"The Greenlanders have neither a religion nor idol. atrous worship, nor so much as any ceremonies to be

and magnificent world, to be carried captive by the force of irresistible conviction. In the motion of every atom and the breathing of every insect, in the paint-perceived tending towards it. Hence the first Mission, ing of every flower and the radiance of every star,-in the waving of the golden harvest and the verdure of the everlasting hills,-in the rolling of the solemn thunder and the sounding of the solitary ocean,-in the fascinations of the bright day and the unnumbered glories of the starry night,-in the operations of intelligent men and the vast movements of mighty and magnificent worlds,—there is a voice that can scarcely be mistaken. It is full of majesty and of power. It enters into the silent soul. It discourses to it of the glory of God. It stamps the sentiment indelibly on the heart: "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created."

Nor are such impressions, in regard to the existence of a God, confined altogether to Christian lands, or to men of cultivated minds. Everywhere, and to all nations, "the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth his handy-work; day unto day uttering speech, and night unto night shewing knowledge. Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world; and there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." And hence, when we search into the experience, even of the most savage hordes that wander on the face of the earth, we discover this much, that whilst amongst them there are multitudes who may be regarded as atheists in point of practice, and from habit, and by reason of the ungodliness of their lives, yet there are few perhaps, if any, who are atheists in point of principle, and from conviction, and by reason of the force of irresistible evidence. They may not like to retain God in their knowledge, and their foolish hearts may be darkened through the ignorance that is in them, and practically they may be living without God and without hope in the world. But not, we conceive, because their darkness is so deep as to prevent them from discerning the faintest traces of the Deity, but just because it is true of them, as it is of multitudes who are living in a Christian land, that they walk not according to the light which is shining around them, nay, that they love the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds are evil. For what saith the Apostle Paul, when referring to the condition of such men? He tells us, that "that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God hath shewed it unto them, because the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." And why? Not because they know not God, or are incapable of knowing him, but because "when they know God, they glorify him not as God, neither are thankful, but become vain in their imaginations, and change the glory of the incorruptible God into images made like to corruptible men, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and worship and serve the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen."

But we quote as illustrative of the foregoing remarks, and as a specimen of the reasoning, even of heathen minds, in regard to the existence of a God, the following passage from Crantz's History of Greenland.

aries entertained a supposition, that there was not the least trace to be found amongst them of any conception of a Divine Being, especially as they had no word to express him by. When they were asked, Who made the heaven and earth, and all visible things? their as swer was, We know not;' or, 'We do not know him; or, 'It must have been some mighty person;' a, Things have always been as they are, and will alway remain so. But when they came to understand their language better, they found quite the reverse to be true, from the notions they had, though very vague and various, concerning the soul and concerning spirits; and also from their anxious solicitude about the state after death. And not only so, but they could plainly gather from a free dialogue they had with some per fectly wild Greenlanders, that their ancestors must have believed in a Supreme Being, and did render him some service, which their posterity neglected by little and little, the further they were removed from more wise and civilized nations, till at last they lost every just conception of the Deity. Yet, after all, it is manifest, that a faint idea of a Divine Being lies con directly assent without any objection to the doctrine of cealed in the minds even of this people, because they a God and his attributes, except they are afraid of the consequences of this truth, and so will not believe it. Only they suffer their natural sluggishness, stupidity, and inattention, to hinder them from attaining just and consistent principles, by a due reflection on the works of creation, and on their own timorous foreof them, though perhaps not all, must have had some bodings concerning futurity. But still further, some meditations and inquiries in their mind concerning this matter before they saw any Missionary; at least in their younger years, before family cares were ac cumulated upon them. This is plain from the following anecdote:

66

baptized Greenlanders, expressed his wonder, how they
A Missionary being once in company with some
could formerly lead such a senseless life void of all re-
flection. Upon this, one of them answered as follows:
It is true we were ignorant heathens, and knew no-
thing of a God or a Saviour; and, indeed, who should
tell us of him till you came? But do not imagine that
have often thought. A kajak, (that is a canoe or bost,)
no Greenlander thinks about these things. I myself
with all its tackle and implements, does not grow into
existence of itself, but must be made by the labour and
ingenuity of man; and one that does not understand
it, would directly spoil it. Now the meanest bird has
far more skill displayed in its structure than the best
kajak, and no man can make a bird. But there is a
still greater art shewn in the formation of a man than
bethought me, he proceeded from his parents, and they
of any other creature. Who was it that made him? I
from their parents; but some must have been the first
parents; whence did they come? Common report in-
forms me they grew out of the earth. But if so, why
does it not still happen that men grow out of the earth?
And whence did this same earth itself, the sea, the sun,
the moon, and stars, arise into existence? Certainly
there must be some Being who made all these things,
a Being that always was, and can never cease to be.
He must be inexpressibly more mighty, knowing, and
wise than the wisest man. He must be very good te
because every thing that he has made is good, use,
and necessary for us. Ah, did I but know him, be
would I love and honour him! But who has seen him?
Who has ever conversed with him? None of us pr
thing of him; O could I but speak with such! The
Yet there may be men, too, that know s
fore, as soon as ever I heard you speak of this great

men.

Being, I believed it directly with all my heart, because | his throat with a pardon sealed in the blood of Jesus I had so long desired to hear it.'

Christ. He is never out of war, never without victory. "This testimony was confirmed by the others, with Those roaring fiends set upon him proudly, and he beats more or fewer attendant circumstances. As, for in- them down triumphantly. The shield he always bears stance, they superadded: ' A man is made quite differ- with him, was never pierced-faith. He hath been often ent from the beasts. The brutes have no understand-tripped, once or twice foiled, was never vanquished. ing, but they serve for food to each other, and all for the use of man. But man has an intelligent soul, is subject to no creature in the world, and yet man is afraid of the future state. Who is it that he is afraid of there? That must be a great Spirit, that has the dominion over us. O did we but know him, O had we but him for our friend!'"

An intended Assassin Converted. Mr Thomas Bradbury, the nonconformist minister, who officiated in the extend-meeting-house in New-Court, Carey.Street, Lincoln'sInn-Fields, was a man of great eccentricity and of ardent and somewhat intemperate zeal. His abhorrence of popery and of papists, was so extreme, that he adopted the strongest language he could collect, to express his feelings and convictions. His enemies once enployed a person to take away his life. That he might make himself familiar with Mr Bradbury's person, this miscreant was accustomed to attend at the meetinghouses where Mr Bradbury preached, to place himself in the front gallery, and stedfastly to look at the preacher. Of course he could not avoid hearing what was said. The truths which Mr Bradbury exhibited soon affected his mind; he was rescued from his wickedness; he became a true penitent; he went to Mr Bradbury, and with trembling and confusion he told him his melancholy history; he gave the most satisfactory evidence that he was a converted man; and lived and died an honourable and consistent member of Mr Bradbury's church.

A VIEW OF THE CHARACTER OF CHRIST.
BY THE REV. GEORGE BURNS, D.D.,
Minister of Tweedsmuir.

PRICE 14d.

plenitude of his compassionate tenderness, he abounded in deeds of mercy towards the children of men, in the face of ingratitude from which the benevolence of the world would have turned away Is forming a just estimate of any individual's char- with disgust and disappointment; and that, under acter, it is obvious that regard must be had to the circumstances which would have quenched less situations in which he has been placed, to the fortitude than his, he went onward in his course of various and conflicting circumstances with which holy obedience, bidding defiance at once to danhe has been assailed, and to the nature and mag-ger and to difficulty. But there is one circumnitude of the evils he has had to encounter. Ex- stance worthy of being particularly adverted to, cellencies, or defects, in his moral conduct, will as tending to place his fortitude in a very inbe more or less conspicuous, just in proportion teresting and peculiar point of view. And the as the advantages he enjoyed, or the difficulties he circumstance we allude to is, that he knew from surmounted, are more clearly ascertained, and more the beginning every particular that would happen fully appreciated. Many minute particulars which in his eventful life; that he beheld through to us may have escaped superficial observation and limit- the dark vista of futurity, a direful phalanx of acquaintance, may have, when fully discovered, misfortune staring him in the face; and that, dumighty share in determining the reality of his ring every step of his despised ministry, he disretensions; may partially obscure, or wholly over- tinctly foresaw the many disasters which would hadow, his imaginary lustre, or diffuse around accompany it, and the miserable termination to im a greater degree of moral loveliness, and a which it would come. He knew, from the berighter radiance of moral grandeur. Little praise, ginning, that his doctrines would be misrepresenturely, is due to the man who is courageous only ed, his character calumniated, and he himself subhen the day of battle is distant, or who, in sus-jected to privations unexampled both in number aining a manly reputation, never had the trial of ne sacrifice to make, or the bitterness of one misrtune to endure; whilst, on the other hand, high the place that is due to him, at least in the esmation of every intelligent mind, who has mainined all the dignity of an unimpeachable characr, amid the treachery of pretended friends, the position of avowed enemies, and the hardships a wicked and ungrateful world. Now, these marks have a very peculiar and decided bearing the history of Him whose conduct in every part at once instructive and interesting to the geine believer. For, in contemplating the characr of Christ as delineated in the sacred page, we nnot fail to be struck with the uniform and peret consistency visible throughout, exhibiting at oral symmetry for which we look in vain in any aracter merely human. We cannot but perceive, th admiration, that he maintained a steadiness purpose, which no prospect of danger, and no ractions of pleasure, could move him to relinish; that he persevered in doing good when lled to struggle with the malice of the wicked, d the opposition of the powerful; that, in the

and severity. And during the whole continuance of his thankless, though laborious, exertions, he had ever before his eyes the malice of his relentless persecutors, and the treachery of his weak but false friends; the ignominy and sufferings which were to mark him as their victim; the injustice of that trial, and the cruelty of that death, which he was to undergo at the capital of Judea. When, therefore, with such gloomy and overwhelming prospects continually before him, we see him "setting his face stedfastly to go to Jerusalem;" when, "with such a baptism to be baptized with," we hear him complaining of being straitened till it be accomplished, how much is our conception of his magnanimity increased! And who, viewing his character in connection with these circumstances, does not feel himself compelled to acknowledge, that it sets at an infinite distance the most celebrated examples of fortitude which have ever been recorded; that it stamps a littleness and a mockery on all that poets have feigned and philosophers described for the admiration of mankind; that it resembles more what men might imagine and admire in speculation, but which they could never

task of treading the wine-press alone. But the influence of such foreboding apprehensions was only momentary; and the misgivings to which they gave rise, were banished by sentiments approaching to self-accusation, as betraying a state of mind apparently inconsistent with the dignity of his character, the willingness of his obe dience, and the purpose of his mission. Aal therefore, with collected firmness and holy resig nation, he gives utterance to this memorable de claration, "But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." Thus, also, when the weakness of feeble humanity shrunk from that scene of anguish which was to awaken the sympathies of inanimate nature, and extorted from him the piteous request, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me," a nobler, a heaven-born energy, which never failed to triumph over every other feeling, echoed to the trembling sound, "Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done!" On the whole, have we not reason to admire the combination of apparently_opposite qualities which shone forth in our divine Redeemer with matchless effulgence! With what uncon

hope to see realised in human nature; and that it is the only and unquestionable pattern of all that is bright, and beautiful, and great, and glorious, in the character of man? Nor is this all. Another illustration of the Saviour's self-possession and calm composure has thus been forcibly given by an excellent writer:-"Just after the last Supper, when Jesus had immediately and fully present to his mind the sufferings he was about to endure, the foresight of which soon afterwards dreadfully affected him, he girded himself with a towel, and washed, in succession, the feet of all his disciples. This apparently trifling act, trifling at least in comparison of what he had done, and was about to do, Christ performed in a moment which seemed to call on him to awaken all his energies for the approaching conflict; when a deep reserve, and severe self-collection, would, in any other man, have appeared more suitable to the occasion. Great men have sometimes assumed an air of carelessness on the near approach of peril, when it was necessary for their safety; many have evinced composure in their sufferings, while sustained by the admiration of the multitudes who witnessed them; some have even risen so high as to ap-querable energy of soul did he act and endure! proach, with a dignified fortitude, to tortures for His whole life was passed in labours and priva the endurance of which no compensation could be tions. He was harassed, weary, hungry, withou found in applause; but never was it before heard, a home, despised, defamed, forsaken, persecuted! that a man, affected with the deepest sense of the still his constancy was unshaken; and, pressing sufferings about to overtake him-sufferings known towards the mark of his high calling, he triumphonly to himself should not only possess sufficient ed over the infirmities of nature, defeated the oprecollection to perform every office of benevolence position and malice of his enemies, and trampa to those around him, but even stoop to the hum- under his feet the powers of darkness. Surey blest act of condescension, in an hour which seem- such lofty and masculine qualities could not be ed to demand assistance from the loftiest and allied to a gentle and tender disposition; the sternest principles of his nature." Nor was this softer virtues could hardly have lived amidst the fortitude which our Lord displayed the result of severity of such continual suffering and conflict! insensibility, or of a mind destitute of the finer He wept over Lazarus ; he wept over Jerusalem : feelings and affections of our nature. That he he pitied the unhappy; he instructed the igno possessed the largest portion of these his bitterest rant; he healed the sick; he fed the hungry; be enemies never ventured to deny. He partook of bore with all the dulness and contradiction of saall the passive infirmities of which our nature ners; in the hour of darkness, when himself must is susceptible; and in so far as was consistent with needed comfort, he consoled and strengthenal the most immaculate holiness and spotless pu- those who were about to forsake him in his extre rity, "he was in all points tempted like as we mnity; from the cross he commanded John të are. And while, in the tenderness of divine sustain his desolate parent; in death be prave compassion, he wept for others, he also felt for for his murderers. Truly we may exclaim w himself. There were even seasons of painful the apostle," Thou art the Son of God, thou art misgivings, in which the apprehension of the the King of Israel!" gloomy events which awaited him, weighed down his spirit with heaviest sorrow, though it could not overwhelm his soul, or change his purpose. Such seasons, however, were few and transient, and, instead of detracting from the lustre of his character, served greatly to enhance its glory. Thus we are told that Jesus having spoken of his decease, exclaimed, "Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour!" This was a prayer extorted by the apprehensions of human nature, which could not fail to be awakened in the breast of the incarnate Saviour, at the contemplation of miseries so complicated, and sufferings so appalling, and which strongly pleaded for his escape from the awful

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF

THE REV. THOMAS SPENCER. Late Minister of Newington Chapel, Liverpool. THOMAS SPENCER was born at Hertford on 21st J uary 1791, of parents who, though pious and respects. were not in affluent circumstances. When placed school, his talents soon enabled him to reach the place in the class, and to carry off its highest hon He displayed at this time great fondness for res and the perusal in solitude of a novel, or other a book, which he was in the habit of procuring his father's knowledge, afforded him more pleasure levity, however, was excessive, though he had se any of the amusements common to boys of his age. times seasons of serious reflection, in one of which ar