portunity. He would not stop to calculate the probability of success. Without asserting any claim to his help; yea, with a consciousness that he had nothing to give, in compensation for his cure, he immediately cast himself upon the pity of the Redeemer: he cried, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.' And thus should the blind beggar in the spiritual sense, seek for deliverance. The fame of Jesus, as the Saviour of sinners, has been spread abroad through all ages. Prophets have proclaimed it. Apostles have declared it. His own miracles of grace have testified it. By raising him from the dead, God hath also approved him unto all men, as his messenger to this lower world, to give salvation to its sinful inhabitants, by the remission of sins. Destitute of the joys and benefits of the light of life, exposed to innumerable perils and privations, poor and friendless, shall sinful men, when this Messiah, who is "mighty to save," passes near them, neglect to call upon him -defer so seek his help? What though they have no claim to his assistance! What though they cannot remunerate his love! He offers his mercy "without money, and without price." With confidence in the fame they have heard of his power, and the declarations the Almighty hath given of his authority, they should stretch out their hands to him as needy supplicants, and beg the mercy which is Jehovah's alms. "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on us." They will not cry in vain, if they imitate the blind beggar in,

3. The third thing to be noticed in him; namely, his perseverance, notwithstanding the obstacles which were thrown in his way. "And they who went before rebuked him that he should hold his peace; but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me." Great, and innumerable are the difficulties which sinners may have to surmount in coming to Christ. How shall I, says one who is poor and naked,

mean and despised, look for a place in the church of the saints, or expect any notice from the ministers of the sacred pools? What! says an uncharitable multitude, concerning the ignorant and stupid, the blindest and poorest beggars by the way side; can these expect to attract the attention of the Son of God, and to be made heirs of his covenant, and of the household of the Most High? Hold thy peace, wretched sinner, saith the adversary; cease from thy prayers, thy hopes, and thy inquiries. Canst thou hope for deliverance, whose sins have caused thee to be given up to blindness, who art too wicked to be regarded by God! Thus, the world derides; conscience intimidates; the adversary terrifies. But a sense of his dangers and miseries, and confidence in the power and mercy of the Saviour, will render the sinner importunate and persevering in his prayers. The pressure upon him of his miseries and danger, together with his apprehension of the power of the Messiah to set him free, will not suffer him to remit his importunity. He will supplicate so much the more earnestly, as God the longer deferreth to deliver him. Like the blind man in this Gospel, whose perseverance is recorded for our instruction, obstacles and delay will add strength to his cries; he will continue to call till Jesus hears him.

4. The success and happiness of such perseverance, are taught us in the fourth thing we have to notice, concerning the subject of this miracle-the wonderful recovery of his sight." And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight; thy faith hath saved thee. And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God." Who can forbear to picture to himself the joy which now rushed as a torrent over the blind beggar's heart? The sun in the heavens he saw with delight and wonder; the face of nature transported him with its beauty and sublimity, and the relations and proportions of all its parts. He gazed upon the fair colours of the flowers,

this quality. "If thou believest." "All things are possible to him that believeth." And again: "O woman, great is thy faith; be it unto thee even as thou wilt." And here, in the case before us, Jesus said unto him, "Receive thy sight, thy faith hath saved thee." Awakened sinner, wouldst thou share the mercies? come unto him, believing that thy God hath sent him into the world for thy redemption. Have confidence in his goodness, and the sufficiency of his power to save thee. If there were no other reason why faith should be required of thee, it were a sufficient and an awful one, which St. John hath given; " He that believeth not God, hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son."

Brethren, the application of this interesting portion of Scripture is to yourselves. God has placed you, though blind and poor, in the way in which you may hear of his Son the Redeemer. When you hear the voices of the prophets, and the movements of the types, and the sacrifices are set before you, do you ask what it meaneth? "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."-When the Church calleth you to joy in a Christmas, to keep a Lent, to solemnize a Good Friday, to observe an Easter, to celebrate an Ascension, do you ask what it meaneth? "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."-When the altar of God hath upon it its white covering, and there are placed thereon bread and wine, and the priests stand by it, in deepest humility and highest adoration, do you ask what it meaneth? "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by."-Are your desires to go to him for the salvation you need, restrained by your fears, or the opposition of the enemy, or the cavils of an evil world?

Rise,

he calleth you. Are you guilty? He calleth you to pardon.-Are you feeble? He calleth you to grace. Are you afflicted? He calleth you

to consolation.-Are you mortal? He calleth you to eternal life. "Come unto me," saith he, "all ye that travel, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Be not deterred, then, by the difficulties in the way. Lay aside the upper garment of your own sufficiency. It may entangle you in going to Jesus. Think not of your claim to his help. Regard not your inability to compensate him for your cure. Have faith in his character. Have faith in his pity, and his power. His name is Saviour. Contemplate him by his name, and cry to him perseveringly, "Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me." He standeth still when the poor calleth ; "he also will hear their prayer, and will help them." Amen.

The foregoing sermon is taken from Bishop Dehon's discourses (vol. II. number lxxxvi.) We have copied it the more willingly, not only from the interest expressed by many of our readers in this lamented writer, and to compensate for the rapid notice and brevity of extract to which our limits confined us in the review of the second volume of his work, but as containing an affecting invitation to sinners to "come to Jesus to be healed," and as exhibiting a pleasing illustration of the scriptural character of the Bishop's sentiments, with little or no need for those occasional exceptions which have been mentioned as sometimes necessary in reading the pages of some of our most eminent divines. In transcribing the sermon, we have not thought ourselves at liberty to make any alterations or additions; and we have only made one brief omission of a sentence which appeared to us not clearly intelligible, and which might

This is the title of the sermon in the American edition, from which we have copied; the running title is simply, "Come to Jesus." In the London edition, the title is altered to "The Healing of the Blind."

have been liable to misapprehension in a family sermon.

To the Editorofthe Christian Observer. It is deeply to be lamented, that the church of Christ should ever be divided by mere party names, or that its true members should on any occasion be more ready to shew their controversial badge, "I am of Paul, and I of Apollos," than the common uniform of their holy profession" and I of Christ." The terms "orthodox" and "evangelical" seem at present to marshal the two leading divisions of opinion in our church. But are not the terms convertible? Can a man be an orthodox churchman without being evangelical; or an evangelical churchman without being orthodox? To bring the point to the test of experiment, I subjoin the following character of "an evangelical minister," which was sent to a lady who had desired a definition of that term; and I would humbly request to know what it contains that is con

trary to orthodoxy, or why any truly orthodox churchman should shrink from the unmerited reproach which the expression "evangelical" is often intended to convey. Change the word evangelical for orthodox, in its proper sense, and the description will be equally appropriate.

VIGIL.

The expression an evangelical minister, when justly applied to a clergyman of the Church of England, means, or should mean, one who, believing the doctrines contained in the sacred Scriptures, as expounded in the Liturgy and the Thirty-nine Articles to the belief and maintenance of which he has pledged himself at his ordination, preaches in conformity with them; enforcing the doctrines of the fall of man, and the corruption of human nature; the incapacity of mankind, in their natural state, to discern spiritual things, or to do works acceptable to CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 253.

God; and the necessity of a holy change of heart, as the principle of a moral change in conduct. He maintains that salvation is wholly of God's grace, through faith in Christ Jesus; and not of man's works or deservings. He shews the necessity of an atoning sacrifice to put away sin, and exhibits the office of the Holy Spirit in the renewal of the soul and the reformation of the character. He holds the necessity of good works, not as the precursors of faith, or the procuring cause of salvation, but as the necessary result and evidence of faith implanted and salvation bestowed. gelical minister is himself the subject and the example of the truths he preaches. Religion is with him a matter, not of hearsay, but of personal experience. Being "moved by the Holy Spirit" to take upon him the sacred office, he depends on that Divine Agent for the success of his commission, and the reception of the doctrines which he delivers. He is described in Scripture as "a fellow-labourer together with God," and his business is "to

An evan

gather into the fold of Christ the wandering sheep of his flock out of this naughty world." He knows, that since the Fall," the whole world lieth in wickedness," in the sleep and death of sin, under the bondage of satan, and yet unconscious of their state; and that "the carnal mind is enmity to God, and opposed to all his gracious dispensations;" and, therefore, he willingly submits to be misunderstood and reproached, like his Divine Master, in his efforts to bring men to the knowledge of the truth, and to turn them from the power of satan unto God. He preaches the duties of the Christian as distinctly and minutely as his privileges; not shrinking from the constant declaration, that they who have believed should be zealous to maintain good works, and that Christ died expressly to purify to himself a people zealous of them. I will only add, that he practises what he preaches; that

D

"he renounces the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh; that he believes all the articles of the Chris

tian faith; and that he strives to keep God's holy will and commandments, and to walk in the same all the days of his life."

LETTERS WRITTEN DURING A JOURNEY THROUGH NORTH AMERICA.

(Continued from last vol. p. 764.)

Natchez, State of Mississippi. I Now resume the afflicting subject on which I was addressing you. An extensive Slave-trade is carried on between these regions and those western parts of the States of Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas, and Georgia, in which they find it more profitable to breed Slaves for the market, than to raise the appropriate produce of the soil. I have already mentioned the numerous gangs which I continually fell in with in my route from the Atlantic to the Gulph of Mexico; and I have understood that from Maryland and Virginia alone, from 4000 to 5000 per annum are occasionally sent down to New Orleans; a place, the very name of which seems to strike terror into the Slaves and free Negroes of the Middle States. I was asked by a very intelligent free Black servant at the house where I lodged in Philadelphia, to tell him really whether the free Negroes whom the Colonization Society were professing to send to Africa, were not actually sent to New Orleans; as it was said, that as soon as the vessel was out of sight of land, she steered her course thither; that he knew there were friends to the Negroes in the Society, who would not agree to deceive and sell them, but he thought they might be deceived themselves, and that nothing but this apprehension had prevented him from offering to go to Africa, as he much liked the plan.

Instances are not rare of Slaves destroying themselves, by cutting

their throats, or other violent measures, to avoid being sent to Georgia or New Orleans. An instance is on record of a poor Black woman, in the winter of 1815, torn from her husband, and destined for transportation to Georgia, throwing herself at day-break from the third story of a tavern in Washington; and Slaves are marched in open day in mana→ cles, on their melancholy journey southward, past the very walls of the Capitol, where the senate of this free Republic conduct their deliberations. Indeed, this trade between the Middle and Southern States has given rise to the horrible practice of kidnapping free Black men, and has introduced into the heart of a country pre-eminently proud of her free institutions, a sort of tegria, or man-stealing, which one had hoped was confined to the deserts of Africa. It is stated by Mr. Torrey, an American physician, in a work which he has published, called "American Slave Trade," that under the existing laws, if a "Free Coloured man travels without passports certifying his right to his liberty, he is generally apprehended, and frequently plunged (with his progeny) into slavery by the operation of the laws." He observes; "The preceding facts clearly exemplify the safety with which the free-born (Black) inhabitants of the United States may be offered for sale, and sold, even in the metropolis of liberty, as oxen, even to those who are notified of the fact, and are perhaps convinced that they are free."

But why do I enter into these sad details? Is it to reproach America with a stain with which our own im