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ed abroad and dispersed through all the hundred and twentyseven provinces of the kingdom of Ahasuerus, Esther iii. 8. It is true, that those who were thus scattered are called Jews; but it is impossible that such a body of people could have been wholly of the tribe of Judah. They could, for the most part, be none other than the ten tribes, and in these provinces they appear to have been existing during the time of our Saviour; for we find that at the day of Pentecost, mentioned in Acts ii. 1—11, “There were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven; Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians." Besides, we are certain that the place of their residence was known in the time of the Apostle James; for he directs his epistle to them, i. 1: “James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad." Would he have thus written had he been ignorant of the abode of the ten tribes? The Apostle Paul also makes mention of them, Acts xxvi. 7. And in addition to all this, we no where find that Peter, who was expressly appointed by the Holy Ghost, Gal. ii. 7, to preach to the descendants of Abraham, ever went in search of them, which he would unquestionably have done, had he believed in their existence in a distinct part of the world. The truth of the matter is, that the Jews, who are now found in every country of the globe, are the people of the twelve tribes. They are, according to the prophecies which went before on them, scattered" among all people from the one end of the earth, even unto the other." The idea, therefore, of the ten tribes living in a land at present unknown is without foundation, or rather has no other foundation than the assertion of the visionary author of the second book of Esdras, xiii. 40, 45, "Those are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoners out of their own land, in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, and he carried them over the waters, and so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never man dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land, and they entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river. For the Most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, namely, of a year and half; and the same region is called Arsareth." This, with the sayings of one or two credulous, or rather credulous-making Jews of the 12th and 13th centuries, is, we believe, the only ground upon which both Jews

and Millenarians rest their opinions respecting the terra incognita of the ten tribes. What then must we think of the wisdom of those men, who spend so much time and treasure, and who encounter so many dangers, in searching for this people? They seek what was never lost; and are in chase of a mere phantom of their own imaginations*.

The idea of the rebuilding of Jerusalem, or of some other grand city, called the New Jerusalem, is founded chiefly on the latter part of the prophecies of Ezekiel, and the 21st and 22nd chapters of Revelation. To say nothing of the worldly nature of such an anticipation, there is surely enough in the description of the New Jerusalem by John, to make every one doubt whether a literal city at all be meant, or whether any thing whatever on earth be intended. Can any one believe in the literality of a tangible and visible city, "descending from God out of heaven?" Or can any one suppose, that there ever will be a city on earth which will contain the throne of God and the Lamb," and in which there" will be no more curse ?" xxii. 3, 4. The things said of the New Jerusalem are sufficient to make every sober-minded man pause long, before he gives it a literal interpretation, or places it in this lower world.

Thus, we have endeavoured to present, in a scriptural light, the subject before us to the eye and mind of the reader, unconscious to ourselves of either having misrepresented the sentiments of the Millenarians, or endeavoured to confute them by wresting any passage from its real meaning. It may, perhaps, be thought, by some, that the erroneous doctrines in question are of no great moment, since they do not seem naturally to be attended with any practical consequences. This, however, is a great mistake. Millenarian opinions have almost always been accompanied with a practice, which has, at some times, been pernicious, and, at other times, ridiculous. The latter is very much the case in the present day. Churches, and chapels, and other places have become spots where scenes the most singular, if not the most lamentable, are exhibited. Men and women, under the self-wrought impression of the speedy descent of Christ upon the earth, are to be seen starting up in the midst of assemblies, and howling out in tones almost unearthly, "He is coming, he is coming, repent ye, flee ye," &c. &c. Such conduct as this brings religion into contempt with the ungodly and the sentiments which give rise to such proceedings will, we are persuaded, ere long lead the unconverted of their votaries into scepticism and infidelity, and cause the truly pious, who may have fallen into such errors, to be hardly able to lift up their heads from very shame amongst men. The former, not finding their expectations realized, will first doubt of the truth

* Arguments for the probable existence of the Ten Tribes will be found in the No. of our work for January, 1833; to which we beg leave to refer our readers.-ED.

of those prophecies on which their hopes were placed; and, next, discredit the whole book in which such predictions are found. The latter, having had "the good work" begun in them, will still be kept cleaving to the Saviour; but they will, not finding their views of prophecy verified, be compelled to retrace their steps, and in doing so, they will require no small humility to confess their errors, and no small patience to bear up against the taunts to which they will be exposed on account of the extravagancies into which they had fallen. "Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines : for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace."

IV.-Brief Memoir of the late Rev. W. Carey, D. D. [Abridged from Rev. Dr. Marshman's Funeral Sermon.]

L.

Dr. Carey was born, August 17th, 1761, at Pauler's Perry, in Northamptonshire, a village a few miles from Northampton. His mother died when he was young; and his father, who was precentor in the esta blished church at Pauler's Perry, was at that time destitute of a knowledge of the Saviour, although his son had reason to hope that his eyes were opened to his true state before he died. Though brought up in some degree acquainted with Christianity, therefore, he was not directed to the Saviour of the world by his father, for he was unhappily ignorant of the Saviour himself. At the age of fifteen he was apprenticed to a shoe-maker in the village of Piddington, ten miles from Pauler's Perry,-a master of honest report as an industrious man, but whose love to Christ, if he possessed any, never urged him to win young Carey to the Saviour. Still, conversations which he often had with a fellow-apprentice, named John Ward, first led him to reflect closely on his state as a sinner before God; and his occasionally hearing the Rev. Thomas Scott, author of the Commentary on the Bible, who was then minister at Ravenstone, a village a few miles distant, tended to increase these convictions. At length he met with the excellent Mr. Hall's "Help to Zion's Travellers," which (he often told me) did more toward giving him just ideas of himself as a sinner, and of the way of salvation, than all he had ever read or heard before, and encouraged him finally to give himself up to the Lord Jesus Christ, to be saved in his own way, when he was about eighteen years old.

Left wholly to his own judgment, he thought he saw many things in the Established Church, in which he had hitherto been brought up, which he could not reconcile with the Scriptures; and at length a sermon he heard from Heb. xiii. 13," Let us therefore go forth without the camp bearing his reproach," led him at once to forsake it, and cast in his lot with a few poor people near him of the Baptist denomination.

Before he was twenty, a number of persons in a village a few miles from his, came to him one Lord's day, and urged him, as they were that day destitute of a minister, to come over and give them an exhortation from the word of God. With much reluctance and fear he complied with their wish; and they felt themselves so much instructed by what he had told them from the Scriptures, that they asked him again, and then again; and in a year or two he consented to become the pastor of that small church at Moulton, where he continued, until, in 1788, he was prevailed upon to remove to Leicester.

In this interval, he became acquainted with the Rev. John (afterwards Dr.) Ryland, about seven years older than himself, then an assistant to his

father in the Gospel ministry at Northampton, by whom he was soon after baptized and about the same time with the Rev. John Sutcliff of Olney, whose church he joined, and the Rev. Andrew Fuller of Kettering, also his senior by about seven years. These four, possessed of kindred minds, gradually formed a union with one another, never interrupted in this life, and which eternity itself will never dissolve. With these, with Mr. Thomas Scott, and with the Rev. Robert Hall of Arnsby, father of the late Robert Hall of Bristol, and author of " Help to Zion's Travellers,' whom he esteemed above all the rest as a minister, Carey spent the first ten years of his Christian life, to his unspeakable advantage.

His desire for the salvation of the heathen appears to have sprung up in his own mind, without any fostering from without. As soon as that work ap peared, he read Cook's Voyages; and the state of the islanders in the South Seas, deeply impressing his mind, led to a train of thought which ended in the full conviction, that it was a duty binding on Christians now, as well as in the Apostles' days, to carry the Gospel to the heathen in every part of the world. This conviction affected him so strongly, that it became at length irrepressible; and he constantly conversed on the subject with such of his friends as appeared most eminent for spirituality of mind. Being one day at Birmingham, about the year 1785, he mentioned his views to a few friends there; upon which one of them said, "If you will write your thoughts on this subject, I will be at the expense of bringing them through the press." Animated with this, Carey replied, that if he could not prevail on some one else to undertake it, he would attempt it himself. "Well," said his friend, "remember that I have your promise, from which you can not recede." On returning home, Carey mentioned the subject to his friends Fuller and Ryland, urging them to undertake this task. They respectively excused themselves, and advised him to begin writing without delay, but not to print his thoughts immediately. It is probable that he did this; for we find it said in the Periodical Accounts, that he wrote the piece on missions as early as 1786.

The missionary feeling however appeared to gather strength in the minds of his three friends, Fuller, Sutcliff, and Ryland. About 1784, Mr. Sutcliff, with the hope of promoting personal religion around him, reprinted a tract of President Edwards, intituled, "A Humble Attempt to promote Explicit Agreement and visible UNION in Extraordinary PRAYER, for the REVIVAL OF RELIGION." This gave rise to those monthly prayer-meetings for the spread of the Gospel both at home and abroad, which gradually spread wider and wider among those who loved the Saviour, till at length they now fill nearly the whole of the Christian world. These four brethren also made it a point to observe a day of fasting and prayer together monthly, with a view to this object and the growth of religion in their own minds, which tended to strengthen the sacred flame. Two sermons were at length preached at a meeting of ministers at Clipstone, in April, 1791, one on "Jealousy for the Lord of Hosts," by Mr. Sutcliff, from 1 Kings, xx. 10, "I have been very jealous for the Lord of Hosts," and another, “ On the Pernicious Influence of Delay in Religious Concerns," by Mr. Fuller, from Haggai, i. 2, " Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts, saying, This people say, The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built-Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your own ceiled houses, and this house lie waste?" After these services, Mr. Carey proposed this as a question for the ministers to discuss; " Whether it be not practicable, and our bounden duty, to attempt something toward spreading the Gospel in the heathen world?" And as the public services which included these two sermons had been attended with unusual solemnity, this question was managed by these ministers with earnest concern relative to exerting themselves for the enlargement of the Saviour's kingdom. The chief step taken then, how.

ever, was their unanimously agreeing to request, that Mr. Carey would publish his Thoughts on the Subject of Missions, which had lain by him more than five years. These issued from the press in the beginning of 1792 : and in the words of Fuller, the author" generously proposed to devote whatever profits might arise from this publication to the use of a Missionary Society," when one should be formed.

This pamphlet, of eighty pages, after a suitable introduction, contains a short review of former undertakings for the conversion of the heathen, commencing with apostolic times, and continuing the survey to the attempts of Ziegenbalg and Grundler in 1707; the review concludes with the following observations respecting the Moravian Mission: "But none of the moderns have equalled the Moravian brethren in this good work; they have sent missions to Greenland, Labrador, and several of the West India Islands, which have been blessed for good. They have likewise sent to Abyssinia in Africa; but what success they have had I cannot tell." A brief but luminous survey of the present religious state of the world follows; and then a section shewing the practicability of something_being done more than what is done for the conversion of the heathen. To the whole is added an inquiry into the duty of Christians in general on this subject, and what means ought to be used in order to promote the work. It is altogether one of the most clear, concise, and heart-stirring essays on missions I have ever read.

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At the annual association of the Baptist Churches, held at Northampton, May the 31st, 1792, Mr. Fuller says, "Brother Carey preached a very animating discourse from Isaiah liv. 2, Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thy habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes;' in which he pressed two things in particular, as expository of lengthening our cords and strengthening our stakes; that we should expect great things; and that we should attempt great things." This sermon so affected the audience, that before the ministers parted, a resolution was passed that a plan should be prepared against the next Ministers' Meeting to be held at Kettering, for forming a Society in the Baptist denomination for propagating the Gospel among the heathen.

This meeting was held at Kettering, October the 2nd, 1792; but the whole day passed away without any effort being made to form a Missionary Society, or even to bring the subject prominently forward. At length, in the evening, Carey, grieved to the soul, took Fuller aside, and sharply remonstrating with him on his permitting the day thus to pass away without attempting any thing, begged him if he intended to do nothing towards forming a Missionary Society, at once to say so, and not to keep him any longer in suspense. Greatly moved by this, Fuller instantly called into Mr. Wallis's parlour, as many of the ministers as then remained, and with eleven beside himself and Carey, formed the Baptist Missionary Society. Of this Society Carey himself, with his three friends, Sutcliff, Fuller, and Ryland, and the Rev. Reynold Hogg of Thrapston, formed the first Committee, Mr. Hogg being the Treasurer, and Andrew Fuller the Secretary. The fund then subscribed to begin this missionary undertaking, amounted to Thirteen pounds, six shillings, and six pence. Thus, after full nine years of anxious thought and exertion, had Carey the satisfaction of seeing a Society formed, with the express purpose of sending the Gospel to the heathen.

In reviewing his conversion to God, it is impossible to avoid the conclusion that he was indebted to Divine grace for a change of heart so thorough and lasting. In contemplating his being called to the ministry before he was twenty, and so greatly blessed therein, can we ascribe it to any thing less than the grace of God constraining him to declare to others what he

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