or exaltation above thy brethren, which thou conceivest to be thy birth-right?) And if thou doest not well, is there not a sinoffering, lying at thy very door, to make the due reconciliation, and to restore thee to the station thou hast lost by thy misconduct? And thus in every way (or in either case) it depends upon thyself, that thy brother may become subject unto thee, and that thou mayest have the dominion over him.'" We have here an early proof, the earliest possible, of the gracious and merciful dealings of our heavenly Father towards sinners. With Cain, as with Israel, he expostulated, "Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?" But Cain, as Israel, refused to be instructed. We need not suppose any deep theological views on the part of this wicked man, nor any complicated reasonings of his guilty mind as to the Divine purposes, relative to the favour with which his brother's sacrifice had been received. Pride and unbelief sufficiently account for the atrocities of the first murderer, and these lurk within every human breast. From the peasant to the prince these evil principles, if unsubdued by Divine grace, produce fatal effects, rendering men hateful, and causing them to hate one another. We therefore leave all the specious sophistry of infidels, whether in poetry or in prose, and without at all considering Cain as having any pretensions to be considered otherwise than as the first and most atrocious murderer, simply follow the narrative of sacred writ, which appears to be correctly translated from the Greek version, as follows: "Cain said unto Abel his brother, Let us go into the field; and it came to pass when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him." Such was the awful result of a self-righteous spirit-that every-day character-a man, who feels not his state before God as a sinner, perceives nothing of the wonders of redeeming love, nor cares to inquire, How shall mortal sinful man be just before God? NEW ZEALANDERS. A Letter written by the Wife of a Native of New Zealand. IT is true, it is very true, that it is good to tell to Jehovah all that is in our heart, whether it is good or whether it is evil. My desire is, that my soul may be saved in the day of judgment. It will not be long before Jesus Christ appears to judge all mankind: and I also shall be judged. It is right that I should be judged, and that I should be condemned; for my heart is very wicked, and will not do one good thing, not one, not one, not one, that Jesus Christ, and God, and the Holy Spirit say is good: if I am angered by them, it will be just. But will not the Son of God save me? You say he will; and I believe it. You say that bad as it is, He will wash my soul in his blood, and make it good and clean: that is what I want. I want to be admitted into His church, and to be made His child, and to be taught His lessons out of His book; and to be taken care of by, and be done what with, done what with, done what with-Thou, O Lord Jesus, say what! Extracts of Correspondence. FOREIGN.-CEYLON. From the Church Missionaries at Cotta. WE have availed ourselves of every favourable opportunity of distributing tracts, both among the schools and among the people of the villages. We have also given away several hundreds to persons of distant villages, who have come to perform their idolatrous worship at the Buddhist temples at this place, and at villages near. During the last festival in May and June, not less than eleven or twelve hundred were thus distributed. By our institution-by young men, in going to see their relations-by the school visitor, in his visits to the schools-by the catechist, in visiting the people-and by others connected with us when going on journeys, great numbers have been distributed; and on a late journey, which the school visitor took to see his friends in the south of the island, he was supplied with a quantity of tracts, which were received with eagerness by the inhabitants of the several villages through which he passed. The tract entitled Milk for Babes, which has been translated into Cingalese verse, is the one which the people have received with the greatest readiness. Besides the catechist, who goes among the people daily to read the scriptures to them, we continue, as frequently as we can, to visit them in their own houses, and to read and speak to them on the things which belong to their peace. They are always attentive on these occasions; though they do not evince that inquiring disposition which we much wish to see among them. During these visits, however, the truth is always brought before them, and we trust that they derive some benefit from the exhortations addressed to them. We know that some, whom we were accustomed to visit at their houses, have, on their deathbeds, not only expressed their firm trust in Jesus Christ as their Saviour, but have also exhorted those who were standing around them to abstain from idolatry, and to receive the gospel of Christ. We all feel that we are imperatively called upon, under present circumstances, to exert ourselves to supply the reading population, which is rising up in every part of this country, with books and tracts, which may convey true and correct views of the way of happiness; and have been more active of late in circulating religious tracts. One, containing objec tions to the Buddhistsystem of religion, was printed by the Colombo Auxiliary Religious Tract Society, and has been circulated to a very great extent; and, particularly in the south of the island, has been the means of opening the eyes of hundreds to the nature of Buddhism. It will enable them clearly to see what little good the most zealous observer of all its prescribed rites is ever likely to obtain by continuing a Buddhist; at the same time, not omitting to notice also the positive falsehoods that are interwoven with the system throughout. The priests, it is said, have met in several places, to the number of 20 or 30, in order to consider what are the best modes to be adopted to put it down, and to prevent the evil effects which it is likely to have on their craft. Petitions to government have been written by the Buddhists; but I think it not probable that any christian government will ever interfere, to prevent any thing that may be done to further the interests of christianity, and to promote the present and future happiness and well-being of its subjects. A very excellent tract has been lately circulated, entitled, "The Lying Prophecy, and the Truth of God." I have never known the Cingalese receive a tract with such eagerness as this. distributed little less than 2000, during the last month. The people receive instruction with avidity. Hardly a day passes in which persons do not come to me requesting tracts. I employed a person to go into the neighbouring villages with a great number of these tracts; and he tells me that the people, everywhere, received them not only willingly, but very greedily. They still, however, have not only a hankering after their idols, but they think that their religion is good for them, and that ours is good for us. But I have little doubt, that if the efforts which we are now making are persevered in, and God gives His blessing to our labours, we shall, ere long, see a great revolution in the sentiments of the Cingalese people in favour of christianity. 133000 DOMESTIC. CHILDREN'S BOOKS. From a Lady in the West of England. over ONE cold winter's day, I saw a poor little country lad reading with great attention a little bright-covered book, at the door of a shop in this town. I looked over his shoulder, and asked him what he was reading, and where he bought it. "I gave a halfpenny for it," he said, there, at Betty "I will give you a larger one for it," I said; "if you will give it me?" He looked as if he hardly thought I meant what I said; but I soon showed him some of the reward books of the Religious Tract Society, one of which he took with pleasure, seeing he had made so good an exchange. By this time his mother had made her purchases in the shop, and, with another lad and his mother, the book I had given became an object of great desire. "O, how I wish I had such a book," said the young woman; "what a beauty!" "I shall be glad to give you one," I said. "And I should like one," said the other, "and one for my Jem at home, for he's mortal fond of a book; as good a boy as can be." I then supplied each of them with an assortment, (which I happened to have in my bag,) and on inquiring the name of the village where they lived, found, to my great joy, that I had thus had an opportunity of sending these little books, messages of mercy, and foretellings of salvation, to a place where no gospel was preached; and where, though nominally christian, little better than heathen was the condition of the villagers. I returned to the shop where the foolish tale had been bought, and showing Betty the bright gay colours and pretty pictures of the Tract Society's halfpenny books, offered to give her two for one, if she would give up her present stock of " Mother Hubbard" and "Blue Beard," and buy in future, from our Tract Depository, the wholesome productions of the Parent Society. To this she agreed, and I bore away the spoils of my morning's ramble, and with pleasurable feelings kindled a bonfire in my dwelling and destroyed them, feeling thankful that I had been honoured to supplant error with truth, and to put into the hands of my fellow-immortals, the plain truths of that religion which is able to make the simple wise, by directing the hopes of a dying sinner to the only way of life eternal. Thinking that other shopkeepers might be induced to exchange their foolish tales for these little books, I went round to many, making the same offer of giving them two for one of their present stock, on condition that they would not renew them, but buy at the Depository when they wanted more. This offer was generally accepted; and now, several months since the first exchange was made, in one instance only has there been a breach of the bargain. Not only in the huxters' and greengrocers' shops are these bad little books vended, but I was surprised to find that respectable and christian booksellers sold them also! One bookseller has assured me, that he will never keep another of the kind. He wonders how he could have done it so long without thinking of the evil of it; he says he has been no loser by the resolution and exchange, on the contrary, a gainer; for whereas before only children bought the trash and nonsense, he now sells these to grown-up persons. He makes it a practice now, when asked for trash, to show the wholesome and interesting series of the Tract Society, and finds that they are liked better, and bought more readily. In this way I have circulated nearly two thousand of these little books; and if the saying be true, that mankind are benefited by the planting of an acorn where a bramble once grew, sure I am that this exchange, upon the same principle, must be beneficial to the best interests of mankind, and encouraged by the promise and command," Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shalt find it after many days," I record these particulars with the hope, that a plan so simple may induce others to similar efforts. If in one town in the kingdom so many books of an injurious tendency have been destroyed, and others sold in their stead, what might be the result if every town were alike reformed in its publications, and individual christians would throw in the weight of their recommendation, example, money, and influence for this object. On the same principle that we deprecate novels for our children when farther advanced in years, should we banish these fabulous idle inventions from the nursery and play-ground; and it is worth a thought from all christian parents, whether the love of novels and romances, and all the evils attendant on this pernicious kind of reading, may not be implanted at a very early age, by "Jack and the Bean Stalk," "Cinderella," "Red Riding Hood," &c. I forgot to mention the following interesting fact of the usefulness of one of your children's books. One halfpenny book, from your last parcel, found its way into the hands of a little boy, who lived in a very retired spot; his only neighbour was a shepherd, and he was ill. He saw the little book, and bought it of the child. The reading of it brought him to tears; he wept over the conversion of John and his Mother; and in that solitary spot, without the preached gospel, without outward advantages, this poor man began to feel, from reading a child's book, his first concern to find a Saviour. This fact I heard from a village preacher, who called on the mother of the little boy that sold the book to the shepherd. She desired him to visit the sick man, and he saw the tears flow while, at his request, he read to him again of John and his Mother. This little purchased treasure he kept under his pillow continually, declaring that he never heard any thing in his life before that affected him so deeply. Printed for THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 56, Paternoster Row; ABRAM did not settle in Egypt, but only sojourned there when driven by famine. He had succeeded while there, so as to increase in wealth, and Egypt was at this time the most famous country on earth: but it had been to him a place of temptation; it was irreligious; and Canaan was the land which the Lord had shewn him—the land of promise. And what is this world to us, if we are the children of Abram by faith, but a temporary residence? It is not our home-it is not our rest. And we must arise and depart hence now, in thought, affection, and pursuit; and by a readiness to leave it actually, whenever our change comes. are the heirs of promise, Canaan will draw us out of Egypt. "Abram went on, even to Beth-el," Gen. xiii. 3. had dwelt before. It is affecting to return to a place where we formerly resided. Who can help reflecting upon his sins there? If we There he . |