often without any defence whatever at the side, and at best only a creeper fastened to trees upon the bank. Ratnapoora is at the head of one of the largest districts in the island, and one of the most populous; in which there is not a single Christian school. I preached in the bazaar upon the Sabbath to a large congregation, who were very attentive; and afterwards distributed a good number of tracts. I was pleased to see that the Singhalese Testament, provided for me by a native, bore many evidences of having been well read. The people expressed themselves as being ready to embrace Christian instruction, if placed within their reach. The place itself is small, but there are numerous villages around. The climate is hot, but the few Europeans who reside there represent it as being very healthy. An artilleryman told me that for nine years he had not had the opportunity of attending any Christian service. Since my return, I have been confined to my room several days, solely from the effects of the leech-bites. I doubt not that the brethren will be guided aright in the decision to which they may come; and as to myself and Mrs. Hardy, all places are alike, if the appointment be of God. APPEAL ON BEHALF OF THE EVANGELICAL CHURCH OF LYONS. To the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine. Lyons, August 9, 1837. DEAR SIR,-The Evangelical Church of Lyons, in France, is not entirely unknown to your readers, for your columns have, on some former occasions, communicated intelligence respecting it. It will not be necessary, therefore, at present, to trouble you with any lengthened details as to its origin; we would simply, on this head, recall to the minds of our Christian brethren in Great Britain, that the church was formed on the 29th of April, 1832, in consequence of the then very recent expulsion of the Rev. Adolphus Monod, from the pulpit of the Reformed church in this city; that this event originated in the unfriendly feelings manifested towards Mr. Monod by his colleagues in the ministry and in the vestry, on account of the faithful and fearless manner in which he preached the doctrines of the cross, in a pulpit from which his voice was the only one lifted up to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation by grace, through a crucified Redeemer.* Your readers will rejoice on behalf of the Reformed Church of France, to know that the government has at length learnt to appreciate the moral worth, eminent talents, and profound piety, of this excellent Christian minister, and that he has con The Lord has been pleased to bestow upon this little church, thus formed, such a measure of his grace as has insured to it a very steady progress. Fifty-five was the number of communicants at its formation; at present it is, notwithstanding removals by death and other events, one hundred and ninety, forty of whom have been added within the last nine months. The increase of the number of general hearers has been so great that an enlargement of the chapel has become necessary; it was effected in the spring of the present year, to the utmost extent the locality would permit, and about one-fifth was gained on the space previously possessed. Very soon, however, the room was again found incapable of holding the hearers, a number of whom were, from time to time, forced either to stand or to leave. The crowded state of the apartment (for the chapel consists of a spacious room only) is such as to cause females at times to be overcome with heat, and forced to be carried out, fainting, while those who remain do so, generally at the cost of their comfort, and frequently of their edification. Thus the want of a larger chapel is seriously felt by the present congregation, and would be so even were there no prospect of any increase whatever. A room of 49 feet by 21 is evidently incapable to accommodate 400 or 500 hearers, in a manner compatible with the calm of devotion. But there is at this time a religious movement in Lyons, which affords the strongest grounds for anticipating that the number, both of believers and general hearers, will not long remain confined with. in their present limits. Our Day-schools, both for boys and girls, have experienced a very gratifying augmentation of scholars, while the want of a school for smaller children has been so seriously felt as to lead to a resolution, notwithstanding all difficulties, to establish an Infant Asylum. This new institution was opened yesterday, and justi fies the most pleasing expectations of becoming an extensive means of usefulness, not merely to the children thus brought under Christian instruction at the school, but likewise to entire families thus attracted to the chapel. Many, indeed, of the fami lies and individuals to whom the Gospel has been recently introduced by the little band of Christian visitors, who are "improving their talents, in seeking souls for the Lord, have need of the very first elements of instruction. The parents are ge nerally as ignorant of their letters as the children, (such is the state in which the humbler classes of our vast Roman Catholic population are found,) and you may imagine what pleasure we feel in being enabled to sequently been called to fill a chair in the Theological Academy of Montauban. GENERAL CHRONICLE. impart to the former, at our Adult Schools, a little of that humble learning which is provided for the latter at the Boys' or Girls' schools. Our adult classes have thus experienced a very gratifying increase, for both sexes, and even the Sunday-school is at present frequented by a larger number of grown persons than formerly. All these circumstances, while they call for the profoundest gratitude as evidences of present success, inspire the strongest confidence as to the future progress of the cause. One painful fact, however, afflicts us. The society is poor. It was poor in the beginning, and it continues so still. It may be said, indeed, to have grown poorer in proportion to the augmentation of its members, since all the increase, with scarcely any exceptions, consists of persons in humble life, chiefly manufacturers, who are It is now nearly poor almost to a man. a twelvemonth that the silk loom, from which no less than 60,000 of the inhabitants of this city draw their subsistence, has been, to a most alarming extent, standing still, and almost every family immediately connected with this branch of industry is reduced to urgent want. Sickness, besides, has, during the very severe winter, struck its bitter blow on this suffering people, and to apply to them for aid of any kind would be a more hopeless task than to attempt drawing water from a dry well. Indeed such is the deplorable condition to which this impoverished population has been reduced, that every inhabitant of Lyons, capable of giving, may be said to have been constrained, either to come forward for their relief, or to relinquish his claim to a compassionate heart. But to contribute to. wards the erection of an Evangelical chapel is a work very different from that of supplying bread to the hungry, one to which we cannot hope that the wealth of this city will be applied, until those to whom that wealth has been intrusted shall, themselves, have become alive, more generally than appears to be the case at present, to their need of "the unsearchable riches of Christ." But in the meantime, the Lord has evidently "begun a good work," and a great work, among the poor, in whose ranks he appears to have "much people in this It would be difficult to say in what city." city of the present day, more than in Lyons, that saying of our Lord's is verified, "The poor have the Gospel preached unto them," and their anxiety to hear it is becoming every day more manifest. Whole families, hitherto buried beneath the superstitions of Popery, are starting into spiritual life, being called in various ways, through grace working conjointly with Providence, to attend the preaching of the truth. In one of these there was discovered, not long since, so much poverty, sanctified by so much hun- A new chapel, however modestly con- E. MILSOM, } Deacons. Donations thankfully received by the Editor of the Evangelical Magazine; the Hon. and Rev. B. W. Noel, St. John's Chapel, Bedford-row, and Walthamstow ; Viz., the ground about 40,000 francs, and the building 30,000 francs. A 492 Rev. Dr. Reed, Cambridge Heath, Hackney; Rev. Mr. Baup, Pastor of the French London Church, Threadneedle-street; Messrs. Hankey, Bankers, Fenchurchstreet; and by the Pastor of the Evangelical Church, No. 2, Place Sathonnay, Lyons. LABRADOR. UNITED BRETHREN. Remarkable Preservation of the Annual The safe arrival of the Harmony from Labrador, on the 14th October, excited feelings of the liveliest thankfulness to the Lord, in the hearts of the members of the Society for the Furtherance of the Gospel. In these feelings they are persuaded that all their brethren and friends will participate, after perusing the subjoined particulars of the difficulties and dangers, the protection and deliverances, experienced by her during the progress of her outward and homeward voyage-the most hazardous, with the exception, perhaps, of that performed in the year 1816, which the present century has witnessed. The perils to which the Harmony was exposed, on her outward course, commenced soon after the 24th June; on which day, after a speedy and prosperous voyage across the Atlantic, she fell in with the drift ice, about 200 miles from the coast of Labrador. According to the statement of the captain, it was not merely the immense quantity of ice which rendered the navigation difficult and dangerous, nor yet the number of icebergs which crowded the narrow channels, and of which he on one occasion counted no fewer than seventy; but, more especially, the character of the frozen masses, consisting chiefly of what seamen call bottom-ice, and the violent swells by which they were fre quently agitated. The undulations thereby produced exceeded, on one occasion, 100 feet in perpendicular height-a spectacle which, however sublime, could not be contemplated without the most lively sensations of alarm; for though the Harmony was at the time beyond the reach of the most violent agitation, the striking of the ice against the ship's sides was sufficiently severe to cause the utmost apprehension for her safety. It was, in fact, only by the constant use of fenders of tow or cable-junk, let down beneath the surface of the water and interposed between the vessel and the advancing masses, that the sailors were enabled, with the Divine help, to prevent her receiving The voyage of the Harmony northwards, were their joy and gratitude, when, on the On the 15th of September, the ship com- to the hull of the vessel. MISSIONARY MAGAZINE AND CHRONICLE, RELATING CHIEFLY TO THE MISSIONS OF The London Missionary Society. SUBSCRIPTIONS and DONATIONS in aid of the Funds of this Society will be thankfully received by the Treasurer or Secretaries, at the Mission House, Blomfield-street, Finsbury, and by Messrs. Hankeys, the Society's Bankers, 7, Fenchurch-street, London; in Edinburgh, by Mr. George Yule, Broughton Hall; in Glasgow, by Mr. Risk, 9, Cochranestreet; and in Dublin, by Messrs. J. D. La Touche and Co., or at 7, Lower Abbey-street. PARAMASATTEE. IN continuing his account of this decaying but abhorrent superstition, the Rev. C. Mead writes : VOL. XV. "The name Paramasattee literally signifies, 'heavenly virtue, or strength.' This demon, though frightful in appearance, is accounted no less a personage than the wife of the heavenly Scevan. The image, which is formed of wood, was usually concealed from public view, except on great occasions, when it was brought out and worshipped in connexion with Pattera-kalee. There is a great assumption of mystery connected with the worship of this evil spirit. About fifty iron spoon-shaped vessels are fastened on the surface of the image to hold oil and wicks, forming so many lamps, which are lighted up on the nights of the festival. Thus arrayed, it had an imposing appearance, when placed in the shade of the banyan tree, on a dark night. These lamps are intended to represent the letters of the alphabet, which are repeated when the image is wor shipped; and there are several Tamil letters carved on the image itself. Five of the letters are held as sacred and mystic, and the very repetition of them, it is said, consumed the sins' of a certain Rajah: they form the mysterious word, Na-mase-va-ya. The Hindus who believe in the virtue of these sounds are denomi nated the people of the five-letter sect;' and the Pandarams, who teach the meaning of them, are distinguished as the Gooroos of the five letters.' * "The two principal Gooroos of this order reside in the neighbourhood of Nagercoil, at a village called Shuslundram, where there is a splendid heathen temple. The Gooroos reside in large stone buildings called Mudams, and the higher castes resort to them for the purpose of being instructed in the worship of the five letters. They are apparently not only revered by the people, but considered and treated as if they were gods. A number of disciples are attached to them, being located by these head-Gooroos in different parts of the country. It is said that their wealth is immense; they possess lands, which have been bequeathed or devoted to them, in all the principal towns and villages from Cape Comorin to Benares. They wear their hair coiled over the shoulders, decorate their necks and arms with necklaces and bracelets of beads made of the seeds of a holy tree, and their clothes are dyed with red ochre. The inferior Pandarams, also, live entirely on alms; they sometimes abuse those who refuse to aid them, and go from house to house striking a small plate of metal, which produces a sound like a bell, to announce their approach. "There is a class of mendicants who draw forth their knives and threaten to cut themselves, if money or food is not given them: they bear the name of viragees. When they go in mistake to any of the villages where Christianity has been introduced, and find not the usual reception, it is not easy to describe their astonishment and chagrin; they wonder what has taken place, and leave the place, threatening the people with the anger of the gods. A few of them formerly embraced Christianity, but their indolent habits, joined with the effect of the immoral lives they had generally led when heathens, were great barriers to their improvement. This system of imposture, however, is declining; so much so that some of the places where these holy men, as they are esteemed, would have once been well received, are now closed against them. "The former priest of the temple, where Paramasattee was worshipped, is a very interesting man, more than seventy years of age. He spends much of his time in going about amongst his relations and neighbours, no longer to deceive or injure them, but to show them the vanity and sinfulness of idolatry. When Pattera-kalee was destroyed, he said, addressing the people, 'You used to come to the pagoda with your offerings, and ask me to dance before the idols until the evil spirits came on me; then I would tell you what to do. false and wicked; but we did not see this until the Missionaries and the native ⚫ A religious body resembling the Romish monks in Europe. It was all |