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is a man; do they wait the issue of any preparation whatever previously to laying before him the will of God for the salvation of mankind? The degree of cultivation, it should appear, is a thing merely accidental. It has too slender an influence upon the result to be admitted into their calculations; nor does it affect the operation of those great principles which are concerned in the transition of a human soul out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. Why lavish all your admiration upon the sensible effect, while ye shrink in disgust from the explanation of the principle? Why, ye votaries of science, whose glory it is to connect phenomena with their causes, why do you act so superficially in this instance, and leave with the fanatics, whom you despise, all the credit of a manly and unshrinking philosophy? They can tell you all about it, for they were present at every step of the process; and the most striking development of the natural enmity ever witnessed, is to be seen in that mixture of contempt and incredulity, and wonder, with which you listen to them. One might be amused at observing so much of the pride of philosophy combined with so glaring a dereliction of all its principles; but a feeling more serious is awakened when we think of that which is spoken of in the prophecies of Habakkuk : "I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you:"-" Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish!"

Although it is at the hazard of extending this article to a disproportionate length, yet we feel strongly tempted to present another extract from Spangenberg. It tends to prove that the work of civilization is altogether subsequent to the work of conversion; and that the attempts of the United Brethren in this way, are among men whom they had previously reclaimed from Heathenism, by that peculiar method of evangelizing which has been already insisted on. We shall make no other change in the extract than to throw into Italics those parts of it which bear most decisively upon the argument in question.

'It is likewise a concern of the brethren, that have the care of 'the heathen, to bring those that are converted to our Saviour 'into good order outwardly. We have found in most places 'where brethren dwell among the Heathen, that the latter go on 'without much care or thinking. Were they with suitable con'sideration to regulate their matters duly, to take care and manage what Providence gives to them, they would not so often be driven to the utmost distress. But instead of that, "they are idle when they should labour, and when they have any 'thing to eat, they will squander it in an extravagant manner; ' and afterward they are miserably distressed for want of food, ' and tormented by the cares of this life.

• But when they are baptised, the brethren advise them to a

' regular labour, e. g. to plant in due season, to hunt, to fish, and do every thing needful: they also learn of the brethren how to keep and preserve what they may get for the winter. And being incapable of making a proper calculation, (for they 'have no almanacks,) and to regulate themselves according to the seasons, the brethren also assist them in this respect. I ' will illustrate this by an instance or two. Dried herrings are ' of great use to the Greenlanders in winter for their subsistence; but when they grow wet they are spoiled. To obviate this the 'brethren not only encourage the Greenlanders to be diligent in 'catching herrings at the proper season, but also to dry them 'well, and assist them in preserving them dry. If the brethren are among the Indians, they endeavour to get them to clear their fields at the right time, to surround them with hedges, 'plant them with Indian wheat, and to cut it down in a proper manner; thus a difference is very perceptible between their people and other Indians, for if those Indians who have neg'lected planting suffer hunger, the others have always so much as to be able to spare a part of it to them.

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Various things occasionally occur which must be brought 'into order among the heathen that are converted to Christ. If (e. g.) a provider dies in Greenland, (thus they call the head ' of the family,) the widow and her orphans are worse off than one can imagine. Or if a husband loses his wife, and she has left a small child that still wants the mother's breast, he is as badly off, for it is very difficult to get a Greenland woman to suckle any child but her own. Hence it is that those Greenlanders that are yet heathen, and live among heathen, find themselves obliged at times to bury such a motherless 'infant alive. Now if the case occurs that the wife of an husband dies, leaving a sucking child behind, the brethren do 'not rest till they find a person that will take care of the little orphan, and give it suck with her own child. If the husband 'dies, they divide the orphans, and take care to have them pro'perly educated, and likewise that the widow may be supplied with the necessaries of life. In sicknesses, likewise, which happen among the heathen, the brethren are obliged frequently to take care of their people.

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There are indeed some people among the heathen, that know good remedies for various disorders, and for this reason they ' are made use of by others. Among the Indians in North 'America, there are (e. g.) people who successfully cure the bite ' of serpents, and to whom the neighbouring Europeans have recourse in such cases. Also among the negroes in the West Indies are skilful and experienced persons, to whom others apply in their diseases. But these heathenish doctors are 'jugglers, and generally affect to shew they cure the sick by

'magic. Therefore believers from among the heathen when 'sick, consult their teachers, and often apply with success such ' remedies as they have for their own use.

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'Moreover, divers misfortunes that occur in the congregations ' among the heathen, reduce the brethren to the necessity of 'taking care of them, also, in respect to their outward concerns. There was (e. g.) a congregation of Indians at Chekameka in 'the district of New York, which had formerly, in a fit of 'intoxication, and while they were still heathen, sold the right to their land for a trifle, and when, afterward, they became 'converted, occasion was taken from this to drive them out of 'their country. Most of these people took refuge with the 'brethren at Bethlehem in Pennsylvania, and were with the consent of the governor of Pennsylvania, received and treated in a brotherly and hospitable manner. A piece of land was purchased for them on the Mahoni, which answered the purpose of hunting as well as for the cultivation of their corn, and they were assisted by the brethren in building, and in the < management of their outward matters.

The same thing happened with other Indians, who were 'obliged to quit the land they had sold at Wechquatnach.

The Indian congregation at Meniolagomekah experienced the same fate, and the brethren could not forbear lending them 'a helping hand in such circumstances, and caring for their 'support.

In the year 1755, the brethren who lived with the Indian 'congregation at the Mahoni, were surprised at the beginning of the night, by those Indians who had taken up the hatchet ' against the English, (that is according to their language had 'begun the war.) They killed eleven of the brethren, dispersed the whole congregation, and laid the whole place in ashes. 'But the brethren sought again for the scattered sheep, took 'them to Bethlehem where they provided for them, and took 'the same care of their souls as they had done before.' (Spangenberg, § 69, 70, 71.)

We have one remark more to offer on this part of the subject. Had the missionary system of the United Brethren attracted, 50 years ago, the attention of the same men of general literature, who are now so eloquent in its praises, it is evident that it could not have achieved their homage, nor excited their sympathy. At that early period of their labours, they had not the same commanding spectacle to offer as the result of their missionary labours. Sufficient time had not elapsed for the full effect and development of their principles; but they were busy at work with the principles themselves. They were preaching, and praying, and putting into action, the weapons of their spiritual

ministry; and had the fastidious admirer of neat and interesting villages, taken a look at them during the earlier years of their missionary enterprise, he would have nauseated the whole procedure as the effect of mean, revolting fanaticism. Now let it not be forgotten that what the Moravians were then, some of the later class of missionaries are at this moment. They have positively not had time for the production of the same striking and numerous results; but they are very busy and very promising in that line of operation which leads to them. To be an admirer of the result is a very different thing from being an admirer of the operation. To be the one, all that is necessary is a taste for what is wonderful, or what is pleasing; and what can be more wonderful, and, at the same time, more pleasing, than a groupe of Hottentot families reclaimed from the barbarism of their race, and living under obedient control to the charities and decencies of the Gospel? But that a person may become an admirer of the operation, he must approve the faith; he must be influenced by a love of the Lord Jesus Christ; he must have a belief in the efficacy of prayer; he must have a relish for that which a majority we fear of professing Christians would stamp with the brand of enthusiasm; in a word, his natural enmity to the things of God must be beginning to give way, and he be an admirer of the truth in all its unction and in all its simplicity. Let not, therefore, the later missionaries be mortified at the way in which they have been contrasted with the Moravians. They are just passing through the very ordeal through which these worthy men passed before them. It is a trial of their faith, and of their patience; and if they keep with the same stedfastness, to the simplicity that is in Christ; if they maintain the same enduring dependence upon God; if they resist the infection of a worldly spirit with the same purity of heart which has ever marked the United Brethren, and preserve themselves through all the varieties of disappointment and success as free from the temptations of vain glory, or bitterness, or emulation; then may they look forward to the day when they shall compel the silence of gainsayers by exhibitions equally wonderful and promising.

Before we take up the subject of the present article, it may be proper to state, that a very complete summary of Moravian missions may be met with in Dr. Brown's History of the Propagation of Christianity; a work singularly suited to the present eager inquiry after missionary intelligence, as giving a lucid and connected view of all that has been done or attempted in this way, since the period of the Reformation.

The United Brethren failed in their first attempt to settle on the coast of Labrador, in 1752; nor did they renew their attempt till an offer was made by Jens Haven, in 1764, to go

out as a missionary to that country. He had been for some years a missionary in Greenland; and from the strong affinity between the two languages, he was able to make himself understood by the Esquimaux. This secured him a degree of acceptance among that barbarous people, which was before experienced by any European;-a circumstance highly agreeable to Sir Hugh Palliser, at that time Governor of Newfoundland, and which obtained for the missionary, the countenance of the Board of Trade and Plantations.

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It was found necessary, however, to defer the missionary work for some years, till Mikak, an Esquimaux woman, was brought to London, and attracted the same kind of notice among people of rank and influence in the metropolis, that was afterwards excited by the appearance of the well known Otaheitean in this country. She here met with Jens Haven, and earnestly solicited his protection for her poor countrymen, many of whom had been slaughtered in a late affray with the English. She was of great use in advancing the business of the mission; and a grant was at length obtained from the Privy Council, by which the Brethren's Society for the furtherance of the Gospel, obtained permission from the King and his Ministers, to make settlements on the coast of Labrador, and to preach the Gospel to the Esquimaux.

Under cover of this permission, Haven accompanied with others, sailed for the coast of Labrador, purchased land from the Esquimaux, and in 1771, was busied in the erection of various conveniences for a settlement at Nain, where they were suffered to reside without disturbance from the natives who visited them. In 1776, they formed another settlement at Okkak, an island, about 150 miles to the northward; and one year after a third settlement at Hopedale to the south of Okkak, completed the present list of the Moravian establishments in that country.

(To be continued.)

Art. II. The Excursion: being a portion of the Recluse, a Poem.. By William Wordsworth. 4to. pp. 448. Price 21. 2s. Longman and Co. 1814.

WHO can behold this beautiful world, and imagine, for a mo

ment, that it was designed to be the abode of miserable beings? The earth arrayed in verdure, adorned with flowers, diversified with hill and dale, engirdled with the ocean, overcanopied with heaven; this earth so smiling and fruitful, so commodious and magnificent, is altogether worthy of its Maker, and not only a fit habitation for Mau, created in the image of

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