tain topics. Do not administer to your inexperienced flock doubtful disputations, or minute obscurities, which amaze the mind without affecting the heart, which disturb and bewilder, but seldom convince, which may raise up a partizan, but cannot form the truly contrite and holy disciple of Christ. May the Spirit of God direct and sanctify your labours! May converts spring up to you as the grass, as willows by the water courses! May one say, I am the Lord's; and another call himself by the name of Jacob; and another subscribe with his hand to the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel+. You, MY RESPECTED SISTER 5, who are now returning, under peculiar circumstances, to the country from which your state of health required you to retire; be assured you share our tenderest sympathy, and shall have the benefit of our most fervent prayers. We enter into all your feelings. We commend you to the grace and compassion of that Saviour who raised the weeping Mary from his feet. We implore of God to endue you with the peculiar consolations of his Spirit! May you adorn your Christian profession with the meekness and quietness of spirit, which in the sight of God is of great price. May the tender and retiring virtues, 4 Isai. xliv. 4, 5. 6 1 Pet. iii. 4. which are the peculiar ornament of the female character, make you an example to the unhappy women whom you will behold ignorant, degraded, and oppressed, on every side of you. May you look back with pleasure throughout your future life, on the transaction of this day, when, like the holy women of old, you have come forward to minister to the necessities of the church, and to present with a trembling hand, under discouragement and sorrow, your tribute of service at the footstool of that Redeemer who will not fail to smile on your efforts, and accept your offering of love. care. I turn to you, my Christian friends, who are going out in the important situation of SCHOOLMASTER AND SCHOOLMISTRESS". The charge of the young will be especially entrusted to your Your duties will be only second to those of the Missionary. I affectionately wish you farewell. May the gracious Saviour who received children, took them up in his arms and blessed them, prosper your instructions! May the African youth learn, under your parental kindness, the knowledge of themselves, and of Jesus Christ their Lord. Your responsibility is as great, as the prospect of usefulness which opens before you. May the abundant mercy of God rest upon you! May submission to those 7 Mr. and Mrs. Hughes. who are placed over you, diligence in your calling, zeal in promoting the true interests of the mission, vigilance against mercenary motives, and an uniform and humble conscientiousness, mark and adorn your characters. Thus will you be happy in yourselves, a blessing to the Heathen, and a support to the Mission to which you are to be attached! And you, MY YOUNG AFRICAN BROTHER, who are returning to your native land after a series of remarkable events, I trust you will aim at making some returns to that God, who has so distinguished you by his mercy, by your whole future conduct. Go, and show to your countrymen the graces and virtues of a Christian. Go, and endeavour to recommend the sacred knowledge which you have received. Go, and let Africa see what the religion of Christ can do in elevating and blessing mankind. Our best wishes and prayers shall rest upon you. May God be gracious to you! May you become a truly humble, enlightened, established Christian! May your connection with Britons be ever a source of grateful thanksgiving! May you act in a submissive, modest, faithful manner in the new relation to our Mission which you ' Jellorrum Harrison, son of a chief in the vicinity of the Society's Settlements, who after passing several years at Karass, in Georgia, was about to return, in connection with the missions of the Society. are about to sustain! And may mercy and truth be with you?! Finally, my Christian Brethren, we commend you to God, and to the word of his grace'. Wherever you may go, be assured our unfeigned prayers and affections will go with you. Under all removes, all dangers, all distresses, there is an EYE, before which there is no difference of place, but all lies open in boundless and incomprehensible prospect: there is an ARM by which all nature is held together, and to which every thing is equally easy. To that eye, to that arm we commit you. To the Omnipotent Jehovah, who hath stretched forth the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, and said unto Zion, Thou art my people2, we confidently entrust you. To that ALMIGHTY FATHER, who hath not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all3; to that ADORABLE SAVIOUR, who hath taken upon himself the seed of Abraham, and purchased his church with his own blood; to that ETERNAL SPIRIT, the Comforter who sanctifieth us and all the elect people of God, we solemnly devote you; in your bodies and in your souls; most fervently praying that, in every future moment of emer 9 2 Sam. xv. 20. 1 Acts, xx. 32. 2 Isai. li. 16. 3 Rom. viii. 32. 5 Acts, xx. 28. |