and though I endeavoured to avoid such gloomy ideas, yet amidst the gayest hours of my life, they would point like daggers at my peace. Oh, sir! I have frequently exhibited a "face of pleasure with a heart of pain." The deaths of my dear brothers I considered as warnings of the uncertainty of life, yet had no heart to improve the solemn admonition. I knew, yet never felt that I was a sinner. I knew not that I possessed such a heart of opposition to God and the friends of God, as experience has convinced me I did. Nor was I ever sensible of feeling opposed to Christians, because they were such, until the last awakening. During the awakening I was absent, yet after I returned home a number were admitted into the church, and then I felt distressed. The last winter I passed in B., after my cousins M. and S. experienced religion, I found it very difficult to conceal my contempt for the part they had acted, and my opposition to every thing of a religious nature. Respect for my parents and friends operated as a restraint upon my mind, for I was ashamed to expose myself.

Last season at F. Î. I bad many, very many solemn reflections, circumstances tending to produce them; and, finally, to quiet my conscience, I resolved, if ever I returned home, to attend immedi ately to religion. But alas! I had still to learn by sad experience the deceitfulness of my wicked heart. My resolution disturbed me at times after my return, but as I felt no inclination to attend then, still deferred it. At the time the awakening commenced at W., it aroused me from my lethargic state, and the death of my friend S. L., about that time, I conceived to be a warning to me "to be also ready." Here too the sovereignty of God excited my opposition-brother G. was taken, and I felt myself neglected, for I thought myself equally deserving of the Divine favour. The visit at W. served to increase my hatred for every thing of a religious nature; for my own credit I dared not act out all the feelings of my sinful heart. I shudder while adding that some of the persons who there addressed us in meetings were objects of my derision; though conscious they were right, and in my heart I envied them their happiness. My visit in B., though it served to divert my mind, afforded me no pleasure. And when at my return I found sickness had arrested one I esteemed, an additional weight seemed to oppress my mind. But what I then viewed as an affliction has since appeared an infinite mercy. Oh yes, sir, I now find that "of all my mercies this stands the highest that my heart has bled." My heart has been so awfully hardened that neither judgment nor mercies could heretofore make any impression; and can I call that an affliction which in mercy was intended to show me the vanity of terrestrial happiness, and break those ties which fastened me to earth, that henceforth they might be fixed on heaven? For by this affliction I was led to see the necessity of an interest in Christ, of equal importance for him and for myself. Though at times, through the summer, I could appear inattentive to the concerns of eternity, and resisted the strivings of the Holy Spirit, and disregarded the

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invitations of a dying Saviour, yet every sermon I have heard has been as a dagger at my heart. Yet still I was unwilling to accept of salvation on the terms of the gospel. Never was I so sensible of my enmity to God as the Sabbath you preached from these words, They hated me without a cause. I felt that I did hate God, and was left without excuse; I knew I had violated his law, and must suffer the punishment of my sins, without accusing any one but myself. I knew, I felt, that God would be perfectly just in making me for ever miserable, and I could not feel willing to surren der myself into his hands. Nor did I, until the following Friday evening, when I trust I was made willing to renounce my own righteousness, to surrender myself unreservedly into his hands, to be disposed of at his pleasure, for time and eternity. The only hope I could expect would flow from the cross of a dying Saviour, and at the foot of that cross I resolved to perish, interceding for mercy. Then I think I first felt peace, and was willing, yea happy to cast all my cares upon God, and leave my friend with him, knowing that "He was able and willing to save," and in view of every anticipated scene of affliction, to know no will but the will of heaven. Here I have looked, here I trust I have found support through the most trying scene of my life.-I have now done with happiness below, and all I wish is to perform my duty with conscientiousness, to rely on Christ as my Almighty friend, and be in continual preparation for that happy hour which shall release from earth and transmit to a better, brighter world, your truly affectionate daughter, M.

[COMMUNICATED.] ORDINATION.

On Tuesday, the 23d of February, Mr. John E. Miller was ordained to the work of the Gospel Ministry, and installed as Pastor of the Presbyterian Church of Chester, N. Jersey, by the Presbytery of Jersey-Sermon by the Rev. John Ford, of Parsippany, from Romans x. 17. The Rev. Cyrus Gildersleeve, of Bloomfield, presided, and gave the Presbyterial Charge to the minister. The charge to the people was delivered by the Rev. Barnabas King, of Rockaway. The concourse of people on this occasion was unusually great, and the exercises peculiarly solemn and interesting.

ON THE UNREASONABLENESS OF INFIDELITY.

To reject the Gospel because bad men pervert it, and weak men deform it, and quarrel about it, and bigotted men look sour on others, and curse them because they do not agree in every tittle with themselves, displays the same folly as if a person should cut down a tree, bearing abundance of delicious fruit, and furnishing a refreshing shade, because caterpillars disfigured the leaves, and spiders made their webs among the branches!

THE PROFANE SWEARER REPROVED.

A lady, on her way from Edinburgh to Glasgow, in the stage coach, was very much annoyed by a young military officer, whose conversation was interspersed with oaths. The lady sat very uneasy, till she could no longer keep silence. "Sir," said she, to the officer, "can you talk in the Galic* tongue?" To this he replied in the affirmative, seemingly with great pleasure, expecting to have some conversation with the lady in that dialect. The lady then politely desired him, if he wished to swear any more, that it might be in that language, as the practice of swearing was very offensive to herself and the rest of the company. The officer was quite confounded at this smart reproof, and no more oaths were heard from him during the remainder of the journey.

NOTICE OF THE EDITOR.

To the Subscribers of the Christian Herald.

The Editor of this publication having been prevented by sick ness from completing the present number of this volume sooner, he hopes his subscribers will exercise due indulgence towards him for this delay, as well as for that of the subsequent number, which will complete the 5th volume, should his continued sickness retard the issuing of that for a few days. He takes this opportunity of announcing to his subscribers, that he will cease to edite the Christian Herald after the termination of the present volume, and that he has found an intelligent printer of this city, who has promised to continue it on the same plan, principles, and terms on which it was formerly conducted, and whom he affectionately recommends to the present subscribers of the work, as a person worthy of Christian patronage. Various reasons have prevented the Editor from announcing his intention sooner to the subscribers, and his present weak state will not permit him to do it more fully at present; but no disadvantage can possibly result to the subscribers, who may have known in time this arrangement; and to the few, especially to those few at a distance, who may have paid in advance, they will be entitled to have their money returned, or have it paid over to the Editor of the next volume.

The above was dictated by the Editor on the 8th of the month on the 9th, in the morning, he departed this life,

The last number of the volume, as above promised, will be prepared and furnished to subscribers..

The language used in the north of Scotland.

VOL. V.]

Saturday, March 20, 1819.

[No. 24

MISSION AMONG MAHOMEDANS.

EDINBURGH MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

This Society established a Mission in Russian Tartary in 1802. Their last Report furnishes many interesting particulars respecting the success which has attended the labours of their Missionaries. From that Report, which was delivered in April last, we make the following extracts :

Mr. Galloway, the Missionary at Karass, mentions in his journal several interviews with the Priests or Effendis.

"You see, (said one of them) that I live among a people furious in their religion, being yet ignorant, and every thing respecting Christianity new to them; but you should believe that I believe the Christian religion in my heart, for I see it to be the only way of salvation."

On Mr. Galloway's reading and explaining a portion of the New Testament to another Effendi of considerable acuteness and learning, he for some time frequently became enraged, but still discovered a desire to hear more about the Gospel; and, when Mr. Galloway left him, took a copy of the New Testament, the Psalms, and some Tracts. At a subsequent interview he took Mr. Galloway by the hand, and said, that he saw the books which he had received to be no vain books; and expressed a wish that God might fulfil the desires of the Missionaries respecting the salvation of his countrymen :-" I," said he, "see myself to be more vile than a beast, on account of sin." On the evening of the same day they again met, when, says Mr. Galloway," he took me aside, and told me that his mind was very uneasy about religion; that he was certain that more than one half of the Koran is not to be practised; but that he did not yet see clearly through the doctripes of the New Testament, nor know what we practised in religion; and desired me to instruct him more fully; the tears were in his eyes; and I could hardly refrain: he told me that the people among whom he officiates had only of late embraced Mahomedanism, and are extremely ignorant; and that he had formed the plan of taking away privately a number of our books, to distribute among the students and others, who can read, that they might be acquainted with the doctrines contained in them, before their minds were settled in any other. I said I would most willingly give him the books, but I should like to see his own mind first settled in a belief of the doctrines of the New Testament." The last time that they met they sat on a hillock in the open air for more than an hour, earnestly conversing on the things that pertain to the kingdom of God; and afterward walked together to Karass: he then said, that his mind was impressed by the truths of the New Testament; but when Mr. Galloway asked him if he believ

ed that Jesus had fully satisfied the law and justice of God on ac count of sinners, he said that his mind was yet dark on this point, but that when he returned home he designed to study the New Testament, and compare it with the Koran; he again talked of distributing the books among his people; and said he was sure they would believe them. When he was about to depart, Mr. Galloway prayed with him, and gave him a bundle of Tracts, and another copy of the New Testament.

Nor is this the only instance in which it is to be hoped that the seed of Divine Truth has, to a certain extent at least, been fixed in the hearts of some of the Natives. A young man named Shora, in particular, who belongs to one of the Kabardian villages, which removed some years ago from the neighbourhood of Karass, but returned to it lately, appears to be deeply impressed on the subject of religion. In August last Shora, along with others of his countrymen, visited the Missionaries at Karass, and continued with them nearly a whole year, listening attentively to passages of the New Testament and the Tartar Catechism. Even then Shora confessed that he believed that Christ will judge the world at the Last Day;" the first time," said Mr. Galloway, "that I ever heard a Mahomedan make such an acknowledgment." And, in the end of November, the time when the most recent letters that have arrived were written, the pleasing information is given that he professes to believe the principal doctrines of Christianity. Having been obliged, some time before, to fly to the Kabardian Country, on account of the ill will of some of his neighbours with whom he had a quarrel, he wrote from thence a short letter to Mr. Paterson, which contained the following interesting sentences. "O! if I could openly profess the religion of our dear and honourable Messiah. That your religion is true and righteous, I now believe. I would rejoice to join you in observing the religion of Jesus Christ. I beg that you would take ten books, (i. e. copies of the New Testament,) and deliver them to me in the quarantine, that I may circulate them." May the Spirit of all Grace raise up in this young Kabardian a living monument of the power of the truth as it is in Jesus, and an active instrument of usefulness to his blinded brethren! so shall the word of the Lord have free course among them, and be glorified in their saving conversion to the faith of his Gospel.

The introduction of copies of the New Testament, and Tracts, in the Schools of the Priests, is a circumstance also of the most auspicious kind. Not only has Seid Ouchi Mahomed, according to the latest report, fulfilled his promise of putting them into the hands of his scholars; but an Effendi, who formerly lived in the vicinity of Karass, but now resides on the Kuban, has written a book consisting solely of extracts from the New Testament, of which many Students about the Kuban have taken copies for their own perusal.