distressed, or to aid any laudable object, we conduct with a strict reference to God and our duty.

Why should we be so anxious, when we do a good deed, that the world should know it? God knows it; and shall we prefer the vain praises of man to the approbation of God? Shall we be biassed by the breath of popular sentiment, when we are assured that those who give to be seen of man have their reward-the very reward they sought, and the only one they can rightfully expect-the vain puffs of human praise? A good conscience is surely the best present reward of christian virtue. It is true, it may be comforting to a man's pride to think that he has done something to make the world stare; that he has by some distinguished act of charity perpetuated his memory to future generations: but of how much more value are the smiles of an approving conscience, and the assurance of divine approbation? These will be a source of unfailing satisfaction, long after the voice of human applause has ceased and is forgotten. PASTOR.

ROMAN CATHOLIC VIEWS OF THE TRINITY, TAKEN FROM THE RT. REV. BISHOP HAY'S ABRIDGEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.

Q. How many Gods are there?

A. There is only one God.

Q. How many persons are there in God?

A. In God there are three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost.

Q. Are these three persons really distinct among

themselves?

A. Yes, they are.

Q. Why then are they not three Gods?

A. Because they have all three but one and the self same divine nature and substance.

Q. Is then each person true God?

A. Yes: each person is true God, and they are all three but one and the same God.

Q. Does God the Father proceed from any other? A. No, God the Father proceeds from none; and he is therefore the first person of the Holy Trinity.

Q. From whom does God the Son proceed?

A. From the Father only; and therefore God the Son is the second person of the blessed Trinity.

Q. From whom does God the Holy Ghost proceed? A. He proceeds both from the Father and the Son, and is therefore the third person of the adorable Trinity.

What do you understand by the word Trinity? A. This great mystery of three persons in one God, distinct in their persons, and one in their nature and

substance.

AN ANECDOTE.

For the Repository.

There was a certain widow who had long been attached to the doctrine of Calvinism. With her, lived her only son, whose fortune it was to believe in the doctrine of Universal Restoration. This displeased his dear mother very much. She often reprimanded him for his belief, and for reading those books, which treat upon the doctrine. At length, it so happened, that the young man came home late one evening, after his mother had retired, but was not asleep. He takes down the New Testament and reads the following language, which you will find in Romans viii. 38, 39, at which the old lady very sternly replied, Jonathan, I am very sorry to find you always reading the Universalist books. Destroy that book and go to bed, or that will destroy you. To which Jonathan replied; Mother, it is the only Testament we have in the house, I don't like to destroy it. Oh! said the old lady, it sounded so much like those plaguey books, I really thought it was one of them.-Communicated.

PARABLE AGAINST PERSECUTION.

The following beautiful parable closes Jeremy Taylor's admirable work on the Liberty of Prophesying,

and contains a moral, which many christians of the present day might apply to themselves, with no little profit to their charity and christian spirit.

I end with a story, says he, which I find in the Jews' books. When Abraham sat at his tent door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man, stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming towards him, who was an hundred years of age. He received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down ; but observing that the old man eat and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, asked him, why he did not worship the God of heaven? The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other god; at which Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night, and an unguarded condition.

When the old man was gone, God called to Abraham, and asked him where the stranger was? He replied, I thrust him away, because he did not worship thee. God answered him, I have suffered him these hundred years, altho he dishonored me, and couldst not thou endure him one night, when he gave thee no trouble? Upon this, saith the story, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment, and wise instruction. "Go thou and do likewise," and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham.

From the Universalist Magazine.

TO THE REV. J. W.

Dear Sir, I have been highly gratified in reading the sermon which you had the goodness to put into my hands; but there is one subject which it presents in a different point of view from what I consider the true. sense of scripture; and that is punishment in a future state, or the invisible world. To support your views of this subject you have quoted the case of the Sodomites, Ezekiel xvi. from 53d to the end, and the case of the spirits in prison, 1 Peter iii.

On these portions of scripture I wish to make a few remarks, in order to set them in what I conceive to be their proper light, and hope you will not consider me unkind or unfriendly in so doing. I trust your love of the gospel disposes you to seek its true meaning. The comforter is the spirit of truth which, alone, can guide us into all truth.

The first case presented for comment, is that of the restoration of Sodom and her daughters. I wish to show you that Sodom, in respect both to its destruction and restoration, is spoken of as a city. In Gen. xviii. 24-32, we find Abraham supplicating the Lord to spare the city. In Lam. iv. 6, the overthrow of Sodom, as in a moment, is spoken of as the punishment of her sin. As the entreaties of Abraham, that the city might be spared, were not granted, it was of course destroyed, as a city. In Mat. xi. 23, Christ says, "For if the mighty works which have been done in thee [Capernaum] had been done in Sodom, it would have remained unto this day." What would have remained unto that day? Ans. The city of Sodom. Not, surely, the people who inhabited the place at the time it was destroyed, for a period of almost 2000 years had elapsed. But, what Christ adds in the next verse you would probably use to show that he spoke of the inhabitants, instead of the city. "But I say unto you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgement than for thee." The words, "shall be" lead some to suppose that the inhabitants of Sodom are referred to; otherwise say they, the intolerable condition of it, in the day of judgement spoken of, is without meaning.-But this judgement must, evidently, be of such a nature as to apply to Capernaum as a city, and to Sodom as a land. "It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, in the day of judgement, than for thee:" i. e. thee Capernaum: the city, and not the inhabitants of the same, in a separate state. The probable meaning is, that when Jerusalem should be compassed with armies, and the neighboring cities laid waste, Capernaum, which

was one of those cities, would be in a more intolerable state, in consequence of its protracted sufferings, by famine and the sword, than Sodom was, when it was "overthrown as in a moment;" or else a more intolerable one than the land of Sodom should then be in, altho it would still be enveloped in flames. There is no doubt but that Jerusalem and the countries round about suffered more, in the judgement inflicted by the Roman army, and the cruelties practised among themselves, by the factions, than they would have done by a momentary conflagration. It was a day of tribulation, such as never was, nor ever shall be, according to the prophecy of Christ, as well as the subsequent history. (To be continued.)

MISCELLANEOUS.

Ordination.--Rev. Oliver Ackley was publicly ordained, as an Evangelist of the gospel, at Eaton, N. Y. Jan. 22, 1822.-R. Inquirer.

The number of Newspapers published in England and its dependencies is 280; of these 57 are issued from London; 130 from the provinces of England and Wales; 31 from Scotland; 54 from Ireland; and 8 from the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, &c.

Chr. Register. MANLIUS, April 3. Suicide. The wife of Moses Blowers, of Pompey, put an end to her natural life by drowning in a well, on Tuesday last. Mrs. Blowers was one of the subjects of an awakening which had been got up in the neighborhood, who fancied herself a sinner beyond the reach of mercy! We are informed that the unhappy woman stated, as her firm belief, that her "soul would be in hell" before the Sunday preceding her death. Under the influence of feelings thus peculiarly distressing, she severed the cord by whose frail brittle tenure, human life is suspended betwixt time and eternity. The deceased sustained an excellent character, and is deeply lamented.-N.F. Daily Adv.