Baron Theotoky, the president of the senate at Corfu, introduced our author, however, to one Jew of respectability and literary character, the Rabbi Mordos; and various conversations of an interesting kind are entered on the journal, as having passed between them. One remark we transcribe, because we apprehend that it may serve as a description of the mode which, among a very large proportion of the Jewish teachers, is found very convenient to escape from the convictions which the parts of holy Scripture alluded to might impress upon the mind.

"I asked him what were his usual topics of discourse with the people. I do not meddle with the dogmas,' he said, 'because the people cannot understand them. I confine myself to morals.'" "Morality is the basis of faith, and not faith the basis of morality.'" p. 235.

A few weeks afterwards Mr. Jowett had an opportunity of hearing the Rabbi preach. The outline of the sermon is so interesting, that

we cannot withhold it from our readers.

"He first commented on the excellence of the institution of the Sabbath, and then pointed out the insufficiency of mere ceremonial observances, without a proper state of heart. He quoted the first chapter of Isaiah, to prove that sacrifices alone were

not acceptable to God, unless the heart were offered up too. It is easy to say our regular prayers: but God requires that our life should correspond with our prayers. It is easy to take money out of the purse, and bestow alms: but God requires that our hearts should be in a charitable state: ready to forgive an injury, to check the first risings of resentment, to forbear, and to return good for evil. Excellently does Solomon advise, If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread,' &c. Some may say that they cannot suppress their passions they cannot correct rooted habits. Ah! this is the language of low and base people -people ignorant of morals, and of the beauty of the Divine law!"

"At this closing passage, I was forcibly reminded of the expression, This people, which knoweth not the law, is cursed*.'

We do not quite sympathize with Mr. Jowett in this remark. Our impres

"I was

The self-righteous system of the Jew has a natural tendency to foster contempt of others. It is a system very discouraging to a man, touched with a sense of his guilt and weakness. How different is the language of the Gospel, which points out to us that true High Priest, who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way."" also struck with the thought, This is exactly the kind of sermon which I have heard from some professedly Christian ministers; who, leaving out Christ, with the exception of a few decent allusions to his history, have preached precisely the same morality-have directed their hearers to work out their own righteousness have put them on these attempts, as the way to please God, and to complete their acceptance with him, have bid them, in general terms, rely on the mercifulness of their Creator. Unless the unsearchable poverty of our corrupt nature be declared, and with it the unsearchable riches of Christ, what advantage has the Christian teacher, so called, over the Jewish? He, too, can exhort to good works, and speak in the beautiful language of the Old Testament concerning the Lord, the Lord God, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.'" pp. 237, 238.

་

In that part of the work which describes the causes of the continued prevalence of Mohammedanism, and the continued depression of Christianity in Mohammedan countries, Mr. Jowett has displayed much acute

ness.

which, by turns, "the lordly Turk, He passes an opinion, in fierce in arms, and patron of no other art; the sophisticated Persian, delighting in syllogism and verse; the Saracenic masters of literature and science; the wild Arab, never tamed or domesticated; and even the humble character of the industrious trafficking Moor," all share. To his

estimate of the character and ten

dencies of that religion we yield full

sion, from the previous sketch of the sermon, was rather one of pleasure, that a Jewish preacher should insist so pointedly on the spirituality of the Divine law. Surely such preaching as this is better calculated at least to convince men of sin, and so to prepare them gladly to receive the mercy of the Gospel, than that which we should naturally have expected from a Pharisee.

assent, and the materials for the judgment which he, in common with many others, has furnished, abundantly shew that the Mohammedan religion leaves all its votaries profoundly ignorant of the nature of the human heart. Some sublime views of the Divine attributes, and a few correct notices derived from the sacred Scriptures, but debased with much that is incorrect and injurious, the koran may contain; but, like all other systems of deceit, Mohammedanism accosts apostate man as though he were still the image of his Maker, and not "far, very far, gone from original righteousness." It is easily conceivable, that Christianity in such an aspect must appear humiliating, and on such a basis can never be built.

Another impediment to the introduction of the Gospel among such a people is, that want of right moral feeling which accompanies inveterate and universal ignorance, and for which Christianity is the only cure. The vices, too, which the Mohammedan creed cherishes, and to which the climates in which that religion flourishes afford many temptations, are of a nature most adverse to Christianity. Besides the peculiar vices of the voluptuary and the libertine, those of despotism in the government, bigotry in the priesthood, cunning and fraud in the traffickers, and, in one class of Mohammedans, the wild, roving, and almost inaccessible condition which marks them as the prophesied descendants of Ishmael, present serious barriers to the influence of Christianity among them. And when to these impediments we add the character which Christians, for the last 1200 years, have exhibited to the Mohammedan world, the ignorance of the Scriptures, the declension from their fundamental doctrines, the heresies, schisms, intolerance, and superstitions which have in various ways prevailed, we cease to wonder at the depressed condition of the Gospel in these parts, and can only deplore the CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 253.

deadly delusions which have contributed to it.

The last section of the work states the painful fact of renegado Christians being to be met with every where ; apostates from the faith of Christ to the doctrines of Islamism, through motives of fear or self-interest. At Smyrna Mr.Jowett went, painful as it was, to witness a scene of this kind—, an Englishman going to turn Turk. The ceremony was solemn, though short; it was performed in the presence of the chief civil magistrate; and although Mr. Jowett appears to have addressed some pointed questions to the individual, which he was unable either from ignorance or shame to answer, he yet persisted in his apostacy.

We

It is a matter of regret that such cases should occur at all,and still more so that they should be so frequent. We may suppose, that in the generality of instances, there could not have previously existed any very great attachment to Christianity; still it must be allowed, that the cruelties practised by the Turks on those over whom they can exercise any controul are such, that a Christian exposed defenceless to their violence must be almost prepared for martyrdom to resist apostacy. cannot forget that the celebrated and excellent Joseph Pitts was a victim of these barbarities. It is impossible, after reading his statement of them, in his " Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mahometans," to wonder at his confession: “These cruelties were so many and so great, that I being then but young, could no longer endure them, and therefore turned Turk to avoid them, God be merciful to me, a sinner!" He tells us, in the preface to his work, "that though he had often been reflected upon for his apostacy, which he desired to bear with patience, deserving more abundantly than that, yet he had this to comfort him, that it was by ignorant persons, whose censures were not much to be minded; and he did not G

remember to have been once reproached for it by any of learning or piety." His was certainly an extraordinary case, and ought not to relax our vigilance against those fallacious reasonings and entangling circumstances which may lead many astray.

Having concluded his statement of facts, Mr. Jowett proceeds to detail some of the measures which he considers likely to extend the influence of Christianity among the various bodies of men connected with the Mediterranean; and we cannot withhold our testimony to the soundness of reasoning which this part of his work peculiarly displays. We regret that many passages which we had purposed to extract must be left; but we earnestly commend the perusal of them to our reader. The Church Missionary Society has limited its attention to countries not professedly Christian, and therefore, those Christian churches with which its representatives in the Mediterranean must necessarily have occasional intercourse, are not to be regarded as the proper objects of a mission. Still this circumstance will not restrain them from embracing any available opportunities of usefulness. Would that some agents desirous of a revival of pure religion among decayed Christian churches, as well as of increasing thereby the conversion of the heathen, well qualified by learning, ability, and piety, were found for this work!

Many opportunities of doing good have been suffered, and still are suffered, through culpable negligence, to pass away. A person, resting in England, even should he write twenty letters every day to any foreign country, or relative to that country, will lose many a golden moment; while another, habitually residing in or near the spot, will find unthought-of opportunities; and, by the blessing of God, will so improve them, that five talents shall gain other five." p. 279.

Mr. Jowett, we need hardly say, recommends a wide and free dissemination of the holy Scriptures, the

education of the young, printing and circulating useful books and tracts, and the other ordinary modes of communicating light and knowledge; but as respects public teaching and discussion, he seems to consider the circumstances of the people of that district as demanding a deviation from the usual course adopted in other countries, and an adherence to the mode which appeared to distinguish the instructions of the Apostles. See Acts xvii. 17; xix. 8, 10; and xxviii. 30, 31. The plan suggested by this last passage, Mr. Jowett strongly recommends; not only from the dictates of a judgment enlightened by reference to Scripture, but also from the results of his own experience. At Malta he assembled, on Sunday evenings, a few friends, with whom he read the Italian Scriptures, with prayer, and found it a very beneficial measure.

In the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the attention of the churches was awakened to their universal right to the holy Scriptures, some of the champions of the Romish Church, particularly Caryophilus, Archbishop of Iconium, published a work enumerating seventy blasphemies, then in a course of propagation, the second and twelfth of which are quoted in the work before us. Blasphemy second, "That holy Scripture is sufficient to prove the articles of faith;" and, blasphemy twelfth, "that the laity ought to read them to obtain the hope of eternal life." We cite them in order to add a most conclusive piece of ratiocination by which these blasphemies, or "imputations" of blasphemy, are supported. "These men (heretics) would have all to be interpreters and teachers of the Law. Why then did Dionysius the Areopagite divide the ecclesiastical hierarchy into three ranks the purifying, the illuminating, and the perfecting; to which the three orders were to correspond of the catechumens, the laity, and the monks? If the laity are to read the sacred Scrip