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 \
 
 
 AFRICA'S MOUNTAIN VALLEY.
 

 
 THE CHURCH IN BEGENT'S TOWN, 
 WEST AFRICA. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "MINISTERING CHILDREN," 
 " THE COTTAGE AND ITS VISITOR," 
 
 &c. &c. 
 
 ' Let the inhabitants of the rock sing, let them shout from the top 
 of the mountains." ISAIAH xlii. 11. 
 
 SEELEY, JACKSON, AND HALLIDAY, FLEET STREET; 
 
 AND B. SEELEY, HANOVER STREET, 
 
 LONDON. MDCCCLVI.
 
 PREFACE, 
 
 THE greater part of the materials for the present 
 volume will^Jbe found in a work, published three 
 years ago, entitled " The Memoir of the Rev. W. A. 
 B. Johnson ; " containing the diary and letters of 
 that devoted Missionary. The student of missions 
 will probably still prefer the original volume, gather- 
 ing the separate facts for himself, and forming his 
 own estimate. But a consecutive history being, for 
 the most part, more attractive to the general reader, 
 the preparation of the work in its present form was 
 urged upon the writer, by the Compiler of the 
 Memoir, in the belief that if it led to a more ex- 
 tended acquaintance with so wonderful a work of 
 God, by His Missionary servant, it could not fail to 
 awaken increased interest in missions abroad, and 
 to make known the same regenerating truth at 
 home. The facts not drawn from the work above 
 
 5000301
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 mentioned are taken from sources equally to be 
 relied on. 
 
 In a Diary written for the Committee of a working 
 Society, facts were for the most part related by the 
 Missionary without any other comment than an 
 ascription of praise, or an expression of desire. But 
 in becoming the historian of those facts, it was 
 necessary to remember that, as with the page of 
 Divine Inspiration, so with the page of Divine 
 Providence, it is not the cursory glance, but the 
 attentive contemplation of it, that will make it as a 
 glass, in which we behold the glory of the Lord. 
 
 In speaking of this African missionary, his second 
 Christian name of Augustine has been chosen, because 
 of its interesting and familiar association with the 
 evangelical Bishop of Hippo, the light of Africa in 
 the fourth century. The annalist of Regent's Town 
 is deeply sensible of the privilege of recording its 
 history. It may be that the interest awakened by 
 " Sunrise in the Tropics," will incline many an eye 
 to look back to the Morning Star as seen from the 
 Mountain Valley heralding the dawn of Light for 
 Africa.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 CHAP. I. A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH 1 
 
 II. THE MESSENGER OF PEACE 15 
 
 III. A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER 33 
 
 IV. THE HAND OF THE LORD 53 
 
 V. THE QUICKENING SPIRIT 75 
 
 VI. "LENGTHEN THY CORDS" 99 
 
 VII. THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY 113 
 
 VIII. AFFLICTION AND SORROW 133 
 
 IX. FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS 157 
 
 X. THE SABBATH A DELIGHT 177 
 
 XI. PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING 193 
 
 XII. GLOKY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY 207 
 
 XIII. AN EVERLASTING SIGN 241
 
 anfr 
 
 " O let the sorrowful sighing of the prisoners come before thee ; 
 according to the greatness of thy power, preserve thou those that 
 are appointed to die." Psalm Ixxix. 12.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 "A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 
 
 AFRICA ! The echo of the curse uttered four 
 thousand years ago upon her people's first pro- 
 genitor, seems, to the listener's saddened heart, to 
 reverberate still from her mountain summits and 
 along her billowy shore " Cursed be Canaan, a 
 servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren ! " 
 The beautiful Sierras of her western coast are 
 said to have been named Leone because of the 
 tremendous roaring of the thunder over the moun- 
 tain-tops, or from the loud booming of the waves 
 that break upon the shore. Tornados rage in fury ; 
 and a poisonous wind sweeps over the dark forests, 
 breathing disease and death. 
 
 Yet the land itself has scenes of nature, grand and 
 beautiful. Sierra Leone, its western promontory, is
 
 4 "A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 
 
 most beautiful ; mountains, rivers, rocks, and valleys 
 diversify the landscape ; lofty forests clothe the inland 
 mountains with luxuriance ; while the shore is broken 
 by little bays, above which rise the hills, waving 
 with the graceful palm-tree, which here, as every- 
 where, rises its country's blessing; to the poor 
 African it yields meat, drink, and clothing, while its 
 leaves thatch his dwelling, and its outer bark he 
 weaves into baskets and mats. The valleys and 
 the highlands are fertile, inviting the labourer to an 
 abundant increase. 
 
 And yet, " the land mourneth ! " Do we ask 
 the reason ? Because, "A servant of servants 
 shall he be unto his brethren ." It was a father's 
 curse upon an ungodly son, and four thousand 
 years have witnessed its awful fulfilment. Africa 
 is a land of slavery, the stronger always making 
 war on the weaker, and dragging them into cap- 
 tivity and death. A quiet village rises, parents 
 and children dwell together and eat the labour of 
 their hands ; then suddenly, when the night has 
 sent the tired negroes to their rest, the flames en- 
 circle their village home, the murderous war-cry 
 rouses the sleepers, the fathers rush to defend all 
 that life holds dear, the frantic mothers and their 
 terrified children wait but a little moment and all is 
 over they see their husbands and their fathers 
 dead upon the ground, or bound in iron fetters ; they
 
 " A LAND OP TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 5 
 
 see their dreadful foes, freedom is gone for ever, all 
 are slaves ! Led away, they toil to serve some 
 neighbouring king, till death releases them; death 
 too often coming quickly by the relentless murderer's 
 knife. One West -African king, reckoned among 
 their best, watered the grave of his mother with the 
 life - blood of three thousand of these helpless 
 victims ! 
 
 But this is not the worst. There are those 
 bearing the Christian name, who for centuries have 
 tempted, and some of whom still tempt Africa's 
 poor heathen sons to this inhuman traffic ; who, 
 sinning against light, exceed all the crimes poor 
 Africa perpetrates in her darkness ; who, for filthy 
 lucre's sake, become the agents of the Evil One. 
 These white men steer for the African coast in vessels 
 laden with rum, tobacco, and many European 
 articles ; these they land, and in exchange they 
 require from the Africans thousands of slaves ; it is 
 for this the quiet village is consumed in flames ; 
 for this its poor inhabitants are driven chained 
 together for hundreds of miles to their country's 
 shore, watering their country's soil along their 
 dreadful march with tears and blood, and strewing 
 the agonizing way with the bodies of their dying and 
 their dead ; but when their feet have trod their last 
 upon their native soil, when the white man has 
 received them then their misery is seven -fold more,
 
 6 "A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH/' 
 
 language has no words to express the sufferings of 
 the slave. We only say the white man has wrung 
 from Africa the deepest groans her poor and captived 
 children have sent up to Heaven ; and the Angel of 
 death has records against the white man, which 
 Mercy's own hand folds up until the day of eternal 
 retribution, lest the very hearing of what the African 
 slaves have suffered, should sadden for ever on earth 
 the hearts of those who know what it is to suffer 
 with the suffering ! 
 
 Yet when the negro women found the white 
 man a stranger in their land, their tenderness 
 proved a well - spring of life to him. Parke, in all 
 his wanderings and wretchedness, found them ever 
 kind and compassionate. And Lidyard his pre- 
 decessor says, "If I were hungry or thirsty, wet 
 or sick, they did not hesitate to perform a generous 
 action. In so free and so kind a manner did 
 they contribute to my relief, that if I were dry, I 
 drank the sweetest draught, and if hungry I eat the 
 coarsest morsel with a double relish." Of the 
 African parent we have but to glance at the history 
 of the slave trade to learn that, as in water face 
 answereth to face, so the heart of the African to the 
 English mother. And of their filial feeling Parke 
 tells us, that he found it a familiar proverb among 
 both the free and the slave negro population, " Strike 
 me, but do not curse my mother ! "
 
 "A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 7 
 
 Yet might they truly have said " Behold we die, 
 we perish, we all perish " beneath the white man's in- 
 human will ! Of every thousand victims taken as 
 slaves, one half perished in the first seizure, the march, 
 and while waiting in the barracoons on the coast for 
 the slave ship : one fourth of those embarked in the 
 vessel perished on the passage; of those landed in the 
 plantations, where they were to toil for a foreign master, 
 in a foreign land, one fifth perished in the first year; so 
 that of every thousand, only three hundred survived, on 
 an average, to linger out some few bitter years ; ten 
 on an average, at the most, beneath the pitiless rule 
 of masters, too many of whom were untouched by 
 compassion, unapproached by shame. We remember 
 that it is written, " He shall have judgment without 
 mercy, that hath shewed no mercy." " Every man's 
 judgment cometh from the Lord." " Shall not the 
 Judge of all the earth do right ?" 
 
 With murder stalking through the land in its most 
 hideous forms, it can hardly be wondered at that he 
 " who was a murderer from the beginning," openly 
 reigns over these poor children of Ham : the Devil is 
 their acknowledged God, and the Devil-house stands 
 beside the clustering tents, as England's church 
 among her cottage homes. Nature teaches them to 
 know and dread the Evil One, but nature brings no 
 tidings of deliverance from his power ; their best hope 
 rises no higher than to propitiate the world's great
 
 8 "A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 
 
 murderer; of the world's Redeemer, they had never 
 heard : " How shall they hear without a preacher ; 
 and how shall they preach except they be sent ? " 
 
 Is then the curse written for ever on Afric's sable 
 brow a servant of servants must he be, and that 
 without hope of release ? Listen, O land of bondage 
 unto death, "Ye shall know the Truth, and the 
 Truth shall make you free ! " " Ethiopia shall soon 
 stretch out her hands unto God ! " then shall all her 
 law be fulfilled in one word " Thou shalt love thy 
 neighbour as thyself ! '' then shall the outgoings of 
 her morning and evening rejoice, when it is said 
 among the people " THE LORD REIGNETH ! " 
 
 If the white man filled the cup of African slavery 
 to the brim, drugging it with seven-fold bitter- 
 ness, and making it overflow, the white man also, 
 but with a heart far different, rose as Africa's deli- 
 verer, Africa's protector, Africa's blessing. In the 
 noble soul of Granville Shai*p was planted the seed 
 of African freedom. An English barrister by pro- 
 fession, he honoured England's law of liberty by free- 
 ing it, with years of labour, from the vile abuse of evil 
 practices and evil men until in 1772, it was decided 
 by England's Lord Chief Justice, that it was freedom 
 for a slave to set his foot on England! England 
 then, like England's God, was declared to be " a 
 refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trou- 
 ble;" and that because one of her sons had turned
 
 " A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 9 
 
 his penetrating intellect, in obedience to the divine 
 command, to " seek judgment, and relieve the op- 
 pressed." And now behold a blessed sight the 
 negro pressing to the white man's feet, crowding his 
 door, they claim him as their friend, and he was 
 faithful to the sacred trust. From England's law 
 he turned to England's crown, and with no less suc- 
 cess; it was determined to make Sierra Leone, in 
 Africa itself, a free colony for the liberated slave; 
 and there, in the year 1787, the infant tree of 
 African freedom was planted, whose stem shows now 
 so stately and so strong, and whose branches bid 
 fair to shadow the length and breadth of Africa's 
 weary land. 
 
 After the abolition of the slave trade by the Bri- 
 tish government in 1807, the slave-ships captured 
 by the British flag were brought into the beautiful 
 harbour of Sierra Leone. Here from vessel after vessel 
 thousands of liberated slaves stood again upon their 
 native shore, and found that the white man, and 
 freedom, and Africa, had received them ! Numbers 
 indeed were living skeletons only ; numbers were 
 maimed, never again to stand erect ; in others the 
 cruelty of the oppressor had darkened reason's light 
 for ever upon earth ; and others expired in the 
 friendly arms that bore them to the hospital; but 
 thousands still lived to rejoice ! On being landed at 
 Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, they became
 
 10 " A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 
 
 subjects of the sovereign of Great Britain ; they were 
 clothed and provided for by the British government, 
 and divided into different villages or small towns, in 
 the colony ; allotments of land were given them, they 
 were also employed and paid by government, and in 
 eveiy way encouraged in the practice of agriculture 
 and useful trades. 
 
 And now we look upon Sierra Leone as one 
 great nursery-ground, planted by England from no 
 less than forty African nations, the tree of freedom 
 flourishing in the midst, all peaceful and secure. 
 England's crown adopts it, England's statesmen 
 legislate for it, England's laws regulate it, England's 
 sword forgets its scabbard, guarding the high seas 
 round it. But as yet its plants were wild, their 
 fruits were bitter Sin and Death ! England desired 
 that they should bloom for immortality, and yield 
 fruit unto life everlasting ; but for this they must be 
 grafted with a heavenly scion, " This is life eternal, 
 to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ 
 whom thou hast sent." "Not by might, nor by 
 power, but . by my Spirit, saith the Lord." The 
 sceptre and the sword of England owned the neces- 
 sity of a higher agency, and lifting a voice in silent 
 Africa's behalf, exclaimed, " Come over and help 
 us ! " * Each succeeding governor of the colony 
 gave expression to his anxiety for some adequate 
 
 * See " Walker's Church Mission in Sierra Leone," pp. 6, 7.
 
 ff A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH/' 11 
 
 provision for the spiritual wants of the people ; while 
 the British government responded, with a cordiality 
 truly paternal, to every appeal for pecuniaiy aid 
 to supply the spiritual or educational necessities 
 of the liberated African. Where, then, shall we 
 turn to meet the servants of the most high God, 
 hastening in reply, to show unto Africa's freed 
 children the way of salvation ? 
 
 Look across the broad Atlantic, till Africa's vast 
 continent is lost in distance ; pass Spain, and Portugal, 
 and France, as once the prophet Samuel, following the 
 divine election, passed by the goodly elder sons of 
 Jesse, so pass those elder children of the earth, till 
 you reach the ocean isle of Britain. See in that far 
 distant island the uplifted hands, and bended knees 
 that plead with Heaven for Africa. O Love Divine, 
 who can behold the sight, and not discern the fact, that 
 Thou dost make the hearts in which Thou dwellest, 
 in their measure, expansive as Thyself ! In one of 
 that island's cities see a little band of consecrated 
 men assembled, they are the leaders of a Society 
 whose motto of service is, " For Africa and the East ; " 
 whose object is to make known to every perishing 
 heathen the " unsearchable riches of Christ ; " whose 
 desire is to guide every lost idolater into " the way 
 of peace;" whose effort is to bring every slave of 
 Satan and of sin into " the glorious liberty of the sons 
 of God." Surely as you look upon such a work, you
 
 A LAND OP TROUBLE AND ANGUISH. 
 
 will breathe a benediction on it ! And, behold, 
 already on Africa's mountains, " the feet of them 
 that bring good tidings, that publish peace, that 
 bring good tidings of good, that publish salvation, 
 that say, Thy God reigneth I" . Well may we exclaim 
 with the inspired prophet, " How beautiful ! " "All 
 the ends of the world shall see the salvation of our 
 God ! " They know that those fair sierras and those 
 watered valleys are " the white man's grave/' that 
 some short two years may be reckoned upon as the 
 probable average of the missionary's life among them, 
 and yet they come; "They count not their lives dear 
 unto them, so that they may finish their course with 
 joy, and the ministry which they have received of the 
 Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of 
 God ! " 
 
 There then lies Sierra Leone, England's noblest 
 trophy an evergreen myrtle-crown upon her free- 
 born "brow, the home of liberty in a land of slavery, 
 the abode of light in a region of darkness, the shrine 
 of truth in the usurped dominion of " the father of 
 lies!" 
 
 We will now take a brief survey of the Colony in 
 its present townships. 
 
 On nearing the land, your eye discerns the lofty 
 mountains, undistinguished from the clouds above 
 them ; but on approaching them, they rise defined 
 before you, in the calm majesty of Nature. The
 
 "A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 13 
 
 summits of the higher mountains are clothed with 
 forests, almost impenetrable except to the Gazelle, the 
 Monkey, and the Leopard ; while their base is adorned 
 with a beautiful garland of towering palms. As you 
 enter the harbour, FREETOWN, the capital of the 
 Colony, lies before you in situation as lovely to the 
 eye, as the fact, embalmed in its name, is welcome to 
 the heart. Around Freetown, the capital, lie other 
 towns and villages, in which the liberated slaves have 
 been from time to time located. From Freetown 
 you travel by a pleasant road, bordered by hedges 
 like an English lane, then up a steep mountain 
 ascent, till, on its summit, you reach Wilberforce ; 
 whose very name, like Freetown, tells its blessed 
 origin. From Wilberforce, a wild and lonely moun- 
 tain path, of about two hours' distance, leads you to 
 Regent's Town; this lovely dwelling-place of freedom 
 is situated in a deep mountain valley ; its population, 
 now amounting to several thousands, almost entirely 
 Christian the history of the grace of God bestowed 
 upon it will form the subject of the following pages. 
 Not far from Regent, but out of the line of direct 
 progress, lies the town of Gloucester; passing that by, 
 and continuing our course through the same narrow 
 valley in which Regent lies embosomed in its moun- 
 tain-home, we reach Charlotte Town ; from Charlotte 
 we pass by a low plain to Grafton, and from Grafton 
 by a good road to Hastings and Waterloo. From
 
 14 "A LAND OF TROUBLE AND ANGUISH." 
 
 Waterloo to Kent, the road skirts the base of moun- 
 tains, still covered with primitive forests. Then 
 returning by boat to the capital, York is visible 
 from the sea ; Kissey and Wellington are both 
 within an easy walk from Freetown. 
 
 From this brief survey of the field of labour, we 
 turn to contemplate the man whose work in its 
 wildest mountain valley, must bring to all who will 
 "observe" it, a fuller "understanding of the loving- 
 kindness of the Lord."
 
 f fee gjmenp 0f f eate. 
 
 ' The Lord alone did lead him." Deut. xxxii. 12. 
 " Separated unto the Gospel of God." Rom. i. 1.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 
 
 IN Hanover, in the year 1787, a boy of eight 
 years old stood in his class at School. It was Monday 
 morning, and the master of the school always ex- 
 pected an account of the Sunday sermons. When 
 this boy of eight years old, Augustine Johnson by 
 name, was asked what he remembered, he repeated 
 a text of Holy Scripture, " Call upon me in the day 
 of trouble ; I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify 
 me," he could remember no more. The master 
 said, " That is merely a text ! I have never thought 
 it enough to have only a text remembered." The 
 boy was grieved, so much grieved that he never 
 forgot it. 
 
 We are looking back on that scene in a Ger- 
 man school, and what do we behold ? the master 
 disappointed, the child distressed. This was all 
 that was visible then ; but the light of the present 
 enables us to read the hidden secrets of the past. 
 That German school-master, by his reproof, uncon- 
 
 c
 
 18 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 
 
 sciously fastened for ever that nail of divine truth in 
 the heart of the boy ; that living seed of the divine 
 word was securely planted in the depth of the 
 sensitive child's feeling of distress ; that star of 
 divine promise was immovably fixed in the boy's 
 horizon of memory, to shine forth upon him in his 
 night of deepest darkness, casting on his soul the 
 first beam of the Spirit, conviction of sin. 
 
 Years passed over the German boy, leading him 
 on from youth to manhood, but of these years we 
 have no record ; for when he took the pen to write 
 his history, he stood in the light of eternal truth, 
 and, therefore, looking back on his past years he 
 realized the fact, that all which is not of God is but 
 as a " vain show ; " he saw that even in the life of a 
 saint of the Lord, that only has a blessed reality, that 
 only has a happy duration, which is united with the 
 eternal, immortal, invisible God; that all else must 
 pass away for ever, shrinking up the length and 
 breadth of years, too often, into the briefest intervals 
 of time ; therefore, of his unrenewed life he writes 
 " To go through it, would be long and tedious. I 
 will only say that goodness and mercy have followed 
 me all my days ; and I have been wonderfully and 
 miraculously preserved in many dangers/' 
 
 The year 1812 found Augustine Johnson a 
 married man ; living in London, and working as a 
 day-labourer at a sugar-refiner's in Whitechapel :
 
 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 19 
 
 provisions were then at their highest price, and the 
 German mechanic found his scanty earnings insuf- 
 ficient for his support. 
 
 " One evening/' he says, " having nothing to 
 eat, and being almost naked, and my dear wife lying 
 in bed weeping for hunger, which drove me into 
 great distress, I threw myself also on the bed, turning 
 from one side to the other, thinking what I should 
 do. No friend to go to ! " Augustine Johnson 
 was a stranger in a strange land, yet the stranger's 
 God he knew not ! Then in that hour of nature's 
 dark distress, suddenly upon his soul rose that star of 
 heavenly promise, remembered by him in his child- 
 hood, " Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will 
 deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me ! " It was 
 the stranger's God that spoke to him, presenting 
 Himself as a friend " a brother born for adversity," 
 bidding the friendless sufferer call upon Him ! But 
 the invitation of the Holy One brought only terror 
 to the unholy sufferer ; the same beam of heavenly 
 light that reveals the God of Mercy, reveals also the 
 sinner's sinfulness, " made manifest by the light ; " 
 and at first the sense of unworthiness to obey the 
 gracious invitation kept the sinner back ; the murmur 
 of ten thousand sins rose up within his soul to oppose 
 the voice of heavenly invitation. He said within 
 himself, " Me call upon God ! Have not I done 
 such things, and committed such sins ? and now call
 
 20 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 
 
 upon God to deliver me ! In short/' he says, " it 
 was as if a book had been opened, and I had read all 
 the sins I had been guilty of ! Oh, what shall I 
 do ! " he cried, " what shall I do ! No worldly 
 prospects, and an angry God ! I was in a despair- 
 ing state. Oh, what a dismal night was this ! " 
 
 It was the hour of conviction of sin. In such an 
 hour the long-slumbering conscience wakes, and 
 the startled transgressor hears, above all else, its 
 terrible accusations, and can only think of God in 
 His offended holiness. But God, who is rich in 
 mercy, purposed to draw and bind the long-lost 
 wanderer to Himself with bands of love. " God 
 speaketh once, yea, twice ; " whenever His voice has 
 been heard once, and awakened the conscience, we 
 may with hope and expectation wait for it to speak 
 again ; to silence all the despairing doubts of sin, 
 with the constraining power of His infinite love, so 
 it was with Augustine Johnson. That dismal 
 night wore away, but as yet all was darkness and 
 despair in his soul, he had not yet felt the healing 
 wings of the Sun of Righteousness overshadowing 
 him; he went to his work early in the morning, 
 with the feeling, he says, of a madman. Breakfast- 
 time came, the men went to their homes, he felt it was 
 no use for him to go to his, but still he went ; he did 
 not wish it to be suspected that he had no breakfast, 
 so he went. But He who can " furnish a table in the
 
 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 21 
 
 wilderness," had not left the desolate abode; He 
 had visited it in the night-season to convince of 
 sin, and now He still tarried to convince of love. 
 
 Augustine Johnson saw his wife at the door with 
 a face of happiness instead of tears, meeting him to 
 tell him that breakfast was ready. A lady had taken 
 a house near by ; she had sent for his wife, recom- 
 mended to do so by a neighbouring shopkeeper, she 
 had given her employment, and placed some money 
 in her hands. Deep in his awakened heart sank the 
 sense of the tender mercy of the Lord ; he had light 
 now to see from whence it came ; he says, " My 
 feelings at that moment I cannot well express. 
 The greatest sinner in the world, and God so merci- 
 ful ! My despairing state was turned a little into 
 
 joy." 
 
 But it is possible to receive some great unde- 
 served mercy, to feel it a token of Almighty love, and 
 yet not to be set free from the heavy burden of sin. 
 The Divine Life consists of successive steps : " They 
 go from strength to strength," and " the path of the 
 just is as the shining light, that shineth more and 
 more unto the perfect day ; " therefore, though 
 despair was turned a little into joy, still he says, 
 " My sins, my sins laid very heavy upon me. I tried 
 to pray, but I did not know how, or what to say, 
 lest I should add sin to sin. I beheld the world, 
 and I thought there was none that did right. I
 
 22 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 
 
 tried to do good, but I could not bring it into per- 
 formance. Oh, what shall I do ? what shall I 
 do?" 
 
 Having heard that a prayer-meeting was held in 
 the German Church in the Savoy, every Friday and 
 Monday, he determined to attend. The first evening 
 that he went, Mr. Lehman, a Moravian, gave an 
 exhortation ; he explained the love of Jesus, and 
 exclaimed, " Is there a sinner here, full of sin, and 
 ready to sink under it ? I bid, in the name of 
 Jesus, such an one to come unto Him, for He has 
 said, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are 
 heavy laden, and I will give you rest." 
 
 This was the word of life, " preaching peace by 
 Jesus Christ ! " It is written, " Faith cometh by 
 hearing/' and as Augustine Johnson listened, the 
 heavy burden melted away, the dark cloud rolled 
 from between his soul and his Saviour; he could 
 pray, he felt joy unspeakable and full of glory ; he 
 thought he could have gone to Heaven at once ; he 
 went on his way rejoicing. 
 
 We may here trace the beauty of the Divine 
 appointment, by which Augustine Johnson first 
 consciously received Christ and Heaven into his own 
 soul, through the preached word, as a never-to-be- 
 forgotten preparation for standing up himself to 
 preach the same freeness and fulness of the love of 
 God, by which, so far as man can judge, souls were
 
 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. . 23 
 
 quickened into heavenly life under almost every 
 sermon that he delivered. 
 
 Having " found the Christ/' he longed to bring 
 his wife unto Jesus ; but he was shown that to bring 
 a soul out of darkness into light, must be accom- 
 plished, " not by might, nor by power, but by my 
 Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts." Not discouraged, 
 he next laboured to persuade his fellow-workmen to 
 " taste and see that the Lord is good," but they made 
 scorn of and persecuted him; he found again that, " It 
 is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but 
 of God that showeth mercy." But though as yet no 
 heart responded to his call, we equally recognize in 
 the German mechanic the same indwelling spirit of 
 heavenly love, which spoke in Moses when he said 
 to Hobab, " Come thou with us, and we will do thee 
 good;" the same which spoke in Isaiah, when he 
 exclaimed, " house of Jacob, come ye, and let us 
 walk in the light of the Lord ; " the same which is 
 spoken of by Christ as the utterance of each living 
 member of His church, " The Spirit and the Bride 
 say, Come ; and let him that heareth say, Come ! " 
 
 Augustine Johnson was learning now, by expe- 
 rience, that fallen human nature has no heart to love 
 the voice of the heavenly charmer, and therefore 
 refuseth to hear it, charm he never so wisely. It was 
 necessary that he should learn this lesson first, that 
 when in after-years the word of the Lord ministered
 
 24 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 
 
 by him proved, day by day, the savour of life unto 
 life unto the souls around him, he might then re- 
 member that it is God alone who, in the day of Hid 
 power, maketh the sinner willing to come unto Him; 
 " that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord." 
 
 In the following year he was present at a chapel 
 in Fetter Lane when some missionaries were dismissed. 
 One of them declared what God had done for him, 
 and how he was called to the missionary work. It 
 was as iron sharpening iron, till Augustine Johnson's 
 whole soul glowed with a fervent desire to devote 
 himself to the heathen for Christ's sake. " That 
 night/' he says, " was spent in tears ; my feeling 
 was, Oh, could I but go and help them, and tell 
 them of Jesus, how gracious and merciful He is to 
 poor sinners ! O Lord, to thee nothing is impos- 
 sible ! here am I, send me ! " But after a while 
 he turned his eyes earthward, and looked on diffi- 
 culties ; then his desire to go to the heathen faded, 
 and his heavenly light faded with it he walked on 
 in darkness, becoming prayerless and careless. When 
 he was in this state, he heard a sermon in which 
 were the following words, " Are any of you in dark- 
 ness ? examine yourselves, for something is the reason 
 that God hides his face." This led him to enquire, 
 as Job of old, " Shew me wherefore thou contendest 
 with me," and he quickly found that since he had 
 quenched the desire to labour as a missionary, he
 
 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 25 
 
 had been in darkness ; this led him to a fresh sur- 
 render of himself to the will of God. 
 
 While he now walked in the light of the Lord 
 with Christ in his heart the hope of glory his wife 
 still remained unchanged ; she had no light within 
 her soul, no heavenly hope beyond the grave; she 
 knew and loved only the things of earth. This was 
 her husband's grief. But one day, a sermon which 
 he heard greatly encouraged him in prayer and hope ; 
 and God granted him his heart's desire, and did not 
 deny him the request of his lips : His wife attended 
 on the means of grace; she became convinced of 
 sin, and found the same gracious Saviour able and 
 willing to receive her also. "Now," he says, "I 
 was delivered from a heavy burden, which had caused 
 me to mourn very often; my heart did sing for joy." 
 And now he thought that all was well ; God had 
 heard and answered his prayers, and they might 
 dwell comfortably and happily in England. But the 
 gracious will of God changes not with his people's 
 changeful feelings; and Augustine Johnson soon 
 found that if we resolvedly bury one heaven -given 
 desire, we bury every other heavenly desire with it ; 
 the purpose of God is one unbroken whole ; we can- 
 not separate its parts receiving one and refusing 
 another. To turn from God's will in any particular, 
 is to turn, in that respect, from God Himself, and 
 darkness and deadness of spirit must be the result,
 
 26 THE MESSENGER OP PEACE. 
 
 like the plant deprived of the sunbeam and the dew. 
 Again, therefore, he was brought very low ; his heart 
 " grew heavy like a stone/' and he could not utter a 
 word in prayer. And now no doubt the enemy of 
 God and man thought his purpose almost gained. 
 He had heard the poor German mechanic's missionary 
 prayers, and seen his missionary tears, and having 
 once " hindered " so mighty a spirit as the Apostle 
 St. Paul, he might think his present victory easy 
 and sure. The Friday evening prayer-meeting came ; 
 Augustine Johnson had no heart for supplication, 
 and felt a great desire not to go ; he lingered, the 
 hour passed by; but while he lingered, and Satan 
 triumphed, some good angel, as of old, laid hold 
 upon his hand, the Lord being merciful unto him, 
 and led him forth ! or, the love of Christ secretly 
 constrained him against his former will, and he went ! 
 The service was partly over, but he arrived in time 
 to hear these words of the exhortation : " If once a 
 desire be laid on the heart by the Holy Spirit, that 
 desire will never be quenched. The individual may 
 try again and again to quench it, but he will never 
 have any rest till it is accomplished." He was now 
 overwhelmed with distress, day and night feeling 
 that he had quenched a desire which the Holy Spirit 
 had kindled within him. 
 
 At length the same " still small voice " of peace 
 which first awakened his heart in the night of his tern-
 
 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 27 
 
 poral despair, spoke to him again in this his spiritual 
 distress. These words came with power to his soul, 
 " My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is 
 made perfect in weakness." This so encouraged him, 
 that he went and spoke to the minister of the chapel 
 he attended ; but having silenced the doubts of his 
 own soul, he had to stand the doubts of his fellow 
 men. "Mr. Stodhart," he says, "made my heart 
 bleed, but did not dismiss me without hope." Mr. 
 Stodhart sent him to a gentleman who promised to 
 name him to the committee of a missionary society. 
 But now that the power of divine grace had triumphed 
 in the heart of this soldier of the cross, and he was 
 all but enlisted for the great battle-field of the heathen 
 world, the enemy, who could no longer hinder him 
 from within, raised up an obstacle to hinder him from 
 without : His wife refused to think of going with 
 him ; but there was no darkness now between his soul 
 and his God, and therefore he could come boldly to 
 the throne . of grace, to find help in this his time of 
 need, and only a few days passed before his wife had 
 as strong a desire to go as he had himself. 
 
 While waiting on in hope, Mr. During, who was 
 going out as a missionary to Africa, called upon him, 
 and learning his wish to go, promised to name him 
 to Mr. Pratt. In a few days, Mr. Pratt sent for him. 
 And here it is impossible not to pause a moment to 
 congratulate, in retrospect, the Hanoverian mechanic,
 
 28 THE MESSENGER, OF PEACE. 
 
 that at this crisis, after his long conflict of feeling, 
 the appeal for a missionary's work, on which he had 
 finally resolved, was to be presented to one so capable 
 of judging, so able to appreciate ! We have seen 
 the sensitive temperament of the poor German in his 
 childhood ; we have traced him through hunger and 
 cold, and the .madness of a despairing spirit : we 
 have seen him comforted, then trying to comfort 
 others with the comfort wherewith he himself was 
 comforted of God, but repulsed with coldness and 
 scorn and for him surely the woundings of his 
 fellow -men had a penetrating point ! . Nor was this 
 all ; " without were fightings, within were fears." 
 Nearly three years had passed over him since the 
 struggle of the divine life had begun within him, and 
 as yet he had dwelt solitarily; the means of grace 
 had been richly blessed to him, but the human heart 
 yearns for the personal sympathy, counsel, and en- 
 couragement of those to whom it can look up in the 
 divine life ; and this is seldom withheld ; but of 
 Augustine Johnson it may emphatically be said, 
 " The Lord alone did lead him," and the blessed 
 consequence followed, " there was no strange God 
 with him : " self was dethroned, the creature subser- 
 vient in all things to the Creator, and the world laid 
 low beneath the feet of one who numbered yet but 
 three short years in the school of Christ. We linger 
 with comfort and joy over the thought of this trem-
 
 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 29 
 
 bling recruit for the battle-field of tlie heathen world, 
 standing for approval and acceptance beneath the 
 penetrating and benignant eye of that veteran of the 
 faith Josiah Pratt. A short conversation was all 
 that passed, before a promise was given of naming 
 him to the committee. What needed more when 
 both were standing in the light of Truth ? the Secre- 
 tary of Missions, whose sphere was the world, had 
 more doubtful questions to engage his lengthened 
 enquiry than the fitness of one who now stood before 
 him, so manifestly an epistle of Christ, written with 
 the Spirit of the living God ! But though the expe- 
 rienced father in Christ was satisfied, the inexpe- 
 rienced disciple was not so. Now, when a promise 
 of acceptance appeared, he feared lest he should go 
 unsent ; but he carried all his fears where before he 
 had carried all his desires to his Saviour's feet, and 
 the answer was, Peace ! peace ! 
 
 Fourteen days afterwards he was called before 
 the committee, to stand among those, amidst whom 
 he has now found his place of rest above, Basil 
 Woodd, William Goode, Josiah Pratt while the be- 
 loved Daniel Wilson, then one of that committee, is 
 still spared to bless the Church Militant. A brief 
 conference seems to have been all that was again 
 found necessary. Augustine Johnson and his wife 
 were to receive a twelve - months' training, and then
 
 30 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 
 
 they were to be sent forth as schoolmaster and 
 schoolmistress to Sierra Leone. We can but sum up 
 the result of that conference in the words of St. 
 Paul, " When James, Cephas, and John, who seemed 
 to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto 
 me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands 
 of fellowship, that we should go unto the heathen." 
 And now he thought his trials over ; but the faith 
 that was to the last so greatly to glorify God, and 
 benefit the Church, could not be perfected except by 
 exercise ; he was greatly tried, first by the illness of 
 his wife, and then by the returning doubts of his own 
 self -distrustful heart; it was the adversary's last 
 fierce assault, to keep back, if possible, this fervent 
 spirit from invading, in the name of the Lord, his 
 own dark empire of the heathen world. Doubt, once 
 listened to, grew bolder, till it questioned in Augus- 
 tine Johnson's heart the reality of his conversion to 
 God. When, looking off from Christ, he looked upon 
 himself, all his past experience appeared but a dream 
 and an imagination ; and he resolved to go to Mr. 
 Pratt the next morning and give all up. Had he 
 gone, that man of God would doubtless have dis- 
 cerned the true state of the case, arrested the refusal, 
 and applied the heavenly remedy ; but this was not 
 needed, for that veiy night the divine Master, as once 
 of old, appeared upon the troubled wave ; in a dream,
 
 THE MESSENGElt OF PEACE. 31 
 
 that precious promise, " My grace is sufficient for 
 thee," was powerfully impressed upon his mind, and 
 calmed his fears. 
 
 And now his thoughts were busy with the place 
 of his destination, Sierra Leone ; and when it came 
 into his mind, a dark cloud seemed to rise before 
 him ; but gleaming through the cloud, like the star 
 of the morning, the promise came into his heart 
 continually, " I will bring the blind by a way that 
 they know that, I will lead them in paths that they 
 have not known ; I will make darkness light before 
 them, and crooked things straight ; these things will 
 I do unto them, and not forsake them." Again and 
 again do we find this directness of communication 
 alluded to, and no doubt it was the case in number- 
 less instances not recorded, for Augustine Johnson 
 walked with God, it could not, therefore, be other- 
 wise ; and we shall trace the same direct and vivifying 
 power in the Divine word ministered by him to the 
 hearts of others his lips touched with the live coal 
 from the altar of atonement, his tongue tipped with 
 its heavenly fire. We may discover also from the 
 gracious dealings of God, in constantly adding as- 
 surance to assurance, pouring in afresh the balm of 
 heavenly consolation, given or applied by the Divine 
 Spirit that all his trembling anxiety, and even his 
 temporary resolution to give up, were not the result 
 of unwillingness, but rather the overstrained feeling
 
 32 THE MESSENGER OF PEACE. 
 
 of a most sensitive spirit, of which the enemy well 
 knew how to take advantage. In bringing him now 
 to the time of his departure, we have traced proofs, 
 most evident, that he went not " in the energy of 
 the flesh," but ""in the power of the Spirit." On 
 the llth of March, 1816, Germany and England 
 sent forth one of their best and noblest to the 
 
 heathen world No ; it cannot so be said ; they 
 
 were, with the exception of that small committee, 
 all unconscious of what they yielded up. " The 
 Lord alone did lead him ! "
 
 "Jt barton tojjitft |rat!j n0 
 
 13. 
 
 " They shall come which were ready to perish." Isaiah xxvii. 
 " For the terrible one is brought to nought." Isaiah xxix. 20.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 "A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER." 
 
 ON Tuesday, April the 30th. 1816, our missionary 
 and his wife entered the harbour of Sierra Leone. 
 He greeted its natural loveliness of situation, poured 
 out a thanksgiving to the God who had brought him 
 in safety to a land he knew not, lifted up a supplication 
 for the love of Jesus to be shed abroad afresh within 
 his heart, and then, bidding the ocean-waves farewell, 
 he turned to the welcome that awaited him on shore. 
 If we looked upon him with congratulating pleasure 
 when the good hand of his God led him to the guar- 
 dianship of that father of the Church, Josiah Pratt, 
 to be strengthened, instructed, dismissed by him and 
 his brethren in the Lord, truly again may we rejoice 
 on his behalf, that on Africa's shore stood Edward 
 Bickersteth ! Mr. Bickersteth was then on a visit 
 of six weeks to the colony, for the purpose of making 
 missionary regulations there, and bringing a report 
 to the Society at home. Those to whom the beaming 
 countenance, so expressive of wakeful kindliness, the
 
 36 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 heaven -ward aspect of the mind, and still more the 
 heart of overflowing love which marked that honoured 
 servant of his Lord, are familiar, will dwell not un- 
 willingly a moment in pleasant thought upon a 
 welcome such as he would give, to one who came to 
 Africa constrained by the love of Christ. We linger, 
 even as over the comfort expressed in apostolic 
 writings, when the elder in Christ met the younger 
 in the faith, and strengthened his hands in God. 
 Mr. Bickersteth was not slow to perceive the value 
 of the man he had welcomed to Sierra Leone; he 
 says, in one of his letters, " I am much pleased with 
 what I have seen in Mr. Johnson; there seems a 
 deadness to the world, and a devotion of heart to the 
 cause, which are likely to make him a blessing where 
 God's providence shall place him." This Christian 
 fellowship was never broken, never shadowed ; all 
 through the devoted labours of Augustine Johnson's 
 missionary life, every letter of thankful response, of 
 counsel, encouragement, and comfort addressed to 
 him from the committee at home, bears one or both 
 of the signatures, 
 
 " JOSIAH PRATT. 
 
 EDWARD BICKERSTETH." 
 
 Among the mountains of Sierra Leone, some 
 miles distant from Freetown, the capital of the colony, 
 there lay a lovely valley, a most romantic spot, sur-
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 37 
 
 rounded by lofty mountains, one rearing its head 
 above another, and covered with trees and brush- 
 wood continually green. Streams descended in dif- 
 ferent directions from the narrow cliffs; forming, when 
 united, a large brook, which ran through the middle of 
 the valley ; on the banks on either side was a meadow 
 always verdant. This wild and lovely valley went 
 formerly by the name of Hog-brook, from the number 
 of wild hogs frequenting the place ; but the governor 
 of Sierra Leone fixed upon it as a suitable spot for 
 one of the many villages among which the liberated 
 slaves were divided, and called it Regent's Town. 
 
 The governor had placed fifteen hundred liberated 
 negroes as inhabitants of this valley ; their huts were 
 built on both sides of the stream the cattle given 
 them were to feed in its pastures, while around the 
 town lay the farms which they were to cultivate. From 
 these farms eight mountains reared their heads, and 
 formed a chain around the spot. It was this negro-town 
 that was placed, by Mr. Bickersteth and the governor, 
 entirely under Mr. Johnson's spiritual and temporal 
 care. It will be remembered that he had been sent 
 out only as a schoolmaster, but a schoolmaster was 
 the utmost that England could give to many a one 
 of these free negro villages ; and even a schoolmaster 
 was more than she could often find to supply these 
 quickly-multiplying negro towns, amid the ravages of 
 death among the devoted band who laboured there.
 
 38 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 When Augustine Johnson was informed that 
 Regent's Town was to be committed to his care, he 
 says in his journal, " I cannot express what my heart 
 felt at that moment ! Mr. Nylander informed me 
 how many negroes there were at that place, which 
 gave me great joy, notwithstanding the misery he 
 also pointed them out as being in. I was fully con- 
 vinced that if God the Holy Spirit stopped them, as 
 it were, in their mad career, although some of the 
 wildest cannibals in Africa, they cannot any longer 
 resist." And writing to Mr. Pratt, of the place of 
 his appointment, he says, "Well, I will go in the 
 strength of the Lord ; I will teach them to read, and 
 tell them of Jesus." 
 
 On the night of June 19, 1816, he slept for the 
 first time among the negroes of his charge ; lying on 
 the ground covered with a blanket, while the rain 
 penetrated through the roof of the hut which he had 
 hoped would shelter him. "On looking narrowly 
 into the actual condition of the people entrusted to 
 his care, he 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 them, they would
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER, 39 
 
 sell it or throw it away, and it was not found possible 
 to induce them to wear it, till led to do so by the 
 example of Mr. Johnson's servant -girl. In some 
 huts ten of them were crowded together, and in 
 others even fifteen or twenty. Many of them were 
 ghastly as skeletons, and six or eight sometimes died 
 in one day. Superstition in many forms tyrannized 
 over their minds ; many devil - 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 pro- 
 duce. Some would live in the woods apart from 
 society ; and others subsisted by thieving and plun- 
 der ; they would steal fowls, ducks, and pigs from 
 any one who possessed them. In the first week of 
 his residence among them, Mr. Johnson lost thirty 
 fowls." * Of the Eboe nation, the most savage of all, 
 the report goes on to state that, ' ' about forty of them 
 had been placed under a course of military instruc- 
 tion at Bance Island, " but they were discharged as 
 intractable, and sent to Regent's Town ; here they 
 soon gave proof of almost incredible brutality/' 
 
 Such were the people among whom Augustine 
 Johnson was called to labour; in his journal he says, 
 * Twentieth Report of the Church Missionary Society.
 
 40 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 te These poor people may indeed be called the off- 
 scouring of Africa. But shall I despair now ? No ! 
 the first shall be last, and the last first ! Who 
 knows whether the Lord will not make his power 
 known among these poor depraved people with Him 
 nothing is impossible. Let me go then and tell 
 them of Jesus. His grace is sufficient for the vilest 
 of the vile, for the chief of sinners : yes, it is suffi- 
 cient for the vilest cannibal ! The greatest part of 
 these poor people have lately arrived from slave- 
 vessels, and are in the most deplorable condition, 
 chiefly afflicted with the dropsical complaint. To 
 describe the misery would indeed be impossible. Oh 
 may the Lord hold me up and I shall be safe under 
 these difficulties which are apparently before me ! " 
 The naturally depraved hearts of these poor heathens 
 had passed under the brutalizing cruelties of the 
 slave-trade ; all native kindliness of disposition had 
 been consumed in misery's furnace "The sorrow 
 of the world worketh death ! " and such was the 
 sorrow of the heathen slave. With all the ties of 
 kindred wrenched by the rudest hand asunder, with 
 all the associations of life broken up, here were 
 planted side by side those who in their native terri- 
 tories had been hostile each to the other ; wretched- 
 ness and discord could only be the natural result. 
 All the generosity of the British crown, all the 
 bravery of British seamen, all the care of British
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 41 
 
 legislators, must have failed to accomplish any per- 
 manently happy result, if human effort had not 
 recognised the need of heavenly grace, and provided 
 means by which the hearts of these poor liberated 
 slaves might be watered with the life-giving Word of 
 that Almighty Saviour, who was "sent of God to 
 heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the 
 captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set 
 at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the accept- 
 able year of the Lord." And now among them stood 
 the messenger of the Lord of Hosts, and we are 
 called to watch the breathing of the Divine Wind over 
 these slain of sin and Satan, until they live unto 
 God, and stand upon their heavenward feet, an army 
 of the righteous ! 
 
 Augustine Johnson was given to these poor 
 re-captured slaves as a temporal and spiritual father ; 
 he was to regulate their places of abode, mark out 
 their land, appoint their trades, superintend their public 
 works, give out their food, distribute their clothing, 
 settle their disputes, instruct them in heavenly know- 
 ledge, visit them in sickness, direct them in difficulty 
 in short do all for them that such suffering, destitute, 
 ignorant creatures needed, and that could be done for 
 them by a fellow man ! And we shall see that as with 
 the youthful prophet of old, " The Lord was with him, 
 and did let none of his words fall to the ground." 
 
 But he was first to test and prove, the universal
 
 42 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 fact, that the natural mind has no response to the 
 Heavenly call. " God," by His servants, " speaketh 
 once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not." If the 
 Apostle Paul ceased not to pray for his Ephesian 
 converts, that the eyes of their undei-standing might 
 be enlightened, that they might know the hope of 
 the calling of God, how utterly darkened must these 
 poor West African slaves remain, until God, who 
 commanded the light to shine out of darkness, should 
 shine into their hearts, to give the light of the know- 
 ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ! 
 But the " earthen vessel," by whom ' ' this treasure " 
 was to be conveyed to them, already stood among 
 them, though as yet they knew it not. 
 
 The Missionary writes, " When I first went 
 among them, I told them why I came. I was not 
 come to use them cruelly, as they had before been 
 used, but I was come to tell them how they might 
 be saved, and enjoy eternal happiness through Jesus 
 Christ. They gave little heed to me, though I visited 
 them from day to day ; and to my great mortification, 
 on Sunday only nine hearers came, and these almost 
 naked. I was much discouraged ; however, I went 
 the next week and told them why I came ; and tried 
 to persuade them to come and hear God's Word; 
 and that if they desired to learn to read God's Book, 
 the Bible, I would instruct them." 
 
 His second Sabbath dawned upon Augustine
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 43 
 
 Johnson among his negro people, July 14, 1816. 
 The only place in which he could as yet meet them 
 was his own house ; there, while the early morning 
 breathed over the hills, they came, assembling to his 
 early family prayers between five and six o'clock : they 
 now surrounded the white man who had come from 
 afar, not to make them captives, but to lead them into 
 the glorious liberty of the sons of God. A hymn was 
 sung, and part of Jeremiah xlvi. explained, "Behold, I 
 will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land 
 of their captivity." Another hymn was sung, and 
 then they knelt around the stranger, while he poured 
 forth his soul in prayer for them. And now the diffi- 
 culty was not to win but to dismiss them ; the whole 
 day was spent in repeated services, the negroes crowd- 
 ing around the dwelling which could receive only a 
 few within. Monday, July 15. At day-break the 
 house was full again, their teacher read to them of 
 the Saviour at Samaria's well and his work of mercy 
 there. At nine o'clock his schools opened; he says, 
 " to my surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise, I 
 was so happy as to see ninety boys and fifty girls. 
 I was at a loss how to begin with so many. They 
 had never seen a book, and having such a large 
 number at once, I knew not what to do. However, 
 I selected twelve of the most promising-looking boys 
 and taught them the first four letters, according to 
 Bell's System ; when they knew these, I divided the
 
 44 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 whole into twelve classes, and made one teach each 
 class. When they had taught their respective classes 
 I taught these boys four other letters, till they had 
 surmounted the whole Alphabet." At six o'clock in 
 the evening, he opened his schools for adults, when 
 thirty-one men, and twelve women attended. At 
 eight o'clock, the hour for evening prayer, the number 
 increased. The missionary read and explained to 
 them the twelfth chapter of St. Luke, " How much 
 more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy 
 Spirit to them that ask Him." Then night again 
 descended on the mountains and the valley, where the 
 missionary had now fairly commenced his labour of 
 love. Writing to Mr. Pratt, after giving an account 
 of the beginning of his work, he continues, " Though 
 people will say that the Africans are like a tornado, 
 which comes all at once and is soon over, nevertheless 
 the Lord Jesus is able to give them a desire to read 
 his Holy Word, and if He give the desire it certainly 
 will continue." He goes on to say, 
 
 " It rains here almost continually. I came before 
 this house was repaired, and I was obliged to sleep 
 on the ground fourteen nights covered with a 
 blanket ; sometimes the blanket was damp and wet 
 in the morning, but blessed be God, I have not felt 
 the least injuiy. The present house in which we 
 are now, is a mud-house, but it is dry, and as soon 
 as the church is finished, his excellency the Governor
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 45 
 
 has been pleased to grant that a house shall be built 
 for me, before this present one is broken down." 
 
 The Missionary's labours soon became so great that 
 he had scarcely an hour to himself from one Sunday to 
 another. A captured slave-ship arrived in the harbour 
 of Sierra Leone, and he had to receive a thousand of 
 its suffering human cargo. So incessant were now 
 the claims upon him, for his great family of two 
 thousand five hundred negroes, that he says, " Some- 
 times I was on the point of giving up all, but the 
 prospect of bringing them to a crucified Jesus enabled 
 me to endure/' Scholars, both children and adults, 
 increased continually ; and so did the numbers who 
 attended the three Sabbath services, and the daily 
 morning and evening prayers and exposition. 
 
 In the month of August a stone church capable of 
 holding five hundred people was covered in, providing 
 him at length with a building in which to assemble 
 both children and people. He had the pleasure of 
 seeing it quite full ; and the poor negroes began to 
 make a great improvement in industry, and an effort 
 to clothe themselves in order to come neat to church. 
 It must have been a beautiful sight to the Missionary's 
 eyes, when at the dawn of day, and again before the 
 sun went down, the church-bell sounded through 
 the valley's length and breadth and up the lofty 
 mountains' slopes, and the negroes answering its invi- 
 tation came in their English clothing, hastening to the
 
 46 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 house of prayer. Only a few months before, when he 
 first stood among them, every heart around him was 
 as a waste howling wilderness ; now at least it could 
 be said, there was a promise concerning " the life that 
 now is." 
 
 But the Missionary looked onward to the life 
 that " is to come ;" and his eye as yet wandered 
 anxiously and vainly over the black faces assembled 
 before him, in hope to see one kindling gleam of 
 heavenly love that might encourage him to think the 
 soul within was won for Heaven. Sometimes, when 
 the service was over, one and another would come to 
 speak with him, then for a moment expectation 
 brightened within him, but it proved to be only a 
 request for a garment, or for the supply of some tem- 
 poral necessity ; the Missionary heard in sadness, then 
 turned away to labour on, to hope against hope, and 
 pray for faith and patience. No voice of experienced 
 encouragement fell on his ear in his mountain-home, 
 and it was difficult for him to search the Sacred Scrip- 
 tures for himself alone, having continually to look 
 therein for his people's instruction. But need he 
 despond, because after he had ' ' reasoned of righteous- 
 ness, temperance, and judgment to come," the poor 
 African asked a garment for his body ? Not if he had 
 remembered that the first disciples, in whose hearts 
 the words of the Lord were enshrined, turned from 
 the most affecting service ever celebrated on earth,
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 47 
 
 to dispute among themselves on the desired possession 
 of pre-eminence ! Should we not have said of those 
 disciples, in disappointment and despair Alas ! such 
 spirits must be earthly and only earthly still ! He 
 who knew what was in man judged far otherwise ; 
 we may surely therefore take comfort, and not seldom 
 hope that a sense of the soul's necessities may be 
 gathering deep within the heart, when as yet the 
 bodily wants alone find expression on the lips. 
 c ' Though it tarry, wait for it ; because it will surely 
 come, it will not tarry" and even now we reach 
 its fulfilment. 
 
 In October of the same year, 1816, he writes 
 :n his journal : " One evening a shingle-maker, 
 Joe Thompson, followed me out of church, and 
 iesired to speak to me. I was in some measure 
 cast down, thinking he wished to speak to me for 
 slothing. However, with astonishment, I found that 
 he was in deep distress about the state of his soul. 
 He said, that one evening, he had heard me ask the 
 congregation, if any one had spent five minutes that 
 day in prayer to Jesus, or in the past day, week, 
 month, or ever ? He was struck with it, and could not 
 answer the question for himself. He had heard the 
 present and future state of the wicked explained, he 
 could answer nothing, but that he was wicked ; after 
 that, all the sins which he had ever done before had 
 entered into his mind. He had tried to pray, but he
 
 48 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 could not, he would therefore ask me what he should 
 do to save his soul. 
 
 "What I felt at that moment is inexpressible. 
 I pointed him to a crucified Jesus, and tears ran 
 down his cheeks. I was obliged to leave him, for I 
 could scarcely contain myself. I went home and 
 thanked God for having heard my prayers. 
 
 " The following week several more came in like 
 manner to me, which removed all doubts and fears 
 at once, and I had such an assurance that God had 
 sent me to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ 
 to the Gentiles, that there was no more room left for 
 me to doubt. 
 
 " I went to Mr. Butscher at Leicester Mountain 
 (another of the freed negro districts in Sierra Leone) 
 and begged him to come and baptize them, which he 
 did. Twenty-one adults, one boy, and three infants, 
 captured negroes, were baptized. I examined them 
 one by one, and I was astonished to hear in what 
 manifold and wondrous ways God had revealed him- 
 self to these poor people. Several more came soon 
 after, and in January the number amounted to forty- 
 one communicants/' 
 
 Of one individual of this number we cannot but 
 give Mr. Johnson's detailed account. 
 
 "The doctor who attends the captured negroes 
 and resides at this place, a man of colour, educated 
 in England, and known by the name of Macaulay
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 49 
 
 Wilson, has lately attended Divine Service. I ob- 
 served that he came almost every morning and paid 
 ine a visit, which he did not before ; and he seemed 
 very much cast down. Last Friday I went to Sierra 
 Leone, in order to attend the examination of the 
 schools before his excellency the Governor, when the 
 doctor offered his company to go with me. While 
 passing through the mountains he said that he wished 
 to speak to me a few words. I desired that he would 
 speak on ; and he said that one Sunday afternoon I 
 had spoken on these words, ' The blood of Jesus 
 Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. 3 Since 
 that time he could find no rest ; he had often come 
 in the morning in order to acquaint me with it, but 
 had been kept back : could I not give him some 
 advice, for he had been notoriously wicked ? " I 
 replied, that I could give him no other advice than 
 to come to Jesus ; 'His blood cleanseth from all 
 sin ! ' He has since attended family prayer (which 
 was held morning and evening in the church), and 
 has found comfort through that passage, 'Come 
 now, let us reason together, saith the Lord ; though 
 your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow ; 
 though they be red like crimson, they shall be as 
 wool/ This circumstance may prove a blessing to 
 the Bullom nation, as he is the son of King George 
 of Yongroo, and is expected to be king after the 
 death of his father, and has great influence over the
 
 50 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 
 
 Bullom natives. ' Oh ! magnify the Lord with me, 
 and let us exalt his name together/ '' 
 
 The heads of one of Augustine Johnson's ad- 
 dresses on a Sunday, when the governor of the colony 
 and some other gentlemen were present, will give at 
 once an idea of the simplicity and clearness of his 
 way of setting forth the truth of the Gospel. 
 
 The text was, 1 Cor. ii. 2 : " Jesus Christ, and 
 him crucified." He enquired, 
 
 1 . Who is Jesus Christ ? 
 
 2. What has Jesus Christ done ? 
 
 3. What is Jesus Christ doing now ? 
 
 4. What is Jesus Christ going to do ? 
 
 On Saturday evenings a private prayer-meeting 
 was held, at which he had the unspeakable comfort 
 of hearing some of his native converts lead the sup- 
 plications of their countrymen, and, as he describes 
 it, " wrestle with Jesus." To Mr. Pratt, writing of 
 this evening prayer-meeting, he exclaims : " Believe 
 me, dear sir, I have experienced moments here in 
 this desert which I cannot express. Yes, moments 
 when I forgot that I was still in the flesh ! Though 
 the climate is very unhealthy, perhaps the worst in 
 the world, and who knows but I may have only a 
 short time to stay here ; nevertheless, I shall have to 
 bless God throughout eternity for sending me here. 
 
 I cannot help admiring the governor's 
 
 anxiety to do good to the poor Africans. During
 
 A GARDEN WHICH HATH NO WATER. 51 
 
 the rainy and unhealthy season, his excellency has 
 visited us once, twice, and sometimes three times a 
 week. His excellency was pleased to give an order 
 to build a gallery in the church as soon as possible, 
 
 in order to make more room Our schools 
 
 have been prosperous 144 boys, 20 girls, and 50 
 adults." 
 
 At the close of this year, 1816, Mr. Renner, 
 the senior missionary in West Africa, paid a visit to 
 Regent's Town ; writing to Mr. Pratt soon after, he 
 says : " I spoke morning and evening in the church 
 to a people that seemed to be devout indeed. Judg- 
 ing by appearance, these are they that take the king- 
 dom of Heaven by violence. The temporal and 
 spiritual work of our brother is no doubt great and 
 laborious among these people ; but to Johnson all is 
 easy and full of pleasure."
 
 of 
 
 " I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah-tree, and 
 the myrtle, and the oil-tree ; I will set in the desert the fir-tree, 
 and the pine, and the hox-tree together : that they may see, and 
 know, and consider, and understand together, that the hand of the 
 Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel hath created it." 
 Isaiah xli. 19, 20.
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 " THE HAND OF THE LORD." 
 
 AFRICA had received the fulfilment of this pro- 
 mise the cedar had been planted in her wilderness. 
 The children of her land, in nature's ungrafted wild- 
 ness, knew their life only as a space of time, more 
 transient than their forest flowers, which, though 
 they bloom and fade, yet does their root remain to 
 shoot forth in fresh beauty; but the poor African 
 died he gave up the ghost, and where was he ? 
 None could answer ; they had no hope of immor- 
 tality, nor light beyond the grave. But the cedar 
 had been planted in the midst of this African valley ; 
 there stood one of the sons of God, whose life was 
 linked inseparably with the life of the Eternal by 
 the Lord's unchangeable word, " Because I live, ye 
 shall live also," one who could triumph over death, 
 and confidently ask of the grave, " Where is thy vic- 
 tory ? " But Augustine Johnson stood not in Africa's 
 valley as the cedar alone beautiful in its unfading
 
 56 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 but solitary verdure. God had said, " I will plant 
 in the wilderness the oil-tree/' and such was he 
 made of God to be to the perishing souls around 
 him ; he ministered to them the life-giving words by 
 which their vessels were supplied, and their lamps 
 kindled into a burning and a shining light, by which 
 the grave was illumined as the portal of glory as 
 the chamber prepared for putting off " this corrupt- 
 ible" and "putting on incorruption," (1 Cor. xv.) 
 " The hand of the Lord had done this." Busy in 
 his London toil, the German mechanic thought not 
 of Africa, nor of Africa's Redeemer; but the Lord, 
 who said of Saul of Tarsus, " He is a chosen vessel 
 unto me, to bear my Name before the Gentiles," no 
 less effectually arrested Augustine Johnson, and gave 
 unto him the word of reconciliation, to testify unto 
 the heathen the gospel of the grace of God. 
 
 Saturday evening became a time strongly marked 
 at Regent' s Town, by instances of deep conviction of 
 sin and awakening of heart to God : and soon tidings 
 reached the missionary that the holy men who sent 
 him and his fellow -labourers forth, had been and still 
 were devoting one hour of that evening in united 
 supplication to God in behalf of Africa. By means 
 so direct was the missionary encouraged and strength- 
 ened in looking up to God. 
 
 The doctor, son of the Bullom king, filled the 
 office of clerk on Sunday ; and continuing to grow
 
 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 57 
 
 in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ, he 
 proved a great help in the work of the Lord. One 
 evening the missionary was detained unexpectedly at 
 a neighbouring station ; at the fall of day two hun- 
 dred of the negro people assembled as usual for 
 " family prayer" in the church, but their teacher 
 was not there; then the doctor came forward and 
 took the teacher's place. Mrs. Johnson, who was 
 present, says, that he gave a most affecting exhorta- 
 tion ; persuading the people to give their whole hearts 
 to Jesus Christ so quickly did " the planting of the 
 Lord " bud and blossom and breathe heavenly fra- 
 grance on its native air ! 
 
 At this time, Tamba, one of the liberated slaves, 
 was brought in repentance and prayer to his divine 
 Redeemer's feet ; he afterwards became so faithful a 
 " fellow-labourer unto the kingdom of God " that it 
 is most interesting to mark him as one of the first- 
 fruits of that mountain valley, before the ministerial 
 office invested the faithful schoolmaster. 
 
 At this time, also, one of the children from Mrs. 
 Johnson's school was called away by death ; 300 of 
 the negro people followed the black girl to her 
 grave, over which many tears were shed by them ; 
 for she was beloved of all who knew her, and the 
 missionary could look Heavenward and rejoice in 
 hope that his departed scholar was gathered to the 
 skies.
 
 58 THE HAND OP THE LORD. 
 
 It had now become evident to all that the 
 schoolmaster of Regent's Town was called of God 
 "to do the work of an Evangelist." Therefore 
 the committee of the Church Missionary Society 
 in England, expressed their desire that the ordained 
 German missionaries should confer with Mr. Garnon, 
 an English clergyman, then chaplain at Freetown, 
 the capital of the colony : and, if it appeared ex- 
 pedient to them all, ordain Augustine Johnson as a 
 Lutheran minister. These servants of God assuredly 
 gathering that the Lord had called the schoolmaster 
 of Regent's Town, to preach the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ, he was ordained to the sacred office by his 
 three German brethren, Renner, Butscher, and 
 Wenzel, on the 31st of March, 1817, eleven months 
 from the day of his landing on Africa's shore ; while 
 Mr. Pratt expressed, by letter, the joy of the Society 
 at home in the success of his labours ; and the hope 
 they felt from such cheering evidence of the Lord's 
 presence and favour, that a brighter day was dawning 
 for Africa than she had yet seen. Many anxious 
 questionings and sorrowful thoughts had oppressed 
 the heart of the missionaiy as he looked on the 
 responsibility he was about to enter upon : " but/' 
 he finally says, with that beautiful simplicity that 
 adorned his Christian life, " 1 Cor. i. 25-29, re- 
 moved all ! " 
 
 On Easter Sunday, April 6, 1817, Augustine
 
 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 59 
 
 Johnson first preached the gospel of Christ as an 
 ordained pastor. It pleased God to pour out the 
 Spirit of grace and supplication so powerfully upon 
 the listening people, that many among them, unable 
 to restrain the overwhelming sense of feelings so 
 strangely new, wept and prayed aloud. This con- 
 tinued through the services of the day, and in the 
 evening prevailed to so great an extent, that the 
 newly-ordained pastor, quite unable to restrain his 
 own or his people's feelings, was compelled to leave 
 them in the church ; he retired to the solitude of his 
 home, but still his ear and his heart were penetrated 
 with the cry of his weeping people. Blessed be God, 
 it was not now the groan that but a short time 
 before broke on the merciless ear of the man-stealer, 
 from these children of captivity ; no, it was a cry to 
 the Father of mercies, who is rich unto all who call 
 upon Him ! Only a few months before, the Mission- 
 ary's anxious eye had sought in vain for one tear of 
 contrition, vainly had he listened for one sigh of re- 
 pentance, and now he sees his people prostrate, ar- 
 resting the prayers of their pastor by their own 
 agonised supplications to Heaven. Well may it 
 remind of the promise, " Prove me now herewith, if 
 I will not open the windows of Heaven, and pour you 
 out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to 
 receive it." These outward manifestations of feeling 
 continued at times for long after; the Missionaiy
 
 60 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 used every suitable method to restrain them, and the 
 doorkeepers were ordered to convey at once from the 
 church every one so overcome, in order to prevent 
 interruption to the congregation. Africans accus- 
 tomed from their birth to express every feeling with 
 vehement emotion, poor captured slaves whose 
 every sense and every affection had been pierced, 
 wounded and torn, hearing from their pastor, on 
 Easter-day, of the love "which passeth knowledge," 
 of One who died for our sins, and rose again for our 
 justification, can we wonder that the weight of a love 
 so great overcame the negro or that sometimes the 
 mention only of the name of JESUS woke their hearts' 
 response in " strong crying and tears ? " May we not 
 rather wonder that the declaration of Infinite love 
 often falls so lightly on our ears, so coldly on our 
 hearts, as if our ears could not be penetrated, our 
 hearts could not be moved ! Tears and lamentations 
 were not the only proof given of awakened souls. 
 So eager were these poor Africans to hear the Word 
 of Life, the gospel of their salvation, that on Sundays 
 when the church-bell sounded out its summons, it 
 called to those already come, the church being filled 
 an hour before the time of service ! The bell was 
 needless, but still it woke the mountain echoes, and 
 filled the valley with the only sound, save that of 
 prayer and praise, that broke the Sabbath stillness. 
 The gallery built by the governor's order was finished,
 
 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 61 
 
 and accommodated 200 ; but still there was not 
 room ; therefore a large addition to the church at the 
 eastern end was now resolved upon. The schools 
 were nourishing. By May 1817, six men and three 
 women had learned to read the New Testament ; 
 their minister asked one of the men how he liked his 
 new book ? he replied, " I cannot thank the Lord 
 Jesus Christ enough for this good Book, for I HAVE 
 
 SEEN MYSELF IN IT." 
 
 On the 4th of May, Augustine Johnson, for the 
 first time, administered the Holy Communion of the 
 Body and Blood of Christ to above fifty of his people, 
 all of whom only a year before were in heathen dark- 
 ness all of whom had received the knowledge of 
 their Divine Redeemer through him all of whom 
 looked up to him as their father in Christ. What 
 must he not have felt ? Did he think upon the hour 
 when first the divine promise sounded through the 
 depths of his soul, " Call upon me, and I will answer 
 thee ? " Did he think upon the day when fellow- 
 workmen in favoured England turned in scorn from 
 his entreaties to them to come unto Christ ? Or did 
 he remember the night when, having resolved to give 
 up his missionaiy appointment, judging himself inca- 
 pable of it, the word of the Lord, in its " still small 
 voice " of assurance, came to him in a dream, " My 
 grace is sufficient for thee ! " What the feelings of 
 the Heaven-sent, Heaven-blessed missionary were, no
 
 62 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 pen can tell ; the God who sent him knew, and none 
 beside. He tells us himself that it was a season 
 accompanied by many tears, tears doubtless that 
 spoke a language words could not utter. But the 
 cup of heavenly blessing was mingled with the need- 
 ful bitterness of trial ; Mrs. Johnson had a dangerous 
 illness; and several of his people went back for a 
 time from their Christian profession, but only for a 
 time ; they all returned again ; and the missionary 
 adds, " it was a heavy trial for me, and I believe for 
 all the communicants, but we have now to confess at 
 large that this also has worked together for our 
 good." 
 
 The missionary was not slow to call into exercise 
 in the hearts of his converts the new-born principle 
 of heavenly love ; he knew that the secret of heavenly 
 increase is heavenly exercise ; he therefore proposed 
 to his assembled people that they should institute 
 among themselves a benefit society, to which each 
 should subscribe a halfpenny a-week, for the relief of 
 the sick among them. This was a proposal quite 
 foreign to all African experience ; but these poor 
 negroes had drunk at the well-spring of heavenly 
 love, and therefore they found its streams not strange 
 or unnatural to their taste. One of their number 
 rose, and taking up their minister's proposal said, 
 " Dat be very good ting, broders. Suppose one be 
 sick, all be sick ! Suppose one be well, all be well ! "
 
 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 63 
 
 Surely he had learned of the same Divine Spirit who 
 inspired 1 Cor. xii. 12-27 ! The benefit society was 
 established, and it tended greatly to increase love and 
 harmony among the people. 
 
 Evidence was not wanting that it was truly the 
 Holy Spirit's work among these rescued slaves. Ig- 
 norant of the experience of all others, they gave 
 expression in the simplest and most forcible language, 
 to their varying sense of a newly-awakened conscious- 
 ness. One who had lately been effectually called 
 from the depths of sin, when asked by the missionary, 
 " Well, how is your heart now ? " replied, " Massa, 
 my heart no live here now my heart live there ! " 
 pointing to the skies. In the November of this year 
 the missionary himself was ill for a short time, and a 
 cloud through the week overshadowed his spirit ; he 
 was doubtful how far it would be possible for him to 
 conduct the services of the Sabbath, and he exclaimed, 
 " Oh that the light of His countenance would shine 
 upon me, and that He would prepare me for the Sab- 
 bath-day ! " On Saturday evening he met his people 
 at the usual prayer-meeting, and the burdened spirit 
 of the missionary found sympathy in the confessions 
 of his people. John Sandy said, " Once me see light; 
 but now me have no light, no peace ; my bad heart 
 brings me into all these troubles. I don't know 
 what I must do. 'I can't tell if I am on the way to 
 hell or heaven ! " The missionary passed a suffering
 
 64 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 night, comforted by the thought, " There remaineth 
 a rest for the people of God/' At six o'clock on the 
 Sabbath morning he held the early prayer-meeting ; 
 at ten o'clock the church was crowded for morning 
 service ; he preached on the words, " Faint, yet pur- 
 suing." Being greatly fatigued, he proposed that 
 his people should have their afternoon prayer-meeting 
 among themselves, which they did. Oh think upon 
 the scene ! Here in this mountain-valley, gathered 
 from the waste howling wilderness of heathen hearts 
 and heathen passions here Africa's children knelt 
 alone in supplication to Africa's God, Ethiopia 
 stretched out her hands unto Him ! Who can doubt 
 that, mingled with personal and national petitions, 
 were prayers for their father in Christ ? And who can 
 doubt that, as in answer to the Prophet's prayer, at 
 the beginning of their supplication, the gracious word 
 came forth ? for their pastor tells us that that evening 
 when preaching to his people, darkness fled away, and 
 his heart did sing for joy. 
 
 Captain Welsh, of the brig Pyrennees, spent 
 Sunday, November 23, at Regent's Town. When 
 the bell rang the first time, the church was already 
 full, and some were sitting outside on boards. The 
 missionary and his visitor could not enter by either 
 door; at length, with difficulty, they entered through 
 the tower. The Missionary preached from John v. 6 : 
 " Wilt thou be made whole ?" Captain Welsh said
 
 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 65 
 
 afterwards, " I have seen to - day what I never saw 
 before. What would not our friends in London give 
 for such a sight ! " Then turning to Augustine John- 
 son, he said; " God has blessed your labours beyond 
 description. I have heard of your success, but I 
 would not have believed that it was so great ! " 
 
 At the evening prayer-meeting on Saturday, Nov. 
 29, the Missionary read to his people a letter from 
 Mr. Pratt; and then four of the native communicants 
 addressed the assembly in behalf of the Church Mis- 
 sionary Society. Wednesday evening in the following 
 week, was fixed on for a general Church Missionary 
 meeting. Their minister says that he had been much 
 harassed with unbelief through the previous week, 
 but all was removed that night ! How could it be 
 otherwise, when he saw the warm life-giving beams 
 of the Sun of Righteousness, enkindling the hearts of 
 his converts to the exercise of a love that embraced 
 the world. 
 
 The appointed evening came. The Church was 
 filled at seven o'clock. Previous to the missionary 
 meeting, one was held for prayer, as was usual on 
 that evening. Their minister then spoke on behalf 
 of the heathen, after which no less than seventeen 
 of the communicants addressed the meeting in their 
 broken English. Who that two years before had 
 seen these men, emaciated, fettered, degraded slaves, 
 unloaded from the hold of the dreadful slave-ship, could
 
 66 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 have imagined such a scene as that we now describe ? 
 Their free safe homes within this lovely mountain 
 village ; met within the hallowed precincts of a sanc- 
 tuary dedicated to the Lord Jehovah, who has said 
 " My House shall be called a House of prayer for all 
 nations/' there deliberating on how they might aid in 
 emancipating a fallen sin -enslaved world ! This is 
 the Lord's doing and marvellous in our eyes. When 
 the seventeen speakers had ended, and the eloquence 
 of their broken English music to listening angel 
 ears had died away upon the walls but sunk into 
 the hearts of the assembled Africans when this 
 speaking was over, then came the doing. Often 
 before, in all the two and twenty nations from which 
 the dwellers in the mountain valley were gathered, 
 had their assembled brethren stirred them up to 
 deeds of blood, of crime, and base idolatry ; but now 
 the strife was only who should be most self-denying 
 in mercy's blessed work ; freely they felt they had 
 received, and they would freely give. The speeches 
 are all ended. Is it now the moment to rush forward 
 with African impulse and give ? These assembled 
 here are, as yet, but children in the faith, and eager- 
 ness belongs to the childhood of every feeling ! 
 No ! the stirring speeches are all ended, but Tamba 
 now comes forward and exhorts his brethren to 
 PRAYER ; he charges " them to pray to God that it 
 might please Him to send some of them to their
 
 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 67 
 
 country people, to carry the good news of a Saviour 
 to them ! " Not of two years age in knowledge of the 
 truth, and yet how heavenly wise ! he arrests the 
 eagerness of giving by a solemn final appeal, that on 
 their minds may be impressed the thought of GOD 
 His sovereign pleasure and His sovereign power, the 
 efficacy of prayer to Him ; and then He places the 
 negro above money, "that it may please God to 
 send some of us!" The poor slave, who had seen 
 everything valued more than himself, had learned 
 his true position in the world where the true God 
 had placed him ; and lastly " to our country 
 people," first and nearest in this world-wide interest. 
 Must not this convince that there can be no school 
 like Christ's, no teaching like His ! Then Tamba 
 added " I will give two shillings and sixpence ; " the 
 missionary reminded him that the subscription was to 
 be monthly, he replied " I know, Sir ! I will give it 
 every month ;" and several followed his example. By 
 their own arrangement none gave less than twopence 
 a month, to constitute each subscriber a member. 
 One hundred and seven had their names put down as 
 subscribers. Then came the negro children in their 
 happy freedom, with their offerings. One boy 
 begged his minister to take two half-pence. " Where 
 did you get money ? " " Me got three coppers long 
 time, me beg you, Massa, take two, and me keep one \" 
 " As you have had them so long, you had better keep 
 them still ! " but he refused, and the two coppers
 
 68 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 were given. So ended the first missionary meeting 
 in Regent's Town; and their Pastor exclaims, "' Bless 
 the Lord, my soul, and forget not all His benefits ! ' 
 Oh what have I enjoyed this night ! Oh what hath 
 God wrought!" 
 
 The following day, December the fourth, many of 
 the people wished to accompany their minister to an 
 evening prayer -meeting to be held some miles 
 distant at Leicester mountain, where all the mission- 
 aries in the Colony were to meet, to unite in prayer 
 for the spread of the Gospel. At four o'clock they 
 started, three hundred and twenty-one in number, to 
 march through the mountains on foot with their 
 pastor ; Mrs. Johnson, who could not walk, rode on a 
 horse behind. The evening proved one of heavenly 
 refreshment; and as night drew on, they marched back 
 through the mountain-paths ; the men and boys in 
 front, singing as they went that beautiful and ap- 
 propriate hymn, 
 
 " Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched, 
 Weak and wounded, sick and sore, 
 Jesus ready stands to save you, 
 Full of pity, love, and power ; 
 He is able, He is willing, 
 Doubt no more. ' ' 
 
 The women and girls followed in another com- 
 pany, singing: 
 
 " How beauteous are their feet 
 Who stand on Zion's hill, 
 Who bring salvation on their tongues, 
 And words of peace reveal ! "
 
 THE HAND OP THE LORD. 69 
 
 Thus did the German mechanic tread the hills of 
 Africa, beside the Lord's free men, rescued through 
 his " labour of love " from the temporal and eternal 
 captivity of sin and Satan. O blessed conquest ! 
 happy conqueror ! thy glory and crown of rejoicing 
 will be thine for ever, death cannot rob thee, the 
 grave cannot despoil thee, for thy work has the seal 
 of immortality ! 
 
 On Saturday the twelfth of December two other 
 missionaries, Mr. Cotes and Mr. During, spent the day 
 at Regent's Town, it being the Sunday in the month 
 on which the Holy Communion was administered; 
 .the morning service passed in comfort ; but in the 
 afternoon one of the missionaries began to preach, 
 when he was suddenly seized with the fever. Mr. John- 
 son had to finish the sermon, and then falling ill him- 
 self with the fever no less suddenly, he was obliged to 
 tell the people that they must keep evening service 
 by themselves. But the faithful Tamba was among 
 them, and others like-minded, and the missionary 
 could lay his burning head upon his pillow without 
 a fear. The poison that lurked for the white man in 
 African air, was not suffered to disable Augustine 
 Johnson until he could say as St. Paul to his converts, 
 ' ( I myself am persuaded of you, my brethren, that 
 ye are able to admonish one another." The Governor 
 sent a medical man over on horseback, the severity 
 of the attack was relieved, and the following Sunday
 
 70 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 he stood up again among his people, and set before 
 them in his preaching, The Father's everlasting 
 love, 1st, before Conversion, 2nd, after Con- 
 version. 
 
 The next day we find the following entry in his 
 journal. Dec. 15. "I heard that William Davis had 
 taken up his Testament, and gone towards Cockle 
 Bay, where many of his country people reside. I 
 suppose that he has gone to speak to them of Jesus." 
 This is all that is said, but how much is in it to 
 arrest and rivet thought and feeling. There is some- 
 thing most beautiful in the simple narration of the 
 fact " Heard that Davis had taken his Testament 
 and was gone." Here was the first " sounding out 
 of the Word of the Lord " from this infant church. 
 We seem in thought to trace the happy negro's steps 
 through the mountain-passes, along the shore, while 
 heavenly love glowed within, above, around him ; 
 and in his hand he held the wondrous record of that 
 love, exceeding all that angels know, and into the 
 blessed mysteries of which they long to look. We 
 see the negro's wondering brethren gathering round 
 him to look upon his Book, and hear him tell of 
 what he had found therein. Such scenes must tempt 
 angelic steps to press around and linger near, when 
 they behold the tidings they brought with great joy 
 to this earth, written by Almighty love on the hearts, 
 and breathed from the lips, of those who, but some
 
 THE HAND OP THE LORD. 71 
 
 brief time before, were Satan's hopeless slaves. Davis 
 asked his people why they did not go to hear Mr. 
 Cotes at Wilberforce (the nearest missionary station) . 
 Some replied, that they could not understand English, 
 and could not, therefore, pray to God. Davis told 
 them that God knew their hearts, their thoughts, 
 and their language, and that he would hear their 
 prayers in their own tongue ! They said they never 
 had heard that before ; they thought prayer must be 
 made in English ; but now they would go to Wilber- 
 force on Sunday, for all he had said to them was 
 true. So on the following evening Davis returned 
 to his pastor, and his mountain home. 
 
 Christmas-day arrived. This day had become a 
 fearfully-marked one in Freetown, the capital, a 
 custom having been introduced of public amusements 
 on that day, and intoxication had become general. 
 But Regent's Town had learned a more blessed 
 liberty, than that of sinning ; through her mountain 
 valley it was kept as a Sabbath to the Lord : not a 
 single person was intoxicated, not a drum nor a gun 
 was heard ; they flocked to their church at half past 
 ten o'clock; and at four o'clock in the afternoon 
 four hundred of them walked with their pastor to 
 attend the monthly missionary prayer-meeting at 
 Leicester Mountain. 
 
 And now we might expect Augustine Johnson to 
 close this year of grace and mercy with an Hallelujah,
 
 72 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 
 
 instead of which we find a lament ; he writes "The 
 work of mercy is still proceeding, but not without 
 difficulty. I am again without any assistance. I 
 have hitherto kept from making complaints ; but I 
 am now constrained to do so. My spiritual labours 
 increase, for which I, unworthy, cannot be enough 
 thankful. The people with whom I have to do are 
 as babes in Christ, who stand in need of being nou- 
 rished with the sincere milk of the Word, that they 
 may grow thereby ; but I cannot do this as I desire, 
 since I have so many temporal affairs to look after. 
 I should go to their respective habitations at least 
 twice a week, and speak to them individually. I 
 should watch continually over them. But this I 
 cannot do. Sometimes I have not an hour to my- 
 self from Monday to Saturday, as I have to attend 
 to brick-makers, masons, carpenters, store-keeping, 
 cultivation, land-surveying, &c. &c. beside our 
 schools, which contain 409 scholars." 
 
 Was he then unmindful of the goodness of the 
 Lord ? No, by no means, but truly he laboured in 
 "the sweat of his brow," "in labours more abun- 
 dant," and who can wonder if sometimes the weari- 
 ness of earthly toil weighed down the spirit that else 
 would have risen in heavenly thanksgiving. We have 
 this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of 
 the power may be of God and not of man ; Augustine 
 Johnson leaves the Hallelujah for us, and breathes
 
 THE HAND OF THE LORD. 73 
 
 forth a lament. Yet wherefore mourn, O faithful mis- 
 sionary ? Was not the chief Apostle called at one 
 time of his universal ministry to give week after week 
 to tent-making, while on the Sabbath-day he reasoned 
 in the Synagogue ? Does he not exclaim, " These 
 hands have ministered," not to " my necessities " 
 alone, but also " to them that were with me ! " God 
 mingleth our cup more wisely than our erring judg- 
 ment could hope to do ! We are well assured that 
 now, remembering all the way by which the Lord 
 thy God led thee in the wilderness, thy heart is 
 tuned to praise for every step that marked it. We 
 are well assured that now, beholding the children 
 that God hath given thee, more than conquerors 
 through him that loved them, with sin out of sight, 
 sorrow forgotten, and weariness unknown, sur- 
 rounded by the spirits of the just made perfect, and 
 rejoicing in the realised glory of the Lord, thy ador- 
 ation rises high above all the faint accents of our 
 earthly Hallelujahs !
 
 " Behold! he prayeth." Acts ix. 11.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 WHEN we think of the missionary of Regent's 
 Town in his multiplied duties minister, head- 
 schoolmaster, steward, overseer, and store-keeper, the 
 earthly centre and spring of all his people's progress, 
 industry, and well being we can only fall back on 
 the promise, sure to every faithful servant of Israel's 
 God, " Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy 
 days so shall thy strength be." The number of his 
 years was the same that marked the most laborious 
 ministiy Earth ever witnessed the ministry of Him 
 who called Himself "the Son of Man ;" who had not 
 where to lay His sacred Head, and of whom it is said, 
 " In the day-time He was teaching in the temple ; 
 and at night he went out, and abode in the Mount 
 that is called the Mount of Olives ; and all the 
 people came early in the morning to Him in the 
 temple, for to hear Him." Happy servant, who
 
 78 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 seems, as near as sinful humanity could attain, to 
 have followed in the steps of his Lord ! 
 
 Jan. 6, he writes "This day is my birth-day. 
 I am now thirty-one years of age. Oh how short 
 appears my past life how unequal have my days 
 been ! Who knows but this year will be my last ? 
 Lord, thy will be done ; only prepare me, and enable 
 me to be always ready May I be faithful unto death ! 
 Should not this day be to me a day of praise and 
 thanksgiving ? but alas, alas ! how cold, how indif- 
 ferent about spiritual things ; nothing can more 
 meet my experience than that of the Apostle Paul, 
 which he expresses in Rom. vii. ' When I would do 
 good, evil is present with me. Oh wretched man 
 that I am!'" 
 
 We find, not seldom, that those whose ministry 
 on earth is most blessed, most honoured of God, 
 least know their happy part ! No doubt this is 
 permitted, lest they should be " exalted above mea- 
 sure ; " but it is not difficult to trace this appoint- 
 ment of divine wisdom and love working by natural 
 causes. The bird always on the wing, crossing the 
 waste of waters, cannot soar with the same spring as 
 if at home upon its native tree, resting one hour and 
 taking flight another. When the spirit's energy is 
 consumed in work, it cannot pour forth itself in hea- 
 venly meditation and praise ; its harp may hang 
 upon the willows, while it toils by the waters of
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 79 
 
 Babylon; but not the less full will the melody be, 
 when, at rest in its own " better country/' it takes up 
 that harp for an everlasting thanksgiving ! There 
 are also servants of the Lord who do all things with 
 so vivid an energy, so vital a power, that the times 
 of re-action from doing and speaking must often of 
 necessity be times of languor, till " this mortal has 
 put on immortality." And there are those who 
 walk so fully in the light of the Lord, that they gain 
 a quickened perception of the evil of their own hearts 
 and the darkness and suffering of this evil world; 
 they must have, also, a joy unspeakable and full of 
 glory, but such blessed moments it may be, are 
 alone with Heaven, seldom written or spoken of ; and 
 when they turn earthward, we hear the lament. All 
 these causes may be in operation at one period, or 
 different periods of life and labour. And yet, not- 
 withstanding all these, from the African wilderness 
 we are often called to listen to " thanksgiving and the 
 voice of melody." 
 
 Judea's shepherds, keeping watch over their 
 flocks by night, heard a multitude of the heavenly 
 host, praising God and saying, " Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace, good- will toward men ;" 
 and sounds as sweet as angel-hymns roused the 
 negro's faithful shepherd from his brief hours of 
 rest. He says in his journal, "Jan. 15. Last night 
 or rather this morning, I heard a man praying at
 
 80 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 some distance. I got up and went into the piazza, 
 but could only understand a few words. After lie 
 had concluded, I heard several join in singing : 
 
 " To Father, and Son, and Holy Ghost, 
 
 The God whom we adore ; 
 Be glory, as it was, is now, 
 And shall be evermore." 
 
 And then a boy, as I judged by his voice, began to 
 pray, whom I could understand very distinctly. His 
 words were very blessed " Lord Jesus ! my heart 
 bad too much. Me want to love you me want to 
 serve you but my bad heart will not let me. 
 Lord Jesus, me can't make me good ! Take away 
 this bad heart ! Lord Jesus ! give me a new 
 heart ! O Lord Jesus ! me sin every day pardon 
 my sin ! Lord Jesus, let me sin no more ! " 
 Thus he continued for ten or twelve minutes. After 
 him, another boy prayed, whom I could not under- 
 stand ; only I heard him make mention of the name 
 of Jesus. Another verse was sung, and then a man 
 concluded. The night was delightful; the moon 
 shone very bright. I cannot express what I felt. I 
 went to bed again, but could not sleep : starting 
 every now and then, thinking I heard the same 
 prayer again. 
 
 " This morning I enquired of the communicants, 
 who lived that way in the woods, but I could not find 
 who they were. Oh ! may the Lord carry on the
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 81 
 
 work of grace, which I believe He has begun, among 
 both young and old ! " 
 
 When the evil spirits were cast out by the word 
 of the Lord from the poor demoniac, " they besought 
 the Lord much that he would not send them out of 
 the country." It was a moment in which the curtain 
 that veils the spirits of evil was withdrawn " for our 
 admonition ; " the same struggle to retain possession 
 is, no doubt, carried on in every place where Jesus 
 enters and wins the slave of Satan to Himself. Dis- 
 lodged from the hearts of these praying negroes, the 
 Spirit of Evil was sure to seek some other means by 
 which to hinder the Redeemer's conquest ; he is 
 " the prince of this world," reigning by a usurped 
 dominion, and " working in the children of disobe- 
 dience ; " therefore he is never at a loss to find agents 
 to promote his malignant will ; and therefore it is 
 that opposition in some form or other, at some period 
 or other, marks the progress of every heavenly effort. 
 So constantly is this the case, that the Heaven-trained 
 soldier of the cross gathers encouragement and com- 
 fort from opposing difficulties, and "looking unto 
 Jesus, the author and finisher of his faith," exclaims, 
 " Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us 
 to triumph in Christ." In the same week in which 
 the missionary's faith had been strengthened by the 
 early orisons of his people, his faith was tried by the 
 misconduct of the schoolmaster sent him by the go-
 
 82 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 vernor. The missionary instantly dismissed the man 
 from his post, and sent him back to Freetown, 
 writing to inform the governor, who immediately 
 sanctioned the step, and entirely removed his patron- 
 age from the offender. Then came the monthly 
 missionary prayer-meeting again, at Leicester Moun- 
 tain, to refresh the missionary's spirit; he attended 
 it with his praying Africans, and returning home, he 
 says, " the boys and girls made the woods and moun- 
 tains echo with their hymns." 
 
 A sharp though short attack of fever seized him, 
 followed by depression of spirits ; but the confessions 
 of his people in prayer to God, at the Saturday 
 evening prayer-meeting, brought home to the mis- 
 sionary's soul the sympathy of Christian fellowship ; 
 and their devout attention on the Sabbath refreshed 
 and animated him to hold on his way. Adver- 
 sity and prosperity, joy and sorrow, did but unite 
 him more closely with this people whom the Lord 
 had given him. And he exclaims, ' ' What a mercy 
 it is that love and unity reign among these children 
 of God, though they are of so many different na- 
 tions ! " 
 
 We pass on but three days further, and again we 
 find the sweetness of encouragement blended with 
 disappointment's wholesome bitter. One of the com- 
 municants, most forward in religious profession, 
 resolved upon a marriage that his spiritual father
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 83 
 
 could not sanction ; this opposition woke up all the 
 evil of the unsubdued will. The faithful Tamba went 
 to his erring brother to endeavour to bring him to a 
 better mind, but all to no purpose ; he expressed his 
 resolution of going to the governor, and getting 
 married in Freetown. But though the missionary's 
 most sensitive spirit was crushed to the earth by this 
 outbreak of evil and violent feeling, in one of the 
 foremost in profession of his converts, and grieved 
 at heart to think of the exposure that the man's 
 meditated step would involve, and the triumph it 
 would give to the numberless enemies of the faith 
 of Christ in the colony, he could not be moved from 
 his high sense of his spiritual obligation, as the 
 spiritual guide of his people. While mourning 
 under this trial, another followed. A quarrel had 
 taken place in the house of two of his communicants, 
 owing to the false representations of an evil-minded 
 woman, who persuaded the husband that his wife 
 spent the time of his absence in gossiping from 
 house to house; the dispute came to violence, and 
 the missionary exclaims, " Oh that my head were 
 waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might 
 weep day and night, because they have forsaken the 
 law which the Lord set before them ! May it please 
 God to hold me up under this trial, and those who 
 appear much distressed on this account. Lord, 
 turn this evil into good ! " Thus did the missionary
 
 84 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 mourn ; while we may rather wonder that such in- 
 stances were not multiplied; that they were not, 
 proves, indeed, how great must have been the grace 
 given, which could, in a time so short, subdue and 
 sanctify the hearts and lives of these poor heathens, 
 who had never learned one lesson of self-restraint till 
 the schoolmaster of Regent's Town stood among 
 them. It was his people's sin now that broke in 
 upon the missionary's rest, and robbed him of his 
 sleep ; his eyes were fixed so constantly upon it that 
 all became shadowed by its presence ; he began to 
 think all his converts might prove false professors 
 one day, and his awakened fears added himself to 
 the list, " May not I myself go one day or other ! 
 Lord, I pray thee hold me up in this trying hour, and 
 I shall be safe ! " The days of darkness passed on, 
 and the Sabbath came ; then, compelled to take up 
 the mighty sword of the Spirit, the tempter and the 
 temptation gave way before it. He says, in his 
 journal, " March 1. Sunday. My subject was John 
 vi. 37 : ' All that the Father giveth rne, shall come 
 to me ; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise 
 cast out.' I administered the Lord's Supper to about 
 eighty communicants. In the evening I addressed 
 the people on Matt. xiv. 12: "And went and told 
 Jesus." I found this evening a little more peace of 
 mind. Happy are the moments when we can go, 
 like the disciples of John, and tell Jesus our distress,
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 85 
 
 and pour out our hearts into His bosom, who is well 
 acquainted with our trials, and is ' a friend that 
 sticketh closer than a brother' ' ; How touching a 
 commentary is this histoiy how close a counterpart 
 to the declaration of St. Paul to his Thessalonian 
 converts, " For now we live, if ye standfast in the 
 Lord!" 
 
 March 17. We find him at the peaceful work of 
 bestowing an acre of garden-ground on the girls of 
 Mrs. Johnson's school, which they received with loud 
 acclamations. March 21. The journal records, " A 
 bullock and a goat, belonging to Tamba, died to-day 
 being the greatest part of his property." I said 
 to him, " Tamba, you have had a great loss to-day," 
 he replied, " He that gave them took them away ! " 
 He appeared not at all sorrowful, but cheerful ; even 
 more than at other times, which very much struck 
 me. 
 
 " March 27. I visited several of the female com- 
 municants. I will mention, in their own simple 
 language, some of the expressions which I noted 
 down. M. M. said, " Wicked things trouble me too 
 much ; me want to do good, but me wicked heart 
 can't let me. Suppose me pray, my heart run to my 
 country, all about. Sometimes them things me no 
 want to remember come into my heart, and then me 
 can't say no more, but ' Jesus Christ have mercy 
 upon me ! ' Sometimes you preach, Massa ; me think
 
 86 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 you only talk to me, me say in my heart, ' That me ! 
 me been do that thing/ Me fraid me no love Jesus 
 Christ, yet me want to love and serve him too much, 
 but me bad heart ; me tink sometimes me have two 
 hearts, one want do good, that other always want do 
 bad. O Jesus ! have mercy upon me poor sinner." 
 
 S. A. said, " My husband trouble me too much, 
 Massa, he no pray, he no serve God ; suppose me 
 talk to him about God, he take whip and flog me, me 
 have trouble too much, trouble too much ! but the 
 Lord Jesus Christ help me to take all trouble. But, 
 Massa, sometimes me fraid He no love me, and me no 
 love Him. Oh may He teach me for good ! Suppose, 
 Massa, you no come to this country, we sabba go fire, 
 we lie, we thieve, we do all that is bad. I thank God 
 for send you here, for teach us poor sinners ! " 
 
 A young heathen man of wicked habits had been 
 carried into the hospital ill, and the next day as the 
 missionary was going out to visit his people, a mes- 
 senger came to tell him that the poor young man 
 had suddenly died; he hastened to the hospital, 
 where he heard from the patients that the sick man 
 had spent his time in prayer. Mr. Macaulay, the 
 doctor, who had so early become a convert to the Lord, 
 was both able and willing to administer to the sick 
 under his care, the medicine of the soul the Word 
 of Life. Davis had been and visited the sick man in 
 the morning; and Tamba went later in the day he
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 87 
 
 waited in silence beside the sick man, who appeared 
 to be in prayer, prayer of which Tamba so well 
 understood the value ! While he was waiting, afraid 
 to disturb him, the dying man lifted up his hands and 
 exclaimed, "Thank God thank God!" and then 
 expired. Thus had these poor negroes already become 
 1 ' sons of consolation ! " 
 
 On Sunday, March 29, the Chief Justice of the 
 colony^ Captain Appleton, two American missionaries, 
 several officers of the African corps, and other gen- 
 tlemen of Freetown, came to Regent's Town to attend 
 the morning service. The American missionaries 
 were delighted, seeing so many black faces eager after 
 the Word of God. One exclaimed, that nothing less 
 than a miracle had been wrought at Regent's Town ! 
 but the pastor found not the same personal comfort 
 as when alone with his poor negroes. 
 
 The Governor of the colony urged upon the mis- 
 sionary the baptising more of his people. Seeing the 
 changed aspect of the place, seeing the crowded 
 church where more than a thousand black faces 
 turned in eagerness to listen to the joyful sound of 
 Heavenly love, he thought that such a people might 
 be baptized by thousands, as on the day of Pentecost, 
 when, he said, " the Apostles despised none." But 
 Augustine Johnson called no man Master, save the 
 Lord he served ; he waited the evidence of faith in 
 the hearts and lives of his people, and nothing could
 
 88 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 move him from his constant course. Again and 
 again the Governor urged his wish upon him ; while 
 Tamba, on the other hand, trembled when, as from 
 time to time, numbers were added by baptism to the 
 church, lest they should prove false professors ; but 
 like the rock amid the waves stood this missionary 
 pastor, taught of God to " discern between the righ- 
 teous and the wicked," neither persuasion, threats, 
 nor fears could move him either way ; he received 
 every candidate for baptism, but still subjected them 
 to the same course of instruction and probation, and 
 then admitted them, or deferred their admission to 
 the church, as they gave proof, or the contrary, of 
 sincerity of heart. A beautiful instance meets us 
 here of the sufficiency of the divine Word for the 
 instruction of every one who sincerely walks in the 
 spirit of obedience to it. The Governor, urging the 
 missionary to baptize a larger number of the people, 
 gave, as a reason, that the Apostles on the day of 
 Pentecost baptized 3000 at once; the missionary 
 instantly replied, "Yes, the Apostles baptized all 
 those who were 'pricked in their heart,' and I am 
 ready to baptize all who come to me, giving evidence 
 that they are really 'pricked in their heart.' '' 
 
 The missionary had been obliged to stop the 
 school since the last Christmas, having no school- 
 books ; but as soon as the supply arrived he gave out 
 its re -opening; he feared that some of the older
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 89 
 
 children would not be likely after so long a break, to 
 return ; but when the time arrived, he was so over- 
 whelmed with scholars that he knew not what to do 
 with them. But he had now trained one of his 
 negro men to act as usher under him ; and with his 
 assistance he formed them into different classes. 
 This negro, Noah, soon became invaluable to his 
 pastor; faithful in heart, diligent in business, and 
 fervent in spirit, with an intellectual superiority of 
 mind, he became, like Urbane to St. Paul, " a helper 
 in Christ." 
 
 Sunday, June 14, he writes in his journal, 
 " Last night I was again attacked by the fever, which 
 continued almost until this morning. Felt very 
 weak and exhausted, and told the people to have 
 divine service at half past ten o' clock by reading 
 the prayers, as I thought it imprudent to attempt it 
 myself, on account of my great weakness. When the 
 bell rang, the church was crowded, which caused me 
 to break my determination ; though weak, yet I could 
 not see a hungry flock going away without being 
 fed. I went, I hope in the strength of the Lord, and 
 preached. When I had finished, I was constrained to 
 tell the people that I would preach again in the even- 
 ing, which I did, and found myself much refreshed 
 and not fatigued. Thus the Lord makes his strength 
 perfect in our weakness, both temporal and spiritual/ " 
 
 June 20, we find Augustine Johnson by the
 
 90 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 dying bed of a missionary's wife, comforting her 
 troubled heart with the assurance of her Lord's un- 
 changeable love, repeating text after text as her faint- 
 ing life could bear it, till " she expressed joy and 
 comfort through Jesus." Soon after, she became 
 speechless and senseless, and on the Sabbath morning 
 departed. 
 
 July 6, he writes in his journal, " It appears to 
 me that the enemy stirred up all his followers to 
 tempt me ; when I thought I had conquered a 
 mighty one, a much stronger appeared; but blessed 
 be the Lord Jesus who causes me always to triumph, 
 and gives me the victory eveiy day/' 
 
 " On Sunday, I married James Bell, a mason, to 
 Hannah Cammel, usher in the girls' and women's 
 schools both communicants, and the finest black 
 couple that I have yet married. Their dress was like 
 that of Europeans." 
 
 July 9, we find the native doctor bringing home 
 conviction to the heart of an offending communicant 
 who had quarrelled with his wife thus healing the 
 spiritual as well as the bodily hurts of the daughter 
 of his people ! 
 
 July 12. The missionary writes. " Sunday. 
 The rain came down the most part of the day in 
 torrents; and we consequently expected but few 
 hearers. Before, however, I had read the exhorta- 
 tion, we had the pleasure of seeing the church full.
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 91 
 
 I could not help feeling for the females, who were all 
 neatly dressed, but wet through. In the afternoon 
 and evening, we had the church nearly full again. 
 All praise to that Redeemer who indeed continues to 
 do great things for us. May Africa soon stretch 
 forth her hands to God in every town and village ! 
 Blessed be His holy Name, the promise is already ful- 
 filling. What a happy period is that in which we 
 live ! What do not our ears hear and our eyes see ! 
 Have not many prophets and righteous men desired 
 to see the things we see and have not seen them, and 
 to hear those things which we hear and have not 
 heard them ? " 
 
 During the last days of July, and the first days of 
 August, the Pastor of Regent' s Town was absent 
 from his people, tending the dying beds of some of the 
 devoted missionaries, and committing their bodies to 
 the grave, in the land for which they yielded up their 
 lives. One of these was Mr. Garnon, an English 
 clergyman and the excellent chaplain of Freetown. 
 They fell in the breach, but the shout of victory rose 
 up to Heaven even then above their sleeping dust : 
 and louder and louder will it swell from the land for 
 which their sun went down at noon-day, till the 
 voice of the archangel and the trump of God shall 
 call them from their graves, to see the good of God's 
 chosen, to rejoice in the gladness of His nation, and
 
 92 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 to glory with His inheritance gathered from west to 
 east, and north to south, of Africa's vast continent. 
 
 On the Saturday, August 1 . Augustine Johnson 
 returned, accompanied by the Governor, to Regent's 
 Town ; but when his people found that by the Gover- 
 nor's desire he was to go back again to Freetown for 
 the next Sabbath morning to preach there, the village 
 was in an uproar ; he assured them that he would be 
 with them by the afternoon of the Sabbath-day, 
 administer the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and 
 preach to them ; but this would not satisfy them ; 
 they said, Mr. Garnon was dead, and they were 
 afraid he would leave them for Freetown ! Several 
 went to meet the Governor, to tell him that their 
 minister should not go ; and a note was written, per- 
 haps the first attempted in Regent's Town. 
 
 " Mr. Johnson, If you go we will all follow 
 you." 
 
 But the faithful pastor returned to his people. 
 He says, as he entered Regent's Town, on the Sabbath 
 afternoon, it seemed to him like another world, com- 
 pared with Freetown which he had just left ; as he 
 drew near the doctor's house he saw it crowded with 
 people, and the melody of their voices, singing one 
 of the songs of Zion, was borne on the air to meet him. 
 
 August 5. The missionary writes in his journal, 
 " This morning at family-prayer I pleaded the cause
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 93 
 
 of a poor woman who had lost her husband, and is 
 left destitute of everything. Those who had money 
 with them gave it, others went home and brought it, 
 and I was very happy to have soon I/. 6s. 5d., in my 
 possession for this poor woman." 
 
 Among the candidates for baptism this month 
 were nine of the school-girls ; one only eleven years 
 of age, who gave such clear evidences of knowledge 
 and love of her Saviour, that all who heard her were 
 astonished. Her minister says, " She will go like an 
 aged Christian to visit the sick ; and she shews great 
 attention to me and my wife." 
 
 " Sept. 2. I went to Freetown and had a final 
 meeting with Mrs. Garnon, who sailed for England at 
 six o'clock. I found it hard to part with one whose 
 Christian affection and sympathy in trials past, have 
 been as oil of consolation to my soul. May the God 
 of Jacob be with her ! Never will she be forgotten 
 by me, nor by my people, who made it a rule to pray 
 for her regularly. 
 
 " Sept. 6. Sunday. Being a fine day, we were 
 completely crowded, as on fine days we have gene- 
 rally strangers from other towns. The vestry, the 
 stairs of the gallery, the tower, and the windows were 
 all full. Some of the seats which were filled in the 
 passages, broke down, being overburdened. When I 
 entered the church, and saw the multitudes, I could 
 hardly refrain myself, for my heart was full. After
 
 94 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 evening service, I was told that the boys wished to 
 speak to me ; one boy stepped forward, and said that 
 they had been in the field to pray, and that they did 
 not know how ; but they had heard that Jesus 
 prayed for them, and they wished to know if it were 
 really so. I spoke to them on the office of our High 
 Priest ; they went away with joy into the field again. 
 
 "Being a moonlight night and very still, the 
 mountains echoed with the songs of hymns. The 
 girls were in one part of the field, praying and sing- 
 ing alternately. The boys had got upon a high rock 
 with a light, one gave out a hymn, and at the con- 
 clusion one engaged in prayer. Many of the people 
 got up and joined these infant congregations. 
 
 " When the bell rang for family prayer this morn- 
 ing, it rained very hard, and the wind blowing like 
 a tornado, I did not expect many people ; but when 
 I looked out of the window I saw the streets and 
 roads covered with them, and when I went into the 
 church I found it as full as on Sunday. 
 
 " All the people seemed to me different this morn- 
 ing ; their common conversations are all about reli- 
 gion. I rejoice with trembling. 
 
 " Sept. 8. Last night we had the missionary 
 prayer-meeting, contributions were paid with cheer- 
 fulness. We have now about j28. 
 
 " Sept. 9. Last evening after school, the boys and 
 girls went to the church. When they had begun to
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 95 
 
 sing, Mrs. Johnson and myself went and stood 
 behind the window. George, the tailor boy, was the 
 first who engaged in prayer. His principal petition 
 was for a spirit of prayer. He repeated several times 
 the following words, " heavenly Father, for Jesus 
 Christ's sake forgive us our sins ; and for his sake 
 send down thine Holy Spirit to teach us how to 
 pray." A school-boy then gave out the hymn, 
 
 " Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched." 
 
 After which he engaged in prayer. He spoke rather 
 low, and as the wind blew much we could not well 
 hear it. Another boy gave out, 
 
 " Blessings for ever on the Lamb." 
 
 After which a little boy, about ten years old, prayed 
 very sweetly, which brought tears into my eyes. His 
 whole soul seemed to be engaged. He spoke very 
 loud and distinct. One part of his prayer came with 
 power to my heart, " O Lord ! we been so long on 
 the way to hell, and we no been saved ; we been hear 
 your good word so long, and we no been consider. 
 Oh learn us how to follow you now ! We live nigh 
 hell. Lord Jesus save us; take us away from 
 hell fire. We want you to do it now now we want 
 you to save us. Lord Jesus, hear us now, this 
 night ! Our sins too much oh save us save us ! "
 
 96 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 
 
 I could stay no longer but went home, my heart was 
 full. I was drowned in tears. Oh iny God and 
 Saviour, what hast thou done ? What shall I render 
 unto Thee ? 
 
 " Sept. 12. This evening met as usual in the 
 church for prayer. A few of the candidates for 
 baptism expressed much joy, viewing what great 
 things the Lord had done for them, in bringing them 
 away from their own country ; they praised God for 
 being sold as slaves. 
 
 " Sept. 16. I went last night and sat under a 
 staircase, where I was not perceived, and heard with 
 great delight the simple and sweet expressions the 
 boys made use of in prayer. Nothing but divine 
 grace could teach them thus to pray. The last who 
 prayed fell into a flood of tears, so that he could 
 scarcely utter a word. The whole assembly of chil- 
 dren repeated the Lord's prayer, in a most solemn 
 manner, while he wept aloud. 
 
 " Sept. 17. This morning, one of the elder 
 carpenter boys came to me in great distress of mind. 
 I encouraged him to go, with all his sins, to -the 
 Saviour of sinners. He went home, I trust, in 
 peace. This young man had been my greatest 
 enemy ; he had opposed, in every way, the word of 
 God ; filling up the measure of sin with greediness. 
 
 " Sept. 24. Went to Freetown to-day, but felt
 
 THE QUICKENING SPIRIT. 97 
 
 less confortable than I had formerly done. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Gamon were gone ! the town appeared 
 different to me. 
 
 " Sept. 27. Another very wet Sunday, but 
 blessed be God who always fills His house of prayer 
 here whether it rains or whether it be fair, we are 
 always crowded. 
 
 " Sept. 28. The church was crowded at family 
 prayer morning and evening. The eagerness to hear 
 the Word of God seems still to increase. Seventeen 
 more were received to be baptized next Christmas- 
 day. 
 
 " Oct. 6. Last night we had the Missionary 
 prayer-meeting as usual. After service, contributions 
 were paid. This morning at family -prayer some paid 
 for next month. I asked one man why ? He replied, 
 ' ' I may be sick next month, and not able to pay, so 
 I pay now to make sure of it." Many women came 
 and paid a penny or a halfpenny for their infants, 
 besides their own contributions." 
 
 Must we not exclaim with the prophet Isaiah, in 
 his vision of IshmaeFs future acceptance, " Who are 
 these that fly as a cloud, and as the doves to their 
 windows ? "
 
 " Enlarged by you according to our rule abundantly, to preach the 
 Gospel in the regions beyond you." 2 Cor. x. 15, 16.
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 
 
 IN October of this year, 1818, we find our missionai'y 
 surveying the mountains, for the purpose of making 
 if possible, a more direct road to Freetown. Ascend- 
 ing and descending the mountain-cliffs, with a com- 
 pass to guide his steps, and one of his people to 
 accompany him, we look upon him invested with 
 fresh interest employing the natural powers God 
 had given him for the temporal benefit of his people. 
 But even while he did so, his heart was intent upon 
 the souls committed to his charge, and his compass 
 guided him to some lonely huts in a mountain-forest, 
 where several poor Bassa people had retired from 
 Regent's Town, hiding themselves in this solitude 
 because their old superstitions were dear to them. 
 
 They were greatly surprised at the sudden ap- 
 pearance of their Regent's Town pastor; he talked 
 with them, and their leader at length replied, " All 
 what you say, massa, that be true, because Davis, my 
 countryman, told me the same. I beg your pardon, 
 massa : soon, soon when rain done, I will come with 
 all the people, and take lots, and sit down and serve
 
 102 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 
 
 God." He then offered himself as the missionary's 
 guide, which offer was accepted. 
 
 Here we meet the first happy result of native 
 teaching from Regent's Town. The feet of the 
 itinerant Davis had trod the path before, he had 
 borne his testimony to his wandering countrymen, 
 and they own the white man's word to be true, 
 because one of their own land has told them the same ; 
 and they promise to come, and serve God. 
 
 While taking this survey of the mountain-passes, 
 standing on a high rock, the missionary could see the 
 greatest part of Regent's Town : it lay outspread in 
 its peaceful loveliness before him ; and as his eye 
 wandered from one summit to another of its encircling 
 hills, must not the song of Israel's psalmist have 
 risen from his heart, "As the mountains are round 
 about Jerusalem, so the Lord is round about his 
 people, from henceforth even for ever \" He looked 
 upon his home among the hills, the church beside it, 
 which morning and evening proved the favoured 
 meeting-place between a praying people and their 
 God, the schoolhouses within the same enclosure, 
 where young hearts were trained for Heaven and 
 taught the knowledge of God; and all around on 
 the hills' sloping sides, the cultivated soil rich with 
 cocoas, cassadas, plantains, bananas, and coffee ; then 
 the dwellings of the negroes, each with its own small 
 enclosure and its fence around; the pasture where
 
 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 103 
 
 their cattle fed at large, and which no foeman's foot 
 drew near, to seize the prey ; and the broad flowing 
 brook, filled with the waters of the mountain -streams. 
 Long, surely, must the eye that could behold a sight 
 so earthly and so heavenly fair, have lingered there ! 
 As the missionary gazed, he thought, "Ah, is not 
 the promise fulfilled? Isaiah xli. 18-20." Two 
 years ago, this was a desert overgrown with bush, 
 and inhabited by wild men and beasts, and now, in 
 both a spiritual and a temporal sense, " it is a fruitful 
 field ! " " May the Holy One of Israel, whose hand 
 hath done this, have all the praise and glory ! " 
 
 The next day after evening prayer, a woman, a com- 
 municant, desired to speak with her pastor ; he had 
 been compelled to fix upon one evening as an appointed 
 time for religious conference, and therefore told her 
 to come on the following Monday. But she said she 
 could not wait, so he turned to listen to her words. 
 She had been brought to know and love her Saviour 
 a year before, and though living on a farm three 
 quarters of a mile distant from the church, she had 
 constantly attended Divine Service on Sundays, and 
 family prayers in the church, morning and evening, 
 even in the heaviest rains. She was the only con- 
 vert from about fifty of her country people residing 
 at the same spot : she had borne and had suffered 
 for her Saviour's name's sake, persecuted by her 
 country-people, and cruelly treated by her husband ;
 
 104 "LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 
 
 she had sown for one long year in tears, and now 
 she began to reap in joy : she had come to tell 
 that her hushand had begun to attend Divine ser- 
 vice with her; he used her kindly, and wished to 
 change his distant farm for a lot in the town, to live 
 near the church, and hear the Word of God. And 
 that evening four of her countrywomen were with 
 her, waiting to see her Pastor; the missionary 
 spoke to them separately, and in each there appeared 
 to be an awakening of heart to God through the 
 example and the words of this Christian negro ! 
 The missionary adds, " Well might this poor woman 
 be too impatient to wait till Monday her joy was too 
 great to be restrained till that day." She had 
 laboured and had not fainted, and now she brought 
 in her sheaves with rejoicing. Thus from each 
 bright centre in Regent's Town did the Heavenly 
 Truth radiate out into a widening circle. 
 
 " Nov. 23. A woman of the fierce Eboe tribe came, 
 so much distressed in mind, that she could scarcely 
 speak ; she said, " Me pray to God the Holy Ghost 
 to take me to Jesus Christ to take me to the 
 Father." This expression astonished the missionary, 
 as well it might ; he questioned her, but her feelings 
 were too strong for the limited utterance of her 
 broken English the tide of thought overflowed the 
 narrow banks of her scanty words, so the missionary 
 says, " I advised her to go to Tamba, of whom all
 
 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 105 
 
 seem to be very fond, and tell him her heart, and 
 he would tell me again." 
 
 Two years Augustine Johnson had laboured in 
 the mountain valley, and though to us the time may 
 appear but a ' little moment' for so great a work, yet 
 we remember the work was not of man but of God 
 and with the Lord ' one day is as a thousand years ; ' 
 and now their blessed Evangelist could stand in the 
 midst of them, joying, and beholding their order, 
 and the stedfastness of their faith in Christ. But 
 the heavenly sunbeam that lights up the Christian's 
 pilgrim way is oftentimes sheathed in a cloud ; the 
 yet imperfect spirits of the just appear to need on 
 earth the balancing of mingled feelings some gilded 
 by the light of heaven, some darkened with earth's 
 heavy shadow that while they increase their joy in 
 the Lord, faith also may have its necessary occasions 
 of exercise, hope be cultivated while waiting for that 
 which is not seen, and patience have its perfect work. 
 It might seem impossible now for the missionary of 
 Regent's Town to mourn ; but his missionary spirit 
 finds the occasion. True he has planted precious 
 seed, and it has sprung up and is bearing fruit to life 
 eternal ; but he looks upon the one small field, and 
 thinks how all around it lies outspread the heathen 
 wilderness which the step of the sower yet pressed 
 not, where no precious seed was scattered. He says ; 
 " I feel like a bird in a cage ! " He had poured
 
 106 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS/' 
 
 forth his ministry of truth and love, till now, on the 
 same spot, and he longed like a freed bird to take 
 wing, and make the solitary place rejoice : if only 
 to breathe his Saviour's name on air that never yet 
 had vibrated beneath it, on hearts that never yet 
 had known the joyful sound. He exclaims, " Ah ! 
 how far are our thoughts from those beyond the 
 colony just as if there were no other heathen in 
 Africa ! Oh, my God, revive the spirit of Mission- 
 ary zeal among us. Oh that the Lord of the harvest 
 would open more effectual ways for the conveyance 
 of the glorious gospel into the interior of Africa ! I 
 have reason to be thankful ; as the Lord has, through 
 my weakness, established a church in this place. I 
 have indeed reason to rejoice that my labours have 
 not been in vain in the Lord. Yet I feel uncom- 
 fortable; my mind is wandering into the interior of 
 Africa. Is this mere imagination ? Why do these 
 thoughts continually follow me, and why are many 
 hours in the night spent without rest ? Lord, hast 
 thou designed me to proceed from hence into other 
 parts of Africa ? Here am I, send me. And yet I 
 see no way open ; but with Thee nothing is impos- 
 sible." , Then, immediately, he turns homeward again 
 to express the joy he had had in " many sweet con- 
 versations " with his people that evening. 
 
 On the evening of December the 7th, 1818, 
 the first anniversary of the Regent's Town Church
 
 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 107 
 
 Missionary meeting was held. Two hours before 
 the time, the people assembled from every quarter ; 
 the church was crowded : and the cheerful givers 
 whom the Lord loveth left as their offerings that 
 evening 5. 10s. 8d. 
 
 December 22. Dorothy Noah, who had been ill 
 three months, now said, that she had felt afraid to 
 die, but that all fear was gone ! She knew herself 
 to be the greatest sinner in the world, but Jesus had 
 come to save such, and so she found comfort. She 
 was frequently refreshed in her sleep, thinking herself 
 in Heaven : and often sorrowing, when she woke, 
 that she was still on earth. 
 
 On Christmas Day, the church was crowded, 
 many outside who could find no room within. Forty- 
 six adults, and one infant, were baptized. The me- 
 chanics had saved their meat, and receiving from 
 their pastor a gift of more, also yams, cocoa, and 
 cassada out of the field, they prepared a dinner ; the 
 carpenters set up tables and benches, and the rest 
 made ready the food. About 800 sat down to 
 dinner before the missionary's house. Noah asked 
 a blessing, which the whole repeated. Thanks were 
 returned in the same manner. The missionary, 
 when he saw so many, feared that they had not food 
 enough ; but when he enquired afterwards, they an- 
 swered, " Yes, we have had plenty." Tamba gathered 
 up the fragments, and there were eight pots full.
 
 108 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 
 
 On the 4th of January, 1819, the schools at 
 Regent's Town were examined before the Governor 
 and many of the principal persons of the colony. 
 The Governor was delighted with their progress, and 
 said that were he to tell the people in England, he 
 doubted whether they would believe him ! 
 
 It was in the month of November that Augustine 
 Johnson, in his journal, had poured forth his mis- 
 sionary longings. In December he suffered from a 
 short but severe attack of illness : and before he 
 recovered, Mrs. Johnson was supposed to be dying. 
 So little hope was entertained of her life, that he was 
 called from his own sick bed to take leave of her : 
 he had strength to offer up a prayer, in which the 
 doctor and some of Mrs. Johnson's school-girls joined, 
 and then the increase of his own illness obliged him 
 to retire yet he was enabled to exclaim, " death, 
 where is thy sting ? Oh grave, where is thy vic- 
 tory ? " He says, he had often feared that such 
 a separation as this he would not be able to bear ! 
 But he adds, " the Lord is faithful, a present help in 
 time of trouble. Clear views of an interest in the blood 
 and righteousness of Jesus, and of the joys beyond 
 the grave, make death a messenger of good tidings ! " 
 When he wrote this record of heavenly support, the 
 object of his earthly affections was recovering. 
 
 This solemn season at the gate of death was cal- 
 culated to dispel all feeling that was mere " imagi-
 
 "LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 109 
 
 nation/' and to lead to the truest estimate of relative 
 claims ; testing every thought in the light of that 
 eternity then so vividly realized. Yet the missionary's 
 heart still wandered into Africa's interior, and he 
 longed to take a lighted candle from Regent's Town, 
 and penetrate into the darkness. He had not, like 
 apostles of old, "the gift of tongues," but God had 
 supplied this want in another way he had the 
 faithful Tamba, who knew the dialects of the heathen 
 tribes that dwelt around the colony. 
 
 January 12. Mr. Gates came to Regent' s-Town, 
 to accompany his brother missionary, by the ap- 
 pointment of the Society at home ; and Tamba went 
 with them, " to preach the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ " to his African countrymen. At their de- 
 parture from Regent's Town many of the inhabitants 
 surrounded them, shaking hands with their minister 
 with many tears. A report circulating among them 
 that he would not return, it was with the greatest 
 difficulty, and only after repeated assurances, that 
 they were persuaded to leave him. 
 
 The missionary party pursued their way, day by 
 day, along the shore, one while treading the firm 
 sand beach, then wading or swimming through 
 creeks, watching the sharks in the shallows, and 
 tracing the steps of alligators on the mud; the 
 barren rocks on one side clothed with the wild con- 
 volvuluses and other running flowers spread over their
 
 110 " LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 
 
 hardy faces, while the other side was exposed to all 
 the fury of the Atlantic waves ; crossing an inter- 
 posing bay in a native canoe, and winding up a 
 river's course, overgrown with mangrove trees to 
 the water's edge, forming a forest on either side. 
 At every little town they lingered, spoke to the 
 native headman, and gathered the people, while 
 Tamba consecrated one native dialect after another 
 by declaring in them, for the first time, the wonder- 
 ful works of God. 
 
 At one place, Wilberforce before they left the 
 colony where the gospel had been preached, but 
 only in English, Tamba addressed the people in their 
 native Cosso language, from the words, " Thou art 
 the Christ, the Son of the living God." The Cosso 
 people were astonished to hear the words of eternal 
 life in their own tongue, and one little girl seemed 
 scarcely able to believe the sounds turning alter- 
 nately to the speaker and then to her parents, as if 
 in doubt whether others could hear as she did ! But 
 as they wandered on, the joyful sound fell on hearts 
 as yet less prepared to receive the good seed of the 
 kingdom ; the feeling of these poor heathens too 
 often seemed to be that of the learned Greeks of old, 
 " Thou bringest strange things to our ears ; " yet 
 none could tell but that some winged seed might be 
 lodged, in after- days to germinate and grow in the 
 heart where it had fallen. Their way brought
 
 "LENGTHEN THY CORDS." Ill 
 
 nothing beyond expected difficulties and toil, until 
 one day, when it became necessary to wade mile 
 after mile through mud, sometimes for half a mile 
 together so deep as to be only passed with unshod 
 feet, under the mangroves by the river's side, they 
 reached at last the expected town, hungry, weak, 
 and tired, reckoning on rest and food for their 
 bodily need, and on imparting food to the souls of 
 the people ; no welcome, however, awaited the weary 
 travellers. They found no one in the town except 
 an aged woman and some children ; had it been a 
 solitary traveller, the African woman would probably 
 have felt pity for him, but a company of men was 
 not unlikely to awaken a hostile suspicion ; she 
 would give them nothing and wanted nothing from 
 them. They wandered on a mile further, and then 
 their guide forsook them ; they went backwards and 
 forwards, vainly endeavouring to find a road through 
 the woods, but darkness surrounded them, and they 
 could only turn back their tired steps to one of the 
 inhospitable farms they had passed on their way. 
 They had travelled nearly thirty miles, the greatest 
 part of the way on foot, without anything to eat ; 
 they found a shed with a fire and an iron pot ; so 
 heating some water, they mixed with it the last 
 port wine that they had, and drank it from an old 
 broken bowl, and then lay down and slept till day 
 began to break. Elephants and leopards had their
 
 112 "LENGTHEN THY CORDS." 
 
 dwelling-place around, the wild animals of the wood 
 howled them to sleep, and the heavy night-dew fell 
 upon them ; yet they laid them down in peace, and 
 took their rest, for Thou, Lord, madest them to dwell 
 in safety ! Perhaps they thought of Him who sat 
 on Samaria' s Well, weary and thirsty, and blessed 
 the God of all grace who gave them in measure to 
 breathe their Heavenly Master's Spirit, and find it 
 their meat to do the will of Him that sent them. 
 
 The next day they found their way more readily, 
 crossing some streams, one of which flowed from 
 Regent's Town. Still preaching as they went, they 
 had the comfort of finding that the way would be open 
 for bearing the message of the Gospel whenever a 
 standard-bearer could be found. They proved also 
 the efficiency of Tamba for the work of an Evan- 
 gelist, and determined, with the consent of the 
 Committee in England, to endeavour to prepare 
 both Tamba and Davis as native teachers of their 
 distant countrymen. 
 
 Jan. 18. The missionary company returned to 
 Regent's Town, causing great joy ; the people 
 thronged around their pastor, who returned to his 
 house in the midst of the rejoicing crowd. In seven 
 days they had walked upwards of 120 miles, taking 
 a complete circuit round the colony ; making known 
 the glad tidings of salvation as they went, and so 
 preparing the way of the Lord.
 
 f (janfesgibwg 
 
 " For what thanks can we render to God again for you, for all 
 the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before our God." 1 Thess.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 THROUGHOUT the history of the Christian Church 
 we trace the unquestionable fact, that the most ex- 
 pansive charity has the deepest well-spring at home; 
 and ever as its streams are multiplied, the source 
 from which they flow is deepened and enlarged. The 
 same fact is within the limit of personal observation : 
 those parishes which, under the steady, healthful 
 principle of heavenly love, most actively supply the 
 need of those " afar off," are themselves the most 
 fruitful places of the Church at home. And the 
 individual who, by the extension of his sympathies, 
 acquires a nearer resemblance to Him whose name 
 is Love, will, like every portion of the workmanship 
 of God, bear the closest inspection in his faithful 
 provision for every relative demand and social neces- 
 sity. When we find it otherwise, we have reason to 
 believe that the work of distant mercy was done in 
 the energy of the natural mind, and not in " the love
 
 116 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 of the Spirit;" or that the clay in the Heavenly 
 Potters hand, yielded not itself without reserve to 
 the moulding influence of divine, exhaustless, in- 
 finite love. We turn to Regent's Town to find the 
 happy realization of the heavenly certainty. 
 
 In the month of March of this same year, 1819, 
 its pastor could write, "no fewer than fifty-two negroes 
 have been added this last month to the Church of 
 Christ. The number of communicants and candi- 
 dates amounted to more than two hundred, whose 
 conduct and conversation is such as becomes Chris- 
 tians. The school-girls are in general piously in- 
 clined. . . Many of the boys have become serious. . . 
 On the whole, all the people seem to be hungering 
 after the righteousness of Jesus ; their conduct is 
 changed; though there are some who still would 
 rather hold fast their country fashions, but they see 
 the prosperity of the righteous, which stops thu ir 
 mouths, and persuades them that there is something 
 real and sound in Christianity. 
 
 " Our boys' school was burned down a few 
 days ago. I was at a 'loss to conceive how to build 
 another; but the boys being willing to build, and 
 the girls offering to assist, we commenced the fol- 
 lowing day and have nearly finished it. The girls' 
 house suffered much in the fire ; and my house was 
 in great danger, but the Lord heard our prayers in 
 the moment of trouble ; the wind was very boisterous
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 117 
 
 at the commencement of the fire, but a complete 
 calm followed, so that the flames ascended per- 
 pendicularly, and all the people beheld with astonish- 
 ment the hand of the Lord. Nearly one hundred 
 boys were asleep in the roof, who all came down small 
 ladders, so that not one was hurt." 
 
 In this same month he writes, "We have met 
 almost every night to examine candidates ; it is in- 
 deed wonderful to hear the dealings of the Lord with 
 these people. A man was sent here about two years 
 ago, who had been on board a man of war for a long 
 time ; he has been indeed a trial to me, and to all 
 my people he protested against religion, and lived 
 in sin with greediness. Some time ago, one Sunday 
 afternoon, he was at Church. I felt no liberty at 
 that time, and could not get on with my discourse ; 
 my own life recurred to my mind, and I was con- 
 strained to introduce my own tale. This proved to 
 be the time of that man's conversion. The lion was 
 turned into a lamb. He was examined last week, 
 and received as a candidate for baptism ; he was in 
 England a long while, but was never baptized. Only 
 the sovereign grace of God could do this ! " 
 
 In March of this year, 1819, another missionary 
 journey was made from Regent's Town. Tamba 
 and Davis had long felt an earnest desire to tell their 
 countrymen the glad tidings which had brought life 
 and light and peace into their own hearts. Handle,
 
 118 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 also the carpenter, was judged worthy to be their 
 fellow-labourer. ^ Mr. Gates, the devoted missionary 
 who had been the previous journey, also went with 
 them. Mr. Johnson, while he freely parted with 
 these his helpers in the ministry, laboured more 
 abundantly to supply the need their absence left. 
 As they pursued their way, Tamba preached in the 
 native tongues whenever an opportunity was found. 
 The Sherbro king, through whose territory they 
 passed, expressed a wish to see them again on their 
 return. They met with some opposition from the 
 disciples of Mahomet, who were numerous in the 
 places they passed by. On one occasion Mr. Gates 
 held a public argument with one of the Mahomedan 
 priests, before a native king and thirty head-men ; 
 the poor man at last, quite defeated, packed up his 
 Koran and ran from the assembly: which called forth 
 a hearty laugh at the poor priest's expense. 
 
 But better sights than this cheered the mission- 
 aries' eyes. Tamba met many an old acquaintance, 
 and as they looked upon him, new-born even to their 
 apprehension, they exclaimed, "What hath God 
 wrought ! " Mr. Gates adds in his letter, " To the 
 Lord I commit myself; he has already frustrated one 
 attempt to plunder us, and He will, I trust, protect 
 us all our journey through. Should it however be 
 His will that we should perish in His service, we 
 cannot fall . under a better master." Thus did he
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 119 
 
 write to Regent's Town, whose minister says, the 
 people offered up prayers for them " without ceasing." 
 In ten weeks the itinerant missionaries travelled nine 
 hundred miles ; Mr. Johnson adds, " Blessed be God, 
 not without success ! " On April 12. they returned 
 again in safety and peace to Regent's Town. 
 
 Early in April, Mr. and Mrs. Jesty passed a few 
 days in the mountain-valley. They had arrived 
 from England as missionaries, and until it was 
 determined where they were to be stationed, they 
 visited some of their missionary colleagues. Mrs. 
 Jesty writes to her sister from Regent's Town, 
 April 5, 1819. 
 
 " The power of the gospel, and the efficacy of the 
 love of Christ have excited such joy within me, that 
 I cannot resist giving you some information respect- 
 ing it. This is our first visit to Brother Johnson's. 
 I wish that I could find language sufficiently de- 
 scriptive of the interesting scenes which we have 
 witnessed here. Indeed, they must be seen before 
 the facts will be credited. Had I heard the circum- 
 stances from the best authorities, I could not have 
 conceived it possible that so glorious a progress 
 could have been made in the work of our God, as we 
 have beheld since we have been staying at Regent's 
 Town. 
 
 " On Thursday, the first of April, Mr. Johnson 
 sent five of his people to Freetown, to take me to
 
 120 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 
 
 his house in a palankeen. While they waited, we 
 heard singing ; and on going to the door found that 
 these five men had seated themselves under the 
 piazza, and with united voices were singing a hymn 
 to the glory and praise of the Redeemer. We did 
 not disturb them, but retired to our room with feel- 
 ings of peculiar pleasure. In the course of an hour 
 I set off in the palankeen, borne by these liberated 
 negroes. When we got to the top of Leicester 
 Mountain, over which we had to pass in our way to 
 Regent's Town, I requested my bearers to stop and 
 rest themselves ; and then took an opportunity of 
 introducing religious conversation. I think I may 
 say, that the few minutes during which we rested 
 on the mountain, were the happiest that I had then 
 ever experienced ; because I had never before had an 
 opportunity of seeing the glorious effects wrought 
 by the gospel of Jesus on the hearts of our dear 
 black brethren." 
 
 Mrs. Jesty then dwells on the scriptural language 
 and godly simplicity with which the head-man of the 
 company spoke, while his little audience listened 
 with attentive anxiety. Mr. Johnson stated that 
 most of this very party, who were of the wild Eboe 
 nation, had about two years before, in carrying Mrs. 
 Johnson to Freetown, set down the palankeen in the 
 woods, in spite of all her remonstrances, while they 
 settled their quarrels by a fierce battle.
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 121 
 
 Mr. Jesty gives a description of his entrance 
 into Regent's Town, with its pastor as his com- 
 panion; he says, 
 
 " Just as we had reached the summit of the last 
 mountain, between Freetown and Regent's Town, 
 the latter place presented itself to our view. As I 
 walked down the mountain, pleased with the en- 
 chanting scene, I was in an instant lost in '. wonder, 
 love, and praise.' Music of the sweetest kind, and 
 possessing charms which I had never before expe- 
 rienced, burst upon my ears. It was moonlight ; 
 and all the houses being lighted up, I enquired of 
 Brother Johnson from whence this sound proceeded. 
 He pointed to the church, which is situated at the 
 side of a mountain, then opposite to us, on the other 
 side of a brook that runs from the mountains be- 
 tween the church and the principal part of the town, 
 over which Brother Johnson has caused his people 
 to erect a strong, handsome stone bridge. The 
 church is a fine stone building. It was now lighted 
 up, and the people were assembled in it for evening 
 prayer. The chain of mountains, that surrounds the 
 town, resounded with the echo of the praises of the 
 Saviour. I hastened, with all possible speed, down 
 the mountain and up the other, to enter the church, 
 where I found upwards of 500 black faces prostrate 
 at the throne of grace. After the service was over, 
 they came in such crowds to shake hands with us,
 
 122 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 that we were obliged to give both hands at once. 
 So rejoiced were they to see more labourers from 
 'white man's country/ that after we had entered 
 Mr. Johnson's house, many, who from the pressure 
 in the church were not able to speak to us, entered 
 the parlour, and would not leave until they had 
 manifested their love to us by their affectionate looks 
 and humble salutations." 
 
 Of the Sabbath day, Mr. Jesty, after speaking of 
 an early meeting in the church at six o'clock in the 
 morning, continues : At ten o'clock, I saw alight 
 which at once astonished and delighted me. The 
 bell at the church rang for divine service ; on which 
 Mr. Johnson's well-regulated schools of boys and 
 girls walked, two and two, to the church ; the girls 
 extremely neat, and dressed entirely in white in 
 striking contrast with their black arms and faces 
 the boys, equally clean, were dressed in white 
 trowsers and scarlet jackets. The clothing of both 
 boys and girls is supplied by government. The 
 greatest attention is paid during the service. Indeed 
 I witnessed a Christian congregation in a heathen 
 land a people fearing God and working righteous- 
 ness. The tear of godly sorrow rolled down many 
 a coloured cheek, and showed the contrition of a 
 heart that felt its own vileness. 
 
 " At three o'clock in the afternoon there was 
 again a very full attendance ; so that scarce an in-
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 123 
 
 dividual was to be seen throughout the town ; so 
 eager are they to hear the word, and to feed on that 
 ' living bread that came down from Heaven.' The 
 service was over about half-past four o'clock. 
 
 " At six we met again ; and although many had 
 to come from a considerable distance and up a tre- 
 mendous hill, I did not perceive any decrease of 
 number; or any weariness in their frequent attend- 
 ance on the means of grace. 
 
 "We left the church about eight o'clock, and 
 returned to Mr. Johnson's house, which is close by 
 the church. While at supper I heard singing ; and 
 on walking into the piazza, found that about twenty 
 of the school-girls were assembled under it. One 
 of the elder girls gave out the hymn, in an impressive 
 manner, while a younger girl held a lamp. After 
 we had supped, the girls, in a very respectful and 
 humble way, sent up to Mr. Johnson to know if he 
 would allow them to come up stairs into his sitting- 
 room, to sing a parting hymn. On their entering 
 the room, Mr. Johnson gave out a hymn ; and, in a 
 few minutes, I think we had at least 120 boys and 
 girls in the room and piazza. They sang three 
 hymns; and after a few suitable words from Mr. 
 Johnson, they departed, pleased with the favour 
 granted them. 
 
 " Thus was the Sabbath spent at Regent's Town. 
 Never did I pass such a day in my dear native
 
 124 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 country. Never did I witness such a congregation 
 in a professing Christian land, nor ever behold such 
 apparent sincerity and brotherly love." 
 
 Of the monthly missionary meeting, held on the 
 following evening, Mr. Jesty writes : 
 
 " Mr. Johnson and myself entered the names of 
 subscribers ; and in one minute after we were ready 
 to receive the money and names, we were surrounded 
 by several hundreds of humble friends to missions, 
 crying, as it were with one voice, ' Massa, take my 
 money ; ' ' Massa, massa, take mine ! ' ' eight cop- 
 pers one moon/ It was indeed a pleasing sight to 
 behold a people once led captive at the will of 
 Satan, now conquered by the love and power of 
 Him who taketh ' away the sin of the world ; ' with 
 cheerful and renewed hearts giving of their little 
 substance to aid those means, which by the blessing 
 of God will communicate the privileges of the gospel 
 to their countrymen also. From these few poor, 
 and once injured and despised Africans, we collected, 
 that evening, about 2. 7s. Oh my countrymen ! 
 fellow-christians, in highly favoured England, you 
 who have multiplied and daily-renewed comforts and 
 blessings, Go, and do likewise." 
 
 Of the close of this day, Monday, Mr. Jesty 
 says : 
 
 " After we left the church, the children of the 
 two schools retired to their school-houses, and the
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 125 
 
 rest of the congregation to their respective homes. 
 But that love which cometh from above and worketh 
 love, has taken such possession of the hearts of this 
 people, that they delight to be continually speaking 
 one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual 
 songs, and to sing with grace in their hearts to the 
 Lord. The school-houses are situated behind Mr. 
 Johnson's house, on a higher part of the hill. The 
 school-girls assembled in a row before their school- 
 house, with three or four lamps dispersed through 
 the line. Their eldest teacher gave out the hymn, 
 and they were singing delightfully, 
 
 " How beauteous are their feet, 
 Who stand on Zion's hill ! " 
 
 While the girls were singing thjs hymn, the boys 
 had climbed a little higher up the hill, where one of 
 their teachers gave out the hymn 
 
 " Come, ye sinners, poor and wretched ! " 
 
 It was a beautiful moonlight night, so that the 
 children could be seen from all parts of the town, 
 while the lofty mountains resounded with the echo 
 of their voices. I was walking up and down in the 
 piazza, listening to them, and anticipating the time 
 when all kings shall fall down before the Redeemer, 
 and all nations shall serve Him ; when I saw, at the 
 foot of the hill, some men and women coming toward
 
 126 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 the children. The men joined the boys, and the 
 women joined the girls. I was thinking of our 
 friends in England, and said to Mr. Johnson, ' Could 
 all the friends of missionary exertion but witness 
 this scene, they would be more and more zealous 
 for the universal diffusion of the gospel of a crucified 
 Saviour/ When I looked round me, I saw numbers 
 of the inhabitants, men and women, coming in every 
 direction. They joined respectively the boys and 
 girls, and sang for some time ; when the boys and 
 girls retired to their school - houses, and the men 
 and women retired to their homes in peace. This 
 is a great work, and it is marvellous in our eyes. 
 But it is the Lord ; and to Him be all the glory ! 
 
 " We rose the next morning between five and 
 six o'clock, and attended morning prayer in the 
 church. After the service was over, a few more 
 came forward, and begged us to take their coppers, to 
 aid the cause of missions. We collected on this occa- 
 sion upwards of fifteen shillings ; which, with the col- 
 lection made the evening before, amounted to more 
 than three pounds. Mr. Johnson has a missionary 
 meeting and sermon once a month, on which occasion 
 he generally collects this sum. Do not these poor 
 people hold forth a bright example to all Christians ! 
 
 " I have now given you a faithful and imperfect 
 picture of the state of Regent's Town. The Lord 
 has certainly blest in a peculiar manner the labours
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 127 
 
 of Mr. Johnson. The people love him as their father; 
 and reverence him as their spiritual guide. Should 
 a dispute arise among any of them, they come to 
 him to settle their palaver, and they abide by his 
 decision." 
 
 Mrs. Jesty writes to her sister : 
 
 "The love which these people manifest among 
 themselves, and toward their minister and all faith- 
 ful missionaries ; their anxiety and the fervency of 
 their prayers that the gospel may be made known 
 throughout the nations these things are worthy 
 the admiration of all Christians. It may almost be 
 said of the inhabitants of Regent's Town that they 
 divell in love, and that they live a life of prayer and 
 praise to Him who loved them and gave Himself for 
 them; for, beside their meetings for prayer every 
 morning and evening, the hearts of many of them 
 seem to be full of the love of Christ the whole day ; 
 and ' when they are merry they sing psalms ; ' such 
 vocal music resounds from all parts of the town. A 
 dispute is seldom known among them. They have 
 every one of them cast off his greegree, and nearly 
 all of them are become worshippers of the blessed 
 Jesus. A few years since, none of the inhabitants 
 of this place had ever heard the name of Jesus ; they 
 went about naked; and were in every respect like 
 the savage tribes but now, oh what a happy
 
 128 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 change ! they are all decently dressed ; and it is the 
 most heart-cheering sight to see them flock together 
 in crowds to the House of prayer." 
 
 " my dear sister, is not this encouraging to 
 all Christian friends in England, to be doubly zealous 
 and active in their missionary exertions ? Let me 
 intreat you till to be unwearied in your efforts and 
 prayers, that all Africa may become as Regent's 
 Town. This is the fruit of the gospel ! " 
 
 From the church in the mountain -valley, gilded 
 with the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, who 
 had risen upon it with healing in His wings, we 
 turn to that Church's pastor, the honoured instru- 
 ment of this regenerating work; but over him we 
 find the heavy clouds of anxiety and grief now 
 resting ! If we could take a closer view of many a 
 " labour of love/' we should often discover that while 
 the work lay bright and beautiful to outward obser- 
 vation, the worker was in the deep shadow of sorrow 
 and suffering. It is so, because " the servant is not 
 greater than his lord." If the Son of God, as the 
 author and finisher of His people's " eternal salva- 
 tion," was made " perfect through suffering," those 
 whom He deigns to send as His ministers, cannot 
 wonder if they be called to drink of the cup of " the 
 man of sorrows," and to be baptized with His 
 baptism. The fact that they do drink of His cup,
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 129 
 
 is without doubt the reason why none can comfort 
 like His mourners, none teach like those who best 
 have learned affliction's lesson in His school; none 
 shine so bright as those, who, like their Divine 
 Master, have a lustre grief can only more irradiate 
 in heavenly glory and beauty: While the blessed 
 certainty remains that those who drink of the Sa- 
 viour's cup, and of the Saviour's spirit now, shall, 
 when that cup runneth over with joy unspeakable 
 and full of glory, hear their Lord's invitation, 
 " Drink, yea, drink abundantly, beloved ! " If it 
 be sanctified trial that gives the finest point, the 
 keenest edge to the instrument by which the heavenly 
 Graver deigns to work who but would learn to bid 
 affliction welcome ! 
 
 In March of this year, Augustine Johnson writes : 
 " Great are, and have been my trials, which have 
 been the cause of my neglecting to write my journal. 
 But should I not have written down my trials every- 
 day, as I passed through the valley of darkness 
 might it not have refreshed my soul hereafter, when 
 in similar circumstances ? But ah, how can they 
 be forgotten by me while they are engraven on my 
 very heart ? . . . Heavy, however, as my trials have 
 been, they have been blessed abundantly. The dis- 
 courses which I addressed to my people, while under 
 these conflicts of mind, have been made the means of 
 
 K
 
 130 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 great good. O my God, it has been good for me 
 that I have been afflicted ! " 
 
 His present overwhelming sorrow was the dan- 
 gerous and most painful illness of his wife. Mrs. 
 Johnson's work in the mission reminds us of a stream 
 that winds its course between its deep and narrow 
 banks, all unperceived, except that you see the 
 fertility on either side; the grazing cattle come to 
 drink, the wild bird dives down to it and dips its 
 wing, then soars away rejoicing ; and here and there 
 the bright flowers lift their heads, whose roots are in 
 its bed, marking its course ; while over it the willow 
 bends in constant faithful love. Of Mrs. Johnson, 
 individually, we hear but little in Regent's Town, 
 except the frequent expressions of her husband's 
 anxious care and feeling ; but we trace her work in 
 her school that company of bright and happy 
 Christian girls, in the Christian deportment also of 
 the young native convert women ; and we know that 
 her influence must have combined with Mr. Johnson's, 
 in training and raising African feeling into the simple 
 refinement pervading this community of liberated 
 slaves ; while the after - testimony of the negroes 
 proves how strongly they had been attached to her. 
 
 The doctor urged Mrs. Johnson's immediate 
 return to England; and also the great importance of 
 her having an efficient nurse to attend her on the
 
 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OP MELODY. 131 
 
 voyage but this, Africa could not furnish; there- 
 fore the united opinion of the assembled missionaries 
 of the colony, and of the Governor, was, that Mr. 
 Johnson should accompany her himself. This caused 
 him great anxiety and distress of mind. " To leave 
 my people," he says, "is a mountain insurmount- 
 able to reason, and to leave my wife is another. . . . 
 I stated my case to my people, who were drowned in 
 tears, but said I must go, and come back quick. 
 Oh that the will of the Lord may be done ; may all 
 turn out to the furtherance of His gospel ! '* 
 
 There were reasons connected with the mis- 
 sionary work in Africa which rendered Mr. Johnson's 
 visit to England important ; this comforted his 
 anxious mind, and, making the best provision he 
 could, according to his own judgment, for his beloved 
 people, he resolved upon the voyage. Mr. Gates, 
 the companion of his itinerant missionary efforts, 
 was one of those left in charge. 
 
 Easter Sunday, however, was not to be celebrated 
 in the valley without the pastor. The church was 
 filled at nine o'clock; 110 adults and six infants 
 were baptized by him, and 253 negro converts 
 received the Holy Communion of the body and blood 
 of Christ. He exclaims, "This was indeed as a 
 day of Pentecost in Africa ! " 
 
 On Sunday, April the 18th, he preached his 
 farewell sermon from 2 Cor. xiii. 11. " Finally,
 
 132 THANKSGIVING AND THE VOICE OF MELODY. 
 
 brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, 
 be of one mind, live in peace ; and the God of love 
 and peace shall be with you." 
 
 On the 22nd he was to set sail. Hundreds of 
 men, women, and children accompanied him all 
 through the five miles of difficult mountain-road to 
 Freetown, taking leave of him on the shore with 
 many tears and warm benedictions ; and, pointing to 
 the Atlantic waves, they said, " Massa, suppose no 
 water live here, we go with you all the way, till no 
 feet more ! "
 
 0mto. 
 
 ' God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above 
 that ye are able ; but will with the temptation also make a way to 
 escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Cor. x. 13.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 A TEDIOUS voyage of two months brought the 
 African evangelist once more to England's shores ; 
 but he did not leave his high and sacred responsi- 
 bilities in the land for which he received them, his 
 missionary labours among the negroes 'were sus- 
 pended, but not his unchanging commission as an 
 " ambassador for Christ." He could exclaim, " Thy 
 vows are upon me, God ! " and therefore would he 
 be " instant in season and out of season ;" he would 
 endure afflictions : he would make full proof of his 
 ministry ! He had turned from the tenderness of 
 his heathen converts, to the hardness of those who 
 had heard the truth to reject it ; but his uncompro- 
 mising fidelity, blended with the meekness of his 
 Christian deportment, silenced even his enemies ; and 
 before the long passage was ended, he could speak 
 of the kindness shown to him ; he had also the un- 
 speakable comfort of seeing Mrs. Johnson recovering
 
 136 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 day by day ; under these circumstances of mercy, on 
 June the 28th, 1819, they landed at Portsmouth. 
 In eight days' time we find him at Mr. Bickersteth's 
 side, addressing a Church Missionary meeting " with 
 peculiar effect." We read of St. Paul and St. 
 Barnabas, that " being brought on their way by the 
 Church, they passed through Phenice and Samaria, 
 declaring the conversion of the Gentiles ; and they 
 caused great joy unto all the brethren ;" the same 
 refreshment was now granted to the faithful mis- 
 sionary's soul, to look back in quiet retrospect upon 
 the wonderful work his gracious Lord had deigned 
 to accomplish by his instrumentality, and in tem- 
 porary repose from the pressure of anxiety and toil, 
 to testify to the church at home the grace of God to 
 Africa. And truly it must have been an animating 
 sight to see the " Well done, good and faithful ser- 
 vant ! " written in the countenances of the honoured 
 men who sent him out ; and to read in the faces of 
 those assembled before him at every meeting he 
 addressed, the joy and thankfulness felt at the 
 abundant increase God had given to their prayers 
 and offerings. 
 
 After passing a few days in London, he hastened 
 to his native land, leaving his wife to repose under 
 the care of English skill and kindness. His mother's 
 joy at seeing him was overwhelming ; and one of his 
 sisters was so deeply impressed by his heavenly con-
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 187 
 
 verse, that nothing could induce her to be again 
 separated from him :^ she returned with him to 
 England, and was accepted by the Church Mis- 
 sionary Committee as a schoolmistress for Africa. 
 In the Society's Twentieth Report, Mr. Pratt remarks 
 on Mr. Johnson's absence in Germany " His visit 
 seems to have been attended with a peculiar blessing 
 to some of his nearest kindred, who had not been 
 previously moved by his correspondence.^ 
 
 During Mr. Johnson's short stay in England he 
 received many letters from his African people : the 
 following are extracts from some of them : 
 
 " I take this opportunity of writing these few 
 lines unto you, my dear brother, and I hope God 
 may preserve and keep you when you pass through 
 the mighty deep ! and by the will of God, I hope we 
 may see one another again. I remember you day 
 by day, and I ask you how you feel in your heart, 
 my dear brother ? I hope you may be well in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ you and Mrs. Johnson ; and I 
 pi-ay unto God that He may keep you till you come 
 to Africa again, that we may see one another. I 
 thank Almighty God for His loving-kindness to me. 
 I know the Lord is my Saviour and my God ! I 
 pray for all the good people who are in England, 
 and the Secretary ; I hope you may be well in Jesus,
 
 138 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 and that you may send more missionaries to Africa, 
 to preach the gospel to our npor countrymen. My 
 master, please to send me one hymn-book. My wife 
 ask you how you do, Mrs. Johnson ?" 
 
 Another letter furnishes a beautiful evidence of 
 the simplicity and truth of African teaching ; giving 
 also an affecting picture of " the sentence of death " 
 under which the white man laboured for the black 
 man's salvation. 
 
 " I staid at Charlotte Town when Mr. Taylor 
 was sick, and I speak to the people the word of God. 
 One time we meet together for missionary prayer- 
 meeting ; oh, that time many white people sick, and 
 many of them die ! And that time we lose one of 
 our sisters, Mary Moddy, she was brought to bed 
 and the child died ; and herself caught cold, and I 
 went to see her, and I asked her, ' How do you do ? ' 
 She said, ' I fear too much/ I asked her, ' What 
 you fear for?' and she said, 'I done sin/ and I said, 
 ' Pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, He only can do you 
 good/ And I prayed with her, and the next day I 
 went again, and I say unto her, ' How do you feel 
 in your heart ? ' and she said, ' Oh my heart too 
 wicked ;' and I said, ' Do you pray to Jesus Qhrist ? ' 
 she said, ' Yes ! to whom should I pray if I not pray 
 to the Lord Jesus Christ?' And I talked with her 
 a good while, and then I prayed with her : and went
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 139 
 
 away. The next day I went again, and she could 
 hardly speak ; I prayed with her, and stop with her, 
 and by and bye she died. 
 
 "That time Mr. Gates sick, and Mr. Morgan 
 sick, and poor Mr. Gates die. I think the journey 
 to the Bassa country which he take, that too much 
 for him, the land so long to walk, and the sun so 
 hot. Yet I cannot prove that; but I think his 
 work was done, and his time up. When he was 
 sick I went to see him, ' How do you do, Mr. Gates ? ' 
 and he said, ' I shall certainly die/ And by and bye 
 he got down to Freetown, and he sick very much, 
 all his strength gone ; but he was a man of faith, and 
 he die on Friday about five o'clock. And on Satur- 
 day we go to bury him, four o'clock, and we look 
 upon him. And then we went to Mr. Jesty's house, 
 and Mr. Jesty tell us, and say, he think God would 
 leave this place, because white people die fast ; and 
 when I hear that, I fear too much, and I consider 
 many things in my mind ; and I think hypocrites 
 live among us, and God want to punish us, but I 
 trust again in the Lord, He knows His people, He 
 never forsake them. Then Mr. Collier get sick, and 
 Mr. Morgan get sick again ; and our friend said, 
 ' God soon leave this place/ and I said, ' I trust in 
 the Lord Jesus Christ; He knows His people, and 
 He never left them neither forsake them.' And 
 next Sunday Mr. Collier die about eleven o'clock.
 
 140 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 Then Mr. Morgan sick, Mrs. Morgan sick, Mr. Bull 
 sick ! Oh, that time all missionaries sick ! We 
 went to Freetown, Monday, bury Mr. Collier, and we 
 come home again, and keep service in the Church ; 
 oh, that time trouble too much in my heart ! Nobody 
 to teach me, and I was sorry for my poor country- 
 people. Mr. Gates died, Mr. Collier died, Mr. Mor- 
 gan sick. Oh ! what must I do for my country- 
 men ? but I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, He 
 know what to do; and I went to pray, and I 
 cry, ' Lord,, take not all the teachers away 
 from us." J 
 
 To this effusion from the negro's heart no com- 
 ment can be needed. Their pastor was hastening all 
 arrangements for return; he could say as the 
 Apostle Paul to his Thessalonian converts, " We, 
 brethren, being taken from you for a short time in 
 presence, not in heart, endeavoured the more abun- 
 dantly to see your face with great desire." Mrs. 
 Johnson's health being much restored, in less than 
 five months from his landing in England we find his 
 arrangements completed for an immediate return > 
 and on the 27th of December they set sail for 
 Sierra Leone. 
 
 And now before the missionary lands again upon 
 the country of his adoption, we turn to the valley in 
 the mountains to discover in what state its returning 
 pastor will find it. The way had been made plain
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 141 
 
 for that pastor's visit to England ; in the faith of its 
 being the Divine appointment, he had left his few 
 sheep in the wilderness to the Chief Shepherd's care : 
 he made the best earthly provision that his judgment 
 could .devise; and then, in the confidence of faith, 
 he departed. Was that confidence disappointed ? 
 Certainly not, for " God is a rewarder of them that 
 diligently seek him." But there is a long lesson 
 folded up in one short declaration of Holy Scripture, 
 fresh pages of which are constantly opened in the 
 experience of the servants of the Lord " As the 
 heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways 
 higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your 
 thoughts." When therefore the desire of them that 
 fear the Lord is, to their apprehension, disappointed, 
 we may be sure that it is only waiting its fulfilment 
 in a higher purpose, one exceeding abundant above 
 all they had asked or thought ; one, the immeasurable 
 superiority of which they will themselves discern and 
 appreciate, if not before, yet most certainly so soon 
 as they themselves are high as the heavens above the 
 earth ! In the triumphant faith of this assurance, 
 Job exclaimed, " Though He slay me, yet will I trust 
 in Him ! " Augustine Johnson thought to have left 
 his converts, " as new-born babes," still to be 
 nourished with " the sincere milk of the word;" he 
 thought to have left them as " little children," still 
 to be tended with all gentleness " as a nurse
 
 142 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 cherisheth her children ; " and on his return he 
 thought to find them walking " in the fear of the 
 Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost." And 
 it had been easy for the Lord of Hosts, the God of 
 the spirits of all flesh, to set a man over the congre- 
 gation, to go in and out before them, to lead them 
 out and bring them in, that the congregation of the 
 Lord might not be as sheep without a shepherd, 
 according to the prayer of Moses unto God for 
 Israel, in answer to which Joshua was appointed over 
 the twelve tribes. But the time was come when the 
 church of Regent's Town was to " buy " of the 
 Heavenly Refiner "gold tried in the fire;" and we 
 can only exclaim, " Behold, happy is the man whom 
 God correcteth ; therefore, despise not thou the 
 chastening of the Almighty, for He maketh sore and 
 bindeth up ; He woundeth, and His hands make 
 whole. He shall deliver thee in six troubles ; yea, 
 in seven, there shall no evil touch thee ! " 
 
 Mr. Gates, who was one of those left in charge 
 by Mr. Johnson, soon entered into his rest : he had 
 traversed for many hundred miles the moral wilder- 
 ness of Africa, he had seen her captivity to sin and 
 Satan, sighed over her misery, and looked Heaven- 
 ward for her relief. As Abraham, treading the 
 promised land, with none inheritance therein, yet 
 every footprint leaving an earnest that the seed of the 
 faithful would one day dwell there so did the
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 143 
 
 missionary tread the heathen land of Africa; or as 
 the soldier nobly bears the banner of his king, and 
 plants it on the opposing height, then falls and dies 
 so did the missionary breathe Jehovah's name far 
 in the heathen's land, where hundreds of miles 
 separated him from his comrades' ranks, and then 
 returning, die ! Mr. Bull, the missionary who 
 attended him in his dying moments, writes, " Ever 
 since his return from the journey of ten weeks with 
 Tamba and Davis into the Bassa country, he has 
 complained of sickness, and has endured excruciating 
 pain. ... It appears that until within a few days 
 of his death, he had suffered much darkness of mind, 
 and many harassing temptations ; yet he was not 
 confounded, but stayed himself on his God and 
 Saviour, appropriating to himself as a member of 
 Christ's impregnable Church, the prophet Zechariah's 
 comfortable assurance respecting the final issue of 
 his trials and conflicts, "At evening time, it shall 
 be light." Nor was he disappointed ; a joyful con- 
 fidence in his Redeemer succeeded this temporary 
 cloud, and he was enabled to express himself most 
 exultingly to those around him, while cheerfully 
 submitting himself to his Heavenly Master's will." 
 In this frame of mind he continued until the day 
 preceding his departure, when he called Mr. Bull to 
 him, and although under great physical exhaustion, 
 he was still enabled to communicate to him in a few
 
 144 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 words, his joyful sense of the presence and love of 
 his Saviour. On Mr. Bull repeating the text "All 
 the days of my appointed time will I wait till my 
 change come/' " Yes/' he replied, " if He will 
 not take me Home to-day, I must wait till to-morrow, 
 and my soul is all ready to depart ! " This heavenly 
 frame of mind was only interrupted by delirium, and 
 on Friday evening, with a smile on his countenance, 
 and seemingly in the act of prayer, his blessed spirit 
 joined the innumerable company of the Church of 
 the First-bor", "whose names are written in Heaven." 
 So he entered into rest ! and had the absent pastor 
 of Regent's Town known all that his return dis- 
 covered to him, he might have exclaimed with St. 
 Paul, " I have no man like-minded, who will 
 naturally care for your state ! " On the trials of the 
 church at Regent's Town we need not here enlarge. 
 We only gather from the details, that, through the 
 indiscretion of one who took the pastor's place, her 
 order was broken, her people were oppressed, her 
 ranks were thinned, and, to the outward observer's 
 eye, her light grew dim. It was the first hour of 
 spiritual tribulation, and He who suffered the furnace 
 to be heated, knew well what the faith of His children 
 could bear. He knew the necessary exercise for that 
 faith, and the right moment for administering relief. 
 Regent's Town was the largest of all the liberated 
 negro settlements around the capital of the colony ;
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 145 
 
 and it had become the brightest spot in Africa; God 
 had given to her Church "the Morning Star," 
 and the mild radiance heralded a day of Heavenly 
 life and light for that vast continent, that lay as yet 
 in darkness and the shadow of death. But now a 
 cloud had covered the mountain valley, and all 
 around beheld it. The governor of the colony, 
 finding that Regent's Town was no longer what it 
 had been, meditated the dispersion of some of its 
 inhabitants into less populous parishes. A report 
 of his intention reached the people, and occasioned 
 to many among them the deepest distress they had 
 yet experienced. The place of which it could be said, 
 " This and that man was born in her," the home of 
 all their best affections and brightest associations, 
 it seemed a second severing from a more than native 
 land, and must involve, they knew, a separation 
 from him to whom they felt that, under God, they 
 owed their present happiness and hope of Heaven. 
 He came not, no one knew when he would come; 
 everything seemed against them. But we have seen 
 how the church at Regent's Town, even to her little 
 children, had learned to breathe the breath of prayer. 
 They knew their " hiding-place from the wind, and 
 their covert from the tempest ; " " they cried unto the 
 Lord, and unto the Lord they made their supplica- 
 tion." Whole nights were spent by some of them 
 in tears and prayer ; but as yet no answer came, 
 
 L
 
 146 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 the cloud grew only darker, the next wave of 
 trouble rose higher than all before it, and seemed 
 only the denial of their prayers, the fulfilment of 
 their fears. 
 
 Jan. 31. A letter arrived from the governor, 
 desiring that all the people should remain in their 
 houses the next day, as he intended to come and 
 see them, and send some of them to other villages 
 in the colony. Then Tamba said, " The Lord hath 
 forsaken this town ! But still he says, I went into 
 my house to consider, and bowed down to pray, and 
 said, " Lord, hast Thou not said, ' Call upon me 
 in the day of trouble, I will deliver Thee, and thou 
 shalt glorify Me ! ' : It is affectingly interesting to 
 find the negro convert*- pleading in his hour of deep 
 distress, in his own behalf and his peoples' and the 
 Church of Christ, the promise that had proved the 
 first quickening word to the soul of their spiritual 
 father. How constantly are we taught the infinite 
 nature of the Divine Word, in the fact that the 
 grasp of generation after generation, wears not away 
 nor weakens in the least degree the force of a single 
 promise it contains ; all its freshness remains un- 
 dimmed, its measureless fulness undiminished. 
 There, almost hopeless, yet in prayer, knelt Tamba, 
 within his mountain-home ; and even as he prayed, 
 the gracious answer came, exceedingly abundant 
 above all that he, most probably, then asked or
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 147 
 
 thought. No glorious angel flew swiftly to bear, 
 in person, the answer of the Lord of Hosts to the 
 supplicating negro, as did the angel Gabriel to the 
 prophet Daniel ; for since the Son of God deigned 
 to array Himself in human nature, angelic beings 
 perform their tasks of love unseen, and leave all 
 visible ministry to the children of men. Angels, no 
 doubt, beheld the prostrate negro, and drawing near 
 in Heavenly sympathy, it might be that they minis- 
 tered to him, although he knew it not, as once an 
 angel was permitted to strengthen the negro's Lord. 
 It is not possible to gaze upon that mourning church 
 without an upward look to Heaven ! The Lord of 
 Heaven was surely there, walking with His children 
 in the ' furnace as once with Shadrach, Meshach, 
 and Abednego, though faith alone beheld Him now. 
 It is a blessed fact in that infant church, that when 
 hope was dead and expectation failed, prayer still 
 lived on. And even while Tamba knelt upon the 
 mountain side, Augustine Johnson must have stood 
 upon the shore : that day he landed ! A negro saw 
 him coming from the vessel, and ran off, winged 
 with his joyful tidings, up the steep Leicester Moun- 
 tain, along the toilsome path to Regent's Town ; but 
 the way was long, five miles of rugged road. 
 The sun descended in the evening sky, and the 
 mountain shadows fell, and the bell rang for evening 
 prayer. Oh what aching heavy hearts must have
 
 148 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 entered the church's door ! Before the next sun-set, 
 how many among them might never more call 
 Regent's Town their home ! 
 
 The individual under whose management the 
 present evils at Regent's Town had arisen, was no 
 longer there; he had returned in ill health to 
 England ; another missionary, Mr. Wilhelm, had 
 taken his place, and vainly endeavoured to the 
 utmost to heal the breaches made. Mr. Wilhelm 
 conducted the evening-prayers, and the service had 
 but just concluded when a man entered the church, 
 and to the astonishment of the assembly cried out, 
 " All hear ! all hear ! Mr. Johnson come ! " The 
 whole congregation immediately rose ; those that 
 could not get out at the doors jumped out at the 
 windows, and Mr. Wilhelm found himself alone ! 
 The now rejoicing people set off along the darken- 
 ing road, numbers reaching Freetown that night, to 
 welcome back their pastor, and others the next 
 morning. Tamba exclaims, " How joyful, how glad 
 was that night ! " Immediately on his landing at 
 Freetown the missionary had waited on the governor, 
 who seeing him, appeared at once satisfied that all 
 would be right, and only desired him to say 
 that the governor sent him to Mr. Wilhelm and 
 the people instead of coming himself. The dreaded 
 day therefore " was turned unto them from sorrow 
 to joy, and from mourning into a good day ! "
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 149 
 
 Surely Augustine Johnson could say, as the < chief 
 apostle to his Galatian converts, "Ye received me 
 as an angel of God ! " The apostle adds " even as 
 Christ Jesus ; " and in contemplating the wonderful 
 effect produced by Augustine Johnson's ministry, his 
 extraordinary power in attracting, influencing, and 
 regulating these recent converts from fierce and 
 degrading heathenism, it is impossible to escape 
 from the persuasion that a heart of more than com- 
 mon tenderness, a soul of enlarged compassion, 
 inspired the life of the negro's pastor ; he ruled by 
 " the meekness and gentleness of Christ," and he 
 proved that heavenly love, even in human hearts, 
 has a subduing and constraining influence, beyond 
 our power to estimate. In reading of his return to 
 Regent's Town, we are reminded of his divine 
 Master's descent from the mountain, when " all the 
 people beholding Him, running to Him, saluted 
 Him ! " Three years before, . when the missionary 
 descended the mountain-side, and stood among his 
 negroes, and laid down on the ground in his blanket 
 to sleep, no voice of greeting welcomed him ; only to 
 those whom knowledge and love had gifted with a 
 discerning vision, was his mission "beautiful;" but 
 now, Africa herself exclaims, " How beautiful upon 
 the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth 
 good tidings ; that publisheth peace ; that saith, Thy 
 God reigneth ! "
 
 150 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 We close this chapter with short extracts from 
 letters relating to the events narrated in it. The 
 object of this book being to testify of the grace of 
 God, which " was exceeding abundant, with faith 
 and love which is in Jesus Christ ; " and not to 
 enlarge on the errors and failings of one who was 
 put in trust, before he knew how to " take care of 
 the Church of God;" we pass over the painful 
 details of Mr. Johnson's first letters to the secretaries 
 in England ; they are written with Christian feeling, 
 but they record a work which has no claim to be re- 
 membered in the annals of missionary labours ! We 
 therefore only give a few words from the letters the 
 restored pastor's testimony to his negro people : 
 
 " Now, my dear sirs, farewell. Pray for us that 
 the great Jehovah may keep and preserve us, 
 although we have lost the favour of men, and have 
 almost become a by-word. I can assure you that I 
 was never more happy in my life than I am at pre- 
 sent ; and I am sure you will rejoice with me, when 
 you hear that the infant church at Regent's Town 
 has stood the furnace. And you will moreover rejoice, 
 when I tell you, that three communicants have, dur- 
 ing my absence, gone to glory ; of which I shall give 
 you a more particular account in my next. 
 
 " Mrs. Johnson is quite restored to health, a 
 wonder to all the colonists."
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 151 
 
 The following extracts are from Tamba's letter to 
 Mr. Pratt and Mr. Bickersteth : 
 
 " . . . . After that Mr. Morgan went away ; 
 
 Mr. never came to Regent's Town, except 
 
 when Mr. Johnson send letter : then he came to 
 Regent's Town to read the letter to us, and when he 
 had done reading he always said ' Johnson cannot 
 come back again, because he hears too much bad 
 words from this place of you all/ When I hear 
 this I fear ; and when I remember the Church of 
 Corinthians, I do not know what to do ; but I said 
 in my mind, Oh that I could but only read the 
 Bible, and I shall be glad!" If I read the six- 
 teenth chapter of Mark, 15th and 16th veses, I 
 have a little comfort. But, O Lord, Thou knowest 
 that I can do nothing of myself , but to Thee I look, 
 and thou canst do what Thou wilt with us. 
 
 " The 5th chapter of Matthew, 9th verse, where 
 God says, Blessed are the peacemakers, comforts us." 
 Tamba gives an account of Mr. Johnson's return on 
 January 31, and then continues February 2. 
 In the morning the church was full ; and Mr. 
 Johnson said, after prayer, ' All the people come 
 to-night ; I have something to tell them ; ' and in 
 the night the church was full, as much as it can 
 hold. He read unto us the 4th chapter of the
 
 152 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 Second of Kings, 26th verse, Run now, I pray thee, 
 to meet her, and say unto her, Is it well with thee ? ' 
 My heart was ready to say, ' It is well with me : not 
 for my good deed : nor for any good desires, but by 
 the will of Him in whom I trust/ Oh, that I might 
 be enabled to keep the commandments of the Lord ! 
 Oh ! may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be 
 with us all, Amen. 
 
 " Again when I remember my poor countrymen, 
 I am sorry for them. I cry unto the Lord, and say, 
 ' Lord, teach me to read thy Word, and enable me 
 to understand what I read; that I may tell them 
 that they may look to God, and that He may save 
 them from their sins, through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
 
 " When I read the forty -fifth chapter of Genesis, 
 the latter pail of the 1st verse Joseph made himself 
 'known unto his brethren when I read this word, I 
 say in my heart, ' Oh, that the Lord may enable me 
 to go to my country-people, to carry the good 
 tidings to them. Oh, may the Holy Spirit be with 
 us all, Amen. 
 
 " Mr. Pratt, Mr. Bickersteth, how do you do ? 
 I hope that you are well, and remember me to all 
 my brethren and sisters. I hope they are well in 
 the Lord. I know that the Lord hears your prayers, 
 and our prayers. Oh, may the grace of God be 
 with us all, Amen. 
 
 "WILLIAM TAMBA."
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 153 
 
 The following letter was sent by Mr. Pratt and 
 Mr. Bickersteth to Tamba, Davis, Noah, and 
 Hughes. 
 
 London, April 7, 1820. 
 " DEAR FRIENDS, 
 
 " We have received your journals and 
 letters, giving us an account of Mr. Johnson' s 
 arrival, and what took place during his absence from 
 you. 
 
 " There are some things in them that give us 
 joy, and some things that we are sorry for. 
 
 " It gave us great joy to hear of the arrival of 
 Mr. Johnson among you, and to know how happy 
 his return had made you ; and again, it gave us joy 
 to find that you were still in the way of the Lord, 
 and had been kept by the power of God, through 
 faith, under many trials. 
 
 " But we were grieved to hear of some of the 
 trials you have gone through. You have been 
 taught that we must, through tribulation, enter the 
 kingdom of Heaven. We must wholly depend on 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. He alone never leaves us, 
 never forsakes or fails us; trust, therefore, entirely 
 in Him. 
 
 " And then, dear friends, pray to God to make
 
 154 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 you very meek, and humble, and teachable, and to 
 make you submissive to your superiors. This is the 
 Christian spirit, for it is like your Saviour, who 
 washed even the feet of His disciples. 
 
 " May God bless you all, and make you a 
 blessing to all your countrymen. May He ever help 
 you to speak to them with power, faithfulness, and 
 love, and make you perfect in every good work to do 
 His will. 
 
 " But we must not forget to tell you another 
 thing to which the Committee wish you should all 
 attend. They are not only desirous that you should 
 know the Word of God, but that your minds should 
 be opened, and your views enlarged, by a knowledge 
 of the world in which we live, and a history of the 
 different nations of the earth, and of their present 
 state. Mr. Johnson has got a large supply of books 
 for this purpose ; and the Committee expect that you 
 will all give some hours every day to reading and 
 studying those books which he puts into your hands. 
 You should all also thoroughly understand the 
 National system of education. 
 
 " This is all we have to say ; may grace and 
 peace be multiplied unto you. We are, dear 
 friends, &c., 
 
 "JosiAH PRATT, 
 "EDWARD BICKERSTETH."
 
 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 155 
 
 Augustine Johnson had returned to his people 
 "in the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of 
 Christ ; " and we have the comfort of again behold- 
 ing the church at Regent's Town, " diligent in 
 business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." The 
 Christian Institution for the education of the most 
 promising African youths, was now moved from 
 Leicester Mountain to Regent's Town. Mr. Bull 
 was appointed master of the seminary; but the 
 superintendence of the seminary, the town, and 
 everything connected with the station, was, by order 
 of the Committee in England, to rest entirely with 
 Mr. Johnson. 
 
 April the 6th, 1820, the missionary writes, "Mr. 
 Bull has settled here with his boys. He has only 
 brought fourteen : the rest, who were unfit for the 
 Institution, he has sent away. I have given him 
 eleven of my elder boys, ten of whom are commu- 
 nicants, and are very willing to become teachers to 
 their country-people. I have evident proof of their 
 piety. Oh that they may kindle the fire among the 
 rest of the boys. Some of them were mechanics. 
 
 "Tamba and Davis are employed as itinerants. 
 They will attend Mr. BulFs school in the day-time ; 
 and in the evenings and on Sundays will visit the 
 neighbouring hamlets. One goes every night to 
 Leicester Mountain, and keeps prayer with the people 
 there, who are very much attached to them. On the
 
 156 AFFLICTION AND SORROW. 
 
 whole they are very useful. Noah assists me as 
 usual, and I do not know what I should do without 
 him. I would not change him for an European 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 " . . . Pray for me, that in a particular manner 
 at this difficult season, the wisdom of the serpent 
 and the harmlessness of the dove may be granted 
 to me/'
 
 Jfrmts 0f Si 
 
 " Glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good. 
 Romans ii. 10.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 "FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS." 
 
 WE turn again to the Missionary's journal : 
 
 " February 21, 1820. Sunday. After service 
 several of the communicants expressed great joy. 
 One, an old man by the name of Susah, said, 
 ' Massa, my heart sing, me glad too much/ I asked, 
 ' What makes your heart sing, Susah ? ' ' Ah, you 
 see that poor thief you talk about, be no good at 
 all ; he be bad when they hang him on the cross ; 
 God teach He show him bad heart, He make him 
 pray to Jesus Christ : " Lord, remember me ! " Jesus 
 no say, Me no want you, you too bad, you be thief 
 too much ! No, He no say so, but take him and 
 tell him, To - day thou shalt be with me in Paradise. 
 I see Christ take poor sinners ; that make me glad 
 too much. Oh, my heart sing ! True, me bad, very 
 bad ; me sin too much : but Jesus Christ can make 
 me good. He take poor thief He take me me 
 the same ! Thank God, thank God ! ' 
 
 " Tamba went on Saturday afternoon to the first
 
 160 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 Sherbro town, called Tongeh Place, in order to keep 
 service there yesterday. Davis went to Leicester 
 Mountain, where he kept service three times yester- 
 day, and also this morning. He has now returned, 
 and is pursuing his studies in the seminary. Noah 
 kept service twice with the sick people in the 
 hospital. 
 
 " I have just been to the school. Mr. Bull had 
 put the first class of my boys with his, and I was 
 much delighted to see some of my little red-jackets 
 standing at the top of the class. 
 
 " I have had many sweet conversations with the 
 people last week. I have noted down a few, which 
 I will insert here : 
 
 ' ' One man said, ' Massa, before you go from this 
 place, you preach and you say, Suppose somebody 
 beat rice, when he done beat, he take the fan and 
 fan it, and then all the chaff fly away, and the rice 
 get clean. So God do Him people He fan the chaff 
 away. Now, massa, we been in that fashion since 
 you been gone to England. God fan us that time 
 for true ! ' 
 
 " Ann Shorn, not a communicant : ' Massa, I 
 can't get rest at all; my wicked heart trouble me. 
 None can do me good except the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 He only can do me good/ I said, ' If you are per- 
 suaded of that, go then to Him ; He says, None 
 coming unto me will I cast out.' ( I cannot go to
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 161 
 
 Him by my own strength, massa.' ' Did you ever 
 pray to Him ? ' ' Yes, I pray, but I can't tell if 
 God hear my prayer. Sometimes when I pray I feel 
 glad ; but sometimes when I pray, my heart run all 
 about, and then I feel no peace/ ' What makes you 
 feel glad sometimes ? ' ' Because Jesus Christ been 
 hang on the cross for poor sinners. He shed His 
 blood to save sinners ! ' 
 
 "Fanny Leigh, a school-girl, not a communi- 
 cant, appeared much distressed; she said, 'Once, 
 massa, you say in the church, Every one who dies 
 without believing in Jesus Christ would go to hell. 
 These words, massa, live always before my ear, make 
 me afraid too much; and again, me do bad very 
 much. Every day my heart plague me me get bad 
 more and more : me don't know what to do.' She 
 wept bitterly. ' How long is it since you feel so ? ' 
 1 Before you go to England, and since that time my 
 heart trouble me ; no good thing live in my heart. 
 I hope the Lord Jesus Christ will have mercy upon 
 me. Suppose He no save me, I must go to hell. I 
 want to pray to Him, and sometimes me pray, but 
 me think he no hear me. I have no strength, but I 
 trust the Lord will help me/ 
 
 " Josiah Yamsey, a communicant : ' One morn- 
 ing last week, when we had morning prayer, you read 
 the first Psalm. When you come to the last verse 
 you said, The ungodly shall perish, hear this now ; 
 
 M
 
 162 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 you hear what God says, The ungodly shall perish ! ' 
 Oh ! massa, them words go through my heart, them 
 make me 'fraid too much. But on Sunday you 
 preach to me you preach on the words, Come unto 
 me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will 
 give you rest. That word comfort me very much. 
 I was troubled too much, but the Lord Jesus de- 
 livered me through them words. I thank God for 
 His mercy/ 
 
 "February 22, 1820. Slept very little during 
 the night. The spiritual state of the people is upon 
 my mind very much. Oh, who is sufficient for these 
 things ? May God the Holy Ghost help me, and 
 enable me to build up the people of God in this 
 place in their most holy faith. The following pro- 
 mise comforted my soul, ' Fear not, for I will help 
 thee.' " 
 
 On the 25th of February, the second anniversary 
 of the Regent' s-Town Church Missionary Society 
 was held. With the missionaries come from afar, 
 stood Africa's own children to address the assembly : 
 Tamba, Davis, Noah, Hughes, Sandy, Fox, and 
 Taylor. The following extracts are from records of 
 the speeches made by the native converts, taken 
 down at the time, and sent to Mr. Pratt. 
 
 One Christian negro spoke as follows : 
 
 " My dear brothers and sisters, I stand here be-
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 163 
 
 fore the congregation, not by my will, but by the will 
 of God. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ for His 
 mercy, in bringing me to this country to hear the 
 gospel. One evening when I live in my house, Mr. 
 Johnson came to me, and he talk to me about my 
 soul ; and what he told me that night I no forget 
 till this time. I thank the Lord Jesus Christ that 
 He has shown me my sinful state. That time I live 
 in my country, I think I very good ; but I see now 
 suppose I been die that time, I go down to ever- 
 lasting condemnation. When I live in my country, 
 fight come ; they catch me ; and when I live in ship, 
 I sick too much. But God know what was good for 
 me. I see plenty people jump into the water, and I 
 want to do the same ; but God would not let me ; 
 He prevented me, and brought me here. If the 
 Lord had not brought me here, I could not come. 
 White man no come for nothing here ; he tell us 
 about Jesus, and Jesus know eveiy sinner. He 
 willing to save them ; but no one can come to Him 
 God must draw him ! O, I thank the Lord Jesus 
 Christ for what He has done for me. Christ says, 
 Let your light shine before men. Consider Does 
 your light shine ? Again He says, Let not your 
 heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in 
 me. In my Father's house are many mansions. Those 
 mansions are for the people of God! I thank the 
 Lord that He has brought Mr. Johnson back ; I
 
 164 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 know Mr. Johnson can't save me but that Word 
 He tell me can. You pray for missionary, that very 
 good thing. He come to you ; he leave his brother, 
 mother, and father, to come to tell you that Jesus 
 Christ came to save sinners. You must give your 
 coppers too; suppose you have one copper, or one 
 shilling, no say you no got plenty ; what little you 
 have give that." 
 
 A young negro addressed the meeting. 
 
 "My dear brethren, I am not worthy to speak 
 anything before you, for I am not worthy to mention 
 the Name of God. I see, and you know, when Mr. 
 Johnson first come, he preach I go and come back 
 the same as I go ; I no understand what he preach. 
 He then preach again the word he preach hurt me 
 too much ; I feel heart sick ; he say, ' No man can 
 enter into the kingdom of Heaven except he be born 
 again no thief, no bad man go there/ Then me 
 hear again, that Jesus Christ came into the world 
 to save sinners ; when I hear this it made me very 
 glad. I was the same like a man who carry a bag 
 full of stones on his head; I went into the bush 
 and pray, and I get peace and my heart glad. That 
 time I see the light of God shine in my heart. When 
 I go to church, I have joy ; when I go home, I 
 have joy ; when I in bed, I have joy ; when I get 
 up, I have joy. But this time, I no feel glad ; I
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 165 
 
 feel myself guilty ; my heart is as hard as a rock ; 
 if God cast me into hell, He do good ; I deserve it. 
 But I thank him for His salvation bought with 
 blood ! He save me freely. I see the difference now." 
 
 After relating the circumstances of his being 
 brought to Sierra Leone, he added, 
 
 " Missionary come here, and preach to us, and 
 we pay nothing. England make us free, and bring 
 us to this country. God, my brothers, has done 
 great things for us, but I have denied Him, like 
 Peter. I can say I am guilty before Him ; but He 
 will have mercy upon whom He will have mercy. 
 Oh may he have mercy upon me ! I am not able 
 to do anything. I pray God to make us help God's 
 Word to cover the earth as the waters cover the sea ! 
 I believe that that word will come true. If any 
 one have got a penny, let him give it, and pray God 
 to bless our society." 
 
 The missionaries who gave these minutes of 
 what was said, regret that they were unable to give 
 a more full account of this young native's address ; 
 it was so impressive that it brought tears into their 
 eyes. 
 
 We close our account of this deeply interesting 
 meeting with an extract from the speech of the last 
 negro communicant who addressed the assembly. 
 After the affecting history of his capture, he gives
 
 166 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 the account of his conversion to God at Regent's 
 Town, and then continues : 
 
 " I desire to know the Lord Jesus more and 
 more, and that my country-people may hear of Him. 
 When I consider what the Lord has suffered for 
 sinners, I am sorry too much ; especially when I 
 read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, that chapter make 
 me sorry too much He was wounded for our trans- 
 gressions, and bruised for our iniquities I I trust that 
 through the precious blood of Jesus, I shall be 
 justified, and shall reign with Him in Heaven. My 
 country-people lie in darkness ; they worship their 
 own gods. What Mr. Taylor say just now, about 
 the day of judgment that we should meet our 
 country-people, and that, perhaps, through the cop- 
 pers which we give, make me glad too much. 
 Friends, consider your former state, and consider 
 the state of your country-people now. I dare say 
 some people say, 'White people bring me to this 
 country ! / but they are only instruments ; it is God 
 that brought us here to hear of Jesus the Saviour of 
 sinners ! Suppose they say, the Lord Jesus no came 
 into the world to save sinners, but the righteous, I 
 must go to hell. Oh pray, continually pray, for 
 ourselves and for country-people ! Suppose we 
 meet in the day of judgment, and they stand on 
 the left hand, and they say, ' You been see me go 
 to hell, and have not told me about it ! ' Try to do
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 167 
 
 the best you can ; pray, and give money. I thank 
 the Lord Jesus who saved me, who bled for me, who 
 was once nailed on the cross. Oh we must pray 
 that the Lord may save us, and receive us into the 
 Kingdom of glory. Suppose Christ leaves us to- 
 day we fall into hell ! " 
 
 At this African assembly the" collection made 
 amounted to 4. 8s. 6d. ' The abundance of their 
 joy and their poverty, abounded unto the riches of 
 their liberality ! ' 
 
 The journal continues. 
 
 " Feb. 28. A communicant came to me, who 
 has been much afflicted of late with illness. He 
 said, ' Massa, you say yesterday in church, some 
 people come to prayer every morning and evening, 
 and on Sunday four times. They have been bap- 
 tized, and now call themselves Christians ; and think 
 because they come to church ; and say, Lord, Lord ! 
 they are going to Heaven, while they have no heart- 
 religion, and do not worship God in spirit and in 
 truth. They know not true religion, but only put 
 Jesus Christ in their mouths and do not the things 
 which He command them, and are still going down 
 to hell. Oh, massa, them word hurt me too much 
 me think me that man me do that ! Oh, massa, 
 me no sleep all night, me have no peace, me 
 fraid too much ! ' He wept bitterly, tears of grief
 
 168 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 rolled over his black cheeks. I spoke to him as 
 the Holy Ghost enabled me. May the great Com- 
 forter of souls comfort him ! 
 
 Josiah Yamsey came and told me, with a sor- 
 rowful countenance, that two of his countrymen went 
 yesterday into the bush to cut sticks. He said, l You 
 see, massa, what "them people do on Sunday. By- 
 and-bye they will bring trouble again in this place 
 for do work on Sunday ! Me always tell them, but 
 their heart so hard; they will not mind. I wish 
 God may teach them. Me Afraid God punish the 
 place for the sake of the people.' 
 
 " March 4. Several people spoke this evening, 
 so that I felt what I cannot express. One woman 
 who had been in my school, and is now married, 
 said, ' When I very young, my mother die. Soon 
 after, bad sickness come in my country people look 
 quite well, and all at once they fall down and die. 
 My father take me, and run to another country, 
 because he 'fraid of that bad sick. My father got 
 sick, but he no die. Me got sick too. One day my 
 father send me to get some cassada ; two men meet 
 me in the road, catch me and carry me to the head- 
 man. The headman say they must sell me. Just 
 when they wanted to carry me away, my father came. 
 He very sick ; he look me ; and they say me thief, 
 and they go sell me. My father begin to beg them, 
 but they no hear. My father stand and cry ; and
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 169 
 
 oh, massa, since you talk that about missionary, and 
 about our fathers and mothers, me have no rest ! ' 
 Here she burst into tears, and said, ' My father 
 always stand before my eyes ; oh, poor man, he no 
 sabby anything about Jesus Christ ! ' She wept 
 very loudly ; and after a little while continued her 
 sad tale. ' After they carried me two days, they sold 
 me. I do not know what they got for me. I stop 
 there a little, and them people carry me to another 
 place, and sell me again with plenty more people. 
 Me very sick that time; oh me very poor and 
 nothing but bone. After the man that buy me, 
 took me, he say, ' This girl no good, she go to die. 
 I will kill her she no good to sell/ A woman live 
 there (I think she one of him wife), she beg the 
 man not to kill me. Oh, massa, God send that 
 woman to save my life ! Suppose that woman no 
 come and beg for me, what place I live now ? ' She 
 wept again, and could not proceed with her tale. 
 
 "Most of those who are influenced by Divine 
 grace, begin to see now the hand of God in all their 
 former lives. I believe that we were all so affected 
 that evening, that many tears were shed in silence. 
 Ah, who would not be a missionary to Africa ? 
 Had I ten thousand lives, I think I could willingly 
 offer them up for the sake of one poor negro ! Our 
 friends in England do not know half the sorrows
 
 170 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 and miseries that reign in Africa. ' Oh that the 
 salvation of Israel were come out of Zion ! ' 
 
 "March 25. The schools are going on well. 
 The evening school, especially, makes good progress. 
 I am indeed delighted to attend, for no weariness is 
 perceived ; all is pleasure, which makes it to me a 
 delightful season. Scholars assist continually ; Mr. 
 Bull assists and takes an active part." 
 
 Writing in May, as the rainy season was fast ap- 
 proaching, when illness had already begun, of himself 
 he says, " I do not recollect that I have ever been in 
 such a low state before. But all must be well. I 
 know we are ' immortal till our work is done/ I 
 therefore leave all in the hands of my dear Saviour." 
 
 It will, perhaps, be remembered that all the 
 boys chosen by Mr. Johnson from his schools and 
 people, for more advanced education in the seminary, 
 were communicants, except one; he now mentions 
 the interesting fact that a message sent to this boy 
 by the dying missionary, Mr. Gates, proved the 
 means of his conversion to God, and he was at this 
 time a candidate for baptism and the Lord's Supper. 
 How beautiful to find the missionary's dying breath 
 wafting life eternal to the negro boy ! 
 
 The desire for instruction in the way of life, and 
 for united communion in prayer and praise, brought 
 the negroes in increasing numbers to the House of
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 171 
 
 God. In April we find the following entry ; 
 " Divine service as usual. Had the bell rung half 
 an hour sooner, as the church was full long before. 
 One of the churchwardens came to me, saying, ' The 
 church full, massa, and plenty of people outside who 
 can't come in ! What must I do with them ? ' I 
 spoke to Mr. Bull about it, who went and put some 
 into the gallery, where the Institution - boys sit. 
 Others were obliged to keep on the shady side of 
 the church/ 3 And while the negroes' value for 
 heavenly truth so manifestly deepened, their desires 
 increased to extend its blessings ; the monthly Church 
 Missionary meeting was held, the church on this 
 occasion was full, and after service the monthly 
 contributions amounted to 31. 15s. 2d. more than 
 at any former monthly meeting ! 
 
 Just before the light of the Easter morning of 
 1820 dawned on the mountain valley, one of its 
 blessed negro children passed through the gate of 
 death to a glorious immortality. George Paul first 
 arrived in Regent's Town from the hold of a slave 
 vessel in 1815. About the time of Mr. Johnson's 
 arrival, George went to live in Freetown, but he soon 
 returned, and earnestly begged to be taken into the 
 school. Being almost naked, the missionary clothed 
 and admitted him ; he was soon after apprenticed, 
 and having no place to sleep in, Mr. Johnson took 
 him with several more boys into his own home. In
 
 172 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 1818, George Paul and two of the other boys 
 became full of serious thoughts ; one of the other 
 two, much attached to George, soon after died, 
 leaving a good hope in the missionary's heart that 
 he had departed to unchanging happiness and glory. 
 
 George and the other boy were baptized on 
 Christmas Day, 1818. " From this time, George 
 walked stedfastly with his God and Saviour ; " 
 becoming at once a missionary to all around him, 
 but especially to those of his own age ; " he cease- 
 lessly endeavoured to turn sinners from the error of 
 their ways/' When the Easter sun of 1820 broke on 
 George's new-made grave, there were several in the 
 church of Regent's Town who had been called by his 
 instrumentality from sin to the Saviour of sinners, 
 they were then " communicants, and walking worthy 
 of their high and holy calling." He stirred up his 
 young companions to prayer, and succeeded in this 
 effort as early as October, 1818. 
 
 In 1819, he caught a severe cold during the 
 rainy season, which settled on his lungs ; he recog- 
 nized the messenger of death, but he could rise and 
 bid it welcome ; for him it had no terrors, no " dark 
 unknown;" it was the eternal Father's messenger 
 to call the liberated slave-boy Home ! When 
 Augustine Johnson returned to Regent's Town in 
 February, 1820, he missed him from those who 
 came with their welcomes, and enquiring for him
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 173 
 
 heard he was ill j the missionary's heart was at once 
 engaged in devising some hopeful plan for the sick 
 boy's restoration, and for a little time the plan gave 
 promise of success, and George was seen again upon 
 the mountain-paths and by the mountain-stream ; 
 but it was only the taper of his mortal life nickering 
 ere its flame expired ; he was soon again as ill as 
 before. Many a black face bent in tender interest, 
 from time to time, over the pillow of the dying boy. 
 When asked by his anxious countrymen about the 
 state of his soul, he would answer, "Nothing but 
 the blood of Jesus can do me good ! " When asked 
 by them if he liked to die ? he would reply, " He is 
 God ! let Him do as HE likes ! " One of the 
 students in the seminary bore testimony, that when 
 in distress of mind, conversation with George had 
 relieved him. On one occasion Mr. Bull, the master 
 at the seminary, being at Freetown, the boys made 
 an unusual noise. George hearing them, rose from 
 his bed, and staggered to the school-room door, and 
 said, " boys ! you fear* master more than God. 
 When master is at home, you are quiet ; but now 
 master is not at home you think nobody see you. 
 O remember, God see you ! " Their dying com- 
 rade's earnest appeal produced a lasting impression, 
 remembered when the speaker's lips were silent in 
 the grave. Once a passing cloud obscured for a 
 little moment the brightness of his Heavenward
 
 174 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 
 
 vision, but it was quickly gone again, and gone for 
 ever. He soon after said to some of his countrymen 
 who had come to visit him, " I am happy that I am 
 sick, and going to die Jesus Christ has saved my 
 soul ! " They prayed with him, and he begged one 
 of them to help him on his knees ; he was told that 
 he could pray as well lying down, but he begged 
 again, saying, "I want to pray on, my knees ;" upon 
 which Tamba held him in his arms, so enabling him 
 to kneel, while prayer was offered up to God. 
 
 When asked by one who visited him the day 
 before he died, how he did ? he replied, " I thank 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, He hold me fast." To 
 another he said, " I beg you, when you go on your 
 knees, pray for me." When asked by another on 
 what he depended, being now about to depart, he 
 replied, c< On nothing but the blood and righteous- 
 ness of Jesus Christ." His last words were, " I am 
 happy ! " 
 
 As with the Lord who loved him and gave Him- 
 self for him, so with Gedrge at sunset on the day 
 of his death, they laid him in the grave ! On Easter 
 Sunday, his pastor, in his sermon, turned his blessed 
 death to living profit. The church of Regent's 
 town mourned for its youthful dead it was calcu- 
 lated that six hundred followed him to the grave. 
 There, in the mountain sod sleeps all that was mortal 
 of the young African evangelist, till the voice of the
 
 FRUITS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. 175 
 
 archangel and the trump of God awake the blessed 
 dead. He " in a short time fulfilled a long time," 
 departing at the age of sixteen. His childhood had 
 been bitterness the voice of the oppressor the 
 chain of the oppressed the worse than dungeon of 
 a slave-ship hold ! But the Good Shepherd found 
 him, redeemed him by the blood of His covenant 
 the everlasting arms received him ; spared for awhile 
 to breathe the heavenly invitation, " COME/' to the 
 lost wanderers around him ; then, resting in his bed, 
 he entered into peace ! " 
 
 Our lamentations might be poured upon the 
 grave of this African child of consolation, but that 
 we are for him constrained into rejoicing. And 
 looking round upon the church where he was " born 
 again," we see that his spiritual father Augustine 
 Johnson still is there. Tamba and Davis too are 
 there, who had already been made "unto God a sweet 
 savour of Christ in them that are saved/' Their 
 pastor records at this time their successful labours 
 among the people of a mountain near; and Noah too, 
 of whom he says at this time also, that he was " still 
 increasing in usefulness, a valuable assistant indeed ! " 
 We can only therefore turn from the grave of George 
 to his missionary pastor and say, " I WAS A STRANGER, 
 
 AND YE TOOK ME IN ! "
 
 tligfet. 
 
 " If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy 
 pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a Delight, the Holy 
 of the LORD, Honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine 
 own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own 
 words ; then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD ; and I will 
 cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee 
 with the heritage of Jacob thy father ; for the mouth of the LORD 
 hath spoken it." Isaiah Iviii. 13, 14.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT, 
 
 THAT a Sabbath is still given of God to man, no 
 less certainly than other Heaven-appointed means of 
 grace, is a truth confirmed by the fact that Christians 
 of every age and of every varying community unite 
 to acknowledge, honour, and bless the sacred hours 
 of " the Lord's day/' No sooner were the poor 
 African slaves baptized with " the Spirit of grace and 
 supplication/' than they felt the value, and rose to 
 the enjoyment of the Sabbath-day. And their dili- 
 gent improvement of it casts a silent reproof on 
 many, trained from their birth in the use of its 
 sacred privileges. At six o'clock in the morning, 
 the first service was held most beautiful it must 
 have been at dawn of day in that romantic valley, 
 when the morning breathed upon the mountains, 
 and, in the freshness of all things, the negro came to 
 the sanctuary to pray ! After this early service, the 
 twelve oldest communicants took each their separate 
 way among the dwellings of their countrymen, to
 
 180 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 
 
 visit all who might be sick carrying to each 
 sufferer's side the balm of Life, which they had 
 brought from the Mercy-seat, fresh from the eternal 
 Fountain; celebrating in each sick chamber the sacred 
 day's return, bringing home to each solitary sufferer 
 the joy of " the communion of saints/' And when- 
 ever they knew of any who forsook the assembling of 
 themselves together, there the feet of these heralds 
 of salvation followed them, wherever it might be, to 
 compel them by constraining love, to come in. All 
 the congregation assembled before the time for 
 reading the exhortation ; it was very rare for a single 
 individual of the crowded congregation not to have 
 entered then the negro made hindrances give way 
 to the sacred service, instead of that sacred service 
 being broken in upon by hindrances. Again at 
 three, and again at seven o'clock, all attended 
 public worship ; it was a rare event to miss one of 
 them, except the sick ; husband, wife, and children, 
 all were there, their dwellings locked up. Between 
 the services, in every quarter of the town, the negro 
 families, either by themselves or several families 
 unitedly, met for prayer. And oftentimes the 
 darkened mountains echoed to their hymns of adora- 
 tion, till the Sabbath's last sacred hour had passed 
 and the midnight ushered in the week-day dawn. 
 This community of liberated slaves seemed indeed to 
 have learned both the grace and the sweetness of the
 
 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 181 
 
 command, " Pray without ceasing ! " Never less 
 than five hundred attended daily morning and even- 
 ing prayers in the church, sometimes nine hundred, 
 and sometimes it was full. The same spirit of prayer 
 breathed from them in. private, and animated their 
 desires and efforts for their country -people. One 
 negro says, ' The Lord Jesus Christ is to me my 
 breakfast and my supper, my morning and my night ! 
 I can put no trust in anything beside, for all things 
 I see are sinful ; in my heart nothing but sin ; in 
 the world, nothing but sin. The Lord Jesus Christ, 
 He take all sin and die for it ! and He only good, and 
 only able to save ; that make Him my everything ! ' 
 We cannot wonder that such spirits found joy in the 
 communion of prayer ! 
 
 We give further extracts from the Journal : 
 "July, 1820. One man said, c l have felt very 
 glad since last Sunday morning. When you preach 
 you talk to me all the time ; what you said was what 
 I felt: which make me glad too much. But when 
 you at last talk to the wicked, I wanted to cry 
 my heart turn in me for my poor wife ! she come 
 always to church, but she no believe she still care- 
 less. I do not know what to do with her ; sometimes 
 when I look at her I could ciy. I cannot keep water 
 out of my eyes. I grieve very much for my wife. 
 Oh, I wish God may teach her ! ' 
 
 " Another woman said, ' First time when I begin
 
 182 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 
 
 to pray, and when I see all bad things, I go plenty 
 times to the Lord Jesus Christ to pardon all my sins ; 
 and then I feel glad too much, because He come into 
 the world to save sinners. When I go out, I pray 
 in the road ; in the farm, I pray-; when I get in the 
 market amongst plenty people, I pray ; I always 
 pray, that time my heart live on the Lord Jesus 
 Christ ! When I get up, I pray ; when I lie down, I 
 pray ; when I see God's people I glad too much, I 
 talk to them, and tell them what the Lord do for me. 
 But this time I don't know how I stand ; suppose I 
 pray, my heart run away from me ; and when I get 
 up from my knees, I don't know what I been say. 
 Oh, my heart ! bad past everything : I don't know 
 what to do with myself/ 
 
 "July 30. Sunday. The prayer - meeting at 
 six o'clock was numerously attended. Divine ser- 
 vice at half-past ten. I read the prayers as usual, 
 and Noah responded with the whole congregation ; 
 when I read some of those beautiful and spiritual 
 prayers, I could have wept ; there appeared a holy 
 awe throughout the congregation. I saw one woman 
 while she repeated the responses ' Lord, have mercy 
 upon us ! Christ, have mercy upon us ! ' weeping 
 bitterly. 
 
 <e In the afternoon, Tamba went to Leicester, and 
 Davis went to Bathurst, to keep service. Davis has 
 200 of his countrymen at Bathurst who cannot
 
 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 183 
 
 understand English ; he addressed them in their own 
 language. As Mr. Hector seems to have no objec- 
 tion, Davis will probably go there every Sunday after- 
 noon. I understand that the people were very much 
 pleased, and begged Davis to come again and tell 
 them about the true God. 
 
 "July 31. In calling at one of the houses, a 
 woman said, ' Massa, me been very sick ; and that 
 time when you come and see me, I think I cannot 
 live much longer. But you see, massa, the Lord has 
 spared me ; and now I can thank him for his mercy. 
 Beforetime I was always Afraid to die ; but, this 
 time, I was glad too much. Suppose I been die, I 
 live in Heaven now with the Lord Jesus Christ ! 
 Them words you talk yesterday in the church, about 
 God punish Him people because He love them, 
 them words true that just fit me that true word. 
 God make me sick because me great sinner; and 
 because me Afraid to die, He take away my fear, be- 
 cause He love me ! ' 
 
 " A communicant thus opened his heart to me. 
 
 1 1 no sabby how I stand, this time. I fear 
 too much. I think I no live in the right way. My 
 heart plague me too much. My heart stand the 
 same like two persons one do bad, the other do 
 good ; one like to pray, the other no like to pray. 
 Sometimes me so sorry for myself, I don't know
 
 184 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 
 
 what to do ; and sometimes when you preach, me 
 get comfort, but sometimes me get sorrow too much 
 for myself. I don't know if Christians stand that 
 fashion/ 
 
 " After returning home I was continually en- 
 gaged speaking with communicants ; when one was 
 gone, another came till nearly ten o'clock. How 
 various are the dealings of God with His people ! 
 Some were distressed on account of indwelling sin 
 others under great darkness and temptations while 
 some rejoiced and gave praise to Him who worketh 
 all in all. 
 
 " At the usual meeting I addressed the commu- 
 nicants, pointed out how necessary self-examination 
 was proposed some questions, and requested they 
 would put them to themselves when they retired. 
 Some spoke in a very pleasing manner concerning 
 the great things which the Lord had done for them, 
 and how they had been refreshed by hearing the 
 Word of God in the church, and by reading it at 
 home. 
 
 " After service one day, some young women who 
 are still in the school, followed me into the piazza, 
 and desired to speak to me. One said, ' Massa ! we 
 have too much trouble in the school-house. Them 
 girls that no serve God trouble us too much ; we have 
 no peace with them. We beg you, massa, to tell us 
 what we must do. We want to sit down by our-
 
 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 185 
 
 selves to read and pray sometimes ; but we cannot 
 them other girls make too much noise ; and some 
 of them would do us bad, but they fear you. And 
 now we cannot go into the bush, so much rain live 
 there, and that make us feel sorry. Last Sunday, 
 you say you fear people neglect prayer, and now 
 them feel cold in them heart. Massa, for my part, 
 I stand that fashion. Sometimes I kneel down to 
 pray, and then my heart so cold, and then somebody 
 come and disturb me ! ' I gave them some advice ; 
 and they left me weeping. 
 
 " August 13. Sunday. I felt very unwell this 
 morning, but could not stay away from church, 
 which was completely crowded ; it being a very fine 
 day, many strangers were also observed. It was 
 indeed a scene which prophets and kings desired to 
 see, and saw not ! What my soul felt when I beheld, 
 I may say a multitude of people, I cannot express, 
 and all appearing eager to hear the Word of God. 
 I preached on 2 Cor. iv. 17. While I was preaching, 
 the fever came on ; but though my body felt weak, 
 yet my soul was strengthened, when speaking of the 
 end and result of our present afflictions, which are 
 but light, and for a moment : and while we endure 
 them, we are held up by our covenant Jehovah, and 
 thus they work out for us afar more exceeding and 
 eternal weight of glory. 
 
 " I have had visits paid me every day almost from
 
 186 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 
 
 morning to night. One man said 'Massa ! God 
 do keep me, for true. Sometimes I have run from 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, but He no run away from me. 
 He hold me fast. When I ran, He send trouble 
 after me. As He bring back Jonah, so He bring me 
 back many times. I no run like Jonah, but heart 
 run more like Jonah. When I consider, I wonder 
 that God has kept me so long. Oh what mercy ! I 
 see He will not leave me/ 
 
 " August 20. After service, one of the church- 
 wardens came to me and said, 'When you explained 
 the Law, some people wept ; and two men ran away 
 they could not stand it \' Several expressed joy 
 that the Lord Jesus Christ had delivered them from 
 the curse of the Law. 
 
 " Sept. 3. Being the Sunday for the adminis- 
 tration of the Holy Communion, divine service began 
 at ten o'clock. I first married two carpenters to 
 two school-girls, all communicants. When the girls 
 came to, take leave of me they wept much, conscious 
 of the important step they were about to take. The 
 whole congregation seemed to feel affected when the 
 ceremony was performed, and responded to the ser- 
 vice in a very solemn manner. The brides were 
 dressed in white gowns and black beaver hats ; the 
 men in blue coats and light waistcoats and trousers. 
 They made a very respectable appearance. What a 
 contrast when we consider, that, not long since,
 
 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 187 
 
 they were naked, and disfigured by slave - dealers' 
 chains and greegrees. I then proceeded with the 
 morning prayers,, after which I preached on John 
 i. 29, ' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away 
 the sin of the world! 3 and then baptized twenty- 
 three adults and three infants. The candidates 
 were first catechised before the congregation, and 
 then baptized in the name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost. I administered the 
 Lord's Supper to nearly three hundred communi- 
 cants. 
 
 " October 4. Thirty - six persons have since the 
 above been received as candidates for baptism, who 
 are now under a course of instruction. 
 
 " The work of mercy is proceeding, for which I 
 am constrained to say, ' Blessing, and honour, and 
 glory, and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon 
 the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever ! 
 Amen/ " 
 
 And now again the Missionary turned his long- 
 ing eyes from off his folded flocks, on to the waste 
 howling wilderness where the poor heathen wan- 
 dered, lost in ignorance and sin. Did he think of 
 the Chief Shepherd saying, "Other sheep I have, 
 which are not of this fold ; them also I must bring, 
 and they shall hear my voice !" and did it seem to 
 him that the flocks in his mountain -valley lay in 
 Africa's vast moral desert, like the Church of Israel
 
 188 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 
 
 in a heathen world ? The influence that led him on, 
 we know was heavenly, and he went, the faithful 
 Tamba with him, and six of ths seminary youths. 
 They set sail on October 17, in a canoe from Free- 
 town, and suffering much through the night from 
 contrary winds, and still more from the bad language 
 of the men in the canoe, they landed in the morning 
 and walked along the sand -beach the white man 
 and his seven negro sons ! and halting in a little 
 grove of trees, they read a chapter of Holy Scripture, 
 and prayed together ; and then, determined to walk, 
 rather than hear the language of the wicked, they 
 wandered on, till late at night they reached Mama, 
 a place they visited two years before with the beloved 
 missionary Mr. Gates. Two years had not effaced 
 the memoiy of the strangers who came in peace and 
 love among them ; the poor people welcomed their 
 return, and they spent the night there with many 
 elevating thoughts of their " companion in the king- 
 dom and patience of Jesus Christ/' who had entered 
 into rest. The spirit in which the poor Africans 
 of this place received instruction was very encourag- 
 ing, and the missionary party thanked God and went 
 forward. Continuing their way along the sand- 
 beach they came to a large creek, through, which 
 they swam with some difficulty ; looking back 
 from the further side they saw two sharks pursuing 
 some fish, and realized the peril which they had
 
 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 189 
 
 passed in safety; then meditating on the promise, 
 ' ' When thou passest through the waters, I will be with 
 thee ; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow 
 thee, they followed on their way." They crossed the 
 Whale River, which they found quite passable. 
 About four miles further they arrived at another 
 creek which appeared but shallow : they thought to 
 wade through it, and all accomplished it except the 
 missionary pastor, who suddenly sank in the quick- 
 sand nearly to the shoulders; but Tamba was at 
 hand, and his strong arm rescued the life so precious, 
 from this sudden peril; the walk of four miles 
 further in wet and sandy clothes, exhausted the 
 missionary's strength ; but rest entirely restored him, 
 and he felt no injury. Continuing their course, 
 they visited the Bananas, securing fresh openings 
 for the native teachers as soon as they should be 
 ready to be sent so far; teaching the people, and 
 preaching Christ to the poor heathen in the midst 
 of devil-houses and greegrees. 
 
 Greatly desiring to return to Regent's Town by 
 Sunday, the 29th of October, they set sail homeward 
 October 26, holding a prayer -meeting in the canoe 
 at the evening hour during which it was held 
 at Regent's Town. After a night of toiling and 
 rowing the wind being contrary they reached 
 Kent at eight o'clock in the morning, and sailed 
 again at eleven. About nine in the evening, they
 
 190 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 
 
 passed False Cape ; when a tremendous tornado came 
 down from the mountains : it blew with great vio- 
 lence, and lasted four hours ; the awful lightning 
 and thunder, with torrents of rain, created so much 
 confusion in the boat, that the men did not know 
 what they were doing : one let the anchor go, but it 
 did not reach the bottom, and being near rocks their 
 peril was great. The captain appeared quite at a 
 loss. Then Tamba came forward and begged of Mr. 
 Johnson to have the command given up to him ; his 
 request was granted; his calm unruffled spirit, his 
 firm hand, and steady eye the result of his prayer- 
 ful dependance upon the God whom winds and waves 
 obey recovered the anchor, and steered the little 
 boat in safety through the stormy sea, till, at five 
 o'clock in the morning, they stood on the shore, 
 only five miles distance from Regent' s Town. We 
 can but remember the Lake of Galilee. " The 
 Prince of the power of the air," it may be, attempted 
 then to destroy the Hope of Israel ; and now, perhaps, 
 to engulph Africa's sons of consolation. On the 
 former occasion, the Lord Himself said, " Peace, be 
 still ! and the wind ceased and there was a great 
 calm;" on this he breathed the same commanding 
 peace into the faithful Tamba's heart, so that he 
 guided the vessel as safely over the troubled sea, as 
 if its every wave had settled down into a smooth 
 expanse. The missionary adds, "We reached Re-
 
 THE SABBATH A DELIGHT. 191 
 
 gent's Town about half-past seven o'clock on Friday 
 morning. Much joy was manifested on both sides, 
 when we beheld each other again in safety. May 
 our Heavenly Father be praised for His mercy 
 towards us during this short journey ; and bless our 
 feeble endeavours for Jesus Christ's sake/'
 
 ptwtt 
 
 **y 
 
 n 
 
 So then death worketh in us, but life in you." 2 Cor. iv. 12.
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 
 
 IN March, 1821, the pastor of Regent's Town 
 suffered from severe illness ; a violent cold settled on 
 his lungs, and he was laid aside for weeks worn 
 with constant cough, and doubtful whether he 
 should be raised up again for his earthly ministiy. 
 But God had mercy on his people, and once more 
 restored a life which it had pleased Him to make 
 the channel of " living waters " to them. The 
 faithful Tamba had already been on one prosperous 
 missionary tour to the Sherbro country, and he was 
 preparing to start again, but he would not leave 
 until he saw his prayers answered in his pastor's 
 restoration. This illness was not one in its effects 
 likely to pass away as quickly or entirely as the 
 rapid attacks of fever from which the missionaiy had, 
 again and again, so suddenly recovered ; it is pro- 
 bable that it wrote " the sentence of death " with
 
 196 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 
 
 abiding characters in his still vigorous frame. 
 Labouring in season and out of season, exposed to 
 all the trying variations of climate heat and chills, 
 rain and dry; rising early, and late taking rest 
 because, as with his divine Master, the people pressed 
 upon him to hear the word of God ; we can only 
 wonder that his mortal frame so long endured the 
 fierce assaults of adverse climate, and the incessant 
 claims around him. Already he stood like a veteran 
 in the field, where the missionary's life so often 
 faded like the flower described by St. James, 
 " For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, 
 than the flower falleth, and the grace of the fashion 
 of it perisheth." " Poor Africa ! her children groan 
 in chains of darkness, and she has nothing to offer 
 those who would draw near to remove them, but a 
 Grave ! Surely none but heavenly fires could burn 
 in the breasts of those who would press forward to 
 perform such a service for such a reward." Augustine 
 Johnson's life still only numbered thirty-four years ; 
 and yet the desert bloomed around him, as if the 
 wisdom and the toil of three-score years and ten had 
 laboured and been honoured with abundant increase 
 there. We know that " neither is he that planteth 
 anything, neither he that watereth ; but God that 
 giveth the increase." Yet it is also written, " They 
 that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth 
 forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall,
 
 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 197 
 
 doubtless, come again with rejoicing, bringing his 
 sheaves with him." 
 
 Trials and joys still held their even course along 
 his ministerial path. A short time before his severe 
 illness, he wrote to England to the secretaries : 
 
 " I know you will be pleased with the reports of 
 the settlements. Indeed it will draw forth gratitude 
 from the hearts of God's people, when they consider 
 how the light of the gospel is beaming forth in every 
 direction. Praise and glory be to our heavenly 
 Father, who has again revived our drooping hearts 
 through the prospect before us. May the God of 
 all grace continue to prosper all your undertakings." 
 
 We could but expect that he, who as " a roaring 
 lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour,' ; 
 would make many an assault upon this faithful 
 servant of the most High God. A West Indian, a 
 seller of rum on the road from Regent to Freetown, 
 found his trade greatly injured by the missionary's 
 preaching; and seeing him pass by one day to Free- 
 town, he loaded a gun, and waited in the mountains 
 for Augustine Johnson's solitary return. How 
 striking the contrast here presented to our view 
 the tempter of his fellow men, getting his wealth by 
 their debasement, lurking in the mountain-pathway 
 his evil heart, and evil eye, and evil hand, all bent 
 to murder the righteous. And the unarmed defence- 
 less missionary, whose soul was the dwelling-place of
 
 198 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 
 
 love, truth, and peace, whose lips had been the 
 instrument of regenerating a whole community, 
 whose life was " an epistle of Christ, " who, had he 
 been asked, as Luther, "When all forsake you, 
 where will you take refuge ! " could have answered 
 as Luther did "looking upward with an eye of 
 faith, UNDER HEAVEN ! " It is well sometimes 
 to contemplate the awful contrast of "the just and 
 the unjust," that we may deepen our apprehension 
 of those two vast eternities, " sin and love." The 
 missionary's danger was imminent ; but, surely, 
 "He shall deliver thee from the snare of the 
 fowler ! " and " He shall give His angels charge 
 concerning thee to keep thee in all thy ways," until 
 thy work is done ; and then, " as a servant earnestly 
 desireth the shadow" marking the day's decline 
 and his approaching hour of rest so wilt thou 
 behold " the valley of the shadow of death," knowing 
 that on entering it thou shalt have wings like a 
 dove, and fly away, and be at rest ! But though the 
 missionary's sun went down at noon- day, as yet the 
 " shadow " had not fallen ; and therefore the word 
 of inspiration was sure to him as to the Apostle 
 Paul at Corinth, " Be not afraid; but speak, and 
 hold not thy peace, for no man shall set on thee to 
 hurt thee." Heavenly love, wherever it dwells, is a 
 wakeful, watchful energy; tidings of the deadly 
 design reached the ears of one of his negro people,
 
 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 199 
 
 who instantly set off and ran through the mountain 
 paths to save a life so precious, reaching Freetown 
 before the missionary had started ; but the breathless 
 messenger was not regarded ; presently a second 
 arrived, and then a third, bringing the same tidings j 
 it was impossible to neglect such warnings, the 
 reluctant missionary gave information, and the man 
 was secured ; he was bound to keep the peace, and 
 then released, to the missionary's comfort, who ex- 
 claims, " May the Lord forgive him, for he knows 
 not what he does ! I know that my God will protect 
 me. The Lord is on my side, I will not fear what 
 man shall do unto me." 
 
 From time to time fresh testimonies were added 
 to the way in which God had prospered and estab- 
 lished the work of His servant's hands at Regent's 
 Town ; these testimonies are most valuable as giving 
 confirmation by important witnesses, but their details 
 would be only a repetition of the facts already 
 narrated, therefore they are not inserted here. 
 
 In the missionary's journal of this month April, 
 1821, he speaks again of the boys' Evening Prayer 
 Meeting, which had now been continued nearly three 
 years ; and he mentions the interesting fact, not so 
 distinctly named before, that George Paul was " the 
 instrument who formed it." In this month the 
 anniversary of the Regent's Town missionary meeting 
 was again held. One poor woman, unable to attend,
 
 200 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 
 
 said to her minister the next day, f Yesterday I sorry 
 too much that I could not come to the missionary- 
 meeting. I was hungry too much for to come, but 
 I too sick ! Me can't pray, me so cold ! I think 
 God punish me, and still my heart so hard ! Only 
 thing that comfort me is, that the Lord Jesus come 
 to seek and to save them people that lost ; and that 
 God punish Him people. Him punish me, me bad, 
 and that make me think He love me ! ' Oh ! who 
 but would desire such simplicity of faith taking 
 God so entirely at His word ! 
 
 A poor negro woman became a convert to the 
 faith of Christ ; her husband, a blacksmith, who had 
 come from Freetown, took up the profession of the 
 same ; he then borrowed as much money as he could, 
 sold also several pigs and other articles which had 
 formed the poor negro woman's little estate when 
 she married ; and then going to Freetown, he sailed in 
 a French vessel to Senegal. It was an overwhelming 
 wave of trouble for the Christian wife; but the 
 missionary adds, " She carried her grief to God who 
 says, ' Call upon me in the day of trouble ; I will 
 deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me ; ' and it is 
 most wonderful how she has been supported. Her 
 trials have been amongst the ' all things ' which work 
 together for good. I believe if there are any who 
 enjoy peace or comfort, she does, in her humble cot- 
 tage the cleanliness of .which cannot be too much
 
 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 201 
 
 admired, as also her regular attendance at divine 
 worship, which she never neglects. I asked her how 
 she got on now ? She said, ' I have plenty trouble, 
 but the Lord Jesus Christ is my Father and my 
 husband/ She avoids all company, and lives near 
 her countiy-people, who have, like her, found the 
 pearl of great price. I cannot help observing that 
 when the fence round the cottage wants repairing, 
 her Christian country-people will join together, and 
 do it gratis. This is another instance of that 
 sovereign grace that turns the lion into a lamb - 
 for these are all of the Ebo nation. May the God 
 of sovereign grace have all the praise and glory ! " 
 
 The journal continues : 
 
 "April 21. One man who had been told, for 
 a slight offence, that he could not be permitted to 
 attend the Lord's table, came to me this morning and 
 said, ' Massa, where must I go now ? I do so bad, 
 that true I deserve to be turned away from the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, and him people ; but for true, massa, 
 I cannot live without the Lord ! What must I do ? 
 What word live there again, that can comfort my 
 heart ? Suppose me run to my country far away, 
 the word me hear live in my heart everywhere, and 
 can't come out again. To what place can me go for 
 peace ? I don't know what to do ! ' The missionary 
 adds, " The words of St. Peter came to my mind,
 
 202 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 
 
 ' Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast the words 
 of eternal life ! ' I could not send the man away, 
 without telling him to come to the Lord's Table to- 
 morrow. He was very thankful, and a great burden 
 appeared to have fallen from his heart. Cases like 
 this I have had frequently. They are like Noah's 
 dove, finding no rest but in the Ark of the Covenant 
 the blessed and precious Lord Jesus Christ/' 
 
 Easter Day again brightened on the mountain 
 valley and its pastor. The morning prayer-meeting 
 at six o'clock was numerously attended ; about nine 
 o'clock again streams of people poured in one direc- 
 tion to the House of prayer ; a quarter of an hour 
 before the time of service the churchwardens came to 
 meet the missionary, telling him, " the church was 
 full too much ! " An attempt was made to get all 
 within, but it could not be done, and some of these 
 earnest worshippers had to remain outside. The 
 missionary preached from Isaiah xliii. 1. "But now 
 thus saith the Lord, that created thee, O Jacob, and 
 he that formed thee, Israel, Tear not ; for I have 
 redeemed thee ; I have called thee by thy name ; 
 thou art mine." Twenty-one adults and three 
 children were baptized ; and the hearts of those 
 around were touched by the aspect of one little boy 
 of three years old, who was baptized with his mother. 
 " Having knelt down, he placed his little hand be- 
 fore his eyes, appearing to be in prayer, and so
 
 A little boy was baptized with his mother." P. 202.
 
 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 203 
 
 remained during the whole ceremony; when the 
 water was poured on his head, he remained still in 
 the same devout posture." " Of such is the king- 
 dom of Heaven ! " The missionary adds, " This is a 
 day which will be known and long remembered by 
 those who have tasted that the Lord is gracious. 
 may the Lord the Spirit carry on the work of 
 saving grace among us, for Jesus' sake ! Amen." 
 
 Some months previous to this time, two clergy- 
 men, and others from America, had come to Africa as 
 missionaries, stirred up to the work by a letter from 
 England, written by Mr. Pratt. They had visited 
 Regent's Town, and taken Mr. Johnson's advice as 
 to the locality on the coast on which it was best for 
 them to attempt a settlement. Had it not been for 
 his own itinerant missionary journeys he would have 
 had no counsel to offer ; but from his own experience 
 he could now direct others ; he sent Davis to aid and 
 labour with them, among his own countrymen. In 
 this Easter week he speaks of a visit from one of 
 these American clergymen. 
 
 " Last night I was agreeably surprised by the 
 sight of Mr. Becon, who has been down the coast to 
 the Bassa country. Davis, accompanied by the king's 
 son, came also. The missionaries have succeeded in 
 getting land ; they have a sufficient quantity to begin 
 a colony in the Bassa countiy. It appears that the 
 king of that country is in earnest, or else he would
 
 204 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 
 
 not have sent his son, which may be taken as a token 
 of his sincerity, as it respects the land, &c. promised. 
 I cannot express what I felt when the news reached 
 my ears. A heavy burden fell at once from my 
 mind, which has been there ever since I heard of the 
 death of Mr. Gates ; for he, humanly speaking, died 
 of the fatigue which he endured going to that 
 country, and I was the cause of his undertaking it, 
 for I first proposed it to him, and urged a special 
 meeting to be held. But now I see that the Lord's 
 ways are in the deep. " How unsearchable are his 
 judgments, and his ways past finding out." Had 
 Mr. Gates not gone there, the missionaries would 
 not have received land ; Davis produced the agree- 
 ment which the king had made with Mr. Gates, and 
 which opened the way immediately. Thus that dear 
 servant of the Lord has slain more at his death than 
 ever he did in his life-time. The people were in the 
 evening school, when Davis and the Prince -arrived. 
 I took the latter to the school-house, and had our 
 friends in England seen the sight, they would have 
 wept for joy. His countrymen, who were standing 
 in their respective classes, left them without asking 
 leave, surrounded the son of their king, shook hands 
 with him in the most affectionate manner, and 
 enquired after their relatives. Some leaped for joy 
 when they heard that their parents were alive ; and 
 the prospect of the gospel soon sounding in their
 
 PATIENT CONTINUANCE IN WELL-DOING. 205 
 
 ears caused such sensations as cannot well be 
 described. Noah heard that his father and brethren 
 were all alive and well. Davis said he had seen some 
 of those who sold him as a slave, and who tried to 
 hide themselves, being ashamed to look at him. The 
 mistress of his late master, when she saw him, ran 
 towards him, fell upon his neck, and wept. He 
 heard that his mother was alive, but too far in the 
 interior to enable him to pay her a visit this time. 
 However, he sent her a present, and word that he 
 hoped soon to see her, and have her in his family. 
 Some of the people were so struck, when they saw 
 Davis, that they scarcely would believe that he was 
 the same ; as an instance of one returning who had 
 been sold, had never occurred before ! ' Godliness is 
 profitable unto all things, having promise of the life 
 that now is, and of that which is to come/ ''
 
 " And sealeth up the stars." Job ix. 7. 
 
 " Nor sink those stars in empty night 
 But hide themselves in heaven's own light.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 THE Governor of .Sierra Leone, Sir Charles Mac- 
 Carthy, left the colony in 18.20, on a visit to 
 England, in consequence of ill health ; he returned 
 again in November 1821 : and it has been justly 
 observed that the way in which this excellent viceroy 
 was welcomed back to his post of dignity and use- 
 fulness, reflects equal credit on the governor and the 
 governed. Very shortly after his return, Sir Charles 
 MacCarthy spent two days in visiting the different 
 negro towns of the colony, accompanied by many 
 gentlemen from Freetown. We give the details of 
 the visit to Regent's Town. 
 
 " As soon as the governor was descried on the 
 heights above the town, the British ensign was dis- 
 played, and a salute fired with much regularity the 
 re-echo of which among the distant hills had the 
 most grand effect. The people were formed in lines, 
 three and four deep, from the bridge to the mis- 
 sionary's house; men, women and children neatly 
 dressed, and decorated with the flowers of the country.
 
 210 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 On his excellency crossing the large stone bridge 
 adjoining the town, he was met by a band of young 
 school-girls, dressed in white and decorated with 
 the simple though sweet and fragrant flowers of the 
 country. The eldest girl supported a banner of blue 
 silk, upon which was exhibited in large white charac- 
 ters, ' Fear God. Honour the king/ 1 Pet. ii. 17. 
 1 Obey them that have the rule over you.' Heb. xiii. 
 17. ' God save the king/ 1 Sam. x. 24. 
 
 " The girls preceded his excellency up the hill 
 to the parsonage -house, amidst the enthusiastic 
 cheering of full two thousand voices, welcoming him 
 once more among them. Sir Charles had scarcely 
 entered the house, when the anxious crowd rushed 
 into the great room, exclaiming again and again, 
 ' Thank God ! daddy come ! God bless him ! ' Nor 
 were they satisfied till his excellency went out again 
 among them. We confess we never witnessed, on 
 any occasion, so gratifying a scene, nor one better 
 calculated to excite the finest feelings of human 
 nature j the joy expressed on every countenance, 
 and the warmth of affectionate feeling poured forth 
 by those freed children of Africa, excited emotions in 
 us which we feel quite incompetent to describe. 
 
 " His excellency remained among his affectionate 
 negroes for some time, when their excellent rector 
 and superintendent, the Rev. W. Johnson, led them 
 in a body to the church, where they joined in hymns
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 211 
 
 of thanksgiving to the Almighty. So many voices 
 on such an interesting occasion, accompanied by 
 the solemn notes of the organ, produced in us 
 sensations of the most serious, though gratifying 
 description." * 
 
 Mr. Johnson, in writing to the secretaries, says, 
 "The Europeans of Freetown have inspected the 
 mountains, and have been so surprised at the order, 
 industry, and piety of our people, that their mouths 
 are completely stopped. They acknowledge now 
 that the Gospel is the only means to civilize the 
 heathen. Several have requested me to call upon 
 them for their contribution to our Society. The 
 governor has also requested me to call upon him 
 for the same purpose. My humble flock has con- 
 tributed 72/. 8s. Id. this year, and it has not a 
 little surprised the colonists. 
 
 " His excellency has been pleased to give me 
 10/. as his contribution to the Society. Several other 
 gentlemen have given me donations and subscrip- 
 tions.. Mr. R. Macaulay gave me 12/. 2s. I have 
 now in all for the past year 17 '71. 18s. IQd. The 
 gentlemen in Freetown are now so convinced of the 
 success produced by the preaching of the Gospel, that 
 they publicly confess that, above all other institutions, 
 ours has proved the most beneficial to the children of 
 
 * From the " Colonial Gazette."
 
 212 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 Africa.* I am much exposed to flattery at present, 
 which does not benefit my proud heart. Oh, my 
 dear Sirs, above all pray for me that the Lord may 
 keep me humble ! I am really in danger, because I 
 prosper. May I be kept at the feet of Jesus, and 
 aim at nothing but to promote His glory. 
 
 " Tamba, I am happy to say, conducts himself 
 with great propriety. The people under his care at 
 Bathurst do certainly improve, and the schools are in 
 good order. 
 
 " As Christmas week is only just over, and every 
 thing that happened fresh in my memory, I shall en- 
 deavour to state how it was spent at Regent's Town. 
 
 "Dec. 25. At six o'clock, prayer - meeting, as 
 on Sunday mornings. At ten o'clock divine service. 
 I preached from Luke ii. 14, ' Glory to God in the 
 highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men/ 
 I baptized thirty-three adults, and thirteen infants ; 
 and administered the Lord's Supper to the largest 
 number that ever attended at Regent. I went 
 through the whole service alone (Mr. During was 
 obliged to be at Gloucester) ; the service continued 
 till nearly three o'clock ; but notwithstanding the 
 fatigue, my heart was so full of joy I could scarcely 
 speak. O God, what hast Thou wrought ! Receive 
 all the praise and glory ! After three o'clock the 
 
 * The Church Missionary Society.
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 213 
 
 people kept prayer-meeting, under the direction of 
 Mr. Norman ; and in the evening I preached on 
 Isaiah ix. 6. 
 
 " Dec. 26. About nine A.M. I proceeded to Glou- 
 cester, and as far as I could see, before and behind, 
 the road was covered with our people/' This assem- 
 bly was to celebrate the anniversary of the Church 
 Missionary Meeting, held this year at Gloucester. 
 Sir Charles MacCarthy took the chair, at the request 
 of the missionaries, and Mr. Johnson adds, " I can- 
 not say too much of the meeting I think it was 
 the most interesting one I ever attended ! " 
 
 " Dec. 27. About forty of our communicants 
 had their subscription - dinner in our boys' school - 
 house. A few of Mr. During's communicants were 
 invited. They had prayer before and after dinner, 
 with appropriate hymns. Before tea they kneeled 
 down again, and one prayed. After tea they all 
 attended prayers at church, after which they returned 
 and resumed their seats. Several speeches were 
 now delivered, with many cheers, intermixed with 
 hymns of praise. At eight o'clock all retired to 
 their homes. 
 
 " Dec. 28. After prayers in the church, some 
 told me that they felt as if it were Sunday all the 
 week. I reminded them of the eternal Sunday which 
 is to come ! " 
 
 The organ in the church, alluded to in the
 
 214 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 " Colonial Gazette," was a present from England. 
 Noah had been accustomed to lead the singing in 
 the church, but it proved no easy work to lead such 
 a multitude of voices as rose from that mountain 
 valley in hymns of praise to Heaven. Noah who 
 could do almost eveiything, and never wearied in 
 his heavenly or his earthly master's service found 
 this beyond his power, complaining of his chest. The 
 missionary then raised his voice, and led his people's 
 songs of praise ; but it tried him more than preach- 
 ing, so sympathetic England sent an organ. It 
 greatly astonished the negroes, some of whom were 
 anxious to keep at a safe distance from an object 
 that gave signs of life in such marvellous power of 
 expression ! England, however, had not calculated 
 on the burst of song from negro hearts from whom 
 " the cup of trembling " had passed away for ever, 
 and whose adoration rose to Him who loved them 
 and gave Himself for them; the organ's swelling 
 tones were lost in the choir of human melody, and 
 the gift, for its primary purpose, proved useless. 
 But England can give freely, effectually, be the 
 offering what it may ; the God who gave her Bible 
 and her Sabbath, has given her also Liberality ! It 
 was not long before another organ was heard, tri- 
 umphant above the tones of negro praise, leading the 
 congregation's psalmody. 
 
 April 19, 1822. He speaks with joy of seeing
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 215 
 
 his children come from every quarter to partake of 
 the Holy Sacrament. A woman from Freetown, a 
 man from the hospital on Leicester mountain, Tamba 
 from Gloucester, Davis and his wife from Bathurst, 
 Sandy from Leopold, and Thomson from Wilberforce 
 all these having kept divine service early at their 
 respective places, came to join the parent congrega- 
 tion at the Lord's Table. Thomson did not arrive 
 till the sacred service had begun, having to walk five 
 miles through the bush after keeping divine service 
 early at Wilberforce; Thus were the missionary's 
 children like lights scattered through the surrounding 
 darkness ! But Noah still was left with him his 
 earthly prop and stay; of him he says, "Noah is 
 employed from daybreak till ten at night, a con- 
 tinuance of exertion which no European could endure 
 in this climate. He conducts entirely the day and 
 evening schools; besides this, he issues rations for 
 about 1200 people; keeps the provision - lists and 
 returns, and school-lists ; measures out all the lots, 
 and . sees that the houses and fences are regularly 
 built; receives the stores every Thursday in Free- 
 town ; enters marriages, baptisms, &c. ; does the duty 
 of a parish clerk ; prays with the sick ; in short, he 
 is everything at Regent's Town ! He occasionally, 
 when I could not, has gone to Bathurst and also to 
 Gloucester. I cannot sufficiently praise God for 
 having given me such an assistant. He does all
 
 216 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 with great pleasure, and never thinks that he can 
 do too much. If he has five minutes to spare, 
 they are generally spent in my study among the 
 books. He works a' slateful of problems during 
 school-hours, which he copies into a book between ten 
 and eleven o'clock at night ; and after that time he 
 writes his journal ; he then retires and rests till half- 
 past five in the morning." The missionary enu- 
 merates seven among the seminary youths whom he 
 believes capable of conducting* a school under a 
 missionary; he speaks of them as believing them to 
 be similar characters to Noah ; and he says, " These 
 have been trained up under my own care. I am 
 satisfied with their piety, and their willingness to be 
 made useful in the Lord's vineyard/' He speaks in 
 the same decided terms of twelve of the elder school- 
 girls, who were already acting in turn as teachers in 
 the girls' school. 
 
 In May of this year, 1822, Mr. Johnson was 
 sent for to Freetown, to receive 238 poor slaves, just 
 landed from a captured slave-ship. Only 217 were 
 able to accompany him, the rest were carried to the 
 hospital. The scenes, he tells us, were impossible 
 to describe. " As soon as we came in sight of 
 Regent's Town," he says, " all the people came out 
 of their houses to meet us with loud acclamations. 
 When they beheld the new people, weak and faint, 
 they carried and led them up towards my house.
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 217 
 
 After they had lain on the ground, being quite ex- 
 hausted, many of our people recognized their friends 
 and relatives, and there was a general cry, ' Oh, 
 massa, my sister ! ' ' My brother ! ' ' My country- 
 man ! ' ' My countrywoman ! ' The poor creatures 
 being faint just taken out of the hold of a slave 
 vessel, and unconscious of what had befallen them 
 did not know whether they should laugh or cry, 
 when they beheld the countenances of those whom 
 they had supposed long dead, but now saw clothed 
 and clean, and perhaps with healthy children in 
 their arms. The school-boys and girls brought the 
 victuals they had prepared, and all the people fol- 
 lowing their example, ran to their houses, and 
 brought what they had got ready ; and in a short 
 time their unfortunate countrypeople were over- 
 whelmed with messes of every description. Pine- 
 apples, ground-nuts, and oranges, were also brought 
 in great abundance. Several had the joy to take a 
 brother or a sister home. " In the evening the 
 church was crowded. A school-girl put some of 
 her own clothing on one of the new girls, in order 
 to take her to church. When the poor girl came 
 before the church and saw the numbers of people, 
 she ran back crying; she said she had been sold 
 too much, and did not want to be sold again ! " 
 
 This was mercy's sunbeam breaking through 
 the black cloud of despair ; but, alas ! sin and death
 
 218 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 are stern realities, battling to retain their brief 
 usurped dominion in a world already ransomed by the 
 life-blood of its Redeemer. The dwellers in the 
 mountain valley witnessed anew the spoiler's power; 
 their poor emaciated country -people died in numbers 
 before their eyes, and they could only behold them 
 expire, and lay them in the grave where ' the wicked 
 cease from troubling, and the weary be at rest. 
 There the prisoners rest together ; they hear not the 
 voice of the oppressor. The small and great are 
 there ; and the servant is free from his master ! ' 
 Augustine Johnson exclaims in the anguish of his 
 sympathizing soul, ' ' Oh, horrid slave-trade ! ' Lord ! 
 how long shall the wicked triumph ? ' ( They slay 
 the Avidow, and the stranger, and murder the father- 
 less/ I could wish myself away from these scenes 
 of horror ; they are much too deplorable to be wit- 
 nessed. Were it not a Christian principle which 
 keeps me on the spot, I think I would rather be 
 shut up in a dungeon than behold and hear the 
 sighs and dying groans of these unfortunate victims. 
 All efforts to save their lives seem to be in vain, and 
 to prepare their minds for eternity proves also im- 
 possible. When some of those who have been here 
 longer, and have been awakened by grace, address 
 them in their own language, it appears to make no 
 impression on them ; they are so benumbed through 
 many and continual .afflictions, that they have lost
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 219 
 
 even rational feeling." This was the mournful 
 lament of Africa's " son of consolation " over the 
 dying and the dead. We remember that " the Lord 
 of all power and might " once stayed the expression 
 of human surprise that broke even from His own lips, 
 at the evil deeds of evil men, by the declaration, " But 
 this is your hour, and the power of darkness ! " and 
 the same divine lips have promised for His people's 
 every hour of need, " The Comforter, which is the 
 Holy Ghost, shall teach you all things, and bring all 
 things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said 
 unto you." And while the beholder of " the power 
 of darkness" stays himself upon the Word of his 
 God, he may also look to bright trophies of sovereign 
 mercy, lighting up with gleams of Heaven an evil 
 world, as the stars shine forth from the darkened 
 skies; such a trophy was Regent's Town! 
 
 In the month of May the missionary also writes : 
 " When the bell rang yesterday, the church was 
 instantly filled, and many had to remain outside, 
 though I placed the people as closely as possible. 
 The church is now too small, and the number of 
 hearers will increase on account of the new people. 
 I have planned another addition, which we shall begin 
 as soon as permission is granted. I intend to take 
 the north side out, and throw the whole under a 
 double roof, substituting pillars for the present north
 
 220 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 wall, and to place the pulpit on the south side, in 
 the middle. It will then be 80 feet long by 64. 
 Galleries may be placed all round, which will make it 
 as large again. May the Lord bless all our feeble 
 endeavours ! " 
 
 From time to time the pastor of Regent's Town 
 visited the other settlements in the colony, as yet 
 unprovided with ordained ministers, making a, little 
 tour of the different towns and villages, preaching 
 the gospel of Christ, and administering the ordi- 
 nances and sacraments of the Church of England, to 
 those prepared to receive them under the instruction 
 of the resident schoolmasters, and everywhere the 
 negro-people welcomed him. In one of these mis- 
 sionary tours, when Mr. Reffell, the superintendent 
 of the liberated negroes, was with him, he was exposed 
 to great danger again in a little boat at sea. Mr. 
 Reffell had been delayed in Court, which led to their 
 starting too late ; as soon as it grew dark a tornado 
 made its appearance, the storm commenced imme- 
 diately, and rushed from the mountains towards 
 them ; but at the moment when they expected to be 
 overtaken by it, and, humanly speaking, felt escape 
 from a watery grave impossible, it changed its 
 course and passed off behind them. He who " hath 
 His way in the whirlwind and the storm," " com- 
 mandeth even the winds and waters, and they obey 
 Him!"
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 221 
 
 The missionary had been very desirous to bring 
 the negro Sandy with him to York, the village 
 to which he was bound when the storm overtook 
 him; but he says, "I could not prevail upon him. 
 He accompanied me as far as Freetown, but took 
 care not to take more clothing than that which he 
 wore. I found on inquiry that he was afraid I 
 should leave him behind. He said that if I stayed, 
 he would stay too ; but when I went, he would go 
 too ! Upon my discovering this, I desired him to 
 return home, with which he seemed well pleased. 
 I am really sorry that he is so partial to his home, 
 for I hoped to place him among this people. " We 
 may be disposed to wonder at the Christian negro's 
 unwillingness to stay among the heathen, and com- 
 municate to them the saving truth of the Gospel in 
 which his own soul rejoiced. But the wind bloweth 
 where it listeth, and God by the secret influences of 
 His most Holy Spirit directeth the way of His 
 servants according to His sovereign purpose. The 
 missionaiy was bent on doing to the utmost his 
 Master's work ; but the Master thought upon his 
 servant's hour of need now not far distant. He 
 made Tamba and Davis willing to carry out their 
 pastor's distant wishes, but He made Sandy cleave to 
 that pastor with the feeling, " Intreat me not to leave 
 thee, or to return from following after thee ; for
 
 222 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 whither thou goest I will go ; and where thou 
 lodgest, I will lodge ! " 
 
 We give a few more extracts from the journal: 
 "March 8, 1822. In the evening I had many 
 visits paid to me ; one man said, ' Massa, them 
 things God done for me, pass every thing ! Who 
 will die for another ? Oh, the Lord Jesus die for 
 sinner ; yes, for them people who been sin against 
 Him ! I sit down and consider this, and I don't 
 know what to say. I never hear such thing hefore. 
 Sometimes people say, Such man do me good too 
 much. But the Lord Jesus do pass every thing 
 He love me till he die 'to save me ! Oh, I love Him 
 so little ; that time I want to love Him my heart 
 no willing, it always run about ; that trouble me too 
 much, but yet He love sinner ! Ah ! true, that 
 pass everything ! ' 
 
 " March 10. Divine service as usual, which was 
 attended as usual. Lord, my shepherd, bless 
 Thy word, and pardon all infirmities ! May thy 
 unworthy creature be more and more filled with that 
 love which passeth understanding, and which ' many 
 waters cannot quench ; ' that he may tell sinners of 
 the electing, redeeming, and sanctifying love of God 
 the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, which has flowed 
 from everlasting like a pure river of water of life,
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 223 
 
 clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God 
 and of the Lamb ! " 
 
 Returning from one of his missionary tours, 
 March 20, 1822, he received the following most 
 beautiful account of the departure of a Christian 
 negress, in his absence ; he received the account 
 from the negro Thomson, who had visited her, and 
 of whom he speaks " as an Israelite indeed ! " 
 
 " The time the woman want to die, they call me. 
 I ask her how she now feel ? She say she very glad 
 to die ; in this world nothing but trouble ; she ready 
 to go to be with the Lord. I ask her about her sins, 
 and she said, the Lord Jesus Christ has spilt his 
 blood for my sins ; nobody else can save me ; in Him 
 only I trust. Then before she die she tell her hus- 
 band to call all the people that live close there, and 
 when the people come, she tell one man to pray. 
 They all knelt down, and she got up from the bed, 
 and knelt down too. When they done pray, she 
 say, e good bye ' to the people and her husband. 
 She lay down again, her husband help her; when 
 she lay down, she say, e I am going to my Father, 
 He call me !' Then they think she go to sleep ; but 
 when they look, they see she dead ! Massa, me 
 never see any person die in that fashion ; them 
 words you talk in the church about two weeks ago, 
 strike me the same time. You say that God's 
 people go to sleep when they die ! Stephen, when
 
 224 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 they stone him, fell asleep. Oh, I think about them 
 words, and when I see that woman die so too, it 
 make me glad too much ! " 
 
 "March 24. Sunday, spoke on Heb. ix. 27 
 ' And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but 
 after this the judgment/ 
 
 " March 25. Till ten o' clock was engaged in 
 speaking with those who came to me ; all appeared 
 to be much affected with what they had heard the 
 night before. It is impossible to give an outline of 
 what was related. One man said, ' Massa, me never 
 hear you speak so before ; all what live in my thoughts 
 you speak ; I was so sorry when you had done 
 preach ; I wish you had preach all night ; I think 
 sleep would not have catch me. Oh, I was so glad 
 about them words ! When I go home all live in 
 my heart, and when I sleep I think all night I hear 
 you preach. Them words you talk, how God's 
 people stand when they die, and how they stand 
 before God without sin, through the Lord Jesus, 
 and how glad they will be in the Day of Judgment, 
 come to my heart and make me so glad, because 
 long time I been Afraid too much to die, but now I 
 can say I glad ! ' '' 
 
 On occasion of another sermon, a man who had 
 hitherto led a wicked life came to the Missionary 
 much alarmed ; he said, " On Sunday you preached 
 about them words, Come now, and let us reason
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 225 
 
 together. You spoke about a woman who had a bad 
 husband, and who treated his wife very bad ; but the 
 woman was a Christian ; she treated her husband 
 veiy kind, and tried to make him as comfortable as 
 possible ; another man saw this, and asked the 
 woman how she treat her husband so kind, who did 
 all that he could to make her miserable ? She 
 answered, that she tried to do so, as in this life only 
 her poor husband would have to enjoy comforts ; she 
 pitied him, when she considered what his awful con- 
 dition would be in the world to come. Now I stand 
 just the same ; my wife, I believe, serves God for 
 true ; and, many times, I trouble her for nothing ; 
 but she bears all ; and I think I see her now looking 
 at me with tears in her eyes, and sighing. I always 
 thought that that was nothing but fancy ; but since 
 you told us about that man and his wife, I have no 
 rest ; I am afraid that I shall be miserable in the 
 world to come ! You said, the same time, that if a 
 man was to fall overboard into the sea, and a rope 
 was thrown to him and he refused to lay hold of it, 
 if he was drowned, it was his own fault. I have 
 heard now six years the Word of God, and about 
 the salvation of sinners by the Lord Jesus, but I 
 have refused to lay hold of the rope. I am so Afraid 
 that now it is too late, but am a little encouraged 
 because God say still, Come now, and let us reason 
 together !" 
 
 Q
 
 226 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 " A woman said, ' Before time, now two year, I 
 was siek, and last year I was very sick. That time 
 my heart glad very much ; I can say, that time, 
 when I live on sick bed, Jesus altogether lovely ! I 
 thought that time, I should die ; and I was glad 
 very much to die I was sure I should go to Heaven ! 
 but, this time, I fear ; because you say in the church 
 that God's people are a troubled people ; and you 
 see, massa, me have no trouble this time me no 
 sick my husband no sick my child no sick me 
 and my husband live very quiet together we have 
 always something to eat and clothes to put on ; you 
 see me have no trouble ; and that made me Afraid 
 very much that me no belong to the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Besides my heart more wicked this time 
 he always plague me. Me don't know what to do ! ' 
 I spoke to her as her case required, and she went 
 home much relieved and very thankful." 
 
 In his constant intercourse with his people, the 
 Missionary often speaks of the volumes that might 
 have been filled with their varied experience, related 
 by them with great simplicity and force; but the 
 press of constant occupation prevented him from 
 writing down more than occasional brief specimens, 
 for the satisfaction of those who watched his mis- 
 sionary work from England. And yet of what he 
 has given, extracts only can be inserted here, the 
 limit of one small volume forbidding more ; but
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 227 
 
 what is given is sufficient to show both the reality 
 and the power of the work begun and continued in 
 the hearts of these liberated slaves, who had become 
 so quickly and so blessedly the Lord's freemen! 
 One extract more will testify to the power of the 
 pastor's brief appeals. He says "I admitted one 
 (to communion) who had been excommunicated two 
 years before, and who had to all appearance become 
 quite hardened. He did not attend church, because 
 what he heard made him uneasy ; but lived according 
 to his evil inclinations. When one of our communi- 
 cants was buried, he went, out of curiosity, to the 
 burial-ground, and endeavoured to prevent my seeing 
 him, by standing behind me. While I was address- 
 ing the people, he tried to engage his thoughts with 
 something else ; but, as he now told me, while I was 
 speaking, I turned my head and said, ' What dost 
 thou say, backslider, about meeting with thy God ! 
 Art thou prepared ?' The poor man said, ' I thought 
 you looked me in the face ; and it was as if some- 
 body had knocked me on the head. I went home, 
 but them words followed me everywhere ; and I 
 have no rest day or night. I been gone too far 
 that is what I fear ; but one word which you spoke 
 in the church comforts me a little ; it is, / will heal 
 their backslidings, for my anger is turned away from 
 him, I cannot stay away any longer. I pray that 
 God may turn me. That prayer is always in my
 
 228 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 heart, Turn me, Lord, and I shall be turned! I 
 beg you, Sir, pray for me, I am afraid I shall sink 
 into hell ! O may the Lord Jesus Christ have 
 mercy upon me a poor backslider ! ' 
 
 " March 30. Went to-day with Mr. -Reffell, and 
 visited Bathurst, Leopold, Charlotte and Gloucester. 
 When at Leopold a school-girl came running to tell 
 me of the death of Mary During, a communicant. 
 She was taken ill eight days ago in church. I firmly 
 believe that she has joined the Church triumphant. 
 She was about eighteen years of age, and was one of 
 the oldest girls in the school. She has been a com- 
 municant three years, during which she faithfully 
 followed her Saviour. She waited upon me in church, 
 and took particular delight in washing and scouring 
 the pulpit, reading-desk, and vestry, which -she never 
 was desired to do. Her behaviour was like that of 
 an experienced woman ; she was scarcely ever seen 
 to smile. Her final illness, and affection of the lungs, 
 was but short ; she bore every pain with great 
 patience. She said she had done nothing but bad, 
 but that the Lord Jesus Christ had done great things 
 for her He had shed his blood for her, and that 
 was her comfort. She fell asleep in the arms of 
 Hagar Johnson without a struggle. Mr. Norman 
 remarked that when he lived in the girls' school 
 he had frequently seen Mary During pray as early 
 as three o'clock in the morning. Who does not
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 229 
 
 rejoice at the death of the righteous, and who does 
 not wish to die like them ? Almost all the inhabi- 
 tants of Regent attended the funeral. Twelve young 
 men (communicants) carried the corpse ; eight girls 
 (likewise communicants) were pall-hearers, all dressed 
 in white ; then followed the school-girls, the women, 
 boys of the institution, and all the men. In the 
 evening I spoke on the event from Isaiah, xxi. 12, 
 ' The Watchman said, The morning cometh, and 
 also the night; if ye will inquire, inquire ye; re- 
 turn, come.' I believe every one who could walk 
 attended divine service. 
 
 1 ' April 1 . Had many visits after evening ser- 
 vice. One man Avho had been told to come to have 
 his name put down with that of his bride, in order 
 to have the banns published, was asked why he had 
 omitted to come ? He replied, 'Ah, Massa, that 
 time Mary During die, my heart no stand good to 
 get married; that is the reason I no come."' 
 
 And now, for the last time, the rough waves of 
 this troublesome world overflowed the soul of the 
 beloved Missionary ; heavy and bitter they were, 
 but he rose above them, and the smile of his God 
 beamed upon him ; for a little moment earth retained 
 possession and sight of him, and then he was gone 
 for ever ! 
 
 Mrs. Johnson was suddenly afflicted with a most 
 painful disease ; the doctors in the colony pronounced
 
 230 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 her recovery hopeless, but urged her immediate return 
 to England for the mitigation of her sufferings. The 
 trial was indeed severe as his every expression gives 
 proof of. He had the comfort of committing his 
 suffering wife to the care of Mr. and Mrs. During, 
 who were returning to England to recruit their own 
 health; and with feelings unutterable he conveyed 
 her to the vessel that bore her from his sight for 
 ever upon earth. On his return, his negro people 
 gathered round him ; " Looking upon me/' he says, 
 "with tears in their eyes, it appeared as though 
 they wished to speak to me, but were too full of 
 sorrow to say anything/' And when their grief 
 found utterance in words and tears and sobs, it 
 comforted and yet wounded his heart afresh. But 
 he says, " I cannot be sufficiently thankful for the 
 mercy vouchsafed to me under this severe trial; I 
 have enjoyed and continue to enjoy the smiles of His 
 countenance.. I can say, with resignation, ' The will 
 of the Lord be done ! ' One passage of Scripture is 
 constantly in my mind, and affords me much com- 
 fort, ' What I do, thou knowest not now, but thou 
 shalt know hereafter/ I know that this trial will 
 f work together for good,' and that God, will give 
 new strength according to my day. 
 
 " May 5, 1822, Sunday. After prayer-meeting 
 in the morning several people came as before, and 
 with sympathizing affection pitied my affliction.
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 231 
 
 One woman leaned her head against the staircase, 
 and gave free vent to her feelings ; after she had a 
 little composed herself she came to my room,, and 
 said, ' Oh, massa, I am sorry that mammy go so 
 quick ; I no say good-bye to her, which make me so 
 troubled. Two words mammy talked to me I never 
 forget ! ' She was again overcome, and went away 
 weeping. 
 
 " At ten o'clock, divine service was performed. 
 Mr. Norman read prayers. I was so distressed in 
 mind that I could not preach. I directed Mr. 
 Norman to read the 38th Psalm. Went in the 
 afternoon to Gloucester, preached, and administered 
 the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to about forty- 
 six persons my mind was much relieved ; the Lord 
 revealed Himself to me as He does not to the world. 
 I preached at Regent' s Town in the evening on 
 Heb. iv. 14, 15, ' Seeing then that we have a great 
 High-Priest, that is passed into the Heavens, Jesus 
 the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For 
 we have not an High-Priest that cannot be touched 
 with the feeling of our infirmities ; but was in all 
 points tempted like as we are, yet without sin/ 
 
 " May 6. Received this morning a note from 
 an African, who does not reside in this place : 
 
 " ' MY DEAR SIR, 
 
 " ' I was sorry and disappointed. I came
 
 232 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 yesterday to hear you preach, as I have had no 
 opportunity of hearing you for some time. Believe 
 me, my dear Sir, let me go where I will, my heart 
 can never let me think of any other church like 
 Regent's Church. When I hear you speak, I thick 
 all you say is directed to me. When I saw ycu 
 yesterday morning, I could not help weeping ; only 
 I hid it from you as much as I could ; hut in par- 
 ticular when I saw Mrs. Johnson's chair, I could 
 not help crying, and I pitied your case ; but, Sir, all 
 things work for good to them that love God. This is 
 a cross for you, and a great one to bear ; you have 
 given up your wife for the cross of Christ ! ' 
 
 " A considerable number of my flock came and 
 participated in my affliction. Some said, that as 
 God had taken away Mrs. Johnson, He would per- 
 haps take me away : their hearts seemed so full that 
 they scarcely could express their feelings. One said 
 that it was just as if somebody had died. The whole 
 place was in awful silence, and everybody appeared 
 to mourn. One man said, ' I was in the bush 
 making shingles, when my wife came running and 
 said, " Mammy done go ! " I said, I do not believe 
 that, because massa no tell me ; but when I came 
 home, I hear that it was true. Oh, I so sorry, when 
 I see you in the church Saturday evening. And 
 Sunday when I come to church, I want to hear 
 God's word very much, and then you no preach.
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 233 
 
 Then I think about them words you preach long 
 time ago in the church. You say, we stand the 
 same as people who have always plenty to eat, and 
 don't know what it is to be hungry ; we have the 
 word of God every day ; but you are afraid that we 
 are too full, and get careless about it ; take care, by 
 and bye, God may take away His Word, and then 
 you will know what it is to hunger for it ! Ah, 
 massa, them words come in my mind; and I so 
 Afraid, by and bye, God take away you too, and then 
 what will become of us? I remembered what is 
 written in the revelation, ' I will remove thy candle- 
 stick out of its place ! ' Oh, them words make me so 
 afraid ! May the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy 
 upon us, and not take you away ! ' Others expressed 
 themselves in like manner. 
 
 " I still enjoy the special presence of my Saviour, 
 He blesses me with a peaceful and resigned mind ! " 
 
 Mr. During' s absence from Gloucester added 
 greatly to Mr. Johnson's labours ; and now it was 
 that Sandy proved so great a helper to him in the 
 church at home; taking the constant preparation 
 for the candidates for baptism, and as the numbers 
 overflowed his own dwelling, he was obliged to apply 
 for a larger place in which to assemble them. At 
 one time fifty were under his preparatory instruc- 
 tions.
 
 234 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 The summer passed away among his mountain 
 people. The missionary was long and grievously tried 
 by receiving no tidings of the distant object of his 
 anxiety; vessel after vessel came in, but no letters 
 for him ; and his distress was increased by a report 
 that gained circulation of Mrs. Johnson having died 
 on the voyage; his heart grew sick with hope de- 
 ferred, but still he laboured on, omitting no claim of 
 heavenly or earthly duty. One while we find him 
 returning from a missionary tour met by his rejoicing 
 negroes, who exclaimed, " Ah, massa, we hungry too 
 much for to see you ! " Then like Oberlin, the blessed 
 pasteur of the Ban de la Roche, going forth with his 
 people to plan and execute a new road towards York. 
 This road was undertaken to open a communication 
 with the sea from Regent's Town, and to establish 
 a fishing village at its extremity under Mr. Johnson's 
 superintendence. In a report which was sent home to 
 the British Government by the authorities at Sierra 
 Leone, of a previous work of the same kind, it is 
 stated, '' The combination of Mr. Johnson's skill 
 and ability, with the bodily strength and hearty zeal 
 of his people, produced such rapidity of execution, 
 that the task was completed in considerably less 
 than one month;, although in extent full two miles/' 
 Of this earlier road, a further description is also 
 contained in the Government report, of the superior 
 execution of the work in excellence as well as in
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 235 
 
 rapidity; and an interesting account is given of the 
 way in which the impeding rocks were split, by a 
 method suggested to Mr. Johnson's mind in wit- 
 nessing the effect of a tornado which extinguished a 
 large lire, leaving the rock split beneath it. The 
 road to York which was now under the missionary's 
 direction, was five miles in length. He says, " I 
 have 300 men at work. We have the most difficult 
 task remaining, but have no doubt of success. The 
 poor people have worked almost beyond their 
 strength ; the rocks are immense, which have been 
 moved and blown out. I explored the valleys and 
 mountains with Noah and Johnson the day before 
 yesterday, and walked a new pair of shoes to pieces. 
 I hope we shall accomplish our object next week. 
 The roads in the mountains are all made, and in 
 good order." Then he adds, "Oh, may the Lord 
 my Saviour keep me humble, and may every cross 
 draw me more from the world, and fix my affections 
 on things above, that I may say with holy Paul, 
 ' For to me to live is Christ to die is gain ! ' ; 
 
 When at length tidings arrived from England, 
 they not only brought the intelligence that Mrs. 
 Johnson had landed safely, but that she was really 
 recovering under English skill. And Mr. Johnson 
 began to entertain the hope of her restoration to him 
 and Africa.
 
 236 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 . '- But the earthly house of .his tabernacle had 
 borne the burden and heat of the day ; the mis- 
 sionary spirit that reigned within it was bright in 
 undiminished vigour, but the mortal framework had 
 endured its utmost ; the symptoms of decline were 
 there cough and hoarseness would sometimes silence 
 the voice that breathed in blessing ! But no linger- 
 ing decay was to close for earth the fervent ministry 
 of this devoted spirit; as suddenly as the bright- 
 ness of. this burning and shining light had kindled 
 up .some few short years before, so suddenly was it 
 to fade from Earth, and pass away into its kindred 
 Heavens. 
 
 Ophthalmia broke out among his people, and 
 the missionary suffered severely ; sometimes one eye, 
 sometimes both, were incapable of vision. Thus 
 enfeebled and incapacitated in body, the doctors 
 urged a visit to England for his restoration. It 
 seemed necessary, to preserve his longer usefulness ; 
 
 *he entertained also the hope of bringing back Mrs. 
 Johnson again to labour with him; -tidings of his 
 mother's death had reached him, and he felt most 
 anxious for the Christian settlement of a young 
 brother of sixteen, who had no one to make suitable 
 arrangements for him ; he knew also that his visit to 
 England could not fail of being useful to the cause 
 in which he laboured ; so, obtaining the willing assent
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 237 
 
 of the committee at home, he made satisfactory 
 arrangements for the temporary supply of his place, 
 and set sail. 
 
 He left the mountain valley in its loveliness the 
 beauties of nature, the beauties of holiness ! Within 
 it rose the House of Prayer, and the dwellings of the 
 righteous round it ; the hymn of praise, the tones of 
 supplication, the hum of busy learners young and 
 old ; and through the mountains stretched the roads 
 for peaceful traffic and friendly intercourse, which 
 the missionary's eye had planned, his hand directed, 
 his untiring feet had traversed. He left his children 
 walking in the truth, adorning the doctrine of God 
 their Saviour. Mr. During had returned to Gloucester, 
 and would watch over them. A house was building 
 for Sandy at Wellington, where he was now willing 
 to labour as a native teacher ; the sister missionary 
 Mr. Johnson had brought with him from Germany 
 was lately married to a missionary ; all things seemed 
 in such order as he could most desire. The com- 
 municants were more than 400 in number : 710 
 persons had learned to read; 551 men attended the 
 evening adult school, in which there was scarcely 
 room to move. God had done exceeding abundantly 
 above all his faithful servant asked or thought when 
 first his eye rested on those mountain summits ; he 
 could indeed exclaim, "Mine eyes have seen Thy 
 salvation ! " Yet he parted from them thinking
 
 238 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 
 
 soon to behold them again, and there to labour on, 
 to spend and be spent in a service so blessed. 
 
 But God, who called His servant Moses away 
 from the tribes of Israel to the solitude of the moun- 
 tain's brow, there to depart in peace ; called Augustine 
 Johnson from his 2000 negroes, to the loneliness of 
 the ocean's wave, there, calmly, and undisturbed by 
 the lamentations of a multitude, to lay down the mor- 
 tal life, which for His name's sake, had borne, and 
 had laboured, and had not fainted. Moses was an 
 hundred and twenty years old, and forty years he 
 had led Israel in the wilderness ; he knew his hour 
 was come in which he should depart out of this 
 world to his God. Augustine Johnson was not yet 
 one-third of such an age, and only seven years had 
 he fed the flock committed to him ; he knew not 
 that he stepped from Afric's shore for a brief passage, 
 over death's dark river, to the land of immortality. 
 
 Mr. Bui-ing's only remaining child was entrusted 
 to his care, therefore he took a faithful young negress 
 with him, named Sarah Bickersteth, as an attendant 
 for the child. On the third day of sailing, his 
 illness showed itself; the day after, fever increased, 
 and he anticipated the result ; the cough came on, 
 and he observed to his weeping attendant, " I think 
 I cannot live ! " Just after sailing, he had addressed 
 a letter to his people, exhorting them to continue in 
 the grace of God ; and in his dying moments he did
 
 GLORY, AND HONOUR, AND IMMORTALITY. 239 
 
 not forget the many claimants on his paternal affec- 
 tion whom he was about to leave behind. On 
 Saturday, May the 3rd, he had intervals of delirium, 
 in which he called on Noah, his faithful assistant at 
 Regent's Town, and on his friend Mr. During, 
 expressing his wish to tell them all he had to say 
 before he died. When composed, he expressed an 
 earnest desire to see his wife ; and spoke encourag- 
 ingly to his poor convert, who waited on him with 
 the tenderest solicitude, striving to calm her fears, 
 and directing her how to proceed on her arrival 
 in London. He asked her to read to him the 23rd 
 Psalm, and, she adds, " When I had read it, he said to 
 me, I am going to die, pray for me ! I prayed the 
 Lord Jesus," she added, "to take him the right way ! " 
 He afterwards charged her to take good care of Mr. 
 During's little girl, and to desire the Society to send 
 a good minister to Regent's Town, as quickly as 
 possible, or the people would be left in darkness. 
 " If," said he, " I am not able to go back, you must 
 tell Noah to do his duty ; for if Noah say, ' Because 
 massa dead, I can do nothing/ he must pray, and 
 God will help him, and so we shall meet in Heaven ! " 
 His last intelligible words were, ' I cannot live, God 
 calls me, and this night I shall be with Him !' '
 
 " Called and chosen, and faithful." Rev. xvii. 14. 
 
 " Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and instead 
 of the briar shall come up the myrtle-tree ; and it shall be to the 
 Lord for a Name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." 
 Isa. Iv. 13.
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 "AN EVERLASTING SIGN/' 
 
 WE can but pause in our narrative to contemplate the 
 character of him whose loss the Church of Christ had 
 reason deeply to mourn one of "the precious sons 
 of ion, comparable to fine gold," so richly blessed, 
 so largely made a blessing ! The suddenness of his 
 removal from the midst of such vigorous and success- 
 ful activity, startles and almost bewilders. " I will 
 cause the sun to go down at noon ! " The lapse of 
 years can make little difference in the sad solemnity 
 with which the Church of Christ contemplates such 
 an event. The momentary impulse probably would 
 be to avert our eyes, unable to dwell upon the deso- 
 lation of what we are ready to regard as the widowed, 
 orphaned Church of Regent's Town; but we re- 
 member that itis written, "Thy MAKER is thine 
 HUSBAND; the Lord of Hosts is His Name;" and 
 again, " Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, 
 MY FATHER, thou art the guide of my youth ! " and 
 again, " I will not leave you orphans, I will come 
 to you." 
 
 There is, perhaps, nothing more difficult than to
 
 244 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 give a correct summary of any human character. 
 Nor is it necessary here. " By their WORKS ye shall 
 know them." The light that shines to the glory of 
 their Father in Heaven, is the best illumination of 
 the Christian's name. With reference to the saintly 
 missionary, whose mortal body sleeps beneath the 
 Atlantic wave till the resurrection of the just, we 
 need only transcribe the chief Apostle' s epitome of 
 his own ministry, and, with the exception of the 
 persecutions endured for the cross of Christ, we shall 
 find the portrait true. 
 
 "... Giving no offence in any thing, that the 
 ministry be not blamed : but in all things approving 
 ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in 
 afflictions, in necessities, in distresses ; by pureness, 
 by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the 
 Holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the word of truth, 
 by the power of God, by the armour of righteousness 
 on the right hand and on the left, by honour and dis- 
 honour, by evil report and good report : as deceivers, 
 and yet true ; as unknown, and yet well known ; as 
 dying, and, behold, we live; as chastened, and not 
 killed; as sorrowful, yet alway rejoicing; as poor, 
 yet making many rich ; as having nothing, and yet 
 possessing all things." 2 Cor. vi. 3 10. 
 
 There is one characteristic of the work we have 
 narrated, which is only the more strongly forced upon 
 observation by an increasing acquaintance with the
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 245 
 
 details of that work the striking counterpart be- 
 tween the piety of the missionary and the piety of the 
 converts ! It may at first appear as if this were a 
 natural result that the taught should closely re- 
 semble the teacher; and to a certain extent it is. 
 We constantly find the peculiar views of doctrine 
 entertained by a minister, reflected in the views of 
 his people, and this is natural ; but this was not the 
 resemblance that the church of Regent's Town bore 
 to its pastor it was a resemblance in the character 
 of "pure and undefiled religion.' 3 We trace in the 
 atmosphere of PRAYER in which they lived, in their 
 CHARITY, in their ZEAL, the same characteristics that 
 distinguished him who ministered the Word of Life 
 to them. Such characteristics, we know, are not 
 communicable from man to man, there is but one 
 way of attaining them : " We all, with open face 
 beholding, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are 
 changed into the same image, from glory to glory, 
 even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Whether it were 
 the Fathers of the English Church met in missionary 
 conclave, or the poor West African negro on the 
 banks of the mountain-stream, to both Augustine 
 Johnson presented a reflection of " the glory of the 
 Lord." The Church Missionaiy Committee, with 
 long-practised discernment, instantly recognised and 
 accepted him ; the poor ignorant negro, with a quick- 
 ness more marvellous, received him listened before
 
 246 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 they understood, understanding loved, and loving 
 obeyed the truth as it is in Jesus which they read in 
 the looks, and tones, and actions of the missionary, 
 before they knew the import of his message of LOVE. 
 There is a length and breadth, a height and depth of 
 meaning, in that one short declaration, " To ME To 
 LIVE is CHRIST ! " And the absence or presence of 
 this fact must tell in every point of the Christian life. 
 
 In returning again to follow on in the history of 
 the Church of Regent's Town, we shall have one fact 
 that incontrovertibly proves the peculiar genuineness 
 of the bright effusion of light and love witnessed 
 there ITS PERMANENCE ! 
 
 " The month of July, at last, brought to the 
 Church Missionary House the heaviest intelligence 
 that had ever reached that dwelling. The joy which 
 every previous account from Africa for three or four 
 years had given, was suddenly turned into the deep- 
 est sorrow." Mr. Bickersteth wrote to Mr. During, 
 conveying the particulars to him. Thesecretaries also 
 wrote the following letter of tender solicitude to the 
 native teachers : 
 
 " Church Missionary House, London, 
 
 " August 28, 1823. 
 " DEAR NOAH, AND THE OTHER BRETHREN AT 
 
 REGENT'S TOWN, 
 " You will have heard, long ere you receive this,
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 247 
 
 of the loss of your beloved pastor and father, Mr. 
 Johnson. Your and our loss is his unspeakable gain, 
 and let us all say, ' The will of the Lord be done ! ' 
 
 " He was justly dear to you. The Lord gave 
 him grace to love your souls, and to be willing to 
 lay down his life for you, and his days were shortened 
 by labouring in a climate unhealthy, to white men, 
 for your salvation. But sorrow not for him ; think 
 rather of that exceeding and eternal weight of glory 
 which God our Saviour has now bestowed upon him, 
 and will bestow upon all who love His appearing; 
 think what a blessing the Lord bestowed upon you 
 in giving and preserving to you so long so faithful a 
 minister. 
 
 " And why has He now taken him away ? He 
 has taken him away that you may ' cease from man;' 
 that is, that you may see that your confidence should 
 not be placed in any human being ; that you may 
 see, as your beloved minister always taught you, that 
 they are only instruments in the Lord's hands for 
 blessing you. He has taken him away that you may 
 learn to trust in the Lord only. You might naturally, 
 having been placed under our dear departed brother's 
 ministry, be tempted to look up too much to him, and 
 forget who made him a blessing to you. Now you 
 may all be led simply to look to the Lord. He will 
 maintain His work among you. He will uphold 
 you by His right arm, and you shall be safe. The
 
 248 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 enemy shall not prevail against you. He has said, 
 1 1 will never leave thee, nor forsake thee/ 
 
 " God has taken him away to humble you and to 
 prove you. Many will now be saying, ' Oh, that I had 
 minded more what he said, and walked more closely 
 with God ; but because I did not rightly value, and 
 use the instruction of so good a man, therefore God 
 has taken him from me/ Well, perhaps it was so with 
 some; but be not too much discouraged, the Lord 
 intends your spiritual good, and that you may only 
 meet him with more joy in the kingdom of our 
 Saviour's glory. Now, Jesus the Lord, who never 
 leaves us, is looking upon you, and seeing whether 
 you can trust His love even in this severe trial, and 
 say, ' Of very faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me/ 
 
 " God has taken him, we hope, for the conversion 
 of others. There are some who refused to hear 
 Christ while His minister lived. Oh ! may they 
 hear him now, when he speaks by taking their 
 minister away ! Oh, that the unconverted negroes 
 of Regent's Town may now turn to the Lord with- 
 out delay ! Oh, let it never be said of them, ' The 
 righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, 
 and the merciful men are taken away, none consider- 
 ing that the righteous are taken away from the evil 
 to come.' The Lord grant that Mr. Johnson's death 
 may be the appointed means for the spiritual life of 
 many at Regent's Town.
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 249 
 
 " ' Fear not, little flock ; it is your Father's good 
 pleasure to give you the kingdom/ Now is the 
 time to glorify His name, to show that you can 
 indeed trust your Saviour, and that His grace is 
 sufficient for you. We would address you with all 
 affectionate earnestness, and say, ' Therefoi-e, my 
 brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and 
 crown of rejoicing, so stand fast in the Lord, my 
 dearly beloved/ We hope all will be of one mind, 
 and that Satan will not prevail to divide you. We 
 hope that Noah will attend to Mr. Johnson's dying 
 request. 
 
 " We will endeavour, as soon as God shall enable 
 us, to supply Mr. Johnson's place ; and you must 
 pray much to God to raise you up a faithful pastor. 
 
 " Let every man look, not on his own things, 
 but on the things of the Lord Jesus. We hope yet 
 that the Gospel will spread from among you, and by 
 you, far and wide among your countrymen. Oh! 
 think of their perishing condition, and may the Lord 
 give you grace to long and labour for their salvation. 
 We are persuaded you will do more than we say. 
 
 " And then look at your beloved minister's life, 
 and God give you all grace to follow him as he fol- 
 lowed Christ. Remember how he laboured among 
 you how kind and loving he was to every man 
 how he bore with your infirmities how he rejoiced 
 to tell you of Christ how grieved he was at the
 
 250 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 ungodly how much he prayed for you. Oh, think 
 of these things ! 
 
 " We close all in the words of the Apostle, ' Re- 
 member them which have (had) the rule over you, 
 who have spoken unto you the word of life ; whose 
 faith follow; remembering the end of their conver- 
 sation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever/ 
 
 " The Lord be with you all, pray your affec- 
 tionate friends, 
 
 * 
 
 " JOSIAH PRATT, 
 "EDWARD BICKERSTETH." 
 
 The tidings of the removal of this eminently 
 useful man were received, far and near, with the 
 deepest sorrow. In September, the intelligence 
 reached Sierra Leone; Mr. Norman, who had been 
 left in charge of Regent's Town, was reading 
 "Milner's Church History" with the native teachers 
 and the elder boys of the Institution ; after reading 
 the letter delivered to him, he told the surrounding 
 group " that their minister was dead ! " On their 
 grief we need not dwell ; tears are a tribute to the 
 just ! Noah, especially, heard as it were the voice 
 of his departed pastor speaking to him from Eternity ! 
 The tidings soon spread over the town, and in a few 
 minutes the house was crowded with weeping in- 
 quirers. Mr. Norman stood among them, and tried
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 251 
 
 to comfort them, and he told them that after evening 
 service in the church, he would read them the letters 
 containing the account. The church was crowded ; 
 and Mr. Norman, apprehensive of a hurst of feeling, 
 before beginning the service begged them to hear in 
 silence, telling them that the Christian manner of 
 bearing a trial was with patient, silent submission 
 to the will of God. And that crowded assembly of 
 Africa's impulsive children paid this most touching 
 tribute to the sacred memory of their father in 
 Christ, that they listened to all in Christian silence. 
 ' Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a 
 child!' 
 
 The service opened by the sorrowing assembly 
 singing the hymn 
 
 " Dear refuge of my weary soul ! 
 
 On thee when sorrows rise, 
 On thee when waves of trouble roll, 
 My fainting hope relies." 
 
 The first verse of the passage that came in course 
 for the evening service was John viii. 12 : " Then 
 spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light 
 of the world ; he that followeth me shall not walk in 
 darkness, but shall have the light of life." After- 
 wards the letters were read to the hushed assembly ; 
 who concluded their evening service by singing the 
 hymn
 
 252 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 " In every trouble sharp and strong, 
 
 My soul to Jesus flies ; 
 My anchor-hold is firm in him, 
 When swelling billows rise." 
 
 The governor of the colony, Sir Charles 
 MacCarthy, writing to the secretaries of the 
 Church Missionary Society, says of Mr. Johnson's 
 death : " It is a severe dispensation of Providence 
 upon us ; his exertions have been great ; and may, 
 perhaps, be equalled ; but, I fear, never surpassed ! 
 He was esteemed by the whole community ; his 
 people feel as they ought, having lost a father and a 
 friend in him." 
 
 Similar letters were received from the surviving 
 missionaries, from the native teachers, and from others 
 connected with the colony. The friends of the Society 
 throughout England joined in the lament, and even 
 from Germany the voice of sorrow was heard. 
 
 The church of Regent's Town long mourned its 
 loss. The poor people begged Mr. Norman, who 
 had been left in charge by their departed pastor, to 
 remain among them ; and he would gladly have done 
 so, but in a few months ill-health compelled him to 
 return to England. The efforts of the Committee 
 to supply Augustine Johnson's place were earnest 
 and persevering, but their faith was tried by repeated 
 disappointments. A lonely year passed over the 
 mountain-valley. The public works were stopped.
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 253 
 
 from the want of a responsible person to take the 
 charge of affairs ; and the poor people, unable to 
 obtain work, were scattered like sheep without a 
 shepherd; the population rapidly diminished to 
 1300, and of those who remained as residents in 
 Regent's Town, many had to seek employment at 
 Freetown, a distance of five miles from their home. 
 This was indeed a severe trial for an infant church 
 just gathered from heathenism ; but that church had 
 been " built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Jesus Christ himself the Chief Corner 
 Stone," and the gates of hell could not prevail 
 against it ; broken, scattered, tried, and tempted, 
 a remnant was still kept by the power of God through 
 faith unto salvation. When in 1825 the Rev. H. 
 Brooks arrived as a pastor of Regent's Town, he 
 found a church to answer to his call : thinned as 
 the population was, 272 persons attended the first 
 celebration of the Lord's Supper ; and the newly 
 appointed pastor challenged any village in England 
 to present a more orderly congregation. Every thing 
 gave promise of revival beneath the faithful mis- 
 sionary's hand; but the light in which Regent's 
 Town prepared to rejoice gleamed brightly for a 
 moment, and expired, a few weeks and the mis- 
 sionary of Regent's Town slept in Jesus ! 
 
 Again forsaken of pastoral care, her teachers 
 removed into a corner, poor Regent's Town sank
 
 254 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 lower than before ; who could expect it to be other- 
 wise ? We find an anxious apostle, separated for 
 awhile from his Thessalonian converts, writing, 
 " When I could no longer forbear, I sent to know 
 your faith, lest by some means the tempter have 
 tempted you, and our labour be in vain ! " Here at 
 Regent's Town were negro converts, children in all 
 things, left to struggle on for this world and the 
 next; to regulate themselves when hitherto they 
 had leaned with the confidence and the love of chil- 
 dren on a temporal and spiritual father's hand. Can 
 we wonder that many among them should stumble and 
 fall ; and yet, that of such it should be equally true, 
 " though they fall, they shall not be cast away, for 
 the Lord upholdeth them with his hand ! " One 
 highly esteemed of all, was now appointed over the 
 whole Mountain District, and gave occasional services 
 at Regent, but he proved one of those "by whom 
 offences come ; " his name need not be inscribed upon 
 the missionary page. All things seemed " against " 
 the church in the mountain-valley ; and looking only 
 earthward, we might indeed expect that, bereft and 
 bewildered, she would sink back into the heathenism 
 from which she had so recently been drawn. But 
 in her darkest day, " gleaning grapes " were visibly 
 left in her ; and many, we cannot doubt, there were 
 who had oil in their vessels with their lamps, though 
 in the day of spiritual famine and earthly destitution
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 255 
 
 their light burned low and dim, in some, perhaps, 
 not even perceptible, save to Him who saw in Israel 
 7000 of His true worshippers, when His prophet's 
 eye discerned not one except himself alone. 
 
 In 1831, the Rev. W. Betts was stationed at 
 Regent, where much was expected from his Christian 
 zeal and judgment. "Had not the severe indis- 
 position of his wife compelled him for a time to 
 abandon his missionary labours, Regent might again 
 have lifted up her head among the villages, and 
 become a praise in the earth ; but her resurrection 
 morn was not yet come." Years passed on, and the 
 mournful comment of the Church Missionary his- 
 torian is, " Many of those for whom the sainted 
 Johnson and others spent their strength, were now 
 lost in the heathen mass from which they were 
 taken." Sandy, who had been placed as native 
 teacher at Wellington, had for a considerable time 
 diligently fulfilled his duties there, much to the satis- 
 faction of the European missionaries. But the pastor 
 was gone, who would have said, ' as my beloved sons, 
 I warn you!' The few missionaries of the colony, 
 struggling with death in themselves and heathenism 
 around, had little opportunity to watch over the 
 spiritual health of those who were looked upon as 
 established in the faith. We know not Sandy's his- 
 tory ; we only know that he fell, and was separated 
 from his official connexion with the society ; but it
 
 256 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 is impossible not to trust that he was still enabled to 
 look up and say, ' Doubtless Thou art our Father, 
 though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel ac- 
 knowledge us not. Thou, Lord, art our Father, 
 and our Redeemer/ The poor heathen, because 
 trained in every evil habit, must have been the more 
 readily surprised into transgression; and the Chief 
 Apostle teaches that it is possible for such to be for- 
 given and comforted. 
 
 In 1827 we find the value of Tamba's services 
 commented upon. Yet, previous to this, Tamba 
 himself had been for a short time suspended from 
 his connexion with the Society as a teacher, for 
 refusing to undertake charge of the village of Kissy ; 
 but he was shortly restored, and " placed over the 
 people at Wellington, by whom he was greatly 
 beloved : " and we find his name continually among 
 the labouring missionaries. We can but mourn for 
 those who, under circumstances so adverse, were be- 
 trayed by evil, yet unsubdued within ; while we praise 
 God for the marvellous grace by which any were 
 upheld and carried forward in a course of consistency. 
 
 In 1834 Mr. Gillespie had been appointed pastor 
 of Regent's Town, and the work of the Lord seemed 
 to prosper in his hands, but he too died, and the 
 village was again left without a resident European. 
 
 But in 1835 the charge of the Mountain Dis- 
 trict, comprising several villages, was entrusted to
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 257 
 
 Mr. Schon, afterwards one of the chaplains of the 
 Niger expedition ; and now Regent is spoken of as 
 raising its drooping head ! The public services were 
 extremely well attended, particularly in the morn- 
 ing the church could not contain more ; those who 
 had been suspended were seeking re - admission, and 
 candidates were pressing forward. The slumbering 
 sparks had waited but the breathing of heavenly truth 
 and love to rekindle, and keep them burning brightly. 
 In the Church Missionary Paper for this year we find 
 the following paragraph " More than seventy of the 
 communicants, out of 184 now at Regent's Town, 
 were baptized and admitted to the privileges of the 
 church by the Rev. W. A. Johnson. While many 
 have awfully fallen, these have steadily held on their 
 way for the last twelve years, and many others have 
 died and gone to Heaven'* The following comment is 
 added : " What a consolatory proof is thus afforded of 
 the blessing bestowed on the labours of the late Mr. 
 Johnson ! Twelve years after the death of that 
 highly-honoured missionary, and notwithstanding 
 the frequent interruptions and suspensions of mis- 
 sionary labours among the people, there are found 
 more than seventy communicants who enjoyed the 
 advantages of his ministry, still living, who have 
 steadily held on their way Zionward ! " 
 
 Having traced in some degree the history of the 
 Church of Regent's Town through these twelve
 
 258 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 years, it is impossible not to realise the fact, that 
 though her eyes so seldom beheld her teachers, the 
 Lord was in the midst of her, her God had not 
 forsaken her ! 
 
 And now the clouds that had gathered and hung 
 so heavily over the mountain valley were rolling fast 
 away, and the work of grace in the hearts of her 
 children became " as the tender grass springing out 
 of the earth, by clear shining after rain." Many 
 came to acknowledge their oifences and seek recon- 
 ciliation with God. One said to the missionary then 
 in charge (Mr. Weeks), " I come to you in very 
 great trouble of soul ; my sins talk to me like one 
 man talks to another ; and when I consider all my 
 past sins and past mercies, my heart is too full, so 
 that I can't tell what to do ! " A woman expressing 
 her sorrow for past unfaithfulness to God, related 
 how she had tried to persuade her husband to come 
 with her, " but he said, ( Go you, and I will come by 
 and bye/ Then I said, ' Yes, as I have my own soul to 
 save, I cannot wait for you, so I try best for myself ! ' ' 
 
 In the year 1838, it was determined by the So- 
 ciety to build another missionary residence at Regent's 
 Town, that Mr. Weeks, who had for some time been 
 labouring there, might reside among the people. 
 In him one was given to them, who came not to 
 breathe a blessing and to die, but to labour on 
 " to feed the flock of God ; " " to seek that which
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 259 
 
 was lost, and bring again that which was driven 
 away, and to bind up that which was broken, and to 
 strengthen that which was weak;" one to whom it 
 was to be permitted to labour in the colony through 
 a term of years exceeding all missionary expecta- 
 tion in Africa, and then, finally, in November, 1855, 
 to land there once more, the ordained Bishop of 
 Sierra Leone ! After mourning continually over the 
 graves of missionaries, so quickly sleeping beneath 
 the turf on which they hoped to have long stood to 
 minister, it gives comfort to look for a moment on 
 one, round whom the negroes' affections gathered, 
 preserved in life among them. Long years before, 
 Augustine Johnson had exclaimed, " that mis- 
 sionaries and schoolmasters would make it their 
 principal object at the beginning to gain the hearts 
 of the people ! I know by experience, that the 
 missionaiy who has the affections of the people, 
 can do more by two words spoken in season, yea, 
 with a sorrowful look, than another with never so 
 severe means ! " Could he from his couch of rest 
 have looked upon the church, once dearer than life to 
 him, and seen the " nursing-father " who now came 
 to make his home among them, he would have seen in 
 him the longing of his heart fulfilled. To illustrate this 
 fact we transcribe the brief account of the recent land- 
 ing of Dr. Weeks as Bishop at Sierra Leone : ' ' His 
 arrival created an almost indescribable excitement.
 
 260 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 One and all rushed to the wharf to greet him, who, 
 though new as Bishop, was still their same old friend. 
 All eager to shake hands with their old father, and 
 their heloved matron Mrs. Weeks, they seemed for the 
 moment to forget all decorum, and hugging as closely 
 as possible to the beloved pair, a little timidity alone 
 restrained them from giving vent to their natural 
 warmth of African gratitude and affection." * 
 
 A generation had now, in 1855, passed away 
 since Augustine Johnson was so met by his rejoicing 
 people ; and in an evil world, where grateful love too 
 often fails to overflow, it is a subject of rejoicing to 
 find that the negro heart had not grown cold. 
 
 In 1838, the missionary house for the residence 
 of Mr. Weeks at Regent, was in course of erection. 
 He says, " The communicants and candidates of 
 Regent have rendered me very great assistance in 
 point of labour for the Society's new house. They 
 brought up seven hundred bushels of lime from 
 Freetown, and one thousand nine hundred bushels of 
 sand from the beach, free of any expense, the distance 
 in both instances being six miles ; " and the carriage 
 of course difficult, to the height of Regent's Town. 
 
 An extract from Mr. Weeks' journal transports 
 us in thought to the days of Augustine Johnson : 
 
 " One of our helpers at Regent had of late been 
 greatly afflicted. I visited him several times during 
 * " Church Missionary Record," Fehruary, 1856.
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 261 
 
 his illness. On one occasion, which I shall not soon 
 forget, when I entered his yard unperceived, I found 
 that he was engaged with his class, with his Bible on 
 his knees weak, and feeble, and worn-out as he 
 appeared to me, making a few practical remarks ; he 
 observed, ' Thus you see, my brethren, that if we be 
 born again we are new creatures, and everybody 
 will know it ; not because we are communicants, but 
 because we are true Christians ; for all the words that 
 come out of our mouths will be clean, they will be 
 right words. So also when we buy or sell anything, 
 or whatever we do, we shall try to do it in the right 
 way. I know it is not by our own power, but by 
 God's power, we can act so.' A few days before his 
 death when I saw him for the last time, he could 
 scarcely sit up. When I entered his room he said, 
 ' master, I did not think that I should ever see 
 you again in this world ! three days since I thought 
 I was going to my Father in Heaven ; I now think 
 it will not be very long before my blessed Saviour 
 Jesus Christ will take me away from this very wicked 
 world. I was glad too much when I saw, your new 
 house getting on so fast. I said, our Master will 
 soon be with us altogether ; but now, I think, when 
 you come from Glo'ster to live in that house, I shall 
 not be here. Well, all my trust is upon Jesus Christ ! ' 
 I commended him in prayer to the protection and 
 blessing of God. He has been a useful helper to the
 
 262 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 church for upwards of thirteen years/ and I shall now 
 find it a difficult matter to supply his place. 
 
 " The duty of a ' helper ' is to watch with care 
 over twenty-five or thirty communicants; to report 
 any irregularity in their conduct ; to meet them once 
 a- week for social prayer; to converse on religious 
 subjects ; to inform the missionary if any one is 
 taken ill, and to visit their country-people, and 
 invite them to come to church. Another of our 
 helpers has also been removed from us by death ; he 
 has faithfully discharged his duties towards those 
 over whom he was requested to watch for the last four- 
 teen years. Such men are indeed valuable auxiliaries 
 to missionary labourers." 
 
 In 1840, Mr. Weeks writes : " Our congrega- 
 tions are very encouraging, as are also our day and 
 Sunday schools. During the past year my health 
 suffered more severely than in any one year before ; 
 yet God has, I trust, blessed my feeble endeavours 
 more abundantly. In Regent alone, one hundred and 
 twelve persons applied to me for Christian instruction; 
 upwards of seventy were candidates for baptism, five 
 for the Lord's Supper, and the remainder were back- 
 sliders. Several who were formerly communicants, 
 and were suspended for various offences, have returned 
 to the church, professing great grief for their past 
 conduct, and I trust also, with a godly sorrow, exer- 
 cising faith in Him whom their sins have pierced."
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 263 
 
 In March of this year, Mr. Weeks was obliged to 
 retui'n to England for the recovery of his health. Of 
 this temporary separation from his people he writes 
 
 " I felt the parting with my people very much. 
 On the 14th of March, I preached my farewell 
 sermon ; and the next morning both the children 
 and people came in great numbers to give me their 
 parting good wishes, and promised they would pray 
 to God every day for us. It was truly affecting to 
 hear some of them relate the particulars of Mr. John- 
 son' s leaving them; and their receiving a letter from 
 the Society, in which they said it was written, that they 
 should continue in the ways of the Gospel ; and that, 
 though their minister was removed from them, God 
 was not. These particulars were quite new to me, and 
 were very encouraging ; it convinced me how long 
 suitable advice might be retained, and what benefit 
 it sometimes conferred by giving a word in season." 
 
 Mr. Weeks was again restored, through the mercy 
 of God, to his mountain charge. We make one more 
 extract from the journal of this devoted missionary : 
 
 " Oct. 21, 1843. This day, a poor widow died. 
 She had suffered much from a consumptive disease 
 during the last eighteen months, which she bore 
 with Christian fortitude and resignation. She was 
 baptized, and admitted to the privileges of the 
 church, by the late Rev. W. A. B. Johnson. It 
 may be truly said of her that she was a Christian
 
 264 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 indeed ! Her knowledge of Scripture was sur- 
 prising ; her attendance on the means of grace 
 regular and devout ; her whole conduct exemplary ; 
 her faith in Christ simple and firm ; her hope of 
 glory hright and stedfast ; and her end peace. I 
 knew her upward of eight years, and can bear 
 my humble testimony to her Christian character 
 during that period. I have often thought, since her 
 death, with what holy joy and heavenly delight she 
 would in the other world meet her beloved pastor, 
 who was the instrument of God in bringing her to 
 the knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. During 
 the last few months she was confined to her house. 
 I asked her one day how she felt in the near pro- 
 spect of death. She replied, ' I know I am a poor 
 sinner, nothing worth ; but Christ is my Saviour, 
 and the comfort he has given to refresh my soul 
 since I fall under this sickness is very gi*eat. I 
 thank Him truly that He has continued this trial of 
 sickness so long. I do not look to the world, and 
 expect comfort for my soul ; I look to Christ, to Him 
 only; His promises are many, and very great, and 
 upon these I can rest. God has fulfilled one part 
 of that precious promise, so I believe He will fulfil 
 the other Leave thy fatherless children, I will pre- 
 serve them alive; and let thy widows trust in me. 
 Yes, God has mercifully taken care of me, a poor 
 widow, ever since my husband's death ; and so I
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 265 
 
 trust He will take care of my two dear children. I 
 leave them with God ! ' The last time I saw her, 
 she had broken a blood-vessel during the previous 
 night. At intervals, when able to converse a little, 
 she said, ' I wish to be with my Saviour ; but hope 
 He will enable me to bear my pain patiently and 
 wait His time. Oh, what did my blessed Saviour 
 suffer to save my poor soul ! All my hope is in 
 Christ. I loved Him, and endeavoured to serve 
 Him when I was well and strong ; but since I am 
 sick and weak, He is far more good to me than I 
 ever remember before. I can die happy ; I am not 
 afraid of death, because my blessed Saviour, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, has enabled me, of His goodness, 
 to trust altogether in His mercy. He took His 
 blood, His own heart's blood, to pay for my sins. 
 The work is all His own Praise His holy name ! " ' 
 When Mr. Weeks left Regent, the Rev, N. 
 Denton succeeded to the charge of the Mountain 
 District ; residing, as Mr. Weeks had done, at Regent. 
 In 1851, we learn from the journal of this excellent 
 pastor that three hundred and seventy communicants 
 again assembled around the Table of the Lord at Re- 
 gent's Town ; and there were at the same time two 
 hundred and sixty-seven candidates. Suffering from 
 fever, he visited York for a fortnight, on the coast ; 
 there he was hospitably received by Mr. Ehemann, who 
 had recently occupied that station; but he speaks of the
 
 266 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 contrast he felt between York and Regent, and he 
 returned home thankful for his privileges in the 
 mountain valley. 
 
 March 1. Mr. Denton writes, " I had the 
 pleasure of laying the foundation-stone of a new 
 school-room at Regent, upon the site of the house 
 which was built for and occupied by the good and 
 memorable Mr. Johnson. Some of the very stones 
 that were witnesses of his prayers, that sheltered his 
 honoured head from Africa's heat and rain, will 
 henceforth perform the same good offices towards 
 teachers and children, while carrying on and continu- 
 ing that holy work, which he so successfully began." 
 
 In April, 1852, Mr. Denton gives a very inter- 
 esting account of the preparation for the rite of Con- 
 firmation, which of course could not be administered 
 until now, when a bishop resided amongst them. 
 The Church of Regent's Town was filled with the 
 candidates for this holy rite, the communicants of 
 Gloucester and Leicester being assembled with them, 
 all arrayed in white ; the scene must have been 
 deeply interesting and touching. Mr. Denton says, 
 " It was indeed a high day with the people ; they 
 commenced preparing themselves very early in the 
 morning, and were all ready by nine o'clock/' 
 
 In consequence of illness and bereavement, Mr. 
 Denton left for a recruiting visit to England. On his 
 last Sabbath at Regent's Town, the excellent Bishop
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 267 
 
 Vidal baptized forty-seven adults, who had been for 
 some time prepared and waiting for this consecrating 
 rite ; giving Mr. Denton an opportunity of speaking 
 a word of parting counsel and affection to his people. 
 In the afternoon the Bishop preached, greatly de- 
 lighting the people. One said to Mr. Denton that 
 no one wanted to go home ; they would like to have 
 remained all night in the Church ! "We give the 
 beautiful extract from the Missionary's journal : 
 
 " I must not close this report without bearing a 
 word of testimony to the kind sympathy and deep 
 feeling of the people generally during our late 
 affliction. If anything could compensate our loss, 
 this would go far towards it. It does strengthen 
 our belief in the fact that our heavenly Father, 
 though He has taken our dear little ones, has given 
 us many spiritual children in Africa. Thus, though 
 we weep, we will not murmur, but rejoice in the 
 hope of having many to be our * crown of rejoicing ' 
 in a world where they die no more." 
 
 Dec. 22, 1853. Mr. Denton returned to Regent's 
 Town alone, leaving all the ties of kindred far behind 
 him, but welcomed by the love that owns a brother- 
 hood not diminished by time, nor assailable by 
 death. 
 
 May 28. He writes, " The number of candi- 
 dates ready for baptism at Regent being more than 
 I could well undertake at one time, I divided them,
 
 268 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 baptizing twenty -three women on the 7th, and the 
 same number of men to-day. Among them was one 
 who was a school-boy in Mr. Johnson's time." 
 
 It will perhaps be remembered that the first 
 convert who so rejoiced Augustine Johnson's long- 
 ing heart, was a negro shingle-maker, Joe Thompson 
 by name ; and in the Church Missionary Record 
 for April 1855, we find the following interesting 
 account, which, it seems, must be of the same indi- 
 vidual. From Bathurst, a mountain village not far 
 from Regent, the native catechist, Mr. C. Macaulay, 
 writes the following account in this journal : 
 
 " VISITS TO THE SICK AND DYING. 
 
 " The first case is that of Joseph Thompson, an 
 aged communicant, and one of the earliest inhabitants 
 of the Mountain District. He knew little of reading, 
 but had a tolerable amount of scriptural knowledge. 
 He had been made a Christian leader, but his compe- 
 tency being once called in question by the members 
 of his class, he was requested to discontinue teaching. 
 This he did with the greatest meekness and humility. 
 On the 21st of December last, he was taken seriously 
 ill, and sent for me very early in the morning. Before 
 I entered the house I was detained a good while, 
 hearing, with pleasure, an old Christian woman pray- 
 ing with him and for him." After some questions 
 about his bodily state, the catechist inquired, " How
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 269 
 
 do you feel in your soul ? " "I think it is all right, 
 but there is a darkness before me which I am trying 
 to look through." " Keep near Jesus." " That is 
 just what I am doing. I can do nothing else, I can- 
 not let Him go ! " " If you are to die now, is all 
 right with you ?" " Yes." " Who will save you ?" 
 "God." "How will God save you?" "For 
 Jesus' sake." "How will He save you for Jesus' 
 sake ?" Then came this remarkable answer from 
 his lips, which moved my heart all at once. " He 
 Jesus is the Redeemer, God ! There is God the 
 Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. I 
 hang upon Jesus ! " " But to die, and to live, 
 which do you like better ? " " If God say live, I 
 like it ; and if He say die, I like it. Not my will, 
 not my power. I like to die, because the world is 
 full of troubles." " What troubles ? do you mean 
 sickness, and pain, and such like ?" "I mean sin, 
 also." " Do you like prayer ? " " That is just 
 what I want, I live upon it ! " Here I prayed with 
 him, and having offered him as much comfort and 
 encouragement as I could, I left him. He died in 
 the evening; and I had to consign his remains to 
 the grave the next day, "in sure and certain hope of 
 the resurrection to eternal life." 
 
 In 1855, Mr. Ehemannleft his beloved charge at 
 York, where he had laboured seven years with an 
 abundant blessing, and came to succeed Mr. Denton
 
 270 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 in the Mountain District, and to reside at Regent's 
 Town. He found that the Bible classes, formerly 
 held there, had been discontinued for some years 
 past ; he considered it one of his first duties to re- 
 organise these. Accordingly, he divided the five 
 hundred and seven communicants into two classes, 
 whom he met regularly on Wednesday and Friday, 
 eveiy week, or in his absence the native catechist ; 
 he adds, " This gained me the hearts of the people, 
 which many particularly the old members of Regent 
 church, who in their younger days enjoyed the min- 
 istry of Mr. Johnson manifested by a hearty shake 
 of my hand, saying, ' God bless you, massa ; you 
 do we good ; this we like to see ! ' I thanked the 
 Lord inwardly for this token of his favour, and 
 took courage ! " 
 
 After this statement, may we not close our notices 
 of the church in Regent's Town in the words of a 
 missionary's widow, Mrs. Palmer, who, writing from 
 Sierra Leone, in 1823, thirty-two years before the 
 date of our last extract, says, when speaking of 
 Regent's Town, " That blessed, highly blessed place /" 
 The Word of inspiration declares, ' BLESSED are the 
 people that know the joyful sound, they shall walk, 
 Lord, in the light of thy countenance.' 
 
 In the Church Missionary Intelligencer, for 
 March 1855, the negro town of Regent is spoken of 
 as containing a population, amounting to several
 
 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 271 
 
 thousands, almost entirely Christian; and the following 
 remark is added, " In the earlier part of its history, 
 it witnessed a gracious visitation from God, by the 
 rapid conversion of many newly -liberated slaves, 
 through the instrumentality of its devoted German 
 missionary, Mr. Johnson." 
 
 And here, in taking leave of his honoured name, 
 it is impossible not to look back for a moment to 
 what he was ; to look also upon what others are, 
 and what others may become. What was Augustine 
 Johnson ? a poor labouring mechanic, without daily 
 bread, without friends, a foreigner in a foreign land. 
 What raised him to a position of such eminent use- 
 fulness and blessing, in his day and generation? 
 the effusion of the Spirit of Christ this was 
 poured out upon him, quickening his energies, 
 deepening his feelings, enlightening his understand- 
 ing, sanctifying the whole man. History gives a 
 glimpse of what he became, and what he accom- 
 plished : while eternity alone can fully manifest the 
 results of the seven years' devotion of his heart to 
 God. Is not this a call for Christian supplication 
 and expectation to expand and deepen ? We 
 look around and behold a countless multitude, 
 such as Augustine Johnson was ; shall we not look 
 upward, whence alone the regenerating, elevating in- 
 fluence can descend, that numbers without number 
 of that multitude may become such as he was made
 
 272 AN EVERLASTING SIGN. 
 
 of God to be ? Truly, with all humility, might the 
 German mechanic have said, with the chief apostle, 
 at the retrospect of God's gracious work in and by 
 him, " they glorified God in me ! " 
 
 And now, farewell, bright Mountain Valley 
 gleaming with heavenly light and love ! We turn 
 our lingering eyes away from the fair record of thy 
 Christian church while thy fold was es yet unbro- 
 ken, thy first shepherd yet unsmitten, thy flock 
 unscattered where shall we find another spot so 
 bright ? Do we look on our congregations at home 
 and beside thy early brightness, does their light burn 
 dim, their love seem cold ? We are thankful that 
 it is not ours to judge. And if the question prove a 
 saddening one, and the eye, unsatisfied, wanders on, 
 we may look heavenward and rejoice ! There, in the 
 general assembly and church of the first-born, 
 the spirits of the just made perfect, is love that 
 knows no chill ; affiance that no doubt can weaken ; 
 and a will to serve the Lord who bought them, that 
 no temptation can assail, no difficulty damp, no 
 impediment hinder. And there shall be no more 
 curse ! but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be 
 in it ; and His servants shall serve Him. 
 
 "AMEN. EVEN so, COME, LORD JESUS." 
 
 London : Printed by G. BABCLAY, Castle St. Leicester Sq.
 
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