THE SUMMER IS GONE! "The Harvest is past, the Summer is ended, and we are not saved," Jer. viii. 20. BEHOLD the leaves which fade and die, They speak the summer gone : Ah! listen to the warning cry, When thou art left alone. fields, once green with waving grain, The sheaves are gather'd-none remain- Companions of thy youthful day Hark! as they pass, they seem to say, Hope beam'd upon thy early spring, The world with all its joys must fade; Shalt soon be left alone. And Oh!-if then no hope appear― Το In the tremendous judgment day, 66 Depart"-with fiends alone? Ah then, the Harvest would be past! Flee-flee-to Christ with earnest prayer, Jesus will gather thee with care, AND CLAIM ONE JEWEL MORE. Accrington. J. H. Extracts of Correspondence. FOREIGN. From Mr. Samuel Whitehorne, Kingston. JAMAICA.-I am the masfer of the Lancasterian school. I feel deeply interested in my work; and consider it a mighty engine (if God only bless the means) for the spread of religion in this land. I will mention two instances of the usefulness of your publications. The first is that of a young woman, who was brought up in the school, which she left at Christmas last. I am led to entertain good hopes of her conversion. On her leaving school she went as an upper servant into the family of a Jewess, consisting of the mother, and a son-in-law, and daughter. I had lent her the "Manners and Customs of the Jews," which her son-in-law read. The consequence was, that a conversation was held between the young woman and the Jew upon the subject. The Jew, after asking some questions relating to the birth, miracles, life, and death of Jesus Christ, concluded by saying, he thought it great nonsense, and did not believe a word of it. The young woman, with beautiful simplicity, replied: "If I bring you a Bible, and show it you there, will you not believe? for you know the Bible says nothing but what is true." He requested her to get it, and set himself to read it with the utmost eagerness; so much interested was he in it, that he employed all his leisure time, till 11 at night, (a late hour for this country,) in the study of it. "Sir," she said to me, "I often want my Bible to read myself, but I cannot get it from him." I supplied her with a New Testament and Psalms which I had by me, and a few Hebrew tracts, which I understand he reads with avidity. Should this work turn out to be one of conversion on the heart of this Jew, through the instrumentality of this young woman, will it not bear me out in saying, that the school in which she got her religious impressions is not useless? The other instance is more particularly connected with the subject of my present letter. I have many children (boys) who go about with tracts and distribute them, often reading them to those they meet. These children take an apparent delight in being thus instrumental in doing good; if I may judge from the eagerness they display to procure tracts. I have thus an opportunity of sending into the world upwards of one hundred tracts every week regularly, and if I had a supply sufficient, I might be able to distribute more than 300 every week. The French and Spanish tracts are eagerly received, and inquiries are made for more; and I have no doubt I could send many Hebrew tracts into circulation among the poor benighted children of Israel. From the Rev. John Taylor, Moravian Missionary. BARBADOES.-Your favour of March 13th, together with the valuable grant of the Committee of the Tract Society, I have had the pleasure to receive. Shortly after receiving the books, we divided them, giving one-third to our missionary at Mount Tabor, and keeping two-thirds for Sharon. We had, in the course of last year, received a small grant of bound and separate tracts, from the American Tract Society, and had formed a lending library; we have now united the two together. We endeavour to circulate them as much as possible, both to White and Black, for which we have a good opportunity, as we go out frequently, on the neighbouring plantations; and we fervently pray, that the seed thus sown may spring up and bear much fruit, and be the means, in the Lord's hands, to the saving of many souls. In consequence of the emancipation of the 80,000 slaves in this island, the number of readers will rapidly increase: a very great desire has been, for some time past, manifested among them to learn to read; the facility for which will be much increased even during the years of apprenticeship. We purpose, God willing, to establish infant schools, at both our stations here, with the children under six years, who will be free. DOMESTIC. From a Correspondent in Worcestershire. I ONCE more make an annual appeal to your kind Society on behalf of poor perishing sinners, who are going the downward road to destruction as fast as time can carry them, who have no fear of God before their eyes, and who regard not his holy day. The wakes and races are about commencing in this neighbourhood, and I had thought of not applying again to your Society, for I saw but little good done by the tracts which had been distributed at former wakes. I was ready to exclaim, "It is in vain for me to travel mile after mile to the wakes on a sabbath day, and lose the good my own soul might get at the house of God. Who hath believed what I have put into their hands, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? It is in vain for me to send to London for more tracts; it is only exhausting the funds of the Society, and doing but little good, when perhaps another person might apply and do a great deal more good with them, or, I should have said, been made the instrument of doing more good; for I am convinced that Paul may plant, and Apollos may water, but it is God only that can give the increase." Thus I was almost in despair of doing any good at wakes by means of tracts, but "God's ways are not as our ways, neither are his thoughts as our thoughts." It has been said, that "our extremity is God's opportunity;" so it proved here. My mind being in the state above described, for some time past, on Thursday evening last I attended our church meeting, when two females, who had been proposed the month before, were to be admitted members. When the minister was relating the conversation which he had with one of them at different times, he said, "She told me, that one sabbath evening she was going towards the wake at when a person, who was then present, put a tract into her hands, which was the means of leading her to Christ. The substance of the tract was the necessity of having faith in Christ." When the minister mentioned this, a thrill of joy ran through my frame; I thought, what a blessed thing, what an encouragement to tract-distributors! Surely it cannot be I who am the honoured instrument of saving a soul! At the close of the service I could not refrain from asking her who it was that gave her the tract, and I shall never forget the answer she gave me. She took hold of my hand, and grasped it with great fervour, and exclaimed, "It was you, it was you; and I shall have to thank you for it through eternity." If I felt joy before, judge now of my joy. I seemed to feel something like that joy which is among the angels of heaven at the conversion of a sinner. She then went on to state to me something of what she felt at the time. She saw me at a distance before she came to me, and she said to a friend who was along with her, (and who was the same person that was taken into the church with her on Thursday evening,) "Yonder is Mr. ~; I wish we could get by him without his seeing us; and we thought of doing so, but you saw us, and gave us the tract. O what did I feel after I read that tract! no person can describe; it was my constant companion night and day, for I took it to bed with me, and as soon as daylight came I took it out of the window in my bed-room, and read it, time after time. I there read, that though my sins were as scarlet, they should be as white as snow; and though red like crimson, they should be as wool:" and thus she went on describing what she felt, which would be too long for this letter. She seems to be more like an experienced christian than a young convert; the Lord has shown her so much of the depravity of her own heart, and so much of the loveliness of the Saviour, that it does one's heart good to hear her. May we not exclaim, dear sir, "Is not this a brand plucked from the burning?" This encourages me to go forward, if your kind Society will but supply the means. One soul saved is worth more than the thousands and tens of thousands which have been spent, and will be spent in tracts. JAIRUS AND HIS DAUGHTER. THE only child of Jairus lay a-dying, when he came to solicit Christ's aid; and was dead, while he solicited it. There was hope in her sickness; in her extremity there was fear; in her death, despair and impossibility, as they thought, of help: "Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master." If we had to do with a mere finite power, this word were but just. But since thou hast to do with an almighty Power, know now, O thou faithless messenger, that death can be no bar to him. How well would it have become thee to have said, "Thy daughter is dead; but who can tell whether thy God and Saviour will not be gracious to thee, that the child may revive? Cannot He, in whose hands are the issues of death, bring her back again?" DECEMBER, 1834. N |