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the large rooms were filled by a most respectable assembly of some six hundred persons, one-third of them being ladies "inquirers after truth," as the phrase goes, but more likely still seeking to confirm certain preconceived notions of their own. The lecturer laboured for two full hours, to prove that these rapping spirits are the "false Christs and false prophets," which the apostle affirmed were to arise in the last time, "showing great signs and wonders, insomuch, that if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect." He believes in the literal fulfilment of prophecy, and that the signs of the times afford a clear indication of the rapid approach of the Second Advent. A number of those clergymen and gentlemen in the metropolis, who hold similar views, filled the platform; but very few of the audience seemed to sympathize with their instructor, and at the close, a good deal of noise was occasioned by the fact, that no discussion was permitted. To accept the facts, is, of course, one thing, but to accept the opinions founded upon these facts, is another, and a very different thing; and for my own part, I cannot but say with the Record, "That man must be very bold, or very ignorant, who will assert that Satanic agency in table-moving is a truth already so certain and irrefragably proved, as to be a fact beyond further inquiry." It is a very curious, and I think, very lamentable circumstance, that ministers of the gospel, and Christians generally, are ever the first to ascribe new phenomena or startling discoveries, to the agency of the Evil One, whereby great injury has often been done to the cause of truth, and the minds of many thoughtful inquirers repelled from an acceptance of the holy verities of the Christian religion. The simple facts on this subject amount to this, that tables beneath the hands of parties who exercise upon them no voluntary muscular action, are found to move in directions indicated by the operators, and coincidently with questions put either mentally or orally, or by writing, so as to constitute answers to those questions, even on points on which the operators themselves possessed no conscious information-this is the sum of the facts. And again, I say, with the Record, "The conclusion which points to Satanic influence as the agent of these phenomena, is an opinion upon which persons must be left free to exercise their independent judgment, and from which we claim the right to dissent."

Mr. Robert Owen has just published a

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half-crown book of conversations which he has had with departed spirits, and which he dedicates "To those who, above all things, desire to attain a knowledge of truth; who have moral courage to follow wherever it leads; whose minds expand beyond the prejudices of class, creed, country, and colour; who love humanity; and whose active endeavours are to do good to all, and to secure the permanent happiness of our race." He professes to believe that there is "A great, glorious, and peaceful revolution near at hand, to be effected through the agency of departed spirits and by good and superior men and women." "Truth alone," he says, "" can make men good, wise, and happy." The first coming of this truth," he admits, was through Jesus Christ, an inspired medium from his birth, to teach the world the necessity for it to acquire universal love and charity. The second coming of truth is now to teach the world how to acquire and practise universal love and charity; and thus, not in words, but in action, to prove their love to God." The former friends of Mr. Owen, to whom he was as a god while professing the doctrine of the Sadducees, have now cast him off, as a man in his dotage, whose opinions are worthless and undeserving of attention; a fine illustration of infidel consistency and liberality of thought. In the meantime, all the various theorists of the age, as well as a few practical men, are doing their best to obtain a satisfactory solution of the spirit-rapping and table-turning problems. To this end, one of our great publishing houses has issued a five-shilling book on "Fiends, Ghosts, and Sprites;" and the Cambridge University Council has organized an experimenting Committee, composed of some of its most eminent Professors. From this latter attempt to elucidate the phenomena, great things are confidently expected.

One of the most important of the public meetings held during the month, was convened at Exeter Hall by the London Missionary Society, with reference to the present political and social condition of China, and to the bright prospects now opening for extending the blessings of Christianity throughout that vast Empire. The Million Testament scheme, and the proposal to send forth additional missionaries, are closely identified; and it was, therefore, graceful, and right, that the noble President of the Bible Society should occupy the chair on such an occasion. The speakers of the day represented the chief sections of the Christian church:-They were, the Earl of Shaf

tesbury, Rev. Dr. Leifchild, who, by the way, is about to resign his charge and retire into private life; Canon Champneys, J. A. James, John Aldis, Dr. Archer, Baldwin Brown, T. R. Brooke, Sir Culling Eardley, and Sir E. N. Buxton. It appeared that the London Missionary Society has, during the last forty-six years, sent forth upwards of thirty missionaries to China; and it is now proposed to add ten more to the number. For this purpose, it is intended to make a simultaneous collection on the fourth Sabbath in January. The churches in the Metropolis, generally, have already pledged themselves to this course; and "it is hoped that in every city, town, and village through out the empire, there will not be wanting a single church or congregation, that will not, in proportion to its numbers and resources, do what it can to carry into full effect this blessed and all-important object." Last month, I had to report that the Million Testament Fund, had reached the sum of £2390, 3s. 8d; it has now swollen to £3818, 8s. 9d.; and by the time this intimation reaches the public eye, it will probably have risen to £4800, or even more. Ours, after all, is not so niggardly an age in these matters as some would seem to imagine. Let a right object be fairly presented to the Christian public, and it is sure to be eminently successful, and that in a very brief space of time.

The only other public gathering which has taken place of special importance, was composed of the members and friends of the Protestant Alliance. To consider, with the view to a remedy, the conduct of Tuscany and other petty States of the popedom, towards British subjects on account of their religion, was the object of the meeting. The Earl of Shaftesbury, in the course of a very able speech, remarks:-" If there be a people and a Government upon the face of the earth upon whom we can make a claim, it is the people and Government of Portugal. Nevertheless, there appeared on the 10th of December a code of which these are the prominent regulations:-"Any one failing in respect to the religion of the country, the Roman Catholic apostolic, shall be condemned to imprisonment from one to three years, and to a fine proportioned to his wealth." Observe the definitions of the mode in which you may fail in respect to the religion of that country:-"Injuring the said religion publicly in any dogma, act, or object of its worship, by deed, or work, or publication in any form; attempting by the same means to propagate doctrines contrary to the Catholic dogma; attempting by any

means to make proselytes or conversions to a different religion; celebrating public acts of a worship not that of the Catholic religion. Therefore, the people of England are to be told by this said kingdom of Portugal, which, but for the intervention of this country, under God's providence, would have been wiped out in more than one instance from the map of nations, that if they go to reside in Lisbon, or any other part of the dominions of Portugal, and celebrate a public act of their worship in the most simple, decent, orderly, and even private manner, they are to be imprisoned from one to three years, with a fine proportioned to their income! I know not whether that decree is most audacious or insolentwhether it is intolerable or contemptible; but this I know, that the people of England, in whatever aspect they regard it, will not allow it to exist on the statute-book, as directed against England. Take next the kingdom of Spain. We have done quite as much for Spain as we have done for Portugal; and yet we are to be told by the Government of that country, that our people there resident are not to be allowed the rites of decent burial--that they are to be thrust out at night like dogs or cats-that no service whatever is to be performed over them, and that if at last the Spanish Government, in its great condescension, will allow such corrupt specimens of the human race as English Protestants to be interred below the sod, it is to be done in secrecy, and in such a way as that it shall be known only to the grave-digger, and the man who carries the corpse. Pass to the island of Maltaa possession of our own, that, under our Government, has attained the greatest comfort, ease, independence, and every enjoyment of which it is capable; a new decree is issued by that self-government, which we have allowed to the island of Malta, and which as conquerors we might have taken from ita decree in which it is declared that any contempt manifested towards any of the doctrines, rites, or ceremonies, of the Roman Catholic religion existing in that land, is to be punished by periods of imprisonment, varying, from three to six, or even to twelve months. Come next to the Dukedom of Tuscany; and that concerns us more seriously, because the events there are of more recent date, and because, in a late decree, that Government has thought fit, in the most pointed manner, to declare that this code shall extend to all foreigners. This decree took effect on the 1st of September last; and certainly the new penal code of the Dukedom of Tuscany is almost

unprecedented in the darkest period of the dark ages. The punishments are terrible in themselves the offences are so slight, that it would defy the utmost acuteness of a practised Jesuit confessor, to be able to fix the offence of many of those parties who shall be brought up as culprits before them. The first who fell under the influence of this new decree was a country-woman of our own, Miss Cunninghame. It is that which has brought the matter most prominently before the British public. By the words of that code, any one of you being in the dominions of the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and speaking in secret to your friend or your relation, to your wife or to your husband, to your son or to your daughter, or writing from the place where you are resident to your friends at home, and expressing religious sentiments, or touching upon religious doctrines, not necessarily polemical, bat, according to the opinion of the man who may read your letter, the opinion of the court before which it may be brought, or the opinion and will of the Jesuit confessor who advises the Grand Duke, may have it perverted into an offence against the Roman Catholic Church, and punished by fine, by imprisonment of ten, fifteen, or twenty years, with hard labour or, in some instances by death itself, by the hatchet or on the scaffold. I want to know, is this to be permitted? (No.) Is the Grand Duke to be allowed to exercise such dominion over the speech and over the thoughts of every Englishman resident in his dominions? (No.) We do not question the right of any independent country to make laws for its own subjects, or to prescribe the conditions upon which foreigners shall be resident in its dominions; but we claim an equal right to prescribe the conditions on which we will hold intercourse with such a country-and we claim a right to prescribe the conditions on which her Majesty's representative shall reside at the Court of such a Power. I maintain, and you will, that wherever the Queen has a representative, British subjects have a right to reside, and to reside not as slaves, deprived of those inalienable rights that belong to every human being, from whatever quarter of the world he may come. Our demands are very simple. We demand for British subjects residing or travelling in these countries, liberty of conscience, liberty of action, liberty of receiving God's Word, and liberty of diffusing it through the length and breadth of every land for every human being that exists. We give quite as much as we ask. We have given complete and absolute liberty to Roman Catholics, and to

every form of faith; and we ask the same for our own people, when resident or travelling in foreign countries. Ay, and in another case, we will make a personal appeal to his Highness the Grand Duke. We ask him to give us Protestants in his realm defence against the voracious persecution of the priests and Jesuits; and in doing so, we may put him in mind, that, in the year 1849, when he fled from the wrath of his own subjects, we gave him shelter and protection on board a British steamer. He may require that protection again, but let him so conduct himself, that the representatives of that power may find it not only comfortable, but decent, to be present at his Court, or to be floating in his harbours." After much more to the same effect, the noble Earl concluded thus:-"We shall, therefore, propose to you this day to agree to a Memorial to be presented to the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in which we shall set forth these various grievances, and request his intercession, and that of the Government, to bring all these Powers to their senses, and enable us to ascertain, as I have said, what is our position, and the power and authority by which we shall be able to maintain it. I cannot close without the expression of a hope, that our exertions hereafter may not be limited to the ties of fellow-citizenship, and to efforts in behalf of people of one language; it is our duty, and it ought to be our joy, to countenance and support the truth and the spirit of Protestantism all over the world; and my firm belief is, that if we proceed in that way, we shall not be wanting great, noble, vigorous allies on the other side of the water. I believe our Transatlantic brethren will not be behind us in the assertion of these great truths; and if we with them be united in this work, I would snap my fingers at all the Powers of Europe. Why should we be less bold than Queen Elizabeth? Have we less danger? Have we less necessity? Have we less means ? Have we less hopes? Why behind Cromwell? Why inferior to the statesmen of 1704, who demanded and obtained freedom of conscience-religious liberty and freedom of worship for the faithful in the valleys? Why less energetic than our noble Prime Minister, Lord Aberdeen, who, in writing to Lord Stratford, on the subject of the Christians in the East, said: "To maintain our fellow-religionists is a paramount duty, from which I will never recede ?' Our rights are equal, our necessities are the same, and our means far greater than were possessed by any who ever went before us.

Our responsibility, therefore, is clear, and serious, and inevitable; and, under the blessing of Almighty God, we will not be wanting in the employment of our ample means for so glorious a consummation." As may well be supposed, the speech, of which these extracts furnish a sample, was cheered to the echo by an admiring auditory. Other speakers followed, and the Memorial alluded to by the Chairman was cordially adopted. The Lectures which were commenced by Sir James Stephen, at Exeter Hall, before the Young Men's Christian Association, have progressed thus far with great success and satisfaction. Mr. Gough poured out his soul to an enraptured audience on the subject of "habit"-meaning of course the habit of drinking strong liquors. The Rev. Robert Bickersteth spent two hours to prove, what probably not a single individual among his audience ever thought of calling in question that the Pope is the Man of Sin, and that Romanism shall be destroyed when Christ shall appear the second time, without sin unto salvation. The Rev. William Landels set forth, in most eloquent terms, the character of the Haldanes, as an example of energy and devotion, to the young men of London; and the Rev. Dr. Cumming, in a captivating but most superficial display, discoursed upon "The Signs of the Times." One portion of the lecture

of Mr. Landels was provocative of contro versy. He found his heroes, he said, deficient in a kind and lovable spirit, and in this respect warned his audience to beware of imitation. Mr. Alexander Haldane, their biographer, will not allow the insinuation, charge, or whatever it may be called, of Mr. Landels, to attach to the memory of either his father or his uncle; and has writ ten a long letter to the journals in reply to the lecturer, setting forth what he considers to be proofs of the possession, by both brothers, of a most affectionate and lov. able disposition.

The Religious Liberation Society proceeds hopefully. The replies received from gen tlemen nominated at the Anti-State-Church Conference, I understand, to fill offices in this society, under its new constitution, uniformlyexpress gratification at the changes then effected, and confirm the hope of the Executive Committee that it will be possible, in a comparatively short time, to carry out the resolution of the Conference, that the Society's income should be raised to £5000, by subscriptions, guaranteed for three years. They are now, it seems, taking steps for obtaining a handsome proportion of this sum in the metropolis, intending then to appeal to their friends throughout the country.

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. THE JEW S. ALGIERS.

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the Divinity of Christ, which they could not prove from the Old Testament, and that consequently he never would nor could be lieve it. I then told him seriously, that instead of boasting to have confounded missionaries on that point, he should rather lament because the provoked God had confounded him, as well as his rebellious forefathers and his people at large, so that they are not able to behold the divinity, glory, and authority of the Saviour of the world. In support of this, I quoted to him Isa. vi. 9, 10; xxix. 9-14; liii. 1-passages which declare distinctly that because of the repeated rebellion of the Jews, the Lord had struck them with blindness, and allowed them to become so confounded as not to be able to see the things which belong to their salvation. After having spoken to him for upwards of two hours, he agreed to come for several successive days, in which we should discuss at large that important subject. He came regularly the five following days, in

each of which we spent several hours in investigating and studying the following passages-Psalms ii., xxii., xlv., lxxii., lxxx. 15-18, cx.; Isa. liii.; Jer. xxiii. 5, 6; Dan. vii. 13, 14. Daily, before commencing our study of the holy oracles, we prayed together, when I requested especially and repeatedly that the Lord would open the eyes of that wandering sheep of the house of Israel, that he might behold Christ the everlasting in his beauty, and that he might be convinced, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiali, the Son of God.

"When these days were ended, Rabbi Solomon acknowledged that he could not now dispute the divinity of the Messiah in face of all these passages, but said that still he could not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was that Messiah. When I referred him to the New Testament, he answered me with a smile, that he could not believe in the inspiration of that book, and that he read it once, and found it all fables. He told me, however, that as he had no more time to spend here, but must go to Oran, where he was to remain for two months, he would think more about the passages we studied, and when he returned he would discuss with me the authority of the New Testament. When he left me, I I gave him a Bible and a New Testament, and told him that when once convinced of the Godhead of the Messiah, he should then carefully examine Hag. ii. 69; Mal. iii. 1, 2; Dan. ix. 24-27; and if he should see from these passages that Messiah must have come during the second temple, then should he once more read and examine the New Testament, praying unto God for light and understanding.

"Rabbi Solomon left for Oran, and as I had then much to write about regular and continual inquirers, and as I counted R. S. one of the many wandering Jews who, in passing through Algiers, call on me once twice, I did not mention his visits in my letters at the time.

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"About seven weeks ago, Rabbi Solomon came into my house, but I did not recognize him, as he was very much sun-burned and fatigued from the journey. But he soon reminded me who he was by quoting several of the passages which we studied together Jast winter. Subsequently I was surprised to hear him repeat every one of these passages from memory, along with the remarks which I had made on them, which proved to me that he had carefully examined them during his absence. He then stated that his intention was to put himself now under regular instruction, and the very same day

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he was present at an afternoon's meeting. When he joined us we were reading in the Gospel of Luke, and on the third day he said to me that he would rather be instructed in the Old Testament prophesies; for, added he, This little book (viz., the New Testament) I could read and study through in three days by myself.' I was very sorry to see that he had not yet abandoned his old and foolish prejudice against the New Testament Scriptures; and, as I was just at the chapter containing the parable of the talents, I said to him, 'Well, I shall give you one parable to solve and explain, and give you also three days for it, and if you will not explain it after that time, then you will see what foolish presumption it is of you to think to study through the whole book in three days.' This he agreed to. I passed over the chapter of the above-mentioned parable without any remark on it, and left it to R.S. to explain after the three days. Now he betook himself to hard study to find out the parties represented in that parable, with their varied talents; he exercised all his Talmudical wit, made many suggestions, and tried various solutions in vain. At last (on the fourth day) I explained it to him, and he seemed completely humbled. Since then we have gone through the whole of Luke, and taken up the Epistle to the Hebrews (the latter was not new to the converts). This epistle the new inquirer views with admiration, and he now studies the New Testament with eagerness.

"One thing speaks much in favour of this rabbi. When the question arose what he was going to do for bread, I told him that as he is yet a young man, he should forget and abandon his rabbinical glory, and give himself to work. This advice he instantly embraced. I got some employment for him, and though he is not able as yet to gain his bread, I hope that ere long he may be able to gain it independently, for he is industrious. As he was not known much among the Jews here, it is very probable that he will escape persecution, He seems to me an upright and sensible man, and the merciful God alone can give him what I cannot, that is, a new heart and an upright spirit.

"It is to be hoped now that the time will change, and the dreadful heat lose part of its severity, when I shall be able to resume again my out-of-door labours. O, may the brethren at home pray unto the Lord of the harvest, to open new doors of usefulness for me, to show me a good soil wherein to sow the precious seed of Christ's gospel, and to prepare souls for listening to and embracing Heaven's invitation !"

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