hensive and devout. Then the Lord's Prayer a second time; and after that the Apostle's Creed, but without any response or accompaniment on the part of the people. At the close of the Creed the following verse of the ciiid Psalm was sung:

A qui le craint, à qui pleure sa faute, Cette bonté se fait voir, aussi haute Que sur la terre il éleva les cieux;

Et comme est loin le couchant de

l'aurose,

Ce Dieu, clement, quand sa grace on implore,

Met loin de nous nos péchés odieux.

The assembly was then dismissed with the Mosaic blessing,-"The Lord bless thee, and keep thee," &c. &c., with the following addition, "Go in peace, and the God of peace be with you."

You will perceive that the reformed service somewhat resembles that of our Dissenters, or more nearly that of the Church of Scotland, except as to the reading of some of the prayers. And you will observe, too, that, as in some of those assemblies, the grand defect was the omission of any read ing of the Scriptures, the recital of the Commandments alone excepted. In most other respects, I confess I was much pleased with the whole service. I was offended at the sight of some men in their hats (during the sermon only, I think), and surprised that neither on entering nor leaving the place of worship did any one pause to beg the blessing of God upon the service. Every person put something, on going out, into a box for the poor, as the custom also is in Scotland. As it was only eleven o'clock when the service was concluded, 1 returned to Secheron.

I remained reading and writing till a quarter past one, when I again walked into Geneva, though it was now very hot, the mist having entirely disappeared, and the scenery around us having resumed all its brilliant magnificence. There was no service to-day at the cathedral; but I found an audience assembling

in a small church opposite to it, and immediately joined it. The course of the service was the same as in the morning, except that the extemporaneous prayer before the sermon, which was very pious and animated, was longer; and that the confession and intercession were different, being, I presume, the form appointed for the evening worship. The preacher in the morning was a man of sixty; this in the afternoon appeared younger than myself. His congregation was also very large. He preached from Hebrews ii. 3. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" I was again gratified by a very able, eloquent, and affecting discourse. He began by a short contrast between the two dispensations of the Law and the Gospel, pursuing the general argument of the Apostle in this Epistle. He then described the nature and greatness of the Christian salvation. It was great as to its Divine Author, its mysterious, important doctrines, and its heavenly promises. What was it to neglect this salvation? Not merely to apostatize, or to disgrace our profession by open vices; but to act inconsistently with that profession-to believe, or profess to believe as Christians, and to live like heathens-to be careless, worldly, vain, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Much and excellently did he say upon these points. How could such escape? The Gospel had its judgments as well as its mercies, its terrors as well as its promises.-But this was St. PaulWhat did Jesus Christ say? (mark how human nature is the same at Geneva as in England.) He replied admirably, by quoting some of the awful denunciations of the Saviour himself, against careless and impenitent sinners. How could the negligent escape? Would they plead their honesty, their harmlessness, their charity, their professions? Could they escape the vigilance or the power of their Judge? Could

they endure his frown, or conciliate his mercy? Every thing of this kind was equally vain: there was but one way of escape, and of safety. It was, to be really Christians--it was to repent, believe, and obey the Gospel. He concluded with some persuasive arguments, with a particular allusion to the previous celebration of the sacrament in that church; with expressing what he trusted were the desires, and the resolutions of many of his auditors, if they had followed him in the train of his exhortations; and with an earnest prayer that the Almighty would vouchsafe his effectual blessing. I was much delighted with this sermon: though more laboured and eloquent than that in the morning, it seemed equally sincere, and certainly upon my own mind was equally impressive. In both cases, there was monotony of tone in the delivery; but this was compensated by great propriety and force of action. The morning preacher is indulged, I understand, from his age, with reading his sermon; but it was not perceptible.

In the afternoon, the discourse was pronounced entirely without notes, and I presume, from its uncommon correctness, memoriter. In each case, the preacher, after having read his text from a Bible, shut the book, and laid it aside on the edge of the pulpit. There sat a clerk in the desk below, who, how ever, took no other part in the service than in singing, which he did standing while the rest of the congregation to my great annoyance sat, like our Dissenters. I must not forget to add, that the doctrine of both preachers was far from being strictly or formally Calvinistic; though Calvin was, and is, nominally, the oracle of Geneva. It nearly resembled that of the Chris tian Observer, and would have ranked with what is usually termed evangelical religion in England. The clergy, I understand, receive only about 607. per annum ;-but they are generally possessed of some

private fortune, and may be theological, though not philosophical, professors in the academy, and engage, as in England, in private tuition, The singing was not so good this afternoon as in the morning; but the words of the last hymn, evidently referring to those who had previously partaken of the Lord's Supper, struck me as peculiarly beautiful.

Heureux celui qui t'est toujours fidéle,
Seigneur Jesus, et qui, brûlant de zêle,
Te suit partout, t'embrassant par la foi;
A qui peut on, Seigneur, aller qu' à toi?
Tu nous promets une vie eternelle,
Toi seul nous peux faire entrer dans les
Tu nous promets une gloire immortelle :

cieux

C'est vers toi seul que nous tournons les

yeux.

Such were the religious services in which I was engaged this day at Geneva; and judging from their effect upon myself, I cannot but hope that they must prove beneficial to those for whom they were more immediately designed. The general appearance of the city was certainly more decorous and grave than we had hitherto observed upon the continent:-most of the shops were shut, and the congregatious were as large, I understand, at the other churches, as at those which I attended;-yet I am sorry to say, that the close of the Sabbath, even at Geneva, but little corresponds with the seriousness of the publie worship. Evening parties are universal, in which the elderly inhabitants do not scruple to play at cards, and the young people are permitted to dance. I took the liberty of expostulating with a respectable man upon this glaring inconsistency. He defended it upon the plea of the necessity of relaxing the gravity of Sunday employments, lest the younger part of the community should be disgusted, and resort to less innocent amusements than were thus allowed them. I trust that the progress of religious truth in the renovated Republic, more particularly through the influence of the Bible Society, esta

blished last year at Geneva, may tend to correct this evil, and to produce a sounder mode of thinking upon the important subject of the Sabbath."

Having mentioned the name of Calvin with reference to the standard of religious doctrine in Geneva, it may not be amiss to add, how much its citizens are indebted to that celebrated man, not only as a Reformer, but as a Legislator. During nearly three centuries, the code of laws which he framed preserved Geneva in a state of greater freedom from suits and processes, than was exhibited in any other city in Europe. The Council is now labouring to restore some of its provisions; but the intervention of the French dominion has rendered it in a great measure impracticable. What is called the College, deserves in this view as well as others to be mentioned. This is a school, divided into various classes, and containing many hundred boys, which is free to the children of all the natives, and, I believe, to all the inhabitants of Geneva-where they are taught gratuitously, not only reading, writing, and arithmetic, but the classics and the sciences, and from whence they may proceed to attend the equally gratuitous lectures of the professors in the academy or university. Both these noble institutions, the General Hospital, which I visited and which is admirably conducted, together with much of the general system of the Republic, political as well as ecclesiastical, owe their origin and foundation to Calvin. Whatever may be thought of his political opinions, the preceding facts, which I received from two gentlemen of great intelligence and respectability in Geneva, may serve to prove, that he was at least by his own example a strenuous supporter of good works.

I must only add, that Geneva is by no means a dissipated or immoral place. The higher ranks appear to have been much improved by the calamitous lessons of the

1

To the Editor of the Christian Observer. IN virtue of your character, you must observe with great pleasure the variety of charities in this country. The subject is indeed common-place and threadbare. Every single calamity that can affect the human frame or circamstances has somewhere a society fighting against it. Charity bas become fashionable, and benevolent associations quite the rage. In this we must all rejoice, the poor relieved sufferers not excepted. Our age and nation gain honour by such. a general conspiration of philan thropy.

Now mark a spot" upon this beautiful tissued web of benevo lence.

Some mixture indeed of worse motives must be expected, and cannot be helped. One man will give from ostentation; another from custom; a third from shame; a fourth from imitativeness; and Iwish a fifth may not give out of pure rivalry, and relieve the poor to plague the rich. All this is very bad; but the directors and pro moters of charitable institutions cannot provide against it. They: are forwarding a good work, and cannot answer for the motives of us who subscribe. Their concern is with our money, not our motives; and, so long as the former is good, they have no great right to be prying into the latter.

Perhaps also (for I am willing to

concede as much as possible), these gentlemen have a right to enlist on their side some feelings in human nature, which, whatever they are, are not precisely the benevolent feelings. There is in mankind an exciteability, which may, on oceasion, be turned to a very good account. Large, crowded roomsanimated speeches-long lists of splendid patrons, blazoned on wire wove paper-any appeal to curiosity, or the love of novelty, are found at times to produce a wonderful epanchement of the heart and the purse. In this way, many most unpromising, subjects are tricked into works of charity be fore they are aware. I do not pretend to say that every kind and degree of this ingenious policy is blameable. Though, after all, it looks a little like fighting Mammon with his own weapons.

But surely, there are limits to these expedients for making people virtuous in spite of their worse judgment. If we deliberately draw money from men by acting on their pride, ostentation, or any. other bad feeling, we are on very tender ground. Are we not, in fact, doing evil that good may come? There may be very illegi timate ways of promoting a very useful work. What is to be very charitably employed may be very uncharitably acquired.-I will give a familiar illustration. Ride to any inn in England, and place your horse in a stall adjoining to that in which a pair of jaded post-horses are sociably keeping a strict fast together; and what is the consequence! The moment you are out of view, the driver of the aforesaid abstemious Rosinantes will dexterously purloin the contents of your horse's manger, for the benefit of his own famishing stud. I doubt whether there are ten postillions in England, who can resist this temptation when it occurs. Here is an act of charity undoubtedly; and performed very privately too; and yet, if the poor animal who has JCHRIST. OBSERV. No. 108.

been robbed for the supply of his neighbours were allowed a protest on the occasion, he might very plausibly complain of the hardship he had sustained. Pope commends a person for doing good by stealth; but this but this is to do good by downright stealing.

I have strong suspicions that a laudable anxiety to promote the interests of particular charities, sometimes leads the friends of such charities to questionable modes of gaining subscription and support. Rather, perhaps, it makes them to carry lawful modes of so doing to an extreme. Nothing can be more lawful than what we hear, or hear of perpetually, charity-sermons by occasional preachers. I say, this appears to me lawful; and it is surely very often expedient. It is lawful that the clergy should assist each other in the discharge of their sacred duties; and it is useful. It promotes mutual kindness; it relieyes what is frequently a labo rious office; it affords them oppor tunities of hearing each other. Sometimes also (I reluctantly add) it is a great relief to the congrega tion. And, if we are to have an occasional preacher, nothing seems more natural than that he should discourse on an occasional subject. Often, indeed, the minister selected has some such close connection with the charity to be recommended as makes him a peculiarly fit spokesman on the occasion.

Yet this principle may be pushed too far. It is pushed too far, when it grows up into a regular system of excitement. Hand-bills (I had almost said, play-bills,) are scattered far and near, to announce the intended performance ;-interest is excited by the name of a popular preacher; curiosity is excited by a new face, a new voice, a new style and manner: the collections at the door are swelled in the yestry by the contributions of the managers themselves;-in short, the whole scene is got up for effect. In the mean time, it is probable

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