sentiment or mode of experience which occurs in it, we gladly avail ourselves of the opportunity of introducing it to the notice of our readers.

The Jewish Exile; or, Religion Exemplified in the Life and Character of Daniel. By the Rev. JOHN KENNEDY, Stepney.

A little work excellently suited for the perusal of young men. It delineates the character of the "man greatly beloved"-"1.Daniel's youth-the trial and the decision.-2.The dreams of Nebuchadnezzar and the feast of Belshazzar.-Daniel's character elicited and proved.-3. Daniel in honour and power.-4. Daniel in adversity.-5. Daniel at home and in rest.-6. The theology of Daniel.-7. The connection between his creed and his character; and Final lessons”—all of which points are treated with conciseness and vigour, the general character of Daniel being held up for imitation.

Notes of the Month.

The New Primate.-The appointment of Dr. Sumner (bishop of Chester) to the archbishopric of Canterbury has been hailed with the liveliest satisfaction. He is said to be the most truly and laboriously evangelical bishop on the bench, and his elevation is perhaps the heaviest blow and the sorest discouragement with which the Tractarians have yet met. They do not say much about it, the blameless life and labours of Dr. Sumner defying criticism or depreciation; but it is said they feel it keenly. There are at present some hopeful symptoms for English evangelism. Not the least of these, perhaps, is afforded by the consecration sermon of the Bishop of Manchester, preached by the Rev. Mr. Garbett, and published at the bishop's request. Not much was known about Dr. Lee's ecclesiastical and religious views; but, if they at all correspond with those of the sermon in question, as is most likely, if not certain, there is reason for thankfulness. The leading object of the sermon is to confute Tractarian views on Church authority, and especially Mr. Gladstone's theory of "The Corporate Life of Christians." Its sentiment and style may be gathered from the following extracts:

"The essential nature, either of Christianity or of the Church, cannot be altered by circumstances. The baptism that saves is still the answer of a good conscience towards God,' the confession of the mouth to the prior belief of the heart; vicarious, as in the case of the young, it may be, but not less imperative. If we would understand what the religion of the Lord Jesus is, and what is the reality of the Christian's interest in him, viz., what is saving Churchmanship, we must refer exclusively to the alone inspired records of the Gospel. The Church of the New Testament must not be loosened down to the practical level of that of the nineteenth century; but the Church of the nineteenth century must be braced up, in principle and motive, to that of the New Testament. For, under whatever high assumptions we may be comprised, as members of that holy and privileged community, the Church of Christ, the fact which intimately concerns us is, that he alone is in a state of salvation whose personal faith unites him with his Saviour, or, in the language of Hooker, whose faith hath made him a child of God.' That salvation he has received through the Church; he retains it in the Church; it is nurtured by those means of grace which are intrusted to the faithful dispensation of the Church; but it consists, not in union with the Church, but in union with Christ. The branches have a common life, not by contact

.....

with each other, but by contact with the vine. The Church, therefore, is a revered and honoured assembly, the aggregation of persons who, having received grace themselves, are instruments chosen of God to proffer it to others. But it is not the depository of grace and mercy. It may proffer them, in the full assurance that He will not be unfaithful to his promise, but it can neither grant them nor withdraw them. He alone 'giveth grace' who 'giveth glory.' This is the attribute of the ever-living Head, uncommunicated to the erring and sinful members of his earthly body. It is His alone who openeth and no man shutteth, who shutteth and no man openeth. ... When the realizing of salvation, through faith in a humiliated and glorified Redeemer, is felt to be the only Christianity, and the only availing Churchmanship—that is, when religion is felt to be a personal concern of the heartthen faith and practice will be tested by the Scripture. When assured that where Christ dwells salvation dwells, religion will cease to become a thing of controversy and division, and become a reality of the mind and spirit. The simple will no longer be perplexed, the formalist confirmed, the unbeliever encouraged, and the people of God alienated, and kept in alienation, one from another. The anxious heart will not be, as many at this moment are, distracted by miserable inquiries about whether it is in the true Church, or whether it is in communion with those who can judicially absolve from sin, and impart or withhold at pleasure the person and the grace of Christ? It will be felt that, though one mode of administration be preferable to, or one form of doctrine more scriptural than another, yet the only true criterion of a true Church is the adhering to one faith, one Lord, one baptism;' and that of all delusions, the notion of one person having a judicial control over the salvation of another, as it is among the most dangerous, so is it among the most baseless, of human assumptions. It will be felt that the bond of communion, which 'knits together the elect of God in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son,' cannot be burst asunder by any division that does not dissolve the unity of faith and love. When the Church is known to be, not a mysticism or an abstraction, but the abiding congregation of all who are Christians, it will be loved as a pillar of his truth,' and a herald of his goodness; as a home of peace, and a refuge from alarm.”

Case of Mr. Shore.-The case of Mr. Shore, lately brought before the inhabitants of Edinburgh, proves how deeply the Church of England is infected with the essence of Popery. Mr. Shore, once a minister of the Church of England, can, it seems, never cease to be one. His orders are "indelible." If he preaches now, even as a Dissenter, he must go to jail. The people of this country must, of course, scout such an atrocity; but why does the Government not interfere at once to repeal so preposterous a law? It will surely be a warning to men who propose now to accept of Prelatical ordination.

Home Mission Committee.-An overture has been unanimously sent from the Presbytery of Edinburgh to the Assembly, proposing an entire change in the existing arrangements of the Home Mission Committee. This Committee has hitherto been very much in a transition state, and has had a vast and multifarious business to manage. It is now proposed both to concentrate the Committee, and to devolve the task of distributing preachers and catechists, and providing for their maintenance, more upon the different congregations, stations, and presbyteries throughout the Church. We have no doubt of the expediency and necessity of the proposed change. We believe it will be far better for the deserving preachers, and far more conducive to the prosperity of stations and the harmony of congregations. Besides, it will enable the Com

mittee to economize the means at its disposal, and thus to make more effectual head against the growing heathenism of our land.

complishment, and business habits. He is expected to visit the schools at least an hour every day; and we suppose another hour may be added for the time occupied in going to and fro. He is to superintend and report on the whole educational arrangements, and great benefit is expected to result from his labours. And how much do our readers think is offered by the wealthy Governors in the way of pecuniary inducement? The vast sum of £50 per annum, or somewhere about 19s. 2d. per week!

Woe's me, that bread should be so dear,

Christian men as well as the judgments of God. We are happy to see the battle so strongly maintained at Dunfermline and elsewhere. Our friends have good cause to thank God and take courage.

The New Entail Bill.-We are glad to see any measure at all on the subject of entails. Any thing is better than the present system. But we fear that the measure of the Lord Advocate will only be found a small " nibble" at a monstrous and gigantic evil. However, it is well even to make a beginning.

The Late Riots.-The late riots in Scotland, though no doubt partly stirred up by Chartists and Socialists, have been mainly taken advantage of by idle boys and thieves. There has been very little of political excitement connected with them. At the same time, they are fitted to teach lessons both to Christian men and to the rulers of our land. It is just another revelation of the truth, that large masses in all our cities have broken loose from all restraint of Christian principle; and another loud call upon the Church to be up and doing. And it is a loud call on the Government not only to act on Christian principles, but to do justice to the middle classes of the country, upon whose exertions, after all, the national peace must, humanly speaking, depend. The patience of that class in Scotland has of late years been sorely tried. To be driven from their endowments, in defiance of the Treaty of Union, and without a hearing; to be driven from all colleges and public schools; to be robbed of churches built with their own money; to be forced to worship in the open air during the storms of winter, to be subjected to several most unjust laws, and a most unequal taxation; and instead of any effort on the part of Government to alleviate these evils, to be met by the most cool and contemptuous disregard of all their remonstrances; all this is fitted, is well fitted, to produce the utmost discontent, and in a country less religious than Scotland, would have long ere this led to most serious results. One great evil of the late paltry outbreak is, that it gives a pretext to the Government to neglect the real interests and wants of the country. But we trust they will have wisdom to read their duty in the signs of the times, and instead of leaning merely on a corrupt Church and aristocracy, that they will seek to do justice to the great mass of a steady and Christian community.

The "Wages" of a School Inspector.-The Governors of Heriot's Hospital have advertised for an Inspector of their out-door schools. He must be a man of education, and ac

And flesh and blood so cheap!

Are the Governors serious? or do they expect applications from any but Irish hedge-schoolmasters? Do they think any journeyman tailor in the city would for a moment be so foolish as to throw down his needle in order to take up their

on getting at least 14s. a-week-perhaps one of them would take the 19s. The inspector of cleaning in the same town has £4 per week, and, of course, would not for a moment think of offerring his services. Seriously, will the Governors be so good as again look at, and think over, their advertisement, and be ashamed of themselves! It is a disgrace and a scandal to see such a proposal emanating from a public body containing eighteen clergymen. The very commissioners of police lately raised the weekly wages of their thief-catchers to thirty shillings. The only thing at all equalling the proposal which we have seen lately, was an advertisement by the Edinburgh Teetotal Society, in which they solicited application from parties willing to become lecturing and teaching agents-the time required being five hours every day, Sabbath not excepted -and the remuneration offered being £20 per annum-in other words, 7s. 84d. a week, or rather more than 24d. an hour. It was kindly added, that students attending classes would find it a suitable employment for their leisure hours. The town scavengers, if we are not mistaken, receive twice as much. We know not whether is was one of these "twopence halfpenny" lecturers whom we lately heard addressing a small open air meeting in the Canongate. Judging from his talk, we should deem it extremely likely. He commenced by laying down the very logical position, that tasting intoxicating liquors was unnatural, because "no man was ever born a drunkard;" continued by stating that when the Apostle said, "Add to your faith temperance," he meant total abstinence; and concluded by informing the audience that "the best commentators thought there would neither be porter nor ale in the millennium." Of course, such stuff must damage any respectable cause. But what can be expected for twopence halfpenny!

A Device of the Establishment.-Since writing the above, we have heard a possible explanation of the conduct of the clerical Governors of the Hospital. The matter is of greater importance than the surface of the proceedings would indicate, and we hope that any future steps which may be taken in connection with it will be narrowly watched. Of course we have no objection to the appointment of an inspector, if that should be deemed conducive to the advantage and efficiency of the schools. But we have rather more than a shrewd suspicion, that not a few of those who are very anxiously pushing te matter, have in view another, and (to them) a much more important object. They are anxious to have an inspector who will work into their own hands, and probably have some one in view who will take the paltry remuneration offered, with the prospect of getting it ultimately increased. There is

nothing with regard to which the clerical guardians and dependants of the Establishment are at present more anxious or uneasy, than the question of Education. They see that a determined effort is about to be made to rescue the parish schools from their surveillance; and that if the effort be successful, one of the chief buttresses on which they lean for support will fail them. Accordingly, they are busying themselves (privately) with the visitation and superintendence of schools, and are evidently determined to work to the utmost such machinery as they have-not knowing, of course, how long they may have it. In connection with Heriot's Hospital and the Heriot Schools, they have two objects in view. First, By means of the Education Committee (the leading members of which are clergymen), and the Inspector (whom they are doing their utmost to secure, and who shall be “one of themselves"), they wish to have the whole extensive educational machinery of the institution under their direction. That, in the metropolis, would be a great point gained. And Second, They wish to recruit from these schools the ranks of their ministry. The stock of Residuary students, like many other "Stocks" at present, is known to be an alarming way "below par"-so much so, that the judgment pronounced regarding various essays with which last year some of them made a clumsy attempt upon a good bursary, was to the effect that all of them were so despicable, that the bursary could not with the slightest decency be given to any. In such circumstances, it is not wonderful that the future supply of ministers should be a matter of deep anxiety to the metropolitan leaders. And if we are not much misinformed, they have some quiet thoughts of helping themselves after the fashion of the Jesuits. It is notorious that the Jesuits contrived to win back great part of the Continent to Rome, by insinuating themselves everywhere into the schools, and obtaining an influence over the most promising youths attending them, whom having perverted, they succeeded in making their most efficient agents. It is not difficult to see how, if the Establishment, by means of an Education Committee and an Inspector, has virtual control over eight or ten schools, attended by between two and three thousand children, it may work most successfully and extensively at the same game. A few picked youths every year would serve their purpose, and these an intelligent and active Inspector could easily secure. If they do not at first belong to the Establishment, a little smooth and jesuitical attention to the poor parents would, in most instances, quite suffice to remove the obstacle. Some wise folks will pretend to deride such suspicions; and of course the guilty parties themselves will shrug their shoulders, and shake their heads, and speak of our "ludicrous uncharitableness." That will not prevent us from asking the dissenting Governors of the Hospital to be on the alert. Indeed, we know that some of them are on the alert already-aware that all the clerical canvassing and consultation, and the unusual eagerness and hot haste which have been displayed in connection with the matter, must have some adequate, and therefore secret, object in view. Let them continue to watch. The whole matter of the connection of the Established ministers with Heriot's Hospital has been too much overlooked, especially in connection with the election of the members of the Town Council. It is known to most of our readers, that the ministers and Council conjointly form the Governors of the Hospital. The former number eighteen, and the latter thirtythree-the result of which is, that even if only nine of the thirty-three Councillors are members of the Establishment,

they, added to the eighteen ministers, can control the whole proceedings of the institution, and work it into the hands of the Establishment. And let no one say that fear on that score is chimerical. Is it not the fact that immediately after the Disruption, a determined attempt was made to turn out one of the most efficient teachers in the institution, merely because he had joined the Free Church, and that the attempt failed, only because the number of Establishment councillors was not large enough? Men who could act in so outrageous a manner at that time, are not likely to be over scrupulous now. They should therefore be watched and checkmated. Our Free Church friends in Edinburgh may soon find reason, in connection with this, for some other institution, to regret the supineness and apathy which they have recently displayed in regard to the municipal representation.

Edinburgh Irish Mission and Scripture Readers' Society. -This important mission has just been organized anew, and in most favourable and promising circumstances. It is now under the immediate superintendence of the Rev. P. M'Menamy, late of the Glens of Antrim, who has had great experience, and in whom the Committee have every confidence. In these days when Popery is making such vast efforts, and labouring to inundate our land with a flood of superstition, it is of great importance to encourage every effort to arrest its progress, and especially in the capital of our own land. The following is from the new circular just issued by the Committee:

"The paramount claims of such a Society on the liberality of the Christians of Edinburgh are manifest. There are here probably 20,000 Irish Roman Catholics not only living in darkness, in the midst of light, but corrupting the very foundations of society; and the number is understood to be continually increasing. To these there are daily means of access, on the part of zealous missionaries, notwithstanding the fierce vigilance of the priesthood; and efforts for their conversion have already been blessed of God. Qualified agents also can be procured; and surely there ought to be no difficulty in securing the necessary means. When we see with what rapid strides the Man of Sin is advancing in Britain, and over the whole world, this is certainly no time for lethargy and indifference on the part of Protestants. The zeal, energy, and self-denial of superstition are well fitted to instruct us. How do we propose to meet the evil? Have we any plan different from that of this Society? Or are we allowing ourselves to suppose that we have no duty to discharge at such a crisis, and to sink into lethargy, whilst thousands are perishing around us, and all that is precious to ourselves and our children is in danger of being swept away? It is surely high time to awake out of sleep, and to avail ourselves of this opportunity of coming to the help of the Lord against the mighty, otherwise God may in righteous judgment suffer us to reap the fruit of our own ways, and remove our own candlestick out of its place. Let only vigorous efforts be accompanied with persevering prayer, and the Lord of the harvest will not withhold his effectual blessing."

Progress in Belgium.-Belgium has hitherto been one of the most priest-ridden countries in Europe. A strong re-action, however, has for some years been taking place, the results of which are beginning to appear on an extensive scale. The French Revolution will help forward powerfully, or rather irresistibly, in the same direction. An intelligent observer, writing recently from France, observes:

-"Belgium is decidedly entered on a better course, and it is to be hoped that she will have strength to persevere. She has

long enough been under the domination of the priest party to be disgusted with it. The priests have paralyzed her industry, impoverished the public treasury, covered the country with convents and beggars, corrupted education-retarded, in short, the progress of society. The Liberals of Belgium have held up to view these consequences of clerical tyranny, and roused by their noble appeals the public indignation. A new cabinet has been appointed: it is composed of intelligent and firm men, who will not flinch from their duties. But they will have much to do to repair the faults committed by the friends of the priests: a complete change is to be effected.

"The late debates of the Legislative Chamber, at Brussels, have already produced a good impression. The ministers have brought forward very curious documents, showing the constant interference of the Popish clergy in government affairs. It would seem that the bishops wrote in the most imperious tone to the former cabinet, and gave it their orders for the appointment of professors of schools, and other public officers. A fine administration truly. The Jesuits, were then the real masters; and I am not surprised that the ultramontanes of France constantly called for Liberty as it was in Belgium ! This liberty consisted simply in putting the people under the absolute control of the priests.

"It might be thought that the tools of the clergy would make in the Belgian Parliament a violent opposition. But no; they lack courage and energy. Their attitude is very humble. The deputies who represent the defeated party have scarcely opened their mouth. They submit to what is done, well knowing that they would not be sustained in their opposition by public opinion. Only, to gratify their resentment against the Liberals, the priests plotted at Rome a miserable intrigue. The new ministry had appointed another ambassador to the see of Rome, M. Leclerc, a worthy and respectable man. So the secret agents of the Belgian clergy calumniated M. Leclerc at the Court of Rome, and the Pope made difficulties to the appointment of this ambassador. The insult was strongly resented by the nation as well as by the Government of Belgium; and the House of Representatives adopted, unanimously except a single vote, a resolution disapproving the conduct of the Romish see. This is another check, and a serious one, to the priest party."

This is the first time we have seen the devil charged with instigating to the distribution of Bibles. The Romish father does not seem to have had the slightest notion of the hideous profanity with which his statement is chargeable. In the apostolic times, we are told that "the Word of the Lord had free course and was glorified." In the region of Naples, however, and in the year 1848, Bible Societies-societies for giving the Word "free course"-are regarded and denounced as a device of the "infernal enemy," and their Bibles characterized as "poisonous" and "pernicious." How is this? Why is it that Popery so fears and abhors the Bible? Is it because the Bible is so clear and swift a witness against her? "The entrance of thy word giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple." Father Capobianco, however, to do him justice, is mildness itself as compared with some of the hotter spirits of Antichrist. One of these, a Mr. Brownson, editor of a Romish review in America, comes out a la Machale, in his last Number, as follows:

"There is hardly a city in the Union in which there are not benevolent ladies banded together, practising self-denial, and giving alms enough even to gain heaven, if accompanied by faith and charity, who make it a business to find out poor children, and, with sweetmeats, and fine dresses, and flattering words, entice them from religion, lure them from God, to spiritual mother who bore them, and to burn eternally in the be brought up in hatred of Him who redeemed them, of the fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And these charm

ing ladies persuade themselves that they are doing a deed of charity, that they are serving God, that he will love and reward them for it; poor deluded creatures! who are nothing more or less than procuresses to the devil. How strange! What terrible infatuation! As if it were not ten thousand million times better that our children should starve to death before our eyes than they should be brought up Protestants!" -N. Y. Spectator.

Popery declining Somewhere.-A writer from Kentucky says, that "ten Catholics become Protestants, where one Protestant becomes a Catholic. Impressions to this effect come in from all quarters. Hardly an extensive journey through the State can be taken without hearing of more or less becoming Protestant-rarely here and there of one becoming a Catholic. Every one knows of scores whose ancestors were Catholics-very few can be pointed out, now Romanists, whose forefathers were ever Protestant. The same absorbing process (within restricted limits), which is swallowing up the French population in St. Louis, and the Quaker population in Philadelphia, is slowly wasting away the isolated settlements of Catholics in Kentucky. Immigration and intermarriages are all largely in favour of the great majority, of whomsoever they may consist, and constantly against the minority, of whatever

....

ministers came on board our vessel, to offer the unhappy gift

of these adulterated Bibles; but the commander and myself opposed ourselves to such pernicious generosity. Miserables that they are! Is it possible that those who are in the dark should give light, or that the religion which the chief of the apostles came to preach in their city, and which is maintained pure and ardent as it was handed down from our pious ancestors, should cool in the hearts of Neapolitans ?"

form of faith."

We hope this is correct. The chief danger to Protestantism in America, arises not so much from conversion as from immi

great western valley of the Mississippi, and these are gradually acquiring a standing and influence as citizens. So extensive has been the immigration that in the city of Boston the number of Roman Catholics exceeds that of any other single denomination, and their number is rapidly increasing. There, as here, accordingly, politicians are paying court to them, and Democrats and Whigs are striving to outbid each other with compliments and concessions. The cause of truth is the more endangered by the circumstance, that the two parties are so

nearly balanced, that the Romanists are understood to hold the balance of power, and to be able to turn it as they choose. The Presbyterian Herald, one of the most judiciously conducted of the religious newspapers in America, states, that the Romish bishop of New York "probably exerts a wider influence than any other individual in the United States. To scholarship and high ability he adds a craftiness and management which, in other days, would have made him a cardinal, and the cardinal prime minister in the court of his sovereign. What the pope is to Italy, bishop John is to the United States, as respects the Catholic population. It is hardly too much to say, that his expressed will must decide a Presidential election."

Results of the Abolition of Capital Punishments.-A few months ago the Legislature of Michigan was induced to abolish the penalty of death for murder. The deplorable result is stated by a Michigan newspaper as follows:

"If experience is a teacher, the community of Michigan have been taught a melancholy lesson. We have an agricultural community. Our population is sparse. No popular outbreak has occurred among us that would justify the shedding of blood. No undue political or other excitement has prevailed among us calculated to arouse the fierce passions of man. And yet, in the midst of all this quiet in our sparse population, with schools and academies scattered all over our State, with religious teaching in all our villages and settlements, with the advantages of all things, bloody murder, in the State of Michigan, since the repeal of the death penalty, has on four several occasions stricken down its victim.

"A citizen near the village of Niles a few months ago, was shot down in open daylight, his pockets rifled, and his body left to be devoured by wild beasts; and but for its accidental discovery by a hunter, the family and friends of the unfortunate man would never have been able to account for his sudden disappearance. Soon after this (or about the same time) a coloured man in this city had his brains beat out with an axe, while asleep in his own bed. On Christmas eve a citizen of Pontiac was called to his door by a person in the street. A slight altercation ensued-a knife was driven into his bowels, and the next day he was a corpse. On Sunday evening last, a citizen of the most respectable portion of the city was stabbed to the heart and his lifeless corpse fell to the ground, under the very windows of a religious temple. In addition to all this, the records of our courts of justice show that those tribunals have been called on to investigate nearly a dozen cases in which lawless passion has been foiled in its attempt to bring down upon the head of its devotee

The primal, eldest curse-a brother's murder.'

With all deference to the zeal, earnestness, and apparent sincerity of our anti-hanging friends, we ask them-"Is this the entertainment to which you have invited us ?"

A New Prophet-Scandinavian Mormons. We find the following in the New York Evangelist of 3d February, in the form of a letter from a correspondent:

"Galesburgh, Knox co., Illinois, Jan. 8, 1848. "MR. EDITOR,-I have seen some loose and inaccurate statements contained in newspaper paragraphs concerning a settlement of Swedes in Henry county, Ill.-some twenty miles from this place; representing them as a sect of evangelical Lutherans, taking the Word of God only for their guide :— whereas they are guided and controlled by a profligate and vulgar leader, claiming to be a prophet, sent to regenerate mankind, and bring in the latter day glory of the Church. In company with Professor Gale, of Knox College, and another brother in the ministry, I spent a part of two days in the above

settlement last August, passing the night in this prophet's house, and the evening in a discussion with himself, of his claims to be regarded as the prophet and ruler of the Church of God on earth.

"The Swedes in the above colony amounted, when I was there last August, to about 500; some 200 having died from diseases incident to immigration, the dampness of their half underground cottages covered with earth from two to four feet deep (the tugurii of the ancient Scandinavians), the want of medicine and suitable food. They are an off-shoot from the sect of Readers,' which has of late years sprung up in parts of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark; a sort of people like the Methodists of 1740, whose professed vocation was to increase piety and holiness without seceding from the National Church.

"Prophet Johnson (for that is our prophet's name) is a man below the ordinary stature, and of slender proportions, and unprepossessing countenance and manners. Having all the peasant's vulgarity of address, with none of his honesty of expression, he exhibits but two traits in striking development, to wit, cunning and will. Ignorant, appealing evermore to "the Word o' God," "the Word o' God," the necessities of his priestly pretensions have driven him to almost all those perversions of Scripture which one reads in the Romish notes appended to the Douay Bible; and are a proof that Christ's crown prerogatives, as the Head of the Church, the Forgiver of sins-and the adminstration of his own system of redemption, can be usurped without "tradition," and defended without 'fathers.'

"He can heal the sick, cast out devils, and do all, he assures us, that Christ did, making an atonement for sin excepted. If his followers take up serpents, or drink any deadly thing, it does not harm them, unless they lack faith-not in God, but in Johnson as God's messenger and delegate; and one of the people being bit by a rattlesnake last summer, got well; and though many such cases occur outside his colony, yet this fact confirms his character with his deluded followers, and atones for a thousand instances where his pretensions fail.

"Nothing can exceed the patient stupidity of his believers and devotees, except it be the sanctimonious cunning of his sub-prophets and apostles. The laity appear like over-laboured draft cattle, and march every morning to their task as direct and mindless as the working ox marches under the lifted yoke -and they toil as quietly.

"Before leaving Sweden, they were bound by solemn covenant to work for their victuals and clothes. The land is owned by Johnson, and (some of his priests assure me) a few of the leaders, in pretended trust. The scheme allows no private property. Erickson (unless I have forgotten the name), a man of wealth who furnished money to pay for the land which was entered, was soon permitted by the prophet to die; though I could not learn that any fault was found with his faith; and the vow has been once or twice administered since they have arrived in Henry county, that they will be content with food and raiment, and labour for the common good; and they have already turned a wide expanse of prairie into a 6 fruitful field.'

"They are the first community I have ever seen constructed upon the principles of Priestism, and compelled into practical conformity with them.-Their prophet can heal the sick. Thus all who are diseased lack faith, and those who die are heretics. He therefore resisted the use of medicines for the living and funeral services of the dead. Living in half-underground huts, constructed of curiously-matched, small split logs, and covered over with earth like an out-door cellar, in a climate moist and hot like ours, they died of course, like diseased sheep. The corpses were thrown into a dead-hole, under a sort of trapdoor, and without any burial service, were taken off by the prophet's orders and buried by night. Thus no one knew the number of those who died, nor the place of sepulture, nor