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is no evidence or trial to be taken by them; they are fit only for a few learned men; they are in no wise fit for the people. Thus said Julian, an heretic.

But God himself, and the ancient fathers of the church, said otherwise. God saith, (Deut. xxx.), "This commandment which I command thee this day is not hid from thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it us, and cause us to hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very near thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, for to do it." Thou needest not run hither and thither, nor wander over the sea, nor beat thy brains in searching what thou shouldest do, or by what means thou mayest live uprightly. The word and commandment of God will teach thee sufficiently.

The Prophet David saith (Psa. xix.), "The commandment of the Lord is pure, and giveth light unto the eyes." And (Psa. cxix.), "Thy word is a lantern unto my feet, and a light unto my paths." Thy word is not dark, it is a light unto my path, it giveth light unto the eyes. What is clear, if the light be dark? or what can he see, which cannot see the light?

Human knowledge is dark and uncertain; philosophy is dark, astrology is dark, and geometry is dark. The professors thereof ofttimes run a-muck; they lose themselves, and wander they know not whither; they seek the depth and the bottom of natural causes, the change of the elements, the impressions in the air, the causes of the rainbow, of

blazing stars, of thunder and lightning, of the trembling and shaking of the earth, the motions of the planets, the proportion and the influence of the celestial bodies.

They measure the compass of heaven, and count the number of the stars; they go down, and search the mines in the bowels of the earth; they rip up the secrets of the sea. The knowledge of these things is hard; it is uncertain; few are able to reach it; it is not fit for every man to understand it.

But the holy Spirit of God, like a good teacher, applieth himself to the dulness of our wits; he leadeth not us by the unknown places of the earth, nor by the air, nor by the clouds; he astonisheth not our spirits with natural vanities; he writeth his law in our hearts; he teacheth us to know him and his Christ; he teacheth us (Tit. ii.), that we should deny ungodliness and worldly lust, and that we should live soberly, and righteously, and godly in this present world;" he teacheth us to look "for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the mighty God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ." This matter is good, and it is plain; the words are plain, and the utterance is plain.

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Chrysostom saith, Therefore hath the grace of the Holy Spirit disposed and tempered them so, that publicans, and fishers, and tentmakers, shepherds, and the Apostles, and simple men, and unlearned, might be saved by these books; that none of the simpler sort might make excuse by the hardness of them; and that such things as are spoken might be easy for all men to look on; that the labouring man, and the servant, and widow woman, and whosoever is

most unlearned, may take some good, when they are read. For they whom God ever from the beginning endued with the grace of his Spirit, have not gathered all these things for vain glory, as the heathen writers use, but for the salvation of the hearers."

MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

Hopeful Death of one of the Seminary Boys.

March 6, 1839-It is my painful office this day to record the death of one of our Seminary boys. He was attacked with dysentery on the 20th ult., and on the 22nd was removed by his friends to his native village, about two miles and a half distant from Baddagame. Here his disease assumed a more virulent character. A Cingalese doctor having been called, and his remedies having rather increased than mitigated the disease, his friends applied to me for assistance, and I attended him afterward. By the blessing of God on the means which I employed, nearly all the dysenteric symptoms were removed, and I began to hope for his recovery; but an extensive exulceration of the bowels having previously taken place, mortification at length ensued, which terminated his existence at half-past five yesterday afternoon. Dionis was a boy who had very much recommended himself to my attention. He was about thirteen years of age, and was elected into the Seminary by Dr. Selkirk and myself, a few days after my arrival at Baddagame.

At the examination previous to that election, Dionis particularly distinguished himself, both as to general and religious knowledge. He had been educated from his infancy in one of our schools, and bore the character of a very obedient and promising child. From his residence in the Seminary, which was only about six weeks, I could not of course know much of him; yet I found him, in that brief space of time, to be a boy of very superior abilities, and of patient and unwearied application, joined with a course of blameless and exemplary behaviour. There was an amiableness and sincerity about the lad, which at once secured my regard, and which made me love him the more as my knowledge of him increased. During his illness I visited him once or twice a day; which, though I had to walk the whole distance, and it interfered now and then with other engagements, I felt it my duty to do. In these visits I had several conversations with him; which convinced me that he had not been taught by us in vain; and that he had not only imbibed clear views of the doctrines of Christianity, but also knew something of the comfort and happiness to be derived from them. In one of my visits I asked him how his thoughts were chiefly occupied during his affliction; He said, 'In praying to God' that he had been praying to him all the day, and he hoped that he should continue to pray to him while life was granted. I encouraged him in this, and exhorted him to resign himself to God's will, whatever that might be. He said, he tried to feel resigned, and he hoped he was so. On the morning of his death, I asked him, Dionis, now, supposing you were to die, what are your hopes respecting your condition after death, and on what are

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they founded? The following was his reply, 'I hope that God, of his mercy, will take me to his everlasting kingdom, through Jesus Christ." About five minutes before his death, as I have been informed, he seemed sensible of his approaching dissolution; and called his mother and friends around him, to bid them farewell. He then told them-addressing himself particularly to his mother-not to weep for him; that he felt very happy, and he was sure he should be happy for ever; and he thought it was very wrong to mourn for him, under such circumstances. And then, knowing that I felt anxious about his soul, his last words were a message to me, 'Tell Master, tell Master, that I die happy, and feel sure that I shall go to heaven.' Thus a hopeful youth has been removed from us, and the one which, to human wisdom, could least be spared; but it pleased God, whose ways are not as our ways, to take him to himself: and our Master's prayer should therefore be ours, "Not our will, but thine be done."-Missionary Record.

THE FIVE STUDENTS BURNT AT LYONS. (Continued from page 132.)

On one of these occasions, the tenth of May, he relates the following: When I was before them the official said to me, well my friend, will you persist in what you have said?

A. Yes, sir, for it is the word of God for which I will live and die.

Immediately Dr. Jacobin said to me, Do you believe. that the body of Jesus Christ is actually in the holy Sacrament?

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