Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

OFFER OF MISSIONARY SERVICE IN AFRICA.

WE recommend the following admirable letter to the prayerful consideration of our younger Missionaries, and of young candidates for our ministry at home.

Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Alexander Foote, dated Manchioneal, Jamaica, October 22d, 1847.

[blocks in formation]

a

"woe unto me if I preach not the Gospel," and it is on my mind that I ought to preach the Gospel in Africa. I do not mean to affirm that I believe the "woe " will fall on me if I do not preach the Gospel in Africa. I have no such exclusively private and local impression. But I may tell you that, a short time after my conversion, I could never go to prayer, night or day, without praying and weeping for Africa, and wishing I could get to them to tell them of "Christ crucified." The way, perhaps, is now opened; and though eight years are passed away, the remembrance of this attaches itself to me every day.

Again, no native Wesleyan Missionary, I believe, is gone from Jamaica to Africa; and in my view the waters of salvation must flow on from one land to another; and that people who neglect to convey it to others will soon have their Christianity

turned into a stagnant, a formal Christianity. It is time, therefore, for the gratitude and zeal of the Jamaica Wesleyans to appear, in devoting and presenting their young men to the Saviour, for the work of the harvest; and though I am a very poor sacrifice, yet may they not send me ?

I have conversed freely and particularly with my Superintendent and other experienced Ministers, and their views harmonize with my own; namely, that my duty is to disclose my feelings and wishes to you, and then leave myself in your hands, either to be appointed to Africa, or continued in Jamaica.

The Committee will perceive that I do not pretend to press myself upon you for Africa, which would be in effect to choose my own appointment; a province this beyond the boundary of my youth and connexional standing. But I do not shrink from telling them the secrets of my soul; lest should grieve the Spirit of God, and bring blasting and mildew on my ministry.

I leave myself in your hands, and with this impression, that, should you at any time require a native of the West Indies, a Jamaica youth, for the African work, I am at your command; and shall feel happy to serve you, under Christ, in that powerfully-inviting and deeply-interesting part of the Mission field.

ARRIVALS OF MISSIONARIES.

WE are happy to announce the safe arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Simons at Antigua, on the 28th of December, after a passage which Mr. S. describes as 66 in every point of view exceedingly pleasant." They were to proceed to Montserrat on Tuesday, January 4th.-We have also heard with thankful pleasure of the arrival of Messrs. Herbert Wesley Haime, T. Phelps, and George Smith, in Jamaica, on Sunday, December 18th ;-all well, and happy in the prospect of soon entering on their evangelical labours.-In a letter dated Free-Town, December 8th, Mr. Hart reports the arrival of Mr. and Mrs. Raston, Mr. Purslow, and himself, at Sierra-Leone, after a "very pleasant voyage of only five weeks." They were received by their African friends with many manifestations of joyous greeting.

LONDON-PRINTED BY JAMES NICHOLS, HOXTON-SQUARE.

[graphic][ocr errors]

THE

WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

APRIL, 1848.

BIOGRAPHY.

MEMOIR OF THE REV. WILLIAM LEACH:

BY ONE OF HIS DAUGHTERS.

It is the declaration of holy Scripture, that "the memory of the just is blessed." These words may with propriety form the introduction to what is felt by the writer to be a very imperfect sketch of the life and labours of a faithful Minister of Jesus Christ.

Mr. Leach was born at Allerton, about three miles from Bradford, in Yorkshire, August 20th, 1777. Happily, our information is ample concerning his early years. From his own papers we learn that he experienced the strivings of God's Holy Spirit, and had frequent and serious impressions, when not more than seven years of age. As his parents at that time had not received converting grace, and as he had no one to direct him, these gracious desires were for a season lost, But God mercifully continued to follow him by his convincing Spirit. He was often powerfully affected under the ministry of the word; and at such seasons he would diligently read his Bible, and form many good resolutions. But his own testimony is, "Alas! my goodness was as the morning cloud, and as the early dew:' so it passed away. I was led aside by the power of temptation; and when my companions have called upon me, I have often put away my serious thoughts, and, assuming an appearance of gaiety, have gone with them into the fields or lanes, on the evening of the Lord's day, after hearing the word of God, and feeling deeply under its divine truths."

Thus neglecting to give his soul to God, for some years he walked in darkness; and, as he became less seriously disposed, he found himself brought under the dominion of his unregenerate heart, grew impatient of contradiction, and could not bear reproof for his faults. After a time his mind became more calm; yet feeling no solid peace, he sought for comfort, where, by painful experience, he was at length convinced it was not to be found. Respecting this he writes: "The last thing to which I had recourse, in my vain search for happiness, was an increase of human knowledge. But this failed, like all the rest of my schemes for finding satisfaction in the world; and, becoming truly miserable, I began to reflect more seriously on my awful condition as a guilty sinner. Those words of Scripture were

VOL. IV.-FOURTH SERIES.

2 c

[graphic]
« AnteriorContinuar »