Imatges de pàgina
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peace, whose mind is stayed upon thee, because he trusteth in thee"-this peace sometimes kindled into joy, especially when she received the Lord's supper: on those occasions, her soul, to use Mr. Crantz's words, "was replenished with extraordinary joy, in expectation of her last summons."

On the eleventh day of October, 1758, she dictated the following letter to a sister that had been very dear to her, in Europe.

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"My dear A. C.

"I now send you the last kiss, out of my heart. My tabernacle is exceedingly weakened and decayed by sickness, but I meditate continually on my Saviour's sufferings, and rejoice greatly in the prospect of that blessed moment when he will call me; and that I shall now see his wounds with my eyes, for I am redeemed with his precious blood. Although I should have been willing to tarry a little longer with my sisters, yet I leave it to our Saviour, and my greatest desire and inclination is to be with him. When I contemplate the particular grace of our Saviour, which I have enjoyed here upon earth in his congregation, my eyes overflow with tears: I love Him, and I shall love him without ceasing. I once more salute all the sisters that are with you. I now feel myself too weak to proceed further. "Your dear Judith."

Two days after Judith had dictated this letter, she entered into the joy of her Lord, while her sisters were praying around her bed.

A retrospect, such as is presented to us in the annals of this Greenland family, is peculiarly instructive. How soon are all the ties which bind us together in this life broken! in how few years are the relations of parent and child, wife and husband, brother and sister, all dissolved by death! But there is One who offers himself to our acceptance, and who sustains towards his believing people the relations of Father, Brother, and Husband,-even the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. Surely every heart, in the prospect of the speedy dissolution of every other relation, should say, "Come, and let us join ourselves to the Lord, in a perpetual covenant, that shall not be forgotten."

THE ASSISTANT ANGUSINA.

Angusina's birth-His education-Disadvantages under which be laboured-His conversion-Hindered in his desire to join the believers-He is baptized, and receives the name of DanielHis removal to New Herrnhuth-Baptism of his wife-His admission with his wife to the Lord's supper-Daniel falls into temptation-His repentance-Becomes an evangelist-His letters and sermons-His anxiety for the conversion of his relations-His journey to the North-He becomes proud of his gifts-His repentance-Death of his daughter-His sickness and edifying death-Funeral solemnities-Conclusion.

ANGUSINA was born at Tunnuliarbik, in South Greenland, in the year 1721, the period at which the Rev. Mr. Egede arrived in North Greenland. The early part of his life was spent in roving from place to place, in company with his father, four brothers, and three sisters. Like the rest of his countrymen, he was, we may suppose, little concerned for his soul, desiring no higher good than an abundance of seal's flesh, warm furs for clothing, and a house to shield him from the piercing blasts of winter.

Indeed, the poor heathen Greenlanders had no inducement to think of that futurity which lies beyond the grave; for while they knew that, in passing the dark gulf of death, they should leave their present enjoyments and satisfactions behind them, they were quite ignorant as to what they were to receive in their place: eternity, therefore, presented to them no one object upon which their minds could rest-all was impenetrable gloom, a boundless, unvaried, dark, and cheerless blank. "The vail which is spread over all nations" covered their eyes, and they were yet strangers to Him who alone can remove it, and give light to them that sit in darkness,

The following lamentation of a Greenland father over his son, is evidently the out-pourings of a soul in such a state as has been above described-it is the language of one who mourned for the dead as those who have no hope.

"Woe is me that I see thy empty seat! thy mother has toiled in vain to dry thy garments. Behold! my joy is gone into darkness; it has crept into the caverns of the mountain. Once I went out at even-tide, and was glad of heart; with straining eyes I watched, waiting for thy return. Thou camest! thou camest manfully rowing on, emulously vying in the race with young and old. Never didst thou return empty from the sea -thy kayak was always deep laden with seals and seafowl. Thy mother kindled a fire, and with snow-water she seethed them. Thy mother spread the feast of thy winning before the guests, and I took my portion among them. Thou descriedst the red streamer of the shallop from afar-there comes Lars! was the cry. Thou didst come with speed to the shore, and thy arm fastened the boat to her moorings. Then were thy seals produced, and thy mother cut out the blubber: in exchange for this, the merchant brought linen, and iron barbs. But thus it shall be no more. My bowels yearn when I think on thee. O my friends, could I weep as ye weep, it would be some solace to my woe. What have I left to wish for? Death alone appears desiraBut how shall my wife and children be sustained? I will yet live for a season ; but my joy shall henceforth be placed in the rejection of all that was once dear to me."

ble to me.

While we consider the description which has been given, in the foregoing part of this volume, of the natural and moral disadvantages under which Greenland laboured, let us pause for a moment, and in contemplation behold Angusina on the day of his birth. How wonderful does it appear, under any circumstances, that the little, weak, and helpless infant, who can only express its wants by a feeble cry, should ever attain the age, and acquire the vigour and intelligence of manhood! This was a subject which more than once excited the devout admiration of the royal Psalmist. But, if the preservation of infant life under any circum

INFANCY OF ANGUSINA.

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stances be amazing, how much more so amid the comfortless accommodation of a Greenland hut, and in the rigours of a polar climate, to which, in consequence of the roving life of the Greenlanders, it is continually exposed! And doubtless Angusina, in after life, reviewing the many and peculiar perils to which he had been exposed from earliest infancy, could take up the language of David, and say, "By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art He that took me out of my mother's bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee."

But, when we view the circumstances by which Angusina was surrounded at his birth, his future conversion to the faith of the gospel appears much more wonderful than the preservation of his natural life. His country was immersed in ignorance and heathenism; no Missionary had, at that time, set his foot upon its shores. Indeed the churches in Europe, at that period, appeared to slumber in deep insensibility to the claims of the heathen upon their compassion; and even should they be awakened to a right feeling on this subject, the thinness of the population of Greenland, and the extreme severity of the climate, seemed to make it probable that that was the last country to which the attention of Christians would be turned, as a promising field of Missionary labour. The only intercourse which the Greenlanders held with the inhabitants of countries professing Christianity, was for the purpose of traffic, with men who were commonly nearly as ignorant, and often more scandalously wicked than themselves; and, even had these merchants been competent to the work of instruction in other respects, the want of a common language between the parties raised a barrier that was almost insurmountable.

Such was the thick and cheerless darkness which brooded over the place of Angusina's birth. This poor Greenland child had no kind parents to teach him and pray for him-their minds were as dark and ignorant as his own; he had no Bible to read, no affectionate minister or Sunday School teacher to instruct him; darkness which might be felt covered every mind, and no man cared for his soul. Yet, while thousands, who are born to the inheritance of all these external privi

leges, profit not by them, but enter the eternal world with the aggravated guilt of those who knew their Master's will and did it not, this poor Greenland infant was designed to be a monument of God's sovereign mercy. The Good Shepherd, who gathers his sheep from all places where they had been scattered in the cloudy and dark day, had resolved to bring him into his fold, and he could be at no loss for means to effect his purpose. All difficulties, however seemingly insurmountable, vanish before his word; for "He doeth whatsoever he pleaseth in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what doest thou?"

It has been mentioned that the early part of Angusina's life was spent in roving from place to place, with the rest of his family. One year they lived in the South, another at Kangek, a third at Disko, and thus continually changed their abode. These frequent changes would appear, to an eye that looks only upon the outside of things, to be the result of mere caprice; but we must never forget that Jehovah reveals himself to us as the "God in whose hand is our breath, and whose are all our ways." A wise and good man* has well observed, on this subject-"We are too apt to forget our actual dependance on providence for the circumstances of every instant. The most trivial events may determine our state in the world. Turning up one street, instead of another, may bring us into company with a person whom we should not otherwise have met; and this may lead to a train of other events, which may determine the happiness or misery of our lives."

The truth of this observation was remarkably illustrated in the case of Angusina; for we are informed that, in one of these encampments, in the year 1745, it happened that the Rev. Mr. Drachart (a Danish Missionary), at a visit in Kangek, called upon Angusina's father, and preached the Gospel to the Greenlanders. "At the very first tidings of redemption by the blood of Jesus," writes Mr. Crantz, "our Angusina received such an impression in his heart, that he determined to

The Rev. Richard Cecil.

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