and a great many other things not particularly new or relevant. To all this we can only reply-what then? We never knew it alleged that keeping Christmas gave any proof of a belief in our Lord's Divinity. We have always supposed, that it was evidence of a belief in the perfect Humanity of Him "Who, as on that day, was born of a pure Virgin." Its absence, therefore, might indicate we speak from Dr. Lamson's stand-point-an absence of belief in this latter truth, but surely not in the for

mer.

The antiquity of the Easter, Whitsuntide and Epiphany Festivals, Dr. Lamson seems disposed to admit, though he assigns to the last a much later date than that of the others.

Where a good deal more might, certainly, be said, we content ourselves with asking a single question; What form of belief would have been likely to originate such observances ? What system, naturally, heartily, fully incorporates them now? That is the one to which they belong. Is that Unitarianism? God, Whose mercy is infinite, be thanked, for His special love and grace, in and by which some have been delivered from a system, the fundamental article of which is a negation,—and such a negation !—and which, throughout, is faithful to that starting principle! O, the misery of always saying, "I do not believe!" The joy and comfort of being taught to say, "I believe!" None can fully know the blessed peace of the one, unless they have known something of the restless disquiet of the other.

ART. II. THE AMERICAN BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS AND THE ORIENTAL CHURCHES.

1.—Declaration of the Evangelical Armenian Church addressed to all Christian Churches.

2.-MEMORIAL VOLUME of the First Fifty Years of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Boston. 1861. 8vo. pp. 462.

AT the time of the abandonment of our Mission to the Oriental Churches, and the return of Bishop Southgate to this country, there were those among us who, while they felt compelled to acquiesce in the giving up of the Mission, were thoroughly convinced that there were certain influences at work in our communion, hostile to the Mission and to the principles on which it was conducted, of which the great mass of Churchmen knew nothing. In other words, the "American Board" were aiming at a certain work in those old Churches, which our Mission was expressly calculated to interfere with. They meant to do away, in those Churches, with their Episcopacy, their Liturgies, their Creeds, and introduce the Presbyterian and Independent Systems of government, and Confessions of Faith. To this end, they sought power and influence in those old Churches, and were not always scrupulous in the means employed. They wore clerical robes, and made the Sign of the Cross in Baptism, and, on occasions, used Liturgies, like the English Clergy, and so concealed their own character. When Mar Yohannan was traveling through this country, they persistently and notoriously kept him, as far as they were able, from all intercourse and acquaintance with our own Reformed Branch of the Catholic Church.

Now, we do not complain or find fault, that Presbyterians and Congregationalists are restive at the presence of Episcopacy, and Liturgies, and Primitive Creeds. Of course, these things are a reflection, and a most serious one, upon their organization and their whole system; and hence, we are not sur

prised that they seize on every opportunity to extort from Churchmen, if they can, a virtual acknowledgment of the essential soundness of Presbyterian and Congregational principles, and the validity of their ordinances. All that we have to say is, that the field is a fair one. Differing as we do from them on the great question of the organization which Christ, through His Inspired Apostles, gave to His Church, we have a right to demand that that question shall be met by an appeal to credible witnesses, and that denunciation, and hatred, and charges of bigotry and exclusiveness shall be laid aside. But we do not wonder that the idea of Presbyterianism and Congregationalism entering in to reform those old Episcopal and Liturgic Churches of the East, was so tempting to both these denominations. It seemed to promise a great deal, every way, both abroad and at home.

Their Mission to the Armenians commenced in 1830, and at Pera, or Constantinople, as being the most central point. For a period of fifteen years or more, the Missionaries declared, repeatedly and emphatically, that they had no wish or design to interfere with the Oriental Churches; all that they aspired to do was, to "preach a pure Gospel!" They could not, at that time, have maintained their position a day, on any other principle. Subsequently, however, and with the opportunity, their real design was unfolded, and in violation of their former pledges, they began, by preaching and in other ways, to incite their converts to leave their old Church. Books of a certain stamp were printed and circulated. Their converts, notwithstanding their immaturity, were called on to lead in extemporaneous prayers; and in these devotions, prayers were offered for the conversion of the Patriarchs and Bishops, &c., &c. As early as 1844, the Rev. Drs. Anderson and Hawes, having gone, for the sake of consultation, to the East, it was formally resolved, that these converts "are to be recognized as Churches,' and "that the reformed Churches are to have no reference to any of the degenerate Oriental Churches." The first formal organization of the "Evangelical Armenian Church," took place at Pera, in 1846.

A statement of the Rt. Rev. Bishop Bedell, at the late Meet

ing of our own Board, at Philadelphia, astounds us. In the debate on the Greek Missions, he said, "that three days ago he met the venerable and noble Dr. Anderson, of the A. B. C. F. M., and asked him what-after all his long experience was his opinion of the conciliatory principle in regard to Missions in Greece and among any decayed Churches. He said he had no hesitation in declaring, that the only possible principle for such work, was the conciliatory principle, in opposition to anything aggressive, or looking to the establishment of a distinct Church." And yet, a principle directly the reverse of this is the settled policy of the A. B. C. F. M., and is steadily pursued in their operations among the Oriental Churches. And no one has been so conspicuous in establishing that aggressive and destructive policy as the Rev. Dr. Anderson himself. The success of their Missions among the Nestorians and Armenians is strongly claimed in their late Reports, and the destructive principle is unqualifiedly endorsed by Dr. Anderson in a volume given to the public by him in August last. Among the works (one hundeed and nineteen in all) which the American Board has published in the modern Armenian language, are the following, which show, clearly enough, the Ecclesiastical tendency and design of their work. "Assembly's Shorter Catechism, with Proofs;" "Church Member's Guide,” pp. 167; "Exposition of an Apostolic Church," pp. 48; "Protestant Confessions and Catechisms," pp. 265; "Rule of Faith," pp. 402; &c., &c.

The Missions of the "American Board," in this region, conducted, for so many years, at a very large expenditure of men and money, have been, in a certain sense, successful. We are told, that more than one-third of all the annual expenditure of this Board has been concentrated on these Missions in Turkey. The power of the press has been employed. Many of the Missionaries have been men of great moral worth, of respectable intellectual ability, and of considerable attainments in the Oriental languages. The members of their congregations in Asia Minor, Syria, and Constantinople, are to be numbered now by thousands, and native teachers have been appointed and "ordained" to minister to congregations whom

they themselves were too few in number to supply with public services. The Report presented to the Meeting of the Board in Cleveland, Ohio, in October last, has the following:

"The Missions to Western, Central, and Eastern Turkey, may be spoken of as if they were one Mission. There are 23 stations; 80 out-stations; 48 missionaries, including three unordained physicians; 56 authorized native preachers, of whom ten are pastors; and 139 other native co-laborers in different capacities, as catechists, teachers, and helpers. Of churches there are 42, containing 1,546 members; of whom 198 were received the past year. One hundred and fourteen schools contain 3.418 pupils, of whom 80 are in three training schools for preparing pastors and helpers, and 30 are in two female boarding schools for educating wives for the native ministry."

Our readers will, perhaps, share our surprise in learning, that in the published record of this last Meeting of the American Board, not a single syllable appears intimating that there is the slightest trouble or dissatisfaction in their Armenian Missions; while, as will be seen, there is an array of statistics, placing its very considerable numbers before the American public, to the credit of the Mission.

The outward circumstances under which these Missions have been carried on were favorable to success. The great poverty and destitution of the people; the grinding tyranny of the political despots, the sore oppressions, of which the people were the victims, and their readiness to seek relief offered from any source; the deplorable ignorance of many of their clergy, and the superstitions and doctrinal errors, which have been the accretion of centuries; the absence of sympathy and assistance from other quarters; their hereditary dislike of the Papal System, associated, as it was, with a long record of civil and Ecclesiastical oppression, exorbitance, and intolerance-all these led them, not unnaturally, to turn, with kindly feelings, to men who came with such unworldly professions and such active Christian sympathies.

Besides, one of the greatest wants in those old Churches, these new Missionaries seemed to promise to meet. The spirit of a cold, objective formalism hung over them, with its icy atmosphere, chilling their hearts, and withering the germ of spiritual life. An intense subjectivism aroused them. These positive and negative forces mutually attracted each other, and