harbour, where still remained the solitary inclosure which has long been the general burying-place for British and all other protestant subjects. Hither the poor Roman Catholic natives (tutored and deceived by their bigoted and political priests) have conveyed the supposed heretics who died at the hospital, and interred them with as little sympathy as they would have earthed over a dead beast. O! ye British mothers, and wives, and sisters! happy for you that ye never witnessed the insults offered to the remains of those whom ye once called your sons, and brothers, and husbands!

I know all our little civilities and kind attentions to the deceased are alike unavailing, both to body and soul; but I would not have them omitted, much less would I have the remains of what were once man treated with such barbarity as the protestant dead are sure to receive at the hands of a Spaniard, an Italian, or a Portuguese.

Such treatment is to the best feelings of the heart what the rude hand of the sullen maniac would be on the strings of a well-tuned harp. Nor can there be any more of the genuine and lovely spirit of Christianity in the one, than of well-adjusted and soothing harmony in the other.

But we may hope the dawn of better times is at hand. -Neither is it to me the least interesting circumstance connected with Minorca, that I was permitted to be the harbinger of good tidings of salvation to many. For at Port Mahon I had the happiness and the honour of distributing the first fifty Testaments that had ever appeared in the language of the people in that island—yes, I will say the honour;—for if I were enabled to per

form this work in an acceptable spirit before God, the angels in heaven will consider it as a work infinitely more honourable than the conquest of fifty cities, and the boon itself as far surpassing in real value the collected riches of fifty kingdoms.

But I hasten to conclude this chapter. For however interesting the events alluded to in it may be to myself, I cannot expect them to afford that interest to others—I will therefore only observe, that this was the last place touched at in the Mediterranean by the ship in which I ook my passage home. The want of water occasioned our anchoring off the harbour for two or three days: but as my health was ill calculated for shore exercise, and having neither duty to perform, friends to see, nor Testaments to distribute, I remained on board. When the anchor was weighed, I bid a final adieu to Minorca, with no small portion of those feelings usually connected with the idea of for ever leaving a place where many either of the adverse or pleasing events of life have occurred.

As the ship increased her sail and quickened her flight, I looked back, and from time to time beheld the receding island sinking into the horizon as a thin cloud on the edge of the waters. Had the place afforded opportunity of giving vent to my full heart, I think it would have dictated the following words; "Farewell, Minorca, farewell!—to me thou hast proved the land of mercy and of judgment-on thy circumscribed shores I have tasted the sweets of christian friendship, and within thy limits I have trembled under the alarms of a troubled mind-within thy sheltering harbour I have

joined the scoffer and profane, there I have held sweet communion in praise and prayer with those who feared God-in thy fields and in thy streets I have witnessed the eager desire of thy benighted sons and daughters to obtain the word of God, to possess that living bread which comes down from heaven; and with thy hungering and thirsting children I have left some portions of that word, which is able to make them wise unto salvation by faith in Jesus Christ.-Adieu, Minorca, adieu ! Henceforth thou wilt see my face no more for ever! For I go to dwell in a far distant, a far happier, and more enlightened land. But O, thou bounteous Giver of all good, hasten the time when missionaries and ministers after thine own heart shall preach and expound that word which thou hast commissioned thine unworthy servant to leave with this people.-O send forth instruments who shall feed them with knowledge and understanding, until Minorca shall be numbered with the 'isles that wait upon thee and trust in thy name.' "O God of all power and might, reform her idolatrous church; instruct and sanctify her priests, and lead, enlighten, and bless her people, for Jesus Christ, our Redeemer's sake!"

15

PROPERT

OF HAD. #M

LIBRA

CHAPTER XIV.

CAST THY BREAD UPON THE WATERS; FOR THOU SHALT FIND IT AFTER MANY DAYS.-ECCLES xi. 1.

MANY good men are deterred from exertion in their allotted posts and paths of duty, under a very common suggestion of the enemy of souls, that it is useless for them, with their limited abilities, and in their contracted, and, perhaps, humble sphere, to expect any good can arise, or any fruit be found. Nor are men of moderate abilities the only individuals who experience this temptation it is a snare laid in the way of almost every man, and which more or less paralyzes many of their best hopes and exertions. In my own case I can truly say, that I have been held back from promptly setting about a hundred important duties, which at times I might, and ought at once to have attempted, instead of delaying the time, encouraging fears, and going to work, at last, like one who was only half persuaded that the attempt was worth making. Moreover, while such has been the case, with respect to many duties actually attempted, many, alas! have been hitherto quite delayed; and now they can never be set about; for the time, the means, circumstances, and the individuals either no longer exist, or are removed far beyond my influence and reach. How salutary, how seasonable then is that admonition,

the

"Whatsoever thine hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might." And how encouraging are these assurances; "that the Lord doth not despise the day of small things," that "our labors shall not be in vain in Him whose strength is perfected in our weakness; and who putteth his treasure into earthern vessels, that the excellency of the power may be seen to be of God and not of man :"—who, while he hath bidden us "not to be weary in well doing," hath positively said, "we shall reap if we faint not;" who hath directed us to "cast our bread upon the waters," with the assurance that " we shall find it after many days." Many a time has the retrospect of gone-by days brought to remembrance another and another instance of the Lord's faithfulness to these his promises; at once to rebuke my unbelief and despondency, and to urge me on to attempt something further, as times and opportunities presented something more to be done. Let us then indulge in that retrospect for a little while, and take a glance at some few circumstances, not noticed in the preceding pages. It may, through the divine blessing, stir up both the writer's and the reader's heart to go forth hereafter, and "cast our bread upon the waters in some confidence of hope, that we shall find it after many days."

In the course of my ministerial labours the Lord has, notwithstanding all my fears and hesitations in the path of duty, favoured me with not a few instances, in proof, that he is a promise-making and promise-fulfilling God. I will, however, select one, and only one, from this field, and then turn back again to sea-faring scenes and characters for further illustrations.