and I trust will yet result in great good. This is the Sailors' Mission. This important class of our community has been almost entirely neglected in this city, and by our Church altogether until lately, when our Society have had their feelings very deeply enlisted on their behalf, and the result has been, that they have resolved to devote their main energies to the support of a Sailors' Mission. I have thus endeavoured to inform you according to your request of what we have done, are doing and purpose to do. We shall be glad to be informed in like manner of your plans and prospects. So far as our own experience may be of service, I would strongly recommend your aiming at bringing together, and interesting in the cause as many young men as possible for the sake of their own good, and as a nursery for the spirit of Missions in the Church. To this end endeavour to make the meetings as interesting and spiritual as possible, and to divide the labor and duties of the Society, so that every one may have something to do, may feel his responsibility, and have his interest excited. You make some enquiry on the subject of Sunday Schools-Like yourselves, most of our members are engaged in Sunday Schools, so that we have found some difficulty in so dividing the work of visiting the sailors on Sunday, in order to draw them to Church, as may not break in too much on our ordinary duties. I know not what information to convey to you on this head, our Schools are very similar to those in England, although we receive all classes as scholars, more generally than is the case with you. The Bible and our Catechism form the foundation of our teaching, and it is very common for the superintendent to examine the children in the afternoon. We often endeavour to stir up a Missionary spirit amongst the children, and to this end either form an association in the school, or undertake the support of some particular object, as for instance, the education of a child in Africa, to whom the school gives what name they choose, which has been found to add to the interest in the children's minds. And what shall I add by way of encouragement? Is not the thrice repeated command of the Saviour to Peter all-sufficient; "Feed my lambs." The work is indeed a laborious and self-denying one, and present fruit is seldom granted: but our calling is one of faith, we must be content to work without wages, to labor without results leaving all in the hands of our Heavenly Father, for we know that the Sunday Schools are an imperfect organization at best, yet they are the most efficient which man has been able to devise, and are never rightly carried into operation without yielding more or less fruit to the praise and glory of God. 'It will afford me much satisfaction, as well as the other members of our Society, if this communication proves of any service to you and your associated friends; if it only calls forth so instructive a reply as your late letter, it will not be without its benefits to us. Trusting that we shall not remain long without hearing from you. . I remain, Your affectionate brother in Christ. G. T. Fox, Jun.' Mr. Edwin Hough.' NOVEMBER, 1843. 3 H LINES WRITTEN AFTER HEARING A SERMON, ON THE WORDS, FOR I AM A STRANGER, AND A SOJOURNER HERE, AS ALL MY FATHERS WERE.' THE Christian lifts his longing eyes To heaven, where saints and angels dwell; Again, he looks o'er earth's wild waste, Does death the tyrant of our race Bright beauty dwells, with charming grace; His hopes extend beyond the tomb, Does sickness waste his flesh away, 'Tis there the soul will find a place, Where fears and doubts no more arise; The splendid city of our God Shall burst upon his vision bright; The path of faith so lately trod, Shall now "be swallowed up by sight." THE JERUSALEM SINNER SAVED. BY JOHN BUNYAN. "Beginning at Jerusalem."-Luke xxiv. 47. THE whole verse runs thus: of sins should be preached in at Jerusalem." "And that repentance and remission his name among all nations, beginning The words were spoken by Christ, after he rosse from the dead, and they are here rehearsed after an historical manner, but do contain in them a formal commission, with a special clause therein. The commission is, as you see, for the preaching of the Gospel, and is very distinctly inserted in the holy record, by Matthew and Mark. "Go, teach all nations," &c. "Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel unto every creature." Matt. xxviii. 19; Mark xvi. 15. Only this clause is in special mentioned by Luke, who saith, That as Christ would have the doctrine of repentance and remission of sins preached in his name among all nations, so he would have the people of Jerusalem to have the first proffer thereof. "Preach it (saith Christ) in all nations: but begin at Jerusalem." I must touch upon two things, namely,— I. Show you what Jerusalem now was. II. Show you what it was to preach the Gospel to them. 1. Jerusalem was the place and seat of God's worship, but now decayed, degenerated, and apostatized. The word, the rule of worship, was rejected of them, and in its place they had put and set up their own traditions; they had rejected also the most weighty ordinances, and put in the room thereof their own little things. Jerusalem was therefore now greatly backslidden, and become the place where truth and true religion were much defaced. It was also now become the very sink of sin, and seat of hypocrisy, and gulf where true religion was drowned. Here also now reigned presumption, and groundless confidence in God, which is the bane of souls. Amongst its rulers, doctors, and leaders, envy, malice, and blasphemy, vented themselves against the power of godliness, in all places where it was espied; as also against the promoters of it; yea, their Lord and Maker could not escape them. In a word, Jerusalem was now become the shambles, the very slaughter-shop for saints. This was the place wherein the prophets, Christ, and his people were most horribly persecuted and murdered. Yea, so hardened at this time was this Jerusalem in her sins, that she feared not to commit the biggest, and to bind herself by wish under the guilt and damning evil of it; saying, when she had murdered the Son of God, "His blood be upon us and our children." : This is the city and these are the people this is their character, and these are their sins. Nor can there be produced their parallel in all this world. Nay, what world? what people? what nation for sin and transgression, could be compared to Jerusalem? Especially if you join to the matter of fact, the light they sinned against, and the patience which they abused. Infinite was the wickedness upon this account which they committed. 2. I come now to show you what it was to preach the Gospel to them. It was, saith Luke, to preach to them " repentance and remission of sins in Christ's name;" or, as Mark has it, to bid them "repent and believe the Gospel," Mark i. 15. Not that repentance is a cause of remission, but a sign of our hearty reception thereof. Repentance is therefore here put, to intimate that no pretended faith of the gospel is good, that is not accompanied with it. And this he doth on purpose, because he would not have them deceive themselves; for with what faith can he expect remission of sins in the name of Christ, that is not heartily sorry for them? Or how shall a man be able to give to others a satisfactory account of his unfeigned subjection to the Gospel, that yet abides in his impenitency? And now we come to this clause, " Beginning at Jerusalem;" that is, that Christ would have Jerusalem have the first offer of the Gospel. 1. This cannot be so commanded, because they had now any more right of themselves thereto than had any of the nations of the world; for their sins had divested them of all self-deservings. 2. Nor yet because they stood upon the advance-ground with the worst of sinners of the nations. Nay, rather the sinners of the nations had the advance-ground of them. 3. It must therefore follow that this clause," Begin at Jerusalem,” was put into this commission of mere grace and compassion; even from the overflowing of the bowels of mercy. For indeed they were the worst, and so in the most deplorable condition of any people under the heavens. From these words, therefore, thus explained, we gain this observa tion: That Jesus Christ would have mercy offered in the first place to the biggest sinner. One would have thought, since the Jerusalem sinners were the worst and greatest sinners, and those that not only despised Christ's person, doctrine, and miracles, but that a little before had had their hands in his heart's blood, that he should rather have said, Go into all the world, and preach repentance and remission of sins among all nations; and, after that, offer the same to Jerusalem. Yea, it had infinite grace, if he had said so. But what grace is this? or what name shall we give it, when he commands that this repentance and remission of sins, which is designed to be preached in all nations, should first be offered to Jerusalem,-in the first place to the worst of sinners? Nor was this the first time that the grace which was in the heart of Christ thus showed itself to the world. For while he was yet alive, even while he was yet in Jerusalem, and perceived, even among these Jerusalem sinners, which was the most vile amongst them, he still in his preaching did signify that he had a desire that the worst of these worst should in the first place come unto him. The which he showeth where he saith to the better sort of them, "The publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before you," Matt. xxi. 31. Also when he compared Jerusalem with the sinners of the nations, then he commands that the Jerusalem sinners should have the Gospel at present confined to them. "Go not," saith he, "into the way of the Gentiles, and into any of the cities of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” Matt. x. 5, 6; xxiii. 37. But go rather to them, for they were in the most fearful plight. These, therefore, must have the cream of the Gospel, namely, the first offer thereof in his life-time; yea, when he departed out of the world, he left this as part of his last will with his preachers, that they also should offer it first to Jerusalem. He had a mind to privilege the worst of sinners with the first offer of mercy, and to take from among them a people to be the first-fruits unto God and unto the Lamb. For after Peter and the rest of the apostles had, in their exhortation, persuaded these wretches to believe that they had killed the Prince of life, and after they had fallen under the guilt of their murder, saying, "Men and brethren what shall we do?" he replies by a universal tender to them all in general, considering them as Christ's killers, that if they were sorry for what they had done, and would be baptized for the remission of their sins in His name, they should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, Acts ii. 37, 38. This he said to them all. Yea, he said it without the least stick, or stop, or pause of spirit: "Repent," saith he, " and be baptized every one of you. I shut out never a-one of you. For I am commanded by my Lord to deal with you, as it were, one by one, by the word of his salvation." But why speaks he so particularly? Oh! there was reason for it. The people with whom the apostles were now to deal, as they were murderers of our Lord, and to be charged in the general with his blood, so they had their various and particular acts of villany in the guilt thereof, now lying upon their consciences. And the guilt of these their various and particular acts of wickedness, could not perhaps be reached to a removal thereof, but by this particular application. I Objection. But I was one of them that plotted to take away his life may I be saved by him?-Peter. Every one of you.-Object. But I was one of them that bare false witness against him: Is there grace for me?-Peter. For every one of you.-Object. But I was one of them that cried out, Crucify, crucify him; and that desired that Barabbas the murderer might live rather than him: What will become of me, think you?-Peter. I am to preach repentance and remission of sins to every one of you.-Object. But I was one of them that did spit in his face when he stood before his accusers. also was one that mocked him, when in anguish he hung bleeding on the tree Is there room for me?--Peter. For every one of you. Object. But I was one of them that, in his extremity said, Give him gall and vinegar to drink; why may not I expect the same when anguish and guilt is upon me ?-Peter. Repent of these your wickednesses, here is remission of sins for every one of you.-Object. But I railed on him, I reviled him, I hated him, I rejoiced to see him mocked at by others: Can there be hopes for me?-Peter. There is for every one of you. "Repent and be baptized every one |