and helpless for thirty and eight years; a blind man who had been blind from his birth; Lazarus, whose body had been in the grave four days. Jesus is the Light of the World-this is the truth brought before us in the sixth miracle; Light, which came into the world for judgment, that they which see not might see, and that they which see might be made blind. In this chapter we notice also the minuteness and accuracy of a most observant and conscientious eye-witness. The cross questions of the examining commission, full of subtilty, overbearing officialism, and obdurate unbelief, and the simple, pointed, and direct answers of the blind man, have a reality and naturalness which appeal to every reader. Ere we pass to the seventh miracle we would remind the reader of the common ground occupied by the evangelist John and the synoptical Gospels. Both record the power of Jesus over nature, over disease, over death. In both the synoptics, and in the Gospel of John, great importance is attached to the miracles as facts; John more especially testifies that Jesus did mighty works, that the people saw them, and that these miracles rendered the unbelieving Jews without excuse. It is, therefore, quite untenable that the miracles recorded in John are merely, or chiefly, allegorical representations of spiritual truths. Both the synoptics and the evangelist John connect the miracles or the manifestations of Divine salvation-power with faith, as the receptive organ. His disciples believed in Him as the result of the first miracle at Cana; the blind man believed in Jesus, and worshipped Him as the Son of God. Thus, what is peculiar to the Gospel of John-the central and constant illustration of the glory of Jesus Himself, the teaching and unfolding of His person in connection with the miracle, and the relation of these self-manifestations to the opposition and hatred of Israel (especially of Judea)—is in perfect harmony with the other Gospel records. The seventh and last miracle in the Gospel of John is the raising of Lazarus.* Here we behold Jesus as the Resurrection and the "It is unmistakable that John narrates this event with a quite peculiar sympathy and vividness, and in such a manner that he starts with the same comprehensive view of Christ's earthly history and works, which is the animating spirit and motive power of his whole Gospel. As he loves to testify of Christ everywhere as the true life and light, so the raising since the eternal life which is in Him must reach into this of the dead appears to him to transfigure this great truth, earthly existence."-EWALD, Leben Jesu, 403. Life. We see here an anticipation of the Lord's resurrection glory, a picture and prophecy of His second advent and of the resurrection of the just. We hear in the words, "Lazarus, come forth," the voice of the exalted Redeemer, as the evangelist heard it afterwards, when the Lord said unto him, "I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death." As we read this chapter we feel that the beloved disciple exulted in the thought that so soon before the rejection and the crucifixion of the Messiah, Jesus manifested Himself as Jehovah, the ever blessed Lifegiver, and as the Life itself. The power of sin and Satan is conquered, and this according to Divine righteousness and holiness, in love and mercy. God is glorified. The very scene of death and corruption becomes the hallowed spot where faith sees the glory of God. Upon this solid foundation rests the perfect sympathy of Jesus with His suffering and afflicted people. Let us, therefore, in meditating on this chapter, never lose sight of the one leading thought, the one great fundamental object and purpose, the one receptive organ, with which we can grasp and lay hold of the unspeakable gift. The Centre is Jesus the Son of God, who came and died and rose again to be the Resurrection and the Life. The purpose is that we should see the glory of God in beholding the Son of God glorified in the raising of Lazarus. The channel or receptive organ is faith; not feeling, not reason, not imagination, but the heart believing the Divine Saviour. In this narrative we may admire as it were flowers of the earthly valley, and feel the pathetic and thrilling power of human sorrow and affliction; we may go higher and dwell on the wonderful brotherly sympathy of Jesus and His marvellous power, and even then separate the affection of Jesus from the high and glorious object of His self-manifestation. This will only confuse our vision and leave us without comfort, when God alone can give consolation. Our Lord Himself has given us the key to unlock the golden casket in which the most precious gem is enshrined; and the reason why the Jews, though eye-witnesses, only beheld a marvel while Mary and Martha beheld the glory of God, is because faith, sorrowfully and darkly at first, joyously and Son of God, Jesus the Lord. triumphantly at last, went forth towards the SINCE 1800-IN JAMAICA. BY EDWARD B. UNDERHILL, LL.D. MISSIONARY work in Jamaica, the found in every parish, while their communi largest of the West India Islands belonging to England, was commenced by the Moravian Church in October, 1754. A Mr. Caries, with two other brethren as his assistants, was sent in compliance with the request of some gentlemen possessing considerable estates in the island.* Partly from the indifference of the slaves, partly from the exceeding caution of the missionaries lest the planters should take offence at their exertions, the mission did not obtain any great success until the Act of Emancipation in 1834 set all classes free to act. The Moravian community fully shared in the spiritual prosperity of the following years. The number of missionaries was increased, schools were multiplied, chapels were erected, and new stations were formed. About twelve thousand persons are now attached to these societies, and depend on the Christian instructions of the missionaries for their knowledge of the word of God. The missionaries are chiefly drawn from the Moravian community in Germany, and only very few of the negro converts exercise the ministerial office. The Wesleyans constitute a very numerous body in Jamaica. Dr. Coke was the first preacher who visited the island. He arrived there in 1789, and receiving from many of the inhabitants of Kingston a warm reception, he was induced to regard the island as a most favourable field for missionary labours. The first missionary appointed, a Mr. Hammett, met, however, with great opposition. His chapel was beset with white people, who attacked the coloured hearers with abusive language and assailed them with stones. Other assaults followed; prosecutions of the wrong-doers were commenced, but the grand jury rejected the charges, and certified that both the missionary and his chapel ought to be indicted as nuisances.† By degrees, however, through the perseverance and diligent labour of the missionaries, the word of God grew and prevailed. In the trials, persecutions, perils, and conflicts of subsequent years, the Wesleyans bore their full share, and at the present time they constitute nearly, if not quite, the largest body of Christian churches in the island. Their chapels, some eighty in number, and capable of seating about forty-five thousand persons, are Brown's "Hist. of Missions," i. 257. † Brown's "History," i. 463. cants number about seventeen thousand. Our space will not allow us to describe the labours of other Christian Churches, as our theme relates to the Baptist mission in particular. But it must be mentioned that the Independents, the United Presbyterian Church, the United Methodist Free Church, the Scotch Church, and lastly the Episcopal Church-lately disestablished-have all their representatives in the island, and are working together in harmony and Christian peace for the promotion of the kingdom of God. The Baptist Missionary Society commenced its labours among the slave population of Jamaica in December, 1813, when the Rev. John Rowe sailed for the island. He was not, however, the first Baptist preacher there. George Lisle, a black man, preceded him. He had been a slave in the service of a British officer, who, at his death, soon after the close of the American war of independence, set free his slaves. For awhile he was pastor of a coloured church in Georgia, United States, supporting himself as a carrier. Hearing of the destitute condition of the bondsmen of Jamaica, he removed thither with three or four others, who, like himself, having felt the power of the word of life to soften the sorrows of their bondage, desired to convey to the Jamaica slave the consolations which had been their solace. He arrived a few years before Dr. Coke, and preached his first sermon to a large audience on the racecourse of Kingston. For a time he occupied a hired room, until a temporary shed was erected, which was soon displaced by a brick chapel, at a cost of £900. Many wealthy persons contributed to the erection of this building, among them the historian of Jamaica, Bryan Edwards. At a later period this structure gave way to a larger and more commodious chapel, which continues to this day to be occupied by a congregation of native Baptists, enjoying the instructions of a succession of native pastors from the time of its founder. Mr. Lisle did not escape persecution. He was accused of sedition, and was treated with great severity in prison, being loaded with irons. and set in the stocks. His imperfect understanding of divine truth, paved the way for the introduction among his followers of many superstitious practices, which for many years continued to characterize the communities that originated in his labours, but which later disorder. No regular church government years have largely removed. Among Mr. Lisle's converts was Moses Baker, a native of one of the Windward Islands. His occupation was that of a barber. He had acquired the ability to read, and on the purchase by a Mr. Winn of several slaves who were members of Lisle's church, Baker was invited to become their teacher. Mr. Winn's estate lay in the parish of St. James. Here for several years Baker taught the truths of the gospel to the slaves of that and the neighbouring estates, till the advance of years made him solicitous to provide another preacher for his people. He opened a correspondence with the Rev. Dr. Ryland of Bristol, whose thoughts had already been turned to the condition of the slave population of the West Indies, from his and his father's connection with the movement to destroy the slave trade, then being vigorously prosecuted by Mr. Wilberforce, Granville Sharpe, Zachary Macaulay, and other noble-minded philanthropists of that day. The communication from Baker opened the way for the fulfilment of a desire which had obtained the sanction of these great men. Mr. Rowe, a member of the church in Yeovil, and a student under Dr. Ryland in the Bristol Academy in Bristol, offered himself for the work. He was held in high esteem by his tutors and fellow-students, and furnished with the requisite instructions by the committee of the Baptist Missionary Society, he proceeded to Jamaica, where he landed on the 23rd of February, 1814. Impartial writers of that day describe the moral condition of the population, both white and black, as truly appalling. Thus, says one, the whites "were addicted to the most shameless and notorious profligacy." Many were infidel sensualists. Of the negroes he writes: "Their passions and affections not being under the control of reason or religion, sometimes break out with frightful violence; rage, revenge, grief, and jealousy, have often been productive of horrible catastrophes." Hence came treatment of the greatest severity, and to keep the slaves in subjection the most frightful cruelties were resorted to. Here and there a planter was found to treat his slaves with leniency and kindness; but these were exceptions to the general rule. On his arrival, Mr. Rowe found that for six years the voice of Moses Baker had been silenced by a law forbidding any preaching to the slaves, so that his congregation had fallen into great had been maintained, nor had the Lord's Supper been observed for more than two years. Opposed by the magistracy, Mr. Rowe's labours were confined to private efforts and to a small school, which he commenced partly with the hope of aiding the society in his support. Death suddenly arrested his progress on the 7th of June, 1816, just as his consistent conduct and prudent action were about to be rewarded, by the legal permission which he required openly to preach to the slaves. Space will not allow us to designate one by one the noble band of men who now rapidly followed in the wake of this devoted pioneer. James Coultart, the founder of the church in Kingston, went out in 1817. Joshua Tinson, the first tutor of the Calabar Theological Institution, sailed for Jamaica in 1822. In 1823, James Phillippo went from East Dereham in Norfolk, and established the church in Spanish Town. He still lives, after a pastorate of fifty-four years, to bear witness to the great things which God has wrought during his long and useful life in Jamaica. In the same year Thomas Burchell entered the field, and in the following year his great coadjutor in the advocacy of freedom for the slave, William Knibb, succeeded to his brother's charge, only too early removed from this scene of conflict and toil. Then come the names of Burton, Baylis, Mann, Nicholls, Gardner, and others who now rest from their labours, having borne persecutions and imprisonment for the sake of Christ. There still remain of those days of struggle the venerable Walter Dendy, John Clarke of Jericho, Edward Hewett, John Henderson, and John Clarke of Brown's Town. These and numerous other godly men gave an impetus to the work among the slaves, which led to an outbreak of detestation and wrath on the part of the slaveowners. It then became obvious that slavery and Christianity could not exist side by side. The deadly struggle began which was finally consummated by the emancipation of all the slaves in the possession of Great Britain. It was a time of terrible anxiety when in 1832 the long-suffering people, persuaded that their freedom was wilfully kept from them by their owners, broke out in insurrection. We cannot here repeat the story of their wrongs, their cruel imprisonments, their bodily tortures, their unjust executions. If freedom soon came, through the righteous indignation of Britain's people and parliament, inspired by the grand eloquence of William Knibb, and by the more quiet but not less forcible illustrations of the horrors of slavery of Thomas Burchell, it was purchased by many a bloody sacrifice. Even the missionaries did not wholly escape. Several were arrested and thrown into prison, charged with sedition and inciting the slaves to rebellion. False witnesses were suborned to swear away the lives of Knibb and Burchell; and only by a wondrous intervention of the providence of God did they and their fellow-sufferers escape with their lives. The hot hatred of the slaveowners was vented on chapel buildings. Some were consumed by fire, and others wrecked by violence. The chapels thus destroyed were valued at £12,390. Their replacement was afterwards accomplished by a grant from the British Government of £11,705, to which the sum of £14,000 was added by the British public. 66 Parliament in its wisdom decreed that the slaves should pass through an apprenticeship of seven years. It was hoped that the planters would avail themselves of this period, both to make such arrangements for the management of their estates as the changed circumstances of their labourers would require, and by a well-devised system of education to prepare the slaves for the freedom which was decreed. The nation generously gave £20,000,000 to facilitate these changes, and to compensate the planters of the West Indies for the forcible emancipation of the slaves, of which sum about £13,000,000 was the share of Jamaica. It was a vain hope. The wrongs and sufferings of the apprentices were greater than before. "Every vestige of their legal rights," says Dr. Cox, was trampled under foot; the planters possessed the most absolute control. Every complaint against the greatest injustice and cruelty was silenced, since the poor negroes knew too well that the magistrates would protect not them but their oppressors." Again was the indignation of the people of England aroused, and it was decreed by Parliament that on the 1st August, 1838, the deliverance should be complete; and slavery was then abolished for ever in the dominions of the sovereign of the British empire. To use the words of Mr. Knibb, "On that day, 'Glory to God in the highest' was inscribed upon the British flag." The sorrows of slavery, followed by the gift of freedom, exercised a vast influence over the religious feelings of the people. They crowded the chapels of all denominations. With joyful liberality they devoted their first earnings to the erection of places of worship, and to supply the necessary provision for their spiritual instruction. In 1843 the Baptist churches relinquished their pecuniary dependence on the Missionary Society; and from that day to this, with various fortunes and amid many trials, they have nobly maintained the independence they claimed. Nor were the necessities of the future left uncared for. It was soon evident, from the rapid multiplication of the churches, that a supply of pastors must be found in the congregations themselves—that they could not depend in the future on England for their ministry. Hence a theological institution was founded in 1843, with the assistance of the Society; and this department continues at the present time to be mutually sustained by the churches and the committee at home. It has supplied a large number of coloured men who have proved themselves to be able ministers of the gospel, and the congregations have flourished under their charge. The churches have also aided the Society with men and money to carry on its mission on the West Coast of Africa. Although the churches in the island have persistently sustained their own organizations for the support of the ordinances of the gospel among them, the Baptist churches of England have on various occasions of trial shown them the warmest sympathy. Such was the case when free trade diminished the earnings of the people and left their chapels in debt. They received a gift of £6,000 for their discharge. When the island was desolated by cholera, and again by smallpox, help was largely forthcoming. In the drought of the years 1864 and 1865 they obtained. assistance from this country; and especially in the latter year, when the disturbances which broke out brought about an entire revolution in the government of the island. Goaded by years of wrong from the planters and the local government, refused justice in the courts, suffering want from the decay of cultivation, in an evil hour a few misguided men resented the unjust decisions of the magistrates of Morant Bay. The soldiery was let loose upon the district; death without judge or jury was the penalty paid by a large number of innocent people; a thousand houses were burnt; the reckless flogging of men and women was barbarously inflicted; and a Mr. Gordon was executed on evidence which the Lord Chief Justice of England has declared to be "morally and intrinsically worthless." No compensation for these horrors has ever been given to the sufferers, save that only which they enjoy through the better ad |