heart, as being convinced that I have had a hand in this wrath that is on the church and people of God, and can father it on this and that evil of myself, and yet I study not to remove it, it is but a fancy, and not a real and through conviction. And though I would say I am convinced, I but lie, for, would I hold a stroke on myself and others, if I judged it a stroke, and that my sins procured it, if by any means I could remove it? This is also clear, from Lam. 3: 40-" Let us turn again to the Lord." A through, real and right conviction of sin, and of our ruin by sin, brings every man to seek to reform what is amiss. 4. It makes the person diligently plead at the throne of grace for mercy, reconciliation and peace with God through a Mediator. Speak of other things what ye will, that sticks most in the heart of a throughly convinced sinner. Lam. 3: 41- -"Let us lift up our hearts, with our hands," or in our hands, " to God in the heavens." Speak to such a sinner of a delivery, and of this and that promising mean, and of an outgate, they signify not much to him without the peace and favor of God; moyen in heaven is that which most bulks in his eye. 5. They who are rightly convinced, whenever they hear or observe any new emergent, or declaration of God's wrath, or evidence that he is angry, they not only look upon sin, as procuring it, but much shame and confnsion fills their face. Alas! we but sport with terrible emergents of God's wrath and anger, while we tell them over as news, and never reflect upon ourselves, nor are ashamed, nor blush as procuring them. If we were convinced that we by our sin have a hand in harling the people of God before these miserable, unhappy, ensnaring courts, is it possible but we would blush and be ashamed? Ye would think it strange if one should come in and tell you, such a man is harledt before the commission court, another is imprisoned or confined, and ye had a hand in it; but if ye were convinced that it is right true, your hand was in it, would you not be ashamed of it? Never think that ye are throughly and rightly convinced, or that you really think your sin had a hand in such a thing, till ye also think that ye have reason to be ashamed, and to take shame to yourself for every thing you hear of that kind. 6. They that have such a conviction will not be fortified with every delivery or outgate, except the bond be taken off, and the Lord remove the quarrel and sin that brought on the stroke. I question not but this may be a challenge to all the Lord's people, that they have been content of, and would have been at any outgate or delivery, but is that [for] each one of us to resemble the children of a king, and such a king in our sufferings, who should say (and would say if rightly convinced), no outgate, except God give repentance, to take away sin, loose bands, and heal backslidings. And I would ask you, Have any of you this for your work and business, for which you plead at his throne? The rightly convinced soul says, Lord, either deliver thy people from iniquity, or let them lie as they are; either loose our bonds, or no deliverance will content us; for they know any outward delivery could signify little or nothing to them, except iniquity were removed and their bonds loosed, and backslidings healed, because otherwise there would be a new browst upon the back of it. 7. They can put a blank in God's hand, to fill up what sufferings he pleaseth. It is not their care and fear what may be inflicted on them; they are resolute to suffer whatever he thinks good, and that patiently. Micah 7: 9-"I will bear the indignation of the Lord, because I have sinned against him." I will justify the Lord and sit silent, not only under what he hath done, but under what he shall do to me, and will never ask a reason of his dealing, for I know he is holy and just, and can do me To harle, to drag, to draw.

* Moyen, interest, power.

no wrong; and when it is so, then I take up my self-destroying in the right hue, and am convinced I have a principal hand in it, and will say, Righteousness belongeth unto God, but shame and confusion of face to me. 8. They have an high and eminent resentment of new-discovered sin, whether in themselves or in others; and we will find some strange thoughts of resentment that this conviction hath driven some to in scripture, as in that holy man (Ezra 9: 3) who, when he hears of the sin of the affinity of the people with strangers, "he rends his mantle and plucks out the hair of his head and beard;" his heart fails him, and he falls down upon his face as dead; that is an high resentment, and an evidence of through conviction, and if such a conviction be, when ye hear that this or that man has slipped in a sin, to the bringing of more misery on the people of God, ye will also resent it sadly. Ye will also find another high resentment of new-discovered sin in Phinehas (Numb. 25), when he sees Zimri and Cozbi in the act of uncleanness; he steps out of his station and sticks them both through the belly. Alas! if there were zeal in us, flowing from a right conviction of sin, when we hear this man falls in this sin, and another in drunkenness, a third has taken that wicked declaration, our hearts would rise in high resentments of the things; our hatred of them would be so irreconcilable, we could not digest them, or our hearts would fail us at the new discoveries of new sin and guilt; new sin would make us sit down astonished, and nothing would weaken our hope, and make us despond, but that alone. Use 1. Be not easily satisfied with yourself, under any convictions for sin ye win at, under all this misery that is come upon the church and people of God, and upon yourselves.

2. Never rest till you get a conviction qualified with that fourfold qualification. 1. Till your conviction be personal, that ye bring home things to yourself, and be made to say, I am the man, God is angry at me, and I have procured this wrath to the land, and to myself. 2. Rest not till ye come to particulars, this and that which I have done, and am guilty of, is the cause of all this desolation, ruin and overthrow; general confessions will not do it. 3. Rest not till your heart be kindly affected with the sins ye are convinced of; seek that the conviction may be pungent and wounding. 4. Let not your conviction be transient, but seek that it may be an abiding conviction. The wrath that is on us is no transient thing; it is like a cloud that is settled over us, and it is a sore matter, that our conviction should not be a settled and abiding conviction.

3. Let me say, I fear upon trial, that by the marks that have been given, a through, real and right conviction of sin be very rare, and there be few found, from all that's come and gone, that have laid this matter rightly to heart. "O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself." Do you think that the Lord's people have been weeping these three or four years under a thorough conviction of their sin, and that the Lord regards not their tears? No, surely, this is not it; we have not yet been humbled and weeping, and therefore, think it not strange that it be with us as at this day. The Lord's people meet and pray, and there is no answer returned, but one ill on the back of another; and the profane are stumbled and hardened, when they see success doth follow their prayers, and they do prosper in their way. In this we are to clear the Lord, and blame ourselves. I doubt nothing, but if from a through, real conviction, that we have ruined ourselves by our sin, we have been humbling ourselves before God, we should either by this time have had an outgate, or known better the outgate and mind of God concerning the continuance of our trial and outgate; or at least, we should have had some token for good showed unto us from the Lord. Oh, have

we been silent before the Lord under our conviction, and put from our complaining? Have we been busied in searching out our sins, whereby we have destroyed ourselves and others? Have we made haste to reform these evils we found upon search? Have we diligently pleaded at the throne of grace for pardon and peace with God, and the loosing of our bonds? Have we upon every new declaration of wrath been ashamed, as having a deep hand in drawing it forth? Would we be satisfied with no outgate, nor promising mean of delivery, except the Lord free us of the yoke of our transgressions, and heal our backslidings? Have we been brought to put a blank in God's hand to afflict as he pleaseth? Have we in zeal highly resented new discoverings of sin and wrath?

No doubt there are many who think there is no wrath upon Scotland, and that Israel is in a good case, and hath not destroyed herself. But oh! are ye so blind? are ye not convinced that God hath profaned the church and state of Scotland; that he hath loosed the girdles of our nobles, and hath made their authority vile and contemptible before the people; that all our precious things are taken captive by the adversary; that our interpreters, each of them one of a thousand, are some of them banished, others of them confined, and a godless profane pack put in their room? Do ye not yet see how the land is ruined and destroyed, and the flocks of the Lord's people scattered? and are these things and many more no evidences of God's wrath? I would not wish to any man such a measure of wrath, as is on that man who thinks there is no wrath upon Scotland. Again, are there not many of you faint-hearted? Is not your spirit and courage, and valiantness for the truth gone? and is that no evidence of wrath? I doubt nothing but it is a part of our plague, that we are as Ephraim, "a silly dove without heart;" nor do I deny that a manifest breach of covenant lies on us on that account; but this is not all. Israel hath sinned, and therefore is his heart faint and his hands feeble, and he fleeth before the pursuer. Would ye know, then, why the people of God are so faint-hearted and weak; why Abner's hands were bound, and he died as a fool for sin, and want of a through, real and right conviction for sin, and not turning to God? otherwise I nothing doubt but they had been as bread to us this day; and one of us should have chased a thousand of them who now banish us, and harle us to prison. There is no hope as to this thing, till once we be brought to know and be made sensible, we have destroyed ourselves. And if we have a heart to believe this text, and the great truth contained in it, it is your sin hath ruined you, and separated betwixt God and you. Why sit ye still, looking one upon another? Arise, as it is said of Ezra, he arose and fell about the confession of sin, and they entered into a covenant to amend what was amiss. So I would say to you, Sit not still discouraged; arise and fall to, search and find out what is your part of the sin that hath brought on this wrath. Make your conviction personal, particular and pungent, every family apart, and their wives apart; set some time for the work, the finding out, and the confessing of sin and repentance for it, and turning to God; and then if the Lord shall not bring about your delivery, you shall have ground of much peace, and ye shall have an easy task in your sufferings. If we were once throughly convinced of sin, and if matters were as clear betwixt our God and us, as they are betwixt him and his enemies, I am confident the Lord would appear, and make bare his holy arm yet once more for his people. O, but matters are clear betwixt God and adversaries; and if we could say, here is an evidence that matters are clear betwixt God and us, and that we have heard the voice of the rod, and of him that hath appointed it, I nothing doubt but ere long

the Lord should do some great thing for us. But I know it is but lost labor for the most part, for a minister to give you a general charge, and bid every one search his own way and labor that his conviction may be through, affecting and humbling, many cannot be moved to it; ye will hear what we say, but will not do what we bid you; for many a time hath God by his ministers bidden you search your ways since this work began ; and I put it to your conscience, if you have set time apart for it. And if ye say, though ye win not to much, yet it is the work ye are and were about. I fear few of you can say this much; and who have it not to say, have an ill conscience, and scarcely can I think that ever they had this real, through and right conviction, that they have a principal hand in destroying themselves and the land by their sin. Others know not what to confess, nor how to further this work of conviction upon themselves.

Therefore it will be best to come a little to you in your relations and stations with this charge, and seeing it pleaseth the Lord now to speak to you, and ye know not how long or whether he shall speak to you by us again, I exhort you to take to heart the things that I am to charge upon you, and every one as he finds himself, set some time apart to mourn before God, and to seek for pardon and peace.

MARTIN'S ADDRESS TO LORD CORNWALLIS.

REV. Wm. Martin, a Covenanter, preached occasionally at the Jackson Creek church. He was a warm Whig, and did not scruple to use his influence in the cause of the colonists. The band of power was laid on him, and he had been confined in prison at Rocky Mount and Camden since early in June. He was now brought before Lord Cornwallis at Winnsboro. He stood before him erect, with his gray locks uncovered, his eye fixed upon his lordship, and his countenance marked with freshness and benevolence. "You are charged," says his lordship, " with preaching rebellion from the pulpit-you, an old man and a minister of the gospel of peace, with advocating rebellion against your lawful sovereign, King George the III! What have you to say in your defence?" Nothing daunted, he is represented to have replied: "I am happy to appear before you. For many months I have been held in chains for preaching what I believe to be the truth. As to King George, I owe him nothing but good will. I am not unacquainted with his private character. I was raised in Scotland; educated in its literary and theological schools; was settled in Ireland, where I spent the prime of my days, and emigrated to this country seven years ago. As a king he was bound to protect his subjects in the enjoyment of their rights. Protection and allegiance go together, and when the one fails the other cannot be exalted. The declaration of independence is but a reiteration of what our covenanting fathers have always maintained. I am thankful you have given me liberty to speak, and will abide your pleasure, whatever it may be."- History of the Presbyterian Church in South Carolina, by Rev. George Howe, D. D.

MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE.

THE CHINESE MISSION.

Ir is due to the members of the church, and especially to the earnest friends of missions, that they be informed of the condition of things in our mission and of the progress that we are making.

Since in response to our appeal for help we received some very liberal contributions, we have rented a small hall and furnished it in a manner adapted to mission work. About four weeks ago we opened it for Sabbath services and night school. Our beginning is more than an experiment-our expectations as to attendance are more than realized; and we have many reasons to thank God and take courage.

That our distant friends may be able to see a little into the mission, let me give you a few facts as to

1. The location. Our mission hall is in the city of Oakland, which is a suburb of San Francisco, and a city of about thirty thousand inhabitants. Our means are too limited to locate the mission in San Francisco. Besides, nearly all the Chinese missions in the State are in that city. In Oakland there is no mission, the only work done for the Chinese being by Sabbath schools under the direction of some of the Oakland churches. Moreover, here is our private residence, and here our little Covenanter fellowship meeting; so that it is much more convenient for us to labor in Oakland. Our mission house is located near our family residence-just across the street-and in a quiet and retired part of the city, away from the business portions and where we are not likely to be annoyed by hoodlums.

2. The persons attending. Except one baptized convert, Jee Sing, all who come regularly to either our night school or to our Sabbath meetings, are heathen. They are, however, of great diversity. Some of them are wholly ignorant of the doctrines of revealed religion, and are pure pagans and idol worshippers. Of this class some are very decided in their determination to accept no doctrine of Christianity, but to adhere firmly to their heathen code and customs. Others of the same class, while they are very ignorant and superstitious, do not care much about any religion, and under proper culture and favorable circumstances would easily be divorced from paganism.

There are others and of a different class who are weaned from their idols, who have become convinced of the folly of such worship, go no more to the joss houses, or pagan temples in San Francisco, and who, while they may still worship their ancestors, are inquirers after the right way, and, under favorable circumstances, will in all probability become Christians, at least in theory. Besides these there are some who have been in Sabbath schools elsewhere, or who attended our night school last winter and spring, who give evidence of being solicitous in their inquiries after the truths of revelation, and who, we hope, if we can retain them with us, will yet become true converts to Christ. Our greatest desire and our most earnest hope is that we may yet see this happy result.

Besides these there are a few baptized converts, members of some of the Oakland churches, and who were regular attendants upon our night school last winter, who come in occasionally now, but whom we do not regard as of our own number. They are at too great a distance to attend regularly, or they are members of their respective Sabbath schools elsewhere. They are only visitors, though they always join in with our classes in their exercises, and they unite with us in singing our psalms. We are not without hope that some of them may some day become Covenanters, as I think they are now true believers in Christ Jesus.

Jee Sing, the convert mentioned above and of whom I wrote in a previous communication, is a young convert of much promise, making steady progress in knowledge, and seems very zealous in his efforts to induce others to come to Christ. He is rarely absent, though sometimes it is with much difficulty that he attends. Voluntary in his assistance, he is of great