to the pursuit of it; and exercises all forethought and caution to seize every opportunity, and to let no season escape him in which he could do good. The Holy Spirit describes christians as so prompt in doing good, that they require nothing for its production but the opportunity. As ye have opportunity, do good unto all men.” In this instruction

it is supposed that the disposition, the willingness, the ability, and the means to do good, are always present; and that whenever the opportunity serves, they are always ready and prompt for their noble work. Our day is unquestionably a day of extended beneficence, and of abounding liberality. After all, many christians seem rather to submit to the demands of well-doing as a penalty than to enter upon them as the course in which they would covet to distinguish themselves, or as the element in which they would bask and revel.

6. Usefulness to others is the express design of the formation of christians into churches.-The design of forming every church is, that it should be the means of converting the district or the town, where it assembles, to the religion of the gospel. A church is not scripturally prosperous, that is not efficient in conversions. One of the sweetest promises of God to the church, is—“ I will make them, and the places round about my hill a blessing." A church is a real blessing, only as it is the instrument for the diffusion of religion, and for the conversion of souls. That this was the design of Christ in forming his people into a church, is evident from the fact that the promulgation of the message of salvation was entrusted to its charge, from the contrived adaptation of its institutions and ordinances to the wants of mankind, and from the aspect of its graces and the influences of its character upon the welfare and the destinies of the world. It is formed to disciple all nations: the church must tell the world that this is the design for which it is instituted; and tell it by its holy character and saving efforts.

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To acquire an habitual promptitude for usefulness, be much in earnest prayer that God would supply you with opportunities for doing good : this will make you all day to watch for such seasons, and to seize them when they appear. Pray for them as if you expected God to answer you. Be always thoroughly furnished" with suitable means for doing good: a word in season, a religious tract, a christian temper, should never be wanting. Be masters of your time; exercise foresight in the morning of the day, or at the commencement of a journey, and make preparations for openings of usefulness. Listen to the complaints of conscience about your past remissness, and impress your mind with a due sense of the uncertainty of your life. Think how much is expected, by man and God, from your christian character. All your works will follow you think how large a train you would wish to see in the day of judgmentand in heaven, and remember that now is the time to swell their number, and to adorn their aspect.*

* JENKYN, on The Union of the Holy Spirit and the Church in the conversion of the world.

THE PILGRIM FATHERS.

(Concluded from page 232.)

"Upon their talk of removing, sundry of the Dutch would have them go under them, and made them large offers;" but the pilgrims were attached to their nationality as Englishmen, and to the language of their line. A secret, but deeply-seated love of their country led them to the generous purpose of recovering the protection of England by enlarging her dominions. They were restless" with the desire to live once more under the government of their native land.

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And whither should they go to acquire a province for king James? The beautiful fertility and immeasurable wealth of Guiana had been exhibited in dazzling colours by the brilliant eloquence of Raleigh. But the terrors of the tropical climate, the wavering pretensions of England to the soil, and the proximity of bigoted catholics, led them rather to look towards Virginia; and Robert Cushman and John Carver repaired to England, to obtain consent of the London company to their emigration. The envoys were favourably received; and a patent and ample liberties were cheerfully promised. Assured of the special approbation of Sir Edwin Sandys, they declined completing their negotiation, till they could consult the multitude with whose interests they were intrusted. The pilgrims, following the principles of democratic liberty, transmitted to the company their request, signed by the hands of the greatest part of the congregation." We are well weaned," added Robinson and Brewster, "from the delicate milk of our mother country, and inured to the difficulties of a strange land; the people are industrious and frugal. We are knit together as a body in a most sacred covenant of the Lord, of the violation whereof we make great conscience, and by virtue whereof we hold ourselves straitly tied to all care of each other's good, and of the whole. It is not with us as with men whom small things can discourage."

The messengers of the Pilgrims continued to be received with great kindness by the Virginia company; they also sought for the favour of the king. But in vain did they transmit an account of their principles; in vain was high influence at court exerted on their behalf. Even while the negotiations were pending, a royal declaration constrained the puritans of Lancashire to conform or leave the kingdom; and nothing more could be obtained for the wilds of America, than an informal promise of neglect. No public act of toleration could be wrung from the English monarch.

The bigotry of the English hierarchy was a great discouragement to the church at Leyden. The dissensions in the Virginia corporation occasioned further delay; but, as the influence of Sir Edwin Sandys, the friend of the puritans, prevailed, a patent was at length granted to the pilgrims, under the company's seal. It was taken in the name of

one who failed to accompany the expedition, and was never of the least service to those who had obtained it with much toil and cost. One more negotiation remained to be completed. The Pilgrims were not possessed of sufficient capital for the execution of their schemes. The reports of Smith, the efforts of Gorges, the confidence in wealth to be derived from fisheries, had made American expeditions a subject of consideration with English merchants; and the agents from Leyden were able to form a partnership between their employers and men of business in London. The terms of the contract were deemed exceedingly severe. The whole company constituted a numerous partnership; the services of each emigrant were rated as a capital of ten pounds, and belonged to the company; all profits were to be reserved till the end of seven years, when the whole amount, and all houses and land, gardens and fields, were to be divided among the shareholders according to their respective interests. The London merchant, who risked one hundred pounds, would receive for his money tenfold more than the pennyless emigrant for his entire services. This arrangement threatened a seven year's check to the pecuniary prosperity of the community; yet, as it did not interfere with civil rights, or religion, it did not intimidate the pilgrims.

And now the English at Leyden, trusting in God and in themselves, made ready for their departure. The Speedwell, a ship of sixty tons, was purchased in London; the Mayflower, a vessel of one hundred and eighty tons, was hired in England. These could hold but a minority of the congregation; and Robinson was therefore detained at Leyden, while Brewster, the teaching elder, conducted the emigrants. Every enterprise of the pilgrims began from God. A solemn fast was held. "Let us seek of God," said they, "a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance." Anticipating their high destiny, and the sublime doctrines of liberty, that would grow out of the principles on which their religious tenets were established, Robinson gave them a farewell, breathing a freedom of opinion and an independence of authority, such as then were hardly known in the world.

"I charge you, before God and his blessed angels, that you follow me no further than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to period in religion, and will go at present no further than the instruments of their reformation. Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. I beseech you, remember it,-'tis an article of your church covenant, that you be ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written word of God."

The Pilgrims were accompanied by most of the brethren from Leyden to Delft-Haven, where the night was passed "in friendly and christian converse." As morning dawned, Carver, Bradford, and Winslow, Brewster, the ruling elder, Allerton, and the brave and faithful Standish, with their equal associates,-a feeble band for a

perilous enterprise,-bade farewell to Holland; while Robinson, kneeling in prayer by the sea-side, gave to their embarkation, the sanctity of a religious rite. A prosperous wind soon wafts the vessel to Southampton; and, in a fortnight, the Mayflower and the Speedwell, freighted with the first colony for New England, leave Southampton for America. But they had not gone far upon the Atlantic before the smaller vessel was found to need repairs; and they enter the port of Dartmouth. After the lapse of eight precious days, they again weigh anchor; the coast of England recedes; already they are unfurling their sails on the broad ocean, when the captain of the Speedwell, with his company, dismayed at the dangers of the enterprise, once more pretends that his ship is too weak for the service. They put back to Plymouth, to dismiss their treacherous companions, though the loss of the vessel was "very grievous and discouraging." The timid and the hesitating were all freely allowed to abandon the expedition. Having thus winnowed their numbers of the cowardly and the disaffected, the little band, not of resolute men only, but wives, some far gone in pregnancy, children, infants,—a floating village -yet, in all, but one hundred and one souls, went on board the single ship, which was hired only to convey them across the Atlantic; and, on the sixth day of September, 1620, thirteen years after the first colonization of Virginia, two months before the concession of the grand charter of Plymouth, without any warrant from the sovereign of England, without any useful charter from a corporate body, the passengers in the Mayflower set sail for a new world, where the past could offer no favourable auguries.

Had New England been colonized immediately on the discovery of the American continent, the old English institutions would have been planted under the powerful influence of the Roman Catholic religion; had the settlement been made under Elizabeth, it would have been before activity of the popular mind in religion had conducted to a corresponding activity of mind in politics. The pilgrims were Englishmen, protestants, exiles for religion; men, disciplined by misfortune, cultivated by opportunities of extensive observation, equal in rank as in rights, and bound by no code but that which was imposed by religion, or might be created by the public will.

The eastern coast of the United States abounds in beautiful and convenient harbours, in majestic bays and rivers; the first Virginia colony, sailing along the shores of North Carolina, was, by a favouring storm, driven into the magnificent Bay of the Chesapeake; the pilgrims, having selected as the place for their settlement the mouth of the Hudson, the best position on the whole coast, were, not by the treachery, but rather by the ignorance and self-will, of their captain, conducted to the most barren and inhospitable part of Massachusetts. After a long and boisterous voyage of sixty-three days, during which one person had died, they espied land, and in two days more were safely moored in the harbour of Cape Cod. English enterprise and English intolerance combined to effect the first settlement of New England.

Yet, before they landed, the manner in which their government should be constituted, was considered; and, as some were observed "not well affected to unity and concord," they formed themselves into a body politic by a solemn voluntary compact.

"In the name of God, amen; we, whose names are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign King James, having undertaken, for the glory of God, and advancement of the Christian faith, and honour of our king and country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, in the presence of God, and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together, into a civil body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aforesaid and by virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, and offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most convenient for the general good of the colony. Unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."

This instrument was signed by the whole body of men, forty-one in number, who, with their families, constituted the one hundred and one; the whole colony," the proper democracy," that arrived in New England. This was the birth of popular constitutional liberty. The middle age had been familiar with charters and constitutions; but they had been merely compacts for immunities, partial en franchisements, patents of nobility, concessions of municipal privileges, or limitations of the sovereign power in favour of feudal institutions. In the cabin of the Mayflower, humanity recovered its rights, and instituted government on the basis of "equal laws" for "the general good." John Carver was immediately and unanimously chosen governor for the year.

Men who emigrate, even in well-inhabited districts, pray that their journey may not be in winter. Wasted by the rough and wearisome voyage, ill supplied with provisions, the English fugitives found themselves, at the opening of winter, on a barren and bleak coast, in a severe climate, with the ocean on one side, and the wilderness on the other. There were none to show them kindness or bid them welcome. The nearest French settlement was at Port Royal; it was five hundred miles to the English plantation at Virginia. As they attempted to disembark, the water was found so shallow, that they were forced to wade; and, in the freezing weather, the very act of getting on land sowed the seeds of consumption and inflammatory colds. The bitterness of mortal disease was their welcome to the inhospitable shore.

The season was already fast bringing winter, and the spot for the settlement remained to be chosen. The shallop was unshipped; and it was a real disaster to find that it needed repairs. The carpenter made slow work, so that sixteen or seventeen weary days elapsed, before it was ready for service. But Standish and Bradford, and others, impatient of the delay, determined to explore the country by land. "In regard to the danger," the expedition "was rather permitted than approved." Much hardship was endured; but what discoveries could be made in Truro and near the banks of Paomet