briety; before he had defined virtue, Greece abounded in virtuous men. But where did Jesus obtain among his people that elevated and pure morality of which he alone has given the precept and example? From the midst of the wildest fanaticism the loftiest wisdom was heard; and the simplicity of the most heroic virtues honoured the vilest of all nations. The death of Socrates, tranquilly philosophising with his friends, is the gentlest that one can desire; that of Jesus expiring in torments, injured, mocked, cursed, by a whole nation, is the most horrible that man can dread. Socrates, taking the poisoned cup, blesses the man who with tears presents it to him; Jesus in the midst of horrible suffering, prays for his infuriated murderers. Yes, if the life and death of Socrates are those of a sage, the life and death of Jesus are those of a God."*

D.

Napoleon on Christianity.

Some remarks on Christianity which are attributed to the Emperor Napoleon, are deserving of careful attention. Of their really having been made by Napoleon there can be little doubt; the external and internal testimony in their favour is strong.†

By whomsoever employed, the words would have been considered weighty, convincing, and in the highest degree suggestive. As uttered by Napoleon they constitute a remarkable testimony in favour of Chistianity extorted by the power of truth from an enemy. Napoleon's career was, in numberless things, opposed to the Gospel; and he must often have been tempted to wish it false. Nevertheless, some of its evidences were too powerful for him to resist; and what he had the wisdom to perceive, he had also the magnanimity to confess.

* Emile; Œuvres de J. J. Rousseau, Tome V. p. 98. Edit. 1782. + The extract has been translated from the Paris journal, entitled Archives du Christianisme. We have mislaid the exact reference; but the passage will be found in one of the issues in the earlier part of the year 1842.

Dr. Bogue, the author of a valuable Essay on the Divine Authority of the New Testament, in which he meets the principal objections which infidels are in the habit of urging against the Christian religion, sent a copy of his work to Napoleon during his residence at St. Helena. The Emperor read the book with interest and pleasure, and if it did not altogether persuade him to acknowledge Jesus Christ as his Saviour, it yet powerfully contributed to dissipate his doubts and to produce a certain degree of conviction. After the death of Napoleon, the same copy became the property of an officer, who had given lessons in English to the family of some of the Emperor's friends. On the return of his regiment to England, this officer presented the volume to Dr. Bogue, who received it with deep emotion, regarding it as a visible token of the favour which God had shewn his labours.

Soon afterwards, the French Abbe Bonavita on quitting Paris to proceed by way of Belgium and England to St. Helena, where he was to act as Chaplain to the Emperor, was brought, while in Belgium, into connexion with an Englishman who was a zealous supporter of the Bible Society. They sailed to London in the same vessel, and frequently met during the Abbe's stay in that city. The Englishman availed himself of the opportunity thus afforded, and presented the Abbe with a beautiful copy of the Bible, with the request that he would offer it to the unhappy exile at St. Helena. The Abbe grate fully accepted it, assuring the giver that Napoleon would set a high value on the present. Such proved to be the fact. Napoleon, as has been declared by trustworthy persons who surrounded his death-bed, diligently read the Holy Scriptures, and in the midst of his sufferings frequently uttered the names. of Jesus with much emotion.

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He had not, however, waited till the last moment to make his confession before men. In an easy, but serious conversation, he had already exclaimed with that expressive accent and abrupt utterance which had so electric a power, "I know and I tell you Jesus is more than man." He continued "His religion is a mystery which subsists independent in itself; it proceeds from an intelligence more than human; we find it marked by a profound individuality which has created a system of expressions and precepts, previously quite un known. Jesus borrows nothing from our sciences. We no

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where find an example he could have copied; nor has there been any imitation of his career. He is no philosopher; for his proofs are miracles, and from the very first his followers adored him. Science and philosophy do in fact teach nothing of salvation; but Christ came into the world for the sole purpose of revealing heavenly mysteries and the laws of the soul.

Alexander, Cesar, Charlemagne, and I, have founded empires; but on what have we supported the creations of our genius? On force. The empire of Jesus is founded on love; and, at this hour, millions of men would die for him. It was not a single day, nor a single battle, that secured the triumph of Christianity. It was a long war, a war of three centuries, commenced by the Apostles and continued by their successors and after-generations of Christians. In that war we see kings and all the powers of earth on one side; on the other I behold no army, but a mysterious power, some men dispersed here and there in every part of the world, who have no other watchword but a common faith in the mysteries of the Cross. "I die before my time, and my body will be reduced to dust and become the prey of worms. What a gulf of separation between my wretched condition and the eternal kingdom of Christ! He is preached, Joved, adored; his kingdom is spreading over all the world. Do you call that dying? Is it not rather living?"

Napoleon here stopped: and then, as General Bertrand made no reply, the Emperor added, "If you cannot see that Jesus Christ is God, I made a mistake when I appointed you a General."

E.

Death of a Native Student.

At the time when the concluding pages of this work are passing through the press, the mind of the writer is greatly saddened by intelligence he has just received of the sudden death of one of the most talented and interesting Native youths he has ever known, Mr. Mahadurao Moroji, long a pupil and teacher in the Free General Assembly's Institution, Bombay, and recently tutor to His Highness, the Chief of Jamkhandí. The event is rendered peculiarly striking and solemn by the

fact that Mahadurao as the Native youth to whom these Letters were originally addressed. The considerations expressed in the first letter as to the uncertainty of life and the necessity of preparation for death were read by him, and their justice was fully admitted ;-ah! how little did either the writer or the reader think that such an awfully emphatic confirmation of their truth was soon to be supplied!

Glancing over the retrospect of the last ten or eleven years, the mind of the writer is deeply impressed with sorrow on account of the large number of hopeful Native students in Bombay, who have been cut down in the morning of life. Respecting one of these-the young man who is referred to in page 7— the following notice appeared in the "Native's Friend" for July 1844.

"We deeply regret to have to announce that the death of this very promising young Native [Gunput Lukshmun] took place at Tanna on Saturday the 6th July, after a short illness.

The name of this young man has pretty frequently appeared in the pages of the O. C. Spectator and Native's Friend. In a good many successive numbers of these publications for 1842, there appeared a long and able essay of his on Domestic Reform in India, which had gained the prize of a gold medal. He was also the most approved candidate in a late competition for a prize, which was proposed to the whole educated youth of Bombay for the best essay on the Caste System. His essay on the latter subject has not been published, but it may perhaps yet appear in our pages. He was, on the whole, the best essay-writer among the Native alumni of the colleges in this Presidency. He was inferior to a good many in extent of historical and scientific knowledge; but he stood high in general mental cultivation, and among the highest in command of English expression.

We deeply regret to lose one who was able and willing to render no unimportant services in the cause of India's advancement, and whose example would have done not a little to stimulate his young countrymen in their English studies. But our sorrow takes a yet sadder hue when we think of this enlightened young Native hurried into eternity, almost before he had begun to think of the necessity of preparation for it. Gunput Lukshmun had imbibed much of the deistical cast of thought which is naturally produced by a system of education

from which religion is banished. His intercourse with Missionaries convinced him that Christianity possessed a body of evidence which no candid mind could set aside. But ther the matter rested. The bias of the heart remained; and although his intercourse with Missionaries was kept up to the last, there appeared no leaning to the Gospel. The writer of this notice received a letter from him, written only a week or two before his death, in which along with some despondent expressions connected with the feeble state of his health, there appeared the same passion for knowledge and zeal in study by which this interesting youth had all along been characterized. While his bodily frame must have been in the last stage of weakness he still begged direction regarding a course of reading which only unimpaired vigour, physical and mental, could have carried out. But no mention of the state of his immortal soul, no thirst after divine knowledge, no evidence that the desponding spirit yet turned to that glorious Gospel which had often and earnestly been pressed upon its notice.

This melancholy event is fraught with important instruction! to Native youth. It is a very common saying among such of them as are engaged in study, that religious inquiry ought to be postponed until they are fully settled in life, or at least until all their other studies are completed. So thought, and so argued, this young man; but death could not wait until he had finished his literary investigations and his various plans in life. This interesting youth man admitted the importance of attending to the subject of religion, and had resolved to do so at some future period, but alas! that future period never arrived.

And of what avail, in the hour of death were all the attainments of Gunput Lukshman? His acquaintance with science, philosophy, and history, formed no preparation for eternity, and afforded no aid as he entered into the other world. consolations of the Gospel were not shed around his dying bed. He died not with the Christian's hope.

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We earnestly and affectionately entreat our Native readers to lay this solemn event to heart. We earnestly entreat them to think whether they are prepared to die. How mysterious, how awful, how terrible, is death! How solemn, how overwhelming, to go into the immediate presence of GOD, our Maker and our Judge! Christianity tells us how we can be prepared for