who was taking care of my sisters, was going to a market-town with the elder, who then had a babe about a month old, when they were attacked by a band of kidnappers, and were captured a second time. They were again separated, my mother being taken one way, and my sister, with her babe, another. My sister was redeemed by her husband; but my mother was taken from place to place, till she was brought to Ibadàn, where she was exposed for sale with many others; but, as she was getting aged, she was not purchased. She was then made housekeeper, and at times sent to trade in one of the market-towns. When she was sent by her mistress to one of these markets, she was caught, with many others, by the people of Abbeokouta, which was her third capture. At Abbeokouta she was sold, and had to serve in bondage for more than five years, when my sisters put as many cowries as they could together, and purchased her for eighteen heads (about £4 10s.) Since that time she has been living with them at Abàkà, to take care of their children.

"Thus my poor mother has been suffering since I left this country. Could the friends of the Africans witness the happy meeting of those who have by their means been restored to the bosom of those from whom they were violently taken away, it would, I am sure, rejoice their hearts that their labour has not been in vain, nor their money spent for nought. Could they hear this moment how many thanks are given to them by African parents, whose minds have been cheered in their declining years by the return of their children from Sierra Leone, they would thank God and take courage to go on in their work, which God is singularly blessing, and the effect of which is seen and felt in the interior of this country."

Mr. Crowther's mother remained with him at Abbeokouta, but his sisters returned to Abàkà.

POLYNESIA-TAHITI.

London Missionary Society.-The state and prospects of the mission in this island are clearly exhibited in the subjoined communication received from one of the missionary brethren under date of June last. The prejudicial influence of French authority and interference on the aspect and operations of the mission is painfully apparent from these statements, but it will also be seen that the zealous and persevering endeavours of the brethren to re-organize the stations, and recover the ground which had been lost, have, through the Divine favour, been partially successful; and, amid many discouragements and obstacles, there is reason to hope that the work of God will be gradually restored to order and efficiency. One of the brethren thus writes:

"At every place there are two parties, one consisting of those who had formerly joined the French; and the other, of those who came out of the camps at the time of the betrayal.

Nearly all of the old native governors have been laid aside by the French, and new ones created from among the young chiefs, who never made any profession of religion. This has greatly discouraged the people. Many of the old chiefs were consistent members of our churches; but those now in office would, it is believed, turn to Popery, or anything else, if the French Governor should express a wish or issue a command to that effect. The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice.' We live in the hope of better times yet for Tahiti.

"Point Venus.--I have visited this station several times, and on each occasion found it in a discouraging state: it is a military station, and many of the French troops are posted there. The young chief of the district has been one of the most zealous on the French side all through the contest. Governor Bruat

has taken him, with five or six other youths, to France. There is a chapel, which was built before the camps submitted; but not one-third of the people of the district come to worship in it. They hold prayer meetings at different places under trees. We have not been able to re-establish the church as yet at this place; but we hope, by continuing to visit them, an improvement will be manifested ere long.

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Papaoa. This station is still in a very unsettled state. Prayer meetings are held in various places in the district; and, when we visit them, the people assemble on the spot where the former chapel stood, and we preach to them under the trees. The French interest is very strong over the district. A new native governor, not agreeable to the wishes of the people, has been appointed; and all are obliged to submit to whatever the French require of them. There are very few at Papaoa station who were of the French party previous to the time they were brought to submit. The church has not yet been reorganised at this station. The house formerly occupied by Mr. Moore was destroyed by the French whilst the people were in the camps. We have no Mission house in this district, nor at Point Venus, at present-all have been entirely destroyed.

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Papeete. The church at this station has been kept up during nearly all the time of our troubles; but although it may be termed the central station, yet the attendance at chapel, and the other means of grace, is not by any means numerous. It is true many from all parts of the island collect at Papeete, but the majority of the people resort thither for worldly and vicious purposes.

"Bunaania.-The French destroyed all the bread-fruit trees and many of the cocoa-nut for miles on each side of the Point, at the time the first attack was made upon the camps: it was said that the object was to prevent the Tahitians from collecting again as an army at this place. And now, having made it a military station, they have succeeded in driving nearly all the people away only a very few families remain as residents in the neighbourhood. Utami, our old and tried chief, has also been deprived of his office as governor, because he did not come out of the valley and join the French. He had held this office more than thirty years: it has been given by the French to a young person of another family. There is a pretty good congregation on the Sabbath forenoon. Paaee, our out-station, is visited in the afternoon; the old one having been burnt down by the French. We have also a chapel at Atuie, a mile and a half towards Papeete, where prayer meetings are held. There has been an addition of five new members to the church since the people came out of the valley to reside at the sea-side.

"Tahiti, at present, appears like the troubled sea. But the Lord is at the helm of affairs; and in Him alone we trust for all that will be most for His own glory, and the good of the people."

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Communications received from M.R.U., J. J. Owen, C., S. Leonard, I.B., Kappa, C.M.B., John Teall, S.B., R. Edminson, R. Harris.

Several Papers and Notices of Books have unavoidably been delayed.

Communications and Letters may be addressed to the Editor, Nailsworth, Gloucestershire; Parcels and Books for Review, to the Publishers.

Intelligence must be forwarded to the Editor by the 21st of the month, and Articles by the 17th, for insertion.

BOOKS RECEIVED. Fourth Yearly Report of the Baptist Union of Scotland.A Voice from the Laodicean Churches to the Pastorate.-Immortality; its Real and Alleged Evidences. By J. T. Gray.-Sketches from the Cross. By J. J. Davies.-Sunday School Magazine. January.-Evangelical Christendom. January.-Jordan's Scriptural Views of the Sabbath of God.-The Ministry Demanded in these Eventful Times. By H. Trend.

Waterlow & Sons, Printers, 66 and 67, London Wall.

THE

BAPTIST RECORD

AND

BIBLICAL REPOSITORY.

MARCH, 1848.

I-ON THE AGENCY OF THE SON OF GOD IN CREATION.

Ir seems pretty generally admitted that the first verse in the Bible contains presumptive proof of a plurality of agents in the work of Creation, and not without reason. The employment of a noun in the plural number (in a language which has a dual), with a verb in the singular, seems to intimate a concurrence of at least three persons in one and the same act.

That "God the Father, Almighty," is "maker of heaven and earth," no one for a moment hesitates to admit; and a reference to the third person in the godhead may, perhaps, be considered as couched in that expression; "THE SPIRIT of God moved upon the face of the waters." But does it not seem singular, that, while the act of creation is in so many passages of Scripture distinctly ascribed to the Son of God, there should, apparently, be no intimation of this in the earliest record of the transaction?

It is not, I am aware, at all necessary to quote passages of Scripture in proof of the fact, that the act of creation is ascribed to the Son of God, expressly. I will, however, mention a few, chiefly for the purpose of directing attention to this circumstance; viz. that the references to him become of a less recondite and abstract character, as we proceed onwards in the Bible :—or, (to state the same fact in a reverse order), they become more abstract and indistinct, as we go further back, towards the first dawnings of Revelation.

In Heb. i. 2, we have these words: "God, who in times past spake unto the Father by the prophets, hath in these last days

VOL. I.-NEW SERIES.-No. III.

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spoken unto us by his Son"-and it is added, almost immediately, "by whom also he made the worlds."

Here, the second person in the godhead, referred to in his incarnate state, when as man he actually lived and spoke with men, is at the same moment specially recognised and referred to as the agent in creation.

As the passage, "By faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God," occurs in the same epistle, c. xi. 3, it is not impossible that here also the term "word," may be taken personally, in reference to the Son of God. Perhaps the fact that pua is the word employed in the original (not λóyos) may be considered as diminishing the probability of this. I am not sure that it ought so to do. In the passage in the Psalms, "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth" (Ps. xxxiii. 6); the Septuagint use λóyos, so that the two terms seem readily interchangeable. Though it must, I believe, be conceded that λóyos is the term considered as the more appropriate designation of the Son of God.

In Coloss. i. 13, we read; "Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son" and then, in direct application to the Son, it is added, v. 16, "by him were all things created, &c."

So again-Ephes. iii. 9, we have; "who created all things by Jesus Christ." Such are distinct references to the man, Christ Jesus-the Son of God in human flesh-as holding a prominent place in creation work.

--

In the Gospel of John (the introduction of which is a striking imitation of the introduction to the book of Genesis)—the allusion to Christ-or rather, the term by which the allusion is made, is of a more abstract character. He is styled, ὁ λογος - the Word. This word, we are afterwards told, " became flesh;" but, before his incarnation, also, he had existence, and a name, viz. the Word of God; and, with this word is the act of creation associated; and that in terms peculiarly emphatic: "all things were made by him." And again; "without him was not any one thing made that was made."

Much earlier in the sacred record, the reference is of a still more abstract character; representing the Son, not as the utterance of God's mouth, but as an attribute of his mind-wisdomthose all-perfect conceptions, of which words are the subsequent expression. Such a description we have at large in the eighth chapter of Proverbs; and of this Wisdom it is said :

v. 22. The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.

v. 27. When he prepared the heavens I was there.

v. 29. When he appointed the foundations of the earth. It is not impossible, also, that the singular passage in this same book (chap. xxx. 4)," Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his Son's name, if thou canst tell?"—may have a similar reference.

But, not to enlarge. The question I wish to put is this:—Is it not possible, that, by a still further abstraction, there may be a reference to the intermediate agency of the Son of God, in the expression, "and God SAID?" This declaration, it will be seen, precedes every separate act of creation, as recorded in Genesis. The description has been considered as remarkably sublime; and so, no doubt, it is. Nor would I wish at all to detract from its sublimity or propriety, by suggesting the very literal inquiry— Why should God speak, when there was no one, and no thing, to hear? Still, may we not, without undue forcing, extend to the verb the same personality that we attach to the noun, "the word," and thus analyze the expression, "and God said," into " and God willed by HIS WORD"-that light should be-and light was: the term "word," still carrying a personal reference to the Son of God.

These remarks are put simply by way of suggestion and inquiry, with the hope of eliciting some further light upon the

matter.

S. L.

Clifton.

II.-ON PREVAILING PRAYER.

WHAT Christian has not been struck with the extraordinary language of our Lord to his disciples, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you?" Would that all who profess themselves Christians could appreciate these words; that we all knew, from our own experience, what it is to abide in Christ, and what it is so to pray as to obtain the blessings which we desire !

It is an extraordinary privilege which our Lord confers on his disciples when he says, "Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." It was a magnificent grant which Herod made to the daughter of Herodias, "I will give thee whatsoever thou shalt ask, even unto the half of my kingdom;" and having received this promise she felt herself entitled to ask for what she pleased. But how much larger the grant, how much nobler the promise which our Lord makes to his disciples! Compared with those of many of his fellow creatures the resources of Herod were not small; he could talk of his kingdom,