months, however, one of these families quitted the island. From this time may be dated the permanent and successful establishment of missions in Jamaica. "The number of missionaries was from time to time increased, so that in 1824 there were four Moravian stations, occupied by an equal number of missionaries; 8 missionaries and stations belonging to the Wesleyan Missionary Society; and five stations, superintended by an equal number of missionaries of the Baptist Missionary Society;"-total 17. In 1831, the number of missionaries had increased to, "of Presbyteri ans 4; of Wesleyan Methodists 16; of Baptist missionaries 16; of Moravian missionaries 8;"-total, 44. In 1841, there were Presbyteri ans 13; Wesleyan Methodists 29; Baptist missionaries 29; Moravian missionaries 12;" to which add, the Independents 8; Congregationalists 5; Wesleyan Association 5;(?)— total, 99. pp. 105, 6, 7, 9, 10.

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The progressive growth of the Jamaica missions is here indicated. Their efficient operations commenced in 1817. In 1824 there were seventeen missionaries. In 1831 there were forty four missionaries. In 1841 there were ninety nine missionaries.

The church of England is established by law. Its early ministers seem for the most part to have been the merest hirelings, and such many have continued to be till quite a recent period. Prior to 1816 there was a rector in every parish, with an average of 19,000 souls to each. Since then they have increased in numbers and efficiency, and in 1841, including eight missionaries of the Church Missionary Society, numbered seventy four ministers, among whom are many excellent men.

In the enumeration of "ministers now employed on the Sabbath in carrying on divine worship," Mr. Phillippo includes those of the tive Baptists," a most vicious

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and

degraded class of religionists, who are doing incalculably more to foster ignorance and superstition than they could possibly do, were they so disposed, to eradicate them. The denomination as it now exists, is an off-shoot from the larger Baptist churches in which the "leader and ticket system" prevails. The original "native Baptists" had been nearly absorbed by the churches of the British Baptist missionaries, and had only recently reappeared in force. They numbered in 1842 some fourteen preachers, and about 10,000 members and inquirers. Their preachers for the most part are old leaders from the British Baptist churches, who have been expelled, for misconduct, or have quarreled with their ministers and seceded. They have taken their classes with them, baptized them into churches, and installed themselves as their spiritual guides.

In the following extract Mr. Phillippo gives the number of those who are, as he supposes, in Christian communion with the various denominations.

"As an additional evidence of the religious transformation which has taken place in this part of the missionary field, let us contemplate the numbers that have been hopefully converted to God since the introduction of the Gospel, together with the multitudes who are just awakened to a concern about their souls, and the change will appear still more surprising and glorious.

"In 1842 not less than 23,000 negroes and their descendants, are reported as being united in Christian fellowship with the Wesleyans. In the absence of express data on which to ground an accurate calculation with respect to some of the denominations, it may be said, that ravians, 7000 with the Scottish Missionabout 5000 are connected with the Moary Society, (Presbyterians,) about 2000 with the London Missionary Society, 1000 with the American Congregationalists, 4000 with the Wesleyan Methodist Association, and 30,000 with the Baptist Missionary Society, making an aggregate of 72,000 souls, exclusive of those connected with the Church Missionary Society, and such as are under the care of evangelical clergymen of the church of England, which will increase the gross

of Friends in England, made a laborious tour of the island and collected much valuable information. He states that there were then attached to the Baptist mission 21,777 church members, and 21,111 inquirers-quoted by Mr. Phillippo, p. 111.

From the table on p. 112, already alluded to, it appears there were during the five years ending with 1840, 18,691 baptized; 1,631 restored; 1,934 excluded. From the baptized, deduct 10 per cent. for deaths, 1,869; and the excess of the excluded over the restored, 304= 2,173, and 16,528 remain as the bona fide increase, which subtract from 21,777, the number of members in 1840, and we have 5,249 as the number of communicants in 1834.

If the other denominations have increased in the same ratio as the Baptist churches, there could not have been more than 20,000 or

23,000 professing Christians in Jamaica in 1834. In 1843, nine years after, they are estimated at 100,000, and those who have died in the faith are set down at 50,000.

The Sandwich Islands mission was established in 1820. In its last report, it returns as the number of church members, 22,650, and the total number of deaths from the commencement of the mission, 3,856-about 17 per cent. of the membership, which would give in this island a total of deaths of 17,500; but suppose it to be 20,000, or even 25,000, and the estimate is in excess an hundred per cent. Let it be remembered the population of the Sandwich Islands has been decreasing during the whole period, while that of Jamaica has during the former part been slowly, and during the latter part rapidly increasing.

Third. "The inquirers," likewise put down at 50,000, are spoken of and enumerated as "souls converted from heathenism and sav

age darkness, to the only true and living God."

Has Mr. Phillippo been "twenty years a missionary in Jamaica," and does he not know what is meant by an "inquirer ?" On page 146, in explaining the ticket and leader system, he tells us,

"Tickets are oblong pieces of card paper, containing the date of the year, the initials of the different months or quarters, and sometimes a passage of Scripture, which are given to members and inquirers- to inquirers to secure their regu lar attendance on the various means of grace, to bring them under strict spiritual supervision, and to afford the minister an opportunity of seeing them personally once a quarter, when such tickets are renewed or exchanged, and to enable him to ascertain the regularity, or otherwise, with which they discharge their external duties.

"Whenever any of the more private members succeed in awakening religious concern in the minds of others, they usually introduce them to the class to which they themselves belong, and to the house of God. After a term of probation such individuals are usually brought up to the minister by their respective leaders, as new recruits (so sometimes pleasantly called) for tickets, and to be enrolled as inquirers, the minister at the same time conversing with them and endeavoring to ascertain their sincerity."

The leader brings the "new recruit" to the minister, who has a conversation with him; gives him a ticket, before receiving which he pays his "duty" of 124 or 25 cents, and he is an enrolled inquirer. These tickets are exchanged once a quarter, at which time the minister" sees the inquirer, and perhaps. several hundred more on the same day, and these persons, sufficiently awake to the concerns of religion, or desirous of the credit of belonging to some chapel, to pay their "duty," and exchange their tickets, are classed as "souls converted from heathenism and savage darkness, to the only true and living God," as " brands plucked from the fire." It surely can excite no wonder, that many regard the tickets they receive as the evidences of their piety, and their passport to heaven!

Mr. Phillippo closes the passage upon which we are commenting, with, "and multitudes more inquiring the way to Zion with their faces thitherward."

These are not the technical inquirers who are included in the grand total of souls converted. They are enrolled inquirers. "Multitudes," in Mr. Phillippo's vocabulary, has an expressive signification. He does not deal in units. His cypher seldom descends below thousands. Who, or where these multitudes are, we are unable to tell; we will however allow Mr. Phillippo the benefit of them in the estimate we are about to make.

The population of Jamaica, according to the late census, is about 400,000. Mr. Caudler and Mr. Phil lippo estimate it at the same number. Deduct two fifths for persons under fifteen years of age, and there remain 240,000 as the adult population of the island. From this number subtract the 150,000 estimated by Mr. Phillippo to be Christians, with the 10,000 members and inquirers in the native Baptist chapels-which to be consistent he must include in his total, as he associates their ministers with the missionaries of other denominations-and there remain 80,000 persons over fifteen years of age, not in communion with any church. And of these, there are "multitudes inquiring the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward."

Let us compare this estimate with another on page 112, made by John Caudler two years previously. After giving the probable numbers of all ages in nominal connection with the dissenting bodies, he adds:

"We have thus a total of 185,000 dissenters from the established church in Jamaica, who may be said to be living under some religious care." He estimates those attending the services of the "church of England 46,000, Jews 5,000, Roman Catholics 1,000-total 237,000. Leaving a population of at least 163,000, who have neither schools nor religious instruction of any kind."

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Omitting the Jews and Catholics, there are, according to this computation, 231,000 of the population of the island, who are the recipients of some sort of instruction in the Christian religion. From these, deduct two fifths for children under fifteen years of age, and it will not be pretended there are any such in the Jamaica churches, with here and there a few solitary exceptions, and there are left about 138,000 persons over fifteen years of age, in some sort nominally connected with the Christian churches in the island, not as members, but as more or less regular attendants-22,000 less than according to Mr. Phillippo are living within their pale, as "souls converted from heathenism and savage darkness to the only true and living God."

Mr. Caudler's estimate is very liberal. We are quite satisfied it is too large; but admitting its correctness, what shall we say of Mr. Phillippo's, and what of the Jamaica churches as he represents them? We are told on page 112 in what manner many of these thousands have been gathered into the visible church.

"Among the Baptists, although each individual previously undergoes a rigid examination, members are often added by 100 and upwards at one time. In some cases 200 persons have been added to a single church in one day; 400 were once added in one year to the church at Spanish Town; and at Brown's Town and Bethany, in St. Ann's, as many as 700 and upwards were baptized and received into fellowship during the same space of time. In some of the larger churches the additions have averaged 200 each for several years past."

In all these churches the leader and ticket system, which has been so strongly condemned by the missionaries of the Presbyterian, Independent, and Congregational denominations, as an extremely corrupting though very powerful engine, is in vigorous operation.

It is generally admitted that in New England the community is more

extensively leavened with the Gospel than any other of the same extent in the world, and it is supposed that one in six of the population there are members of the visible church. In Jamaica, with an area as large as Massachusetts, and a population as large as Connecticut and Rhode Island, three in five of the adult population, or two in five of the whole population are Christians!

Much time and pains are devoted to the presumptive evidences of the purity of Jamaica Christianity-of the spread of which Mr. Phillippo says:

"It recalls to our remembrance the events of apostolic times, when superstition burnt her books on the altar of truth, when the idols of the heathen fell, and the throne of satan trembled. Completely verified was the prediction—‘ a people whom I have not known shall serve me; so soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me, and the strangers shall submit themselves unto me.'

We must be content to select only a few from the many passages we had marked with exclamation points.

"Some are seated in the house of God an hour or more before the service commences, and on the morning of the Subbath almost all are in their places before the minister enters the pulpit. Like Cornelius to Peter, they seem to say, 'Now, therefore, we are all here present before God to hear all things that are commanded thee of God.' The services of God's house are evidently their delight—' times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord.' Pleasure beams in every eye, and animates every countenance. Their behavior is serious, suited to the place and the occasion; whilst usually their attention is remarkable, occasionally expressed by responses, and other signs of interest and approval. In hundreds of instances some of these poor creatures have traveled fifty miles to enjoy the advantages of a single Sabbath."-p. 137.

Such journeys are made, perhaps once in a quarter, to change the ticket, and in its progress the pilgrim passes by some eight or ten chapels of other denominations, but instead of going to them when not attending his own chapel," he

spends perhaps ten Sabbaths in the quarter, in his own hut, or at his neighbors'.

"They identify both their interest and their happiness with the cause of God. The performance of their religious duties is their meat and drink. With regard to Zion it may be almost literally said, that they that they take pleasure in her stones, and favor the dust thereof.' -p. 137. "Next to the salvation of his own soul, a really converted man is anxious for the salvation of the souls of others. This anxiety is manifested in an extraordinary degree by the churches of Jamaica. Ít is evidenced by the whole tenor of their conduct. Their feelings are strong, and they can not but speak of the things they have seen and heard.'"-p. 143.

To these evidences of genuine piety may be added another, without which the former would be but of little avail. They dedicate themselves to God, in body, soul, and spirit, and unite their efforts with their contributions and prayers. Among some of the denominations, and probably in a greater or less degree among all, it is thus with inquirers and catechumens, as well as members. negro convert can not but tell of how great things the Lord hath done for him."

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"The Jamaica churches in general are essentially missionary churches, and each individual of which they are composed, regards it as a sacred duty to do something to promote the glory of God in the salvation of his fellow men. Every one especially aims at the conversion of those with whom he is connected-bis relatives, his friends, his children, his ser

vants.

Male and female, young and old, rich and poor, are thus employed. They are not only all at work, but it might almost be said, always at work-not only every day, but almost every hour of the day. The work of God is their employment, not their recreation. "And whatsoever their hands find to do, they do it with their might,' taking advantage of every favorable occurrence that presents itself. Whether in the market, in the house, or in the public road, they seldom neglect an opportunity of speaking a word for God, and this they do with cheerfulness, and without hesitation or apology."-pp. 145, 6.

On page 147, Mr. Phillippo thus describes a member of his church in Spanish Town :—

"Though scarcely possessing sufficient means for her support, she has devoted the last twenty years of her life almost wholly to the work of God. It is her meat and drink. From day to day, and from year to year, is she found inviting