On the first of September 1647, we find the Gene- | ral Assembly transmitting a letter of advice " to their countrymen in Poland, Swedland, Denmarke, and Hungarie," and an excellent letter it is. It is addressed to the "Scots merchants and others, our country people scattered" in those lands; and it opens with the expression of a wish, that " grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ" may be with them. It then goes on to state, that although the Church of Scotland had had great difficulties to conquer in maintaining the true reformed religion among its own members at home, "yet, since the mighty and outstretched arm of the Lord had brought them out of Egypt," and had permitted them again to enjoy the benefits of an established ministry, and regularly organized courts, it had been their earnest desire and aim "to set forth the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the purity of his ordinances, not only throughout Scotland, but in other parts also, so far as God gave them a call and opportunity so to do." Among other things of this nature, they had more particularly taken into their serious thoughts, the sad and lamentable condition of many thousands of their countrymen who were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd, and were, through want of the means of knowledge, grace, and salvation, exposed to the greatest dangers, whether through ignorance or through manifold temptations, terrors and false religions, or through the occasions and snares of sin." Feeling themselves thus called on to put them in mind of the one thing needful, they proceeded to administer most wholesome admonitions. They do not disapprove of their countrymen going abroad to follow any lawful calling; yet, "seeing they had travelled so far, and taken so much pains to get uncertain riches which cannot deliver in the day of the wrath of the Lord, and which men know not who shall inherit; they do from affection to the salvation of their immortal souls, most earnestly beseech and warn them to cry after knowledge, and to lift up their voice for understanding; seeking her as silver, and searching for her as for hid treasures; and so imitate the wise merchants in purchasing the pearl of price, and in laying up a sure foundation for the time to come, by acquainting their souls with Jesus Christ, and by faith taking hold of him whose free grace is now offered and held out to sinners, excluding none among all the kindreds of the earth who will come unto him." After an earnest pleading with these merchants on the great concerns of salvation, the Assembly exhort them to "endeavour to have among them the ordinary means of grace and salvation;""to pray that God would give them pastors according to his heart, who shall feed them with knowledge and understanding; " to set up the worship of God and ecclesiastical discipline, according to the form established and received in their mother Kirk; and to agree on a way of settled maintenance to pastors and teachers." On their agreeing to some arrangement of this kind, (and their pecuniary means enabled them to do it,) the commission of Assembly are instructed to provide from time to time, some able and godly ministers for them, as likewise to communicate to them the Directory, for the public worship of God, and the form of ecclesiastical government and discipline, together with the Confession of Faith, and Catechisms." In the meantime, the Assembly exhorts them to attend to the maintenance of the worship of God in their families, and to continue stedfast in the faith in which they were baptized, and to adorn the Gospel by a sober and godly conversation. They also remind these their countrymen abroad, of the sufferings of the parent Church, for the common cause and Covenant of the three kingdoms," in which "distance of place," ought not to lessen or blunt their sympathy. This letter was printed and published at the time, in order that it might with greater ease and 46 66 conveniency, be conveyed to the many several places of their habitation or traffique." It is subscribed "in name of the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland, by Mr Robert Douglasse, moderator." I have little doubt that this apostolic epistle was, in part at least, instrumental in leading to the erection of those numerous Scottish Churches in Holland, and in the northern parts of the continent of Europe, of which Mr Steven has given some interesting notices in his " History of the Scottish Church at Rotterdam." These branches of the parent tree flourished for a season in all the loveliness of spiritual verdure, and our countrymen long "sat under their shade with great delight.' But the "reign of terror from 1660 to 1688 crippled sadly the energies of the Church at home, and her foreign relations must have suffered accordingly. It is very interesting, however, to notice, that in the darkest period of these persecuting times, we find as in the days of the apostles, the "scattered remnant" made the honoured means of sending the treasures of the kingdom to countrymen still farther removed, and of even paving the way for giving the Gospel to the henthen. Mr James Stirling, one of the ministers of Paisley, and author of the historical part of "Naphthali ;" and Mr Patrick Warner, afterwards minister at Irvine, went to the East Indies, as chaplains on the establishment of the India Company, and in that capacity were honoured with extensive usefulness. To come to a later period of the history of the Church. When the celebrated Scottish colony of Darien was set on foot, towards the close of the seventeenth century, the attention of the guardians of religion was strongly directed to it; and the settlers who emigrated from this country on that eventful expedition were amply supplied with faithful ministers, and the "Presbytery of Caledonia" was "orderly constituted." The company who set on foot the settlement had applied to the Assembly for ministers, in order that “a Gospel ministry might be settled, who might instruct our countrymen, and be useful in propagating the glorious light of the Gospel among the pagan natives." The court of directors of the company having cordially invited Mr Alexander Shields, of St. Andrews, Mr Francis Borland, of Glasford, Mr Alexander Dalgleish, and Mr Archibald Stobo, ministers of the Gospel, to be sent to Caledonia to labour "in that pious, necessary, and glorious work," the Commission of the General Assembly gave to these excellent men all due authority to preach the Gospel, to dispense ordinances, to constitute themselves into a presbytery with the usual powers and privileges, and to use all means in their power to promote the conversion of the heathen. They are empowered and advised to subdivide the settlement into so many parishes, of each of which one minister and a suitable number of lay elders and deacons were to take the spiritual charge. A general meeting of the whole inhabitants was to be held, when, with "the greatest solemnity and seriousness, they should avouch the Lord to be their God, and dedicate themselves and the land unto him." The ministers are also instructed to keep up a regular correspondence with the Church, frequently and fully acquainting her with the whole state of their affairs, and what they may need from her from time to time." They are authorised to rely on the " cheerful forwardness of the Church at home to assist them." Some of these mimisters had devoted themselves to this service for " limited period," and they are not prohibited from returning to their charges at home; but they are "recommended, before any of them come away, to endeavour to settle the Church, and that the concerns of the Gospel be brought to some hopeful pass." So soon as any of them resolved to come home without returning, they are required to give timely notice of it to the Commission, in order that "others may be provided to 66 a go in their room." Thus anxious were our fathers to ON THE APATHY OF THE HINDUS. BY THE REV. JOHN WILSON, D.D., have discoursed with a sublimity mounting above the Pleiades. Verily the Hindu mind is placid! It is as placid as a pool of stagnant water, and as putrid withal. It can behold the acmé of human misery without pity, it can ignite the funeral pile, which is to consume as well the living as the dead parent, without a sigh. It can shed the blood of innocent and helpless offspring without compunction. It can calmly look on death without fear, and at the same time hail it without preparation. It is placid because it is morally torpid. It is the victim of a creed, for the concoction of which, all the potentates and principalities of darkness had surely assembled, in laborious and protracted conclave, and to the propagation and support of which, they have lent their chief endeavours, their arch-diabolical energies. Let a man believe that his soul is a disintegration from the Supreme Mind, and that sooner or later, whatever may be its mishaps in its various transmigrations through human, brute, and vegetable forms, it will re-enter that mind, and be lost in its immensity, and he will become indifferent respecting either his own weal or woe, or those of his fellow. The beast of the field, the fowl that flieth in the air, and the creeping thing, he will, in One of the General Assembly's Missionaries to the East Indies, fact, consider as more the objects of his regard, than and President to the Bombay Brunch of the Royal Asiatic Society. pital for the reception of men suffering from disease and poverty?" "Man can tell his wants," he said in reply, "while the irrational animals, as you call them, but whom we deem as constitutionally the same with yourself, would suffer independently of our interference, in the solitude of their own being." It would not have been difficult for me to have confounded this logician by an appeal to his own admitted principles. While the ultimatum of the desire of the Hindu and Jaina is absorption, any attempt to protract life in any form, is merely a retarding of those processes which must necessarily be gone through before that summum bonum cau be attained. I thought it better, however, to establish and illustrate the doctrine of human responsibility, which he had completely overlooked. intelligent man. Why," said I one day to the person in charge of the pinjarápur, to which I have alluded, IN going to church yesterday, my friend Mr W. and I" do you here lodge horses and cows, and form no hos found, stretched upon one of the public streets, a poor man apparently in the agonies of death. Though he had his head and body uncovered, and a scorching sun was pouring down his rays upon him, there was not found a single native amongst numerous passers-by and spectators, to lift him into the shade; and though he was in danger every moment of having his feeble existence extinguished by the vehicles which were moving along, there was not a single person found to remove him from the middle of the road. This wretched man was lying near the gate of the pinjarápur, an enclosure and hospital lately erected by the Jainas, for the benefit of the brutes, and which, a few months ago, received from Motichand Amichand, (now deceased,) an endowment amounting to two lakhs of rupees. The ostentatious clemency of his neighbourhood to objects which do not require it, and his unpitied and unrelieved misery, made a sad impression upon my mind, and formed a very painful exemplification, of what, alas! to me needs no illustration, of the character of the heathen, as "proud and boasters," but at the same time, as "without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.” Some months ago, I saw a lofty cocoa nut tree, around the roots of which some gardeners had been digging, with the view of changing its inclination, suddenly fall to the ground with a tremendous crash. I rushed forward to it, that I might learn the fate of a man who was fixed among the branches composing its tuft. I found him crushed beneath the tree, with his limbs broken in two or three places, otherwise sadly mangled, and unable to speak. Several persons, including some women, were drawing water at a well, from which he was not more than two yards distant. Not a single one of them expressed the least compassion for the wretched man; and most of them filled their vessels and attempted to walk off, as if nothing had occurred. I had actually to threaten them, before I could get sufficient assistance to get him extricated! He very speedily expired. I know of an apathy parallel to that of the Hindus, which even transcends it. It is that with which the inhabitants of India are viewed by the majority of professing Christians, that with which, dear readers, you yourselves may possibly be regarding them! That holy and blessed book, which the true and faithful God has inspired by his Spirit, to which he has applied his own signet, which he has put into your hands, to which, before men and angels, and his own omniscience, you have declared your assent, which you have sworn to make the rule of your faith and obedience, and on the veracity of which you have not hesitated to peril the interests of your immortal souls, declares that they, as heathen, are perishing for lack of knowledge, and about to sink to everlasting destruction in the regions of woe. God's unsearchable providence, in its most wonderful actings and interpositions, and almost without the intention and agency of man, has placed one hundred and thirty millions of them, either under the direct sway, or the efficient influence of your country, and so ordered it, that the Gospel, a specific for their moral malady, the unequalled product of God's wisdom and power, may be most advantageously offered to them in every way in which it is capable of being proposed in your native land. And yet you have, perhaps, never once heartily prayed, nor contributed, as of the I could fill several sheets with accounts of scenes and occurrences with which I have been personally connected, similar to those which I have now notic-ability which God has given you, for their conversion ed, but I forbear. This apathy of the Hindus, I would remark, however, is that feature of their minds, which too many of our countrymen, who after learning their ways, come forward as their apologists, have denominated a very virtue, "mildness," patience," or "placidity," and concerning which, they and salvation! You have not personally, nor through the instrumentality of others, told them to flee from the wrath to come. You have not spoken to them of the infinitely precious blood of Christ, of the all effica cious fountain which has been opened for sin and for uncleanness, and of the refuge which God has provided for the most guilty of Adam's sons. You have not declared to them the "love of the Spirit," ready to renovate their souls, and adorn them with all the beauty of holiness. You have not pointed them to those happy regions, into which they may enter, and in which they may experience fulness of joy, and pleasures for evermore. Their moral misery, in short, you have neither pitied nor relieved; and, in despite of the last command of Christ himself, you withhold from them that instruction, which, under the blessing of God, would issue in their unspeakable and eternal happiness. In the day of inquisition, which most certainly awaits you, what will you answer for your hard-heartedness, your supineness, and your apathy? CHRISTIAN TREASURY. Disappointments.-Disappointments are inseparable from the present state of things, in which so many are contending for the same objects, and in which events are daily occurring that mar the fairest schemes, and cloud the brightest prospects of man. Though the inconsiderate and wicked are more exposed to this kind of evil, than those are who "love God, out of a pure heart fervently," and enjoy his favour and direction, yet those who are most devoted to God are not entirely exempted from it. "These endeavour to provide things honest in the sight of all men," for themselves and their households, to give their families such an education as may fit them for occupying advantageous situations in society, and for being virtuous, useful, and respected, and to do many other things, both for the benefit of individuals, and for the general interests of the community, which are good and praise-worthy. For these purposes, or such as these, they often spend much time in anxious deliberation, incur much expense, submit to much trouble, secure the co-operation of many friends, and make use of all suitable means in their power to insure success; and yet they are not permitted to have their hopes and wishes realized. However good and desirable the ends may be at which they aim, it is not always consistent with the wise purposes of God to enable them to attain these ends. Nay, it often happens that adversity breaks in upon them, and deprives them of enjoyments to which they may have long been accustomed; and their expectations of continued prosperity perish. Often when they think that every thing indicates a continuance of their comforts, clouds and darkness suddenly arise and rest upon them, and their lot becomes one of pain and trouble. has something good in it for their souls.-Rev. ALEXANDER WHYTE. (The Heritage of God's People.) Still it Rest on the Rock-Christ.-Let us, therefore, receive with meekness the word that is grafted in us, which is able to save our souls; and ground ourselves on the sure rock-Christ. For (as the Apostle saith) other foundation can no man lay, besides that which is laid already, which is Jesus Christ. If any man build on this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, timber, hay, stubble, every man's work shall appear; for the day shall declare it, and it shall be showed in the fire, and the fire shall try every man's work what it is. If any man's work, that he hath builded upon, abide, he shall receive a reward: if any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss, but he shall be safe himself; nevertheless, yet as it were through fire. By fire here doth the Apostle understand persecution and trouble. For they which do truly preach and profess the Word of God (which is called the word of the cross,) shall be railed upon, abhorred, hated, thrust out of company, persecuted and tried in the furnace of adversity, as gold and silver are tried in the fire. By gold, silver, and precious stones, he understandeth them that in the midst of persecution abide stedfast in the word: by timber, hay, and stubble, are meant such as in time of persecu- [ tion do fall away from the truth; and when Christ doth purge his floor with the wind of adversity, these scatter away from the face of the earth like light chaff, which shall be burned with unquenchable fire. If they then which do believe, do in time of persecution stand stedfastly in the truth, the builder (I mean the preacher of the word) shall receive a reward, and the work shall be preserved and saved: but if so be that they go back and swerve when persecution ariseth, the builder shall suffer loss, that is to say, shall lose his labour and cost; but yet he shall be saved, if he, being tried in the fire of persecution, do abide fast in the faith.-GEORGE MARSH. (Coverdale's Godly Letters of the Martyrs.) Firmly Believe.-Do you say the testament is written, but my name is not here? Do you make a question of God's part, wondering if Christ died for you or loved you? Make you sure of your own part, and take no fear of God's part. If ye ask for whom Christ died; I answer, for all that hear, be they who they may, a cord is cast into a hollow pit to draw you up and many more; if ye dispute, saying, is the cord cast down for me? I will tell you how you may answer that doubt; catch and hold fast by it for your life, and beyond all question, then, the cord was cast down for you. If ye take the offer, question not his good will; step in, Christ will not ask, to whom do ye belong? and if he ask, say, I am thine; if he deny it, be ye humble and bear it. If ye ask if Christ died for you? he answers you with another question, would ye die for him? or are ye dying of love for him? That answers your question. Sinners are like a number of men swimming in a sea betwixt life and death. Christ and his merits are like a strong boat, and a man holding out both his arms, drawing them in one by one, saying, give me your hand, and he presses them in.— RALPH ERSKINE. (Discourses.) Ye cannot serve Two Masters.-Therefore I pray you call to mind, that there be but two masters, two kinds of people, two ways, and two mansion-places. The masters be Christ and Satan; the people be servitors to either of these; the ways be strait and wide; the mansions be heaven and hell. Again: consider, that this world is the place of trial of God's people and the devil's servants; for as the one will follow his Master whatsoever cometh of it, so will the other. For a time, it is hard to discern who pertaineth to God and who to the devil; as, in the calm and peace, who is a good shipman and warrior, and who is not. But as when the storm ariseth the expert mariner is known, as in war the good soldier is seen, so in affliction and the cross, easily God's children are known from Satan's servants for then, as the good servant will follow his master, so will the godly follow their Captain, come what will; whereas the wicked and hypocrites will bid adieu, and desire less of Christ's acquaintance. For which cause the cross is called a probation and trial, because it trieth who will go with God, and who will forsake him. As now in England, we see how small a company Christ hath, in comparison of Satan's soldiers. Let no man deceive himself; for he that gathereth not with Christ, scattereth abroad. man can serve two masters; the Lord abhorreth double hearts; the lukewarm, that is such as are both hot and cold, he spitteth out of his mouth. None that halt on both knees, doth God take for his servants. way of Christ is the strait way; and so strait, that, as few find it, and few walk in it, so no man can halt in it, but needs must go upright; for as the straitness will suffer no reeling to this side or that side, so if any man halt, he is like to fall off the bridge into the pit of eternal perdition. Strive, therefore, now you have found it, to enter into it; and if you should be called or pulled back, look not on this side or that side, or behind you as Lot's wife did, but strait forwards on the end.-JOHN BRAD, FORD, (Coverdale's Godly Letters of the Martyrs.) No The SACRED POETRY. CHRISTIAN FREEDOM. "He is the freeman whom the truth makes free," Who hears temptation sing, and yet turns not The sword unsheathed, yet will not sell the truth; a noble and ancient family, a learned monk and provin cial of the order to which he belonged, after having long preached the Word of God in both the vulgar languages, (the Italian and Sclavonian) in many cities, and defended it by public disputation in several places of celebrity with great applause, was at last thrown into close prison at Venice, by the inquisitor and papal legate. In this condition he continued during nearly twenty years to bear an undaunted testimony to the Gospel of Christ; so that his bonds and doctrine were made known, not only to that city, but almost the whole of Italy, and by it to Europe at large, by which means evangelical truth was more widely spread. Two things, among many others, may be mentioned as marks of the singular providence of God towards this person during his imprisonment. In the first place, the princes of Germany often interceded for his liberation, but Whom nought makes blush but sin, fears nought but God; without success. And, secondly, on the other hand, Who, finally, in strong integrity Of soul, midst want, or riches, or disgrace, Uplifted, calmly sat, and heard the waves Of stormy folly breaking at his feet, the papal legate, the inquisitor, and even the Pope himself, laboured with all their might, and by repeated applications, to have him from the very first cominitted to the flames as a noted heresiarch. This was refused Now shrill with praise, now hoarse with foul reproach, by the doge and senate, who, when he was at last conAnd both despised sincerely; seeking this 'TWAS early day-and sunlight stream'd A father commun'd with the page Of heaven's recorded love. Pure fell the beam, and meekly bright, On his grey holy hair, And touch'd the book with tenderest light But oh! that patriarch's aspect shone Some word of life e'en then had met Some heart's deep language, when the glow That my Redeemer lives." And silent stood his children by, Of thought o'ersweeping death: MISCELLANEOUS. HEMANS. Fra Baldo Lupetino, the Venetian Martyr.-The most distinguished of those who suffered death at Venice, was the venerable Fra Baldo Lupetino. The following account of him by his nephew, in a book now become very rare, deserves to be preserved entire" The reverend Baldus Lupetinus, sprung from demned, freed him from the punishment of the fire by an express decree. It was the will of God that he should bear his testimony to the truth for so long a time; and that, like a person affixed to a cross, he should, as from an eminence, proclaim to all the world the restoration of Christianity, and the revelation of antichrist. At last, this excellent and pious man, whom neither threatenings nor promises could move, sealed his doctrine by an undaunted martyrdom, and exchanged the filth and protracted tortures of a prison for a wa tery grave. The judicious Fuller.-The following passages, from the private diary of Mr Fuller, will tend to illustrate the power of genuine religion, and to induce submission to the will of God, as well as to show the strength of parental affection:-Death! Death is all around me! My friends die. Three I have buried within a fortnight, and another I shall have to bury soon! Death and judgment are all I can think about! At times I feel reconciled to whatever may befall me. I am not without good hopes of my child's piety, who now lies dangerously ill, and as to her life, desirable as it is, the will of the Lord be done. A few days after, he wrote:-But at other times I am distressed beyond due bounds. On the 25th, in particular, my distress seemed beyond all measure. I lay before the Lord, weeping, like David, and refusing to be comforted. This brought on, I have reason to think, a bilious colic; a painful affiction it was, and the more so as it prevented my ever seeing my child alive again! Yes, she is gone! On Tuesday morning, as I lay in bed in another room, I heard a whispering. I inquired, and all were silent!all were silent but all is well! I feel reconciled to God! I called my family round my bed. I sat up, and prayed as well as I could; I bowed my head and worshipped, and blessed a taking as well as a giving God. Separate Numbers from the commencement may at all times be had to complete sets. Published by JOHN JOHNSTONE, at the Offices of the SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD, 2, Hunter Square, Edinburgh, and 19, Glass ford Street, Glasgow; J. NISBET & CO., HAMILTON, ADAMS & CO, and R. GROOMBRIDGE, London; W. CURRY, Junior, & Co., Dublin; and W. M'COMB, Belfast; and sold by the Booksellers and Local Agents in all the Towns and Parishes of Scotland; and in the principal Towns in England and Ireland. Subscribers in Edinburgh, Leith, and Portobello, will have their copies delivered at their own residences regularly, by leaving their addresses with the Publisher.-Subscribers in Glasgow will, in like manner, have their copies delivered, by leaving their addresses at the Publishing Office there, 19, Glassford Street. Subscription (payable in advance) per quarter, of twelve weeks, Is. 6d. per half-year, of twenty-four weeks, 3s.-per year, of fortyeight weeks, 68.-Monthly Parts, containing four Numbers each, stitched in a printed wrapper, Price Sixpence. THE SCOTTISH CHRISTIAN HERALD, CONDUCTED UNDER THE SUPERINTENDENCE OF MINISTERS AND MEMBERS OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. "THE FEAR OF THE LORD, THAT IS WISDOM." No. 94. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1837. CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHY. THE survey of human character is at once an interesting and useful employment. It is interesting, as it exhibits the operation of passions extremely diversified in their nature and effects, and thus leads us to contemplate man in a variety of lights. It is useful, as it increases both in quantity and value our knowledge of human nature, and sets before us an example either worthy of imitation, or deserving of contempt. For rendering the survey of character either interesting or useful, it is evidently not necessary that the example contemplated be distinguished by its excellence. The character of a bad man is interesting, though the interest which it excites be not of an agreeable kind. The example of a bad man is useful, though its utility be wholly of a negative kind. There is, however, one point of view in which the character distinguished by its Christian excellence, and it alone, is either interesting, or really useful; and that is as an illustration of the power and value of real Christian principle. Good example is powerful in producing conviction, as well as in exciting to emulation. It shows to what degree of excellence human nature can attain, and that nothing which the divine law requires of finite beings is either unreasonable or impracticable. And as the triumph of those who have gone before him in the same field of conflict has an inspiring effect on the untried and shrinking soldier; so the history of the conflicts and successes of the children of God in past ages is well calculated to animate the good soldier of Jesus Christ in "going on conquering and to conquer." The test of experiment being thus applied to Christian principle, how do its excellence and glory shine forth! How strikingly is it demonstrated, that while "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal," they "are mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds!" and that, while the treasure is in earthen vessels, the excellency of the power is of God, and not of us!" The illustration of Christian principles by suitable examples, has a tendency to bring abstract VOL. II. PRICE lad. truths within the grasp of ordinary comprehension; and, by exhibiting their influence in actual life, it gives them an interest and a force which they might not otherwise possess. Truths presented to the mind in a dry and abstract manner, may gain access to the understandings of those who are accustomed to reason and reflect, but they must lamentably fail to affect the heart, and influence the conduct, of the generality of men. It is true, indeed, that the graces which Christianity recommends to cultivation, must ever be attractive and lovely; but their charms are beheld with most advantage, when they are embodied in human character, and adorn the walks of life. To have been simply told, that the patriarch Abraham possessed strong and lively faith, would have made comparatively a slight and transient impression on the mind; but when we are called to contemplate the powerful operation of that heavenly principle in leading him, at the call of God, to abandon the country which was dearest to his heart, to sojourn in a land of strangers, and to summon up the dreadful resolution of becoming himself the executioner of his darling child, we see the sincerity and strength of his faith in the most interesting and impressive light. It would have made no deep impression on the mind, to have been told, in general terms, that Moses was distinguished by the quality of meekness; accordingly, to give interest to his character, and to exhibit its practical excellence, we are called to behold him maintaining a constant struggle with an obstinate and disobedient people. Had the sacred historians contented themselves with the simple assertion, that the Syrophenician suppliant was remarkably distinguished by faith and its attendant graces, or had our Lord granted the object of her petition without putting her principles to any great severity of trial, the interest which her case excites would have been lost, and the strength and beauty of those graces which adorned her character would have failed to impress and to captivate; but when we are called to contemplate her faith struggling with discouragements and fears, and rising superior to their disheartening influence, we behold the excellence of that heavenly principle in a most interesting and impressive light; giving birth at once to unaffected humility, unsuspecting confi |