testant Alliance has resolved to make this the first point of attack. The Scottish Reformation Society has determined to do the same. The Dublin Protestant Association is summoned to meet to consider the same subject. It is all but certain, therefore, that the great mass of the Protestants of the empire will unite on this important question. It is a good omen of the direction that public opinion is taking, to find the Times writing as follows on the subject: "There is a law on the statute-book-happily only of six years' date-which actually gives annually to these same disloyal Romish bishops a sum of £30,000, to enable them to train up fresh priestly emissaries of Rome. The pretence on which, in 1845, such an act was passed, was, that by such a provision we should secure their friendship and their willing obedience. Sir Robert Peel probably offered it as a gift; but Messrs. Wiseman & Co. accept it as a tribute. He hoped that it would excite a feeling of gratitude, instead of which it has merely raised a feeling of triumphant scorn. Is it possible for any nation to present a spectacle of greater absurdity, or greater humiliation, than England will exhibit, if, after the events of 1850 and 1851, she shall still continue to pay this tribute to an implacable foe? Will it be possible for Parliament, with the facts of the last seven years before it, to persist in the measure so mistakenly adopted in 1845?" THE ROMISH CLERGY FUND.--The Daily News, in its strictures on the evidence given before the Mortmain Committee of the House of Commons, remarks as follows:- "The Romish Clergy Fund is supported by death-bed contributions. By its rules, enforced by the bishop's mandate, every priest who is a member of the club is required to be its representative in the chamber of his sick or dying patient, and to obtain, if possible, a bequest in its favour. To do this the more effectually, the clergyman frequently offers his services as will-maker on those occasions, as 'some people are rather timid in employing an attorney.' The Rev. Mr. Sherburne is a celebrated and skilful draftsman in this branch of conveyancing. Others of the clerical body, less experienced, are said to be furnished by their bishop with skeleton wills and codicils, drafted originally by counsel, and lithographed for use. In these wills, sometimes the priest himself, but more frequently a layman--and the more humble his rank the better for the purpose-is made the devisee or legatee, and very often without any declaration of trust whatever, on the face of the bequest." PROTESTANT PRUSSIA. One of the most remarkable and deplorable signs of the times, is the co-operation at the present time extended to the Jesuits, and to the cause of Popery generally by the Court of PrussiaProtestant Prussia. He is James the Sixth of Germany. Every one must be struck at the close resemblance, in various points, between the character and career of James VI. and that of the professedly Protestant Sovereign of Prussia. There is the same infirm mind and vacillating purpose. There is the same dallying with all subjects and parties. There is the same pedantry of speech-making, and the same tinkering in the art of government. There is the same heroism in words, and the same shortcomings in action. Like James, too, he gives fine promises to the evangelicals, but reserves the fine deeds to the Papists. In a tour through his dominions the other day, he received the Popish ecclesiastics with smiles and abundance of gracious words; but he could find nothing but frowns and sharp rebukes for his Protestant ministers, because, forsooth, they were permit ting the Jesuits to outdo them in the sycophantish work of preaching implicit obedience to the Court. THE SPREAD OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. - The Athenæum has an interesting article on this subject, in which it points out the probability that formerly existed of the Dutch language attaining a kind of universality. "In 1650, the United Provinces seemed more likely to make a grand figure in the future world's history than England. Their wealth, activity, and maritime power were the most imposing in Europe. They had all the carrying trade of the west in their hands. Their language was spoken in every port when that of England was then hardly known abroad. Yet, Holland has fallen nearly as much as the Saxon has risen in the scale of nations. Her idiom is now acquired by few. Her merchants conduct their correspondence and transact their business in French or in English. Even her writers have many of them clothed their genius in a foreign garb. Dutch, like Welch, Flemish, Erse, Basque, and other idioms, is doomed to perish as an intellectual medium; but the tongue of Shakspeare and of Bacon is now too firmly rooted ever to be torn away. The English language is gradually taking possession of all the ports and coasts of the world-making itself the channel of every communication. At a hundred points at once it plays the aggressor. It contends with Spanish on the frontiers of Mexico-drives French and Russian before it in the Northern Archipelago-supersedes Dutch at the Cape and Natal-elbows Greek and Italian at Malta and in the Ionian Islands-usurps the right of Arabic at Suez and Alexandria-maintains itself supreme at Liberia, Hong-Kong, Jamaica, and Saint Helena-fights its way against multitudinous and various dialects in the Rocky Mountains, in Central America, on the Gold Coast, in the interior of Australia, and among the countless islands of the Eastern Seas." NEW ZEALAND. - The first missionaries were sent to New Zealand in 1814. The first conversion of a native was in 1825, and the second in 1827. In 1840, after twenty-five years of labour, there were not more than 280 communicants. But now came the harvest. Native teachers were placed at the East Cape in 1838, and Arch-deacon Williams removed his family there in 1840. The church there consisted at that time wholly of natives who had come from the Bay of Islands, principally as teachers; the communicants were 29. In 1845, they amounted to 1,484, and in 1849 to 2,893. Thus the little one has become a thousand. Effect of Missions. An eye witness writes in regard to the Eastern District of New Zealand:-" Nine years ago, there was not, that I am aware of, a grain of wheat grown in this district; now, upon a moderate calculation, there cannot be less than 3,000 acres grown by natives. Nine years ago there was not a steel mill in the whole range of my journey; now, the natives have more than 200 mills among them. Nine years ago there was not a ship belonging to a native; now, they have more than thirty vessels of from ten to thirty tons burden, which they have purchased at a cost of little less than 8,000l. Nine years ago they had neither a horse nor a cow amongst them; now they have a number of both. And it must be borne in mind that this property has been procured by their own industry-not by presents made to them by the government, or by any other parties." THE MICRONESIAN ISLANDS.-Dr. Pomeroy, one of the Secretaries of the American Board, lately made an interesting statement relative to the Micronesian Islands, where, it is understood, the Board are about establishing a new and very promising mission. Micronesia is one of the group of islands included in Oceanica, in which, it is estimated, there reside not less than ten thousand inhabitants, divisible into five sections and four distinct races. The Australian race inhabit New Holland and the adjacent islands; the Negrillo race, New Guinea in the interior, and the Papuan race the coast, a fierce and warlike people; and the Malay race Polynesia. In climate these islands are most salubrious, in soil most exuberant, and they seem to come the nearest to Paradise of any part of the world. There is an understanding with the English Missionary Board that they shall evangelize the islands south of the Equator, we those north. Micronesia lies a little north of the Equator. It is about 2,500 miles a little southwest of the Sandwich Islands, or fifteen days' sail in the direct course of the proposed governmental steam line to China and Calcutta, and will be very important on this account. It includes the Caroline, Ladrone, and other smaller groups of islands, through 40 degrees of longitude and about 20 of latitude. The mission is to be connected with the Sandwich Islands mission, and is to be carried on mainly by the contributions and ministry of the converted islanders. The gospel has never been preached in Micronesia. The inhabitants are said to be a mild, amiable, and unwarlike people. They give a higher rank to their women than any other nation. They understand the compass and have divided it into 28 parts, we into 32, while the other islanders have only 4 points. Their religion is peculiar. They have no idols, no temples, no sacred days, and no priesthood. They pray to and worship the spirits of their ancestors. They have heard from sailors the great change in the Sandwich Islands, and the advantage of it, and they have sent for missionaries to come to them and improve their condition. Three missionaries and their wives are under appointment, and will sail during this month for these far distant islands. -New York Evangelist. ROME'S ASSERTION OF THE RIGHT TO PERSECUTE.--The Pope lately issued a bull against the work of Professor Nuytz, of Turin, entitled, "Treatise on Universal Ecclesiastical Law." The bull condemns and prohibits Professor Nuytz's book, because it denies "that the Church has no coactive power, nor any temporal power, whether direct or indirect;" that its "temporal power is revocable by the State;" and that the "compatibility of the temporal power and the spiritual power is a question controverted among the children of the Catholic and Christian Church." The document goes on to declare that the Professor's sentiments "tend to destroy the constitution and government of the Church, and utterly to ruin the Catholic faith, since he deprives the Church of its exterior jurisdiction and coercive power, which has been given to it to bring back into the ways of justice those who stray out of them." We have been assured by the Pope's numerous exponents--cardinals, bishops, priests, and by semi-Romish newspapers who make a loud outcry about civil and religious liberty--though not we believe, in so many words, by the Pope himself, that Rome does not claim temporal power; that, although, indeed, the spiritual sword is hers jure divino, she asserts no pretensions whatever to that of civil government. There is, however, no mincing of matters here; and the Pope broadly avows his right to compel heretics to return to her. New Year's Choughts. . THIS YEAR YOU MAY DIE. THIS year you may die, because thousands have died since the last new year's day; and this year will be of the same kind with the last; the duration of mortals; a time to die. The causes of death, both in the human constitution and in the world without, will exist and operate in this year as well as the last. This year you may die, though you are young; for the regions of the dead have been crowded with persons of your age; and no age is the least security against the stroke of death. This year you may die, though you are now in health and vigorous, and your constitution seems to promise a long life; for thousands of such will be hurried into the eternal world this year, as they have been in years that are past. The principles of death may be even now working within you, notwithstanding the seeming firmness of your constitution, and you may be a pale, cold, lifeless corpse sooner than the invalid whose life is apparently near its close. This year you may die, though you are full of business, though you have projected many schemes, which may be the work of years to execute, and which afford you many bright and flattering prospects. Death will not consult your leisure, nor be put off till another year, that you may accomplish your designs. Thousands have died before you, and will die this year amidst their golden prospects, and while spinning out their eternal schemes. And what has happened to them may happen to you. This year you may die, though you have not yet finished your education, nor fixed in life, but are preparing to appear in the world, and perhaps elated with the prospect of the figure you will make in it. Many such abortive students are now in the dust. Many that had passed throu laborious course of preparation for public life, and had inspired their friends, as well as themselves, with high hopes, have been snatched away as they were just stepping upon the stage; and this may be your doom also. a This year you may die, though you are not prepared for it. When death shows you his warrant under the great seal of Heaven, it will be no excuse to plead, "I am not ready." Though the consequences of your dying unprepared will be your everlasting ruin, yet that dreadful consideration will have no weight to delay the execution. This year you may die, though you deliberately delay your preparation, and put it off to some future time. You may fix upon the next year, or the decline of life, as the season for religion; but that time may not be at your disposal. Others may live to see it, but you may be ingulfed in the boundless ocean of eternity before it arrives, and your time for preparation may be over for ever. This year you may die, though you are unwilling to admit the thought. Death does not slacken his pace towards you, because you hate him, and are afraid of his approach. Your not realizing your latter end as near, does not remove it to a greater distance. Think of it or not, you must die; your want of thought can be no defence; and you know not how soon you may feel what you cannot bear to think of. This year you may die, though you strongly hope the contrary, and flatter yourself with the expectation of a length of years. You will not, perhaps, admit the thought of a short, abortive life; but notwithstanding this, you may be a lifeless corpse before this year finishes its revolution. Thus it appears very possible, that one or other of us may die this year.-Davies. BOTH WORLDS HAVE THEIR PROPER BUSINESS. Consider the great purposes of the present life can be answered only in time; for there are certain important duties peculiar to this world, which, if unperformed here, must remain so for ever, because eternity is not the season for them. Both worlds have their proper business allotted them; and the proper business of the one cannot be done in the other. Eternity and time are intended for quite different purposes. The one is seed-time; the other, harvest: the one is the season of working; the other, for receiving the wages: and if we invert the unchangeable order of things, and defer the business of life till after death, we shall find ourselves miserably mistaken. Therefore, if saints would be of service to mankind, as members of civil or religious society; and particularly, if they would be instrumental to form others for a blessed immortality, and save souls from death, by converting sinners from the error of their way; if they would do these things, the present life is the only time. In heaven they will have other employ. These things must now be done or never. And O! what pious heart can bear the thought of leaving the world while these are undone? When once death has laid his cold hand upon you, you are for ever disabled from such services as these. Then farewell to all opportunities of usefulness, in the manner of the present life. Then, even your children and dearest friends may run on in sin, and perish, while it is not in your power so much as to speak one word to dissuade them. Again: if sinners, who now are in a state of condemnation, would escape out of it; if they who are at present slaves to sin, would become sincere converts to righteousness; if they would use the means of grace for that purpose, now is the time. There is none of this work in hell: they no sooner enter into the eternal world, than their state will be unchangeably and eternally fixed. All are ripe for eternity before they are removed into it: the good ripe for heaven, and wicked ripe for hell; the one, vessels of mercy afore-prepared for glory; and the other, vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and therefore they must remain for ever in their respective mansions. In hell, indeed, sinners repent; but their repentance is their punishment, and has no tendency to amend or save them. They mourn and weep; but their tears are but oil to increase the flame. They cry, and perhaps pray; but the hour of audience and acceptance is past-past for ever! The |