but rest much upon the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father, and not from the Son. They hold in abhorrence the supremacy and infallibility of the pope; purgatory by fire; graven images; the celibacy of the secular clergy; and prohibition of the sacrament in both kinds:-but yet use pictures in their worship; invoke saints; have seven sacraments; believe in transubstantiation; admit prayers and services for the dead; have a fast or festival for almost every day in the year; and know of no regeneration but baptism. Their officers are many; their convents are numerous, and their monks are all priests, who lead a very austere life. Their nunneries are few. Their patriarchs reside at Constantinople, Damascus, Cairo, and Jerusalem. The patriarch of Constantinople is at the head of the Church, and is chosen by twelve bishops, and confirmed by the Turkish emperor. The office however, is generally purchased by an immense sum, of the Grand Vizier. It is a post honorable and lucrative. Its possessor has a vast jurisdiction and dominion. He not only decidés controversies in the Church, but administers civil justice among the members of his communion. He has the power of excommunicating any member of the Greek Church; and of commanding his death, exile, or imprisonment for life. He is, in fact, the governor of the Greeks, under the Turkish emperor, and is sustained by his authority. The other patriarchs are poor and debased, as is the whole Church. Without schools, without Bibles, without religious teachers, groaning for near 400 years under an iron bondage, they have sunk into the most deplorable ignorance and moral corruption. With a crowd of bishops and metropolitans, they are almost as ignorant of the true Gospel of Christ as the benighted savage. The recent deliverance of Greece from the Mahometan yoke, and the establishment of civil and Christian liberty cannot fail to operate most favorably upon their religion and morals. Let Christians pray for those once great and distinguished Churches, now in ruins; and send them back the light of life.

RUSSIAN GREEK CHURCH.

The immense wilds of Russia continued covered with moral darkness long after the rest of Europe had enjoyed the precious light of the Gospel. About the year 900, Methodius, and Cyril the philosopher, travelled from

Greece into Moravia, where they translated some of the Church service into the Sclavonian language, and converted the grand dutchess Olga to the Christian faith. Christianity soon spread, and Russia became subject to the patriarch of Constantinople. Of any thing farther we know but little until 1581, when we find the Muscovites publishing the bible in their own language. In 1589, Russia separated from the government, though not from communion of the Greek Church, and an independent patriarch was established at Moscow.

About the year 1666, a sect called the Isbraniki, or multitude of the elect, pretending to uncommon piety and devotion, separated from the Russian Church, and excited great disturbances throughout the empire. They were treated with severity, but increased, and do still remain, bound up in impenetrable secrecy.

that

Peter the Great resolved to be the reformer of his Church, as well as of his empire. Happy had it been for Russia, had the light of the reformation dawned upon noble mind. But he knew no other system than that in which he had been educated, and made, therefore, no change in the doctrines of the Greek Church. These, however, he was resolved his people should understand; and he waged war with the ignorance of the clergy, and the gross superstition which brooded over the whole nation. He quenched the fires of persecution, and established a universal toleration of all sects and denominations, excepting the Catholics. He abolished the office of patriarch, putting himself at the head of the Church; which, under him was to be governed by a synod; diminished the revenues of the clergy; and was once resolved to abolish the monasteries as unfriendly to population. But it was only an age of twilight; and he was induced to continue them, and to erect a magnificent monastery, in honor of Alexander Newsky; whom the Russians number among their distinguished heroes and saints. He caused the bible to be translated, printed, and circulated in the Sclavonian language; and had he lived in the age of Alexander, he would have placed a bible in every family.

The Russian Church has increased with the amazing increase of the nation. Happy for her had she grown in knowledge and holiness. But alas! her clergy are ignorant, and her people are without the bible. The noble Russian Bible Society, under the excellent prince Galitzin,

promised to raise her from her deplorable degradation, but it has been suppressed by her tyrants, jealous for their

thrones.

In her doctrine, she agrees with the Greek Church; like her, receives the seven sacraments or mysteries; allows no statues or graven images, but admits pictures and invocation of saints; and is, therefore, like her and like Rome, whom she abhors, idolatrous. Her service consists of a vast number of idle ceremonies and absurd superstitions; and it is to be feared, that she is but very little elevated above the Roman Catholics in acquaintance with evangelical piety. Every person is obliged, by the civil law, to partake of the sacrament once a year. An unparalleled union exists throughout the empire, in doctrine and in practice. Her clergy are very numerous, and of different orders. Her monks and nuns are about 6000 each.

Many efforts have been made by the Roman Pontiff and Jesuits, to effect an union between the Catholic and Russian Churches, but always in vain. The Russians are very jealous of their religious independence and religious system.

The friends of truth, encouraged by the promises of God's word, are looking for some moral change throughout those immense regions. A single reign of one pious and liberal monarch may, under God, effect it. Let us rejoice that the hearts of kings are in his hands.

EASTERN CHURCHES.

It is wonderful how great results proceed from little causes, and how the human mind once turned into a particular channel, proceeds on through successive ages. In the fifth century, we saw Nestorius, a Syrian bishop of Constantinople, advancing the sentiment, that, in Christ there were two distinct natures and persons, the human and divine, and that Mary was to be called the mother of the man Jesus, and not of God. In opposition to him, Eutyches, an abbot at Constantinople, declared that these natures were so united in Christ, as to form but one nature, that of the Incarnate Word. It was an age when men were fast losing sight of the Gospel, and contending about modes and forms; and these opposite opinions threw the whole Eastern world into bitter contention, and gave rise to that great division, which continues to this day among the

miserable remnant of Eastern Churches. The followers of the former, are called Nestorians; the latter, Monophysites.

The NESTORIANS early became the chief propagators of the Gospel in the East. They enjoyed the patronage of the Persian Monarch Pherazes, by whom their opponents were expelled from his kingdom, and their patriarch was established at Selucia. They established a school at Nisibis under Barsumas, a disciple of Nestorius, from whence proceeded in the fifth and sixth centuries, a band of missionaries, who spread abroad their tenets, through Egypt, Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and China. In the twelfth century, they won over to their faith the prince of Tartary, who was baptized John; and because he exercised the office of presbyter, was, with his successors, called Prester John. They made converts also of the Christians on the coast of Malabar, who, it is supposed, received the Christian faith from the Syrian Mar Thomas, in the fourth or fifth century.

They formed at one time an immense body; but dwindled away before the Saracen power, and the exasperated heathen priests and jealous Chinese emperors. They acknowledged but one patriarch until 1551, who resided first at Bagdad and afterwards at Mousul. But at this period, the Papists succeeded in dividing them, and a new patriarch was consecrated by Pope Julius III. and established over the adherents to the Pope, in the city of Ormus. The great Patriarch at Mousul, called Elias, has continued, however, to be acknowledged to this day, by the greater part of the Nestorians, who are scattered over Asia.

Throughout this long period they have maintained considerable purity of doctrine and worship, and kept free from the ridiculous ceremonies of the Greek and Latin Churches. Of their present number, and religious character, we know but little. Probably they are very ignorant, debased, and corrupt. Dr. Buchanan visited the Churches on the Malabar coast, in 1806, and found fifty-five much discouraged and distressed. Their doctrines differed but little from the doctrines of the Church of England. Surely they are interesting objects for missionary effort. Towards them the English Church Missionary Society has of late directed its attention, and they are improving in doctrine and in morals.

The MONOPHYSITES at first received some encouragement,

but were soon suppressed by the Grecian Emperors. They found, however, a father in Jacob Baradeus, an obscure monk, who died in 588, bishop of Edessa, leaving them in a flourishing state in Syria, Mesopotamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other countries. In honor of him they are, to this day, called Jacobites.

For a long period, this great body of Christians have been divided into three portions, the Asiatics, the Africans, and the Armenians.

The Asiatics are subject to the patriarch of Antioch, who, since the fifteenth century, has borne the name of Ignatius, to show the world that he is a lineal descendant of Ignatius, an early bishop of Antioch. He resides at the Monastery of St. Ananias, near the city of Morden. Some of them in the seventeenth century subjected themselves to the Church of Rome, but, through the influence of the Turks, were soon brought back to the dominion of Ignatius. But the condition of the whole body is miserably debased.

The Africans are divided into the Copts and the Abyssinians, and are all subject to a patriarch, who resides at Cairo. The Copts are in number about 30,000. They reside in Egypt and Nubia; and, oppressed by the Turks, are destitute of almost every comfort of life, and are deplorably ignorant. They have a liturgy in the old Coptic tongue, which is now obsolete. Their Priests understand but little of it. During their service they are continually in motion. They have many monasteries and hermitages, but are in a state of beggary.

The Abyssinians are in every respect superior to the Copts. We know little of their history. In the middle of the fourth century, Frumentius, it has been observed, preached among them with great success, and they were well esteemed at Rome, until they adopted the system of the Monophysites. In 1634, the learned Heyling, a Lutheran, went into Abyssinia with pious purposes, and recommending himself to the Emperor, he rose to high offices in the state. He returned to Europe for missionary aid, but perished on the way. The duke of Saxe Gotha sent one Gregory, an Abyssinian, who had resided in Europe, to succeed him; but he was shipwrecked on his voyage. One Wantsel offered to supply his place, but his conduct was villanous, and these missionary efforts ceased. The Jesuits made several attempts to bring them over to the Church of Rome. The Moravians, every where else successful, have