unregenerate man can, therefore, neither obey God, nor delight in Him, can neither please God, nor be pleased with him. Man, thus fallen and degraded, a willing alien from the presence of God, is become the subject and servant of satan, has transferred the allegiance which he owed to God, to God's great enemy; and thus he needs a two-fold deliverance, first, from the guilt and curse which lie upon him by reason of his transgression of the divine law-and secondly, from the darkness which broods upon his own mind, and from satan, the god and prince of this world, by whom he is led captive at his will. The truth of this is painfully illustrated in the superstitions of the Esquimaux.

The objects of their worship are numerous, like the ancient heathen, they have "Gods many, and lords many." They are not utterly without a conception of a supreme Being, but how little disposed they are to improve their faint persuasion of his existence, may be gathered from the consideration of the objects which engross their worship, among which is a large bear, whose dwelling they say, is in

REGENERATION.

17

the middle of the ice, and who frequently holds converse with mankind.

The Esquimaux believe in a future world, the happiness of which, they think, will consist in an unlimited indulgence of their appetites.

Contemplating human nature under such circumstances of deep and palpable degradation, the thought which naturally arises in the mind is that some preparatory process of civilization is necessary to make it capable of receiving the truths of the only true religion, which is, as coming from God, pure and spiritual. Indeed we are always prone to forget the words so solemnly uttered by our blessed Lord, Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God;" for, without the regenerating influence of the Holy Ghost, the most elegant and polished scholar in our own favoured land, is as far from any real acquaintance with the truths of the Gospel, and spiritual enjoyment in them, as these degraded savages; and when the simple testimony concerning Jesus, as the Saviour of sinners, comes to the degraded Esquimaux,

not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, the effects produced, supersede the necessity of any reasonings, to prove that the assistance of civilization and literature is not requisite to make him wise unto salvation.

The actual putting forth of the power of the Holy Spirit in producing this wondrous change, by the instrumentality of the gospel, is exhibited in the following history of the Labrador Missions. May every reader be led in the perusal of it, to enquire whether his own character bears the evident marks of one who has received the Holy Ghost; and may those who, in the progress of such an enquiry arrive at the satisfactory conclusion that they have the Spirit of Christ, be stimulated in the contemplation of its power upon the understandings and affections of the Esquimaux, to seek for more enlarged experience of its influence, from the deep conviction that their measure of fruitfulness, and enjoyment as the servants of Christ, will be proportioned to the measure of his Spirit bestowed upon them.

CHAPTER II.

Earliest labours of the Moravians in the Northern Regions-First attempt to establish a Mission on the coast of Labrador-A ship sent out by the Brethren-Murder of Erhard-Return of the Missionaries-A second Missionary Enterprise undertaken -Mr. Havens intercourse with the EsquimauxHe returns to Newfoundland, but repeats his visit next year, accompanied by Mr. Drachart, and others-Their Intercourse with the Savages-A Quarrel between the British and Natives causes a temporary suspension of Missionary labours.

IN the year 1733, three Missionaries from the Church of the United Brethren, arrived on the coast of Greenland, they were some time after followed by others, and having endured much hardship, and experienced many disappointments, the labours of these faithful men were finally rewarded with a measure of success, which, probably exceeded their fondest anticipations.

The conversion of the first Greenlander

took place in the year 1738, and this happy event proved the beginning of an extensive awakening among the savages, of whom an increasing number were joined year after year, to the Lord and his people; and in the year 1752, the Greenland congregation had become so great, that we find Johannes De Watteville, a bishop of the Brethren's church, making a voyage to Greenland, for the purpose of visiting the flock which had been collected from among the heathen, in that country. In the same year (1752), we find the first attempt made to establish a Mission on the coast of Labrador. The Moravian Missionaries in Greenland seem, at a very early period, to have entertained the opinion, that the Esquimaux living upon the opposite coast of Davis's Straits, were a branch of the same people as their own Greenlanders. This opinion was afterwards strengthened by the testimony of Ellis, who declared that the Esquimaux whom he met with in his voyage to Hudson's Bay, resembled the Greenlanders. in their aspect, dress, boats, hunting and