He ap less pomp. Back of these were the seats for the inferior clergy. After every due preparation, his Holiness, the Pope, decked with a Bishop's mitre, and a superb scarlet robe, and accompanied by a host of attendants, entered through a private door, from one of his own apartments. pears about 60 years of age, of a good size, but pale and delicate. Yet certainly not so delicate as to require assistance in walking. But it was part of the ceremony, that he should not move a step without being assisted by, at least, half a dozen, who all kneeled every time they approached him. Indeed throughout the ceremony there was so much bowing and kneeling to his Holiness, that he, more than the Supreme Being, seemed to be the principal object of adoration. After he was fairly placed upon his exalted seat, and hisrobes duly adjusted, the ceremony of salutation began, first by the Cardinals in order, then by the Bishops. I should have mentioned that when the Pope entered, the whole assembly rose, and remained standing till he was seated. Now the Cardinals rose, followed each other in single file, accompanied by their train-bearers; and so after due obeisance at a distance, marched up to kiss his holiness's hand as he very condescendingly held it out wrapped up in his superb robe, his skin being, I suppose, too sacred to be touched. The Bishops in turn, went through the same salutation. This done, both the Cardinals and Bishops, put off their long robes and put on short ones. Then some part of the service for the day was read: then the Pope was brought forward to kneel upon a rich crimson velvet cushion, with his elbows resting upon a small table similarly covered, before the altar; then he was brought back to his seat; (this was repeated several times) then incense was burnt in a censer before the altar and before his Holiness; then a little more of the service was read, then the ashes were presented to the Pope on a large silver dish, by an attendant, who kneeled several times, and was blessed by his Holiness. Then a Cardinal took off the mitre from the Pope's head, while another sprinkled the least possible portion of the ashes upon his crown, then his Holiness tied round his waist a towel of the finest white cambric; then with the thumb and fore finger of his deli cate right hand, adorned with a most superb diamond ring, he took of the ashes and sprinkled it upon the heads of the Cardinals, Bishops, and a few others, as in due order they kneeled before him. Then the towel was carefully untied, a golden wash basin was presented, and a golden pitcher with water to wash the Pope's hands; then a discourse was delivered setting forth the propriety of this very humiliating ordinance, and lauding the excellence of the mother church, to which the Pope and Cardinals of course listened with the utmost complacency. Then more of the service was read, partly by the Pope, and partly by his Secretary or Prime Minister, Cardinal Gonsalvi; then the choir, accompanied by the organ, chanted an anthem; then the sacred embrace was imparted from the Pope to the Cardinal next on his right, and from him, passed to his next neighbour, and so round the whole circle of dignitaries. Then all the clergy marched up in order, and kissed the Pope's foot; then after some more chanting, and kneelings, and burning of incense, and a thou sand mummeries which I could not describe, even if I could recollect them, the Pope retired, and the assembly were dismissed, having been detained more than three hours. The whole appeared to me the most perfect farce and mockery that I had ever seen. Yet this is far from being one of the most ridiculous of the Roman ceremonies. Most of their religion is made up of them. It is a religion of outward show, in which the heart is As our home intelligence has been extensively circulated in the printed report of our Missionary Board, we shall present our readers a general view of foreign intelligence, which we hope, will be acceptable to the most of our readers. We have abundant reason to be very grateful to the great King and Head of the Church; the Lord of Missionaries, for the success which He has vouchsafed to their labours. While we take a rapid glance at them all, at home and abroad, we are constrained to say that their success in winning souls, and extending the influence of civilized habits of life, has surpassed our warmest expectations. Arise, oh God! plead thine own cause. Let thy kingdom come. Fill the world with thy glory.. REFORMATION IN IRELAND. blished Church in Easter week, amounted to one hundred and sixtythree." In a letter from Ireland, to a gentleman in Philadelphia, the whole number of Catholics who have joined the Protestant church since the commencement of the work, is estimated at nearly two thousand. There are several powerful preachers of the Church of England, and several Dissenting, and Methodist ministers of great ability, now in Dublin, preaching constantly to crowded houses; and in some cases, the streets in the vicinity of the churches are so thronged, that the interference of the Police is necessary to preserve order. Extracts of a letter from a gentleman in Ireland, to a preacher of the Gospel in Philadelphia. "We have occasional meetings of the different religious societies in Dublin, attended generally by nearly 5000 people; most of whom are persons of distinction. The speakers, on these occasions, are mostly clergymen of the Established Church; which-notwithstanding its numerous imperfections-never had so many of its members truly enlightened by the gospel. Many of its ministers are men of great piety and eloquence ; and many of its members are the most zealous and devoted Christians. Indeed there never was a time when there was so much union and Christian love among all professions, as there is at this moment. Churchmen and Dissenters unite in all their labours of love. From the London Christian Guardian for May, and from several letters received in this country from Dublin, we learn that a great and glorious reformation has commenced in Ireland, which promises the most auspicious "We have a Mr. Pope here, a results to the cause of Protestant young man, who, though he was orChristianity. "Exclusive of the dained in the church of England, yet numbers who silently retire from the refuses to take a living. He is one Romish Church," says the Guardian, of the most eloquent men that has "every Sunday presents, in different peared since the days of Whitefield. parts of the country, select parties He preached lately in the barracks publicly avowing their departure from yard of our county town-as no house corrupt system, and their adoption could contain the congregation. The of the Protestant creed. The num- members of parliament for the counber who thus conformed to the Estaty, were on his right and left, accom a ap panied by nearly all the respectable inhabitants of that region. He preaches the great doctrines of the cross clearly and decidedly; he gives the sinner no hope but what springs from faith in the atonement made ou Calvary; and that where the atonement is received by the power of the Divine Spirit into the heart of the sinner, it brings forth the fruits of righteousness, to the praise and glory of the Most High." "Our schools, are now full of Roman Catholic children. "This great revolution is ascribed, under Providence, to the following cause; the opposition of the Roman Catholic clergy to the circulation of the Scriptures, without note or comment-and to the Education Society: the circulation and the reading of the Scriptures among the people:-and the conduct of many of the Roman Catholic clergy at the late elections." From India, the intelligence has been less abundant, than in some former years; but never, perhaps, more decisive in its bearing on the missionary question, as it respects that populous country. The current ofimprovement has become rapid enough to be seen, and strong enough to be resistless. "Two hundred and fifty years ago, England had but one newspaper, and was content with that. India has now six in the languages of the country, designed solely for native readers, the product of native intelligence, and of native enterprise." converts, of Missionaries, and of young men in a course of tuition.In May 1825, the villages in which congregations were collected were 35. In three months from the time that seven pious young men were sent out to teach the people the word of God, accompanied with others as auxiliaries from the Seminary, these villages had increased to 90; and in September, 1825, they amounted to 125. In these, more than a thousand families are under Christian instruction. The Missionaries observe, that it is not pretended that all these are the subjects of sanctifying grace; but of many of them there is reason to hope well. Their relics of idolatry are burnt, a stone idol is cast out of their temple, and the building prepared to be a place of Christian worship.-Col. Star. Religious Attention in India.—Rev. George D. Boardman, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. Sharp, of this city, dated Calcutta, March 6th, gives the pleasing intelligence, that within a few weeks, the work of the Lord had commenced in the villages below Calcutta in a most glorious manner.Messrs. Trawin and Piffard Missionaries from the London Society, had been applied to by a deputation from a large number of villages, to visit them, and make known to them the way of salvation. They had gone as requested, and found the people “ready and prepared to receive the gospel." The places of worship were thronged, and "multitudes followed the missionaries from village to village, to hear the word of life." Some whole nights are spent in communi In the South of India, most remarkable effects have followed the labours of the Missionaries of the Church Missionary Society. Several thou-cating religious instruction. The dis sand Hindoos have openly renounced idolatry at one of the stations maintained by this society. The work commenced in 1823, at and near Palamcottah, in the District of Tinnevelly, where the Rev. C. Rhenius, and the Rev. Bernhard Schmid have laboured several years. The means used, were the instructions of native tinctions of caste are renounced, and the people furnish a common repast for the native Christians who visit them. Rev. Messrs. Judson and Wade were at Amherst, to which place Mr. Boardman expected to proceed in ten days. The loss of the missionary Gordon Hall, is deplored by us all. But he was not permitted to die until he had seen at least 100,000 Christian books distributed among the Mahrattas.And he had finished the translation of the New Testament, into a language spoken by twelve millions of people. His place will soon be occupied by active and zealous missionaries, from whom we are anxious to hear. "North of Calcutta, far into the interior, in the populous city of Dinagepore, we have heard a missionary rejoicing over unequivocal proofs of the divine favour attendant on his labours: while a little to the south, at the preaching of some fishermen of that country, the inhabitants of a village have waked from their long sleep, tore their idol god from his temple, and presented him to a missionary of the cross; and were about to demolish the temple itself, and, from the materials, to erect a Christian chapel. "Farther to the south-west, at the well know Vizagapatam, we have heard, that the car of Juggernaut had so fallen in the general estimation, as, for a year, not to have made its customary appearance: and that its idols, regarded as no longer of value to the natives of the country, had been offered for sale to Christian missionaries. "Still farther south, and on the same side of the peninsula, we have heard of results of missionary labour, which are still more animating. At Palamcottah, long the seat of missionary labours, the powerful effects of Christian influence had begun to be witnessed. In the course of the past year, we have been told of eleven hundred families, dispersed through more than 120 villages, which have forsaken idolatry, and renounced the distinctions of caste. In some villages, we were informed the idol temples had been converted into Christian churches; in others, they had been demolished. One village was particularly mentioned, where all the inhabitants, at their especial request, had been assembled for Christian instruction; VOL. II.-24 while three other villages, incited by this example, had sought to be instructed in the same manner. "We have heard, also, from the Syrians, on the western side of the peninsula; those native Christians, for whom Buchanan waked up the sympathies of England and America; and we have seen, with pleasure, how, under the fostering patronage of the Church Missionary Society, they are gradually improving in doctrine, in discipline, and in practice. "At the commencement of the year, the most painful uncertainty hung over the fate of the missionaries in Burmah. Whether they were living; or, by disease, or by starvation, or the hand of violence, had been removed from the world; no one presumed to conjecture, for there were no data, upon which to ground an opinion. Late in the year, however, through the wonderful providence of God they emerged to light, and tidings from them has diffused universal joy. All is well. Later intelligence make it now certain, we believe, that the King of AVA is not to be trusted by the Missionaries. No provision has been made, unhappily, for a free toleration for the Christian religion, in the late treaty between him and the British. However, God has opened to them the five provinces ceded to the English. And before the land be occupied there, we may rest assured, another door will be opened in the Burman Empire. Dr. Price, the Missionay, has lost his native wife Ma Noo. She died in the faith of the Lord Jesus, and in peace. The Southern parts of CEYLON, as well as the Northern, have also furnished the most pleasing intelligence. We have heard of whole parishes, in which are heathen temples, but no worshippers; and we have been told, by a missionary from that island, that a temple of Budhu had been offered by the natives for Christian worship, and that in proportion as the Bible had been circulated, the influence of caste had been destroyed.Twenty thousand people could read that blessed volume; and before the present year expires, it is expected, that one in fifty, speaking the Cingalese language, will, by the British and Foreign Bible Society, be supplied with the blessed vo fession by Christian life.-We have been informed, also, that the prospect, at first dark and forbidding, has become hopeful, of raising the females of Ceylon from their deep degradation, to their proper standing in society.-Happy, moreover, have we been to hear, that minds, which, only a few years since, valued caste at so high a rate, and knowledge at so low, that money would hardly induce them to forego the one for the sake of the other, now cheerfully disregard caste, and earnestly petition for the pleasures of enlightened thought. JAVA. This rich and valuable island fell into the hands of the Dutch, in A. D. 1621. And much the parent church in the Netherlands did to spread the gospel among the new subjects. In 1721 the number of native Christians was reckoned at 100,000. The Dutch put the Holy Scriptures into the hands of the natives, in their own Malay language. [See Brown's Propagation of Christianity, vol. 1. p. 23.] This unhappy island has had several masters. In 1811 the British, under Sir S. Auchmutty, took it from the Dutch. It has since been restored to them. And at this time there is a furious war raging between the natives and the Dutch. Had our brethren, the Dutch, given their support to the ministers of the gospel, and done their duty by labouring to evangelize the natives, a very different state of things might now have happily existed, both in a religious and political point of view. The following is, we believe, the latest intelligence from JAVA. "The insurrection in Java is assuming an alarming character. There is a total suspension of business at Batavia. The value of real estate has fallen greatly. Every holder is obliged to perform military duty, and a strict injunction is laid against quitting the Island. How shortsighted is worldly-wisdom! Had the Dutch merchants, instead of oppressing the natives, and sneering at the missionaries, assisted in the work of intellectual and moral improvement, their property would have been at this moment secure.— These vandal hordes of wild Javanese might have been as orderly and quiet as the New Hollanders, or even, as the Society Islanders; and the amount of wealth on the island, to say nothing of social happiness, would have been more than trebled ere this." "MADAGASCAR has been noticed in our work only incidentally; but some of the missions in Southern Africa have passed under review. Among the Hottentots and the Caffres, the word of God steadily gains influence. Respecting the former, their punctual attendance on the daily public exercises of devotion, their seriousness of demeanor while there, their readiness and liberality in contributing towards the temporal necessities and /religious improvements of their brethren, and their orderly deportment and moral conduct at all the stations, evince, that the Gospel has come to them not in word only, but in power.' Besides the old flourishing stations among the Caffres, one has been recently established, and named Wesley. Before this station was formed, the people there assembled were naked, rambling on the mountains, murdering strangers, living on plunder, destitute of the word of life, unacquainted with the Sabbath. But fifteen months afterwards, as we learned from a respectable visitant of the station, this same people were collected into something like a civil society; most of them wore some clothing, and several were very de cently clad; and all were taught to worship the true God, and to reverence his Sabbath. From their habitations, or from among the bushes of that wild region, the voice of prayer and of praise was, every morning, heard to ascend." What heart after this, can refuse his prayers, and his mite of aid, to the missionary cause? From MALTA, we have heard of nearly a million of pages filled with pious matter, and issued from the English missionary press; in addition to the publications of our own similar establishment on that island. In four years, four millions and a half of pages of religious matter have been here issued from the press. "From CONSTANTINOPLE, a report reached us, in the latter part of the year, founded on the declaration of the indefatigable Wolff, that 500 Jews in that city professed to believe in Christ as the Messiah. Intelligence from other sources, constrain us to the opinion, that, at least, an active spirit of inquiry has been excited among the Jews of the Capital of the East;-an event as strange, as it is worthy of grateful observation."-Mr. Wolff was lately in England. But was about to set out again to Jerusalem, after he had visited the Continent of Europe. Beyroot, a seaport town, near the foot of Mount Lebanon, in Syria, is an important missionary station. Messrs. Goodell and Bird, are the Missionaries. They are, at present, busy in acquiring the language of the country. The lamented Fisk spent some of his time there, before he departed this life, at that place in Oct. 25, 1825. Jerusalem, the ancient city of God, the capi tal of Palistine is also missionary ground. Since Messrs. Fisk and King left it, this city has had no missionary labours. Messrs. Gridley and Brewer are on their way to occupy that field of enterprise. We shall, no doubt, hear favourable intelligence of them soon. The intelligence from RUSSIA, casts a shade over this picture of light and life; but it is neither deep, nor very portentous. For, the circumstances, under which the Russian Bible Society was suppressed, show, conclusively, that it had acted strongly on the public opinion of the nation, and had increased the amount of general intelligence, and had called forth an expression of it, in regard to the rights of the people, civil and religious.The seed, thus sown, will not be lost. Doubtless many streams have been made to break forth in the Siberian desert, which will never dry up; and the flow of opinion and feeling, thus begun, may continue and increase, till a ffood of blessedness shall cover that vast empire. "A stronger and more painful sensation of alarm filled our minds, when we heard of the controversy in that greatest wonder and glory of the age, the British and Foreign Bible Socie ty: and great was the satisfaction, with which we announced the suspension of the controversy, in a decision, which must commend itself to all the lovers of revealed truth. The sturdy spirit of Scotland, which had been roused in the contest, seemed not to have been wholly allayed; but we wait in calm expectation of a striking display, in the result, of providential wisdom." And yet these "sturdy spirits" of Scotland are doing no more than simply contending that the British and Foreign Bible Society should act strictly accord ing to the letter and the spirit of its constitution; and print the Holy Bible without note or com ment; which thing they were not doing-by |