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A PRAYING SOUL.

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course of heathen, but they also visited the Greenlanders in their own houses. In one of the huts, where all the rest of the family were either insensible or opposed to the gospel, there was one young woman whose heart the Lord opened to understand the word spoken. This young woman was Pussimek. She was very much affected by the hearing of the gospel, and became a frequent attendant at the meetings of the brethren: on one of these occasions, her emotions were so powerful, that her tears flowed down her cheeks, which she endeavoured to conceal with her hands, and at the same time she secretly prayed, "O Lord, let thy light break through the very thick darkness." Happy they, who are thus made sensible of their blindness, and inability to know any thing of God, except so far as he enlightens the understanding: the sense of want will constrain such to pray like Pussimek, and, like her, the Lord's gracious promise will be sooner or later fulfilled in their experience" Call upon me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and wondrous things, which thou knowest not." On another occasion, some of the Missionaries saw her kneeling behind a rock, but they could only hear her utter the following words, expressive of her sense of the plague of her own heart: “O God, thou knowest that I am very much corrupted from

our first parents-have mercy on me." When she was afterwards asked what she was about here, she answered, “Because I now begin to believe, I pray every day in secret to God to be gracious unto me.'

The state of soul of this poor heathen, at this time, seems to have been similar to that of Saul of Tarsus, when the Lord said concerning him, "Behold, he prayeth;" and, as Ananias was sent to instruct the humbled Pharisee, so the Lord directed his servants to teach this poor soul, making their teaching the effectual instrument of leading her soul into the enjoyment of that peace for which she panted.

Pussimek was now frequently visited by the Missionaries, who exhorted her to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, giving her all needful encouragement: on one of those occasions, when she was directed to steadfastness and continuance in prayer, she began to weep, and pour forth the following ejaculations: "O Jesus, my

heart is very much corrupted-O, make me truly humbled and grieved about it, because thou wilt have it so; take away the bad thoughts from me, and from my heart, so that it may be pleasing to thee; and, as I know but little of thy word as yet, give me thy Spirit to instruct me.'

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The rest of the people of the house where Pussimek lived, observed the great change which had been wrought in the spirit of her mind, and, as their consciences told them that they needed the same transformation, while their hearts were averse to it, they hated her; so certainly does every true disciple of Christ realize the truth of his words" If ye were of the world, the world would love its own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you."

Poor Pussimek's situation now became very uncomfortable: the persons with whom she lived not only treated her very harshly, when in the house, but would scarcely allow her to go any more to the meetings; and, when they removed their habitation, she was obliged to follow them, though she would very gladly have staid. But in a few days she came again, and intreated the brethren to take her into their service, and afterwards could never be prevailed upon by threats nor intreaties to leave her teachers.

The compiler of this little memoir has sometimes dwelt, with admiration, on that part of inspired history in which we are told of Peter and John, after their dismissal from the Jewish council, “and being let go, they went to their own company:" there is a sweet instinct of love which draws true Christians together,an instinct implanted by the Holy Ghost in their hearts, in answer to that prayer of the great Mediator-“ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me, through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." And this love for the society of persons whose characters bear the most lively resemblance to Jesus Christ, and a corresponding uneasiness, when forced by circumstances into company of a different description, is one of the great evidences of

ZEAL FOR CHRIST.

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a regenerate state. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren."

But Pussimek had an aged mother, and a sister named Issek, whom she loved, and now that she was awakened to a concern for the salvation of her own soul, she anxiously desired and endeavoured to excite similar feelings in theirs. She knew experimentally what it is to be a sinner, unreconciled through the blood of Jesus; and her own experience of the present misery, and her belief as to the future consequences of such a state, filled her heart with anxious disquietude concerning the spiritual state of her aged mother, and sister. Great were the pains which she took to recommend the Saviour to them, and to excite the same longing after him in their hearts, which she herself experienced; but all that she could offer seemed to make no impression upon either of them, and more particularly her sister, who seemed to be armed impregnably by a stupid indifference against every argument, which she could address to her understanding, and every appeal which she could make to her heart.

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Mr. Crantz describing Issek's natural character, says she "was a very pattern of a stupid heathenness," and, in confirmation of this, he relates the following anecdote of her: "Being once asked whether she was sensible of no desire in her soul after her Creator and Saviour?" she replied: " She did not understand that, she had left her soul behind in the South." The Christian reader can well judge the trial to which Pussimek was called, in dealing with such a character. There is nothing which so chills the hope of the Christian, in reference to the conversion of an individual, as that mixture of stupidity and levity, with which Issek repelled the solemn truths which were presented to her attention.

When Pussimek found all her entreaties ineffectual, to induce her mother and sister to fix their abode at New Herrnhuth, she repaired thither herself. And the advantage which she derived from her removal from the company of the heathen, to the society of the Lord's people, soon became evident. "One could perceive," writes one of the Missionaries, "a particular desire in this person to experience the power of Jesus' blood, she was never weary of hearing of it, and soon began

to confess and speak of it before others." This constant appetite for divine truth, is one of the characteristics of those, who being renewed by the Holy Spirit in the inner man, hunger and thirst after righteousness, persons who know the Saviour merely by the light of their natural understandings, will soon weary of hearing about him, because all that the natural understanding can discover in him is soon known, and even this is unaccompanied by that pleasant, refreshing, and sanctifying light which attends upon the teaching of the Spirit. In Christ are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; we are dead, and our life is hid with Christ in God, hid from the eye of natural reason, for "the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." When this spiritual discernment is given, the soul daily discovers more of the hidden riches of Christ, draws life from that hidden fountain of life, feeds on the hidden manna, and partakes more and more of that satisfying joy, with which a stranger intermeddleth not. persons like Pussimek, never weary of hearing of Jesus, and whatever may be their attainments in the knowledge of the Saviour, they feel that they have known but little of his infinite excellencies, and contemplating with happy hearts those spiritual beauties, which continually spring forth to view in all the freshness of novelty, they find in Him the theme of that song which is always the same, yet always new, and which no man could learn, but those which were redeemed from the earth.

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Pussimek also spoke of the Saviour to others. When any heathens came on a visit, she went among them directly, and whether asked or not, told them why she had taken up her residence with the believers, what she had already experienced by the testimony of Jesus suffering, and how her heart thirsted for a full participation in all those blessings, which he has purchased for his redeemed people. Nor was her simple testimony ineffectual, for one of the Missionaries writes, that "by it always some, and now and then perfect strangers, were very much affected."

The Missionaries observing these plain evidences of

PUSSIMEK'S BAPTISM.

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the work of the Holy Spirit, now took Pussimek into a more immediate preparation for baptism, explaining to her the institution and design of that divine ordinance. "And now," writes the Missionary, "her steady decla ration was, that she no more believed that Jesus is the friend of sinners because we had told her so, but because she experienced it in her own heart," here again observe the peculiar excellency of divine teaching, how powerfully assuring it is, how independent of human testimony. "I receive not," said the Saviour, "testimony from man.' "Our Gospel," said the great apostle," came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance." Happy those who thus believe with the heart unto righteousness, who can appropriate the language of Job to themselves, "I know that my Redeemer liveth;" who, from the overflowing conviction of their hearts, are constrained to cry out like Thomas, " My Lord and my God," and who, in the enjoyment of the blessedness which belongs to those, whose iniquity is pardoned, and whose sin is covered, can appeal to the heart-searching author of all their happiness, "Lord, thou knowest all things, thou knowest that I love thee."

Pussimek now often expressed her great desire for baptism, for the true knowledge of the Saviour is always accompanied with a spirit of obedience to all his commandments and ordinances. In accordance, therefore, with her anxious wish, this converted heathen was baptized, October 30, 1740, when she changed the name of Pussimek for that of Sarah. Many Greenlanders were present on the occasion, most of whom were moved, and some beheld and heard with tears.

About this time the Missionaries began to translate a harmony of the four Evangelists into Greenlandick; and, in this work, Sarah, with another converted Greenlander, rendered them an important service, while they received many blessings to their own souls. The Brethren observed, that the converted Greenlanders used expressions, especially in their prayers, which it would have been impossible to have found out by the rules of grammar; when, therefore, the Greenlanders had learned, by the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to think rightly, the Missionaries observed these expressions,

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