are there, whose attendance on some of the external ordinances of religion, instead of becoming a most valuable means of obtaining decided renovation of disposition and character, appears to have no other effect, than that of lulling them into a most fatal lethargy, and of enabling them to pronounce, with more destructive emphasis to their conscience, Peace! Peace! when there is no peace.

The Greeks have no less than four Lents in each year; one before Easter, another before Christmas, a third in honour of the Virgin Mary, and a fourth in honour of the Apostles, St. Peter and St. Paul. Add to these, two weekly fasts, and the other occasional fasts; and the number of days, annually, on which fasting is enjoined, exceeds those on which permission to eat animal food is sanctioned. The weekly fast-days fall on Wednesday and Friday; and it is one of the melancholy instances of contest for trifles, to which the Greeks have too easily descended, that they maintain with warmth the propriety of fasting on Wednesday, and not on Saturday, as is the case in the Church of Rome.

In many of these exercises of abstinence, minute attention is paid to special articles of food permitted or proscribed. Frequently, not only the flesh of land animals, but every kind of fish is

forbidden. A species of polypus, oxтañódi, is at these times in great request; and, in general, shellfish and bloodless creatures are allowed. Even cheese, eggs, milk, and oil, are amongst the unlawful articles of diet. In the course of Lent, some days intervene when a degree of indulgence is conceded, and cheese and oil are permitted: hence one of the Sundays in Lent is called Cheese-Sunday. I have even observed the Lesson for the day designated by this title.

In the very frequent conversations on this subject, which I have had in various parts of the Levant, I have found that the sign of apostacy, intimated (1 Tim. iv. 3.) by the command to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving, has not failed to produce considerable effect. The declaration, too, of the Pharisee, I fast twice in the week, strikes them with peculiar force; for every Greek is at once brought to the recollection, that he has been relying on the very same observance, as a matter of first-rate importance. It will perhaps be thought singular, but I have found the remark universal, that it is to be attributed, as a principal cause, to the fasts of the Church, that the lower orders have been prevented from embracing generally the Mussulman religion.

CHAPTER V.

RELIGION OF THE MODERN GREEKS.

The Seven Mysteries or Sacraments

Baptism-Mode of

Immersion-Classical Names given to Children-The Chrism -Transubstantiation recently introduced amongst the Greeks -Mode of celebrating the Lord's Supper-Azymists and Enzymists-Confession, and Absolution-Abuses arising from these doctrines-Anecdote of a Monk who confessed to the Author-Excess of precaution against the Marriage of Relatives-The Holy Oil—Animosities of the Greeks and Latins —Procession of the Holy Ghost-View of Purgatory— Marriage of the Clergy-Monasticism-Concluding Remarks.

THE Greeks, as well as the Latins, number Seven Sacraments or Mysteries. Of these, they consider Baptism and the Lord's Supper of superior importance.

In their estimation, it is of great moment that immersion be employed in Baptism; nor do they hold any person baptized, who has not been three times immersed; once in the name of the Father, once in the name of the Son, and a third time in the name of the Holy Ghost. But though, in argument, they insist so much on immersion, in practice it can scarcely be asserted that they use this form. The child to be baptized

is placed naked in a baptistry; which, with them, is a portable vessel, not containing water sufficient for the act of plunging. The priest, by means of his hands, pours the water over the entire body of the child, three times; and this is their mode of immersing. They also consider it important that the form of words employed be this: "N.N. the servant of God is baptized;" and not, "I baptize thee, N.N."

In conversing on this subject, as I have frequently been obliged to do, I have endeavoured to turn their attention to the grand doctrine of Regeneration, represented by Baptism; and I have inculcated on them how fruitless must be the most orthodox form of this rite, when this grand essential to Salvation is wanting. On the rite itself I have insisted, that whilst I believed their own mode of administering it perfectly legitimate, yet, as water was simply the sign, there could not be any importance in the quantity of that element which was employed; and that we have good reason to believe that, in the primitive ages, Baptism was administered sometimes by immersion, and sometimes by sprinkling or pouring. On reading the English Prayer-book, the Greeks never fail to remark, with peculiar pleasure, the directions for immersing the child,

which are contained in the Rubric; and in conformity with these instructions, as well as to avoid infringing needlessly on prejudice, I was most desirous of immersing the three Jewish Converts whom I baptized at Constantinople. Nothing but the extreme inconvenience of that practice, in their circumstances, prevented me from doing so.

The names which are now given to Greek children are frequently derived from their classical ancestors. Epaminondas, Themistocles, Leonidas, and the like, are commonly heard amongst them. With females a greater difficulty occurs; as, unhappily, the celebrated women of Ancient Greece can by no means be proposed as examples to Christian females. Hence, I was delighted to hear the excellent Theophilus, late Professor of Haivali, condemning the conduct of those who were giving their children the names Sappho, Aspasia, &c., and proposing the adoption of such terms as Evanthia and Eudoxia, which were classical in their origin, even though no distinguished personages so denominated might have lived in the classical ages. His own sister had acted on this suggestion, and changed her name to Evanthia.

In the Greek Church, the mystery of the chrism or holy ointment, which is considered analogous