conveyed to you, I trust, the feelings of my heart. The Lord guide you into a deci sion on this important subject, which will be remembered in the great day when all this ransomed people and all the lost shall be gathered before him. Excuse the freedom of your brother in the Lord,

JOSIAH BREWER.

Mr. Brewer, in addressing the Corresponding Secretary of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, says, "For Asia Minor, send us, as soon as possible, at least half a dozen young men. I also earnestly recommend Salonica and European Turkey, as an unoccupied field, for two or three others to enter upon immediately."

View of Public Affairs.

EUROPE.

The latest advices from Europe are from London of the 28th of July, and from Paris of the 26th of the same month.

BRITAIN. The most important article of news that has reached us from Britain in the course of last month, relates to the dissolution of the Grey ministry. It appears to have been occasioned, or precipitated, by his coadjutor, Lord Althorp, in the House of Commons, being driven, if we understand the published statement, to a resignation of his office, by an honourable obligation to conceal certain cabinet transactions growing out of communications from Ireland, the purport of which had transpired, and which he was obliged to withhold. Yet after occasioning the resignation of the Premier, he consented to take, under the new arrangement, the office he had resigned. Lord Grey was overcome by his feelings, and had to sit down, after beginning an explanation in the House of Lords, of the causes of his resignation. He, however, soon recovered, and made a full statement. His friends are raising a subscription, to present Lady Grey with a statue of her husband. His successor as premier is Lord Melbourne. The other changes in the cabinet, as Lord Althorp has resumed his former place, are not important. Great doubts are entertained of the stability of this cabinet; but while it continues, the measures pursued by that which it replaces will apparently not be materially changed-The prospect of a favourable and abundant harvest in Britain was flattering-In Ireland, Dublin is suffering a dreadful visitation by the cholera; and riots of a very disastrous kind, still distract the country generally.

FRANCE-A change has also taken place in the cabinet of France. Marshal Soult has resigned his office as president of the Council of State, and Marshal Gerard has been appointed in his place. This has caused some dissatisfaction, especially in the army. It is rumoured that the Grand Senior is about to demand the surrender to him of the present French colony of Algiers, as being a part of his dominion; and that the French are willing to rid themselves of the burden of maintaining it-This, however, is apocryphal-The French Chambers will not meet for business till January. The king is on his southern tour.

SPAIN. The cholera is ravaging several parts of Spain. The capital has suffered greatly, and the Queen and court have left it. At its first appearance, the populace, as in Hungary and some other places, imputed it to the poisoning of the fountains. The monks and friars became the objects of suspicion, and an infuriated mob assailed several convents and monasteries, and sacrificed a number of Jesuits, as the objects of their vengeance. The military force interposed and quelled the rioters, after killing a few-The Cortes were to assemble at Madrid at the appointed time, 24th of July, notwithstanding the cholera; and the Queen regent was to open the meeting in person. Don Carlos, it appears, escaped from England in disguise, and passed through France, staying two days in Paris, and reached the northern part of Spain, and was received with great enthusiasm by his partisans and military chiefs. His first residence was Elisondo, whence he issued a proclamation, which is given at large in the papers. His army, and that of the Queen regent, under General Rodil, were near each other, and a bloody battle was soon expected. In the mean time, a sanguinary action had taken place between two opposite corps on the main road to Madrid, which had occasioned the stopping of the mail. An agent of Don Carlos, who was negotiating a loan for him in Paris, has been arrested and committed to prison.

PORTUGAL Don Pedro has been dangerously ill with fever and blood spitting, but at the date of the last accounts was thought to be convalescent. Report says, that his quarrel with the Pope is likely to be compromised-The Pope is afraid of losing him altogether. The Portuguese Cortes were soon to meet. Don Miguel, it appears, is a wanderer: where he will settle is uncertain. Rome is now mentioned as not improbably the place in which he will take up his residence.

The foregoing statements, made on what were believed to be the most recent intelligence from Europe, are somewhat modified, especially as relates to Don Carlos, by an unexpected arrival-We give the articles as we find them in the papers of the day -They are of the date of July 30 and 31.

The Irish Coercion Bill has passed the House of Lords. It produced a long and interesting debate, but the opponents of the measure did not press a division. The Lord Chancellor, in the course of the debate, stated the singular fact, that Earl Grey had, in the course of the last six months, made no less than six attempts to resign; and he appealed to his colleagues, whether more assiduous efforts had ever been made by one set of men connected with another in the same cabinet to retain one man among them, than had been made to prevent Earl Grey from resigning. The cholera is said to have broken out in London. The weather had been very hot. The House of Commons had gone into committee on the Irish Tithe Bill, notwithstanding the opposition to it of Mr. O'Connell and the other Irish members. Sir John Cam Hobhouse had been elected member for Nottingham, by a large majority, over the radical candidate. It would seem that some doubt still exists as to the presence of Don Carlos in Spain. That he has left England we suppose there can be no doubt. On the 29th of July the following conversation took place in the House of Lords. The Marquis of Londonderry said he wished to ask the Noble Lord at the head of his Majesty's government, whether any authentic information had been received of Don Carlos's arrival in Spain. Viscount Melbourne said some information had been received of Don Carlos, but it was of a nature that could not be relied upon. The Marquis of Londonderry then gave notice that on Monday next he should submit a motion to the House relating to the foreign policy of the country, particularly in regard to France, Spain and Portugal. The news from Spain throws no additional light on the state of affairs in that country. The cholera, it would seem, has prevailed with frightful violence in the Spanish capital. We neither see any thing particularly worthy of comment from France, or any other part of the continent. Greece would appear to be in a very distracted state under its new king, and affords another instance of the ill effects which result from giving to a country, institutions of a character for which the state of society existing there, renders it unfit.

AFFAIRS AT MADRID.-The riots at Madrid, on the 17th and 18th of July, had not been renewed. The number of Jesuits killed at the convent of San Isidor, is stated at from 19 to 22. In the Franciscan convent of San Tomas, a still greater number was killed. A number of other convents were afterwards visited, but the doors of all of them having been instantly thrown open, the mob contented themselves with plunder-The same was true of the great convent in Calle de Aocha, which was sacked on the 18th. The fury of the mob appears to have been directed solely against the monks. The French government had received a telegraphic despatch from Bayonne, containing intelligence from Madrid of 22d inst. which had reached Bayonne by courier. Tranquillity continued to reign in Madrid. All the authorities, civil and military, had been changed in consequence of the excesses which had taken place within the three preceding days. The Queen was expected on the 24th, and would open the Cortes in person. Preparatory meetings of the members of both chambers took place on the 20th and 21st, at each of which the best spirit was manifested. The cholera still continued, but appeared to diminish in intensity.

Madrid, July 18.-When I closed my letter of the 15th, I did not expect the fearful picture I gave of the situation of Madrid, that the reality would have so far surpassed it. The returns, which were made up at eleven that night, announced no less than 260 deaths, and 500 new cases of cholera, and though yesterday and to-day the numbers are less fearful, the disease still labours with malignity, and not an hour passes but scores are hurried to their last homes. Yesterday the deaths were 150-this day the list is not made out. The few medical men that Madrid affords are hurried from place to place, without being able to give effectual assistance to any, and I know members of rich and respectable families who have died before a physician could be found. July 29.—I am sorry to say that my kind friend Mrs. Van Ness is numbered among the dead. Her spirit parted from the body at 3 this morning. Never was there a more amiable and high minded lady; charitable, sweet tempered, beloved by her family, she sinks into the grave in a land of strangers, at the moment she was preparing to return to her own home, and that family to whom she was a blessing, and whose absence from her has long been the occasion of her secret grief. Her husband is deeply stricken. She died in his arms, having received the attention of numerous friends, and the assistance of the best physicians.-Heaven has received her soul. The many who loved her will long deplore her loss. Her remains will be buried in the consecrated ground belonging to the British embassy. The government has not published returns of the dead to-day, but the number is much less than yesterday, and the full malignity of the disease is for the present suspended. The deaths yesterday were 100, as I hear, but I have no accurate return.

THE

CHRISTIAN ADVOCATE. ADVOCATE.

OCTOBER, 1834.

Religious Communications.

THE NATURE, EMPLOYMENT, AND HAPPINESS OF THE HEAVENLY

STATE.

2 Cor. v. 1.-" For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the hea

vens."

In these words the apostle Paul describes the future possessions of the righteous, under the figure of a building-"A building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." It is by figures, and by negative expressions, that the state of future happiness is, for the most part, made known to us, in the oracles of inspiration. While we remain in our "earthly house," we cannot have a full and distinct knowledge of "the house not made with hands." For this our mental faculties do not qualify us in our present state. Here we obtain our original ideas through the medium of our bodily senses; and to these our very language, when we speak of spiritual objects and operations, has almost a necessary reference. Of unembodied existence, therefore, and of the exercises and feelings of purely spiritual beings, our apprehensions must be inadequate. But that we may, by analogy, obtain some just notions, however imperfect, of that blissful state, the hope and expectation of which supports and animates every Christian, metaphorical language is employed in the word of God. In the text heaven is called a building of God, a house not made with hands; and elsewhere we find it spoken of as a mansion of God, a temple, a city, a paradise, an inheritance, a purchased possession, a better country, a kingdom, a crown of glory; and as rest, peace, and the joy of the Lord.

In discoursing to you, at this time, on the state and exercises of the heavenly world, I shall not confine myself to the text, but seek aid in every part of the sacred volume, for the illustration of this important and most interesting subject.

I. I begin with remarking that when we speak of heaven, our minds and our expressions almost necessarily refer to some place; some local situation, in which God and glorified spirits are supposed peculiarly to reside. This is observable in the text; and as already intimated, the same, or similar language, we find employed in many other parts of the inspired writings. Not thinking it proper to consume your time with mere speculative notions, or suggestions, I shall not even mention some of the hypotheses and conjectures of learned and pious men, relative to the intellectual truth taught by the metaphorical language of sacred scripture touching this subject. It may, however, have its use very Ch. Adv.-VOL. XII.

3 H

briefly to notice two opinions-the opinion of those who favour the idea that heaven ought to be regarded merely as a state, and not as a place; and the opinion of those who believe there is a local heaven, as well as a glorious change of state, into which the people of God enter, when "mortality is swallowed up of life."

The favourers of the former of these opinions reason thus-There is nothing more necessary, say they, to our immediate perception of an unveiled Deity, and entering into the society of other spirits, whether happy or miserable, than that the soul should be disencumbered of the body. God is every where present; and for aught we know, every part of creation may likewise be peopled with spiritual inhabitants. By the laws of our present existence, we can neither converse with them nor perceive them. It may be the law of their existence, too, if such be the will of the Creator, that they can neither perceive nor converse with us, beyond what he on special occasions may permit. The walls of flesh and sense may cut off all ordinary communication between them and us; and the throwing down of these barriers may be all that is necessary to an immediate intercourse with them. This idea they thus illustrate-Imagine that you had been confined, for the whole of life, to a single apartment, through which only a few din rays of light were permitted to penetrate, at five small avenues. Imagine that all you knew of the sun, the face of nature, and the busy scenes that were passing around you, was from some imperfect report-Then imagine that, in a moment of time, the walls of this obscure dwelling were all to be removed; and the sun, the face of nature, and the busy scenes of life, of which you never before had any perception, nor could form any correct notion, were to be ushered at once on your naked view. Into what a new and unknown world would you find yourself transported? Something like this may take place at death. Our earthly house of this tabernacle is a dark abode. Through five avenues, denominated senses, we gain some obscure intelligence of invisible beings, with which we may be all surrounded. But when, at the moment of death, the present obstructions shall be removed, the sensible perception of God, like the rays of the unclouded sun, may burst upon us at once; we may perceive ourselves to be in the midst of a countless host of active intelligences; we may be able to converse with them and they with us: and if we die reconciled to God and loving him supremely, this will make our heaven. The advocates of the latter opinion, to which I have referred, freely admit the possibility, and perhaps the probability, of all that you have just heard. But they say that the representations of holy scripture clearly teach us far more than this; and ought to leave us in no doubt that there is a local heaven. They remark, that although the language used in relation to this subject is figurative, yet the figures themselves, as well as some descriptions not figurative, manifestly refer to place; that a house, a mansion, a temple, a city, a country, and many other terms, can scarcely convey any meaning whatever, if they have no reference to locality; that the same idea is necessarily implied in what we read of angels conducting a departed spirit to the heavenly felicity; and especially that there must be a place, in which the translated body of our blessed Lord, and the bodies of Enoch and Elijah, now reside; and to which the glorified bodies of all the saints will be gathered, after the resurrection and the final judgment. In a word, that almost the whole of what we are taught in the sacred pages, relative to the future state of the righteous, leads us to believe that in the immensity of space, there is a region, or a place, where God is now mani

fested in his brightest glories to the blessed inhabitants; and where the whole of those who are redeemed from among men will, with the holy angels, eventually constitute the general assembly and church of the first-born, whose names are written in heaven. This appears to me to be perfectly conclusive, and to leave no ground for rational controversy, whether heaven be a state or a place. We are, indeed, not told where this local heaven exists, and therefore all speculations and conjectures on that topic, would perhaps better be forborne. But this forms no objection to the fact of its existence. It is analogous to all that is revealed on this subject, that a part should be told, and a part be concealed. It ought ever to be kept in mind, that it is contrary to all just principles of reasoning, to refuse our assent to facts, suitably authenticated, because, if we admit them, they will involve some things that we cannot fully explain.

We further remark in regard to the subject before us, that our being unable to form distinct ideas of the operations of our souls in a separate state, is no argument at all against the existence of such a state; any more than it is an argument against the being of a God, and of holy angels, that we can have no adequate conception of the mode of their existence, and of the manner in which spirits converse, or communicate their thoughts. Neither is the greatness of the change which must pass upon us, in order to our entering on the heavenly state, any reason why we should not believe in its reality. Changes, indeed, which bear a strong analogy to this, and which, for myself, I fully believe were chiefly intended to illustrate it, are constantly presented to our observation. Ten thousand beautiful forms of animated nature are, at one period of the year, flying with rapid motion through every region of the air, which, at another period, are dormant reptiles in the bosom of the earth, or sluggish worms on its surface, with scarcely the symptoms of life. Now the change from the mortal to the glorified or angelic state, is scarcely greater than this, nor the transition more wonderful. And what we see and know to be true in the nature of an insect, shall we think to be impossible, or improbable, in the nature of man?

II. The sacred scriptures teach us that all the natural appetites, and all the pains and sufferings which are experienced in the present life, will, in the heavenly state, be known no more. Material sustenance cannot be necessary to the support of an immaterial and immortal soul. When therefore the spirit shall cease to be an inhabitant of "the earthly house of this tabernacle," all those appetites, which are seated in our animal nature, and necessary for its preservation, will cease at once. And when, at the resurrection, the happy spirit shall again reanimate its sleeping dust, that dust shall be so organized, by the power and wisdom of God, whose will constitutes all the laws of nature, as that "it shall hunger no more neither thirst any more." These sentiments are sustained by the plainest declarations of the word of God, not only in the expression just repeated, but in the following particular and beautiful passage of the same apostle on whose words I discourse. "But some man will say-How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come? Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die-But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body." After which, in the same connexion, he adds "There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another: So also is the resurrection of the dead: It is sown in corruption, it is