The ascension of our Lord into heaven is represented by the carrying of the ark up to mount Sion; and the sublime description in the four last verses, of the entrance of the King of Glory, is highly applicable to him: it is, therefore, appointed to be read on the Ascension-day. Travell.

[This Psalm opens with a chorus, proclaiming the divinity of Jehovah, the Creator and Lord of the universe. It then describes, in questions and answers sung by different voices, the sort of righteousness which recommends to Jehovah's favour, which consists not in any ceremonial observances, but in clean hands and a pure heart. And the song concludes with a prediction of the exaltation of Messiah (for he is certainly the Jehovah of this Psalm), under the image of an entry of Jehovah into his temple. Bp. Horsley.]

Ver. 3 Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in his holy place?

[3. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?] The connexion seems to be this. If the Almighty Creator and Lord of all the earth has chosen us to be his peculiar people, to serve and worship him in his temple, upon the holy hill of Sion, whither the sacred symbol of his presence is now ascending, what manner of persons ought we to be?-The argument implies with additional force, to ourselves, as Christians. We compose a far more numerous and magnificent procession than that of the Israelites, when the Church universal, with her spiritual services, attends our Lord, as it were, upon his ascension, in heart and mind ascending with him into the holy place not made with hands. Bp. Horne.]

7 Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in.

7. Lift up &c.] We may now conceive the procession to have arrived at the gates of the tabernacle. While the ark is brought in, the Levites, divided into two choirs, sing alternately the remainder of the Psalm. Indeed it is not impossible that this mode of singing was pursued through every part of the ode; but towards the conclusion the fact will not admit of a doubt. Bp. Lowth.

10 Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

[We must now form to ourselves an idea of the Lord of glory, after his resurrection from the dead, making his entry into the eternal temple in heaven; as of old, by the symbol of his presence, he took

possession of that figurative and temporary structure, which once stood upon the hill of Sion. We are to conceive him gradually rising from mount Olivet into the air, taking the clouds for his chariot, and ascending up on high; while some of the angels, like the Levites in procession, attendant on the triumphant Messiah, in the day of his power, demand, that those everlasting gates and doors, hitherto shut and barred against the race of Adam, should be thrown open for his admission into the realms of bliss. "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." On hearing this voice of jubilee and exultation from the earth, the abode of misery and sorrow, the rest of the angels, astonished at the thought of a MAN claiming a right of entrance into their happy regions, ask from within, like the Levites in the temple, "Who is this King of glory?" To which question the attendant angels answer, in a strain of joy and triumph-and let the Church of the Redeemer answer with them, "The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle," the Lord Jesus, victorious over sin, death and hell. Therefore we say, and with holy transport we repeat it;, "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in." And if any ask, "Who is the King of glory?" To heaven and earth we proclaim aloud"The Lord of hosts," all-conquering Messiah, head over every creature, the leader of the armies of Jehovah, "He is the King of glory" Even so, Glory be to thee, O Lord most high! Amen. Hallelujah. Bp. Horne.]

We learn from this Psalm, that God, who created the earth, is the supreme and almighty King thereof, and that his glory and power ought to be celebrated for ever; also, that those only will be admit ted into the presence of the Lord, who walk uprightly, who are sincere and faithful in all their behaviour, who avoid fraud and deceit, who call upon the Lord and seek his face. Ostervald.

PSALM XXV. Ver. 4 Show me thy ways, O LORD; teach me thy paths.

[4. Show me thy ways, O Lord; &c.] We are travellers to heaven, who, through temptation, are often drawn aside, and loose our way. The way is the law of God; and to keep that law is to walk in the way. God only can put us in the way, and preserve us and forward us therein; for which purpose, we must continue instant in prayer to "the God of our salva. tion," that he would "teach" us to do his will; that so we may not be ashamed and confounded. Bp. Horne.]

15 Mire eyes are ever toward the

LORD; for he shall pluck my feet out of the net.

[15. Mine eyes are ever toward the Lord; &c.] Encouraged to hope for the blessing above mentioned, the lowly suppliant still continues to fix the eyes of his understanding on their proper object, God his Saviour, beholding his glory, attending to his will, and expecting his mercy. An unfortunate dove, whose feet are taken in the snare of the fowler, is a fine emblem of the soul, entangled in the cares or plea sures of the world; from which she desires, through the power of grace, to fly away, and to be at rest, with their glori. fied Redeemer. Bp. Horne.]

22 Redeem Israel, O God, out of all his troubles.

After the example of David, the pious

and devout Christian, who really and in truth puts his entire confidence in God, is never weary or ashamed of that confidence. If he finds that his prayers are not so graciously heard, as that he receives all that he hath prayed for, he receives yet an un. speakable comfort by having done as he ought to do; and though he prospers not as he would wish, yet if he prays as he should, he hath made a good progress towards his own deliverance; and hath raised a good defence against any affliction that invades him: nor will he be frighted out of his innocence by the promises, or threats, or tyranny of his proud oppressors. Lord Clarendon.

[In the common salvation all have an interest; and, for that reason, all should pray for it. The earthly David petitioned for Israel; the heavenly David ever continueth to intercede for the Church; and every Christian ought to become a suppliant for his brethren, still looking and longing for that glorious day, when, by a joyful resurrection unto life eternal, God shall indeed "redeem Israel out of all his troubles." Bp. Horne]

(From the Missionary Register for Nov. 1820.) Extracts from the 20th Report of the

Church Missionary Society. Conclusion of the Report. In the various ways which the Committee have enumerated, they have found full employment for the THIRTY THOUSAND POUNDS placed at their disposal by the liberality of the members; and depending, under the blessing of God, on the continued and even in creasing aid of the Society's friends, they have not hesitated, under the evident call of duty, somewhat to exceed, in their expenditure, the actual income

of the year-assured that they act herein in conformity with the feelings of the whole body of the members, when they withhold themselves from no important work opening before them, through any distrust of future support-an apprehension, the indulgence of which the past experience of the Society would render almost criminal.

The Committee witness, with thankfulness to Almighty God, the increase of missionary zeal in our own country, and particularly among the members of our own communion: and, while they rejoice at the growth of this spirit among the Protestants of the Continent, they feel especial pleasure in the rapid

advance of zeal for the conversion of the world in that other great branch of Protestant Christendom, in the New World, which speaks our own language; and which bids fair to outstrip in numbers, at no distant period, the country which gave her birth, and to apply to that great cause her enlarged resources with at least equal zeal. It is impossible for the Christians of the United Kingdom and of the American States, who speak the English language, and own one common origin, and the merchants of whose countries maintain intercourse with all the shores of the habitable world-it is impossible for them to contemplate the means which the Great Head of the Church has already put into their hands for the hastening of his kingdom, and the spirit which he is mercifully pouring out on them, to induce them to the work, without feeling a grateful stimulus to redoubled exertions.

The Committee cannot conclude without some reference to the awful times in which Christian societies are called to labour. The blessing of God has rested on the Society during the year that is passed; and it is manifestly vouchsafed to kindred institutions : but viewing the times in which we live, the Committee do earnestly press on all the members of the Society the duty and privilege of committing its concerns, in unwearied prayer, to the guidance and protection of the Divine Hand.

The great work of converting the world will undoubtedly be accomplish

ed. Not a tittle of the divine word will fail. Great shall be the name of the Lord, from the rising to the setting of the sun. But, as that time approaches, and the servants of the Lord are pressing on in thickening ranks and with determined hearts to the conflict with the powers of darkness, that conflict is becoming more awful! The malignant spirit is labouring to wither the very heart of the Christian cause, and to exhaust its very vitals. Tremendous proofs of his dire influence on the pride and passions of men are seen every where around us. But the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, beholding the evil and the good-and the arm of the Lord showeth itself strong in behalf of them who fear him. What difficulties his servants may be called to encounter in helping forward the establishment of his benignant reign on the earth, and what sufferings they may be called to bear, they may confidently leave to his faithfulness and wisdom: but to THEM, is the victory assured; and on THEM, is the eye of their Lord!

Vigilant, then, in maintaining the meek, forgiving, benevolent, and holy spirit of Christians-resisting all wickedness, and labouring for the salvation of all men-with humble but firm confidence in that gracious promise, as thy days, so shall thy strength be, we will gird up our loins, with renewed courage and zeal, to fulfil all the will of our heavenly Master and Lord.

Brief History of the Work of Divine

Grace at Regent's Town.

MR. Johnson's return to this country afforded, as has been before stated, an opportunity of obtaining much more accurate information on the nature and success of his labours among the liberated Negroes at Regent's Town, than could have been derived from correspondence with him. In frequent conferences, he entered largely into the subject; and disclosed, with Christian simplicity, the whole course of labour through which it had pleased God to lead him.

Your Committee will venture to say, that the History of the Church has VOL. V.

scarcely afforded so striking an instance of the power of Christianity in civiliz ing and blessing savage man. The state of the Negroes, when brought together in Regent's Town, the effects produced on them by the blessing of God on the care and kindness of the governor, and on the ministry of the Gospel among them, and the manner in which these effects disclosed themselves, are of such a nature, that, though various circumstances relative thereto have been reported on former occasions, the Committee are persuaded that the members will be gratified by hearing the statement communicated by Mr. Johnson, while in this country.

When brought together at this place, in the year 1813, the Negroes were, as on the first settling of them in other towns, in the most deplorable condition. In 1816, the assistant secretary, then on a visit to the mission, found about 1100 liberated Negroes assembled at this spot. They consisted of persons from almost all the tribes on that part of the continent. The efforts of those who had been placed over them, under the vigilant and anxious inspection of the governor, had meliorated the condition of such as had been therefor any length of time. Every measure in his power had been resorted to, for this end, by his excellency; and a church had been erected, in preparation for the regular administration of Christian ordinances among them. His excellency felt that a powerful stimulus was wanted, to rouse the Negroes to diligence; and that an energetic principle was required, which might harmonize their jarring feelings, and unite them as one body. That stimulus was found in the sense of duty and of gratitude which Christianity inspires; and that uniting principle, in the healing spirit of the Gospel.

At the desire of the governor, Mr. Johnson, then just arrived, was placed, by the assistant secretary, at his excellency's disposal; and was, in consequence, appointed to the care of Regent's Town, and immediately entered on his charge, in the month of June, 1816.

On looking narrowly into the actual condition of the people entrusted to his

care, Mr. Johnson felt great discouragement. Natives of twenty-two different nations were here collected together; and a considerable number of them had been but recently liberated from the holds of slave vessels: they were greatly prejudiced against one another, and in a state of continual hostility, with no common medium of intercourse but a little broken English. When clothing was given to them, they would sell it, or throw it away: it was difficult to induce them even to put it on; and it was not found practicable to introduce it among them, till led to it by the example of Mr. Johnson's servant girl. None of them, on their first arrival, seemed to live in the state of marriage: some were soon afterward married by the late Mr. Butscher; but all the bless ings of the marriage state and of female purity appeared, when Mr. Johnson arrived among them, to be quite unknown. In some huts ten of them were crowded together; and, in others, even fifteen and twenty: many of them were ghastly as skeletons: six or eight sometimes died in one day; and only six infants were born during the year. Superstition, in various forms, tyrannized over their minds: many devil's houses sprung up; and all placed their security in wearing greegrees. Scarcely any desire of improvement was discernible; for a considerable time there were hardly five or six acres of land brought under cultivation; and some, who wished to cultivate the soil, were deterred from doing so, by the fear of being plundered of the produce. Some would live in the woods, apart from society; and others subsisted by thieving and plunder: they would steal fowls, ducks, and pigs, from any who possessed them: in the first week of his residence among them, Mr. Johnson lost thirty fowls: they would eat them waw; and not a few of them, particularly those of the Ebo nation, the most savage of them. all, would prefer any kind of refusemeat to the rations which they received from government.

Of this nation of the Ebos it may be right to give some particulars. About forty of them having been drawn, on their liberation from the slave ships, to serve in the African corps, they were

placed under a course of military instruction at Bance Island; but were discharged as intractable, and were sent to Regent's Town. Here they soon gave proof of almost incredible brutality. A Negro of another tribe had a sow,which, three or four days before, had brought him a litter of nine pigs: some of these people stole his young pigs, and threw them all, while alive, into a large pot of boiling water: there the man found them, when, on returning home and ascertaining his loss, he had obtained Mr. Johnson's authority to search for them among his suspected neighbours. From another were stolen his dog and his iron pot, and he found both among the same depredators, who were preparing for a repast on the poor animal, by boiling him in the pot which they had stolen. A sick dog had been killed and buried: it was afterward discovered that some of these people had dug up and made soup of the carcass.

These are repulsive details: but they set forth the greatness of the change which has been wrought in these men. Placed under the care of one of the natives-himself but recently liberated from the hold of a slave ship, and as yet. but little influenced by Christian principle-he exercised over them what appeared to him to be unavoidable severity; but, when his own heart became powerfully affected by the Gospel, he would retire to the woods and pray for them: they formed a strong attachment to him: he prevailed on them to attend church; and was made an instrument of incalculable good to them. The word of God was blessed to many of them. They are all now civilized and married: they are steady, sober, and industrious; and several of them regularly communicate at the Lord's table: all are become clean and decent, and attend the public worship of God. They are active and serviceable men.

The change in the Ebo people has been mentioned as illustrating, in a remarkable manner, the efficacy of Christian instruction, under the Divine blessing, in civilizing and elevating the most abject of mankind. No human wisdom or eloquence, no secular hopes or fears, no coercion or inducements of man, ever produced such a change! It has been

the act of that same Divine power, which wrought, by the same Divine truth, that mighty change in our own barbarous ancestors, in the older time of our country-of that Divine power, which softened their ferocious minds, stripped the skins of beasts and cleansed the savage daubings from their persons, staunched the blood of human victims, exposed to shame the cruelties of their pagan idolatry, brought rude man to feel the blessings of social life and of all the meek and heavenly tempers of the Christian, and gave birth to those laws and institutions, which, reacting with a benign influence on the minds and manners of this whole people, have rendered us, with all our crimes, a real blessing to the world! And now, in these latter days, we have a renewal of the moral miracles of the primitive age; and have the honour put on us, by sending the Gospel to the most degraded of mankind, of quickening and rendering efficacious, in an incalculable degree, the efforts of our country to remunerate Africa for her wrongs.

But the improvement in the whole body of the liberated Negroes assembled at Regent's Town is truly surprising. The greater number were not, indeed, sunk into a state of degradation so low as that of the Ebos; but the description already given of them will sufficiently show, that, on all human calculation, but little success could be expected, and that little, but by slow degrees.

With what melancholy feelings Mr. Johnson surveyed the desolation around him, the members heard from his own lips, when he took leave of the Society at the special meeting held in this place in the month of November.

But what was the condition of these people when Mr. Johnson left them for a season, after the labour of three years? A full return had been made for the wise and benevolent measures of the governor, and for the unwearied labours of their pastor,

The eye which beheld the people and their town but a few years before, would now witness a scene that would bespeak the energy of some mighty principle.

The town itself is laid out with regularity: nineteen streets are formed, and

are made plain and even, with good roads round the town: a large stone church rises in the midst of the habitations; a government house, a parsonage house, a hospital, school houses, store houses, a bridge of several arches, some native dwellings, and other buildings, all of stone, are either finished or on the point of being so. But the state of cultivation further manifests the industry of the people-all are farmers

gardens, fenced in, are attached to every dwelling-all the land in the immediate neighbourhood is under cultivation, and pieces of land even to the distance of three miles-there are many rice-fields; and, among other vegetables raised for food, are cassadas, plantains, coco, yams, coffee, and Indian corn-of fruits, they have bananas, oranges, limes, pine-apples, groundnuts, guavas, and papaws-of animals, there are horses, cows, bullocks, sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, and fowls-a daily market is held for the sale of articles; and, on Saturdays, this market is large and general. It has been already said that all are farmers; but many of them, beside the cultivation of the ground, have learned and exercise various trades; fifty of them are masons and bricklayers

forty, carpenters-thirty, sawyersthirty, shingle-makers-twenty, tailors four, blacksmiths-and two, butchers. In these various ways, upward of 600 of the Negroes maintain themselves; and have been enabled, in this short space of time, by the fruits of their own productive industry, to relieve from all expense, on their personal account, that government to which they pay the most grateful allegiance.

The appearance and manners of the people have improved in an equal degree. They are all now decently clothed: almost all the females have learned to make their own clothing→→ about 400 couple are married-they were accustomed to spend their nights in dancing and drumming, after the heathenish fashion of their countries: not a drum is now left in the town-in six months only six deaths occurred; while, in three months, forty-two children were born-not an oath had been heard in the town, to Mr. Johnson's knowledge, for the last twelve months;