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ITINERANT PREACHING.

bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity as Simon Magus, and Judas Iscariot.' Let labourers go into the vineyard, with apostolic determination, "to know nothing among men, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified," and preach the truth of his solemn declaration, that except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God, and the general current of the Divine Promises is, that the most substantial good, and the most important happy effects shall follow in the lives of men, under the influence of this doctrine-"The wicked man will turn from his wickedness" and live in the obedience of God's commands, and a shouting will be heard from the tops of the mountains, while the vallies will echo with the exclamation, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things." It must be acknowledged that preaching is the most efficient method of spreading the knowledge of Divine Truth; and it is to itinerant preaching, however many may undervalue it, that we owe our freedom from the shackles of popery, in the success of the reformation. Christianity was first promulgated by it, and revivals of religion have taken place at different periods, through its powerful means, as in the days of Whitfield and Wesley, in their

ITINERANT PREACHING.

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travels through England and America. The arguments which are justly urged for sending missions to the Heathen, acquire a double force when applied to British Colonists, situated in a land of moral darkness, where they gradually become, in the absence of Christian privileges, and Divine ordinances, more and more indifferent to the truths of that Bible, which they may have borne with them, in their emigration, from their own country. In no part of the world therefore, do they need the faithful preaching of the gospel, more than in the extensive and newly formed settlements of the British provinces, where thousands are perishing for the want of ministerial labours of Christian missionaries.

CHAPTER III.

NEW SETTLEMENTS.-SABBATH.-LEAVE NEW BRUNSWICK. -NEGRO PROCESSION ALBANY — THE GREAT

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ARIES.-MISSISSAUGA TRIBE.-RIVER CREDIT.-IN DIAN

SACRIFICE AND CEREMONIES.

IN visiting some of the remote and new settlements, as a minister, the people generally crowded upon me to hear the word of God. There being no churches, and in some places no school-house, as yet erected, where to hold divine worship, I could not scruple to officiate in a barn, and proclaim to them the glad tidings of redemption, purchased through the agonized death of Him, who in the mystery of his humiliation was born in a stable. That gross fanaticism should be met with among persons who are destitute of Christian sanctuaries, and who profess principles which they seek not in any way to act upon, cannot be a matter of surprise. There are those at home, enjoying the

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full tide of gospel privileges, who call "Christ, Lord, Lord, while they do not the things that he says." I found, however, in this solitude, Christians fearing the Lord, who implore a gospel ministry, "that the things which remain," and appear almost ready to die " may be strengthened." These bear the reproach of the world, and are called by the false appellation of New Lights;' but the general tenour of their lives is the best testimony that they are walking in that light which Abraham saw and was glad; the rays of which cheered the way of the prophets and apostles, guided the feet of martyrs through the flames, and which now brighten the prospect of all true believers, in their journey of life towards the kingdom of heaven.

I was greatly delighted during the toils of the wilderness, in meeting with an aged Christian pilgrim, who would have me remain for a day at his hospitable though humble habitation. The next day, being the Sabbath, he accompanied me over the Blue Mountains, where a number of settlers were located back in the woods, and who had never before been assembled in their infant settlement for divine worship. We met in a barn, which to the eye was in a solitary situation, but so great was

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the desire of the people to hear the preaching of divine truth, that a considerable number were collected from the neighbourhood, and some walked the distance of ten miles. A Sabbath spent like this was a source of true enjoyment, and afforded encouragement in my ministry; from the hope that a divine blessing rested upon the assembling of ourselves together in the solitary places of the earth. The delight of the good old man with whom I sojourned, was to seek good and to do good; and in the quiet walk of every day usefulness, he was blessed of God and a blessing to others around him. There are some professed Christians, who cease to do good that they may cease to be opposed, and rest in a middle state of neutrality; but he went about in the retired circuit of his own immediate neighbourhood, visiting the sick, praying with the afflicted, and often (when solicited) attending the burial of the dead. Nor did he forget the apostolic injunction to Christians, "to forsake not the assembling of themselves together," but each returning Sabbath witnessed a small assembly of his friends and neighbours under his roof, with whom he would join in prayer and praise, and whom he would sometimes exhort. He had seen days of heavy affliction, particularly

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