ted to the priesthood: so that if they are inclined to marry, they must quit the order of monachism. With respect to learning among the Ethiopians, little can be said. They are, it seems ig. norant of other languages; and this, with the nature and situation of their country, shuts them out from a free intercourse with learned and commercial nations. They possess few books, except such as concern the religion and laws of their country; and these being of ancient compilation, and written in their ancient language, the Ethiopic, the reading and understanding of them is esteemed a considerable acquirement. It is said, however, that some Jesuits discovered in one of their churches, a library, well -stored with books in most languages; and, for ought we know, learning might, at some former period, have flourished in this country, though at present, both priests and people are sunk in extreme ignorance. tome, Their version of the Holy Scriptures is valuable, on account of its antiquity. Chrysosin his second Homily upon Job, attests, that in his time, the Ethiopians had a translation of the Bible. This translation is little known in Europe; and the Latin Version, published in the Polyglott, is very incorrect. The Ethiopic New Testament, printed in the time of Paul the Third, at Rome, 1549, is faulty, in consequence of some illegible parts in the MS. having been supplied by the editors, from the text of the Vulgate. It would be important to investigate the genuine text of the Ethiopic version, but few in Europe know any thing of the language. Besides the Holy Scriptures, the Ethiopic church is possessed of several ancient and valuable church books. They have a volume called Synodum, or the book of Synods, containing what they call the Apostolical Consti tutions, which are found to differ much from those known in Europe.--This book they divide into eight parts; and it is held in such veneration among them, that it is sometimes bound up with the New Testament. They have the decrees and acts of some of the most celebrated councils, down to the Council of Chalcedon; the Acts of the NiceSaints; Martyrologies, &c. It ne Fathers; Liturgies; Lives of were much to be wished that copies of them were brought into Europe, as they might furnish some valuable materials for ecclesiastical history. The Ethiopians seem far from found a ready acceptance among averse to learning: the Jesuits them at first. These Roman missionaries were gratefully invited to instruct the Ethiopian youth, and lands were assigned them, with many honors, for their labors; but no sooner did these men arrive at power and consequence, than they pursued measures which at length ended in their banishment from the empire. The first of the Jesuit mission It is not improbable that thi, book of Apostolical Constitutions is the same with the eight books of Clem. ens, extant with the Syrian Chris tians, fragments of which books, bound up at the end of the large Sy riac Bible, lately brought from India by Dr. Buchanan, shew that thes were much esteemed and used in the Syrian church; and they were proba bly translated from the Syriac into the Ethiopic tongue. aries that entered the country, was F. Corvillon, a Portuguese, in the year 1491; since which period several expensive missions and embassies were sent by the Roman Catholic powers, to effect, if possible, the Subjugation of the Ethiopian church to the see of Rome; and considerable attention was paid to them on the part of the Emperor and patriarch; but the designing views of the Jesuit missionarics, and the tyranny exercised by them, at length rendered them odious and detestable. Whoever reads the violent proceedings of the Jesuit missionaries in Abassinia, and the confusion, discord, and blood shed which they caused, will not wonder that it should have been made death for a papist to enter 'the country: and this irreconcileable hatred appears to have continued to a period long subsequent to their expulsion, as appears from a letter dated Madrid, June 30, 1720"We have received an account that Father Lamberat Vaiz, a German, Michael Pio de Cervo, and Samuel de Biuno, natives of the Milanese, monks of the order of St. Francis, who, after having escaped many perils, were arrived in Ethiopia, with a design to convert to the Roman Catholic faith the natives of that country, had reached Gondar, where they were carried before the king, the metropolitan, and chief men both of the clergy and state, by whom they were sentenced to die, unless they abjured the Council of Chalcedon; which, with the utmost constancy, they refused to do: whereupon they were delivered up to the fury of the people, who stoned them to death: the metropolitan having threatened to excommunicate any one, who should cast less than seven stones at them." The Roman Catholics are obnoxious to the Ethiopians on account both of their intolerant usurpation in spiritual matters, which led them to insist on an entire change of the ancient discipline and constitution of the Abassinian Church; and of their restless and tyrannical dispesition in matters relating to civil government, in order to increase and establish their own power. But the same causes of offence would not exist in the case of the Protestant and reformed churches; so that we might hope that the Ethiopians would accept their Christian services in love and unity. Respecting the decree of the Council of Chalcedon, to which the Ethiopic Christians so strenuously object, and for which the unity between them and the Greek church was dissolved by an entire separation, I shall only observe, that, by all I can learn, the subject of that decree was no more in reality than a strife about words, which each party understood in their own way, and chose to express in their own terms; the decision of the Greeks and Latins, concerning the two natures in Christ, being rejected by the Ethiopic church as novel and innovatory. The subtile and metaphysical terms and distinctions applied by the Greeks and Latins to that sublime mystery, the Ethiopians did not, perhaps, well understand in their language, and they refused to adopt them: nevertheless they acknowledged the truth which was intended to be expressed by the decree of Chalcedon, as appears from their uniform use of the Nicene Creed, in common with all orthodox churches. The reformation of the Ethiepic church to the pure and primitive doctrine that formerly flourished amongst them, would be a most desirable object. They have the holy Scriptures; they have a pure Confession; and retain the doctrine and discipline of their ancient church with as much integrity, and as little, in novation, as could be expected, secluded as they are, and have been for ages, from intercourse with other Christian nations, and surrounded by Pagans and Mahometans. The bare existence of a Christian church at this time in Abassinia may be regarded as a miracle! abuse, upon the nearest relations and the best friends. How frequently, for example, does strong drink drown, or rather consume, conjugal, parental, filial, and fraternal love. How many husbands who once cherished the most tender affection for their wives, have gradually, but not slowly, exchanged it for the love of intoxicating liquors? How many wives, once lovely and well beloved, have, in the course of a few months or years, been so sadly changed by intemperate drinking, as to take a kind of infernal pleasure in planting their husbands pillows with thorns. How many fathers and mothers, who, before they began to follow strong drink, were patterns of parental care and affection, have, by yielding to its enticements, ceased to love their own offspring? How many once dutiful and affectionate sons and brothers, have undergone a transformation so complete, in those laboratories of Satan and his under-workers, called dramshops, that every spark of filial reverence and fraternal kindness is finally extinguished? How many, whose friendship and society were formerly coveted, on account of the sweetness and frankness of their dispositions, are now shunned, and with good reason, as the offscouring of all things? To sum up the whole in one short sentence, under the inebriating influence of strong drink, the husband becomes a brute, the wife a serpent in the bosom, the parent a monster, the friend an enemy of all that is good, and the child a son of perdition. 3. THE effects of intemperate drinking upon the disposition, as well as the estates of its victims, are often terrible. It converts the gentleness of the lamb, into the ferocity of the tiger. Under its malignant influence, persons who used to be distinguished for kindness and habitual equanimity of temper, become excessively morose, and irritable. It dethrones reason and lets loose all the bad passions, to range and rage without control. It more than brutalizes the whole man, and often causes the unhappy subject of its influence 4. Intemperate drinking greatto vent the most outrageous ly impairs, and often wholly destroys, the understanding. Dr. Waters of the Pennsylvania hospital, some years ago, observed to Dr. Rush, that one third of the patients confined there on account of madness, had brought that terrible disease upon themselves by the use of ardent spirits. What a solemn lesson to all who indulge themselves in hard drinking! Nor let it be supposed, that this lesson is taught only in the ravings of the miserable tenants of the Pennsylvania hospital. The fair inference from the above fact, is, that one third, or nearly that proportion of all the maniacs in our country are self made in the same way. But got to insist, at present, on any exact proportion, because no investigation, sufficiently minute and extensive has yet been made, it may safely be presumed, that multitudes might be pointed out in cvery state, and not a few in some towns, who have literally made themselves mad by intemperance. Indeed, till people cease from drinking to excess, the same melancholy effects must be expected. Frequent intoxication cannot fail to impair the understanding. It must and will, gradually enfeeble and ultimately prostrate, the noblest powers of the mind. And how affecting is it to see brilliant talents clouded, and strong powers enervated, or in other words, to behold, the noblest part of the noblest work of God on earth, sbattered and Jying in ruins, by the terrible agency of ardent spirits! How melancholy to witness the opening buds of genius blasted by the fumes of intoxicating liquors! But alas! how frequent are such instances in this Christian land. VOL. V. New Series. I have known men who had been numbered with the wise and respectable in society, gradually reduced to mere idiocy by intemperance. I have seen the masculine and discriminating mind sinking by the same deadly influence into premature old age and second childhood, I have seen more than one promising youth, of high hopes and flattering prospects, snared and taken by that insidious enemy, whose ravages I am attempting to describe. I beheld and the eye which lately beamed with intelligence grew dim. The mind, naturally vigorous and ardent, lost its tone. The memory became weak and treacherous. The healthy shoots of genius, instead of putting forth leaves and bearing fruit, became sickly and dwindled almost to nothing. Every faculty was benumbed, or enervated by excess, and the young man sunk away into insignificance and contempt. When I indulge the train of reflections which are suggested by such instances as these; when I think how many thousands of superior minds have been destroyed by intemperance, I cannot but compare these ruins with those of some large and noble city. I walk over the ground where it stood, examine with painful retrospection the fallen columns and broken arches, survey the broad foundations of magnificent edifices now no more, and sigh to think, that the glory is departed forever. 5. Intemperate drinking prompts men to the perpetration of all the most shameful and abominable crimes. It instigates them to trample on every law, divine and human. Heated with 68 strong drink they care not whom they insult and abuse. It is then, that they mock at the, remon strances of their best friends, and bid defiance to the civil arm. It is then, that they fight in a manner which would disgrace dogs and bears. It is then, that breaking over all restraints they make the air ring with the most shocking profanation of God's holy name. It is in fits of intoxication that men often commit crimes at which they shudder when they come to themselves; such as blasphemy, robbery, rape, manslaughter, and murder. Judge Rush, in one of his excelJent charges to the grand jury of Pennsylvania, solemnly declares, that he does not remember a single indictment, before him, for manslaughter, and very few for murder, which were not occasioned by intoxication. 6. The course pursued by hard drinkers is the high road to hell. The stream on which they embark empties into the bottomJess pit. They are in imminent danger of eternal damnation. Though here and there a drunkard has been reclaimed; though now and then a brand has been plucked from the burning; it is agreed on all hands, that the case of the intemperate, is all but hopeless. Their consciences are seared, their hearts are hardened to a degree, which sets all intreaties and remonstrances at de.fiance. They have yielded to the power of an enemy, that knows no pity, and is daily making their bands strong; an enemy, that will not be satisfied with any thing short of their endless perdition. It surely is not too much to say, that in the case of those who murder body and soul by intemperance, strong drink will add fuel to that fire which shall never be quenched; will increase the torments of the burning lake; will impart a terrible activity to the deathless worm, and deepen the horrors of the blackness of darkness forever. Drunkards shall not inherit the kingdom of God. How dreadful, how over. whelming the thought, that a single immortal being, should reel into the grave and into hell, under an immense load of guilt, contracted by intemperance. How amazing that rational creatures can thus trifle with their eternal interests, and with tremendous perseverance work out their own destruction. A pamphlet containing Articles of Association, Addresses, and Extracts from certain Statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts compiled by a Society for suppressing Vice and Immorality lately formed at Newburyport, has been oblig. ingly put into our hands. We in. tended to have inserted large por. tions of it in our last number, but could not find room. The attention of our readers is now invited to the subject. Let no one consider these Societies as mere matters of form, instituted to express a few common place good wishes, and utter a few lamentations over the moral evils of the times. They are far different bodies. They gener ally unite, wherever formed, the wisest and best men of our towns; men who feel a deep interest in the present and future welfare of their country and of the rising genera. tion; men who examine subjects before they give their opinions, and who, in their addresses and con |