tice of Christianity. A society of these Brethren settled in Jamaica about the year 1732, and have continued their benevolent labours to this day, though not with that success which their endeavours have been crowned with in other islands. Many of the negro slaves, notwithstanding, have been instructed by their missionaries, and several truly converted to God; who have forsaken the habitual vices to which they were addicted before their conversion, and have led exemplary lives, conformable to the doctrines of the gospel of our blessed Redeemer.

A just tribute of praise, under the grace of God, to these Moravians, our truly Christian brethren, cannot but be acceptable to all evangelical believers; and it has been given to the public in such candid and liberal terms by the Rev. Melville Horne, late chaplain to the British settlement at Sierra Leone in Africa, and now vicar of the new church in the town of Macclesfield, that no apology can be required for inserting the following account of them, from his excellent letters on missions, addressed to the Protestant ministers of the British churches.

"The Moravian Brethren have been, among us, what the Jesuit missionaries were in the Roman church. They have laboured, and suffered, and effected more than all of us. Their motives have been pure; the missionaries unblameable; their self-denial, courage, hardihood, and perseverance, admirable; and their success such as to give general encouragement. They have never provoked persecution among the heathens, nor incurred reproach among Europeans, by a secular, sordid, turbulent spirit. Their success cannot be referred to the learning of their ministers, the richness of their funds, or the names and influence of great patrons. The case was far otherwise: in all those respects they have lain under heavy discouragements. We must then account for their success upon other principles; and they are, I think, very obvious. Their missionaries have been men of ardent piety. The brethren had it not in their power to hold out any improper inducement to them. They are all of them volunteers; for it is an inviolable maxim with the Moravians, to persuade no man to engage in missions. They seldom make an attempt where there are not half a dozen of them in the mission. They live together in one family, and, where they find it necessary, labour with their own hands. Hence their missions are less expensive than those of any other people; they can engage in more missions than they would otherwise be able to support. Their missionaries are entirely of one mind, as to the doctrines they teach, their mode of inculcating them, and the discipline they exercise over their flocks. Their habits are congenial; and they have been

accustomed for a course of years to give scrupulous attention to every rule of their church. Few cases can occur to produce diversity of judgments among them. They live together with the regularity of a monastic institution; and the frequent stated returns of devotional exercises, keep up the spirit of piety. They have each of them their proper departments in the family; and occupied as they are with study, private and public de votion, preaching, and the various duties of the pastoral care, they have no time to be idle. If any of their missionaries are carried off by sickness or casualty, men of the same stamp are ready to supply their place. Thus mutually supporting and inspiring one another, they are sheltered from those tempests, which discharge their fury on a few solitary beings, badly united together, and placed in circumstances where the zeal and abilities of an individual, however great, can effect little."

A character at once so genuine, and so disinterested, requires no comment. We have no remark to make which can sully so fair a picture; and, in point of general description, there is nothing which we can supply. And though the endeavours of these servants of the most high God have not been attended in Jamaica with that success which, according to human estimation and wishes, might be expected, yet no argument can be gathered from hence against the utility of their actions, or against the piety of their designs.

The generous exertions of the Moravian brethren have been extended through every quarter of the globe; and their pious labours may be a seed-time to some future harvest. Through their lives and doctrines they may be preparing the way, among the most benighted nations of the earth, for that happy period when a nation shall be born in a day, and when all shall know the Lord, from the least unto the greatest. We should therefore reproach ourselves with a want of candour, were we to estimate the real usefulness of this people, by the apparent successes which have crowned their labours. They have laid themselves out for God, and their reward awaits them beyond the grave.

At the close of the year 1792, the Moravian brethren, scattered over different portions of the globe in the work of the ministry, amounted to one hundred and thirty-seven, including some women who had accompanied their husbands to the extremities of the earth. Of this number, fifty-five, of whom the women made a part, were stationed in different islands of the West Indies; and of these, three men and their wives had taken up their residence in Jamaica, the island which we now have under consideration. The author himself made them a visit as

their settlement in the parish of St. Elizabeth, in the year

1793.

Of their successes in this island, their reports are exceedingly brief, and far from being gratifying to their desires and their hopes. In their periodical account published in 1790, they have only this short article: "In Jamaica, all our missionaries were well last May. Brother Christian Zander, in Mesopota→ mia, departed this life the 18th of May. In the first quarter of the year, seven negroes were baptized on the Bogue estate." In their third number, published in 1791, they say, "In Jamaica, a violent hurricane raged on the first of September, by which the chapel in Mesopotamia was unroofed; but in Carmel no damage has been done. All our brethren and sisters in both places are well, but lament the slow progress of the gospel in that island.

In page 83 of the succeeding number, they observe, "In Jamaica, the progress of our mission is but slow; yet several of the heathen have received the gospel, turned to the Lord with their whole hearts, and been added by baptism to the church of Christ." This account is dated May 23, 1791.

In page 120, they adopt the same complaint: " In this island the progress of the gospel is but slow. The disturbances they had upon the neighbouring island of St. Domingo have not affected the state of the negroes in Jamaica, as was apprehended."

In page 165 they remark, "In Jamaica there appears at present but little fruit attending the preaching of the gospel; and the missionaries call upon all their brethren every where to unite their prayers unto the Lord for a renewal of his gracious work in the hearts of those negroes already baptized, and for a new awakening among the heathen."

And, finally, they inform us in the tenth number, page 210, "In Jamaica our brethren complain that the progress of the gospel is very slow.-They have lately been invited to preach on an estate called Peru."

Such was the situation of the Moravian missions in the year 1794. We may learn from these periodical reports, that though Paul may plant and Apollos water, it is only God that can give the increase. Nothing but the efficacy of divine grace can soften the obdurate heart ;-of ourselves we can do nothing; —and all our sufficiency is of God. Though at the same time we know that this grace is offered to all; and the soul which yields to its operations-which thus comes to Christ-shall in no wise be cast out.

When piety and talents are exercised in the service of God, and exertion is not crowned with prosperity, we feel ourselves

VOL. I.

3 F

lost in that ocean of immensity-the unsearchable ways and incomprehensible providence of God. But we are also fully assured, that he will treat the heathen world with the most perfect equity-that he will estimate the conduct of mankind only according to the talents respectively afforded them, and will not expect to reap where he has not sown. In the midst, therefore, of discouragements, we may learn, that it is our duty to trust. God where we cannot trace him,-to follow our blessed Lord through evil and through good report,-to live in the discharge of our duty, and to leave events to him. Though the labours of these pious missionaries afford us a gloomy prospect in Jamaica, the scenes are more enlivening in other islands. These also will appear before us, when we take our leave of this island, after having surveyed that extensive work which God has been pleased to carry on by the instrumentality of other means. At present we must bid adieu to the Moravian Brethren, and turn our thoughts to the success of those missions which have been established and carried on by the late Reverend John Wesley, and by the Society late in connexion with him.*

The Baptists have had societies among the negroes in Jamaica for near twenty years, and much good has arisen therefrom. Their success in that island, in the conversion of souls, has far exceeded that of the Moravian Brethren. But for want of documents the author is not able to enlarge upon this subject. He will only add, that in the course of his three visits to Jamaica, he was so far acquainted with their proceedings, that he is confident they have been truly useful to hundreds of the negroes.

CHAP. XIII.

HISTORY OF JAMAICA.

Remarks on the zeal, piety, and usefulness of the Reverend John Wesley-the author's union with him, and first arrival in the island of Jamaica-his report on the state of religion, and advice to Mr. Wesley to send over missionaries to preach the gospel to the negroes-establishment of the Methodists in the islandpid success of the mission-account of the founding of a Methodist Chapel in Kingston-description and engraved view of that chapel.

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THE venerable name of John Wesley is well known throughout the united kingdom, and the doctrines which he taught have been frequently investigated both by his friends and foes. The zeal and activity of Mr. Wesley exposed him to the scoffs of infidelity, and brought upon him the charge of enthusiasm from those characters who profess Christianity, but who know not God. Even by his enemies his name is more or less reverenced, but to his friends it is endeared; and it will descend unsullied to posterity, and be held in grateful remembrance so long as it shall be deemed a virtue to have been beneficial to mankind.

The holy ardour which prompted him to energy among his countrymen, urged him to cross the Atlantic to diffuse the light of the gospel in the Western World. In England and America his name and character are alike known; his zeal found no rival, except in his usefulness; and, divesting our minds both of partiality and prejudice, we dare to rank him among the very first of the public benefactors of mankind.

In the West India Islands he knew there were myriads of his fellow-creatures sitting in the valley and shadow of death; and embraced the first opportunity to enlarge his sphere of action by the means of his missionaries, and to spread those truths through these benighted regions, which had been so happily diffused at home.

It was from the fullest conviction of duty that the author of these pages joined himself to that venerable man; and from entering into his views, and feeling with him a congeniality of soul, that he presumed to co-operate with him in his pious and