the Apostle Paul brought the gospel into contact with so many minds; for the populations of the countries in which he preached were less numerous than those whom Carey supplied with the Word of Life. The blessings which that Word is fitted to convey to the nations in which it circulates can only be conceived by those who know by experience the salutary influence it exerts on the character and condition and prospects of mankind. Its translation into any language is the opening of a source of life-giving, transforming, and elevating power to the peoples by whom that language is spoken. The most gracious results attend the reception of its message, and the advance of humanity towards all that is good and true is in proportion as its truths are moulding individual character, and penetrating to the springs of national life. We should prove traitors to our profession, and belie our experience, did we not regard it as the best boon which can be conferred on any people, and he who translates it into their language as their greatest benefactor.

Its circulation throughout heathen nations is enough to secure the downfall of every system of idolatry, and the removal of all the evils that follow in their train. Formidable as those systems are, venerable for age, supported by class interests, rooted in the feelings and habits of the people, they cannot withstand the power of that Word which liveth and abideth for ever. Like as it was with the magic castle in ancient story-with its moat, and drawbridge, and portcullis, and solid wall, frowning battlements, and brave defenders, it defied the besieger's power. But when the trumpet sounded loud and shrill, that castle trembled to its foundation, and moat, and drawbridge, and portcullis, and wall, and battlement, and defenders, exhaled into vapour and vanished from the scene. So the formidable systems of idolatry, which bid defiance to all human power

and skill, when God's Word shall make its voice heard and its truths known among their votaries, shall disappear from the lands over which they have cast their withering shadow, that the way may be prepared for the coming of the kingdom of Christ.

The effects it has already produced in the countries into which Carey introduced it are such, considering the time which has elapsed, as exceed his most sanguine expectations. He himself lived to see more than a thousand converts. He gave the first blow to the system which was said to be invincible, and broke some links of the chain with which it kept the people in thraldom, by the baptism of converts of high caste, who, after their profession of faith, mingled with, and were united in marriage to, their brethren of inferior degree. He saw the cruel and monstrous practice of Suttee abolished. He saw the dawn of a sound education, before which many of their absurd beliefs were destined to take their flight. He saw Christian churches formed, and Christian communities gathered around them. And since his time, notwithstanding all that has been said of the failure of missions, the influence of the Bible on Indian beliefs and customs is marvellous. While tens of thousands of converts have been gathered into the various churches, the people's belief in their idols has been destroyed, and the worst features of heathenism have disappeared even from among those who have not yet cordially embraced Christianity.

It is no slight honour for any man to have been chosen by God to perform such a work as this. It ranks him indubitably among the foremost benefactors of the world. And when men's actions shall be judged in the clearer light of the latter day, and on the pillar of fame shall be inscribed the names of those who have rendered services to mankind, high in the illustrious list, far above that of many of the

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William Carey, the Linguist.

world's warriors and statesmen, who have filled the world with their far-sounding fame, will be found that of the "consecrated cobbler" and village pastor-the once obscure and despised, but now honoured and electric name of WILLIAM CAREY.

HERE is no man who, by his character and talents, is better entitled to a place among Baptist Worthies than Robert Hall. We select him as being by universal consent the preacher of his denomination-one of the greatest preachers which any denomination has produced in his own or any age-"the prince of preachers," as not without reason he has been designated. It will, we believe, be of service to our young men, and will further the purpose which we seek to promote, if we make them acquainted with the prominent features of this great and good man's character and life.

His outer history is soon told. Almost barren of incident as is the life of an ordinary Baptist minister in England, the only facts in his life worthy of notice may be comprised in brief space.

He was the son of a minister of the same name, pastor of a Baptist Church at Arnsby, in Leicestershire, and was born on the 2nd of May, 1764. Being the youngest of fourteen children, there could not be much affluence, we may suppose, in his father's house; but what was better for him, there were books to which almost from his infancy he

had access, and from which he began to draw those mental stores which afterwards became so ample and were used with such good effect.

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After a delicate infancy he was sent first to a dame school in his native village, and afterwards to a school a few miles off, conducted by a Mr. Symmons. Here he evinced considerable precocity of intellect, reading with great delight such books as Butler's Analogy," and "Jonathan Edwards on the Affections" and the " Will "-rather heavy tasks, one would think, for a boy,—and before he had completed his eleventh year, so thoroughly mastering such lessons as were given, that "his master ceded his superiority, and frankly confessed his inability to keep pace with his pupil."

It is further stated—and the fact may perhaps be deemed still more prophetic of his after-course-that about this age he was in the habit of composing essays and sermons, and preaching the latter to an audience composed of his brothers and sisters, who no doubt, as critics more kind than wise, very highly appreciated them. His speaking powers, however, do not appear even then to have been contemptible, for at a gentleman's house at Kettering, where he went on a visit shortly afterwards, and before he was sent to the Theological Academy, his host was in the habit of calling in the neighbours that they might listen to this boy preachera kindness on the part of his friend for which, we may well believe, Hall in his later years did not feel over grateful.

After a year and a half's tuition, under the care of the Rev. John Ryland, of Northampton, where he is reported to have made great progress in his studies, he entered the Academy at Bristol at the age of fifteen, and continued there, a diligent and ambitious student, for three years. Strange to say, his gift of speaking seems here to have failed him once in a very signal and mortifying manner. The occasion was