December. Matthew had been published, and 200 copies were that month given to Mr. Taylor for distribution at Surat. Before September, 1806, the printing seems to have been removed to Serampore. Sep. 13, 1806. The four Gospels printed. July 31, 1807. The whole New Testament, and part of the Old, pronounced to be translated, and a new edition of Matthew in the press. End of 1807. Matthew printed, and a new fount of types completed. Aug. 12, 1809. Second edition of the four Gospels nearly printed. Nov. 9, 1809. The Gospels done; New Testament pronounced to be translated, and the Old from Job to Proverbs. March 8, 1810. Half of the New Testament printed; New Testament, except a few chapters, (probably a new revision was taking place,) and a great part of the Old translated, End of 1810. New Testament published about this time. Oct. 4, 1811. Genesis printed; Pentateuch, and from 1 Chronicles to Canticles inclusive, with Ruth, Lamentations, and Daniel, translated. The Mahrattas possessed several provinces of Hindostan before the country was invaded by the Moguls, and they were driven from their territories by the arms of the conquerors. Never wholly subjected, they retired to the northern part of the Gauts, and from those inaccessible mountains often sallied forth to annoy their oppressors. Taking advantage of the subsequent anarchy to which the empire was reduced, they gradually extend. ed their conquests, till they commanded a country a thousand English miles long and seven hundred broad, extending across the northern part of the Deccan from sea to sca, and reaching to the southern border of Bengal. In their wars they commonly served on horseback, and by their impetuous valor have been known to give law even to the court of Delhi. This hitherto invincible people, consisting of a number of independent states loosely as sociated under one head, formed a powerful combination against the English in the time of Marquis Wellesley's administration; but they were overwhelmed, and lost a considerable part of their empire. The province of Orissa by this means fell under the do niinion of the British. The Mahrattas still possess a territory on the western side of the Deccan seven or eight hundred miles in extent, reaching from Goa to the British possessions in the neighborhood of Agra. The Mahrat:a is also "the proper language of the Tanjore Court;" and in possession of the kings of Tanjore has long been a celebrated Mahratta and Shanscrit Library. The Baptist Missionarics calcu late that the population to be benefited by this version is equal to that of Great Britain, placing the version thus on a level with the Bengalee. In the beginning of the present ycar some one was spreading the Scriptures and the knowledge of Christ among that powerful nation.† VIII. ORISSA. This version was commenced in the College †Ch. Res. p.124,125. Nar.p.39. M.'s Geog, vol. ii, p. 437, 440,411,450, 451, of Fort William, about the middle of January, 1804, by Pooroosh Ram, the Orissa Pundit, under the superintendance of Dr. Carey. Sept. 24, 1804. A fount of Some attypes was begun. tempt was made to take an impression at the press. March 1805. Nearly all the New Testament translated. August-Types not finished. Sept. 13, 1806. The version in great forwardness, and in the press at Serampore, under the care of the Missionaries. July 31, 1807. Printed to the middle of Luke. End of 1807. Printed to John xxi;—a new fount of types com. pleted; the work began to be pushed from a design to station a Missionary in Orissa. March 1809. New Testament (1000 copies) published about this time. August 12-Nearly all the Psalms printed. Nov. 9-From Job to Isaiah vii; printed;from Job to Jeremiah translated. March 8, 1810. About half of the Bible printed. End of 1810. The Prophets All finished about this time. the books from Job to Malachi were now printed. Oct. 4, 1811. The whole Bible printed except the Pentateuch, and from Judges to 2 Kings inclusive; Ruth also printed: the whole translated, except the Pentateuch. This is the language of Orissa, the province adjoining Ben gal on the south-west, and extending from that and the northern Sicars. It is of course the language of Juggernaut. The Baptist Missionaries calculate that the Scriptures in this language will enlighten a mass of population as great as that of Ireland, which amounts nearly to four millions.* IX. WESTERN MALAY. This version was commenced, under the patronage of the College of Fort William, by Thomas Jarret, Esq. of the Civil Service, who had resided twelve years on the island of Sumatra, and had begun to compile a copious Dictionary of the language. Before March 1805 the four Gospels were translated. After the transla tions were interrupted in the 'College, Mr. Jarret returned to Madras, where he continued to prosecute the work, with the assistance of a learned Malay of the rank of Rajah in his own country; who had come Sumatra for the purpose. from This is said to be the language of Sumatra; but there are other languages spoken on that island, the oldest of which, in the opinthe Batta tribes," a nation of ion of Dr. Leyden, is that of cannibals, whose "alphabet has nineteen letters, and is written from bottom to top, in a manner the reverse of the Chinese.t 174. (To be continued.) Nar. p. 39. M's. Geog. vol. ii, p. † Ch. Res. p. 142. Ed. R. No. 62. p. 392, 393. ON SUPERSTITIOUS OBSERVAN- future events, for which He has CES. (Concluded from p. 216.) A BELIEF in the influence of stars seems, at the present day, to be less common than formerly. But there are some people, even now, who are tinctured in a degree, with such a superstition; and imagine that a person's temper and disposition are affected by the appearance of some particular star at his nativity; and that his prosperity or adversity, wealth or poverty, is controlled by particular planets. We have reason to rejoice, however, that the believers in such nonsense are become very few, and hope that the time is not distant when this species of idolatry shall be done away. There is, nevertheless, a kind of stars, the appearance of which is believed by many to forebode important events to mankind. I here refer to comets. Nearly the same opinions are entertained of these, as of eclipses of the sun, and similar remarks are applicable to both. Though comets seldom visit us, compared with other of the celestial bodies, their revolutions are stated, and conformed to fixed laws. therefore, they are portentous, they are fixed, and established prodigies, moving* in very ecceneric arbits about the sun, appear ing and disappearing to us at stated intervals! Such is the absurdity of making comets ominous, and similar will ever be the absurdity of undertaking to meddle with the concerns of the Almighty, and making signs of If, See description of Comets in any treatise on Astronomy. given no warrant. If in ancient times it was impious to prophesy without the Divine authority, how is it less presumptuous at the present day, to attempt the same thing without a like com. mission? It is to be feared that those who undertake to predict calamities from the appearance of those bodies, too little consid er the nature of presumptuous sins, and too little think what it is to keep themselves from idols, or, not to be wise above what is written. But, taking our Icave of the celestial bodies, we shall find that this lower creation abounds, too, in signs and omens. The most trifling occurrences are converted into tokens of approaching events. The crowing of a cock, the falling of a firebrand, the particular adjustmentof one's garments, the appear. ance of an insect, the flight, or singing of a bird in particular places, are so many omens of something to happen. The click ing of a poor insect in a wall, a rumbling sound, especially if it be in the dark, or in some lonesome place, the premature ripening and seeding of certain plants, and the untimely appearance of blossoms on trees, are accounted as harbingers of woe. our voluntary acts are made to denote some future dispensation of Divine Providence. The sowing of certain seeds, the giving or accepting of certain presents, betoken misfortunes and even death. Let none smile at this enumeration, nor say that I am trifling; such notions are extensively current among us, and are even embraced by many persons otherwise respectable for their knowledge and sobriety. Yes, there are persons who are accounted Christians, who entertain such opinions, and give countenance to them, in spite of the instruction afforded them by Divine revelation, and an enlightened state of Christian society, Were such notions simply foolish, and harmless in their tendency, they might be suffered to pass without notice along with a multitude of other fancies which both originate, and end, in a distempered imagination. But whatever is not true, is false; and whatever is false in religion, detracts from the character of God, casts a reproach upon the Christian name, and is injurious to real holiness. Profane men rejoice at occasions to scoff at religion; and never fail to turn to a bad account the failings of its professors. If wrong notions are entertained in common by professors, and those who make no profession, the latter will be considered and treated as deriving their opinions from the former, who will be held accountable for their folly and absurdity. It is not enough to call notions like those which I have specified, ungrounded, and whimsical; they are wicked, and deserving of rebuke. There can be no tokens of future events, which do not come from some superior Intelligences and that Intelligence must be God; whose prerogative it is, to reveal the secret things of futurity. But will the believers in those notions ascribe such miserable tokens, as are at least a great proportion of them, to the Divine agency? If not, to what will they attribute them? To accident, or to Satan?Accident is only another name to Divine Providence. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without our Heavenly Father's notice; and the hairs of our heads are all numbered. To ascribe those tokens, then, to accident, is, in fact, to ascribe them to Omnipotence. To ascribe them to Satan, is to be guilty of idolatry of the worst kind. It is idolatry to ascribe them to any cause, but God; and to impute them to Him, without warrant, is wicked presumption. Who, in either case will dare to justify himself; or think it safe to persevere in a course of conduct, so clearly contrary to Christian knowledge, and Christian propriety? Many persons lay great stress upon their dreams, as ominous of future good or evil. To interpret them, is an object of great solicitude; and they have their Chaldeans for this purpose. That God has manifested himself to men, in visions of the head by night, when deep sleep had fallen upon them, is true; that He is still able to do it, if it be His pleasure, admits of no doubt. But will men presume to attribute the crazy reveries of their imaginations in their sleeping hours, to the sacred impulses of the Holy Spirit? Will they impute to the holy agency of Almighty God, those sleeping fancies that are, perhaps, the offspring of mere disease; perhaps, of sin, conceived in a wakeful moment. If y f your dreams have a sinful origin, they are, indeed, like all sins, tokens of impending judgment, unless a timely repentance intercept it. If they are simply innocent, what evidence have you that your sleeping imaginations are more portentous than your wakeful ones, except that you choose to have them so? When, where, and how, did the Almighty ever signify to you that a dream of a particular cast, portended the event which you say is portended? Will you answer, that you have ascertained it by experience; that you had such a dream, and such an event followed? Admitted: you too, did such an act, had such and such a thought, when you were awake and a certain event followed; why do you not likewise infer, that your wakeful thoughts and actions, foretel what is to come? Out of the great variety of good and evil which are min gled together in the cup of human life, strange, indeed, would it be, if some of the multifarious imaginations which attend our sleeping hours, would not comport, in one shape or other, with some events of real occurrence. But if such a congruity should fail in a single instance, your system is overthrown; God has given you no warrant to consider your dreams as portentous. What he declares, is infallible; whatever sign he appoints, the thing signified must, and will, take place; if, then, that thing fail, it is certain that He never instituted the sign. A single failure as completely proves this point, as an hundred, or as an uniform failure would. Now put yourselves upon thinking; how many instances can you bring to mind of disappointment in your prophetic dreams? Why, then, in opposition to reason and experience, without war rant from God, and contrary to His veracity, do you persist in giving to certain dreams a prophetic character? They who profess to be Christians, should consider that when they countemance this idle belief in dreams by their own concurrence, they cast a stigma upon real prophesy, and make it a subject of irreverence and derision to the profane. As for those who make no pretensions to religion, and yet attach a prophetic character to their dreams, they are guilty of charging God foolishly, together with the most irreverent presumption, in thus pretending that God should deign to hold a correspondence with them, which, we must suppose, He vouchsafes sparingly, if at all, even to angels. If, to avoid the sin of unholy presumption, any should deny an intention to impute their dreams to Divine inspiration, they only vary, they do not avoid, their guilt. In that case, instead of paying an irreverent homage to God, they yield an idolatrous homage to something else; that is, they yield it to Satan, for he thus becomes the object of their reverence. Such is the consequence of departing from truth, and giving admission to error. Mankind have always exhibited a wonderful propensity to seek after divinations. A love of the marvellous, together with a curiosity to pry into future events, has ever been a distin guishing trait in the human character, and has led men to pursue very unwarrantable measures in order to gratify this uneasy propensity. In this eager. ness to know what is to come, they often lose all proper respect for the Divine Being, who alone can reveal the secrets of futurity. The truth of these remarks has been already shown in the preceding paragraphs; and is still farther manifested in that fondness for fortune telling, which prevails among us. To imagine |