Locked up. Between the Services, the families, sometimes by themselves, and at others several families toge ther, are employed in singing and prayer; and this in every quarter of the town. After Evening Service they retire to their houses; and I have, many times, heard singing in the town till even past midnight. On Week-Days, we have Family Prayer, morning and evening, in the Church; and never less than 500 attend, sometimes 900, or it is full. After Evening Service, an AdultSchool is held till nine, when they return to family duties. My feelings on resuming my la. bours, differ in some respects from those with which I first went to Africa, I have not to go to a people altogether in Heathen Darkness; but my business is now, not only to turn men from but to build up the darkness to light, people of God in their most holy faith and Who is sufficient for these things? All our sufficiency is of God! I am going out, I trust, in the same spirit in which I went four years ago -leaning entirely on the strength of the Lord. The climate, it is true, is still very unhealthy, and some of my dearest friends and brethren in the Lord have fallen victims to it since my departure; but, by the grace of God, none of these things move me. I am ready to go to Sierra Leone, and die there for the Name of the Lord Jesus and, while I am speaking thus, I doubt not but I speak the language : of the friends who are about to accom pany me. Who, indeed, can read the animating reports of the departure of our Brethren and Sisters in the faith, without being encouraged, instead of being cast down! We go then, in the Name of the Lord; determined, by Ilis grace, to know nothing among men save Jesus Christ and Him cru cified. Conclusion of the Instructions. Difficult, indeed, Christian Friends, is that work which is committed to you, and far surpassing your own strength and wisdom: but it is in the Name of our Almighty Saviour, and depending on the Grace of the Holy labours. The pitying eye of the EterSpirit, that you are sent forth to your nal Father will follow you in all your conflicts, and His ear be ever open to your prayers. The warm affections and earnest petitions of multitudes in this land will follow you; and whether we meet or not again in this world, we hope to join with you, and with numbers who shall be brought through your labours to Heaven, in an everlasting Song of Praise to Him who will have washed us from our sins in His own blood, and mude us Kings and Priests unto God and his Father: to whom be glory and dominion for ever and ever, Amen. By order of the Committee, Church Missionary House, Address to the Missionaries, by the Rev. T. T. Biddulph, M.A. Dearly Beloved in the Lord While addressing you by this endearing appellation, borrowed from Apostolic usage, and adopted in all the Offices of our Church, I remind myself and you of our union with the adorable Head of the Universal Church; and of that communion and fellowship which subsists between all the members of His mystical body, wherever locally situated, or whatever station they hold in the sacramenta community. It is also intended to remind us, that all our resources are in Him, from whom, as from the Head, the whole body of Christians, being har moniously joined, and strongly cemented together in the closest union, by the supply of every joint through proper channels of communication, (as by the veins and arteries, the nerves and sinews, in the natural body,) according to the energy which is proportionable to the necessity of every part, and properly adapted to its respective place and function, makes an uniform and happy increase of the whole body, by the regular growth and nourishment of each member, to the edifying of itself in love*." In addressing you by this endearing appellation, I use not words of course; but such as give a true expression to my own feelings on this solemn oceasion; and, I persuade myself, such also as are suited to express the feelings of all who are here present, nay, of all the absent Members of our Society. Your present interesting situation, as about to be dismissed to the honourable but arduous work of serv. ing Our Lord in His Gospel among the Heathen, calls forth much Christian affection toward you; aud masy fervent prayers, that you may be preserved and blessed in that work. Though many of your faces were unknown to me till now, and though most probably we shall never see them again after this day, till we meet, as I humbly trust we shall, at the right hand of the Great Judge of quick and dead, in the day of His appearing and glory: yet I feel, and shall continue to feel, a lively interest in all that concerns you; and shall anxiously look out, while life and sense and memory remain with me, for intelligence of my dearly beloved Brethren and Sisters in the Lord,, who have devoted themselves to this service in distant Heathen Lands. In fulfilling the office which the Committee of the Church Missionary • Doddridge's Paraphrase on Eph. iv. 16. Society have devolved on me-an office which I have reluctantly undertaken, because I am conscious of utter disqualification for its due performance-in fulfilling this office, I shall briefly state to you, what are the DESIRES OF MY HEART ON YOUR BEHALF desires, which He can read, who reads the heart. And I know that He is able and willing to do exceeding abundantly for you above all that I can ask or think. In adopting this method of addressing you, a method more congenial than any other with the feelings of my own bosom, I shall, of necessity, interweave therewith such advice as appears to me adapted to the circumstances in which you now are placed, or may be hereafter. But while, in all humility of mind, I offer such advice, I shall not fail to recollect how little one who has only seen a storm on canvas, can judge of the reality which it represents; and how little one who only knows by report the joy of a successful Missionary's soul, in the gradual progress of his work, can rightly estimate the ecstacy of that joy. 1. I PRAY, then, my Brethren and Sisters, dearly beloved in the Lord, that you may be preserved, by the merciful providence of God, from the various evils of life, to which our frailty exposes us; and from the injurious effects which might result to health or life, from a change of climate, habits, and diet. May He keep you as the apple of an eye! May He hide you under the shadow of His wings! May He, if it be for His glory, (and if it be not, you would not yourselves desire it,) prolong your lives and usefulness to a late period; till others, now perhaps unborn, shall have sprung up to fill your important stations, and to see, what it may be denied to you to see, yet that for which you shall have been the instruments of making preparation! It will be honour enough for you, to have been pioneers in preparing the way of the Great King, who is already on the road to bless a lost world with the blessings of His Kingdom. And I trust that the solemn dedication of yourselves to the work of the Lord, which we are this day called together to witness, is a sufficient voucher for you, that, if you are called to surrender life itself in the first stage of that work of making plain a highway for Our God, you will be satisfied with the assured expectation of His speedily appearing in that track which you have been the honoured means of preparing for His feet. 2. I PRAY, my beloved Brethren, that you may at all times enjoy clear discoveries of the nature of that Gospel which you are sent to promulgate to others: and, to this end, may our God create and maintain within you, that broken and contrite spirit which is in His sight of great price; and without which our views of Divine Truth must, of necessity, be indistinct and confused! and, if our own views be indistinct and confused, our recommendation of the Gospel to others must, unquestionably, be languid and heartless. A personal life of faith is essential to a lively and satisfactory execution of the Ministerial Office, whether in parochial or missionary exertions. Watch, therefore, my Friends, over the frame of your own hearts. Be alarmed at every symptom of a selfrighteous or indifferent temper. So soon as any, even the least, prognostic of a spiritual paralysis becomes manifest, apply the appointed remedy. Have recourse to the stimulants and emollients of the Divine Word. Open your ears afresh to the sound of those groans, which once issued from Gethsemane and Calvary. Recal to mind the object of redeeming love, and the stupendous nature of the Redemptionprice: and rest not, till your hearts be again humbled and softened-till you again feel the value of your own souls, and that of the souls of others-till the love of Christ again constrain you to give up yourself to His service. An unenjoyed salvation will not be so described, as to reach the hearts of those to whom it is proposed*: and I think I have myself observed, that the labours of younger Brethren, who are comparatively raw in the service, who cannot be expected to take so wide a range in the comprehensive system of Truth, nor to discover so much of the manifold wisdom of God therein displayed, as their elder Brethren-are, nevertheless, frequently more successful in calling sinners to repentance than more experienced veterans. I have endeavoured to account for this; and have been led to the conclusion, that a keenness of sensibility in the personal experience of the young convert, with respect to the value of the soul and of the remedy for its miseries, gives a corresponding edge to his statements of doctrine, his intreaties to turn to God, and his representations of Divine Grace, which more than counterbalances the defects of a noviciate state. To keep alive those emotions which are produced, on emerging from darkness to light and from the vassalage of corruption to the liberty of the Gospel, should be our constant endeavour, as it is our high privilege and bounden duty; whether we aim at promoting the prosperity of our own souls, or, the great end of our Ministerial Vocation. 3. In connection with the petition which I have mentioned as arising from my heart on your behalf, I PRAY that you may be clothed with Humilitythat this sparit, like a flowing robe, may cover you from the head even unto the feet, adding increased gracefulness to all the lineaments of the Christian Character that you may • It is a remark of the excellent Henry Martyn, and his Biographer has marked its importance by printing it in Italics-That" Seriousness in the declaration of the Truths of the Gospel, is likely to have more power, than the clearest arguments conveyed in a trifling spirit.” wear it always; in all your secret intercourse with God, in all your social intercourse with your brethren, and in all your labours to promote the benefit of those to whom you are sent. ... Without this grace, you will have no comfort in your own bosoms, no true enjoyment in the society of your fellow-labourers, and no prospect of success among the Heathen. There is a secret charm in this Divine Temper, which will attract attention and engage affection, not only in the circle of your Christian Associates, but even in the uninformed minds of the Hea then around you: even they will feel its happy influence. I hardly need remind you that Humility is a relative grace. It is a just estimate formed of ourselves: and what is the estimate which a sinner, like you and myself, should ever form concerning his own state and character? Will not a remembrance of what we have been, and a consciousness of what we are, ever constrain us to smite on our breasts in the presence of God, and to cry, God be merciful unto us?—Will it not constrain us to esteem every one better than our selves; and, while we contemplate the degraded and wretched condition of the ungodly around us, whether no. minal Christians or uninstructed Heathens, will it not constrain us to ask, Who hath made us to differ, and what have we that we have not received? Surely, while endeavouring to form a just estimate of ourselves, (and to do this should be our daily and hourly employment,) we shall not hesitate to adopt the language of one, compared with whom we are but pigmies in Christian Stature, and to avow the conviction of our souls, that we are less than the least of all saints, yea the "I am most very chief of sinners. awfully deficient," said the pious and excellent Martyn, " in the knowledge and experience requisite for a Mi nister." The more clearly the light of Divine Truth shines into our hearts, the more clearly shall we discover our manifold infirmities and transgressions. The vivid light, which passes condensed, as it were, through a small chink into a darkened room, discovers impurities in the very air that we respire, which are otherwise imperceptible. The heaviest head in the corn-field always bends the lowest. I pray, therefore, for you, my be. loved Brethren and Sisters, that the natural tendency of fallen man to lean to his own wisdom, righteousness, and strength, may in you be daily weakened more and more; in order that Divine Grace may be exalted in your hearts, and in every effort which you make for the glory of our Redeeming God. God hath said, Them that honour me, I will honour ; and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Watch then against all self exaltation, as against the secret inroads of a worm, which, bred in the sub stance that it corrodes, carries on its silent, but effectually destructive ope rations till they are complete. Guard against every symptom of the natural selfishness of the carnal mind, as against a disease which will enervate, and, if suffered to gain strength, will ultimately prove fatal to all the ener gies of the spiritual life. It is when we are weak, that we are strong. when poor, that we are rich-when we feel that we have nothing, that we possess all things. 4. I PRAY for you, my Brethren, that the Word of Christ may dwell in you richly-that you may have it abiding in you; in your memories, your consciences, your affections-that the Scriptures of Truth may be so endeared to you, in consequence of an acquaintance with their importance, their fulness, and their suitableness to your own case, that you may have constant recourse to them for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Let the Holy Scriptures be your me dicine and your food-the correctives of every spiritual malady, and the means of daily sustentation in the Divine Life. Let them be your counsellors and comforters. When in perplexity, consult them for direction; and when in distress, apply to them for cordials against faintness and dejection. May you be able to say, with Mr. Martyn, "What a source of perpetual delight have I, in the precious Book of God! Oh that my heart was more spiritual, to keep pace with my understanding; and that I could feel as I know! May my root and foundation be deep in love; and may I be able to comprehend, with all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, and may I be filled with all the fulness of God!" You will not have the same access to books of human composition, which we at home enjoy: you will not have Christian Intercourse, to the same extent in which you have hitherto been therein indulged: you may perhaps be tempted to look back on these privations with regret. But, remember, that All-sufficiency is, in different views, the attribute both of God and of His Word. His presence will compensate abundantly for the loss of Christian Society-the influence of His Spirit, for the want of human comment on His Word-and that Word, through that influence, is able to make you wise unto salvation, and wise also to win souls unto Him. That Word is intended to furnish you with the armour of righteousness, on the right hand and on the left. Our God shall supply all your need, out of His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. God does nothing in vain. He has not promised to supply, by miracle, what may be obtained in the use of ordinary means. In the midst of plenty, no Divine interposition is necessary to prevent the exhaustion of the cruse of oil or the barrel of meal. His promises are not intended to separate means from the end proposed, nor to preclude the necessity of human effort. It is to the diligent soul, that the promise of success is made. But when, in the course of His providence, and especially in cases of voluntary self-devotion to His service and to the promotion of His glory, privations are experienced-rather should an expectation be maintained of extraordinary interference, than doubt of failure in His promise be admitted into the mind. He has promised that as thy days are, so shall thy strength be. His Holy Spirit can, by His gracious presence and instruction, abundantly compensate, and is engaged by His covenant. stipulations to compensate, for all the spiritual disadvantages to which you may be subjected, in your separation from the bosom of the Christian Church. You will not, blessed be God! be separated from an interest in our prayers, nor from any other means that we can employ for your comfort and support; and, what is of far higher consequence, while excluded from ordinary resources, you will have reason to expect a nearer intercourse with the God of all grace. I am convinced that an undue reliance on external privileges is, too commonly, injurious to us, while in the full enjoyment of Gospel-ordinances; whether on books of human composition, on private conference with fellow-Christians, or on the public worship of the Lord's House. Such is the perverseness of our corrupted hearts, that we are prone to abuse every benefit whichwe possess, however excellent in itself. By neglecting the use of these means, while we possess them, we should neglect the channel through which the blessing flows: but when they are not within our reach, He, by whose providence, or in whose service, we have been deprived of them, CAN and WILL make up the loss, by more special influences of His Holy Spirit and more intimate fellowship with Himself. Henceit is, that we find the chamber |