Here we gave away the remainder of our tracts, and early the next morning started off for Burdwan, which place we reached at 1 P. M. and found our friends at the Church Mission House all well. Here our Missionary operations ceased, for having given away all our books, and the time which we had intended to devote to the journey having elapsed, we were anxious to return to our respective stations and our more immediate work. Leaving therefore our Burdwan brother, who had accompanied us, to prosecute his labors in that interesting place, the rest of our party tra velled dák to Chinsurah, thence by water to Calcutta, where we arrived on Saturday afternoon, the 31st instant.

During our journey we put in circulation about 7,000 tracts, travelled about 250 miles, and preached "the Gospel of the kingdom" to perhaps 20,000 individuals, the major part of whom had never heard the "good tidings of great joy" before, and a great number had never before seen an European face. We now leave our labors with God, praying that He may be pleased to make them effectual to the conversion of many souls. G. G.

DEAR SIRS,

X.-Union among Christians.

To the Editors of the Calcutta Christian Observer.

Is it not deplorable that, at a time when Christians profess to expect the speedy establishment of the reign of the Prince of Peace, party-spirit should yet run so high among different denominations? Is it not deplorable that party-men, whether belonging to established churches, or dissenting from them, should, by their bigotry, thus retard the coming of the blessed period they profess to be anxiously looking for; but which cannot arrive until there exist an unfeigned union of hearts between all the disciples of Christ, or, to use the words of our Saviour himself, "until all be made perfect in one?”

Should you think the following extract, (from the catholic sentiments it contains,) calculated to diminish among your readers the evil I am complaining of, the same is at your service for the OBSERVER. It forms part of a sermon on 1 Peter ii. 5, preached by that devoted servant of God, the late Félix Neff, the Alpine Pastor, whose praise is in all the churches.

(Translated from the French.)

I remain, &c.
HELVETICUS.

"The temple of Jerusalem was a place particularly honored with the presence of the Almighty: nothing impure could enter therein. All there were occupied exclusively with the service of God. There, he was prais ed, adored, blessed; there he gave forth his oracles-diffused his benedictions......... The Church, called a Holy Temple, a Spiritual Tabernacle, must present all these characters in perfection;-in reality, as the temple did in types and figures. But what Church, taking this word in the usual acceptation-what assemblage of sinful men will present to us this reality, and will appear to us worthy to be called the habitation of God in the spirit-the temple of the living God?

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"Where shall we find this divine sanctuary? In the assembly of the first-born, and of the thousands of angels in the Jerusalem above. There, a thousand times better than in Sion, God is served, praised, blessed. This heavenly and spiritual sanctuary is formed of the aggregate of holy beings who find their happiness in God. The glory of Jehovah fills it, enlightens it, and is reflected on each of the living stones of which it is formed. His love unites, inflames them. The King of glory dwells in the midst of them, rejoices in their felicity, and takes pleasure in listening to the eternal utterance of their gratitude. Such is the temple which God inhabits, the only one worthy of him. What then must be the various Churches where the gospel is preached on earth?

"When the magnificent temple of Solomon was building, all the stones, all the wood which were brought thither, were so well cut and prepared, that there was heard, says the sacred historian, neither hammer, nor axe, nor any instrument of iron. (1 Kings, vi. 7.) But, most assuredly, it was not thus in the quarries of marble, nor at Lebanon, where they were cutting the cedars; any more than at the fierce furnaces between Succoth and Zeredathah, where they were founding brass for the sacred vases. Thus, in Heaven, this majestic sanctuary rises without noise, without effort; all arrive there pure and perfect. The Bride of the Lamb has 'neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor any such thing.' But in this impure and darksome world, the obscure quarry from which the great Architect wills to draw some stones for his edifice, what shall we find but work-yards prepared for a day, where all appears in motion and in disorder? What shapeless stones, what refuse, what useless fragments, what objects of a transient usage! How many arrangements purely provisional! How many mercenaries-aliens, are employed in these quarries, like the work. men of Hiram, and who, like them, shall never enter the sanctuary! What dissensions among even the most faithful workmen! What discussions, what vain conjectures on the subject of the final aim and the plan of the great Architect, which is known to Him alone! Shall we seek in this chaos the true Church, the spiritual temple? Should we wish to compose it from the mass of all these unformed blocks, or solely of those which appear already prepared by the Master? Shall we attempt to unite in one common order, all those whom we find prepared in each of the va rious quarries opened in a thousand places of the earth? Or, not being able to effect this, shall we, at least, exert ourselves to groupe them in different heaps, like those stones already hewn, which are collected to be measured before they are worked upon? Oh! how much wiser is the Master! While we are disputing the pre-eminence of this or that workyard, and while others are spending their strength for the sake of introducing a perfect order, the Divine Solomon traverses in silence this vast scene of operation, chooses, marks, withdraws, and places in his edifice the materials prepared in the midst of all these, assigning to each piece the place suited to it, and for which he has destined it... Such is, my beloved brethren,the grand idea which we must form to ourselves of this heavenly temple, of this spiritual house of God, of this universal Church alike militant and triumphant, in whose existence we profess our belief in the apostolic symbol. O! how pitiable will now seem the proud pretensions of this or that Church to universality; as also the endless disputes on the succession, the hierarchy, and the discipline, which at all periods (as even now) have divided and troubled the faithful. Let us rather work in the quarry wherein we are placed, to prepare the greatest possible number of materials; and above all, let us supplicate the Lord to make of us all, living stones for his temple. Amen."

REVIEW.

Memoir of Rev. Gordon Hall, A. M. one of the first Missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions at Bombay.

The triumph of the higher branches of science over the superstitious reverence attached to ill-arranged systems, and the improvements effected in those branches which affect the ordinary occupations of life, are subjects which induce feelings of the highest happiness in every well-ordered mind. It is one thing, however, to admire and give a passing plaudit to the triumph of genius, and another, to enter into the trials and anxieties with which the energy of that genius has had to contend in the accomplishment of its purpose. The general practice of mankind is to condemn that in its incipient or progressive stages, which they admire in perfection; and still more common is it for men to condemn that, the excellency of which they can neither comprehend nor appreciate. Nor does their disapprobation always confine itself to neutrality, reason, or argument: would that it did; too frequently, alas! has such opposition employed means which have been at variance both with reason and humanity, immolating on the altar of prejudice some of the noblest of the human race. The science of astronomy, for instance, is a complete, a noble science, an object of general admiration; yet the early attempts at its reformation procured for the pioneers in "the starry maze" no better reward than the contempt of the ignorant, and the persecution of the professedly wise. announcement of the theory of the circulation of the blood, now so manifest to the merest tyro in pathological knowledge, brought down on the head of the justly renowned Harvey the indignation of the majority of the then faculty. If this be the course of conduct pursued by men towards those who attempt to minister to their physical enjoyment, ameliorate their sufferings, or extend the limits of their temporal knowledge, shall we be surprised to learn, that the attempts of evangelical philanthropists, to convey to barbarous climes the message of salvation, should have been stigmatized by the unsanctified as an undue interference with the civil rights and religious prejudices of nations, which needed not the aid of Christianity to increase their happiness? Or that such efforts should have met with the partial opposition of those members of the Church of Christ whose minds were less expansive than their religion?

The

It is to us a matter of sincere gratulation, that neither the opposition of the malignant opposers of the gospel, nor the inertness of those who profess to obey its high behests, deterred the pioneers

in modern missions from the apparently daring but certain enterprize of attempting to extend the lamp of life to the darkest regions of the globe; nor is our delight at all diminished by observing, that these efforts have not prevented the manifest blessing of Heaven, attending the servants of Christ, in their attempts to bring sinners to a knowledge of the truth; and so to accompany them, that it is not using the language of imagination or hyperbole, when we say, that the cause of Missions has been one of progressive triumph; that the earth does begin to wear the tints of Eden's bloom."

The history and present aspect of Christian Missions to Christian lands and heathen countries have induced these reflections. Scarcely 50 years have rolled away since the Missionary fire was first kindled on the altar of the Church. Many of those who first fed it are but just fallen asleep, and yet so vast have been the sacrifices rendered to sustain the flame of the temple, that nations the most remote have been cheered by its warmth, and those which sat in darkness have seen the brightness of its burning. Not, however, as we have intimated, without attempts daring and energetic having been made “to quench the spirit:"-with what success we leave a world to judge.

We have asserted the Missionary cause to be one of triumph: we have appealed to a world for its decision. As however but few of the members of that vast family will take the trouble to investigate such a subject for themselves, let us suppose them deputing some benevolent and impartial individual to make a survey of the globe, and report the result of his investigation. His reply might be in some such strain as the following:

As I cast my eye over the continents of the earth and islands of the sea, scenes presented themselves which were as pleasing and refreshing, when contrasted with the surrounding scenery, as the oases of the desert to the wandering sons of Ishmael; scenes of social order, mental elevation, and physical industry, appeared on spots which had formerly been marked by features of savage ferocity, intellectual debasement, and sloth. From lips which had been accustomed to utter all uncleanness with greediness,' I heard the voice of prayer and praise ascend to the Holy One in heaven. The knee which had bowed to an unconscious idol, I saw rendering its homage to the true God, and the spirit of the dying committing itself with cheerfulness into the hands of a faithful God, which otherwise must have entered on the eternity of its existence in brutal insensibility or wild despair."

Whether such a report were rendered or not, such is actually the fact. In every part of the explored globe scenes present themselves to the eye of the Christian philanthropist which

animate and gladden his heart, being to him the earnest of that millennium of liberty and spirituality, which the word of God so glowingly depicts, and assuredly affirms shall come to pass.

The present and future blessings which the gospel has conferred on the wretched abroad, is the secret of their success at home. The good which has been effected has to a great extent silenced the objections of opponents, rendered those who were neutral friends, and made the friends of Christ still more attached to the noble enterprize of Christian missions. In fact, the experiment has been tried and succeeded: therefore, as in the triumph of science all admire, when perfect or successful, what they unite in condemning in its incipient and progressive stages, and would more especially have censured had it failed, "Let us thank God and take courage."

There is a question which will probably suggest itself to many in connexion with this success, viz. By what means has the transformation been effected?

Primarily, we may answer, by the Spirit of God. In connexion with his influences, God has been pleased to sanction a variety of plans, which the ingenuity of the benevolent has devised for the furtherance of his work in the world. But one order of means he has especially appointed and blessed-the preaching of His gospel by men-men who count not their lives dear unto them that they may win Christ-men who have laid on the altar of the church every thing they held dear, and sacrificed every feeling to that of supreme regard for Christ. Such men in fact as the one whose brief though interesting Memoir is the subject of review.

Mr. HALL was anAmerican, a man of energy and holiness; he was one of the first of that band of evangelical heroes who stirred up the holy patriotism of the American Church, and led on the armies of Christ in that land to the conquest of a world. The continent of British India presented the only fitting field for the exercise of his benevolence. In compliance with his feelings, and the wishes of his friends, he set sail with his colleagues for the shores of Hindustán, January, 1812. Not having determined in what part of the continent they would labour, they directed their course to this city. Difficulties of a civil nature presenting themselves, they determined to separate, Mr. Judson and friend urging their way to Burmah, Mr. Newell and wife to the Isle of France, Mr. Hall and colleague to Bombay. We need scareely add, that each of these missions has been rendered dear to the church by the Memoirs of Judson, Newell, and Hall. The presidency of Bombay at that time was under the direction of Sir Evan Nepean, a man decidedly favorable to Christian missions as a man, but who in his public capacity, had received the promptest orders to ex