Huss proceeds to describe the proper armor of a Christian warrior, from Paul's picture of the whole armor of God: "The arms of a bishop," says Ambrose, "are prayers and tears." What those of our bishops are, is too obvious. Christ taught to resist not evil; not to strike back.

Not from Christ's words in regard to those that sit in Moses' seat can the Doctors infer that he who confesses, is bound at the mandate of the confessor, to give up all his goods to the Pope's treasury, nor the half of them; nor that he should fast on bread and water for his lifetime, lying by night on the naked earth, and beating himself with an hundred blows on his bare body. The obligation is-so far as they teach the law of God, and no farther.

Such is a brief and imperfect outline of one of the ablest arguments in controversial divinity that was ever penned. Huss and the Doctors remind us of Milton and Salmasius. For keenness of reply, vigor of retort, and caustic irony, the Bohemian and the Englishman might be accounted peers, and surely in the old blind poet of England, there could not have been a more devoted love of truth, a more ardent and bold chivalry in its defence, a greater readiness to risk all in a holy cause, than were to be found in John Huss. Milton escaped the vengeance he provoked; Huss fell a victim. Knowing that the Council of Constance was anxious to root out "heresy," the "eight doctors" spurred it on to the black deed that disgraced it, under the impulse of personal revenge. They would have fire write upon the flesh of the martyr, a refutation which they could not trace with pen upon paper.

Of other minor works of Huss little need be said. He has several treatises on miscellaneous topics: "The Ten Commandments;" "On the knowledge and love of God;" "On the seven mortal sins;" "On Penitence;" "On the Eucharist." The last he discusses under five heads: 1. Why instituted? 2. What is to be believed in regard to it? 3. The obligation to receive it. 4. Why to be taken? 5. How to be taken? Under the second head he declares his belief in transubstantiation, although under the first he makes the commemoration of Christ's death, and not the sacrifice of the mass to be the object of it. But his explanation of it approaches near to tha

of Luther.

"This is my body," was with him as decisive as

with the antagonist of Zwingle.

This opinion, he says, I have always held. I preached it in 1401, when I began to preach. I taught it in the University in 1409. I held that the body of Christ is made by a priest even though in mortal sin; however unworthily. God have mercy on my enemies who have slanderously accused me on this point at the Roman Court.

On the subject of the "Communion of the Cup," he held with the Romish Church, until under Jacobel at Prague, the subject began to attract attention. On his arrival at Constance, and just before his imprisonment, at the urgent request of his friends, he examined the subject, and gave in his adhesion to the views of Jacobel. In his brief treatise he quotes not only Scripture, but Gelasius, Gregory, Albertus, Thomas Aquinas, Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Cyprian, Bernard, Fulgentius and others, to sustain the position to which he comes that, licet et expedit laicis fidelibus sumere sanguinem Christi sub specie vini.

Beside the sermons already mentioned, he has some which were written to be preached at Constance, if opportunity were allowed. They breathe a spirit of humble and sincere devotion throughout. It would be as unfair to judge of Huss by his controversial works, as of Richard Baxter by his. Under the iron mail of the controversialist there beats a heart as humble and as simple as a child's, open to all tenderness and humanity and hallowed feeling. It is in his extended Scripture expositions-his commentaries on the Psalms, (cix-cxviii.,) on the seven first chapters of 1 Corinthians, and on the Epistles of Peter, James and John, that we discern the reverent humility with which Huss bowed to the authority of Holy Writ. These commentaries are marked by devotional feeling and that shrewd good sense which uniformly characterize his other works.

With the exception of a "treatise against image worship," and one on gross errors in the sacrament," the only one that remains of any account is entitled "the sufficiency of the law of Christ for the rule of the Church." It is a masterly exposure of the absurdity of such as appealed to the authority of decretals and canon law.

The letters of Huss from his prison at Constance are a noble though sad sequel to his other works. Their tone is at once manly and pathetic. There is no weakness, no indecision, no unbecoming fear; yet the firm resolves of faith cannot suppress the tender affection that overflows in prayers and tears for those whose life was dearer to him than his own. The heroism of Paul and the gentleness of the beloved disciple, glow alike in the short but earnest and evangelical epistles which he traced in his damp and gloomy cell. For the long months of his imprisonment, he dismissed anxiety for himself in concern for that cause for which he was to lay down his life. Up to the morning of the fatal day, we trace in his successive letters the calm but fixed resolve to abide by his convictions, unmoved by all earthly fear. From these letters Luther selected some, which with commendatory remarks of his own, he issued more than a century later from his Wittemberg press, and no one that reads them can fail to feel, that these letters were among the most effective weapons which Luther himself could employ to touch the heart, and enkindle the spirit of devotion.

The fundamental principle of Huss, from the outset of his public career; the principle which underlies all his arguments, leavens his sentiments, and fastens his convictions, is the supreme and sole authority of the Word of God. Many of the formularies of the Roman church, he could, did accept. But this Supremacy of God's Word was his heresy. Keen and cutting as his own language on ecclesiastical vice was, that of Clemengis and a score of others, were fully equal to it, but most of these could save themselves by bowing to the authority of the Council which for the time being, had installed itself in the vacant, or worse than vacant, Pontificate. Huss demanded to be tried by Scripture. His demand was refused with scorn. The Council burned him because he would not put the authority of a body of, for the most part, intriguing and corrupt men above the authority of the great Head of the Church. To the great image which they set up on the shores of Constance for the world to worship, he refused to bend the knee, and the spirit of the modern Babylon resented the insult, and sent him to the flames.

ARTICLE IV.

REPORT OF THE DEPUTATION TO THE INDIA MISSIONS, made to the American Board of Commissioners for foreign Missions, at a special Meeting, held at Albany, N. Y., March 5, 1856. Printed for the Use of the Board. Boston: Press of T. R. MARVIN, 42 Congress street. 1856. pp. 84.*

RARELY has the attention of the Christian public been called to a document of such interest as that whose title heads our Article. Whether we look at the high source whence it comes, or the occasion which produced it, or the topics it discusses, its importance is of the first magnitude. If correct in its facts and reasonings, it is plainly destined to exert a decided influence upon our mission policy, for a long time to come. Our purpose is to examine what claims it has to our acceptance.

Two reasons operate in advance to create distrust. One is the ex parte character of the Report. It is virtually a plea put forth in self-defence. We cannot regard it otherwise in the circumstances. The Deputation appeared before the meeting at Albany to give an account of proceedings, which had been extensively called in question. Tidings of "revolution" from the Missions they had visited, had taken the whole community by surprise. Many were sorely pained to hear that institutions, for which they had long contributed and prayed, were either summarily done away with or badly crippled. And numbers, whose confidence had never trembled before, now felt serious apprehensions at the appearance of an extraordinary assumption of power, which seemed both unwarranted and dangerous. A state of affairs thus critical called for explanation. The Deputation were summoned to state what had been done, and with this, to establish the wisdom and propriety of their pro

* The following Article is written by a gentleman deeply interested in the Foreign Mission question, and has been approved by three returned missionaries from Ceylon. We publish the Article, not as responsible for its sentiments, but because the subject is of the deepest interest, one that is vital indeed to the Church, and one which should be thoroughly discussed. It is obvious, too, that the returned missionaries have a special right to be heard in this question. EDITORS.

ceedings. It was a difficult position. In plain terms, they were as defendants, set to plead their own cause, and obtain as best they could a verdict in their own favor. A rare marvel it would have been, if in the prosecution of this task they had maintained a strict impartiality. We do not look for such disinterestedness in the best of men. We can hardly expect it in our honored Deputation.

The other reason alluded to, is that men are seldom fair judges of their own conduct. Their self-consciousness does not reflect them truly. Especially is this the case, if they happen to be men of strong opinions and determined will. Such persons rarely estimate aright the momentum of their own movements. Confident of their correctness, and honest in their aims, they are often betrayed by their strength of purpose into modes of speaking and acting, that appear at times a little arbitrary, and even overbearing. Thus do they become guilty of an unintended violence, and none are more surprised than they, when told of the injury done.

From the fault here indicated, it is to be feared the Deputation were not wholly exempt. They are known to be men of rare decision, energy and perseverance. With the senior member in particular, these natural traits have acquired large development in that commanding position he has long so ably held. By constitution and habit he is a master-spirit. For years, in the judgment of both, had a change of policy throughout the India Missions seemed desirable. The auspicious moment at length arrived for carrying this change into effect. Armed by the Prudential Committee with ample discretionary powers for inquiry and direction, they are sent forth on their desired enterprise, enjoying the freest scope for adjusting all things to their liking. No opportunity could have been more favorable, or tempting, for the exercise of a spiritual generalship.

Besides, a stress was upon them. The work was great. An extensive region had to be travelled. Propitious seasons were to be improved at the right places. Long delay anywhere was out of the question. What was to be done had to be done quickly. Thus did the force of circumstances conspire with the force of character to impart an impetus to their