them in a great measure from cruel mockeries. While they regard the choice of pastors as the imprescriptible right of the people over whom they are to preside, they conceive that the ordination of chosen pastors ought, according to the New Testament, to be solemnized by two or more other pastors, with the imposition of hands and prayer. In sending their pastors to England for this purpose, they had also, besides other reasons, the motive of a strong desire to testify their fellowship in faith and order, with the Evangelical Dissenters of this country. These two estimable young ministers had been long known by name and character to friends of the gospel in London; and the most gratifying testimonies have been borne to them in writing, by some of the ministers most distinguished for learning, piety, and decided attachment to the gospel, in Switzerland and France. They had studied in the College of Geneva, one of them eight years, and the other nine; as the honourable attestations of the Dean and other professors (who in the same documents lament their separation from the establishment) amply declare; and they were ready to have been admitted to the ministry in that establishment, had not their own conscientious principles prevented.

It may be allowed us to remark, with admiration and gratitude, what a visible, and even surprising progress, the interests of the gospel have made in Geneva, within five years. Those of the established pastors in the city and vicinity, who had maintained their attachment to the pure doctrines of the New Testament, have been emboldened to preach the truth, with increasing clearness and energy; and many pleasing proofs of the divine blessing attend their labours; though their preaching in rotation with their anti-evangelical colleagues cannot but be a most discouraging and hurtful circumstance.Happily, however, this painful hindrance does not attach to every one of the faithful and evangelical pastors. Monsieur Malan, who was ejected for his fidelity, from both the Church and the College, preaches with great fervour in a Chapel which he has erected on his own ground, out of the walls of the city, and which will hold nearly 900 persons; but, since he does not disapprove of the ecclesiastical constitution of his country, as it was established by Calvin and his coadjutors in the Republic, he does not regard himself as a separatist. The Congregational Church may, therefore, be regarded as forming a third class, and is

properly a dissenting community; but its pastors and members maintain the most affectionate union of heart, and, as far as possible, of co-operation, with the evangelical ministers in the establishment, and with M. Malan, and with their pious friends. Concerning them all, we cordially say,-May the Lord increase them a thousand-fold, in numbers, edification, and usefulness! May peace be within their walls, and prospe rity within their palaces!

PORT OF LONDON SOCIETY.

On Thursday, July 19th, being the day of the CORONATION, the port of London and the Bethel Union Societies met on board the Floating Chapel, to implore the blessing of Almighty God upon the Monarch of these realms in the solemn act of Coronation. The assembly was composed of Masters of ships and their families, with many Seamen and persons from the shore.

At the commencement of the service, a Letter was read from Leith, stating, that the Seamen of that Port would assemble at the same time on board their Floating Chapel, for the same purpose.

The Rev. Mr. Angus commenced with prayer, and the 100th Psalm being sung, the comprehensive prayer of King Solomon at the dedication of the temple was read in a very impressive manner. The Rev. Geo. Smith followed in prayer. The Treasurer then read a letter from New York, stating the encouraging progress of the word of God among seamen at that Port; and that, on the Sabbath preceding the date of the letter, the Mariners' Church, which would hold upwards of 1000 people, was crowded; that ministers of all denominations, who preached "Jesus Christ and him crucified," as the only way of salvation, willingly merged all minor differences of sentiment, in the great purpose of urging sinners to flee from the wrath to come. The Rev. Charles Hyatt read Psa. Ixvii: and Mr. Jeffreys, Missionary to the Island of Madagas car; Lieut. Nicholls, R. N. Secretary of the Bethel Union; and Capt. Simpson, of the Juno, (on board of which ship the first Prayer Meeting for sailors was held in the Thames,) engaged in prayer. The fervent effusion of hearts impressed with the important transactions of the day, influenced greatly the feelings of the assembly, and the whole service was of the most pleasing description. May the blessings of Almighty God rest upon the King, and the great people committed to his charge!

Arrival of two Colleagues. Appearances had hitherto been so unpromising, that the intrepid Egede had been, more than once, staggered in his hopes of the duration of the Mission. In 1728, however, ample dispositions were made to extend both the Mission and the Commerce, and to plant abiding Colonies for the cultivation of the land. Several ships arrived, with materials for erecting a fort and a new colony, a garrison for the protection of the trade, and a number of masons and carpenters.

By these ships Mr. Olaus Lange and Mr. Henry Milzoug arrived, as colleagues of Mr. Egede in his labours. On the return of the vessels, Mr. Egede's eldest son went to Copenhagen, to prosecute his studies: with him went Poek and his wife, now named Christian and Christiana; and two Greenland Boys and a Girl, who had just before made confession of their faith and been baptized.

Children of Heathen Parents baptized. On the arrival of his colleagues, Mr. Oct. 1821.

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Egede laid a written proposal before them, on the subject of baptizing the Children of Heathen Parents. Nothing had been effected among the Adult Natives, but to gain their cold assent to the Word, without any reflection on their misery or any desire after grace: and, not bearing to see the poor Children die away without baptism, he had come to a conclusion, in the presence of God, to make those Children partakers of holy baptism whose Parents gave their assent to the True Religion; in the hope that the Parents would become more resident in the neighbourhood, and would allow their Children to be brought up in the knowledge and fear of God.

Both his colleagues acquiesced in this plan; and, the next year, they received the approbation of the Mission College, provided the following conditions were complied with:-1. That the Parents should freely consent to the baptism of their Children, without either blandishment or compulsion-2. That the Parents did not desire baptism for their Children out of superstitious feeling,

imagining that it might contribute to their health and strength; as, in former years, the natives had desired the Missionary to breathe on their sick in order to their recovery-3. That the Parents would bind themselves to allow their baptized Children to be instructed. The Missionaries were enjoined by the College to keep an exact Register, that they might always know what Children they had baptized, and what was become of them: and with respect to Adults, it was directed that none should be baptized until they had been instructed in the necessary points of Christianity, and gave evidence of a true desire for baptism.

Mr. Egede entered on this plan, in February 1729, by the baptism of 16 Children, which were afterwards increased to 150.

But his hopes from this quarter were greatly disappointed by the suspicions and indifference of the Natives. He desired them to send to the Colony, first one company of Children and then another; each to be under his care for a month, that he might instruct one class after another; but they would not comply; and, when he went to visit them, they would hide their Children lest he should take them away; so that he could not even instruct them, as he had been accustomed to do before, in their Parents' houses. They had professed desire after God's Word; but most of the Parents, whose Children he had baptized, and who had promised to stay in his neighbourhood and allow their Children to receive Christian Education, wandered so far away, that his intercourse with them was broken off, and his hopes respecting them consequently disappointed.

The Mission reduced to Extremities.

On the arrival of the supplies which were sent with Mr. Egede's colleagues, the Colony, which had been formed at Haabets-Oe (Hope Island,) at the mouth of Ball's River, was removed to the main land, four leagues up the river, and called Godthaab (Good Hope.)

A contagious disorder, however, attacked the new comers, which gave a fatal blow to the plan for extending the Colonies. The people became fretful and discontented, and the soldiers began to mutiny; so that the lives of the Missionaries were in jeopardy, the new settlers looking on them as the cause of their transportation to this inhospitable. shore. Mr. Egede, who could before sleep secure in the tents of the Savages, was now compelled to have a watch and weapons around his bed to protect him against his Fellow-Christians!

The Greenlanders were, moreover, offended at this great accession of foreigners, especially as many of them were military men. When they died so fast, it was attributed to the art of a famous Angekok, who had promised to destroy the Danes by his magic; but when the people saw that some survived, and particularly the Minister, whom they looked upon to be the proper Lord of the Europeans, most of them left this part of the coast, and removed to Disko Bay. The Mission was thus more hindered than promoted, by the attempt to establish fortresses with armed men.

The death of the King of Denmark, which took place soon after, seemed to give a mortal blow to the projects which had been carried on at such expense of money and labour. It appearing to his successor, that there was no probability that the expenditure would be reimbursed by the trade, and that there was little prospect of the conversion of the infidels, from the experience of the ten years which had passed, a Royal Mandate was transmitted in 1731, that the undertaking should be relinquished, and that all the people should return.

Preserved by the Constancy of Mr. Egede.

In this order for relinquishing the Colony, it was left to Mr. Egede's option to remain in the country; and permission was given to retain as many of the settlers as might be willing to

stay with him, and as much provision as would suffice for a year's consumption; but, beyond this, he was expressly told that he could expect no further assistance.

Under such circumstances, however, no one could bring his mind to stay with this intrepid man; and he saw himself on the point of abandoning, with a heavy heart, after ten years toil, a country to which he had worked his way with such persevering zeal, and where he had baptized 150 Children, who must now be deserted. The ship proved, however, to be too little to carry away all the stock; and, as whatever was left behind would have fallen a prey either to the Greenlanders or to foreign sailors, his remonstrances effected so much, that ten sailors and a year's provision were left behind, on his binding himself to indemnify the officers in case they should suffer by this step: nay, so determined was he in the prosecution of his great object, that he undertook to carry on the trade at his own hazard, by the agency of his second son; and, in case no ship should come the following year, which yet he earnestly requested, he engaged to send home the merchandize to its proper destination by such foreign ships as might come on the coast.

So resolute was this zealous servant of God in carrying on a work, begun in faith among the faithless-though he had hitherto seen so little fruit of his labours and privations; and though he must now fluctuate, at least for a year, between the flattering hope of being supported from his native country, and the dreadful fear of being wholly abandoned.

But his faith and hope were not disappointed. The King laid to heart the mournful representations of the Missionary; and sent him the necessary supplies in the year 1732, but still without assurance of any further support. In the mean time his people had been so successful in procuring blubber, that he was enabled to send home a larger cargo than in any of the former years,

in which so many more persons were employed. This appears to have raised the spirits of his countrymen; for, in May 1733, after living in suspense between hope and fear for two years, he was rejoiced by the arrival of the ship, with assurances that the Trade would be begun anew and the Mission supported, and that the King had devoted to these objects an annual benefaction of 4001.

Fickleness of the Natives.

When Mr. Egede's two Colleagues, with the Governor, Officers, and people, left the Colony, the Natives expressed their sorrow; and could not comprehend the reason assigned for their departure that so many people cost more than they could earn or acquire in Greenland as they thought that such an opulent Prince as theirs, who had such store of bread and meat in his country, must be able to maintain more people than these; or that, at all events, they might even live like themselves. When it was further alleged as a reason for the recall of the people, that the persons who sent them had been discouraged by the disregard of the Greenlanders to God and His Word, they complained heavily that they had been traduced and misrepresented to the King, and declared themselves willing to hear and believe all that the Missionary taught them. But, notwithstanding these professions, Mr. Egede was soon convinced how little their pretended good-will and desire after God's Word was to be depended on, by their conduct, as before stated, with respect to the baptized Children. Arrival of Three Missionaries of the United Brethren.

The state of the Mission and the vagrancy of the Greenlanders had obliged Mr. Egede to suspend entirely the baptism of the Native Children. He had, moreover, been so harassed by the series of labour, vexation, and anxiety through which he had passed, and by a disorder in his breast which lay heavy upon him, that he could not well travel

about among the Heathen as he had been accustomed, but was compelled to resign the instruction of them very much to his son. It was, therefore, with devout thankfulness, that he welcomed Christian David, Matthew Stach, and Christian Stach, the first Messengers to the Heathen of Greenland from the United Brethren. They arrived in the ship which brought the intelligence that the Colony and the Mission were to be supported.

The offer of these Brethren to proceed to Greenland appears to have been one inducement with the King of Denmark to renew his support of Mr. Egede; and he wrote to him, with his own hand, desiring him to receive the Brethren kindly, and to forward their labours among the Heathen. He gladly complied with the King's directions, and assisted the Brethren in forming their first Settlement, near Godthaab, which they called New Herrnhuth, after the Brethren's Settlement of Herrnhuth, in upper Lusatia, from which these Missionaries came.

Ravages of the Small Pox.

Soon after the arrival of these Brethren, a new calamity visited the Mission. Six Greenlanders had accompanied the Missionaries and Colonists, on their quitting the coast, in 1731. Two of these, a Boy and a Girl, were sent back to their native country, in an unhealthy state, in the vessel which brought the Brethren. The Girl died at sea; but the Boy reached Greenland, to all appearance well. Soon after, however, the Small-Pox broke out on him; but, before the nature of his disorder was ascertained, he had infected many of his countrymen.

Mr. Egede sent expresses everywhere, to warn the Natives of their danger; and to desire them to stay at home, as those who were already infected could not escape; and he advised such as were yet uninfected not to admit any fugitives on their lands. But his admonitions were in vain; those who had caught the distemper and fled,

found the country everywhere open before them; the Greenlanders not being accustomed to refuse hospitality to strangers. By these means, the disease diffused itself so widely as to threaten the extirpation of the whole nation; and it was greatly aggravated by the ignorance and impatience of the people; some stabbing themselves, or plunging into the sea, to put a speedy end to their torment.

Yet little salutary influence was perceived on the minds of the people. Their customary inattention and obduracy in general prevailed; nor did the living bewail, as had been usual with them, the death of their nearest relatives. Some of the old people, indeed cried to God in their distress, as well as they knew how: but when, notwithstanding, their distress increased, they would utter impatient and desponding, and even blasphemous speeches, would hear nothing of patience and resignation to the will of God, nor would accept of any admonition to commit their souls to the Faithful Shepherd, but died away in their impenitence and unbelief.

Mr. Egede's feelings on this melancholy occasion may be easily imagined. He did not, however, sit down in despair: but went about in all directions, sometimes alone, and at others accompanied by his Moravian Friends; or sent his Son, to instruct and comfort the sufferers, and to prepare them for death.

Some truly affecting scenes were witnessed on these occasions. In most places, nothing was found but depopulated houses and unburied bodies; some within the habitations, and others lying without in the snow: these last they covered with stones. In one instance they found only a Girl, with her three little Brothers; the Girl had the SmallPox, upon her: the Father of this bereaved family, having first buried all the people of the island, laid himself and his youngest sick child in a grave raised with stone and directed his daughter to cover their bodies with skins and