| 109 Shake the Sinner.
One of our little boys who is about eight years of age having read one of Mr. Millers Hymns in which there is such a frequent repetition of
"Shake the sinner, shake the sinner,
Shake the sinner, just now,"
commenced singing it; but not being acquainted with spiritualizing, he thought he must make his actions comport with his words, and having obtained the help of his sister they seized their little brother by the shoulders, and shook him tremendeously [tremendously] while they continued singing "shake the sinner just now" &c. It is well for poor sinners that the God of the Millerites does not answer their prayers in the way that our boy understood them, viz: for what they say, or the sinners would be in an awful predicament before the world ends.
The statistics of the Jewish population are among the most singular circumstances of this most singular of all people. Under all their calamities and dispersions, they seem to have remained at nearly the same amount as in the days of David and Solomon-never much more in prosperity, never much less after ages of suffering. Nothing like this has occurred in the history of any other race; Europe in general having doubled its population during the last hundred years, and England having tripled her's within the last half century, the proportion of America being still more rapid, and the world crowding in a constantly increasing ratio.-Yet the Jews seem to stand still in this general movement. The population of Judea, in its most palmy days, probably did not exceed, if it reached four millions. The number who entered Palestine from the wilderness were evidently not much more than three; and the census, according to the German statistics, which were generally considered to be exact, is now nearly the same as that of the people under Moses-about three millions. They are thus distributed.
In Europe, 1,916,000, of which about 658,000 are in Poland and Russia, and 453,000 are in Austria.
In Asia, 738,000, of which 300,000 are in Asiatic Turkey.
In Africa, 504,000, of which 300,00 are in Morocco.
In America, North and South, 15,000.
If we add to these about 15,000 Samaritans, the calculation in round numbers will be about 3,180,000.
This was the report in 1825-the number, probably, remains the same. This extraordinary fixedness in the midst of almost universal increase, is doubtless not without a reason-if we are even to look for it among the mysterious operations which have preserved Israel a separate race through eighteen hundred years.-May we not naturally conceive that a people thus preserved without advance or recession; dispersed, yet combined; broken, yet firm; without a country, yet dwellers in all, every where insulted, yet every where influential, without a nation, yet united as no nation, ever before or since; has not been appointed to offer this extraordinary contradiction to the common laws of society, and even the common laws of society, and even the common progress of nature, without a cause, and that cause one of final benevolence, universal good, and divine grandeur?
Apostolic Religion.
From the American Baptist Magazine.
The Rev. William Ward, A. M. fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, a clergyman of the Church of England, and who officiated as curate in the county of Norfolk, received a presentation of a living in the north of England, of considerable importance. At the time when the French revolutionists were following the clergy of the nation with imprisonment and death, which occasioned a great number of them to seek refuge in England, Mr. Ward first visited his living in the north. Stepping into the Edinburgh mail, he observed an elderly gentleman of venerable appearance in the dress of an ecclesiastic. He soon perceived that he was a foreigner, and was explicitly informed that he was a French emigrant Bishop. The conversation turned upon the politics, literature, and arts, and sciences, &c. Mr. Ward perceiving he was a man of profound learning, general knowledge, and liberal sentiments, began the following conversation:
Mr. Ward. I am much surprised sir, that a gentleman of your liberality and knowledge can be content to continue in communication with the corrupt church of Rome.
Bishop. I presume sir, you are a clergyman of the church of England.
Mr. W. I am sir.
B. May I not retort?
Mr. W. No. Our church is reformed from corruption.
B. I deny the assertion. Your prayer book is nothing but the Roman Missel translated into English, with a few trifling alterations, and the psalms you read are not from your translation, but from ours, of the corruption of which you are perpetually complaining.
Mr. W. These are trifling things sir, we are
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