PARAPHRASE.

REV. xiv. 13; ECCLES. v. 8; Ps. xxxvii. 1, 2, 35, 37.

A VOICE at the hour of rest, which said,

"Blessed, if they die in the Lord, are the dead; "For their virtuous works are gone before,

"And sorrow and death shall disturb them no more."

Blessed-for their days were pure and good;
Blessed in the passions they ruled or subdued;

In life and in death blessed;-on earth and in heaven;
Twice blessed in the blessings to others they've given.

Weep not that the vile and the wicked are great;
Like the bay tree in verdure their flourishing state!
But briefly and quickly their glories pass;-

They shall fade from the earth like the sun-withered grass.

Weep not that the tyrant's arm is strong

That his fetters are galling-his rule is long.
The hour shall come when the tyrant shall see
There is-who is higher and greater than he.

The

pomp

and splendour of power and stateThe furies and passions upon them that wait

Are wild as the winds-and as empty will leave

The hand that would grasp at the pleasures they give.

Peaceful his home, though humble, whose life

Is far from the paths of crime and strife;
Who, gentle in mien, though in purpose strong,
Avoids the weak, but abhors the wrong.

His sons shall bless him-his prayers shall rise
As incense sweet to approving skies;
The harvest of plenty his barns shall increase,
His life be joy, and his end be peace.

There, on his bed, when his eyelids close,
Death shall seem but a calm repose;

The mourners around shall sorrow-but never
Weep tears for him, as one lost for ever.

A voice, at that hour of rest, which said,

" Blessed, when they die in the Lord, are the dead;

"For their virtuous works are gone before,

"And sorrow and death shall disturb them no more."

THE FREETHINKING CHRISTIANS' REVIEW OF THE RELIGIOUS WORLD.

"Such things! such men before thee! such an age!"-Churchill.

IN these days of outward profession and popular sanctity, when men are encompassing sea and land to make proselytes, we trust that our readers will deem it neither an unnecessary nor unimportant task to register and review the passing events of the RELIGIOUS WORLD.

Designed as a medium through which to record the progress of religious principles, the proceedings of religious bodies, or the character and conduct of individuals holding important stations in the religious world, it is anticipated that this department of the Work may be found interesting to the Public; whilst the reflections of the rational, the Freethinking Christian, on the matters passing in review, will, it is presumed, be of a nature conducive to the interests of religion and truth, and injurious only to those who are hostile to their progress, or who are seeking to render them the instruments of their own ambition, or the means of their own aggrandizement.

The religious world may be divided into two great classes, the one professing or believing the Christian revelation; the other unacquainted with that revelation, or denying its authenticity. The latter-pagan superstition or popular infidelity-may sometimes, perhaps, attract our pen, but our account will chiefly be with the former-the professing world, as it is technically termed. We shall not, indeed, concern ourselves with the disputes and the differences that have divided the various sects of Christians, so called, but shall remark chiefly on the features and characteristics which

are common to all: protestantism being, in our estimation, but a rank spirit drawn from the bitter lees of papacy; and the more enlightened sects of protestant dissenters but the more sublimated vapours of the same obnoxious spirit!

1

At no period of history has the state of religion presented. matter for more extensive reflection and inquiry than the present; whilst the general features which it exhibits, are strikingly characteristic and peculiar to the times in which we live. The various interests that are engaged, and the amazing efforts that are made in the maintenance and dissemination of the system, passing under the name of Christianity, would, to the partial observer, mark the present as a truly RELIGIOUS AGE. In the cause of religion, the public councils of our own state, and of the other great European powers are, at the present time, actively engaged.* In the cause of religion, the holy alliance and the army of the faith are trying the arts of diplomacy and of war. In the cause of religion, our missionaries are tempting the perils of unknown seas, and enduring the extremes of tropical heat. and of polar cold. In the cause of religion, the scriptures are translated into every living language; and cargoes of bibles, and freights of divinity are exported to every part of the habitable globe. In the cause of religion, the arm of the law is constantly uplift, and the tender mercies of crown lawyers and Christian judges are daily exercised in restoring the backslider, and convincing the gainsayer. These, with our National Schools, and Sunday Schools, our Tract Societies, and Home Missionary Societies, our Societies for the Conversion of Soldiers and Sailors, Watermen and Lightermen, Hackney-coachmen and Convicts, convey, in some imperfect degree, the extent and variety of the operations carried on in the cause of religion.+ Religion, indeed, meets us at every corner, accosts us at every turning, and surrounds us in every situation. The temples which the piety of our fathers had raised, are insufficient for the purposes of modern devotion-New Churches attract the eye in every division of the MetropolisTent Meetings arrest the attention of the Sunday pedestrian, and Floating Chapels invite the curiosity of the aquatic party the mechanical arts become subservient to the

*We are writing Nov. 25, 1822.

See Report of Bethel Seaman's Union,' Port of London Society,' "Watermen, Lightermen, and Bargemen's Friend Society and Bethel Union." For the efforts in favour of Hackney Coachmen and others, see the Report of the last anniversary meeting of the Orange Street Tract Society.

abjects of Christian conversion, and religion is worked by steam! Religious excursions to Gravesend or the Nore are daily advertised; the steam boats hold out the attraction of being manned by captains, sailors, and cabin-boys, who fear the Lord. Prayers occupy the time usually spent by similar parties in polite intercourse, and sermons take the place of sea-sickness!*

Do we, because religion has become so fashionable a thing, felicitate ourselves on being born in a Christian country? Do we boast with others the triumphs of the Cross? Do we, as friends to Christianity, derive consolation from the contemplation of such a state of things as we have just described? No! on the contrary, we behold, with shame and mortification, the mockery that is hereby made of the Christian religion-the invitation that is held out to question its truth and doubt its authenticity; and, however general may be the profession, however vehement the display of religious belief, we are impressed with the painful conviction that the religion of Jesus was never less known, or less practised, than at the present moment. Outward protestation and inward indifference-pretended zeal, but real selfishness-assumed piety and actual worldly-mindedness, are the characteristics of the age. HYPOCRISY is the pregnant evil-the giant vice of our times!! This is not the language of vague declamation, or of dogmatical prejudice; our condemnation of the spirit and principles which actuate the present age, is a necessary consequence, not of our belief in this or that particular doctrine, or opinion, but of our belief in CHRISTIANITY. Men may, perhaps, honestly differ about some of the doctrines of Christianity, but its GENIUS, its PRINCIPLES, its OBJECTS are, we appre

* Some idea of the extent of the exertions made by the Religious Public may be formed from the fact that the British and Foreign Bible Society had, up to the date of their last Report, collected in money £.1,800,526, and distributed in Bibles and Testaments 3,563,974 copies; besides which

The disbursements of the Church Missionary
Society, for the year 1821, were

The London Missionary Society

£. 32,896

40,000

The London Association has paid in aid of the
Mission of the United Brethren

1,896

Making a total of fupwards of one hundred and sixteen thousand pounds, expended last year by the above five Missionary Societies.-This war against Satan is certainly an expensive one; we should be curious to learn the charge of the commissariat!

hend, so clearly pourtrayed in the New Testament, as, with regard to them, to preclude any conscientious variety of opinion. Can any man, or any set of men, affect to doubt that virtue and morality-that sincerity and integrity-that disinterestedness and honesty-that meekness and humility -that union and equality-that forbearance and love-that inward faith and unobtrusive, unpretending devotion are of the very essence of the gospel? And are these the qualities which distinguish the Christian profession in the present age? What! when religion is avowedly upheld by the sword-when kings, despotic in their characters, and immoral in their lives, assume, as of right, the Christian name—when priests are the enemies to knowledge, and the open or insiduous traitors to the rights and liberties of mankind—when the truths of the gospel are doled out for hire, and godliness converted into gain-when dissention, and hatred, and persecution, prevail amidst religious parties -when the corrupt, the selfish, and the proud, are among the foremost in all public religious proceedings-when, with Christian professors, titles, and rank, and dominion, become the privileges of the few, and ignorance and servility the lot of the many-when devotion and piety are obtruded on the public gaze, whilst their very semblance is wanting in the private intercourse and duties of life, will it be pretended that the religion of Jesus prevails—that the kingdom of God is established upon the earth?

We are not of the number of those who consider that the world grows worse, and that men and principles are in a constant course of retrocession; we are willing to do justice to the moral and intellectual improvement of the age; but if the priest and the people will assume the name of Christian, it is fitting we should try them by reference to that standard.

There are, no doubt, among the leaders of all parties, men of respectable characters and attainments; and among their respective followers, also, many decent, inoffensive sort of people, with sense sufficient to take care of their own interests, and who, in the private walks of life, preserve the even tenor of their ways, without offending against the laws of the land, or trangressing the commands of the decalogue. But we have been accustomed to contemplate Christianity as a system calculated to raise and dignify the human character-designed to separate men from the world-to purify them from its corruptions-to raise them above its false interests-and to fix their hopes beyond the grave;