Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

tion to their state. There are some things in the little magazines, which though instructive, are put into language rather too childlike for public reading. I like for this purpose, the gravity and affecting seriousness of many of the accounts in Janeway's Token for Children. I apprehend that the delicate concern of conveying religious instruction in language adapted for children without lowering sacred subjects by too familiar expressions, has been one great hinderance to some religious instructors who really feel for children, and has prevented them from more frequently attempting to instruct them in public.

[ocr errors]

Query. How can children who are taught to sing hymns, be best guarded against singing them in a rough careless manner?

"In looking back to some past enjoyments with dear friends in England, I feel that they have indeed passed away for ever, and can be known no more; no more known under the same circumstances: and I feel willing that it should be so, hoping that they will give place to feelings still higher, should some of us be once more permitted to meet. O, may it be thus, when the final separation from all below shall draw very near. May the hope of that which is higher and brighter, then animate and cause entire resignation; and to be prepared for this, may Heavenly love, through Redeeming mercy, rest on my spirit, and refine by its own pure influence all that is within me. Thus may I be prepared for every duty of the present day, and taught to go through even the roughest places steadily, as best becomes the Christian character, with the eternal inheritance in view; and in this feeling calling upon others to come, taste, and

see that the Lord is good, and blessed both here and hereafter are they who trust in Him.

"If instead of this, the uninstructed, who know not our Lord and Saviour, see those who profess His name easily moved to anger, to impatience, to restlessness, and off their heavenly guard, how can they judge of the efficacy of that religion of which they hear, but which they see so very imperfectly exemplified in its professed followers?

"The language of our Redeemer to His disciples was, 'Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:' and when in whatever trial or provocation we suffer ourselves to be deprived of this peace by giving way to feelings inconsistent with it, we not only act against our own best welfare, but deprive ourselves in the same degree of that mental ascendency over those who do wrong, in which alone the best and most efficient government must ever consist.

CHAPTER XIV.

Her continued Exertions on behalf of the liberated African Children-State of the Apprentices in the Colony-Advice relative to youthful Missionaries.

"It is far too much the custom with Europeans in this colony to dwell on the faults and defects of the Africans around them, instead of affectionately, patiently, and steadily, as influenced by the love of Jesus, teaching day by day such as are ignorant, or out of the way, and praying in humility for heavenly help to bring them to a better mind. The opposite habits of resting in mere complaints against them, and treating them in our intercourse, as having little or no hope of their improvement, is, I fear, much calculated to excite a Pharisaic spirit, which contents itself in the thought of being not as other men ;' not so heedless, dull, untractable, and full of deficiencies.

"24th. Many of the Africans want as much instruction about the succession of crops, as they do in letters, or any thing else. With a very little knowledge and care, they might have produce to reap all the year; whereas, at present, many with farms in their possession have still, I believe, their 'hungry season,' and their fruitless ground to look upon some part of the year. A village-school, with even a small farm attached to it in every village, would, if it were conducted as a model-farm, and

the master ready to give any instruction, be a great advantage; and for this purpose, there needs a farming inspector, (as an adviser, but without authority,) as well as a school-inspector.

"If the Church Missionary Society would not place the clergyman so much above the catechists, and in authority over them in this mission, but allow the latter to share in their counsels, all would, I am persuaded, go on with more efficiency, and with more peace and union. The life of a missionary catechist, one who in addition to the assistance he gives as a regular religious instructor, has a part to take in the schools, is a life of great labour, privation, and self-denial, and peculiarly so in some of the more distant stations, where there necessarily is a want of many European accommodations. These difficulties should not be increased by want of harmony and union among themselves, or amongst any connected with them.

"26th. It is the duty of every missionary to provide food adapted to the support of health, and from the same principle in which other preparations for his work are attended to. This will not authorize a fastidious attention to nice cookery, and much less to that of stimulating and complicated food, which, in a climate such as missionaries often have to encounter, must greatly tend to induce bilious affections, the most prevalent of tropical diseases. On the other hand, neither the unwillingness to give trouble, nor too great care to avoid expense in the manner of living, should prevent from having such provisions to keep up the strength, and in a measure prevent that feeling of exhaustion, which is much sooner induced, and more dangerous in its effects in this climate than in that

of the temperate zones. Still, any person who is unable from mental disposition, or physical weakness to bear with such occasional difficulties and privations, with regard to both provisions and other accommodation, will be unfit for a missionary life.

66

Last night in a dream I had the choice of a burying-place given to me, and preferred Bunhillfields; where I have often stood to see the last consignment of that which is mortal to its parent earth; and sometimes I have felt sweetly sensible that in the emancipation of the spirit there is indeed the song of victory for the redeemed through Him who has loved them, and given Himself for them. O! may our beloved friends in London, reminded as they so often are of the transient nature of all earthly cares and enjoyments, be as strangers and pilgrims on the earth, and in life and conversation stand as way-marks in the sight of the people. Alas! how many are there, who are just resting in outward order, and in a birth-right among religious professors, with little of the life of religion dwelling in them, or evinced by a course of conduct that would mark the self-denying and devoted Christian; whilst yet there are others sweetly declaring in the emphatic language of a watchful walk, the evidence of Christian dispositions, far more of a devoted and devotional spirit than they would venture in any other way to avow.

"That peace of God, which passeth the understanding,' and which must be experienced to prepare us for Heaven, requires that we should dwell in peace with all around, and if it be possible, with all mankind. Peace on earth, and good-will to man,' was the angelic annunciation of the Messiah's advent on earth, and surely every disciple and

« AnteriorContinuar »