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her duty; be neat; in walking and resting, preserve modesty; in all her actions, observe a rule ;--these constitute female virtue. Let her wash and dust well, keep her clothes neat and clean; bathe at proper times; and preserve her person cleanly; these constitute female beauty. Let her choose her words; avoid unbecoming conversation; speak at proper times; thus she will not displease others; -these constitute female conversation. Let her diligently spin and make cloth; let her not indulge her appetite, in regard to savory food and liquors; let her prepare good things to set before the guests;these constitute female labour. These four combine the essential virtues and duties of women. They are exceedingly easy, and she who practices them is a virtuous wo

man.'

The writer in the Gleaner remarks, "this sentiment of disrespect to the female character pervades the Chinese books, manners and hearts." More of it will be seen in the extracts which are to follow.

"Brothers are like hands and feet. A wife is like one's clothes. When clothes are worn out, we can substitute those that are new. When hands and feet are cut off, it is difficult to obtain substitutes for them."

FROM THE "SHOO-KING." "The fish dwell in the bottom of the waters, and the eagles in the sides of heaven--the one though high, may be reached by the arrow; and the other though deep, may be angled-but the heart of man, at only a cubit's distance, cannot be known heaven can be spanned, earth can be fathomed-but the heart of man cannot be measured

Prov. xxv. 3. "The heaven for height, and the earth for depth, and the heart of Kings is unsearchable."

The following description of "the Paradise of Fuh," from some work the title of which I have not retained, is found in the Gleaner for Oct. 1818. The uncommon magnificence and splendor of some of the images, and the frequent use of the number seven, remind us of some passages in the Apocalypse. This difference however is striking: The material images made use of in the Bible are seen to be only the dim representation, the imperfect embodying of" things unutterable"--vast and glorious spiritual conceptions. But in the Chinese description these material images--the gold, and gems, and pearl--the palaces, and groves, and streams-are evidently the substance, not the shadow, and when these are given the picture is complete.

"The land of this kingdom is yellow gold. Its gardens, groves, houses, and palaces, are all elegantly adorned with seven orders of gems. It is encircled with seven rows of trees, seven borders of elegant network, and seven fences of palisades. In the midst there are the seven turrets and towers of gems, the seven flights of pearl stairs, the seven bridges of pearl, the seven pools of pearl, the eight kinds of virtue-producing water, and the nine classes of the lotus. There are also lovely doves, peacocks, parrots, birds, of sparkling plumage, and of exquisite notes. The great and unmeasured god O-LO-HAN, the famous disciples of Fuh, the relatives of the demi-gods, the goddess KWAN-YIN, the most powerful deliverer, the most pure gods of the vast ocean, the unnumbered renovating Fuhs, the unnumbered deliverers, all the demigods of past, present, and future ages, and all the sages, whether produced in heaven or among men, --all will be assembled on the sacred spot. But in that kingdom there are no women: the women who will live in that country are first changed into men. The inhabitants VOL. I.-No. I.

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have the lotus for their father and mother, from whom their persons are produced. [There are three general classes, each of which is subdivided into three.] There are born of the superior, middle, and lower orders of the first class; of the superior, middle, and lower orders of the second class; and of the superior, middle, and lower orders of the third class; these differences among the multitude of animated beings are the consequences of the various degrees of depth or shallowness, diligence and sluggishness, in the active energies. The bodies of the persons produced by the lotus, are pure and fragrant; their countenances, fair and well formed; their hearts full of wisdom and without vexation. They dress not, and yet are not cold; they dress and yet are not made hot. They eat not, and yet are not hungry; they eat, and yet are not filled. They are without pain, without itching, without sickness, and they become not old. Enjoying themselves at ease, they follow Fuh, gaily frisk about, and are without trouble. After every meal, they walk about with demi-gods, as their companions, on the stairs and walks of that palace. Their noses inhale the most delightful fragrance; their ears are filled with the most harmonious music; the birds of Paradise singing all around. They behold the lotus flowers, and trees of gems delightfully waving, like the motion of a vast sheet of embroidered silk. On looking upwards, they see the firmament full of the To-lo flowers, falling in beautiful confusion like the rain. The felicity of that kingdom may be justly called superlative; and the age of its inhabitants is without measure. This is the place called the Paradise (or joyful world) ofthe West. Alas! the riches and honours of men, after an hundred years, all revert to emptiness. The elegance and glory of heaven itself after a thousand years will cease."

How different from the Paradise of God--the heaven to which the Christian aspires, and where his hopes have built their home. They have no need of the sun by day or of the moon by night; for God is their EVERLASTING LIGHT, and the Lord their glory. The Christian can say, under the overwhelming flood of earthly disappointment, "We faint not,"-for our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and ETERNAL weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are ETERNAL. "We faint not," for we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not make with hands, ETERINAL in the heavens. But when calamity and bereavement beset the disciple of Fuh, his only consolation is, Alas! the elegance and glory of heaven itself, after a thousand years will cease.

The reader may be gratified with one more extract, which shows us what is the Chinese idea of a paradise on earth. The national pride of the Chinese is well known. Their country is the celestial empire. It is the centre of the universe. All other nations are hordes of miserable wretches whose highest blessedness is, by trading with the happy inhabitants of their celestial empire, to obtain a few of their superabundant good things. The following piece of self-gratulation,is taken from the Gleaner for Oct. 1818. It is from the lips of Teen-ke-shih.

"I felicitate myself that I was born in China. I constantly think, what if I had been born beyond the seas, in some remote part of the earth, where the cold freezes, or the heat scorches; where the people are clothed with the leaves of plants, eat wood, dwell in the wilderness, lie in holes of the earth;

are far removed from the converting maxims of the ancient kings, and are ignorant of the domestic relations. Though born into this world, I should not have been different from a beast.

"But now, happily, I have been born in China! I have a house to live in; have drink, and food, and elegant furniture. I have clothing, and caps, and infinite blessings. Truly the highest felicity is mine."

Such is national prejudice. The Frenchman surrounded by gendarmerie, and trembling with the fear of the police, thinks that every other country is frightful compared with his beautiful France, his glorious France. The Englishman enveloped in everlasting fogs, and blackened with the smoke of seacoal, thinks that every country but old England is the abode of wretchedness and starvation. The Georgian in his pine forest or on his sultry plantation, shuddering at every thought of negro insurrection, gloTies in the "moral strength" which exalts him above the plodding, scheming yankees. The citizen of the west, riding through woods and swamps to visit his next neighbour, is proud that he has elbow room, and thinks it would be imprisonment to live in the "old settlements." The New-Englander looks round on his bleak hills, and calls the rough landscape "the glory of all lands." And the "China man" exults that he, of all the world, has a house to live in ; has drink, and food, and elegant furniture; has clothing, and caps, and infinite blessings. DRON.

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Suggested by attending worship (for the first time after crossing the Atlantic) at the Chapel of the Rev. Lewis Way, on the CHAMPS ELYSEES, Paris.

THAT sacred dome, which meekly smiles,

O'er scenes where Pleasure revels wide: And calls from Earth's seducing wiles, The souls where Faith and Hope reside ;

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turies. The extract here given, is taken from the Introduction, which is divided into six parts, and fills about one hundred pages. The first part prescribes the boundaries and the laws of dogmatic history; the second treats of the causes which have produced changes in the doctrinal views of Christians; the third is what is here translated, and relates to the utility of dogmatic history. The remaining parts relate to the sources, the literar ture, and the form of this species of history.

"In this age, when so many limit their studies as much as possible, and regard every thing as superfluous, that is not immediately necessary in their calling,-a disposition

which is very common among young theologians, but not to be commended,--the question perhaps may be asked, What is the use of dogmatic history? Is it not enough, that we understand the doctrines received by our church as sound and salutary? Why then waste time and labour to acquire knowledge of opinions long forgotten or exploded? As such questions are likely to be asked, and indeed, often are asked, it will not be unsuitable to state some of the advantages to be derived from the study of dogmatic history.

I. To trace the efforts which the human mind has made for enlarging, correcting, and confirming its knowledge, must undoubtedly be an interesting and instructive employment. The mind of man is ever reaching forward, searching after new truths, rejecting once received opinions, and striving to obtain more consistent and more perfect views; but it often meets insurmountable obstacles, is thrown back by adverse circumstances, and perhaps falls into error at the very time it supposes itself to be grasp ing truth. Proofs in point are afforded by the history of human knowledge in general, but especially by the history of Christian doctrines. This exhibits, in the most important of all concerns, both the direct and the retrograde movements of the human mind. It shows how at one time, blinded by ignorance and misguided by superstition, it has mistaken alike the design and the importance of religion; and at another, has thrown off the fetters of superstition and advanced directly towards a purer religious knowledge and worship. Can a reflecting man feel no interest in learning how Christians, for whom Jesus has marked out the path of true religion, have walked in it, often falling into devious paths, and then fetching a compass, again coming nearer to their mark? No one that takes an interest in the

progress of human improvement, can look with indifference on the changes which Christianity has undergone,--on the contests between light and darkness, in which they have alternately triumphed,--in short, on dogmatic history, which acquaints him with the advance and declension of religious knowledge among that large and most respectable portion of mankind who have professed Christianity.

II. But dogmatic history is especially important to Christians themselves, and doubly so to theologians. Whoever professes himself a Christian, and much more if he aspires to be an intelligent teacher of this religion, can scarcely avoid such questions as the following : ing Whence came the religion which I profess, or which I preach ? Was it, from the first, what it now is; or by what series of changes was it brought into its present state and form? What has been its fate among men; and how has human ingenuity improved or perverted it? To answer these questions is the province of dogmatic history; for this, it is, shows us how the doctrines of Jesus were held from the beginning onward, how they were variously modified, loaded with pernicious additions, or purged from them; it enables us to see what the Christian religion originally was, and what it afterwards became, as well as the manner and the means of effecting the change. Now should not a teacher of this religion blush to be ignorant of all this?

And as it is expected, and very justly too, that every preacher should have a learned and systematic acquaintance with the religion which he presumes to teach, a knowledge of dogmatic history is especially important, as subservient to forming right conceptions and right judgments of our systematic theology. For our system of theology was perfected gradually, each period shaping it so as to meet the necessities of the age; and

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