respective colours, and to shine in their accustomed loveliness. In like manner, the Gospel discloses the fairest visions and brightest prospects. It illuminates even the dark "valley of the shadow of death," and reveals the beauty and glory of the heavenly world. Its Its operations on the mind are well described by the Apostle, when he says, "God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." What, then, are we to think when it is said,

Secondly, That "men loved darkness rather than light?"-This certainly appears, at first consideration, a circumstance not easily to be accounted for. Suppose that a man had to perform a long and arduous journey; that he was unacquainted with the road, and was likely to be exposed to many dangers, to the hazard even of life: suppose that, thus circumstanced, he would not accept of the aid which the light of day would afford him in directing his course aright, and avoiding dangers and enemies; but preferred travelling amidst the darkness of a winter's night, when he could perceive neither the path in which he should tread, nor the snares and adversaries by which he might be surroundedBut, in truth, the supposition is incredible; we should deem it impossible for a person of common understanding to conduct himself in a manner so irrational. Yet we daily see around us instances of similar, or greater, folly in the concerns of religion. For, are we not all travellers towards an eternal world, through a life of vicissitude and trial, encompassed with innumerable enemies, and in danger, even if we could gain the whole world, of losing, what is infinitely more precious, our immortal souls? And if we have rejected the light of the Gospel, and are pursuing the crooked ways of transgression, we are walking in darkness, and are acting a part in

All

finitely more foolish and perilous than that of the person just described. Our Lord represents it as quite a common circumstance, that spiritual darkness is preferred to light. He speaks of men in general, of the whole human race. men by nature love to be ignorant of God, of Christ, of their own state, of the eternal world. They love to be ignorant that they are in a depraved and ruined condition; that Satan is their master, by whom they are led captive at his will; that the present world is a scene of dissatisfaction and guilt; that Christ is the only Saviour of sinners, and the only source of real happiness. Men may frame excuses for their neglect of religion: they may say that they have no ability, or no leisure to attend to the concerns of their souls; but the simple fact is, that they have no inclination for the employment. They feel no desire for spiritual blessings; they do not wish to be different from what they are; they cherish their ignorance; they take pleasure in breaking the commandments of God. The most moderate construction which can be put upon various passages of Holy Writ, leads to the conclusion that all unconverted men desire, love, select the ways of sin. They do not wish to be converted to God; nor, in their hearts, would they choose to be converted, if God were to address them from heaven for that purpose, and to promise, that, without the slightest endeavour on their own part, the necessary change in their character should be accomplished.

But the reason why men thus love darkness rather than light, is,

Thirdly, "Because their deeds are evil."-This solves the problem at once; for, says our Saviour himself, "Every one that doeth evil, hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved: but he that doeth truth, cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought in God." It would be

exceedingly strange, as before observed, if a man should choose to travel by night, instead of availing himself of the advantage afforded by the light of day. But let us suppose this individual to have committed some heinous crime, which exposes him to public ignominy and chastisement, and we are instantly supplied with a reason for his otherwise inexplicable behaviour. The reason why such a person would dislike the light would be, not because it was any thing unwelcome in itself, but because it might lead to some unwelcome discoveries. The case is somewhat analogous, as regards men's rejection of light and attachment to darkness, in a spiritual sense. There is nothing in religion so unreasonable or inequitable, that it should excite the abhorrence of any really rational being. There is nothing in the command, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart," which is in itself improper or unjust. No; but men are sensible that they do not love God with all their hearts, and therefore they relish not the injunction which requires them to do so. There is nothing at all unreasonable in those portions of Scripture which enjoin us to keep the Sabbath; to be humble; to watch and strive against temptation; to pray to God for his blessing, and to adore him for his goodness. No: but men feel that they are deficient in these respects, and therefore they dislike to have these duties pressed on their attention. There is nothing which is either untrue, or disclosed with an unkind intention, in those passages which declare that every human being has ruined himself by his transgressions; that there is no salvation but in Christ; that we can do nothing good of ourselves; that this world can never make us happy; and that, if we would arrive at heaven, we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow our Divine Redeemer. All these things are strictly true, and infinitely important; but we naturally feel a

distaste to them, because they condemn, by implication, the general frame of our spirit and deportment. They require from us what we are conscious we do not possess, and what, moreover, we have no desire to possess. They attack the “refuges of lies," to which we have been trusting. They reprove our pride, our ignorance, our evil principles, our secular spirit, our want of sincere attachment to God, our unwillingness to receive Christ as a Saviour, an Instructor, and a Sovereign. They tell us that our present conduct is sinful; that our hopes are vain; that, unless we repent, and become new creatures in Christ Jesus, we shall perish for ever. Therefore, we "love darkness rather than light."

Fourthly. This wilful rejection of the Gospel, is represented in the text as the ground of condemnation. -No person will ever be sentenced to eternal punishment for the want of outward religious advantages, for the narrowness of his mental powers, or his incapacity to comprehend all the revelations of Scripture. If we perish, we perish for our voluntary, deliberate refusal to admit the light of Divine truth into our souls; for not making a due improvement of that measure of information which we possess, or which we might possess, on the subjects which relate to our everlasting interests. Had we indeed been excluded from all sources of knowledge on spiritual subjects, and left to the feeble light of nature, we should be judged, as St. Paul teaches, by the law of natural conscience. Had God never sent his Son into the world; had Christ never died on the cross; had the tidings of mercy never been proclaimed to us; had the light of sacred truth never visited us; had we been the victims of unavoidable ignorance and misery; there might have been some excuse for our conduct. But since this is by no means our situation; since the Redeemer has shed his most precious blood; since the way of salvation has been

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clearly made known to us; it will be owing entirely to our own wilful obstinacy, if, having access to the privileges of Christianity, we are not delivered from future perdition, and rendered heir of immortal glory. We shall be found totally inexcusable at that solemn day when Christ shall come to judge the world, "taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power." "If I had not come and spoken to them," says the Saviour, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin." Let not, then, any of us, who are favoured with the pure revelation of God's truth, attempt to justify our neglect of religion by pleas drawn from the multiplicity of our worldly occupations, from the apparent strictness of the Divine commands, or from our alleged inability to comply with the requisitions of the Bible. The Gospel enjoins us to do nothing for which adequate assistance is not graciously promised. But, at the same time that it graciously invites us, it addresses us in language which shews at once its supreme authority and its infinite importance. "He that believeth, shall be saved;" "he that believeth not, shall be damned." It is therefore at our eternal peril that we receive with contempt or indifference its merciful invitations. "How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" Let us then trifle no longer with the concerns of our immortal souls. Let us recollect, and act under the impression, that the day of grace will soon be ended; that life, with all its fascinations, will shortly be no more; that we shall soon lie on the bed of sickness and of death, and be summoned to the invisible world. In those awful moments, when nature is fast decaying, and the king of terrors begins to approach; when the objects of sense are receding from our

view, and eternity presents itself in all its solemnity; how could we bear to reflect on a course of wilful opposition to the Almighty, and of disobedience to his righteous commands; on the many faithful sermons which we have heard, but from which we have taken no warning, and derived no benefit; on the many opportunities which we have had of reading the Bible, and of praying to God, which duties we have either entire ly omitted, or performed in a superficial and thoughtless manner; on the many remonstrances of conscience which we have stifled; and on the continued misimprovement of all our religious privileges !Death often opens the eyes of the most thoughtless, and discovers to those who are dreaming of worldly enjoyments for many years to come, that they are on the brink of a fearful precipice, from which it may perhaps be too late to retreat. Oh, then, let us hasten to be wise; for, "Behold, now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation!"

Tothe Editor of the Christian Observer.

I SOLICIT the opinions of some of your experienced correspondents on the manner in which young children should be trained to keep the Sabbath. I do not ask whether they should be taught as early as possible the Church Catechism, religious hymns, and, indeed, the truths and duties of our Christian faith in general: this I make no question of, presuming that your readers are quite agreed on its importance and necessity. But I wish to be informed how they consider that the remainder of the Sabbath, that portion of it which is not employed in these peculiar engagements, should be spent: whether this day should be decidedly marked off from all the rest of the week by a prohibition of all the usual plays and amusements of young children; and if so, how the prohibition may be best enforced. R. H.

NEGRO SLAVERY.-No. I.

IN a respectable periodical work, entitled the "Imperial Magazine," for January last, a paper appeared giving an account of "the condition and character of the Negro slaves in certain parts of the West Indies." On inquiry, we found that the particular part to which it referred was British Guiana. We also satisfied

ourselves, both of the high respectability of the character of the writer, and of his ample opportunities of information. He had been long an eye-witness of the scenes which he describes, and we entertain not the very slightest doubt of the strict fidelity of his statements. We propose to commence a series of papers on the subject of Negro slavery with the greater part of this very important communication.

SLAVERY IN BRITISH GUIANA.

In the West Indies, the constitution of society is very peculiar. The inhabitants are divided into three distinct classes,-the Whites, the mixed breed of free people, and the Negro slaves. The free Coloured people form a class by themselves: with the Whites they have little connexion, and they are too lofty to associate with the Blacks. The Whites are chiefly Europeans, and the lords of all. They are intimately connected with the Negroes, though not by bonds of love. To the slaves they bear but a small proportion; in many parts not more than one to forty; and, on most of the plantations, they are not as one to sixty. Most of the islands and colonies have one town only; here the ships anchor, and the merchants and the superior magistrates reside. The country is always divided into plantations, each having a cultivation fully equal to the number of slaves attached to it. Some of the plantations contain 800 or 1000 acres; and have from five to six

hundred slaves, all of whom are under the management of one white man, assisted by as many white overseers as the laws of their respective countries, or the master, or his attorney, may deem sufficient. To four hundred slaves there are commonly about five whites, able to

bear arms.

From this statement, it will immediately appear, that the responsibility of the whites in the West Indies is very great. From their hands, the hundreds of slaves under them must receive every thing, as well their food, physic, and punishments, as their orders to work; and their example will give a powerful conduct of all whom they govern. bias both to the principles and the that, in their situation, they ought But, however obvious it may be

to consider themselves, if not as fathers, yet as guardians, of the Negroes; and that they must answer to their own consciences, and to the Supreme Being, for the manner in which they fulfil their trust; still it is manifest, that very, very few consider the slaves in any other light than that of mere machines, to prepare the produce for the market, or to do any thing else that may serve the master's turn. It is impossible that a person acquainted with plantation management should fail to notice, that much more care and attention are commonly bestowed on the horses, cattle, &c. than on the Negroes, especially where there is no resident proprietor. Neither does it appear that many of them attach the least importance to the effect their own examples have upon the morals of the slaves; or surely they would abstain from those barefaced indecencies so prevalent among them, or at least endeavour to conceal their gross immoralities from vulgar gaze.

The plantation slaves are, of

course, employed in the cultivation of the ground. The field, then, is their place of work. At about six o'clock in the morning, the ringing of a bell, or the sound of a horn, is a signal for them to turn out to work. No sooner is this signal made, than the black drivers, loudly smacking their whips, visit the Negro houses to turn out the reluctant inmates, much in the same manner that you would drive out a number of horses from a stable-yard, now and then giving a lash or two to any that are tardy in their movements. Issuing from their kennels, nearly naked, with their implements on their shoulders, they stay not to muster, but immediately proceed to the field, accompanied by the drivers and a white overseer. The former remain with them all day; the latter is not so confined to the spot, but he can leave them occasionally. When it can be done, a task is given them, which they must accomplish on pain of punishment. In the middle of the day they are usually allowed about an hour and a half for rest and refreshment: but when they have task-work, not more than half the gang are able to avail themselves of this intermission from labour. Soon after sun-set (which is always within about fifteen minutes of six), they leave off work in the field; and each one having cut or picked a bundle of grass for the master's horses, which serves instead of hay, an article not made in the West Indies, they bend their course homewards. They all carry the grass to a certain spot, forming a general muster; and there remain in the open air, often shivering with cold, till the cracking of the whip informs them they are to take it to the stable, which is generally at about eight o'clock. If there be no other work to do, they may then go to their houses.

I say, if there be no other work: for, after toiling all day, many of the slaves are frequently compelled to work nearly half the night, especially when they are making sugar,

which is six months out of the twelve. Some are employed in grinding the canes, some in boiling the juice, others in carrying away the cane trash; while another part of the gang is often employed in carting or shipping sugar, rum, &c. Where the coffee is cultivated, the plan of night-work is followed, though it is far less severe to the slaves: there is but one large crop in the year, and the gathering of it in does not last more than ten or twelve weeks. They pick the coffee berries off the trees in the day, and pulp them at night. The whole of the work, at the rate they are obliged to do it, is very laborious. Should a stranger indicate to the planter his surprise that the slaves are able to toil so many hours, he is reminded, that "many mechanics and labourers in England work equally hard, and on an average as many hours in the day." With respect to the slaves attached to cotton or coffee plantations, this may be the case; but it is by no means generally true of those employed in the cultivation and manufacture of sugar; and perhaps fourfifths of them are so employed. But even though it were true of all, it would prove nothing in mitigation of slavery. The labourer in Britain is impelled to active and persevering industry by motives to which the slave is a stranger. The one is stimulated by the expectation of an adequate remuneration, by a jealousy for his reputation, by the fear of losing his employment, by his numerous wants, and, in most cases, by the necessities of a dependent family; and besides, if the work be beyond his strength, he is at liberty to leave it. With the slave, the case is far otherwise. He knows it would be vain to look for reward; and as for reputation, he is quite unconscious of any such thing. If he neglects his work, he is punished; but that is attended with no dishonour among slaves: it is too common an occurrence to be accounted disgraceful. Neither can he be in any