to increase churches. What then ? Are they to become disheartened, drop their hands by their side, mourn over the degeneracy and darkness of the people, and talk about the impossibility of success ? By no means. Bring forth more energy. Increase the spirit of devotion and selfsacrifice. Be wise, and profit by experience. Be oftener in prayer, that the Lord would visit his heritage, and cause the preached Gospel to take effect upon the souls of men. “The God of heaven, he will prosper us." This was the strength of Nehemiah and his compatriots. They were assured that the Lord would prosper them. And why not us of the present day? If we do the Lord's work-not our own ; if we are more anxious for the glory of His name and the good of souls than for our own conceits; if more anxious for the honour of Christ than the honour of a sect or the glorification of local sentiment,then “the God of heaven, he will prosper us.” And, therefore, with confidence as to the results, “we his servants will arise and build.” As the Hebrew scholar knows, “ Nehemiah ” signifies“ Comforted of the Lord.” When a Church becomes a Nehemiah-full of zeal for the Divine honour, persuaded by the spirit of self-denial, and labouring with strong determination to rear God's spiritual Jerusalem ; we may rest assured that that Church will be “ The Comforted of the Lord ;" comforted with internal peace and harmony-comforted by the light of the Divine countenance, and by all the rich and soul-satisfying blessings of the Covenant of Grace. May that Church be the English Presbyterian! Miscellaneous Papers. (Original and Selected.) THE GOSPEL IN THE UNIVERSITY OF PARIS. We have great pleasure in introducing to call forth some contributions towards it our readers the following statement of the from a few of the wealthier members of our progress and prospects of a work of evange. Church. Professor Lorimer will gladly take lisation which is at present going on in the charge of any such contributions, and formost influential quarter of Paris—the quar- ward them to Professor St. Hilaire without ter of the Luxembourg, containing the Na- delay : tional University, the great Catholic semi- In January, 1850, some Christians innaries for the education of the priesthood, habiting the neighbourhood of the Palace of and the residences of numerous professors the Luxembourg, in Paris, met together to and students. Among the promoters of commence an Evangelical religious service the good work, by whom the statement in that quarter, which contains not less than has been drawn up, appear the names of 400,000 souls, and is the seat of the great three Parisian professors-one of whom, educational institutions of France-the reM. R. St. Hilaire, of the Sorbonne, is the sidence of the students and the professorsauthor of an extensive history of Spain, in the centre of Catholicism in Paris ; in a which he has openly espoused the cause of word, the great intellectual centre of France. the Reformation, and declared his sym-! Sustained by the Taitbout Church, they pathy with the principles of the Spanish rented a room in a lonely street adjoining martyrs. It would be impossible to name the great Catholic church of St. Sulpice and any work now going on in the Papal coun- its vast seminary. tries of Europe which is more worthy of The worship, conducted by the pastors of support than this from British Protestants; the Chapel Taitbout, Messieurs Bridel (now and it is hoped the subjoined statement will in Lausanne), De Pressence, and more re “I wish I HAD PRAYED MoR.E.” 133 advan assiduity, their liberality, their sacrifices for their worship, attest the reality of the change which is produced in them. We have every reason to hope that from this grain of seed, imperceptible at its origin, will one day arise, with the blessing of God, an importart church. It became necessary to obtain another place of meeting. A piece of ground very tageously situated in the Rue Madame, gate of the garden of the Luxembourg was found to be for sale. The founders of the worship bought it; and they are now constructing upon it, with the authorisation of the Government, the chapel at the | cf which they present you on the other side the design. The ground floor will be occupied by two schools, each of which will eford accommodation for sixty children. The chapel, large enough to contain six hundred persons, will occupy the first floor, while the second floor will form the apartments of the pastor. We have the firm assurance that the thspel, which we hope to open at the end of March, will be filled in a very little time. With such multitudes longing to hear the Word of life, but excluded for want of room, we felt assured that God and His people would justify and sustain us, in venturing, without means, to commence the erection of this edifice. Of the 150,000 francs (£6,000) necessary for the purchase of the ground and the construction of the chapel, we have received the undersigned and the persons who shall have contributed at least 250 francs (£10), to the Society. In exchange for this sum they receive a certificate which gives them the right to one-six-hundredth of the property—the capital being fixed at 150,000 francs (£6,000). The jä. of shares will meet every five years to examine the position of the Society and appoint its officers. The Committee of Management appointed for the five years ending 1861 is composed ofMessieurs R. St. HILAIRE, Professor at the Sorbonne. A. WULLIFT, Director of the Normal School of the Evangelical Society in Paris. — MoURGUE, Professor at the Rollin College. A. LADRIERE, Professor. J. J. KELLER, Manager, 4, Rue de Chevreux. “I WISH I HAI) PRAYED MORE.” ONE of the sentences uttered by a deceased pastor, when drawing near his end, was, “I wish 1 had prayed more.” This was one of those weighty sayings which are not unfrequently uttered in view of the solemn realities of eternity. This wish has often recurred to me since his departure as equally applicable to myself, and with it the resolution of that holy man, President Edwards, “ so to live as he would wish he had when he came to die.” In reviewing my own life, I wish I had prayed more than I have for the success of the gospel. I have seen enough to furnish me with matter of thankfulness, but, had I rayed more I might have seen more. } wish I had prayed more than I have for the salvation of those about me, and who are given me in charge. When the father of the lunatic doubted whether Jesus could do anything for him, he was told in answer that, if he could believe, all things were possible. On hearing this he burst into tears, saying, “Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!" He seemed to have understood our Lord as suggesting that, if the child was not healed, it would not be owing to any want of power in him, but to his own unbelief. This might cause him to weep and exclaim as he did. The thought of his unbelief causing the death of his child was distressing. The same thought has occurred to me as applicable to the neglect of the power of faith. Have I not by this guilty negligence been accessory to #: destruction of some that are dear to me? And, were I equally concerned for the souls of my connections as he was for the life of his child, should I not weep with him? I wish I had prayed more than I have for my own soul; I might then have enjoyed much more communion with God. The gospel affords the same ground for spiritual enjoyment as it did to the first Christians. I wish I had prayed more than I have in all my undertakings: I might then have had my steps more directed by God, and attended with fewer deviations from his will. There is no intercourse with God without prayer. It is thus that we walk with God, and have our conversation in heaven.—Rev. A. Fuller. GOING OUT AND COMING IN.” IN that home were joy and sorrow While to murmur forth a blessing Going out unto the triumph, And to him who bravely conquers, *From Poems by Isa. Blackwood & Sons. 1856. LECTURE BY THE REW. DR. MUNRO IN LIVERPOOL. A very interesting course of lectures has lately been delivered in Hope Hall, Liver. pool, got up mainly through the considerate kindness of the munificent friend of our own Foreign Mission, and other goodworks —R. A. Macfie, Esq. One of the course was lately delivered by Dr. Munro, of Manchester, “Human Languages sprung from One Root, and Mankind descended from One Pair.” The chair was occupied by John Grantham, Esq. The lecture was one of great interest, and adorned with several exquisite imaginative touches. It refuted, in an effective manner, both the theory which regards man as the highly-developed descendant of brute ancestry, and that which asserts that the different tribes of the human family are of different species, and not ori. ginally derived from one common stock. Both Scripture and true science give an emphatic negative to such theories. The Bible doctrines of the universality of the effects of the fall, as well as of the gospel remedy, presuppose the unity of the origin and the identity of the human species. Comparative anatomy demonstrates that not only are the lines of demarcation between the meanest tribes and the highest of the inferior creatures deep and broad, but that these lines are, as by an ordinance of Heaven, permanent and impassable. The mixed progeny of two distinct species are always unproductive, and therefore cannot be propagated as a distinct race. Anatomists have specified no fewer than sixteen essential structural distinctions between man and the animals nearest him in form. The faculty of speech, and that most wonderful, exquisite, and use: ful organ, the hand, exalt him to a high rank above them. The qualities and capabilities of his intellect, moreover, which vastly transcend the most perfect, yet stationary, instincts of the irrational tribes, stamp him with a manifest and lofty supe: riority to them. Men cannot, therefore, as Rousseau asserted, be of the same class with the simial, nor can he, as the author of the “Vestiges of Creation” conjectured, from having been originally an animalculum, have gone through the successive and progressive transformations of periwinkle, lizard, ape, man. But all mankind are also of one race and descent—of one original common parentage. Voltaire denied that the diversities in the tribes of man were compatible with the same original ancestry. Lord Kames asserted the same opinion. But these diversities may be traced to a corre sponding diversity of causes. Climate, tem: perature, food, habitation, clothing, but above all, moral influences, tradition, and social and civil institutions have a powerful THE LATE ARREST OF MR. BURNS AT CHAON CIOW. effect in modifying the human structure and frontal development to their white brethren. aspect, elevating or depressing the mental | The most eminent naturalists, as Linnæus, powers, and heightening or fattening the Buffon, Blumenbach, Lawrence, Prichard, human cranium. No additional bones or and Owen, have deliberately pronounced in processes are discoverable in the corporeal favour of the unity of the origin and idenstructure of the negro. He has been ascer-tity of the species of mankind. The ascertained to have, like the white man, only two tained affinities of the various languages skins, and not three, as was once supposed. tend to corroborate the same conclusion. Climate exercises through time a powerful It has been almost demonstrated that all influence on complexion. Offshoots from the languages converge into the Mongolian, the same nation settling in the arctic and African, and Indo-European ; while these torrid zones would gradually become the one again converge into the Semitic, which has fair, the other black. The Jews exhibit all all its roots in the Hebrew. The lecture varieties of complexion, varying from fair elicited frequent plaudits from the audience. and ruddy to ebony black in Hindustan. At the conclusion a vote of thanks was acAgain, the negroes in America have been, corded to the lecturer, partly through education, approximating in! China Mission. THE LATE ARREST OF MR. BURNS, AT CHAON CHOW. In a Parliamentary blue-book, recently I character of Mr. Burns' pursuits, his published, “Correspondence respecting Excellency considers forty days' conInsults in China," we have met with finement, ten days of which was passed the correspondence which took place at Chaon-Chow, and thirty on the route between Consul Parkes and Commis- thence to Canton, as sufficient penalty sioner Yeh, respecting the arrest of for the indiscretion; or it may be that Mr. Burns in September last. In a his Excellency having some knowledge letter, dated October 6th, addressed to of the liberty so long allowed to foreignSir John Bowring, Mr. Parkes says-ers at Swatow, justly deems it anom* The Rev. W. C. Burns, known to alous to call for the punishment of have been lately apprehended by the Mr. Burns for breach of treaty, when authorities at Chaon-Chow, whilst en- he knows his own officers to be simigaged in a missionary tour in that larly implicated, but to a far higher department of this province, was degree.' handed over to me by the Imperial The following is copy of the letter Commissioner on the 30th ultimo; the local authorities having, in this in. M Mr. Parkes :stance, followed the course prescribed by the treaty, and forwarded Mr. COMMISSIONER YEL TO CONSUL PARKES. Burns as a prisoner to Canton. On the following day I received from the (Translation.) Imperial Commissioner the letter, of which I herewith enclose translation, Yeh, High Imperial Commissioner, detailing the circumstances underwhich Governor-General of the Two Kwang Mr. Burns was apprehended, and sim- Provinces, &c., addresses this declaraply requiring me to verify the accounttion to H. S. Parkes, Esq., Her Bri. given by that gentleman of his own tannic Majesty's Consul at Canton. proceedings, and to place him under I have before me an official report some degree of restraint. The Imperial from Wang-ching, Chief Magistrate of Commissioner has shown commendable the district of Hae-yang, in the departmoderation in not calling upon me to ment of Chaon-Chow, which contains take more stringent notice of this in the following statements : fraction of the treaty. Perhaps it is, It being the duty of your subordithat being satisfied with the harmless nate to act with Le-scuen-fang, the Major commanding at this city (ChaonChow), in the inspection of the defences of the place, we suddenly observed, whilst engaged in this service, three persons seated in a boat on the river whose appearance had something in it that was unusual. We found in their boat, and took possession of seven volumes of foreign books, and three sheet tracts; but these were the only things they had with them. On examining the men themselves, we observed that they all of them had shaven heads, and wore their hair plaited in a queue, and were dressed in Chinese costume. The face of one of them, however, had rather a strange look; his speech in respect to tone and mode of expression being not very similar to that of the Chinese. We, therefore, interrogated him carefully, whereupon he stated to us that his true name was Pin-wei-lin (William Burns); that he was an Englishman, aged 42 years, and, as a teacher of the religion of Jesus, had been for some time past engaged in exhorting his fellow-men to do good deeds. In 1847 he left his native land and travelled to China, and took up his residence first at Victoria, where he lived two years, and afterwards in the foreign factories at Canton, where he remained for more than one. Subsequently, he visited Shanghae, Amoy, and other places, and there spent several years; wherever he went he made himself acquainted with the languages of the Chinese, and by this means he delivered his exhortations to the people, and explained to them the books of Jesus, but without receiving from any one the least remuneration. In 1854 he embarked in a steamer from Amoy, on a visit to his native home; and in December 1855, joined himself to one of his countrymen, surnamed Tae, who was going to Shanghae to trade. “I accompanied him thither,” said Burns, “in his vessel; but from Shanghae, Tae returned home again, whilst I remained there and engaged myself, in the distribution of Christian books. In the sixth month of the present year (July), I left Shanghae, and took passage in a foreign sailing vessel to Shantow (Swa-tow), in the district of Chinghae. There I fell in on the 12th da of the 7th month (August 12th) wit Le-a-yuen and Chin-a-seun, the two Chinese who have now been seized with me. I called upon them to be my guides, and we proceeded in company to Yen-fan, and from thence came on to this city, where we had it in contemlation to distribute some of our books. carcely, however, had we arrived at the river's bank on the 19th day of the 7th month (19th August), when to our surprise we found ourselves under surveillance, and deprived of our liberty. We entertained, however, no other views or intentions than those which we have stated, and declare that these statements are strictly true.” Such is the account given by the missionary, William Burns, who, together with his seven volumes of foreign books and his three sheet tracts, was given over into the charge of an officer, and brought in custody to this office. Having examined the above report, I (the Imperial Commissioner) have to observe thereon that the inland river of the city of Chaon-Chowis notoneoftheports open to (foreign) commerce; and it has never on that account been frequented by foreigners. I cannot but look upon it, therefore, as exceedingly improper, that William Burns (admitting him to be an Englishman,) should change his own dress, shave his head, and assuming the costume of the Chinese, penetrate into the interior in so irregular a manner. And, although, when closely examined by the magistrate, he firmly maintained that religious teaching and the distribution of books formed his sole object and occupation, it may certainly be asked, why does William Burns leave Shanghae and come to Chaon-Chow, just at atime when Kiangnan and the other provinces are the scene of hostilities? Or, can it be that a person dressed in the garb, and speaking the language of China, is really an Englishman, or may he not be falsely assuming that character to further some mischievous ends? I have directed Heu, the assistant Nan-hae magistrate, to hand him over to the Consul of the said nation, in order that he may ascertain the truth respecting him, and keep him under restraint; and I ..". by means of this declaration, make known to him (the Consul) the above particulars. William Burns, seven volumes of foreign book, and three sheet tracts, accompany this declaration. |