some for aiding more directly in imparting the word of life to the destitute. One Bible Society, and two Auxiliary Foreign Mission Societies, one in Franklin County, the other in the county of Hampshire, have been added to those previously formed. Though events apparently inauspicious to the Foreign Mission have transpired; yet we trust the exertions of its friends are not relaxed; and with peculiar interest we notice evidence that the missionary spirit is on the increase. We have need of patience, that when we have done the will of God, we may receive the promise.

From the Panoplist.

Fxtract of a letter from a gentleman in London, to Robert Ralston, Esq.

dated April 16, 1813.

"At this eventful era, and particularly at the present moment, when the East India Company is applying to Parliament for the renewal of its charter, the attention of the Christian community here is especially directed to the dark and benighted state of the East. The most active exertions are making by the friends of Christianity to procure the insertion of a clause in the new charter favorable to the admission into our India territory, and protection there, of quiet and peaceable Christion missionaries. Powerful opposition is made on the ground of apprehended danger to the government from interfering with the religious prejudices of the natives. But who shall stand against the Lord of Hosts? The work is his, and, in the active and persevering use of suitable means, success may be humbly expected.

"Whilst the judgments of the Most High are pouring out on different parts of the earth, the sad consequences of man's apostasy and rebellion, it is cheering to observe, that mercy in its most attractive form is still dispensed. In Russia, (how marvellous are the dispensations of the all-wise God) a wide and effectual door is opening for the spread of the ever-blessed Gospel, in its unadulterated form, by the establishment of Bible Societies on an extensive scale, and under the highest patronage, the Emperor himself having undertaken the office of patron. Such was the interest excited in his mind, that he deferred, for a time, his journey to the head-quarters of the army at Wilna, to sign the constitution of the Society adopted at the first public meeting held at St. Petersburgh.

"The finger of an over-ruling Providence has been remarkable in every stage of the business. Under the sanction of a Princess of the empire residing at Moscow, (whose heart the Lord had opened through the instrumentality of a missionary, since engaged as a teacher in her family,) the first meeting was to have been held there, two days only before the French entered that devoted city. Their approach put an end to the measure, which would have been abandoned for a time, but that the principal agent, on his return to St. Petersburgh to embark for Sweden, was there detained, most reluctantly, by the sickness of his wife, for a considerable season, and circumstances were so over-ruled as to open a way for carrying the design into execution in that city, and under such favorable auspices. Here again we may exclaim: This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.”

To the Editor of the Theological Magazine. SIR-AMONG other valuable papers of an aged minister, the one which I now inclose to you lately came into my hands. On reading it, several reasons occurred to offer it for publication in the Magazine. If these should appear of weight to you, I request it may be inserted. The sentiments it contains, are often discussed in sermons and in conversation; but as they respeet the character and government of God, and the intercourse of the soul with him, expressed in prayer, they appear in their just connections, and the mind is under peculiar advantages to judge of their propriety. If they be acknowledged suitable, when addressed to God, it is hoped they will not be disputed in any other way.

In the scriptures a number of prayers are recorded; sevcral of which were made by Christ, and some by the apostles ; the design of which doubtless was, to exhibit just sentiments and exercises, and, as an encouragement and pattern to others. If the sentiments of the enclosed prayer be consistent and evangelical, it may be useful not only in the sense of instruction, but as an example; and from the self-distrust and humility which appear through the whole of it, may, by the divine blessing, be a great encouragement to the sincere Christian in his trials.

Should we coincide in opinion on the present subject, I may take the liberty of forwarding two other prayers on a sacramental occasion, written by a deceased minister; but which I shall despair of your approving, if this is not accepted. NISUS.

Yours,

PRAYER OF AN AGED MINISTER.

O THOU, who inhabitest eternity! the only true God, invisible, incomprehensible, omnipotent, omnipresent, omnicient, infinitely wise. righteous, and good, true and faithful: unchangeable in thy being, perfections, and designs; absolutely independent, self sufficient and all-sufficient; infinitely and unchangeably happy; the Creator of all things, visible

and invisible, and their constant preserver in the exercise of an universal, a particular, wise and irresistible providence over all creatures and things: maintaining the most excellent and perfect moral government over all thy rational creatures, infinitely above any control or disappointment; accomplishing thine own purposes, doing whatever pleaseth thee in heaven and on earth. Thy counsel stands forever, and the thoughts of thine heart to all generations."

I adore thee, who hast manifested thyself in thy works of creation and providence, and yet more clearly in the revelation given to man, contained in the Bible, one God, in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This God F adore, as the only living and true God. I do, I think, cordially approve of thy whole revealed character, and rejoice in thine infinite being, supremacy, and felicity; in thine all perfect government, works and revealed designs. I know, and confess with shame and abasement, that I, and all the human race, have sinned and come short of the glory of God; are transgressors of thine holy law, are in a state of total moral depravity, infinite guilt and wretchedness, and might justly have been left to perish forever, without any help or hope; but thou hast so loved fallen, ruined, infinitely guilty man, as "to give thine only begotten Son, that whoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life;" who has become man, and in his human nature, suffered death on the cross, and yielded an infinitely meritorious obedience to the divine law, by which he has made an ample atonement for sin, and obtained a righteousness sufficient for the pardon and justification of sinners; so that, "thou canst now be just in justifying every one who believeth in Jesus Christ."

I acknowledge I am under great and peculiar obligations to gratitude to God, not only for the gospel, that I was born and educated in a land where these glad tidings are published; but that I descended from Christian ancestors, and have been restrained from many openly vicious practices, of which many have been guilty; that I had a public academical education; that though I made a profession of religion in my youth, and while I was ignorant of true religion, God was pleased, soon after, to open mine eyes, and discover to me my delusion; that I was in the gall of bitterness, and bonds of iniquity, and as I hope, "to give me the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ." Thanks be to God, that he was pleased to put me into the work of the ministry in my younger days; a station and business which, to me, has always appeared the most desirable, happy, and honorable of any whatever. And blessed be God,

age,

who has continued me in it so many years, even to old and enabled me to embrace, preach, maintain, and vindicate the great and important doctrines of the gospel, with great assurance, that they are the truths contained in divine revelation, though I have hereby incurred the reproach and opposition of many of my fellow men.

I confess before God, my great and awful depravity and wickedness. My sins of youth, and of my life since, are, to me, as innumerable as the hairs of my head, or sands on the sea shore; and they have been attended with aggravations, which, render their magnitude far, yea infinitely far beyond my conception. Mine odiousness and guilt are fully known only to the omnicient God. My guilt and vileness are, in my view, great, far beyond any other person, so that I consider myself the greatest sinner who ever lived, and am willing to be so considered by the omniscient Savior of sinners: and were there no merey for such an one, I should sink into despair. And O! how must I appear before thee, who hast a constant, most clear and perfect view of all my sins with all their aggravations! I have ungratefully abused light, distinguishedly great, and infinite love and goodness. Yea, I have abused every favor and mercy which thou hast bestowed on me, so as to render myself more guilty than I could have been, had they been withheld. If I have any sincerity before thee, and thou have formed my heart to real holiness, it has been excercised in so low a degree, and I have such an awful degree of selfishness, pride, worldliness, stupidity and unbelief, that, in every duty, and in all that I have done, whether in private and secret, or in public, in conversation and writing, in praying and preaching, there has been such a mixture, and such a degree of sin, that all viewed together, as they appear to me, they are, beyond expression, worse than nothing and how much more are they in thy sight?So that, instead of meriting or deserving any good at thine hand for any thing that I have done, or becoming less unworthy and ill deserving in thy sight, all lies against me, and I have been constantly increasing in unworthiness and guilt, so "that if thou be strict to mark iniquity, according to thine holy and righteous law I cannot answer," but must be condemned to endless misery. I have no refuge, or hope, but in sovereign grace, through a mediator. "God be merciful to me a sinner."

I have long entertained a hope that I am a Christian, a real friend to Christ; and this has sometimes arisen to such a degree of assurance as to remove all doubt. But, at other times, my doubts have greatly preponderated, and, in a view

and sense of the great depravity which always attends me, and of the blindness, hardness, and deceitfulness of my heart, I have not discerned any thing there of a contrary nature, I have had fearful apprehensions that I was not a real Christian, and after I have preached the gospel to others, shall myself by a castaway." And even now, while I am addressing thee, O thou omniscient Saviour of sinners! I am in doubt respecting my state, whether I be a true friend to thee, or not. If I have altogether come short of saving faith and real holiness, and thou have not given me a new heart, and have determined to lead me on in such circumstances and ways, in the enjoyment of such light, privileges, and mercies, as to fill up the measure of my sins, and render me the most guilty person that ever lived, the greatest sinner of all the human race, and then cast me off into proportionably greater and endless misery, so as to be the greatest monument in the universe of thy displeasure and vengeance to all eternity, thou wilt be perfectly just: I shall have no reason to complain, and all thy friends will rejoice in this thy righteous and holy vengeance, and honor and praise thee forever. This thou knowest I have in some measure constantly felt, and expressly acknowledged before thee, times to me innumerable; and that whatever I shall receive better than this, and of a saving nature, must be the fruit of sovereign, undeserved goodness.

I am the clay in thine hand, the sovereign potter," who hast mercy on whom thou wilt have mercy, and whom thou wilt, thou hardenest ;" and I am pleased with this dependence, and with being thus in thine hand, and at thy sovereign disposal, in time and eternity. I know thou wilt save me, and give me eternal life, if this be consistent with infinite wisdom and goodness: if it be not inconsistent with the highest display of the glory of God, and the greatest good of the creation; and if I may not be saved, consistently with these, I have no desire to be saved, and cannot ask it on any other supposition, though infinitely dreadful to be lost and perish forever. Q! how can I bear eternal, endless destruction; to be like the devil, and join with him in enmity to God, and horrid blasphemy of him forever, and to feel thine eternal displeasure and vengeance, in absolute despair of any relief! This seems to me, from the imperfect view I have of it, to be intolerable; but I believe many will fall under this doom, and I know thou wilt make them to bear it; and though my punishment should exceed that of all others, thou canst hold me up, and cause me to bear it, and glorify thyself, by inflicting it with the utmost severity.