Professor Fowler, of the Theological Seminary at Bangor. Oct. 12-The Rev. JAMES MARSH, Professor of Languages and Belles Lettres in Hampden Sidney College, was ordained at Hanover, N. H. to the work of the Ministry. Oct. 20.-The Rev. WILLIAM MITCHELL, at Watertown, as an Evangelist, by the South Consociation of Litchfield, Con. Greeks should abandon the town and castle and retire to their monasteries on the hills. Under one of these was a mine of powder. The Turks after two un uccessful attacks upon it, increased their numbers for a third attempt, when the Greeks suffered them to rush in and then blew up themselves and enemies together. Many of their women and children also perished with them. The destruction of lives was great on both sides.-The Turks massacreing all that fell in their way, and the Greeks defending themselves with desperation. Even women were seen contending hand to hand with the barbarians, and when they had no other means of avoiding captivity, throwing themselves and their children into the sea. The Captain Pacha, having accomplished the object of the expedition, returned to Mytilene, leaving the desolated island in possession of 2000 of his Egyptian troops. But the possession of Ipsara by the Turks was of short duration. Three days after its capture, the Greek government at Napoli di Romania sent to its aid a fleet of more than 50 sail; the result of which was that nearly the whole of the Turkish fleet and garrison left at the island were destroyed. Various accounts estimate the aggregate loss of the Turks at from eight to upwards of twenty thousand men. Among them were the 300 traitors, whom the enraged Greeks annihilated during the first attack. Oct. 6.-The Rev HORACE SESSIONS, and the Rev. ELBRIDGE G. Howe, as Evangelists at South Wilbraham, Mass. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Strong, of Somers, Con. Oct. 6-The Rev. H. HERSEY, at Barnstable, Mass. Sermon by the Rev. Mr. Palfrey, of Boston. Oct. 6 The Rev. JUBILEE WELLMAN, over the Congregational Church in Frankfort, Me. Sermon by the Rev. Diew of Public Affairs. FOREIGN. SPAIN. The fortress of Tariffa, mentioned in our last as having been taken on the 4th of August by a body of exiled Constitutionalists, was retaken by storm on the 19th, by the French and Spanish troops. The prisoners were delivered up for trial. We hear nothing further of the prospect of a "simultaneous struggle" throughout Spain. The affair of Tariffa seems to have been a mere act of desperation on the part of the exiles. FRANCE. The death of Louis XVIII. was announced at London, on the 13th of September. He is succeeded by his brother, the Count d'Artois, whose title is Charles X. GREECE.-Among the most interesting events in the history of the Greek revolution are the taking and retaking of the island of Ipsara. The Captain Pacha, after spending a month at Mytilene in raising and concentrating his force, set sail on the 3d of July, with a fleet said to consist of more than 180 vessels, and car rying from 30 to 40,000 men. The forces of ipsara amounted to about 7000 On the morning of the 4th the Pacha commenced landing which he effected without difficulty in consequence of the treachery of 300 Albanians to whom the only two places favourable for a landing had been confided, and who instead of defending these important posts turned their arms upon the Greeks. It became necessary that the Answers to Correspondents. S. W. is received. I. P. W. and A. B. are necessarily deferred. cate. B. will probably hear from us through the friend whom he undertakes to vindi We handed W. L.'s communication to K. as he requested. Our only objection to publishing it, is its inconclusiveness. It is written with an excellent spirit, but discovers a want of that knowledge of the Scriptures in their original languages, and of Bibli cal Archæology which is indispensable to a proper investigation of the subject. THE CHRISTIAN SPECTATOR. No. 12.] DECEMBER 1, 1824. Religious Communications. On Betraying Christ. THE circumstances in which these words were spoken, and the occasion in which they originated, are familiar to every reader of the gospel. Our blessed Lord had nearly filled up the life of sorrow and suffering to which he had condescended, and was just on the eve of that tragical scene which was to complete the price of man's redemption. He had before often intimated to his incredulous disciples that he was to be cut off by a cruel and ignominious death; but never till now did he disclose to them the awful secret that this was to be brought about by the treachery of one of their own little number. It would have been a great thing for them to be told, on infallible authority, that their master must die; for they had given him their strongest af fections, and had looked forward with confident expectation to the time when they should share in the glories of a temporal kingdom. But then they might have hoped according to the ordinary course of events, that they should be indulged the melancholy privilege of soothing his last agonies by their vigilant and affectionate attentions. But no, he is to be denied the privilege of dying in their arms, and they the privilege of endeavouring to minister to the conVOL. VI.-No. 12. [VOL. VI. He solation of their dying master. is to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies, and to be hung up on a cross, a public spectacle of disgrace and agony. But even then, they might enjoy the melancholy consolation of reflecting that they had all been faithful to him unto the end ;—that in his own beloved family he had found none but friends; that they had stood by him to the last, and rendered him every assistance and every consolation in their power; and made a united and most vigorous effort to deliver him out of the hands of his enemies; and if he must suffer, they might be able all of them to wash their hands of his blood, and to appeal to each other, and to him, and to the world, that they had all borne for him a love stronger than death. But no, far from this; their hearts were wrung with the melancholy intelligence that one of them was to be the traitor;--yes, one of that little number, who were then eating and drinking with him at the same table, was to be instrumental in procuring his master's death. Is it any wonder that their hearts should have sunk in fearful expectation, and that each one should have begun to utter the expressive and anxious interro gation, Lord, is it I ?' The event fastened the guilt and the odium of this horrid act upon Judas; the very man perhaps, of whose integrity and fidelity the disciples were most unsuspicious. E 77 ven then, while he was apparently frequent are the instances in which as much devoted to the interests of his master as any of the disciples; even then, while he was mingling with him in an act of professed friendship, and virtually pledging him-elf to be faithful to the end, the malice and treachery of hell were awake in his bosom; and in a short time he was seen at the head of the murderous band which came with 'swords and staves to seize the innocent sufferer, and carry their horrid plot into execution. I doubt not Christians, that when you have read the history of this horrid act, and have marked the conduct of this most wicked man, you have been almost ready to believe that the same degree of guilt never blackened the character of any other man. But perhaps you mistake in this opinion. No other man, it is certain, ever was, or ever can be guilty of precisely the same sin, in form, of which Judas was guilty; but I am by no means certain that many a false professor may not find as low a place in the world of wailing as heand you mistake, if you suppose that the sin of betraying Christ was confined to Judas, or that it may not be committed in substance now as well as when our Lord was on the earth. Every false professor of religion is chargeable with it; and the object of this discourse is to exhibit some of the forms in which it appears, and the awful guilt with which it is counected. I. I am first to mention some of the ways in which professed Christians betray their master. They do this, in the first place, when they are ashamed of their religion. The language of a Christian profession is that we are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. When we come forward and voluntarily take upon ourselves Christian vows, and promise to live devoted to the Lord In all the ways of holy obedience, we virtually declare that we will glory in nothing in comparison with the cross of Christ. But how painfully the subsequent conduct gives the lie And here, professing Christians, as I pass along, I wish to bring this matter home to your heart, by way of examination. You have never sold your master for thirty pieces of silver; but have you never sold the credit of his cause for a still more paltry consideration? When you have been thrown among the ungodly and profane, have you never felt willing that they should remain ig norant that you were a professor of religion; and have you not, even at the expense of your own conscience, been willing to appear compliant and courteous? When you have seen that religion was unfashionable in the circle in which you happened to fall, and found that all around you were given to trifling and vanity, have you not sometimes secretly wished that you might be free from the restraints of a Christian profession, and that you might even forget that you had : solemnly covenanted with God ? man between whose profession and What name, professing Christian, I whose conduct they observe a happy put it to your conscience--what name consistency ; who after having pro. does this conduct deserve better than fessed before God to have renounced treachery; and who will say that he the world as his supreme portion, is slandered, who being guilty of this proves by his life that he actually conduct, is called a traitor? has renounced it. This is the man 2. Those professors also betray whom the world respects most, even Christ, who attempt to m:ike a com- though it may heap upon him a load promise between his service and that of malediction. That professor, of the world. I do not mean that therefore, who attempts to voite reChristians are forbidden to enjoy the ligion and the world ag objects of world, or that religion lays an icy pursuit, while he acts the part of a hand upon any truly innocent and traitor io Christ, defeats the very pur: rational indulgence : still every one pose at which he ains; for even the on entering the family of Christ, does open enemies of religion discover his virtually renounce the world as a por. inconsistency, and secretly despise tion; and promises to sacrifice every him as more guilty than themselves.enjoyment which may come in com. 3. I remark, once more, that those petition with his Christian obligao professors are especially guilty of tions. But how many are there, who, betraying Christ, who become open after a while, practically forget that apostates from his religion. In order they engaged io make this sacrifice; to this, let it be remembered that it is and as they cannot decently throw off, not necessary that a man should in a formal manner, their Christian come into the church with a delibere obligations, they endeavour to bring ate design to stab the cause of chris. down the standard of duty to their tianity; on the contrary, he may own taste, and to persuade them have been the subject of very serious selves that all the pleasures of the impressions ; and he may have joined world to which their inclinations lead the church with a resolution that he them are innocent. They may even would live a holy lise ; but his faith plead for these pleasures as a part of proves to be that of a stony ground religion, notwithstanding they are hearer ;--when tribulation or persedirectly fitted to drive every serious cution arises because of the word, he thought from the mind; and they is offended; he gradually yields to may charge you with being unrea. one siuful indulgence after another sonable, and endeavouring to defeat till the sensibility of his conscience the kind purposes of our heavenly fa- is extinguished, and he openly rether, if you admonish them ever so nounces all pretensions to religion, kindly of the guilt of such indulgen- and comes out before the world ia ces. But nothing is more certain than the character of a scoffer. It may that such conduct as this indicales a be that he is now beard to profane spirit of treachery towards Christ: the name of God; or that he is seen and let me add that the world under- with the poisonous cup of intoxicastand this matter perfectly. It is not tion at his lips, or that he makes the the professor who is most ready to piety of others as well as his own forsink the character of the Christian in mer professions the subject of prothat of the worldling, whom they in fane jesting. Such a man, be assured, their hearts respect most ; it is not has the guilt of Judas blackening his the person whom they see bandling heart. His master looks upon him the sacramental elements in the as a traitor, and the most profane and church, and then going out into the abandoned persons in society secretworld with as keen a relish for its ly exult in a comparison of their chare pleasures, as those who profess to acters with his. lave no other portion; but it is the But let it be remembered that it is not necessary that you should make II. Such are some of the ways in which the Saviour is betrayed: without going into further particulars, I proceed, secondly to consider the aggravated guilt and criminality of this conduct. 1. This appears first, from the fact that it is a violation of the most sacred of all obligations. There is not a more solemn act on this side of eternity, than that in which the christian, by a voluntary profession, enters into covenant with God. While it is a transaction immediately between God and his own soul, angels and men are virtually called to witness his sincerity, and to testify against him if he forget or disregard his obligations. He engages in professed reliance on God's grace that his life shall be devoted to religion, and that he will endeavour to the extent of his power, to glorify God, to benefit the world, and to adorn a christian profession. But all these obligations which he has once publicly acknowledged, and to which heaven and earth have borne witness, he deliberately and flagrantly violates. It is not merely the violation of a promise, but of a promise made under the most solemn circumstances; a promise made directly to the God of heaven and earth. Let the man who resolves on being a traitor to Christ, in any way, ask himself how he shall be able on his final trial to review the day when he entered into covenant with God, and publicly assumed the weight of christian obligations. 2. The criminality of this conduct appears farther from the fact that it indicates the blackest ingratitude; for who is this master whom the treach erous professor so wantonly betrays? Is it one whose conduct towards him has always been of a suspicious character; who has never manifested any interest in his happiness, and who has in no respect any claim upon his gratitude? No, it is the most kind and gracious of all masters; it is that compassionate Saviour who died to redeem him, who bas offered his Spirit to sanctify him, and who has been always calling him in a voice of tenderness to holiness and heaven. What has he done, O false professor, that thou shouldst thus betray his cause into the hands of the enemy? What act of unkindness hast thou ever received from Jesus, that should make thee so ready to dishonour his religion and trample on his blood? Is this the testimony of thy gratitude for the poverty and degra dation to which he submitted on thy behalf; for his being born in a manger, and dying on a cross? Has thine heart been changed into ada mant that thou hast become insensi |