along with them their cask of flour, which was all they had saved of their whole property.

The believers in Jesus, when they assembled for worship in the evening, expressed great thankfulness to God that they had a treasure in heaven, which no storm nor earthquake could possibly reach. They besought God that he would instruct them by his providence to set their affections more than ever on those permanent riches, and that they might not be placed on the perishing enjoyments of this miserable world.

They now understood better what I meant when I told them that riches sometimes took to themselves wings and flew away; also that the Lord sometimes gave and then took away, and that even then they should say, Blessed be the name of the Lord!

During the confusion and bustle occasioned by the disasters which had happened, I was frequently left to lie carelessly on the floor. When in this situation one morning, a little boy took me up in his arms, carried me a little distance from the house, and hid me under the root of a large old tree. The boy being taken that afternoon to a distant part of the island, none remained to discover to my sorrowful friends the place of my concealment; consequently many a fruitless search was made for me. There I lay speechless for nearly twelve months, when an old black slave, upon a journey, happened to lie down under the shade of this tree, to rest his weary limbs. Awaking from a comfortable sleep, while in the act of stretching himself, his hands, which were extended beyond my head, happened to touch my covering, which caused him to search under the root, when he found me half immersed in sand. He called at the first house he came to, and inquired if any of the family knew me, assuring them he wished to restore me to my proper owner; but they honestly declared they did not know me, so I went forward with the old slave. This slave had been taught my language when first brought to the West Indies; and therefore, though he had never met with me, or any who spoke on the subjects that I did, yet he could converse with me tolerably well.

On our journey he met a gentleman, who was a stranger in the country but on a visit to some friends in it. This gentleman was very curious to know the history of my fellow-traveller. His history was affecting, which I shall relate as correctly as I can.

"I was born," said he, "in the interior of Africa, a country far from hence. My parents lived, like most of their countrymen, by hunting, and on fruits and roots. With much toil they provided a scanty subsistence for their family. Sometimes they hardly ate anything for days together, that their children might be satisfied. I had four brothers and three sisters, with whom I cheerfully spent my youthful years, and with whom I expected to live to a good old age. But ah! sir, this was not to be my good fortune; my fate was, soon to be torn from the fond embraces of my parents. (Here he paused, and wept bitterly.) A war, sir, broke out between our nation and a neighbouring one. My father, with the rest of the men belonging to the village, was obliged to join the standard of our chief, to oppose the common enemy. Our countrymen were routed with great slaughter, which was followed up with a general pursuit. A man of our village, who had escaped from the carnage, arrived about midnight, and awoke us from a sound sleep, with the cry, Run for your lives, for the enemy is at hand.' We rushed instantly out of our house, and ran in all directions into the woods, in order to escape the danger. The night was so dark, we could not discern friends from strangers.

I could for some time easily distinguish the screams of my poor mother, who carried one babe on her back, and one under each arm. I nimbly climbed to the top of a cocoa-tree, where I hoped to be safe from the search of strangers.

"In the morning, before break of day, it was but too evident that the enemy had entered our village, for the whole was in a blaze. Being in want of provisions, these marauders came into the woods in search of cocoa-nuts. The tree I was in was one of the first that attracted their attention, which two or three of them instantly mounted, and, to my great anguish of soul, discovered and seized me. I made use of every means to prevail upon them to allow me to go to my mother, but they were deaf to my entreaty. They tied my arms behind my back, and whipped me on before them. I several times stopped and attempted to persuade then to let me go, but always in vain; they said, 'We must have boys, to exchange for white people's goods.' Having heard that the white people ate my countrymen when they got them to their own land, my terror was increased at being sold to them. When we arrived at the main army, I was added to the common stock of prisoners, who were mostly in tears, especially the women. This army, after plundering the country, and collecting as many prisoners as they could find, returned in dis order to their own land.

་་

The prisoners were distributed throughout various villages, with orders to be kept in safe custody, till an opportunity should occur of selling them to the slave-traders. The family to whose care I was committed treated me, upon the whole, with humanity; only when they went a-hunting I was tied to a tree, with my arms extended round it, and my two hands slightly tied together. In this painful position I sometimes remained ten or twelve hours together, without meat or drink, and without anything to cover me from the scorching rays of a noon-day sun. Now and then, the little children of the village, who came from notives of curiosity to see me, would bring with them some small morsel for me to eat, and put it into my mouth. But for their little acts of kindness, I must certainly have perished for want, on two or three occasions. Many thanks did I give them, and often expressed a desire that they might never experience my forlorn condition.

"At length the slave-dealers arrived, who, after viewing the prisoners, made a purchase of the whole, and to them we were consigned.

66

Being afraid of our number, they loaded us heavily with chains, lest we should revolt and overpower them. Our journey towards the coast now commenced, but our progress was slow, owing to several accidents, and the sickness of some of our company. The heat being very great, they permitted us to halt for a few hours in the middle of the day. In a few weeks we were met by some white men, the first which any of us prisoners had ever seen. We gazed on them with wonder and fear. We could not conceive by what means they made their skin so different from ours, but most of us thought it must be owing to some awful disease.

"In a few days we arrived at a seaport, and were put on board a ship, to be taken we knew not whither. We now appeared to ourselves to be in a new world. When we looked from shore, we saw nothing but water; and the motion of the ship excited general alarm. They chained us to each other, and ordered us to go below, from whence, on our passage, they allowed us, by turns, to come upon deck. Many died on the passage, and several leaped overboard and were drowned. However, I, and many others, arrived on this island in good health, and were soon sold to various masters. My master haş

been a good one to me. He has treated me kindly; and, sir, he has taught me to read; and I am very happy, except when I think on my country and friends; then I sigh and weep, and wish I had wings to fly home and see my friends before I die."

Having finished his story, the gentleman thanked him, gave him a piece of money, and took leave of us.

(To be continued.)

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE

Of the late Rev. George Young, D.D., Whitby.

(Concluded from page 194.)

The conversion of Dr. Young, referred to at page 76, which he related to one of his nephews a few days before his death, we give in the words of the United Presbyterian Magazine-"With a glowing heart and kindling eyes, the dying old man spoke of the beginning of his spiritual life. When he was little more than fourteen years of age, his mind had been deeply affected by the death of a sister, young in years but wonderfully strong in faith, and nature in Christian experience. The influence continued to act silently upon him, leading to more frequent perusal of the holy book, to more frequent prayer and self-communing, until his soul was freely and unreservedly yielded up to its God. It was on a Sabbath (the very day, but two hours, fifty-four years, on which he died)-it was on a Sabbath in the month of May. He had returned from the village sanctuary to the retired dwelling where his parents resided. He had sat down, not far from the house, under an alder-tree, and was reading "Boston's Fourfold State," a book ever after peculiarly precious to him, and which, when making up the libraries for seamen, he often put in with the hope and prayer, that, as it had proved useful to him, it might also prove useful to them. In that hour, his mind being fixed with undivided attention on religious truth, and especially on personal religion-in that hour his perceptions became more clear, his convictions more deep, his desires more intense. Persuaded of the pity and grace of God, through Christ, he then, for the first time, yielded up his soul, and humbly but earnestly resolved, while he lived, to live to God, governed not by selfish and interested motives, but by a sense of duty and by the power of love-love to God and to man. Fifty-four years have passed since that day,' he said to his nephew; the house is taken down and all is changed long since. But it is yet fresh to me -the alder tree, the field, and the whole scene can never be effaced from my memory." How many ministers, who have never told the story of their spiritual birth to contemporaries on earth, will delight to recount all the particulars in their father's house above; and Dr. Young's hearers, after reading this account of his early conversion, will be able to account for the energy and unction with which he often spoke of experimental religion while he was yet with them.

The sudden and unexpected death of Mrs. Young, his happy partner in life, 24th September, 1846, made a striking impression upon his entire

character. From that time he seemed in a great measure to have lost the vivacity and enthusiasm for which he had been so long distinguished. This was the forerunner of his own dissolution. The hymns which he composed for the children of his Sabbath schools, to be sung in January, 1847, and what he usually called home produce, contain also striking predictions of the breaking up of his domestic establishment; and now his connection with the church in Cliff-lane, which had continued unbroken for about half a century, at least as far as this world is concerned, has ceased. He had the happiness to be present at the union of the United Secession and Relief bodies, in May, 1847, as well as at that of the Burgers and Anti-burgers, in 1818,—two events of immense importance, and the occasion of great joy to the good man, who was ever happy in the society of the people of God, irrespective of denominational distinctions. He died in the morning of May 8th, 1848, on which day the Synod of the United Presbyterian Church met, having been connected with it only one short year; so that before the roll which contained his name for the last time was called in Edinburgh, he had joined the general assembly in heaven. The announcement of his death produced a great sensation in the court, and called forth a well-merited eulogium from the moderator, Dr. Struthers, of Glasgow. Had space been allowed us, we should have given some account of his last days, and selected a portion of two hymns occasioned by his death, the one by the Rev. D. Macintosh, Dalkeith; and the other by a Sabbath-school teacher, of Dr. Young's church, both of which are descriptive of the character of the deceased friend and pastor, and of the estimation in which he was held by those who were led forth by the footsteps of his flock. His people have testified their respect to his memory by the erection of a tombstone in the church-yard of Whitby, and by a tablet in Cliff-lane Chapel. He lived the life of the righteous, and his last was like his.

Of him it may be truly affirmed, that he brought forth fruit in old age, having attempted to pursue his works of faith and labours of love, even when his strength had departed from him. It has been said that old age is dark and unlovely. Utterance might be given to such a sentiment in the presence of some aged veteran, who never heard or believed the joyful sound of the Gospel, dragging out a weary existence, amid the wounds and scars of an hundred conflicts, with no hope of immortality to irradiate his wrinkled countenance; but Dr. Young, at the close of a laborious and useful life, flourished like the palm tree, and grew like a cedar in Lebanon. Planted in the house of the Lord, he flourished in the courts of our God, and still brought forth fruit in old age.

The loss of such a man, and minister, and scholar, to a town like Whitby, is not felt at the first in all its extent. As the oak strikes its roots the deeper amid the raging of the storm and tempest, so Dr. Young was attached more deeply to the place of his adoption by the difficulties of his position, far from the soil where Presbyterianism brings forth fruit in its highest proportions, and continued to labour on till all connected with Whitby became dear to him, the people in general, his own church and congregation in particular, as also its local antiquities and fossil remains, and historical recollections. He will become more interesting to those who grew up under his ministry, as they draw the nearer to their final account; the sailors of the port will read his lectures on Jonah, and "Sermons to Seamen," and "Life of Captain Cook," with greater attention as they remember the affection which he cherished for them, and all will unite in asking when they shall see his like again.

May the Great Head of the Church cause the mantle of Elijah to fall on

the Elishas who are called to divide the Jordan in returning to those duties which he can no longer discharge; and may the ministers of seaport towns especially, to whatever denomination of professing Christians they belong, devote themselves, like Dr. Young, to the temporal and spiritual welfare of sailors, and aid the Parent Society in its deputations and Magazines, and home and foreign operations, that the merchandise of the sea may soon become holiness to the Lord.

The Bethel Pulpit.

"GOD, THE HOPE OF THE MARINER."

Discourse delivered in the Seamen's Hall, Sunderland, in the afternoon of Sabbath, June 24th, 1849, by the Rev. JOHN PARKER, of the United Presbyterian Church, Smyrna, Sunderland.

(Concluded from page 193.)

III. The natural and moral perfections of Jehovah were alike arranged on the side of David. "The earth shook and trembled" when he prayed; "the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because Jehovah was wroth. There went a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed, also, the heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea he did fly upon the wings of the wind. He rade darkness his secret place; his pavilion round about him was dark waters and thick clouds of the skies. It is not necessary to fix upon any particular part of David's history, when God appeared in such terrible majesty to destroy his enemies. He had, however, studied minutely the history of his fathers according to the flesh; he had often sung of the works and wonders which God had showed them, the marvellous things which he did in their sight, in the land of Egypt, and in the fields of Zoar. And though "God had not fought for him, either with thunder, as in Samuel's time, or with hail, as in Joshua's time, or with the stars in their courses, as in Deborah's time; yet how beautiful and natural the transition from their deliverances to his own, and how he represents God as coming out of his place to avenge his cause, to direct the stone to kill the Philistine, to overturn the evil purposes of Saul. Another, of a kindred spirit, speaks of the interference of Jehovah in a similar manner. "His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light. He had horns coming out of his hand, and there was the hiding of his power. Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. He stood and measured the earth, he beheld and drove asunder the nations, and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow, his ways are everlasting." (Hab. iii. 3-6.) How consoling to Old Testament believers! How refreshing to the disciples

* See Matthew Henry.

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