cold admonition. His hearers too are less disposed to attention on the threshold, and less satisfied when they have entered and heard. The peaceful administration of Nerva was followed by the accession of Trajan. But, before the treatment of the Christians had undergone any change in the counsels of this Emperor, Clement had breathed his last in the third year of his reign. Thus his death appropriately marked the close of the first century of Christian suffering, and of Christian glory. -Abridged, with some alterations, from the Rev. R. Evans's "Biography of the Early Church.” ON THE SIGN OF THE CROSS IN BAPTISM. IN token that thou shalt not fear, We print the Cross upon thee here, In token that thou shalt not blush, In token that thou shalt not flinch In token that thou too shalt tread And sit thee down on high: Thus outwardly and visibly We seal thee for His own; And may the brow that wears His Cross, Alford. SUSANNA ARNOLD, (or whose death the following account was given by her brother, Dr. Arnold of Rugby, in a letter to a friend), died at Laleham, April 4, 1832, after a complaint in the spine of twenty years' duration: "I must conclude with a more delightful subject— my most dear and blessed sister; I never saw a more perfect instance of the spirit of power and of love, and of a sound mind; intense love, almost to the annihilation of selfishness-a daily martyrdom for twenty years, during which she adhered to her early formed resolution of never talking about herself; thoughtful about the very pins and ribands of my wife's dress, about the making of a doll's cap for a child; but of herself (save only as regarded her ripening in all goodness) wholly thoughtless; enjoying every thing lovely, graceful, beautiful, highminded, whether in God's works or man's, with the keenest relish; inheriting the earth to the very fulness of the promise, though never leaving her crib, nor changing her posture; and preserved, through the very valley of the shadow of death, from all fear or impatience, and from every cloud of impaired reason, which might mar the beauty of Christ's Spirits' glorious work. May God grant that I might come but within one hundred degrees of her place in glory!" THE CHURCH IN THE COLONIES. No. 5. INDIA. On Visitation, Bombay, en route to Southern REV. AND DEAR SIR,-I have welcome news for our Society of the Tinnevelly Mission. May God who has begun this good work, accomplish it to his glory, and to the salvation of many souls, through Jesus Christ. I write with a heart full of thankfulness to Him, - to inform you that ninety-six villages in one of our Missionary districts of Tinnevelly, by name Sawyerpooram, have come forward unsolicited, but by the preventing grace of God, and by the example of a purer life among their converted countrymen; have utterly abolished their idols; and have begged of the Society's indefatigable Missionary, the Rev. G. W. Pope, that they may be placed under Christian teaching. These people are of the Cultivator caste1. A similar movement, it will be remembered by our Society, took place in Tinnevelly among the Climber caste about two years ago. A time of persecution came on, the persecution referred to in my last charge, and about five thousand fell back into Heathenism; but five thousand remained, and are remaining with Christ. Ten lepers were cleansed by our blessed Lord, and but one returned to give thanks to God. I write almost broken down with fatigue and weakness, and cannot enter into details; but what need is there of details? None, I trust, to direct towards us that love of souls which never fails in England, and has latterly burnt brightly also in India. What I earnestly desire to impress on the minds of all Christian persons whom my words may reach, is this: we cannot take full spiritual charge of these poor creatures, and give them sufficiently of the bread of life, because we have not the means. Must we be content to give them a stone? God forbid. We ought to send amongst them at least two more Missionaries, to aid Mr. Pope in a work so apparently hopeless, if he be left to undertake it single-handed; and the only reason why we cannot do this, is the state of the Society's Funds. Shame, then, to all among us who call themselves Christians, and have the ability, if they have not also the will, to help us. I am the Society's devoted Servant, 4 That is of the class who are, and must always remain cultivators of the soil. AUSTRALIA. Appeal in behalf of the District of Port Phillip. The Committee of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel earnestly invite attention to the following appalling statement, which is authenticated by the signature of Mr. Latrobe, the able and excellent superintendent of Port Phillip : "The attention of the Port Phillip District Committee of the Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, having been directed to the large population in the interior of the country, and to their religious condition and prospects, the Committee deemed it very desirable that such information should be obtained on the subject, as would enable them to ascertain the amount of population scattered over the wide extent of country, and thence to estimate and lay before the public their spiritual destitution, in the total absence of religious instruction and ordinances. "It appears, from returns and statements on which the greatest reliance may be placed, that the population in the interior, entirely without the ministrations and ordinances of religion, amounts to no less than about nine thousand, and that there are about another thousand, who only occasionally, and at very long intervals, are visited by a minister of religion. It further appears, that amongst the British population in the bush, there are thirteen hundred Aborigines in a savage and entirely uninstructed state. Thus are many thousands of our countrymen, of whom a large proportion came to this country but little under religious influence and guidance, placed in the most unfavourable circumstances, and in the most neglected condition with regard to religion, thirteen hundred naked savages roaming about 5 By the bush is meant the interior of the island, which is still uncleared. The Aborigines are the natives. amongst them, to the injury and deterioration of both races. The total absence of any religious ordinances, to call the attention and thoughts to the public worship of Almighty God, and the things which concern the soul's salvation, and the day of judgment; and the want of any thing to mark the sacred day of holy rest; induce a carelessness and indifference to religion, which amounts almost to practical atheism; a living without reference to God; while removal from outward restraint, and the checks which society imposes, together with the leaven of some hundreds of degraded and untutored savages, expose all to moral contamination, and allow the vicious and polluted to proceed to great excesses in immorality. The entire absence of religious ordinances, and of family devotion, prevails throughout the greater extent of the bush, while only here and there is the Lord's-day observed, by the settler calling his servants together for the reading of God's Word, and the worship of His holy name. In this state of things not only do religious impressions gradually wear off, but the knowledge of even the first principles of Christianity is forgotten; and children growing up amongst parents, thus lapsing into ignorance and irreligion, receiving neither the knowledge of the truths of Christianity, nor seeing the example of religious observances and habits, seldom or never hearing the name of the blessed Saviour, except in connexion with profane swearing, or some horrid oath, are nearly in the condition of the unenlightened heathen. In a succeeding generation, thus situated, the knowledge of Christian doctrine would be almost lost, and all traces of religious worship and observances nearly obliterated. "This view presents much to excite our sympathies and fears, and to call forth our active exertions to supply at least some of the religious wants of our fellow-Christians in the bush. Their condition holds out to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel |