About forty-three years ago some Dutch tance from the white man; but in vain, missionaries set out from the Cape of Piemar would not permit them. One Good Hope to preach the Gospel to the day he ordered them to recover some poor people in Great Namaqua Land. cattle which had been stolen ; they reThey called their first Mission Home, fused to do so; so he summoned them “ Blyde Uitkomst," or, “ Happy Deliver- to his door. Africaner went up the steps ance." They had not long been there to state their grievances, but the farmer before a great African chief went to them in a moment rushed upon him, and with and said, “ As you are sent by the Eng- one blow sent him to the bottom. Titus, lish, I welcome you, for though I hate Africaner's brother, who was with him, the Dutch, my former oppressors, I love enraged at this treatment, shot the farmer the English ; I have always heard they dead on the spot. are the friends of the poor black man.” From this time Africaner was looked

Jager Africaner, for this was the name upon as an outlaw and a robber. The of the great chief, had in former years Government tried to punish him, but lived with his father upon his native they were afraid to go near his land. hills, about a hundred miles from Cape He was now a terror to all; even the Town ; but as the Dutch settlers in- missionaries shared the alarm, and recreased, his tribe was obliged to remove moved 100 miles away, to a place called further and further from the land of their Warm-Bath. forefathers. At length, wearied with They had not been there very long, these repeated removals, and broken when one day, to their great amazement, spirited, he and his people agreed to the dreaded Africaner entered their little serve a farmer named Piemar. They congregation. He stayed for some time did so faithfully for some time; and quietly listening to their instructions, Africaner being an intrepid shepherd, but seeing that the people at length his valour was of great use in defending were frightened, he went away. The his master's flocks from being seized by missionaries would now gladly have prethe bushmen. But Piemar was a cruel | vented this, but they could not prevail man, and often used Africaner and his on him to stay. Soon afterwards, some people so very ill, that at length they wicked people raised a report against the began to think he meant to destroy them inissionaries, telling Africaner that they altogether, and agreed they would no encouraged the people of Warm-Bath longer submit. Africaner had often asked in stealing his cattle, and getting other leave to go away with his people to a dis- | tribes to join in fighting against him. Africaner was very angry; he said, he brothers—one of them you remember shot would destroy them all; so the poor the Dutch farmer-soon loved Jesus also, missionaries were obliged to get away to so greatly was the Gospel blessed. After the Cape for safety.

a few years the missionary persuaded When they got there, a very kind | Africaner to go with him to the Cape to letter was sent Africaner, to tell him obtain the Governor's pardon. After that these reports were quite untrue. some hesitation-for he remembered he Africaner returned a nice answer, and was still an outlaw-he consented, and the soon a missionary set out on his way in Governor was so pleased with him that a waggon to the chief's kraal. When he he not only granted him a pardon, but reached it, Africaner did not speak very made him a handsome present too. kindly to him ; but finding he was sent About this time, the Bechuanas (a tribe from England, he told some women to some distance from Africaner's home), come and build the missionary a house. begged for a missionary. Africaner In less than an hour they had managed to could not bear to lose his own dear teacher, build a hnt with long sticks and mats, but love to Jesus and poor sinners made and though you may be sure it was a him consent to go back alone, and himself very sorry building, still the missionary | be the missionary amongst his own people, lived in it for nearly six months. Mis- in order that his missionary might go to sionaries are often obliged to suffer greater others. He lived about two years labourhardships than this, but the remembrance ing amongst them, and then died full of that they are endured for Christ's sake faith, leaving the Mission to the care of makes them light and “but for a mo- bis brothers, until a missionary should ment.” When this missionary was a arrive to take his place. little boy his mother taught him to sew Dear children, Africaner is dead and and knit. He used to tell her he intended gone to be with Jesus, which is far better, to be a man soine day; but she said, but the Gospel is not dead, and what it “ Lad, ye dinna ken whar your lot will did for the African outlaw it can do for be cast." And as he sat in his hut he used you,-it can change your heart. You to think of these words, for he soon found have not sinned in the same way that he the use of his dear mother's lessons. did, but you have sinned as much, perhaps He had not only often to repair his you have sinned more. When he heard house, but all his clothes, for there was the Gospel he believed it, while you have no kind friend near to do it for him. often heard the Gospel, but how few of But he did not mind these things. He you have received it! In God's sight this set to work to teach the poor people the is the greatest sin of all, for “ He that love of Jesus. The chief was always pre- believeth not is condemned already!” sent, and soon became so anxious to learn But what was it which saved Africaner about Jesus too, that he would sit nearly from that condemnation? What was it all day under the shadow of a rock, with that enabled him to fall asleep in peace? his New Testament, and sometimes keep It was the love of Jesus. Would you, the missionary up all night asking him dear reader, like to have his peace? Would questions. When he heard of the great you like to join the blessed throng that he love of God to sinners, he said, “ It is has joined in heaven above? Then look enough; I feel as if my heart were too to Jesus! Listen to the story of his love, small for these great subjects :” and and, like Africaner, when Jesns speaks, when he thought of his sins against such BELIEVE HIM! love he would burst into tears. Africaner now did everything in his power to help the missionary in doing good to WHITEHAVEN PRESBYTERIAN his people. More than a hundred children

SABBATH SCHOOL. were brought to school. The chief would The 30th of May will be long remembered himself see that they all washed at the by our young friends of Whitehaven. It fountain, for the little Africans like rather was the day of their annual festival, and to be dirty than to be clean.

very pleasantly, and we hope profitably, From want of proper food the mission it passed off. More than a hundred chilary at last was taken ill. Africaner sat dren were there. After regaling themby his side continually, and nursed him selves with the good things provided, most kindly until he got well again. He they were addressed by Mr. Burns, Mr. then sent him two cows that he might Sands, and Mr. Lechlison. always have milk. Africaner's three If our space were not so limited, we should have given the whole of these and who practised self-denial, in order to conaddresses ; but we will keep them beside tribute to the missionary-box. This box was

| placed on a table in the school-room of a large us, and some day we will, perhaps, let our

school for poor children, in a town in Ireland. voung readers share in the pleasure of the The school is well attended by both Protestant Whitehaven children. But we must find and Roman Catholic children. They have a room this month for an interesting story little Missionary Association amongst themwhich Mr. Burns told, of what the Lord selves; some of the members subscribe a Jesus could do for

penny, and some a halfpenny, each month, to

the box, which also receives any money the THE LITTLE NEGRO.

children have collected during the month from “A little African negro, only ten years of their friends and teachers. At the end of the age, was much impressed with the discourse of year the box is sent to the Secretary of the a missionary. His master, who was an enemy | District Missionary Association. Little Sarah to Missions, having heard it, commanded him | P- , and her sister Lizzy, were very active never to go back again : and declared if he l in collecting subscriptions for the missionaries, did, he would have him whipped to death. but as their parents were poor they had not The poor boy was, in consequence, very mise- much pocket-money, and yet Lizzy gave a rable. He could not refrain from going back; penny, and Sarah a halfpenny, regularly every yet he knew that if he did his death would be month for the missionary-box. They were inevitable. At length, he felt convinced that both in my Bible class at the Sabbath-school: it was his duty still to attend; but that this

and Sarah was always so gentle and attentive, must not interfere with his master's business, it was a great pleasure to teach her. Missing and as to the rest, he must leave himself in

her one day from her class, her teacher inquired the hands of God. He therefore went, and on the cause, and learned she was very ill. From his return he was summoned to his master's the first she felt she would not recover, but she presence; and after much violent language, / had long before found peace in Jesus. When he received five-and-twenty lashes, and then, asked, a few days before her death, “ Are you in a sarcastic tone of blasphemous ridicule, his not afraid to die?” she immediately said. master exclaimed, “What can Jesus Christ do “ Oh! no.” “Why not: do you not know for you now?' 'He enables me to bear it that you are a sinner ? " Yes, but the Lord patiently,' said the poor child. “Give him Jesus died for sinners.” Such was her simple five-and-twenty more,' cried the inhuman faith. Her sufferings were very great, yet she wretch. He was obeyed. “And what can never murmured, merely saying she should Jesus Christ do for you now?' again asked the “soon be in heaven, where there is no more unfeeling monster. He helps me to look for- pain." For two days before her death she was ward to a future reward,' answered the little l quite insensible, and her spirit gently passed sufferer. "Give him five-and-twenty more, away into the presence of that Saviour whom again shouted the master, in a transport of she loved. rage. They complied ; and while he listened The month after her death, when the school with savage delight to the extorted groans of children came to pay their monthly subscriphis dying victim, he again demanded, 'What tions, poor little Lizzy came as usual, and can Jesus Christ do for you now?' The youth- | when giving me her penny, said, “ And here. ful martyr meekly answered, 'He enables me ma'am, is Sarah's halfpenny, I hope to pay it to pray for you, massa,' and instantly breathed | for her every month ; I know she would like his last!

it.” Dear little readers, was not this a good “We hope, dear children, for the sake of

way of showing her affection for her departed humanity, there are not many such cases assister? Ask yourselves, “do I, like Sarah, this; but does it not shew the great good that love my Saviour ? What does my conduct is done by sending out missionaries to the

say?” (John xiv. 15.) You see children can perishing heathen? Now you have vour two

die ; Sarah was only nine years old. Seek missionaries in China, Mr. Burns and Dr. | now to know and serve Christ, and then, Young-two men full of faith and of the Holy | whenever you may be called to leave this sinGhost, and they are telling the little heathen ful sorrowing world, you too shall fall asleep children of China the story of the cross-the ' in Jesus.

M. J. M . story of a Saviour's love.”.

THE SISTERS. It is a great privilege to be able to collect money, or to assist in any way our Missionary Society. Yet, though we should rejoice to see you, dear chiidren, anxious for the salvation of poor heathen children, we would wish to press upon you that your first concern is with your oun souls. Until you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your own Saviour, you will never really feel for those who have never heard of His dying love, and of His willingness to save all who come to Him. We will tell you of a little girl who loved her Saviour, and who also loved and pitied the ignorant heathen,

AN EVENING PRAYER.
Jesus, tender shepherd, hear me!

Bless thy little lamb to-night!
Through the darkness be thou near me,

Watch my sleep till morning light!
All this day thy hand has led me,

And I thank thee for thy care;
Thou hast clothed me, warmed and fed me,

Listen to my evening prayer.
Let my sins be all forgiven !

Bless the friends I love so well!
Take me, when I die, to heaven,

Happy, there with thee to dwell!

THE ENGLISH

PRESBYTERIAN MESSENGER.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE REV. JOHN ERSKINE, D.D.

BY THE REV. JAMES HAMILTON, REGENT-SQUARE.

An allusion to Dr. Erskine in Mr. Weir's ternal Evidence.” Dr. Erskine's own interesting contribution last month has father was, perhaps, the soundest and brought that venerable servant of God most learned of Scottish jurists. As a into the thoughts of some of our readers; professor in the University of Edinburgh and as his public career was the bright it was his business to expound the laws of streak in the darkest age of the Scottish the ancient kingdom of Scotland, and in Church, there is more than personal in- his “ Institutes" he has left an enduring terest in his story. Thirty years ago his monument of his erudition and sagacity. “Life” was published by Sir H. Moncreiff His feeble voice was a barrier to successWellwood, and every page is stamped ful practice in courts of justice; but, in with the masculine vigour and sturdy his own day, and ever since, his sound sense of the high-minded Baronet. But judgment and his amazing learning have sources of information have since opened rendered his opinions a tower of strength. which were then inaccessible, and we The professor's father was a stout old shall avail ourselves of others which the soldier; a valiant Revolution Whig, the original biographer overlooked. Sir Harry personal friend of William the Third, had a stately mind, and to his notion and, as ruling elder for Dunfermline biography was a monumental sculpture Presbytery in forty assemblies, the rather than a cabinet picture; and in stanch opponent of patronage and of order to secure the august and bold, he every temporizing measure. And if was content to dispense with living tints Dr. Erskine did not forestal the faceand every-day details : and when he does tiousness of his forthcoming kinsman, introduce a trivial incident, in his apolo Harry, nor the resistless rhetoric of the getic hands it stiffens into something very future Chancellor, Thomas, he inherited strange. Like the unaccountable pro- the tenacious memory and swift discerntuberance which Michael Angelo has ment of his celebrated father, and the erected on his head of Moses, the world unbending uprightness and heroic attachcannot make out whether it is intended ment to free institutions, which signalized for a horn or a halo.

his hot-tempered but truly honest grandDr. Erskine belonged to a younger sire. branch of the Earl of Buchan's family, John Erskine was born either in 1720 the same family which has produced the or 1721. By his father he was destined most eloquent of English barristers and for that profession, of which he himself the wittiest of Scottish lawyers, and of was the most distinguished ornament. which a talented cadet still survives in the Accordingly, he was early sent to Edinacute and ingenious author of the “ In- burgh College, and under Sir John No. 20.--New Series.

Vol. II.

Pringle, afterwards President of the | inoffensive style, but very solemnly, the Royal Society, and other eminent student replied, “ Father, the Lord Alteachers, he made signal proficiency. mighty had but one Son, and He thought it There is still preserved in the College no disgrace to make him a minister.” Library, at least it was extant in our And when at last the earnest aspirant had father's time, a manuscript volume, in so far gained his point as to be licensed which Professor Stevenson had bound and presented to the parish of Kirkinup the best essays of his logic students. tulloch, on the day of the ordination, the Two of these are dated on the last day of author of the “ Institutes" so far relented, April, 1737, and the subject of one is as to grace the service with his presence; “ Historic Probability,”-of the other, but he was in no humour to be pleased “ Freedom of Opinion.* The author of with anything. Among other drawbacks, the former is “ Gulielmus Robertson,”— the Manse was then a sorry structure, of the latter “ Joannes Erskine;" and badly roofed with straw; and as the it is not more curious to notice the coin- stately advocate in his cocked hat and cidence, which, forty years afterwards, powdered wig went about, snuffing the placed the friends as colleagues in the musty air of the little apartments, and same pulpit, than instructive to perceive poking his cane into the rotten thatch, at this early age the germ of peculiarities in the bitterness of his mortification, he which they carried to the grave. The asked, “ Well, John, and is this the hole author of the one became the historian they are going to put you in? A pretty of Scotland and America ; and for more place for your father's son!” “ Father, than sixty successive years, the author of said the contented evangelist,"father, the other exemplified the doctrines which when the Saviour of the world was hereat sixteen he had learned to advocate,- | away, the foxes had holes, but he had first, in the freedom with which he pub- not where to lay his head. The house lished his own opinions, and, afterwards, will do very well for me.” There was, in the unflinching zeal with which he led therefore, a peculiar felicity in the text the popular party in the National Church. which he chose for his first sermon. The

But John Erskine had not finished his Sabbath after he was licensed, he preached legal studies, when his natural thought- at Torrieburn, and gave out for his subfulness was replaced by such religious ject, Psalm lxxxiv. 10, “ For a day in earnestness, that he felt constrained to thy courts is better than a thousand. I choose the Christian ministry. The an- had rather be a doorkeeper in the house nouncement of his purpose filled with of my God, than to dwell in the tents of surprise and vexation the plodding wickedness.” And it ought to be added lawyer and the choleric old colonel. They that eventually the rising reputation of were both indignant that the youth the young divine, aided by that measure should throw away bright prospects of of religious principle, and still larger secular advancement for the inevitable amount of sterling sense which they poverty of a Presbyterian minister; and possessed, effectually reconciled to the betwixt them, they were strongly tinc- step which he had taken bis aristocratic tured with a frequent infirmity,—the relations. His father in particular lived pride of possessions, and the pride of to see him “the pride of the family." pedigree. The lawyer could not forget But before obtaining license Mr. that he was laird of Carnock, and the Erskine had signalised himself by a feat of lawyer's father felt, not only that he was authorship, which gave earnest of future every inch a soldier, but eke the son of eminence. Dr. Archibald Campbell had the great Lord Cardross. And under published a book on the “ Necessity of various presentments, the pious student Revelation," and in it had urged the exwas doomed to hear constantly repeated treme opinion, that without revelation these weighty dissuasives from the Chris mankind are not able in the exercise of tian ministry. He usually received them reason to arrive at the knowledge of the in meek silence; he sometimes met them Divine existence and the soul'simmortality. with a meeker answer. “A fine story | In an anonymous pamphlet, “The Law this, that the laird of Carnock's oldest son of Nature sufficiently propagated to the can find no better trade, but he must Heathen,” Mr. Erskine briefly but effecneeds be a minister," was the professor's tually refuted this rash hypothesis. The peevish remark one day; and in his soft, tracť now lies before us. In its clear

| arrangement, its simple and self-com* The Essays are in Latin. mending arguments, its unostentatious