When, three centuries since, the Jesuits entered China, where they were introduced to the emperor as "certain missionaries from Europe acquainted with mathematics, music and drawing," they found the worship of ancestors deeply rooted in the minds of the people. Finding that the attempt to uproot this observance might be fatal to their enterprise, they allowed their converts still to retain it, merely requiring that it be considered a civil and not a religious rite. They even joined the natives in their worship of "the host of heaven," and rescued themselves from the charge of idolatry by pleading that it was the same as worshipping that great Spirit "whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain." A half million proselytes and the highest honors of the empire were the purchase of this frightful surrender of Christian truth. The entrance into the field of the Dominicans and Franciscans, with more tender consciences, however, dissipated their fair prospects of future dominion.

The chief matter of interest to the Jesuit is to have the education of the young. All the influence he craves or expects over the older people, is enough to secure this object. Find him in a civilized land and he has seminaries professing great advantages and very superior tuition by which he may beguile the Protestant parent to commit his children to his care. In a heathen land he has quite as attractive a course of instruction" to present to the pagan. The minds of the young are easily impressed by well-sustained pretensions of superior sanctity and Divine authority. When once, the hitherto uncultivated mind, particularly as found in the gross darkness of heathenism, is brought to the belief that a priesthood is all it claims to be indoctrination, the work is accomplished. A child who has taken the impression that the Altar and the Priest are divine, may be taught to submit to all discipline without murmuring. Parents may be allowed to live without the yoke being peculiarly irk some. In a few years at most they will be goue. Then instead of the fathers will come up the children who will have the characteristics necessary for Jesuitical purposes. The images made upon the soul of the child will remain, and if likely to wear away the priest is continually at hand to retouch the mysterious impressions.

Piety in converts obtained by such measures cannot be expected. "We cannot gather figs from thistles." The Jesuit looks upon conversion as the work of God. His great end is to bring men under the dominion of the Church of Rome. Place, therefore, the reports of conversions by agents of Protestant missions beside those of the Church of Rome, and they appear very inferior in number. The former present about the same proportion to the latter in some instances, that gold does to sand on the Pacific. The relative value of gold and sand give also generally a very faithful illustration of the worth of the converts.

We cannot affirm the genuineness of professed conversion, in every case under Protestant effort, yet among them we have no fear to assert, will be found, not a few of the "precious sons of Zion comparable to fine gold."

Very little is required for a priest to make the "mark of the beast" which declares a heathen a Christian. Francis Xavier baptized no less than 700,000. All he required was that the converts should be able and willing to repeat certain forms and confessions of faith. According to the "Annals of the Propagation of the Faith" (Vol. VIII.) periods of pestilence are peculiarly favorable for extending the faith. If men do not learn righteousness during such times, they get baptism. Thus a priest writes from one of the islands of the great Pacific:

"During the continuance of the plague we baptized a great number of adults, but not so many as we could have desired, because we did not wish to give them baptism until we perceived they were at the point of death. To do otherwise would have exposed us to have a great number of bad Christians. Moreover, it was not always easy for us to approach the sick; these poor savages imagining that we had the power of controlling the plague and producing instant death at our pleasure. How many have not met who begged of me to spare their life, saying that they never did us any harm."

Let any account of "adult" baptism by one of our missionaries be placed beside this, and how different would it appear. They tell us only of the baptism of those who profess "repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ." The priest declares, "We have peopled heaven with angels, and every day I learn that some of our little creatures, upon whom had flowed the waters of regeneration, have gone to form the crown of the members of the Propagation of the Faith. Near six hundred adults are in the ranks of Catechumens." A short time afterwards this mission was abandoned, and the priests fled for their lives. Not half a dozen of the boasted six hundred remained faithful to the church.

When such conversions as these form themes of congratulation among themselves, we can scarcely be astonished at the temerity which boasts of them to Protestants. We cease to wonder, when men thus put "darkness for light," that they ridicule New Testament efforts. When, however, their successes are presented as motives for our submission to the "Church Catholic," we cannot but regard it as a most wonderful instance of self-possession in desperate circumstances.

Shrewsbury, N. J.

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A SOLEMN HINT TO YOUNG MINISTERS.

THE following extract from a sermon of Rev. Robert Robinson, who died in England half a century ago, places before us an awful fact which, by the blessing of God, may be useful to many, especially to our young pastors. He says:—

Let us see danger at a distance, and guard the pass. It is not possi ble for a good man to go instantly into the practice of great crimes; but what slow degrees can effect, who can tell?

Permit me to abbreviate the short account of one sad case. In the very early part of my ministry, while I was yet a boy, I had been preaching at a town far distant, where I was on a friendly visit. Most youths in office are caressed, more for the novelty, than for their ability. One morning, a very decent gray-headed man enquired for me, and, when he was admitted, without ceremony he threw himself on a chair and sobbed and wept, but could not speak. I retired to give him an opportunity to vent his passion, for such swells of grief, whatever may be the cause, threaten to burst the heart and destroy the frame. On returning, the man had recovered his calmness, and, omitting his apologies, the substance of what he said was this:

Compassion for your youth compels me to tell you my case. At your age I was as innocent and happy as you. Like you, too, I was chosen by one of our churches to teach. I taught, the church caressed me, neighboring churches gave me unequivocal marks of their esteem, each new day was winged with new delights, my time passed sweetly, every month was May. One day, an old man said to me, 'young man, guard against vanity.' I felt myself hurt, for I saw no need of the cau tion, and I did not conceal my dislike. 'Does that offend you?' added the old man; ‘take care you do not become a profligate; for, know this a man unapprized of danger is at the brink of a fall; and as confidence is the parent of carelessness, so carelessness is the high road to the commission of actual sin; one sin leads to another, and by slow degrees a plausible youth may become a profligate man.' I paid very little regard to my admonisher, and a few years after, some how or other, I first tasted, then submitted to entreaties, then repeated, and at length I found myself a lover of strong liquors: connected with dissipated men like myself fond of my condition, deaf to the remonstrances of my friends.

In brief, the church was obliged to cut me off, and I became a confirmed drunkard; I was never happy. My appetites on fire, impelled me to intoxication; but the stings of my conscience could never be blunted; and between the two I was in a state of torment. How insensibly do habits of vice form themselves! How difficult it is to subdue them when they become obstinate! I am not come to you for advice, I know all about it; I am not come to make you the depository of my holy resolutions; I should try to keep them if you were not in the world: I am come in pure affection to say to you, watch over yourself: be afraid of the first emotions of sin; and reverence the cautions of aged men, gener. ally wiser than ministers when they are first elected to office." Let such advice come from what quarter it will, it demands your attention and gratitude. B.

CHARLES GREENOUGH, a native of a populous hamlet in the WestRiding of Yorkshire, a humble and pious man, was engaged in the perilous occupation of a miner. One morning, having engaged in family worship, he proceeded to his work and labor, which was to get the ironstone in one of those pits, which, from their shape, are termed "bell pits." The pit in question was just being finished, and Charles, with four others, were engaged in it, when a tremendous fall of earth threatened them. They simultaneously rushed to the opposite side, which they had scarcely reached, when they were all partially buried. The four companions of poor Charles extricated themselves and each other, and proceeded to use every effort to procure his release, at the peril of their own lives, for a still more dreadful falling in of the side of the pit now. threatened them. It was at this awful moment of peril that his Christian calmness and disinterestedness, were exhibited. After expressing his conviction that he could not be extricated, he directed them to place a stone to defend his head, which yet remained unburied, and then said, Escape for your lives! 'tis well I am taken instead of you; for I am ready and you are not!" His few remaining minutes were spent in earnest prayer for his family, and in solemnly commending his departing spirit to the Lord Jesus. The earth then fell, and buried him alive!

IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS.

As I consider the Baptist Memorial to be a channel opened for moral and religious instruction, I am emboldened to address to you a few lines on a subject which I conceive to be very important, as it respects the state of the heart before God; for it is in this view, namely, as influencing the actings of the mind in prayer, that I mean to consider it.

I was early taught, that it is our duty to exercise faith on the rightcousness of Christ, by which I mean his personal obedience to the divine law; which obedience, apprehended by a true faith, becoming imputed to the believer, he is thereby accounted righteous before God, as having perfectly fulfilled all righteousness in his head and surety.

Now, upon any challenges of conscience, by reason of omission of duty, or surprise into sin, the only relief I find is by supplication for pardon. But when I thus come as a guilty sinner, I am conscious I let go my faith of being accounted perfectly righteous. Do I herein yield to unbelief and forsake my own mercies? Yet, if I endeavor, contrary to my own sense and feelings, to believe that I am without spot in the sight of God, I cannot at the same time entreat his forgiveness. How can these two jarring exercises be reconciled?

Again. The pardon of an awakened penitent respects his past transgressions, but the covenant of pardon and peace, under which a believer lives, provides also for the defects of his duties, those genuine, but imperfect, exercises of the grace he has received.

Now, oblivion of sin, and full acceptance of duty (including inward dispositions, as well as outward acts,) appear to constitute all that can soberly be meant by a creature's being righteous before God. It may be said, this will not constitute a title to heaven. I grant it, if heaven be considered locally, and distinguished from a state of reconciliation with God; since every loyal subject, in an earthly kingdom, is not admit ted to live at court. But the gift of God is eternal life, and the more abundant life which our Saviour said, He came to give, is probably what is meant by the Apostle, Gal. iv. 4, &c., when he says: "God sent forth his Son to redeem those that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ."

If Canaan be considered as a type of heaven, we may use the Apostle's