Project Canterbury

 

The Cause of the Greeks.

A

DISCOURSE,

DELIVERED IN ST. PAUL'S CHURCH, ON THE EVENING

OF FEBRUARY 26, 1827,

AT THE

REQUEST OF THE COMMITTEE

FOR THE

RELIEF OF THE GREEKS.

 

 

BY THE

REV. GREGORY T. BEDELL, A.M.

Rector of St. Andrew's Church, Philadelphia.

 

 

PHILADELPHIA:

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM STAVELY,

No. 99, South Second street.

1827.

  


Extracts from the Correspondence of the Greek Committee.

Philadelphia, Jan. 5, 1827.

REVEREND SIR--It is by the direction of the General Committee, appointed by our fellow citizens, to take measures for affording some prompt aid to the Greeks, and in their behalf; we have the pleasure to address this note to you.

The cause which this oppressed and suffering people have so long prosecuted with unequalled constancy and heroism--is it not the cause of Christianity not less than Liberty?

Small aggressions--involving essential principles of interest or honour--often provoke Nations to resort to the extreme measure of redress. Assistance may be yielded to those who suffer by fire or deluge, by famine or pestilence--unless to these be superadded, more insupportable than all--the tyranny of the oppressor; but then, though he be the Turk, and Christians be the oppressed--efficient will not, and charitable aid in any shape or of any kind, cannot be granted by the Government of a Christian people, lest it may give occasion of umbrage, and endanger one branch of our commercial pursuits!

We leave these matters, however, to the decision of those to whom it rightfully belongs, not without our own hopes and prepossessions.

But to give food and raiment to the hungry and the naked, to the aged, the women and the children, this is a privilege, in which, as individuals, we may surely be permitted to indulge without violating social duty or international law, and without offending in any way, against Religion or Morality.

It is with this view that our fellow citizens have consulted, and the Committee are, consequently, taking their measures, and it is hoped that by the opening of the navigation of the Delaware, charity will have placed at their disposal the means of despatching at least one ship with a suitable cargo for the Mediterranean.

[4] Having made this explanation of our purpose, in which we cannot but believe we have your heartfelt concurrence, we beg you to inform us whether it will be consistent with your personal convenience, and your many pastoral cares, to afford us your co-operation, by pronouncing a Discourse in one of our houses of public worship, with a view to a pecuniary collection?

Should you, after consideration, return us a favourable answer, we will have the pleasure of concerting with you the preparatory arrangements.

We are, very respectfully,

Your most obedient servants,

WM. MEREDITH,
N. CHAPMAN,
PAUL BECK, Jr., Committee

To the REV. G. T. BEDELL.

Monday morning, Jan. 8.

GENTLEMEN:--In consequence of engagements which kept me from receiving your note until the afternoon of Saturday. I have not been able to return you an answer till the present moment. There are few subjects in which my sympathies are so deeply engaged as in the present unhappy condition of the poor and persecuted Greeks; and it affords me a high gratification to understand, that our fellow citizens are making a strenuous effort to minister to their present most touching necessities. I am not much versed in matters of national policy: but I may be permitted to regret, that as a nation, we cannot give to this oppressed people, struggling for freedom, such assistence as would, under Providence, ensure their emancipation from a servitude, not only abject and degrading, but whose mildness is ferocity, and whose mercy is indescribable cruelty.

I agree with you, that to give food and raiment to the hungry and the naked--to the aged--the women and children, is a privilege in which, as individuals, we may surely be permitted to indulge, without violating social duty, or international law--or without offending in any way, against Religion or Morality: [4/5] and in this, your benevolent object, I wish you success even beyond your most sanguine expectations.

In reply to your question, whether it will be consistent with my personal convenience and pastoral duties, to co-operate with you, by pronouncing a Discourse in one of the houses of public worship, with a view to a pecuniary collection, I have to reply, that in a concern like this, my personal convenience does not enter into the consideration; and I know of no interference with my pastoral duties. If it shall continue your purpose to pursue this plan, I will afford you what poor assistance I may be able; and shall hold myself in readiness to deliver a discourse at any such time as you may see fit to appoint.

With the most sincere desire that you may fully succeed in your benevolent design,

I remain, Gentlemen,

Your obedient servant,

G. T. BEDELL.

WM. MEREDITH,
N. CHAPMAN,
PAUL BECK, Jr. Committee.

February 27, 1827.

At a special meeting of the Committee for the relief of the Greeks, it was unanimously Ordered, That the grateful acknowledgments of this Committee for the able and truly eloquent appeal in behalf of our Greek brethren, pronounced at St. Paul's Church on Monday evening last, by the Rev. Gregory T. Bedell, be entered on their minutes.

And it was in like manner Resolved, That Mathew Carey, Wm. Meredith, and Turner Camac, Esq's. be a committee to request of that reverend gentleman a copy of his Discourse, and to take immediate order for its being printed and distributed:

And that the same committee wait upon Mr. Bedell with a copy of the minute of these proceedings.

Signed, by order,

MATHEW CAREY, Chairman

Attest,
JAMES N. BARKER, Secretary.

[6] To the Committee for the relief of the Greeks.

GENTLEMEN--lf the discourse which was preached at your solicitation, and of which you have taken such favourable notice, can in the least be made useful in advancing the interests of the unhappy people, "our brethren," for whom your sympathies have been so nobly excited, and your exertions so vigorously and perseveringly made--it is yours, to do with as you please. With it you have my best wishes and prayers for the success of the cause itself.

I remain, Gentlemen, yours, &c.

G. T. BEDELL.

March 1st, 1827.


A DISCOURSE, &c.

THERE are none perhaps in this assembly who cannot call to mind those few, and exquisite lines in which the present condition of Greece is so truly, so poetically, so painfully represented by one, the sole merit of whose life, was his devotion to her cause. [Note A.] Yes, my friends, true it is, that the fair sky of Greece, is just as blue--her vallies, so far as nature's loveliness is unalterable by the rudeness of mortal touch, are still as lovely, and her mountains are just as much distinguished for their grandeur and sublimity of scene, as when her poets sung; her philosophers taught, and her orators stimulated the people to deeds of heroic achievement. But what avails all this? The hand of violence hath written on all that remains of Greece, "the glory has departed;" and the classic traveller, as he gazes on her yet blue sky, as he treads her yet green vallies, or as he climbs her yet unmoved mountains, feels heavily on his heart the death-chill which hath settled on all that is around him; and all that he beholds of Greece, is as the faded beauty of some interesting corpse, from which the living principle hath fled,--yet lovely in its death.

I may not, on an occasion like the present, occupy much of your time in speaking of the early history of Greece. This is a subject which would kindle a [7/8] different enthusiasm from that now desirable. Few of the practical purposes of benevolence would be answered by the mere awakening of those recollections which have well nigh slept, since the laws, the philosophy, the letters, the poetry of Greece, formed the delightful topics most familiar to the student, ere the sober realities of life broke him off from what may be termed the romance of her history. Still I know not how my subject may be suitably brought before your attention, unless there should at least be some rapid sketch. Greece, from the period in which fable ceased to mingle with her history, had been constrained to deal with tyrants and oppressors; and has never possessed the elements of strength, either moral or political. This has arisen from the division into small and independent republics, so discordant in their principles as to preclude the possibility of a permanent confederation. There were days of glory, and there were deeds of heroism marking the separate histories of Athens, of Sparta, and of Thebes, which will ever dwell in the memory of man; but had these separate republics known the benefits of a federal government like ours, and possessed the wisdom and the virtue requisite to its formation, they might have effectually resisted every attempt at their subjugation. In the early history of Greece there is little to be found but real bondage, though sometimes disguised under the specious appearances of freedom. If Harmodius and Aristogiton, could succeed in stimulating one of these people to throw off the yoke of the Pisistratidae, yet how soon is Pericles a monarch, though he bore no such magnificent title. Civil wars prevented the enjoyment of real liberty, and ravaged the land, till the battle of Cheronea brought Greece under the [8/9] dominion of the king of Macedon. Then the royal successor of Philip made her sons subservient to his conquest of the world. But masters in those days were soon changed, and from the successors of Alexander, Greece passed under the dominion of the victorious Romans. From the year 146 before the Christian era, to the year 1453 of that era, when the Eastern empire was totally destroyed by Mahomet the II., in the capture of Constantinople, Grecian liberty was a shadowy thing. But it was (luring these 1500 years, that the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ fell on subjugated Greece, and through evil and through good, became at last the predominant religion of the empire. The historian Gibbon, seems to have forgotten, for a moment, the bitterness of his antipathy to christianity, when he so eloquently describes the fall of Constantinople; and, with a singular felicity of thought, calls the last speech of Constantine Palaelogus, is "the funeral oration of the Roman empire." With Constantinople, Greece and Epirus fell to the conquering Turks. The 29th of May, in the year of our Lord 1453, was a memorable epoch, for on that (lay Mahomet the II. passed in triumph through the gate of St. Romanus, and the Turkish Meuzzin ascended the loftiest turret of the church of St. Sophia, to call the conquering people to prayer in the name of God, and the Prophet of Mecca. Then was that glory of the world completely desecrated. On that day the Imaum preached in a hitherto Christian pulpit, and the conqueror himself performed the namaz of prayer and thanksgiving, on the great altar where the Christian mysteries had been so lately celebrated before the last of the Caesars. From the church of St. Sophia, Mahomet went to the desolate mansion of an hundred [9/10] successors of Constantine the Great; but it had already been stripped of every monument of royalty. As the conqueror saw the desolation, a melancholy reflection forced itself upon his mind on the vicissitudes of human greatness, and he called to memory the lines of the Persian poet, "The spider has woven her web in the imperial palace, and the owl hath sung her watch song on the towers of Afrasiab." [Note B.]

From the year 1453, A. D. Greece has bowed to the horrible yoke of Turkish domination, compared to the cruelty of which, the savage ferocity of the wild beasts of the forest, is absolute tenderness. From the period alluded to, a dark and dismal cloud has hung upon this unhappy land, which for no less than four centuries has excluded the glorious light of freedom. During this long period one feeble effort was made by a gigantic power to rescue Greece from this dominion; but it failed. Had not the close of the tragedy developed so much perfidy and horror, we might amuse ourselves with the idea that the descendants of the barbarous Scythians, scarcely then less barbarous than their fathers, should have felt the classic desire of restoring the republics of Solon and Lycurgus. But this was Russian policy, under the Czarina Catharine, and she found no difficulty in rousing the dispirited Greeks by the promise of effectual succours. When the looked for fleet of Russia was seen, as it came round the tenarium promontorium, freedom seemed to ride on the very breeze, and for a moment the Greek thought that the day of his emancipation had arrived. But Russian succour was as deceptive as the south wind, which "softly blowing," enticed the shipmaster, [10/11] whose vessel carried Paul, to leave the haven in which they feared to have been forced to winter. But the deceitful south wind soon gave place to the fierce ac Euroclydon," and shipwreck was the consequence. The peace of Kainargi, hastily concluded between Catharine and the Turks, left the poor deluded patriots in the jaws of the lion; and the vengeance of the Turk was terrible. Posterity will ever reprobate the merciless policy which could have induced that Empress to have left to their fate so helpless and so confiding a people; and little less will posterity execrate the present policy of civilized nations, calling themselves Christian;--for perfidy, is scarcely more criminal than the cold and heartless indifference with which this bloody tragedy has been contemplated. For nearly one hundred years had the silence of slavery again settled on the land of Greece, when in the year 1820, Ypsilanti, a member of one of the most illustrious families of the Fanar, and a connexion of the Emperor Alexander, raised the standard of liberty. His plans were ill concerted, and they failed. But an impulse was given, which, to this date, has carried the Greeks through six years of strife and of suffering, with various success.

I have pursued this brief history, my brethren, merely to pave the way for the considerations which will follow. Refused the aids of the government, on grounds of political expediency, the poor and suffering Greeks have turned to the people of our country; and their claims have been duly recognized, and their wants have, for the most part, been met with a cheerful and a generous impulse. Among the means which an active committee of our philanthopic citizens, have devised to accomplish the sacred purposes of this [11/12] benevolence it, that from the pulpit an effort should be made as a closing appeal upon the subject. On this interesting business I stand before you at this time, and the hope is indulged, that at least some little expression of your bounty may be added to the sums already collected.

To fix your attention, and to prevent on my own part, too much wandering, I have selected as a text suitable for the present occasion, the words of the wise man in his Proverbs, 17th chapter, and 17th verse,

"A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity."

There is an intensity in this language which is worthy of remark:--a friend, says the writer, loveth at all times--is the same in sickness as in health--the same in adversity as in prosperity. Greece has no friend, according to this definition; for to accommodate a passage from the scriptures, "among all her lovers, there is none to comfort her;" and many of her friends, have been like those of David, when he prayed that "their precious balms might not break his head." [Note C.] But there is still further intensity in the terms of the text, "a brother is horn for adversity;" as if it was, on the authority of inspiration, the purpose of our existence to help each other in the time of need; and as if a departure from the spirit of this saying, attempts to alter the design of God, in the relationship of man to man. This, my friends, I wish you to remark as the hinging point of my discourse; and in following out the subject, it will be my object to prove, that the Greeks are emphatically to be called OUR BRETHREN; and if brethren, then, by an irresistible conclusion, are we born for their adversity.

[13] They are our brethren,

I. Because they are struggling for a similar political existence.

II. Because they profess the same religion, and

III. Because they are in a condition of distress and suffering.

I. The Greeks are our brethren because they are struggling for a similar political existence.

It would be little indeed for me to say on this occasion, that the present condition of the Greeks resembles ours at that most eventful period, when our fathers threw the yoke from their shoulders, and determined to be free. Our grievances, at the period alluded to, contrasted with those under which they have groaned for centuries, would not authorize the comparison of a feather to the weight of the world itself. The difference is almost infinite, so great is the aggravation of their condition. Indeed, terms have not yet been invented, of sufficient strength, to express the horrors of their state of vassalage; and fortunately for ourselves, though unfortunately for them, our minds cannot form an idea of wretchedness which might reach the woful character of their slavery. I have avoided touching upon the arguments which may be used in justification of the Greek revolt; [Note D.] and I may not indulge in reflections on the policy which could justify us as a people in looking calmly on the butchery of our brethren, struggling as they are for a political existence. We have set them the example of a well constituted and flourishing republic; and it is not without reason that Greece turns to us her supplicating eye; for it is her wish to [13/14] travel in the path to political eminence which America hath trodden, and to establish a government based on the same great principles. Alas for Greece, that four hundred years of merciless oppression, has produced a far different people from what our fathers were; she has not the same moral elements of liberty which belonged to them at the period of our revolutionary struggle. But she aims at the point to which we have attained; and it appears to me that America, by the example she has set, and by the posture of political importance she has assumed, is the natural ally of every nation which would release itself from the heavy hand of foreign oppression; and the natural guardian of every persecuted people. This is a doctrine, which however adventurous its mention may appear at present, will, ere long, be commonly received. To this point, the political world is at present rapidly advancing; and at this very moment, a state of things is exhibited from which no other result is within the reach of rational conception. Let any individual of liberal and cultivated mind observe the aspect of the age, and he will not fail to be convinced, that the whole civilized world is dividing itself into two great parties; the elements of liberty and knowledge are arraying themselves against those of despotism and ignorance; and the convulsion which will be occasioned when they come, as they must come into contact, will make the older governments of Europe totter to their fall. It was not without wisdom that the British statesman, in his late triumphant speech before the commons of his country, alluded to the next European war that should occur, as a war of opinion; in which no means would be left unemployed, to fix the principles of civil liberty on their firmest foundations. The work in a [14/15] measure began with us, and see how the United States of South America have followed in the march of independence. Come what else there may, that country will never again be permanently governed by a despot. Greece is striving to follow in this path; and I argue her ultimate success, on the principle that these elements of liberty and knowledge are in motion; and if they work silently and slowly, their progress is not the less conspicuous and certain. Think me not visionary, as well as bold, my friends, for I believe the explanation of the whole will adapt itself to the most contracted capacity. The older governments of Europe are not suited to the existing state of things, and every thing which bears the remotest relationship to despotism, is so incongruous with the present advance of society, that it must give way to the force of opinion. The governments of Europe are all but modifications of the feudal system, whose leading vital principle, is the depression of the lower orders of society. But this can no longer be accomplished. There are three great acting causes, which, by preventing the continuance of this depression, will destroy the vital principle of the system. The first of these, which will serve to elevate the lower orders. hitherto in most European governments kept down; is the rapid advance of commerce, and those other means, which enable them to rise in the scale of wealth. The second is the mighty influence of the press, a lever more powerful than that which Archimedes wished, for it will serve to lift the mass of the people from their present moral and intellectual degradation. [Note E.] The last of these great causes, is the spirit of bold inquiry, and deep investigation of principles, which the [15/16] press must produce; for when the minds of men are enlightened by the thoughts and the deductions of others, they will think, and they will form conclusions of their own. All this is so totally irreconcileable with the very first principles of feudal subjection, that a change in political relations is the necessary consequence. Now these causes are in constant and increasing operation, to bring the classes of society more on the level of equality; and whenever this convulsion of opinion shall occur, then must triumph the principles of rational liberty. As there is the array of liberty and knowledge, against despotism and ignorance, America must make common cause with one or with the other; for it were folly to imagine the possibility of a neutral attitude. Consistency, no less than the irresistible impulse of opinion, will rank our country on the side of those principles upon which our own happy government is founded. For reasons such as these, I hesitate not to declare, that the Greeks are our brethren; and if this be so, we are born for their adversity. On such grounds too, I might argue the lawfulness, and the absolute duty of public interference, but this makes no part of my present purpose. The PEOPLE of the land, in their individual capacities, may feel the importance of these considerations; and by acting on this principle, even if their assistance goes no further than food and raiment to the famishing and the naked, show how justly they appreciate the relationship in which, as a free and independent nation, we stand to the struggling, persecuted Greeks.

H. The Greeks are our brethren because they profess the same religion, and we are thus bound to then: as by the tic of a common christianity. This is a [16/17] consideration which few estimate as they should, for it constitutes, one of the most dear and interesting relationships which can possibly be imagined, inasmuch as it brings the sanctions of another world to bear their weight upon the efforts of the present. It is true, indeed, that christianity among the Greeks has lost almost all its characteristic traits. Superstition hath covered up the fair face of religion with a hideous and disgusting veil; and the doctrines of the Cross, which constitute the life as well as the beauty and the sublimity of the faith delivered to the saints, are scarcely heard. Unmeaning forms and childish ceremonies, have been substituted for "the truth as it is in Jesus;" and the Greeks, except when some missionary from the land of gospel light and liberty, leaves among them the unadulterated word of God, have few opportunities of separating that which is "precious," from that which is " vile." But the faith of that branch of the church of Christ, to which, in the Providence of God, the Greek is attached, is not to be judged, by its condition in a land, so trodden under foot and destroyed. In the essentials of religion, the Eastern church long maintained her purity; and when we consider the untoward circumstances, and the troublous times, into the very midst of which that church has been cast, we rather wonder at the purity which remains, than at the loss which has been sustained. So far as the authorized standards of the. Eastern church are concerned, there is in their fundamental principles, a remarkable coincidence with the Articles, the Liturgy, and the Homilies of the church whose minister is it my privilege to be. [Note F.] Founded on [17/18] the profession of a common christianity then, the Greeks are OUR BRETHREN; and a nearer or more endearing relationship it were impossible to establish. On this ground, how are we interested in the issue of the desperate struggle in which they are engaged. The question which depends on the issue, is not the progress, but the existence, of christianity among them. It is whether the Cross of the Redeemer, or the crescent of the impostor of Mecca, shall triumph over this interesting land. It is said, with no less eloquence than truth, in the pamphlet, which, by the untiring zeal of your committee, has been distributed largely among your citizens, that "it is not merely a struggle for freedom and existence to the Greek: it is a contest between the odious and disgusting deformities of Islamism and the religion we profess. It is the cause of the crescent against the Cross; and shall we make no effort in favour of the latter? Shall we do nothing to sustain that religion, which, in the darkest moments of national calamity and of individual distress, has sustained our fathers and ourselves? That religion which offers the best consolations for this life, and the brightest hopes for the next? We have seen, in the course of this revolution, how this religion has been outraged. The very name of Christian has been, every where in Turkey, a title to insult, to chains, and to death. It is a virtue there, to kill 'a Christian dog.' The Turk has known full well how dear is this religion to the Greek. He has often seen him become its martyr. In the desolation of his country, in the entire destruction of her political, civil, and social institutions, it was in the bosom of the church alone that the miserable remnant of this unfortunate [18/19] nation of Christians found refuge. It was here her mangled and bleeding members were gathered, bound up, and comforted. It was here alone they enjoyed even the semblance of community. It was here, amidst the destruction of every thing else, the wretched Greek sought, in his accumulated wrongs and sufferings, support and consolation for the present, and hopes for the future. Bat the inexorable Turk, having stripped him of every thing on earth, would also rob him of his hopes in heaven. It was, therefore, that in this last sanctuary of suffering humanity, her holiest feelings were outraged. We have seen the sacredness of this sanctuary violated. We have seen its highest officers--its venerable patriarch, and his assisting bishops, while performing the most solemn rites of our holy religion, upon one of its highest festivals, while kneeling before her sacred altars, and in the very act of breathing a prayer to heaven for their bleeding country, we have seen that venerable patriarch and these bishops, sacrilegiously torn from their altars, and, in the very robes and insignia of their office, and at the very gates of their temple, ignominiously executed. For three days we have seen their bodies hanging exposed to the scoffs and outrages of infidels and fanatics; and then, after being dragged, ignominiously dragged, through the streets of Constantinople, thrown like dogs into the sea, or to the vultures of heaven."

It is impossible for a Christian to be at a loss to comprehend how deeply the religion of our blessed Redeemer is interested in this conflict. The creed of the impostor Mahomet never has, and never will endure the rivalry of a purer faith. The unceasing effort of their Turkish masters has been to root from among [19/20] the Greeks every principle of christianity, because it opposed its loveliness and purity, to their degrading and sensual superstition. And it is wonderful, 'for in it we must read, even in a dark dispensation, the determination of God, not to leave himself without a witness;) that under so many years of ceaseless persecution, the poor, oppressed, and helpless Greeks, the Christian dogs, as they are contemptuously termed, should not have purchased a temporary quiet, by apostacy from the faith of their fathers; and have saved their lives, every day in jeopardy, even at the distant sacrifice of their everlasting welfare. But in the midst of a fiery furnace, daily and nightly kindled; in a den of lions, who devoured when they pleased, and rested only when they were gorged, they have remained firm to their religion, clouded with superstitions as it was; and they have clung to the Cross, and died at its foot, rather than bow themselves towards Mecca, and seek the light of that pale crescent, striking emblem of a cold and cheerless religion. [Note G.]

On grounds like these, I might ask much more than the sympathies of a Christian people; and I would not feel as if I should disgrace the Christian name, or the ministerial profession, if, from the very heights of Zion, I should, like another Peter, lift the bloodstained banner of the Cross, and cry, in the language of a heroine of old, "to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord, against the mighty." But no,--we ask not that the sword be drawn, we require no armament to be prepared. With their own rude arms, and their own quenchless ardour, must they, [20/21] trusting in the Lord, and animated by the righteousness of their quarrel, carve their own way to liberty. But, we come to solicit for the wives and the children of these Christian martyrs, (oh! dire the necessity that compels such n people to ask such a favour,) something to save them from the horrible catastrophe of famine, more cruel than the sword. To you they are connected by a relationship, constituted by Him, who exhibited the charity of his death, to save their souls, as well as yours; and who has made it one of the fundamental principles of his religion, that we should love the brethren.--Love, that tenderest, noblest, richest of the Christian graces. As if it were impossible for a Christian in such case to refuse the exercise of his benevolence, it is asked, "If any man sect!' his brother have need, and shutteth up his compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"

As a Christian people, we are "born for their adversity;" and ours should be the delightful work, of seeking to prepare the way, by which the religion of the Bible and the Cross, should once more prevail where formerly it was so nobly founded, and so purely professed. But who will there be, to receive the benefits of a purer christianity, if the sons of Greece become, as I fear they may, one band of martyrs? If they should fall beneath the red cymetar of the Turk, till they are exterminated, He, who once spoke to fratricidal Cain, and said, in his thunder, "o the voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me front the ground," will speak to us in his wrath; and visit, on our heads the murder on which we looked, and in which we of course were partakers. But I wander,--pardon the enthusiasm, the folly, if you please; it is not the warrior sons of Christian Greece for whom I a
[21/22] pleading, it is her matrons, her virgins and her children hunted like the "partridge on the mountains," and who, if unrelieved, will perish by famine, and leave their bodies to he devoured by the prowling wolf or the expecting vulture. Yes, as a Christian people, I dare to proclaim, that we are born for their present adversity, and that we can only well discharge, the high and holy claims of the fraternity in which we stand, by our liberal benefactions. Could I believe in the greatest charity, that all who hear me were the real children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, I would leave this matter without one additional observation; for it may be laid down as a principle, that where grace reigns in the heart, benevolence richly flourishes; and the claims of a Christian brother are never disregarded.

Lastly, the Greeks are our brethren because they are in a condition of distress and suffering.

It was a noble saying of an ancient, "I am a man, and therefore nothing which concerns humanity can be indifferent to me." [Note H] If there ever was a people who, by their intensity of suffering, linked themselves to the sympathies of others, it is the people whose appeal is presented to you this evening. If there were no claims to your benevolence, founded on the political relationship they bear you; if there were none founded on the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ which they, like you profess; the relationship of suffering constitutes a claim which finds its way to the heart of sensibility with a resistless impulse. They are a people in an extremity of suffering which language is too poor to represent; for it is not the mere fact, that they are [22/23] contending for those unalienable rights, '"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," with a foe to whom mercy is a term unknown; but they are famishing. If there was nothing against them but the odds of numbers, we might safely leave them to that impulse of freedom, which makes each Greek a host within himself; for the history of this struggle, is proof sufficient, that the spirit of Leonidas has not deserted the bloody pass of Thermopylae. There has been many a recent conflict which has emulated the bravery of Marathon and Platea. But they come to you as a people suffering the most aggravated distresses. Their land, in some of the late campaigns, has been so ravaged by the sword; such ruthless desolation has marked the footsteps of the Turk, that nakedness and famine stare them in the face. The last wind which came across the blue wave of the Atlantic, brought us the intelligence of the sad predicament in which they stand. One of your own countrymen, who has nobly joined his fortunes with those of this suffering people, tells us, in a communication but just issued from the press, that Athens is beleaguered by the Turkish forces; but with a judgment, formed by experience, he says, that the most terrible enemies of the Greeks, are cold and famine. [Note I] No crops have been raised, and the country is not in a condition to produce supplies of food; for to the Turkish advance may be applied the language of the bard:--

"Confusion in the van with flight combin'd,
"And sorrow's faded form and solitude behind."

Yes, your countryman seems to think that the danger of Greece, is here concentrated; and that cold and [23/24] famine may do, what the army of the foe can never accomplish. The scenes of Selo may be acted over--(the blot of that day still stains the character of Christian Europe and America)--and in Athens may fall another Missolonghi. But cold-blooded murder, rapine, cities laid in ruins, are nothing against the cause of Greece, compared to the prospect of famine and of nakedness. These dispirit the energies of the soldier, and they unnerve his arm, not only by their effects on his own person, but because they have in them a moral terror, as they bear their pressure on the wives and daughters and children of the land. The feelings of the Greek, are, I firmly believe, wound up to any pitch of personal endurance; but to see the helpless suffering, is more appalling than the numbers and the ferocity of the Turks. Oh! when I think of the condition in which many are now, and more will soon be placed, I feel as if I wished for language which might have power to seize on every sympathy of your bosoms, and enlist them in this cause of suffering humanity. Oh! how often, may such accumulated distress, bring once more to reality the scenes of Judea's desolation, when the city of the living God was beseiged by the armies of the conquering Titus. Then the sword from without, and the famine within, did their work of death. Famine! I shudder as I remember the description given by one who for his authority, combined the terms of prophecy with authentic history. A fragment of the direful story, is all that I dare to press as a tax upon your feelings, yet I give it, because to this extremity is the Grecian mother verging:

[25] "We had gone forth in quest of food:
And we had entered many a house, where men
Were preying upon meagre herbs and skins;
And some were sating upon loathsome things
Unutterable--their ravening hunger--
At her door, one met us,
The tender and the delicate of women!
She said,--We have feasted oft together,
Most welcome warriors!--And she led us,
And made us sit like dear and honoured guests,
While she made ready. Some among us wm\der'd,
That she had thus with provident care reserved,
The choicest banquet for our scarcest days.
But ever as she busily ministered,
Quirk--sudden sobs of laughter broke from her.
At length, the vessels covering she raised up,
And there it lay--
------The remnant of a child,
A human child!--
Then--then she shriek'd aloud, and clasp'd her hands,
And cried--O dainty and fastidious appetites!
The mother feasts upon her babe, and strangers
Loathe the repast.--
And then she said,
My beautiful child--joy of my bosom!
And then in her cool madness, did she spurn us
Out from her doors." [Note K.]

Thousands of scenes like these will occur, unless, by the hand of some generous charity, efforts be made to remove this pressure; a pressure which now like the cold hand of death, lies on the very heart of Greece.

That I have not in this division of my discourse misrepresented the actual condition of Greece, under Turkish oppression, you may learn from the corroborating language of one of our country's greatest orators; who dared in the Hall of Congress to give his testimony in the cause of humanity.

[26] Conquest and subjugation, as used among European states, are inadequate modes of expression by which to denote the dominion of the Turks. A conquest in the civilized world, is generally no more than an acquisition of a new part to the conquering country. It does not imply a never-ending bondage imposed upon the conquered, a perpetual mark, and opprobrious distinction, between them and their masters; a bitter and unending persecution of their religion; an habitual violation of their rights of person and property, and the unrestrained indulgence towards them, of every passion, which belongs to the character of a barbarous soldiery. Yet, such is the state of Greece. The Ottoman power over them, obtained originally by the sword, is constantly preserved by the same means. Wherever it exists, it is a mere military power. The religious and civil code of the state, being both fixed in the Alcoran, and equally the object of an ignorant and furious faith, have been found equally incapable of change. 'The Turk,' it has been said, 'has been encamped in Europe for four centuries.' He has hardly any more participation in European manners, knowledge, and arts, than when he crossed the Bosphorus. But this is not the worst of it. The power of the Empire is fallen into anarchy, and as the principle which belongs to the head, belongs also to the parts, there are as many despots, as there are pachas, beys and viziers. Wars are almost perpetual, between the Sultan and some rebellious governor of a province; and in the conflict of these despotisms, the people are necessarily ground between the upper and the nether millstone. In short, the Christian subjects of the sublime porte, feel daily all the miseries, which flow from [26/27] despotism, from anarchy, from slavery, and from religious persecution. If any thing yet remains to heighten such a picture, let it be added, that every office in the government, is not only actually, but professedly venal; the pachalics, the visierates, the cadiships, and whatsoever other denomination may denote the depositary of power. In the whole world, there is no such oppression felt, as by the Christian Greeks. In various parts of India, to be sure, the government is bad enough; but then it is the government of barbarians over barbarians, and the feeling of oppression is of course not so keen. There the oppressed, are perhaps not better than their oppressors; but in the case of Greece, there are millions of Christian men, not without knowledge, not without refinement, not without a strong thirst for all the pleasures of civilized life, trampled into the very earth, century after century, by a pillaging, savage, relentless soldiery. The case is unique. There exists, and has existed nothing like it. The world has no such misery to show; there is no case in which Christian communities can be called upon with such emphasis of appeal.

"I am not of those who would, in the hour of utmost peril, withhold such encouragement as might be properly and lawfully given, and when the crisis should be past, overwhelm the rescued sufferer, with kindness and caresses. The Greeks address the civilized world with a pathos, not easy to be resisted. They invoke our favour by more moving considerations, than can well belong to the condition of any other people. They stretch out their arms to the Christian communities of the earth, beseeching them, by a generous recollection of their ancestors, by the [27/28] consideration of their own desolated` and ruined cities and villages, by their wives and children, sold into an accursed slavery, by their own blood, which they seem willing to pour out like water, by the common faith, and in the name which unites all Christians, that they would extend to them, at least some token of their compassionate regard." [Note L]

I have now, my friends, placed before you, the principal relations by which the Greeks are united to us, as our brethren; and I have sought to show you the duty which rises out of such relationship. It is gratifying to remark, that in plans of beneficence like this, there is a promptitude in the people of our country, which is truly national. Let but the tale of any great public calamity reach our ears, and our people are instantly on the alert, to mitigate the evil. In reference to the subject especially before us, a generous movement of compassion seems to have pervaded the land; and one feeling of the necessity of some active exertion to meet the urgency of the case, appears to animate almost every bosom. I need not seek to stimulate your efforts by pointing you to what has elsewhere been accomplished; and I would that the rivalry, which exists between yours and a sister city, were always in so good a cause. But what others have done, is a matter of small moment to us; our obligations are not to be graduated, nor our sensibility measured by efforts elsewhere made. The plain path of duty, which is before us, and the urgent claims of our perishing brethren, are sufficient to stimulate us to the most intense exertion. As to a people then, whose sympathies have already been awakened into effort, I might safely leave the cause to plead in its [28/29] own resistless language; for there is no eloquence equal to the eloquence of the fact, that these poor victims of Turkish oppression, who now lift the supplicating voice to you, are your brethren. Yes, they are dear to you, on the score of the common relationship of man to man; still more dear, because the very height of their earthly ambition is, from the deepest debasement of slavery, to attain a liberty, which renders our country, the oasis of the world. They are still more dear, because, though it is under the darkness of superstition, they profess the same religion on which our fondest, brightest hopes are built As men, in whose bosoms the common feelings of humanity are not yet blunted, I ask you for a liberal benefaction. As Americans, who would desire that the genial influence of liberty should be felt by others as well as by yourselves, I call you to a patriotic effort. As inhabitants of a city, whose name is synonymous with kindliness and charity, I ask you not to disappoint the high wrought expectations of the country. But, when I come to you, and make the appeal of the suffering Greeks, because you are a people, called by the name of Christians, I feel as if I had a demand upon you for a peculiar sympathy; and I come to you with this cause, in the name of Him whose command is the real Christian's law. Is it a small thing, that a people blessed as you are, should see their brethren perishing by famine? Let me tell you that the Greeks are a spectacle to the world, of a daily martyrdom for the faith of Christianity. It is their profession of the religion of the Cross, which, from the fall of Constantinople, four hundred years ago, to the present hour, has armed against them the wildest fanatacism, and the fiercest vengeance of the [29/30] Turk. Let them renounce the religion for which they have poured out so much blood, and wept so many tears; let them but bow the knee in the name of Mecca's prophet, and the deed of apostacy would change every foe into a friend. Living. as you do, in the full enjoyment of religious liberty, you cannot estimate the magnitude of the trial which they are compelled to endure; and your conceptions cannot reach the sublimity of the sacrifices they are daily making. Oh, if there are any in this assembly, whose hearts are warmed by the love of Christ, can you withstand the appeal of the martyr, as his imploring eyes are cast upon the naked and the famishing? If there is one pang, which rends the bosom of the patriot Greek with unutterable anguish, it is that which arises from the anticipated wretchedness of their condition, whom he is compelled to leave behind him to the merciless foe, or the horrible alternative of want. Could he but be assured that the hand of benevolence would discharge the sacred duty of clothing the naked, and feeding the hungry, one portion of bitterness would be abstracted from his overflowing cup. And will ye not do it?

This evening, brethren, we sit in the house of God; peace and quietness reign in this large and populous city; at our homes, we have left, with the fearless confidence of freedom, (oh! blessed be God; for that precious privilege,) many relations and friends; and our children with none to harm them. are now tasting the balmy delights of nature's sweet restorer. When we return, we shall meet them, as they were left,--in safety! What! have we no gratitude, that God hath cast our lot in a land so secure, so blessed? But, mark the terrific contrast of your suffering brethren. At this very moment! ay, while I am speaking to you this evening, they enjoy not one blessing in common with you, save that, which not even Turkish oppression can destroy, the privilege of a secret prayer! But, now, while all is quiet here, and all security at home, are there thousands of fathers and brothers in the tented field, ready for the mortal conflict; and they shall never see, "or wife, or children more, or friends, or sacred home." To-morrow the life-blood of their hearts may hallow the soil which it flowed to rescue. This moment, in the cities and villages of Greece, as yet not swept with the "besom of destruction," is many a Grecian mother, who, as she strives to sooth her unconscious babe to sleep, knows not whether it shall see the light of another day; she knows not but that her eye, which now in the intensity of agony, watches its soft slumbers, may, ere the morrow, through their own death-film, see the Turkish ataghan pierce its tender bosom. Yes, and when you retire from. this church, as the evening chill forces you to draw the provided covering closer round your bosoms, oh! spare one thought to those, who, in the mountain fastnesses of Greece, feel on their houseless heads, the frost; and through whose scanty vestments the night-wind finds an unresisted passage. To-morrow, when it comes to you, will come with comforts, and with blessings multiplied, but to them it will bring no cheering; for to the cold and nakedness of the night will succeed the famine of the day; and the limbs which have rested on the cold damp earth, and the head which is pillowed on the naked and inhospitable rock, will find no respite from pain and wretchedness; because. When [31/32] the broken sleep is over, hunger and thirst will urge their unpitying claims. But, brethren, why should I speak thus? Oh! thou most merciful Father of us all, is it necessary that such unwearied efforts should be made to induce a people like these assembled, to feel for the perishing, the tenderness of pity? Brethren, I beseech you. by all the mercies of that God who hath blessed you with an unsparing hand, turn not an ear of indifference to this call of your brother, naked, destitute, desolate and perishing! All that he asks for himself, for wife and children, suffering the accumulated horrors of war, of cold, and of famine, amounts to but little more than one morsel of bread, and one cup of water. Let it ring in your ears, that your brother is perishing; and the once proud, the herioc Greek, sues to the freeborn Christian son of America, for the crumbs which fall from his table. Are you not born for this, their season of adversity? Can you be called to the exercise of a higher and a nobler beneficence? Yes, let the world be told, that, though considerations of national policy may have forbidden an armed interference in this desperate struggle for life and liberty, the People of the land have, as by one noble, one majestic, one simultaneous movement, answered to the call of Greece, by a charity as extensive as the need. I will not fear to put this case into your hands, and trust you for the issue. You will generously prove the birth-right privilege of assistance to the needy and the famishing. You will commission some swift messenger, whose feet shall be beautiful upon the mountains; you will exhibit to the world that spectacle of the moral sublime, the sympathies of a people roused to intense exertion. You will give wings to some well [32/33 appointed vessel, and she shall bear over the bosom of the mighty deep, the burden of your generosity; and the prayer of the pious, will go up before the mercy seat, that God may speed her on the way.

Perhaps, my brethren, when your bounty shall have reached that land of desolation and of death, the fate of Greece will have been decided; and the cymetars of the Turks again made drunk in the blood of her sons and daughters. If it should be so!--if these barbarians should have become the unresisted masters of Greece, and her epitaph have been written in her blood; then, one noble satisfaction will be yours, that you have discharged a high, a sacred duty. You will have washed from your hands all the guilt of blood. But, my friends, I anticipate for Greece a brighter destiny. I will not allow such dark and dismal forebodings; for though the cloud is heavy, and though torrents fall, and though the lurid lightning descends, and though the thunder rolls, hope spreads one line of light upon the bosom of the storm; and anticipation paints the rainbow on the cloud as it retreats, far, far away. Oh, if the sun of freedom shall once more pour on this land its full, warm, vivifying beam; if the way shall be prepared by which institutions like our own can be established, where Solon and Lycurges legislated; if facilities are offered, by which the religion of the Son of God, in all its knowledge and holiness and purity, shall take the place of ignorance and superstition, and pollution; and the Greek experience that moral transformation which qualifies him by the new created nobility of his spiritual condition to rank with the people of the Most High God, both here and hereafter; and if all these things should come to pass through your instrumentality, blessed, thrice blessed. [33/34] will be the effort. Oh, yes! if your sympathy, now awakened, should rouse the almost despairing energy of the Greek to more intense exertion; should it kindle the animation of hope on the patriot's brow, and nerve him to a deeper struggle; should it sustain but for a little while the needy and famishing; should your bread, now about to be "cast upon the waters," return to you ere many days, in the recovered liberties. in the regenerated christianity, in the newfound happiness of Greece; never--never would it be among the regrets of your life, but rather among your brighest reminiscences, that on this night, hallowed in the history of your benevolence, you gave--and gave, not with a niggard parsimony, but a liberal, open handy to clothe your naked, feed your famishing brother.


APPENDIX.

Note A.--See page 8.

THE reader need not be directed to the passage alluded to. it is too common to require a remark. Lord Byron was the friend of Greece, but the enemy of mankind. With him, as is well observed, "the mental grandeur of the man, and the elevation of his character, consist, not in devotedness of heart and soul, to every thing laudable, and lovely; not in cultivating either the milder or more vigorous graces of his better nature; not in the will to act virtuously and to suffer patiently; but in his power to be greatly evil, and to endure the consequences of his daring, in stern obduracy." Alfieri, according the quotation of his noble admirer, has said, "La pianta uomo mase pin robusta in Italia the in qualunque altra terra--é che gli stessi atroci delitti the vi si cotumettono ue sono una prova." In the latter part of this remark, Alfieri might have embodied a prevailing sentiment of Lord Byron, that mental vigour and energy may be estimated, even by the extent of crime. The writer has been struck with a remark in the review of Mrs. Iceman's Poems, in the American Quarterly Review, just published in this city, from the Press of Messrs. Carey & Lea. " Genius," says the reviewer, "can, it is true, of itself attract attention; but cannot win continued and universal admiration except in alliance with virtue."

Note B.--See page 10.

See Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. VI. chapter 68th. The General assault on Constantinople on the morning of the 29th of May, the death of Constantine Palaelogus, the pillage of the city and the captivity of the Greeks.. are told with extraordinary pathos.

Note C.--See page 12.

It is melancholy, that the Greeks should have had to deal, not only with the cruelty of the Turks, but with the rapacity of many, who have stood out in the character of friends. We are not aware that any of the monies raised by means of charitable exertions have been misapplied. But the money which was procured by loans, has been most sadly wasted: or rather has served to enrich agents at the expense of those for whose benefit it was intended. It is not meant to enter into the controversy about the Greek Frigates, the reproach of which will be hardly wiped away by the great exertions lately made in New York. We would direct the attention of our readers to a very lucid exposition of this whole subject, contained in the first number of the American Quarterly Review, before alluded to. The article affords ample illustration of the correct accommodation of the passage of Scripture to which this note is attached. The writer of the Review concludes his article in these words, "We believe we hazard nothing in asserting, that the general sentiment of our country is that of disapprobation and regret. No American Journal has uttered a word in extenuation of the obliquity; many of our public writers have stigmatized it; not a voice has pronounced a favourable sentence, but from the circle of the parties. The only instance in which we could render to the Greeks any substantial service, has manifestly been perverted by private cupidity to unwarrantable emolument; a profit of 80,000 dollars made out of their distresses by their mercantile correspondents, the 'diplomatic agents' of the arbitrators; 50,000 dollars extorted for the use of ship-yards, and personal services of the owners, without expending any of their own money; 10,000 dollars, the sine qua non of a captain of the United States' Navy, for superintending an operation in 'a just and sacred cause;' 4,500 dollars imposed on them by arbitrators, for the dedication of a few days to the dispensation of justice! This disgraceful catalogue needs not to be extended. If these pamphlets, and this review of them, should ever reach the shores of Greece, the bitter sensations which will be excited by the exposure of the transaction, may perhaps be alleviated by the assurance, that here sympathetic feelings also are found?'

Note D.--See page 15.

The term, "Greek revolt," is used because their present conflict is generally so spoken of; but it is unquestionably a misnomer, highly injurious to this noble cause. It is hoped that the reader will excuse some little enlargement on this subject, as it is the wish of the writer to present it in as favourable a light as possible. To constitute a people in a state of revolution, it is necessary that there should have been a previously acknowledged and uninterrupted rule. The war of Independence was, in reference to ourselves, a revolt. because the authority of the mother country was an authority established by original colonization and consent. But not so the Greeks; for it may be proved, on historical grounds, that the Turks were never considered in the light of legitimate [36/37] rulers; and from none other can there be a revolt. Where legitimate rule is to be established by the right of conquest, it is essential that the subjugation should be entire; and that all traces of usurpation have disappeared. This never was the condition of the Greeks; for in the impressive language of their own writers, it is said that "Greece never signed the sentence of her own slavery." This country has never been quietly in possession of the Turks. Before as well as after their abandonment by the Russians, there have been continual though ineffectual struggles for independence; and these struggles were as the voice of the nation, protesting against Turkish usurpation. In Epirus the spirit of Scandeberg was never altogether extinguished; and the unsubdued mountaineers in the recesses of Taygetus, might as justly be considered the true representatives of the Greek Christians, as the bands of Pelagius, in the Asturian mountain, of the Spanish Christians. A. descent from their mountains to plant the Cross above the crescent, was just as lawful in the one case as the other. Indeed the case of the Greeks is the stronger, for, when in the beginning of the eighth century the Saracens subverted the empire of the Visigoths in Spain, Abdallah, the Moor, married the widow of King Rodrigo, who had been slain, and thus united the kingdoms of Spain and Morocco. But, one little territory among the rocky mountains of Astoria maintained its allegiance to its Christian Prince Pelagius, and was never subdued; and, under Alphonso the Chaste, the Christians descending from the mountains, made powerful encroachments on the Moorish dominion. Little, however, was done from the middle of the eighth to the middle of the tenth centuries. At this time, the Moorish dominions were split among a number of petty sovereigns, though they still possessed three-fourths of Spain. It was not till 1491, that these were completely subverted by Ferdinand and Isabella. This state of things had existed 800 years, during the whole of which time, the voice of these Christians, and their continual struggle, had been against their usurpers. No one calls this a revolt, and yet in what does it differ from the situation of the Greeks, except in this, that the Moorish domination was of a milder character? This still more strengthens the Greek cause. Grotius, in his fourth book De Jure, &c. observes, "si bello injusto et cui juris gentium requisita non adsint imperium arrepuit, (invasor,) neque pactio ulla sequita sit, aut fides illi data, sed solo vi retineatur possessio videter manere belli jus." To the writer, therefore, revolt appears to be a term not proper, as applied to the Greek struggle; for they have never acknowledged masters. An article in the British Review for November, 1825, entitled " Greece," is a masterly exposition of the whole subject.

[38] Note E.--See page 15.

One of the most important works of the age is "Foster's Essays on Popular Ignorance." A work which cannot but have a powerful effect wherever it is disseminated. The reader, who would be pleased with some most judicious disquisitions in a popular form, would be well repaid the trouble of reading also two sermons of Rev. Francis Wayland, delivered in Boston, on the 7th of April, 1825, being Fast Day.

From a note attached to these sermons the following important and interesting facts are gathered, relating to the means of disseminating knowledge by the press. " Until about 30 years, the Gentleman's Magazine was almost the only extensively circulated periodical pamphlet in Great Britain. In this department of literature are now numbered, the Edinburg and Quarterly Reviews; Westminster Review; Blackwood's, The Scotsman's, Monthly, New Monthly, Gentleman's, and Sporting Magazines; The Christian Observer; Eclectic Review; Universal Review; The Etonian; The Oxonian; Ackerman's Repository; Retrospective Review; London Magazine; Baldwin's Magazine; The Churchman; Evangelical Magazine; Mechanic's Magazine; The Literary Chronicle; The Literary Gazette; The Kaleidoscope; New Castle Magazine; British Critic; Pamphleteer; Classical Journal; Christian Guardian; Cottager's Magazine; Farmer's Magazine; Sunday School Magazine; European Magazine; Imperial Magazine; Literary Magnet; Knight's Quarterly Magazine; four Botanical Journals, monthly; three of general science, quarterly; besides several other scientific and professional periodical works. Some of these are splendidly edited; many ably, and most well, supported. The largest works print from 5 to 14,000 copies.

Upon the eight morning and six evening papers in London, there are no less than 150 literary gentlemen employed, at an expense of £1000 per week; for workmen, £1500 per week; and £1500 more for the literary labours of the weekly and semi-weekly papers. There are, on an average, 250 provincial papers: 300,000 papers are ordinarily printed in London weekly, and 200.000 in the country; total, 500,000. The whole amount of the expenses of the British Newspaper press is estimated at £721,266 per annum. The total number of newspaper stamps issued in Great Britain, for the year 1821, was 24,779,786

From these facts ire may form some idea of the demand for information in Great Britian. But one other fact may cmivince us, that the number of readers very far exceeds the number of printed papers. It is there a custom for carriers to sell out in all directions daily, and let palters out to customers, for a few moments to each. a: they proceed, until night: so that [38/39] a hundred persons may read or rather glance over the same paper for a penny each..

There are but few papers published in the departments of France, but those in the metropolis publish an enormous number. The Constitutionel publishes 19,000; the Journal Des Debate 14,000, and the other papers front that to 5,000. It is probable that the ratio of improvement in many nations on the continent of Europe, is not very far beneath that of Great Britian.

Note F.--See page 17.

If any reader should desire further satisfaction on the subject, he may be referred to the work of Platen, late Metropolitan of Moscow, "On the Christian Divinity." As to the fundamental principles of the corruption of human nature, justification by faith, &c. there is great clearness and precision. The work has been ably translated front the Slavonian by Robert Pinkerton, the indefatigable agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who laboured so successfully in Russia. It was printed in this country in 1815, by Collins & Co. New York.

Note G.--See page 20.

The short paragraph to which this note refers, is taken from a discourse delivered by the writer in St Andrew's church, on the 18th of January, 1824; when the sum of 250 dollars was generously given by the congregation to the Greek fund then raised. The discourse was printed at the request of the vestry. As the passage may be remembered by some who have read both discourses, this explanation has been thought expedient.

Note H.--See page 22.

"Homo sum; et humani á me nil alienum puto."--Terence.

Note I.--See page 23.

The document referred to is the letter of Dr. S. G. Howe, dated Napoli, October 16th, 1826, the postscript to which is as follows:--

P S. I cannot forbear to repeat, what I had stated in former letters, that the worst foes with which the Greeks have to contend, are starvation and nakedness. The crops in many parts of the country are cut off by the operation of war, and all the population in those parts of the country occupied by the enemy is driven to the mountains. The little surplus produce which can be raised, will barely be sufficient for the first months of winter. and nothing but the succours of the friends of Greece, [39/40] in Europe, and may I not add America, will be able to avert all the horrors of famine the ensuing spring.

Note K.--See page 25.

This extract is from the "Fall of Jerusalem," by Rev. H. H. Milman. The form has been varied a little, to adapt it to the intended purpose. It is a high wrought picture of famine and founded on the prophecy which is contained in Deuteronomy, 28th chapter, and 56th and 57th verses. Perhaps the most terrific view of the horrors of famine in our language is to be found in one short interrogatory in the 20th verse of the 2d chapter of the Lamentations of Jeremiah; in which the women, in the extremity of their distress, are represented as eating their own infants as soon as they were born. Scott remarks upon this passage, that it is an intimation which fills the mind with the utmost horror; and implies the greatest possible extreme of earthly misery, inducing desperation and barbarity; and our thoughts recoil from it as too shocking to be dwelt upon: Yet in the struggle which the Greeks are making, many scenes of a similar character to this must occur, if the war should be protracted and no succours afforded. The sensation of hunger is described as so horrible in itself, that it produces, when in extremity, absolute madness; and the suffering is so great that nothing is too loathsome to prevent being resorted to as an alleviation from the terrible distress.

Note L.--See page 28.

See Mr Webster's speech in the House of Representives, on the 19th of January, 1824, when the following resolution, offered by that gentleman, was taken up in committee of the whole.

"Resolved, That provision ought to be made, by law, for defraying the expense incident to the appointment of an agent or commissioner to Greece, whenever the President shall deem it expedient to make such appointment."

For this document, as well as others relating to the Greek cause, the writer acknowledges his obligation to the politeness of Mathew Carey, Esq.


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