land in the months of June, July, or at longeft, of Auguft, this year. year. All you know of this and the African Miffion, or what has been published on the fubject, and has any relation to it, we beg you to communicate to us the first opportunity.

When the firft tranfactions of the Miffionary Society were made known here by this publication, there was fuch a commotion among the good people, that great pains were taken to have the perufal of the work only for a few hours, only one copy of it being at that time in our town, but we wrote for fifty copies more from Leipzig.

Many rich and 'religious Gentlemen have offered to contribute fomething to this Miffion, and I believe that the beginning of a collection will be made, as foon as we receive the fuller accounts of its further progrefs.

May the gracious Redeemer of the finful human race blefs with the power of his Spirit this great and impartial inftitution for the propagating and proclaiming bis Name among the Heathen! May he impart courage, wifdom, and unity, to the meffengers who are to preach to diftant nations, the joyful tidings of falvation from fin through his blood, that they may be found faithful followers of their mafter, to whofe fervice they are devoted, and that we may fee the fruits of their miffion for the glory of our God!

Great Author of the Work of Redemption! fend thy Spirit in an increased measure, that in thefe dark and perí lous times the face of the earth may be renewed!

LETTER II.

A Copy of the following fhort Letter to Mr. JOSEPH DIXON, of Calcutta, in the Eaft-Indies, from the Rev. Mr. KIERNANDER, a worthy aged German Minister in that country, was fent to the Editor by one of our Correfpondents. It breathes fo much of the spirit of an aged Saint, dead to the world and ready to take wing to the regions of immortality, we cannot doubt of the publication being acceptable to our readers, and hope it may prove edifying to many.

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DEAR SIR,

Calcutta, April 3, 1797.

RECEIVED your letter of the 27th of March, which was fent me from Chinfurah. I thank you for convey ing to me the obliging meffage from your old Paftor the

Rev. Dr. Trotter. When you write to him I beg you will affure him of my thankful acknowledgements for his kind remembrance of me.

My old age, being now four months entered into my 86th year, prevents me from continuing my correfpondence with my few furviving friends. Moft of them are gone before me into eternity, and I am near upon the brink to follow them. I now live amongst a new generation who know me not, and whom I have not the honour to know. Hereby, however, I have the advantage of hiding myfelf from the bustle of the world, and the more undisturbed have my converfation in heaven, where I wish and long to be. Believe I am, Dear Sir,

Your affectionate humble Servant,

JOHN ZACH. KIERNANDER.

THE OCULAR TREATY.

A FRAGMENT.

Thoughts on JOB XXXI, 1.-I made a Covenant with mine

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eyes.

T was a proof of thy wisdom, venerable fage, that thou didft fo! O that I had done the fame thirty years ago I had then efcaped many a fnare, the recollection of which covers me with fhame. I ftill find the need of a fimilar precaution; and moft heartily recommend Job's ocular treaty to my dear young friends.

Our nature is totally corrupted by fin, and every fenfe is the port of evil. The eye is an organ of exquifite workmanship, its mechanifm beyond measure marvellous, its powers amazingly extenfive!* O my God, that fo diftinguifhed a branch of thy creation should ever be perverted to

"High in the head, bright and confpicuous as a star in the brow of evening, is placed the eye. In this elevated fituation, like a centinel posted in his watch-tower, it commands the most enlarged profpect. Confifting only of fimple fluids, inclofed in thin tunicles, it conveys to our apprehenfion all the graces of blooming nature, and all the glories of the vible heavens. How prodigiously wonderful, that an image of the hugest mountains, and a tranfcript of the most diverfified landfcapes fhould enter the small circlet of the pupil! How furprisingly artful, that the rays of fight, like an inimitable pencil, fhould paint on the optic nerves; paint in an inftant of time; paint in their trueft colours, and exacteft lineaments, every species of external objects !”—Hervey's Dialogues XII.

purposes

purposes that debafe my nature! It was formed to furvey thy glorious works, and thence deduce the demonftration of thy infinite wisdom and goodness; but, ah, how foon was it prostituted to base and deftructive ufes. The firft fin, that fatal act of rebellion, which ruined us all, found admiffion to the heart of Eve by this organ. The interdicted tree was beautiful to the eye; fhe was captivated with its pleafing hue, and rafhly fnatched the poisonous fruit. The univerfal tragedy, the deluge of the world, owed its origin to the fame fource: the fons of God beheld the daughters of men, were fmitten with their exterior beauty, and loft light of their idolatrous deformity. Unhappy Achan too, perithed in confequence of one unbridled glance of the eve.

The renowned Achilles, it is faid, was invulnerable, fave in his heel. Of how many is the eye the only vulnerable member.* Here David, the wife, the valiant, the pious, received that wound, in the agony of which he vented the mournful groans of the fifty-firft pfalm, and which, no doubt, made him go foftly all his days. O my foul! how many ftrong and good men have fallen down wounded, the miserable victims of one unguarded fally of the eye!

How prudent, then, to imitate the patriarch, and make a treaty with a power fo able to hurt us. I find a noble heathen prefenting us with an example. Scipio would not venture to behold his fair captive, but in the prefence of her mournful husband, to whom he honourably restored her. Even that rafh madman, Alexander, called the Great, would not fee the beautiful daughters of Darius, left the conqueror of the world should be tempted by their charms. Žaleuchus, the Locrian legiflator, ordained that the crime of adultery fhould be punished by the lofs of the offender's eyes. But a greater than these has enjoined us to pluck out our own eye if it offend; that is, to reftrain and mortify its finful lufts. Let a folemn treaty, then, be instantly ratified; let my eyes, let every member of my body, be "holiness unto the Lord." So fhall I, one holy day, fhut my eyes to all the vanities of this enfnaring world, and open them to behold the unveiled beauties of my glorious Redeemer; to whom, be univerfal and everlasting praise!

ABSTINENTES OCULI

An excellent puritan writer, referring to the motto of Cæfar, veni, vidi, vici, Itaw, I came, I overcame; oblerves that, "many will have caule to lay, we c me, we saw, we were overcome." The drunkard, the covetous, the adulterer, will have occafion to adopt that motto.

MEDITATIONS

MEDITATIONS ON DIVINE PRESENCE,

A powerful Antidote against Fear.

O what excess in folly and diffipation would man run, was he not now and then refrained by affliction or diftrefs? and into what labyrinths of fear and anxiety would he involve himself, did not the joys of religion folace the heart, and the promife of God fhed forth fome rays of hope? Into what depths of diftrefs, O my foul, wouldst thou have been plunged, had not God faid, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee; be not difmayed, for I am thy God; I will ftrengthen thee, yea, I will help thee with the right hand hand of my righteoufnefs?" This was the word that was my comfort in my trouble, and in my ftraits I was revived by it. When ficknefs had laid my clay tabernacle low, threatened its diffolution, and made my nights wearifome, how comfortable to hear the voice of God faying, "Fear thou not, for I am with thee?" Now though earth and hell combine to lay a load of trouble on me, I will not fear, while the eternal God is my refuge, and underneath is his almighty arm."

Confider, O my foul, that the promife of God is expreffed in language the moft engaging and comfortable; and though waters of affliction fwell and rage, they fhall not overwhelm you; "God is a prefent help in the time of trouble." And why fhould you fhrink, or be afraid in the profpect of trials to come? Shall not the deliverance from the houfe of bondage, and the paffage through the red fea, in the prefence of God, encourage you, that all the hardfhips of the wilderness, and the paffage through Jordan, will be light when God is with you? But when I look forward to old age, thofe evil days in which I thall fay I have no pleasure, how do I fear poverty and diftrefs? But why need I fear? for though I have not where to lay my head, yet, in having God I am richer, than if I had treafures at command; and who can be poor, when God over all bleffed for ever is his portion? In having God with me I fhall never want a friend. Who can be deftitute when the God of mercy and compaffion fuccours him? He is the beft of friends; one who knows when and how to adminifter comfort; one who loved me before I loved him-who loved me with an everlafting love; one who loved me when I hated him; and who is more deeply concerned for my VOL. VI. happiness

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happiness than I can be myfelf; and (oh how precious!) one who will never, never, never leave me nor forfake me; for "though all fhould forfake me the Lord will take me up." "The mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but my loving kindness thall not depart, neither fhall the covenant of my peace be removed faith the Lord that hath mercy on thee." This fhall fupport me alfo, and whatever gloomy and diftreffed profpects open on my view as I advance towards the valley of the fhadow of death, I will not fear, for "When I walk through it, God will be with me;" he hath promifed, faying, "be not difmayed, for I am thy God, I will ftrengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteoufnefs."

How often have I been afraid to contend with principalities and powers, but my God faid, "I will ftrengthen thee, I will help thee;" I will now "be ftrong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. His righteoufnels fhall be a fhield and buckler unto me," which all the weapons of earth and hell will never penetrate. When God is with me who can be against me? The moft formidable force which hell can mufter, is to his power like chaff to the wind, or dry ftubble to the flame. "The Lord is my light and falvation, whom fhall I fear? The Lord is the ftrength of my life, of whom fhall I be afraid? The Lord is my rock, and my fortrefs, and my deliverer; my God, my ftrength, in whom I will truft, my buckler, and the horn of my falvation, and my high tower." And ftronger is he that is in me than he that is in the world. Nay, I will not fear either the number, or the leverity of my trials; for let diftrefs be ever fo tedious or fevere, it cannot over-balance the happincts that is enjoyed in communion with God. There is no evil I can fear, or forrow that I can feel, that will shut out divine comforts from my foul. God, the fountain of living waters, is always with me. Though Ifrael was in the wilderness of Sinai, when they could find no food to eat nor water to drink, they need not have been difcouraged, their God was with them, his bountiful hand gave them bread from heaven to eat, and by his power he turned the flint into a water-fpring. When the three children were cait into the fiery furnace, God was with them, fo that the flames did not kindle upon them, neither did the fmell of fire pafs upon their garments. I will take comfort alio, for the fame God fays to me, "When thou paffeft through the waters, I will be with thee, and through

the