religious solecism. He often therefore returned from the company of some religious persons disappointed and grieved, scarcely able to exercise that charity which hopeth all things and believeth all things, not properly considering that while he was waiting for their conversation, they from what they had heard of him and from diffidence in themselves, were waiting for his. Thus, while he improperly attributed their silence to want of zeal and spiritualmindedness, they as improperly attributed his silence to Indian hauteur, which shews how cautious Christians should be in putting unfavorable constructions on the conduct of each other.

For some months after the Captain understood the knowledge of salvation through Christ, he believed what he read in the word of God without hesitation. Feeling that the gospel was just suited to his case, and not doubting but that God was sincere in his gracious invitations, and firmly believing his faithfulness to his promises, he cordially received the remedy that infinite love had provided, and resting his soul on the oath and promises of God, he enjoyed the comforts of the gospel in a high degree. He experimentally knew that the kingdom of God was in righteousness, peace and joy. He was able to call God his Father, and he walked all day in the light of his countenance. Old things were passed away and all things were become new. Those who were most intimate with him, often found it a presage of heaven to be in his company. The "first love" of some was brought to their remembrance and rekindled into a flame; others weré deeply humbled and excited to close investigation of their own state, fearing by a comparison of themselves with him, that they had never felt the saving power of religion on their soul.

That believers of considerable standing in the church should question their interest in the blessings

of the gospel, and be sometimes in darkness and despondency, were facts to him hardly credible and perfectly unaccountable. Time, however, the corrector of our early mistakes, taught him that he had known but little of the plague of his own heart, or of Satan's devices. Before two years had passed, former ideas recurred without their novelty, and consequently without the strength of first impressions, while on the other band, old ideas returned, and old propensities revived, and struggled for ascendancy. The mind began to reflect on itself, and to trace its own operations in search of evidences of his being a partaker of the grace of God which bringeth salvation-Now a variety of deficiencies were discovered, and the power of indwelling sin was grievously felt. He began to question whether his knowledge were not merely scientific, the effect of human, instead of divine teaching; whether his pleasures of religion were not the excitements of mere human passions, instead of the exercise of gracious affections; whether his confidence in the promises were not presumption, and his zeal for God the mere love of novelty and of self-applause. Not having yet learnt, while the eye of self-examination is investigating the state of the soul, to keep the eye of faith steadily directed to first principles, the infinite love of the Father, the efficacious atonement of the Savior, and the promised agency of the Holy Ghost, his soul was involved in sore distress. While he was looking into the abyss of his own heart and into "the horrible pit" into which sin had plunged him, he forgot the rock on which he was standing. He now fell into the practice of most young Christians, he reasoned on his feelings when he should have lived by faith; the one he might have done, but he should not have left the other undone. This however is a lesson not easily learnt, and when learnt it is not easily practiced.

His friend in the ministry had now to present another class of truths to his mind, and direct to another course of reading. The experimental writings of Dr. Owen were especially recommended, as giving a sound scriptural view of the work of God in the soul-such as his works on justification by faith-on spiritual mindedness-on communion with God-on the nature of the forgiveness of sin, and the case of a soul distressed with the guilt of sin, and relieved by a discovery of forgiveness with God, explained in his Exposition of the 150th Psalm-on indwelling sin-and, on the nature, grounds, and evidences of the faith of God's elect.

After a few months more, his mind was recovered from its perplexities; he had clearer views of the warrant of faith, and better understood the nature of Christian experience. Though he perceived that the sanctification of the Spirit, forms the evidence of our meetness for heaven, and is as essentially necessary to salvation, as an interest in the justifying righteousness of Christ, yet that the atonement of the Redeemer and the promises of God, constitute the foundation of our hope of acceptance with him. On this basis he was enabled to build the superstructure of faith, hope and practice, and when the evidences of grace became weak and indistinct, he had recourse to these first principles to revive and strengthen them.

Early in the year 1796, he was admitted a member of the church of Christ in Orange Street, Portsea, with great pleasure to the minister and to the people. His residence being ten miles from the place of worship, prevented bis frequently associating with the pious, aged and established members of the church. This was a considerable disadvantage to him, for as "iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend." Habits of activity and benevolence are seldom formed from merely reading

they generally arise from example and association. It is much to be lamented that many Christians have resided in country villages, surrounded with the poor and the ignorant, perishing for lack of knowledge, without using any means to instruct and save them, while those who live at a distance from such scenes, frequently converse on the most necessary and suitable objects of benevolence, and devise the means of sending the Gospel into the unenlightened villages around them. The Captain had not been sufficiently long in the church to have learnt the principles, and to form the habits of an active and extensive Christian zeal. He had previous to his conversion, given proofs of considerable generosity to some of his relations, and which he increased after he had experienced the power of divine grace. But he had not been particularly excited to the exercise of liberality for the cause of God, till his minister, preaching regularly on a Sabbath morning through the eleventh chapter of the Hebrews, shewed that faith not only induces the negative parts of a Christian's conduct in his abstaining from that which is wrong, but that it excites and impels to the active and benevolent virtues of the Christian life.

This course of subjects excited in the Captain's mind, a considerable degree of painful anxiety, respecting his state as a Christian. He now fully perceived that the design of God in imparting divine grace to the heart, was not only to save the individual, but to make him the means of saving others. "Ye are the salt of the earth" and "the light of the world" began to revibrate in his conscience, as though spoken from heaven by the lips of his Savior. He had reason to hope that his faith had done something for him, but it now became a solicitous inquiry, "what has my faith induced me to do for others?" To this train of reflections is to be attributed the

reason for his offering himself to the Missionary Society, to convey their first missionaries to the islands of the Pacific Ocean.

PART III.

From the Captain's commencing the Missionary Voyage to the South Sea Islands, till his return and settling in London.

WHETHER the Islands in the South Seas were the most elegible situation in which to commence the efforts of the Missionary Society, is now, after almost twenty years, a question of little importance to decide, as several other missions have since been established with various success, and time only can fully determine that point; yet it may be useful to observe, that many advantages arose out of that mission. It was of great importance to the missionary cause, that the Society should commence its operations by some Mission that was most calculated to excite the attention of the religious world to this interesting subject, to diffuse the missionary spirit and impart its impulsive energies to the Christian churches abroad and at home, without exciting jealousies and opposition injurious to its progress.

Had the Society been more slow and private in its operations at its first commencement, it is hardly probable that such a Missionary flame would have been lighted up in the world, as was seen to blaze in England and to spread to many of the churches