MISCELLANEOUS.

PROPOSED WEEK OF SPECIAL PRAYER-JANUARY 4-11, 1863.

The following Circular, dated London, August. 1862, and signed by Sir Cutting E. Eardley, Chairman, and other officers of the British Organization of the Evangelical Alliance, will we trust, receive the earnest attention of all our readers. There is need of Prayer!

FORMER invitations to observe a Week of Special and United Prayer at the beginning of the year have met with a very extensive and hearty response. From almost every country in every quarter of the globe did much prayer ascend to heaven during that hallowed week on behalf both of the Church and the World.

The manifest blessings by which these seasons have been marked render it imperative upon us to repeat them. Christians of every country and name are, therefore, affectionately recommended to set apart the eight days, January 4-11 (inclusive) of the ensuing year, for simultaneous and earnest supplication with thanksgiving to Him who has commanded: "Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

The following topics are suggested as suitable for a prominent place in our exhortations and intercessions on the successive days, the general adoption of which would give a character of agreement to our services highly acceptable to the Lord (for so He has taught us), and animating in the consciousness of it to our own hearts. Sunday, Jan. 4.-- SERMONS ON THE DISPENSATION OF THE SPIRIT. Monday, "5.-HUMBLE CONFESSION OF OUR MANIFOLD SINS: As Individuals, Families, Churches, and Nations. PRAYER for the Lord's blessing on the services of the week. Tuesday, Jan. 6.-THE CONVERSION OF THE UNGODLY: Especially those of our own Families and Congregations; larger success to all the means employed for the Evangelization of different Classes of the Population, and for checking every form of vice and immorality. Wednesday, Jan. 7.-INCREASED SPIRITUALITY AND HOLINESS IN THE CHURCHES OF GOD: Leading to their closer union and sympathy with each other, and their more marked separation from the world: a richer baptism of the Holy Spirit on all Ministers and their fellow-laborers in Christian lands, to quicken their love and zeal, and make them "wise to win souls": a blessing upon all Seminaries of sound learning and religious education: a large increase of devotedness, self-denial, and liberality on the part of the people at large. Thursday, Jan. 8.-The Conversion of the Jews: the more extensive and successful Preaching of the Gospel among the HEATHEN: the revival of pure Christianity among the ANCIENT CHURCHES OF THE EAST: the overthrow of every form of anti-Christian error the comforting and liberation of them who are in bonds for the Gospel's sake the prevalence of Peace among all Nations: a blessing upon the souls of all Brethren and Sisters engaged in Missionary labor among Heathen and other unevangelized populations.

Friday, Jan. 9.-THE WORD OF GOD: The universal recognition of its Divine inspiraration and authority: the power of the Holy Spirit to accompany its circulation and perusal.

THE LORD'S DAY: The acknowledgment of its sanctity and obligation: a blessing upon all efforts for promoting its better observance at Home and on the Continent. Saturday, Jan. 10.---THANKSGIVING for our numerous Temporal Blessings and Spiritual Privileges: PRAYER for Kings and all in authority for all who are suffering from war, or scarcity, or any other affliction: FOR ALL SORTS AND CONDITIONS OF Men. Sunday, Jan. 11.-SERMONS: The Church "praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance."

May THE SPIRIT of grace and of supplication be abundantly poured out upon all who respond to this invitation! May their prayers come up with acceptance before God, the FATHER ALMIGHTY, through the Priesthood of HIS BLESSED SON! The Lord “will be very gracious unto thee at the voice of thy cry: when He shall hear it, He will answer thee.”

TO OUR READERS.-The most of you, dear Friends, will read these lines before New-Year's Day. We, therefore, seize this opportunity to wish you all a Happy New Year! God grant that the year Eighteen Hundred and SixtyThree may be a useful one to us all, for it will then be a happy one. If we shall be permitted to see the end of it, may we be able to review it with gratitude and pleasure. Perhaps it may please God to restore Peace and Prosperity to our suffering country before that time. May He grant us that great blessing

for Christ's sake!

We shall need your liberal aid during the year that is just commencing. We are grateful for your kind responses in the past; we have no doubt they will be as prompt and generous in the future. Our work is extending greatly, and the unfavorable state of the foreign exchanges is such that it makes a large addition to our receipts absolutely necessary to meet the demands made upon us. It is remarkable that just when times are hardest with us, the doors of usefulness abroad, for this Society, are becoming more numerous and more open. The Saviour is trying the faith and love of His people, and they are made to feel the worth of money more than ever.

We must say a word in behalf of our CHRISTIAN WORLD-just to beg those who appreciate it, to do all they can to procure subscribers for it now, at the beginning of the year. A distinguished pastor in Brooklyn lately recommended it most earnestly from his pulpit. We wish that many others would do so.

BOOK NOTICES.-We have in type, but regret to be compelled to postpone, the book notices for this month. We shall give quite a variety in our February number.

Receipts

ON BEHALF OF THE AMERICAN AND FOREIGN CHRISTIAN UNION, FROM THE 1ST OF NOVEMBER TO THE 1ST OF DECEMBER, 1862.

63 31

73 85

50 00

32 00

35 57

THE

CHRISTIAN WORLD.

VOL. XIV.

FEBRUARY, 1863.

No. 2.

THE REVOLUTION IN GREECE.

In the last number of THE CHRISTIAN WORLD we referred to the recent, or rather the present, Revolution in Greece. We now purpose to speak more fully of this event, which we deem to be a very important one in its probable bearing on the spread of the Gospel in the East.— We would remark at the outset that it is worthy of note that, whilst many Christian people in this land were occupied with the Mission of the Rev. George Constantine, who, with his wife, sailed in the Kangaroo on the first day of November, and with the visit of the Rev. Dr. Kalopothakes of Athens, who had come to consult us about his work in Greece, and especially his religious journal entitled The Star in the East, and whilst many prayers were being offered up in behalf of that country, so dear to the scholar and the Christian, a Revolution was at that very time going forward there, which bids fair to exert a most important influence in behalf of civil and religious liberty.

The modern kingdom of Greece, embracing in its continental and insular divisions 10,500 English square miles, and a million and a quarter of inhabitants, grew out of a Revolution which the Greeks achieved some thirty-five years ago, after a cruel subjection to the Turks, more or less complete, for four hundred years. That Revolution began on the 23d day of March, 1821, in the neighborhood of Patras, in the north-western corner of the Morea. Bishop Germanos, Petron Mavromichalis, (Bey of Maina), and Alexander Mavrocordato were among the earliest leaders in the movement, which soon involved all of what is now called Greece, together with Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and the Greek Islands. But the Turks had no great difficulty in re-establishing their sway in all these countries, save Greece, whose independence was acknowledged by England, France, and Russia in 1828.

It was not till the month of January, 1822, that a Congress for all Greece was convoked at Epidaurus, a Provisional Constitution formed,

and a National Government organized, with Mavrocordato at its head. During the seven years of the war there were several Presidents; but in the latter part of it, and for several years afterwards, Count Capo d'Istria, a native of Corfu, who had been some time in the service of the Emperor Alexander of Russia, was chosen (1827) to that office, mainly with the view of pleasing the great Powers; and especially that of Muscovy, on which the Greeks counted so much, by reason of the affinity which a common phase of Christianity had established between all the adherents of the Greek Church. This distinguished and able man was a most thorough absolutist, and therefore soon became unpopular with the Greeks as a ruler. On the 9th of October, 1831, he was assassinated by George and Constantine Mavromichalis, as he was about to enter the Church of St. Spiridion, at Nauplia, which was then, and for six years afterwards, the capital of the country. One reason why he was murdered was the fact that he had, it was believed, secretly used his influence to induce Leopold of Coburg (now king of Belgium) to relinquish the crown of Greece, which had been offered to him by the Three Great Powers (England, France, and Russia,) and which he had accepted. After this event the Great Powers chose the brother of the famous Louis, late king of Bavaria; but he refused positively to accept the throne. They next chose, in an evil hour, Otho, the second son of king Louis, and brother of the present king of Bavaria—a youth of only seventeen years, who had been brought up by Jesuit teachers This election took place at London the 7th of May, 1832. The young prince accepted the appointment in October of that year, and ascended the throne on the 25th of January old style (the 6th of February N.S.) 1833, under a regency which lasted till the 1st of June, 1835, when he was twenty years of age. On the 22d of November, 1836, he was married to the Princess Mary-Frederica-Amelia, daughter of the late grand duke Augustus of Oldenberg. In the early part of 1837, their Majesties made their entrance into Athens, which had become the capital of the new kingdom.

The reign of king Otho was far from being happy. Under the influence of his arbitrary father and the Courts of Russia, Austria, and Prussia, rather than that of England and France, he governed the country on the principles of an absolute monarch. Still more, he retained Germans in his cabinet, and several thousand Bavarian soldiers in the chief military posts of the kingdom.

But this state of things came to an end in the month of September, 1843, when the people of Athens, headed by the excellent Kallerges, rose en masse, marched to the splendid palace which they had erected for the royal family at an expense greater than they could well bear, and gave the king twelve hours in which to decide to call a Convention