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tinguished dignitaries of the church, as well as from their ancient ecclesiastical councils, he has shewn, that the prohibition, requiring the common people not to read the Scriptures, is comparatively of modern origin, and that its authority has been frequently disputed.

wardly with sharp points, for the purpose of mortifying his body. Being exceedingly fond of reading, his attention was happily directed to a frequent and attentive perusal of the Holy Scriptures, in the original languages; and the more intimate his acquaintance with them became, the more deeply was his mind impressed with the declaration of our blessed Redeemer: "God is a spirit, and they that worship him, must worship him in spirit and in truth.' No outward ceremonies afforded him inward peace of mind; he felt in his inmost soul the entire insufficiency of all his own doings, performances, and mortifications;

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It is hoped and believed, that his statements in the work to which we have alluded, will have a most salutary effect. Those who have hitherto assumed the character of being lords over God's heritage, will probably be less bold in their arrogant pretensions; and the laity, finding that popes, and cardinals, and councils of former times commen-he perceived that his very best ded the perusal of the Scriptures, will either come to the conclusion that their spiritual rulers are not infallible, or that they may with safety read the word of God. In either case, the most happy consequences in favour of truth may be anticipated.

The following brief narrative, is taken from the London Evangelical Magazine.

actions and his holiest devotions were still intermingled with self and sin, and began to hunger and thirst after righteousness far exceeding that of the Scribes and Pharisees, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith in Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe." Christ became his refuge, his consolation, his hope, his delight, his highest treasure, his all in all.

"LEANDER VAN Ess, to whom the attention of the christian pub- From that time he felt an ardent lick has of late been so much di-desire to promote a more general rected, is a native of Germany, of Roman Catholick parents, about fifty years of age, and a man greatly distinguished by his natural genius, the extent of his acquired knowledge, the solidity of his erudition, his genuine piety, and his enlarged benevolence.

circulation of the sacred writings among his Catholick brethren. For this purpose he finally determined to undertake himself a new version of the New Testament in the German language, in the execution of which he experienced many difficulties, but happily overcame them all.

In early youth he manifested an ardent desire for learning, and Assisted by a learned relative, was sent by his parents to a Bene-he published the first edition of dictine monastery, in which he his New Testament about fifteen spent several years, indeed, till it years ago; which was so ably exwas suppressed during the late po-ecuted and so favourably received, litical changes and revolutions on that it soon obtained the sanction the continent. Though naturally of several episcopal authorities. of a very lively temper, he prac-After his version had undergone tised at one time all the austeri-various corrections and careful reties of the monastick order; and visions, to render it still more even went so far as to wear a gir- conformable to the Greek original, dle round his loins studded in- it was recommended to the atten

tion of the Committee of the Brit- fond of retirement; laborious and ish and Foreign Bible Society, by indefatigable; eloquent in the several of the most distinguished pulpit, nervous and fluent in his Protestants as well as Catholick style; a complete master of his divines of Germany, and they felt own language, he writes and happy to assist this noble cham-speaks the Latin, is an excellent pion of scriptural truth in its cir- Greek and Hebrew scholar, and, culation. It is a delightful con- in fine, is possessed of very genesideration, that by the combined ral information. His talents, exertions of British and Continen-his learning, and his christian philanthropy have rendered him justly celebrated on the Continent. During the late war, an epidemic disease broke out among the soldiers. About 600 were crowded together in the Castle of Marburg. The contagion spread; many became infected; scarcely any one would venture near the sick and dying, when Leander Van Ess, at the risk of his own life, went amongst them, administered medicines, food, and christian instruction, and became the happy instrument of rescuing many from temporal and eternal destruction."

tal christians, he has been enabled, in the short space of fifteen years, to circulate upwards of 523,000 copies of the New Testament, besides more than 10,000 Bibles in different languages Though he has experienced much opposition on the part of the bigotted adherents to the court of Rome, yet there are hundreds of his Catholick brethren in Germany who have most effectually aided him in carrying on this blessed work.

well doing. He was distributing the oracles of truth with zeal and success ; and he had the high gratification of being joined by an able fellow labourer of his own denomination.

In the tenth Report of the American Bible Society, his name and services are mentioned in the following terms of kindness and respect.

The good already accomplished by the dissemination of the seed of divine truth is incalculable. Infi- From the latest intelligence dels have been reclaimed, pro- which has been received in the fane and profligate persons have United States, it appears, that been reformed, mere formalists this pious, and eminently liberal have been convinced of their hypoc-minded man, was not weary in risy, and led to embrace, by a living faith, a crucified Redeemer; sincere believers have been edified and built up in their most holy faith, mourners have been comforted,the weary and heavy laden refreshed, the feeble strengthened, -the wavering confirmed-and all have been encouraged to evince the genuine nature of their christian faith by a holy and consistent life. Some striking facts of the blessings thus produced are related in a late publication of Leander Van Ess, which contains particulars of a most interesting and affecting nature. He is now engaged in the translation of the Old Testament, the first part of which has already left the press. His private character is exemplary. He is modest, yet full of holy courage; cheerful, yet dignified in his deportment; active, yet

He

"Dr. Leander Van Ess, whom the Managers have so often mentioned with applause, has been greatly favoured in his disinterested and difficult labours. has now distributed upwards of five hundred and fifty thousand copies of the sacred volume. And another professor in the Roman Catholick communion, influenced by his pious zeal, has prepared a version of the New Testament, which is spok

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en of in terms of approbation." | disposed to pray that he may be We regret to learn, however, from a published letter of the Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, that disease had partially, at least, withdrawn him from his labours. Among other interesting facts it is stated, that

"Leander Van Ess is also continuing his labours with every encouragement, but he appears to be somewhat alarmingly ill. We feel

spared to us yet a little while. We seem as if we could scarcely bear to lose him at present; however, God is all-sufficient. He mentions that his two assistants appear fully competent to carry on the work. His communications breathe a truly good spirithe seems as one who is living unto Him who gave himself for us, and to him to die will be gain.”

RELIGIOUS COMMUNICATIONS.

ON WHAT TOPICS CHRIST SHOULD to hear.
BE HEARD.

Many philosophers had been heard discoursing variously upon human fallibility and corruption which they could see, but which they could not cure. If we listen to them on the topics most mate

GOD has done much to have his own beloved Son duly accredited. When he brought him into the world he demanded for him the ad-rial to our happiness, both presoration of angels, and a multitude ent and future, we shall perceive of the heavenly host proclaimed that they only led to bewilder, with songs the happy event. and dazzled to blind" what they Whilst he lay in the slumbers of obscurely imagined Christ has infancy at Bethlehem, an eastern placed before us in the full splenstar turned its lustre towards the dour of demonstration. What honoured spot, and seemed to ac- they thought probable, he has knowledge the incarnate Maker. made certain. Where they gropAt his baptism, the heavens were ed in darkness, he has shed a opened to make way for the de-light which eclipses theirs, as the scending attestation of the Holy sun eclipses the dim taper. Ghost. therefore, may be heard,

Now in the context, two of the illustrious dead, Moses and Elias, appear conversing with him on the bloody exodus which he was soon to accomplish at Jerusalem. From the scene of glory which covered his transfiguration, a voice is heard: "This is my beloved Son, hear him.”

Many prophets and wise men had been heard prior to Christ. They had spoken as the Holy Ghost directed, and being impelled by a divine movement, had thus given forth the oracles of God. They claim attention in proportion only as they give heed to him whom we are now required

He,

1. In confirmation of the anticipations of reason and nature in reference to our immortality. The total and ultimate extinction of the mental ray, is an apprehension which nature disallows. Through all her works she gives signs of a deathless being, and supplies many intimations of the state which must succeed the present. 'That no atom of a material substance, however small, can be annihilated by any effort of man, is a fact which creates a decided presumption, that no principle of an intellectual substance, however small, can be destroyed. "For if the Creator has so guarded

the sensible elements as to render | when we turn from her ambiguous

the minutest portion of them proof against destruction, much more will he protect that etherial element which has flowed from his own inspiration.

In the amplitude of the soul, there is a further anticipation of the same thing. In desire, it is even broader than the earth, and of dimensions larger than the sea. When these are taken in, its immense capacity is not filled. Still there reigns a feverish discontent which constitutes at once its wretchedness and glory. It denies the competency of earth to satisfy its anxious cravings, and, therefore, reaches after immortality.

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oracles, and listen to God's beloved Son, we shall find these momentous conjectures reduced to certainty. His religion verifies what reason only dreamed of, and brings forward in a form so simple and intelligible that a child might grasp it, a proposition, under the uncertainty of which, forty ages had groaned. He has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light, and hence submits the question, "What shall it profit a man to gain the world and lose his soul, or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Fear not them who kill the body, and have no more that they can do, but fear him, who, after Without a deathless being, we he hath killed, hath power to cast should furnish no proof of wisdom into hell." Immortality is assumin our formation. It is a contra-ed by the Saviour as essential to diction to the customary economy of divine power to suppose, that we are animated by a heavenly spark, only to have that spark extinguished forever after a few years; that this goodly structure should be erected with so much care and skill, only to be hurled into irrevocable dissolution after a short course of action. The great architect has made nothing in vain; his single movements ex-sire, it cannot die. Live it must, tend their effects to an endless succession, and leave on all the conditions of existence a tendency towards ultimity. The life that now is, furnishes no documents evincive of an ultimate being. Here all is preparation, trial, and subordination. Nothing is final, 2. Reason too, cherishes some nothing has attained the extreme expectation of the retributions gradation; and, therefore, the which await an imperishable being. mind reasonably anticipates a She infers an operative governhereafter, and stretches its con-ment, from the penal consequenceptions towards eternity to find that grand consummation of moral entity, in which every thing shall assume a finished and changeless character.

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the being of man, and as inseparably connected with the administration of divine providence, for surely it cannot be this animal life, the little breath which moves these lungs in respiration, that he puts in competition with the whole world. It is the deathless nature of the soul which gives it such a value. This cannot die. Though it should covet death with intense de

though excruciated with ten thousand nameless agonies, or plunged into the depths of unmitigated despair. Live it must, because God so ordains, though annihilation be gain compared with such a being.

ces of a dissolute morality in this life. For when the experience of all ages asserts that one course of life leads to a miserable result, and that another leads to happiness and honour, what is it, but the voice of nature proclaiming the genius of that moral legisla

tion to which an immutable God || twixt the evil and the good, and has subjected his intelligent crea-shall operate after the resurrecture s. He has incorporated into tion. From the same authority the whole body of nature, a code we learn, that those who shall be of laws more certain in their found liable to the censures of effects, and more absolute in their divine justice, shall go away into sanctions, than any human ordi-everlasting punishment, but the nations, however perfect. The righteous into life eternal. executive power of his govern- The same disproportion betwixt ment is not confided to any inter- the sin and punishment which mediate agents, but executes its we see in nature, may also be own provisions by an inherent ca- seen in the institutes of the Sapacity. Hence, it needs not the viour. The felicity of the good, vigilance nor the arm of the mag- and the sufferings of the wicked, istrate to give it force and terror, shall equally sustain an eternal but acting with a sort of sponta- duration, because the awards of neous energy, it arrests and pun-the eternal Judge shall be irreishes with certain vengeance every ||versible. For if in nature he has transgressor. This is not a doubt fixed a measure of punishment ful matter; the whole history of which exceeds the apparent ofhuman guilt proves it. We read fence, without any impeachment it in the ruined health and wasted of his administration; why may fortune of every votary of licen- not the same principle regulate tious indulgence. Nor do the pu- the penal inflictions of his moral nitive measures of nature always government? It gives no appear commensurate with the pleasure, much less the christian, crime. Her displeasure, in many to believe in the eternity of future instances, pursues the innocent torments. No christian adopts posterity of the offender, and over-this as a part of his creed from takes them in distant generations. mere pleasure. It is the evidence Thus the revealed law which of the fact that forbids the contraannounces a visitation of the fath-ry sentiment. The fancy of a er's sin upon the children, is only the law of nature expressed in words. The certainty and promptitude with which she resents the violation of her laws in this life, induces the apprehension of a retributive resentment beyond the

grave.

man

universal restitution would be most grateful to the charity of every believer, if it were any thing else than a fancy. It would be an immense conception, superseding all the efforts of moral and religious inculcation, were it not based upon a fallacy. But as things now stand, it is something too good to be true, that is, too congenial with our corrupt inclinations.

ex- 3. The spirituality of his religion is another subject on which we should hear the Saviour. To

This subject, so faintly held in the creed of reason, is placed beyond all question by the doctrines of Jesus. In John v. 28, 29, his words are full and plicit in confirmation of this point. "For the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice and shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil to the resurrection of damnation." The judgment to which he here refers, shall carefully discriminate be

urge the worship of God in spirit and in truth, must have subjected him to the charge of bold innovation. The homage paid to the Deity had been associated with corporeal display, and was therefore hardly distinguishable from the material symbols with

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