A Burning Prairie.-An intelligent correspondent of the New York American has been for some time furnishing letters for that paper, descriptive of the "Far West." After mentioning the dangers which are not unfrequently encountered by travellers, in their journeys across the prairies, at the inclement seasons of the year, he gives the following vivid description of an extensive prairie of Lower Illinois, which was on fire on every side around him at the time he passed over it. "The hour was near midnight, and the spectacle was magnificent beyond description. An illustration by Westall's pencil, of the Rich Man in the Burning Lake, which I have seen somewhere, would give as near an idea of the scene as the painter's art could convey. In one place the prairie presented exactly the appearance of a broad burning pool, in others the flames swelled up like seas of fire, rolling the liquid element in solid columns over the land, and then, like the waves of the sea itself, when they break upon the shore, a thousand forked tongues of flame would project themselves far beyond the broken mass, and greedily lick up the dry aliment that lay before them. Our horses did not seem to mind the phenomenon at all, and we drove so near the fire as to feel the heat very sensibly. But though we probably incurred no danger, it was almost startling at times to see a wall of fire as high as our horses ears, in some places stretching along the roadside, while the flames would shoot to the height of twenty feet or more, when a gust of wind would sweep the prairie." British and Foreign Bible Society On Wednesday (May 7th) the annual general meeting of this society was held in the Great Room of Exeter Hall, Strand; several thousand persons were present. Lord Bexley, the newly appointed President, took the chair. The report, which was adopted, stated that the society was first formed in 1804. Its object had been promoted in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, by more than 5,000 kindred institutions, of which 3,400 have been formed in Great Britain and Ireland. It had printed and distributed the Scrip. tures in 121 different languages and dialects, in 72 of which no part of the Word of God had before been printed, and the society was now engaged in translations into 36 other languages. The society since its formation had circulated 13,000,000 copies of the Bible, or portions of it. The society's issues had gradually increased from 50,000 to 500,000 copies annually. The expenditures of the society, since its establishment, has amounted to upwards of £2,000,000. The total re ceipts for the past year amounted to £83,000, odd-being an excess of £8,400 over that of last year; but for the last two preceding years there had been a deficit of several thousand pounds. The number of Bibles distributed for the past year was (we believe) 900,000 copies. A liberal subscription was collected at the doors, and after a sitting of some hours, the meeting separated. Lander-We regret to learn that intelliAfrican Expedition-Death of Mr. gence has been received of the death of the enterprising African traveller, Richard Lander. He was fired upon and severely wounded by the natives on the Nunn river, where he had gone for the purpose of trade, early in the month of January, and he died at Fernando Po, on the 2d of February. The following extract of a letter from Captain Fuge, of the Crown, contains all the particulars of this melancholy event that are yet known.Mr. Lander was buried by Captain Fuge, on the day he died. "Mr. Richard Lander expired at Fernando Po, on Sunday, the 2d of February. He was wounded on his way up into the interior with a schooner boat, loaded with goods for trade, and two canoes which were towed from Cape Coast by the cutter Crown. He was attacked on all sides by bushmen, all armed with musketry. One white and two black men were killed; one woman and child, with a boy were taken prisoners. Mr. Lander and the remainder fortunately managed to get into one of the canoes, and pull for their lives. Mr. Lander received a shot in his hip; a seawounded. They left the Crown to proman and two Kroomen were also severely ceed up the river on the 13th, and return. They lost every thing belonging to them, ed to the cutter on the 21st of January. excepting what clothes they had on them. Mr. Lander lost all his papers, not one remains to be shown. The Crown got under weigh, and arrived at Fernando Po, on Sunday, the 26th.-Mr. Lander's wound had mortified, but he died quite composed." A new Alphabet in Africa.—The Rev. J. Leighton Wilson, who has recently returned from an exploring tour on the western coast of Africa, states that some of the natives in the northern part of Liberia, have very lately invented written syllabic characters, in which that people can read and write their own language, with very little instruction from the inventors. May not this be one of the means which the God of providence will use, to diffuse in those dark places of the earth the knowledge of the glorious gospel of his Son, Jesus Christ?- Southern Rel. Tel. Emigrants.-During the past seventeen years there have arrived at the port of Quebec, 69,175 passengers from Europe. The greatest number in one year was, 18,231, in 1831-the least number was 90, in 1824.-The number arrived the present season to the 3d of June, was, from England 2,884, Ireland 6595, Scotland 1348, lower ports 19-total 10,846. Same period last year, 3,175. The following are the number of passengers that have arrived at the port of New York, since the first of January, 1834, to June 4th, as taken from the revenue books. from Batavia:-"M. Jacobson, inspector of the cultivation of tea in Java, has assured me that in a few years a whole cargo of tea, prepared entirely in the Chinese fashion, may be exported from this place to the mother country. The skill and zeal of this gentleman cannot be sufficiently extolled. At the hazard of his life, he has repeatedly brought hither from China, Chinese labourers, and millions of tea plants, and numerous machines necessary in the preparation of tea; and has formed many plantations of tea, which are extremely flourishing." Manner of making_Castor Oil very pa420 latable to Children.-Take the quantity of 460 oil you propose for a dose, and boil it for 1454 a few minutes in an equal quantity of 3959 milk; then sweeten it with a little sugar. 9653 When the mixture has cooled, stir it well, 809 and give it to the child. There will be no necessity of giving the child any thing to drink after taking the mixture, for the taste of it is more pleasant than any drink you can give. 16,755 Asthma. We learn from an intelligent friend, who has long been afflicted with this most distressing complaint, that the fumes of burning paper, saturated with a solution of saltpetre, gives him perfect relief. He keeps a quantity of the paper, which has been simply soaked in strong saltpet re water, and afterwards dried, constantly on hand, and on the recurrence of a paroxysm obtains almost instant relief, from burning half a sheet or a sheet in his room. Others who have been similarly affected, have tried it with corresponding benefit. In no case has it been known to fail, so far as his information extends. We deem the testimony sufficient to warrant the publication of the prescription, which certainly has the merit of simplicity. If it shall prove generally efficacious, its value is beyond price. It can be readily tested.-Newark Daily Adv. Safe Method of Exterminating Rats.Let those who wish to poison rats, instead of applying to the chemist, intimately mix a pound of plaister of Paris, (in its unslaked state) with about double the quantity of oatmeal.-Let them place this within the reach of the rats; they will eat it greedily, and without being deterred by any bad taste. Through the humidity contained in their stomachs, the plaister of Paris will "set," and form an indigestible hard mass, which will, in fact, present, upon dissection, a good cast of the rat's stomach, and speedily produce a kind of Aldermanic death, i. e. by irremediable indigestion. Tea. The Amsterdam Handelsblad gives the following extract of a letter Cotton Seed Oil.-The Natchez Courier announces the complete success of the effort to obtain an oil from cotton seed, which should answer a better purpose for burning than spermaceti oil. Used as lamp oil, it is said to "burn beautifully, giving an excellent light without smoke, and free from any perceptible smell." An establishment for clarifying the oil, has been put in operation in that place; and it is said to be a good substi tute for linseed oil, for many purposes, even without undergoing that process. A remarkable peculiarity in the eye of some persons consists in a want of power to discriminate colours. The late Professor Dugald Stewart could not perceive any difference in the colour of the fruit of the scarlet Siberian crab and that of its leaves; and Dr. Dalton, the celebrated chemist, of Manchester, informs us, that when he looks at the prismatic spectrum, he can only distinguish three colours, namely, blue, yellow and purple, while he is incapable of perceiving either the green or the red rays. The cause of this has never been satisfactorily explained. The multiplying power in some instances, animal as well as vegetable, is astonishing. An annual plant of two seeds produces, in 20 years, 1,048,576; and there are plants which bear more than 40,000 seeds. The roe of a codfish is said to contain a million of eggs; mites will multiply to a thousand in a day; and there are viviparous flies which produce 2000 at once. Religious Entelligence. GENERAL ASSEMBLY. Agreeably to appointment, the General Assembly of the Presbyterian church in the United States convened in the Seventh Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, May 15th, 1834, at 11 o'clock, A. M., and was opened with a sermon by the Moderator of the last year, the Rev. WILLIAM A. M'DOWELL, D. D., from Psalm cxxii. 6-"Pray for the peace of Jerusalem." The number of the members present, as near as we have been able to ascertain it, was about 210. The sessions of the Assembly were unusually protracted, having been continued till the evening of the 4th of June-three weeks. We shall at present give no detail of the subjects which occupied the attention of this Judicatory. It is our purpose, if life and health permit, to review the principal acts and doings of this Assembly; when we shall quote the articles which will be the subjects of our remarks—We know not when the minutes, in pamphlet form, will make their appearance; as we learn that there is a deficiency in the funds necessary for their publication in extenso. In the mean time, some of them have already been published in the religious newspapers, and the remainder will probably soon appear in the same way. We have witnessed, either as a spectator or a member, the proceedings of probably more than nine-tenths of all the General Assemblies of our church that have hitherto been convened in the United States. Within ten years past we have seen greater excitement, on some occasions, than appeared at the recent sessions. But we have never seen an Assembly like the last, in one particular-the majority disregarding, as it were by system, both the feelings and the arguments of the minority, and going straight to their object, with so little modification of any favourite measure, and so little apparent concern as to the manner in which it might be viewed or felt by those in the opposition, or in the church at large. It has hastened a crisis which has been for some time threatened, and which we think the true interest of our church required should not have been precipitated, but if possible avoided altogether-We hope our readers will give a very attentive and considerate perusal to the two extended papers which we subjoin-The first refers to the second, and the treatment which the second received from the Assembly, was deeply concerned in producing the first. With all respect, but with all solemnity, we desire to put it to the conscience of every minister, and every ruling elder of the Presbyterian church, who has eyes to see the error and heresy that are coming into this church like a flood, and that its discipline is prostrate, whether he is not bound to give in his adherence to the following Acr and PROTEST. From God, and from the church at large, is all our hope-It is gone, entirely gone, from the General Assembly; till an influence shall come on that body which has not governed it for several years past.— The Act and Protest would have received a number of signatures considerably larger than that which appears, if the paper could have been prepared for subscription, before those who were parties to it in conversation and purpose, had left the city. Let them, and all who are willing to join with them, direct a note, post paid, with as little delay as possible, to the publisher of the PRESBYTERIAN, No. 9, George Street, Philadelphia, requesting their names to be added to the list of subscribers-After three or four months, this Act and Protest will be published in a pamphlet form for more extensive circulation. ACT AND TESTIMONY. To the Ministers, Elders, and Private Members of the Presbyterian Church in the United States. BRETHREN BELOVED IN THE LORD:-In the solemn crisis to which our church has arrived, we are constrained to appeal to you in relation to the alarming errors which have hitherto been connived at, and now at length have been countenanced and sustained, by the acts of the supreme judicatory of our church. Constituting, as we all do, a portion of yourselves, and deeply concerned, as every portion of the system must be, in all that affects the body itself, we earnestly address ourselves to you, in the full belief that the dissolution of our church, or what is worse, its corruption in all that once distinguished its peculiar testimony, can, under God, be prevented only by you. From the highest judicatory of our church, we have for several years in succession sought the redress of our grievances, and have not only sought it in vain, but with an aggravation of the evils of which we have complained. Whither then can we look for relief, but first to Him who is made Head over all things to the church which is his body, and then to you, as constituting a part of that body, and as instruments in his hand to deliver the church from the oppression which she sorely feels. We love the Presbyterian church, and look back with sacred joy to her instrumentality in promoting every good and every noble cause among men; to her unwavering love of human rights; to her glorious efforts for the advancement of human happiness; to her clear testimonies for the truth of God, and her great and blessed efforts to enlarge and establish the kingdom of Christ our Lord. We delight to dwell on the things which our God has wrought by our beloved church; and by his grace enabling us, we are resolved that our children shall not have occasion to weep over an unfaithfulness which permitted us to stand idly by, and behold the ruin of this glorious structure. "Brethren," says the Apostle, "I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind, and in the same judgment." In the presence of that Redeemer by whom Paul adjures us, we avow our fixed adherence to those standards of doctrine and order, in their obvious and intended sense, which we have heretofore subscribed under circumstances the most impressive. In the same spirit we do therefore solemnly acquit ourselves in the sight of God, of all responsibility arising from the existence of those divisions and disorders in our church, which spring from a disregard of assumed obligations, a departure from doctrines deliberately professed, and a subversion of forms publicly and repeatedly approved. By the same high authority, and under the same weighty sanctions, we do avow our fixed purpose to strive for the restoration of purity, peace, and scriptural order to our church; and to endeavour to exclude from her communion those who disturb her peace, corrupt her testimony, and subvert her established forms. And to the end that the doctrinal errors of which we complain may be fully known, and the practical evils under which the body suffers be clearly set forth, and our purposes in regard to both be distinctly understood, we adopt this ACT and TESTIMONY. AS REGARDS DOCTRINE. 1. We do bear our solemn testimony against the right claimed by many, of interpreting the doctrines of our standards in a sense different from the general sense of the church for years past, whilst they still continue in our communion: on the contrary, we aver, that they who adopt our standards, are bound by candour and the simplest integrity, to hold them in their obvious, accepted sense. 2. We testify against the unchristian subterfuge to which some have recourse, when they avow a general adherence to our standards as a system, while they deny doctrines essential to the system, or hold doctrines at complete variance with the system. 3. We testify against the reprehensible conduct of those in our communion, who hold, and preach, and publish Arminian and Pelagian heresies, professing at the same time to embrace our creed, and pretending that these errors do consist therewith. 4. We testify against the conduct of those who, while they profess to approve and adopt our doctrine and order, do, nevertheless, speak and publish, in terms, or by ne cessary implication, that which is derogatory to both, and which tends to bring both into disrepute. 5. We testify against the following as a part of the errors which are held and taught by many persons in our church. ERRORS. 1. Our relation to Adam.-That we have no more to do with the first sin of Adam than with the sins of any other parent. 2. Native Depravity. That there is no such thing as original sin: that infants come into the world as perfectly free from corruption of nature as Adam was when he was created: that by original sin nothing more is meant than the fact that all the posterity of Adam, though born entirely free from moral defilement, will always begin to sin when they begin to exercise moral agency, and that this fact is some how connected with the fall of Adam. 3. Imputation. That the doctrine of imputed sin and imputed righteousness is a novelty, and is nonsense. 4. Ability. That the impenitent sinner is by nature, and independently of the aid of the Holy Spirit, in full possession of all the powers necessary to a compliance with the commands of God: and that if he laboured under any kind of inability, natural or moral, which he could not remove himself, he would be excusable for not complying with God's will. 5. Regeneration.-That man's regeneration is his own act; that it consists merely in the change of our governing purpose, which change we must ourselves produce. 6. Divine Influence.-That God cannot exert such an influence on the minds of men as shall make it certain that they will choose and act in a particular manner without destroying their moral agency; and that, in a moral system, God could not prevent the existence of sin, or the present amount of sin, however much he might desire it. 7. Atonement. That Christ's sufferings were not truly and properly vicarious. Which doctrines and statements, are dangerous and heretical, contrary to the gospel of God, and inconsistent with our Confession of Faith. We are painfully alive also to the conviction, that unless a speedy remedy be applied to the abuses which have called forth this act and testimony, our Theological Seminaries will soon be converted into nurseries to foster the noxious errors which are already so widely prevalent, and our church funds will be perverted from the design for which they were originally contributed. AS REGARDS DISCIPLINE. The necessary consequence of the propagation of these and similar errors amongst us, has been the agitation and division of our churches, and ecclesiastical bodies; the separation of our ministers, elders, and people, into distinct parties; and the great increase of causes of mutual alienation. Our people are no longer as one body of Christians; many of our church sessions are agitated by the tumultuous spirit of party; our presbyteries are convulsed by collisions growing out of the heresies detailed above, and our synods and our Assembly are made theatres for the open display of humiliating scenes of human passion, and weakness. Mutual confidence is weakened; respect for the judicatory of our church is impaired; our hope that the dignified and impartial course of justice would flow steadily onward, has expired; and a large portion of the religious press is made subservient to error. The ordinary course of discipline, arrested by compromises, in which the truth is always loser, and perverted by organized combinations to personal, selfish and party ends, ceases altogether, and leaves every one to do what seems good in his own eyes. The discipline of the church, rendered more needful than ever before, by the existence of numberless cases, in which Christian love to erring brethren, as well as a just regard to the interests of Zion, imperiously call for its prompt, firm and temperate exercise, is absolutely prevented by the operation of the very causes which demand its employ. ment. At the last meeting of the General Assembly, a respectful memorial presented in behalf of eleven presbyteries, and many sessions, and individual members of our church, was treated without one indication of kindness, or the manifestation of any dis. position to concede a single request that was made. It was sternly frowned upon, and the memorialists were left to mourn under their grievances with no hope of alleviation from those who ought to have at least shown tenderness and sympathy, as the nursing fathers of the church, even when that which was asked was refused to the petitioners. At the same time they, who have first corrupted our doctrines, and then deprived us of the ordinary means of correcting the evils they have produced, seek to give permanent security to their errors and to themselves, by raising an outcry in the churches, against all who love the truth, well enough to contend for it. Against this unusual, unhappy and ruinous condition, we do bear our clear and decided testimony in the presence of the God of all living; we do declare our firm belief |