occurs in such words as