"Within the time specified, the number of ruling elders has been increased from two to ten. This addition gave great encouragement to the pastor and to the church, and the energy and devotedness with which they have acted, and the commencement they have made in visiting the people, and in conversing with those who were negligent in duty, and with those who were still impenitent and careless, has been eminently serviceable in winning souls to Christ.

"The preaching during this time has been increasingly of a plain, fearless, practical, and earnest character, holding forth the entire depravity and inability of the sinner, the fulness, freeness, and completeness of God's plan of redeeming mercy; the divinity, all-sufficiency, and gracious willingness of Christ, and his ability to give life, repentance, regeneration, perseverance, and sanctification to all who believe upon Him; the absolute necessity of the Holy Spirit to renew, enlighten, and comfort the hearts of believers; the sovereignty of God in either giving or withholding saving grace; the guilt involved in unbelief, ungodliness, and rejection of the claims of the Gospel; the fearful certainty of future and everlasting perdition upon all who forget God, and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the duty of all to believe in and to confess Christ before men.

"In addition to the services of the pulpit, pastoral visitation, and the distribution of tracts, and suitable works, have proved eminently useful.

"No inquiry meetings have been adopted, under the conviction that, if inquirers could be visited and prayed with in private, there would be a much greater security for the purity and depth of the knowledge, convictions, and experience of those who came to cherish a good hope through grace.

"May He who has been the author of this work of grace, carry it on and finish it in the hearts of many who are now dead in trespasses and sins, and may He pour out his Spirit yet more abundantly, and more extensively, to the praise and glory of His rich grace.

"AN OBSERVER."

It would be very interesting to detail the workings of Divine grace in some of these cases, which were very remarkable and extraordinary, but to do so might appear egotistical and out of place. Suffice it, therefore, to say, that the substance of this little volume was prepared and delivered during the progress of the work.

It is now published with the hope that the same blessing may accompany its perusal which followed the delivery. It is designed to meet the case of that class of sincere inquirers who respect religion, and desire to be themselves possessed of it, and

who would esteem it a privilege to be themselves members of the church, but who are afraid to hope in Christ, to cast themselves upon Him as poor guilty sinners, fully sensible of their weakness of faith and insensibility of heart, and afraid to profess religion, because unworthy, as they think, to be members of the church, and unable to cherish a confidence that they will never fall away or disgrace their "high calling." To such troubled consciences the volume would present the fulness, freeness, and sufficiency of Christ, and the consequent obligation to trust in Him for pardon, peace, and for the grace of holiness and perseverance. And may the Eternal Spirit make it effectual to their comfort and full assurance of hope.

The volume will, at the same time, furnish a specimen of the tone and manner of preaching common in Evangelical pulpits in that part of the world* in which the author labours, and may assist some minds in forming an estimate of the christian character and experience of professed believers in that region of the earth.

The work is commended to God and the power of his grace, and to him shall be ascribed all glory now and ever. Amen.

*The author has in his church one hundred and sixty coloured members, as they are called, (including slaves and free blacks.) These are all admitted after examination, and at the same time, and in the same manner, as the white members. They also receive the communion at the same time with the white members, at tables extending across church in space between front pews and pulpit and down middle aisle by relays of communicants. The negroes were served after the whites, by the same ministers, elders, &c., the congregation remaining.

Over these coloured members nine or ten coloured persons, who are competent, preside as class-leaders. It is the duty of these persons, who can all read, to divide them into classes, with which they meet once during the week for prayer, exhortation, and general christian improvement, and also on the Sabbath, at different hours, for the same purpose; to watch over their conduct; and to report any cases of immorality or unchristian conduct. To each of these leaders, the church-session presented a Hymn-book and a Confession of Faith.

These coloured members are all married by me, and are required to conform strictly to matrimonial fidelity.

One entire gallery of the church, and the whole gallery in our lectureroom, are appropriated to the use of the coloured people, of whom there is a Sabbath attendance of from three to five hundred.

At our monthly concert and similar collections, they make a voluntary collection among themselves. They have also a Mutual Assistance Society for aiding each other in sickness, to which they voluntarily subscribe; and they have a burial-ground of their own, to which, after death, they are conducted by their fellow-members, after service performed by the chief leader, who is a man of good education.

Such is that condition towards which there is a gradual approximation throughout the Southern States, and which is in many cases greatly excelled.

CHAPTER I.

THE DUTY AND PRIVILEGE OF BELIEF AND CONFESSION URGED UPON DOUBTING SINNERS.

IN the order of nature a man must believe before he can confess the truth as it is Jesus, and must have faith and confidence in the person, work, and glorious all-sufficiency of Christ, before he can commit his soul into his hands as a faithful Redeemer, and openly acknowledge and confess Him before men. And yet, in that striking declaration of the apostle(Rom. x. 9, 11).-"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, for the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed,"-we find confession is placed before believing. The reason of this apparent anomaly is found in the fact, that the apostle had more immediate reference to the judgment of man than of God. God looketh upon the heart, and can discern its thoughts and intents. He can see faith even when it has never yet been whispered to the ear of mortal. But it is far different with respect to man. He can only judge from the outward appearance, and discover the state of the heart by the conversation and the conduct. Our heartfelt belief can only, therefore, be known to our fellow-men, by our open confession and our correspondent outward devotion. A man's character is known by the company he keeps; and a man's opinions are know, in every free country, by the party to whom he is attached, and by his own free and constant publication of them. And, in the same way, do we judge whether a man really and at heart believes and trusts in the Saviour, by his readiness to confess Him before men, and to hold fast the profession of his faith sted fast to the end. When speaking, therefore, in reference to the judgment of man, the apostle puts confession, which is the effect, before belief, which is the cause, because it is only by the effect we can know any thing of the cause. But there is another reason for this arrangement, and that is, that so far as it regards others, the open and stedfast confession of the truth is of more importance than its inward possession. For, for the same reason that we cannot see the faith of another which is in the heart, that faith can have no influence over us. It cannot afford a testimony for the truth of Christ, or the all-sufficiency and glory of Christ. It cannot demonstrate to us the nature, efficacy, and power of the gospel, and its ability to mould and fashion the

character, and to sustain the soul in every time of need. It cannot, therefore, prevail upon others to "acquaint themselves with God, and be at peace with Him," by the evident manifestation of what He has done for our souls. Our faith, therefore, to have any value-to be promotive of the glory of Godto advance the cause and kingdom of Christ-to bear an efficient testimony for Christ and his cross-and to lead to the conviction and conversion of others, must be openly confessed and manifested before men. Nay: would we reap any fruits and benefits from faith in our own souls; would we experience its power to save, to sanctify, to transform the heart, to mould. our principles, to fashion our lives, and to sustain and comfort us under all our trials, we must "come out from the world, take up our cross, deny ourselves," and identify ourselves with Christ's church and people, in a profession of the truth as it is in Jesus, and a diligent observance of His appointed ordinances.

But, while all this is true, still it is equally true that a mere profession of Christ, a mere outward observance of ordinances, is vain, worthless, and dangerous to salvation. It cannot do good to others, it cannot do good to ourselves, and it cannot glorify our Saviour. It is, in the moral world, what a monster is in the natural world, and bears no more resemblance to real piety than a picture does to a living man, or than a scarecrow does to the human person.

Neither a profession, then, without faith, nor faith without a profession, is a complete, perfect, or symmetrical whole-a true exercise of man's glorious powers. And the reason is, that man is a compound being, possessed of a body as well as a soul-of affections as well as intellect-of active powers as well as an understanding-and of social qualities as well as of personal and selfish attributes. What he does as man, he does with ALL his powers; and what he approves in his understanding, he carries out, therefore, into action by his will and his active powers. When a man, therefore, believes in his heart, he lives, and moves, and acts, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE THING BELIEVED. There is no power which can paralyse the will to do where there is a heart to do, and a possibility of doing. In order to enable any man, therefore, heartily to do, it is necessary that he should heartily believe. This belief is the principle-the beginning-the fountain-the elastic spring -the ever-living power which works in us to will and to do.

""Tis faith that changes all the heart,
'Tis faith that works by love,
That bids all sinful joys depart,
And lifts the thoughts above.

""Tis faith that conquers earth and hell,
By a celestial power;

This is the grace that shall prevail
In the decisive hour."

Would you, then, my dear reader, be saved? Would you 'be reconciled to God, and be at peace with him," and thus be prepared for death, judgment, and eternity? Then you must believe the testimony of God concerning Christ with your heart, and confess Christ with your mouth. God has in infinite mercy provided salvation through the incarnation, life, death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ, who has made a perfect atonement for all sin, and wrought out a righteousness which is of infinite merit and sufficiency, and "whose blood cleanseth from all sin." God is now reconciled and satisfied, so that while "he is a just God, he is also a Saviour." "GOD IS NOW IN CHRIST." We have no longer to do with an absolute Deity, with God as angry, jealous, and consuming as a fire. God is now in Christ, to whom all judgment has been committed,— Who sits upon the throne, and ever liveth at God's right hand, as "head over all things to His church," and as "a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins." No man knoweth God but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal him. No man can come unto the Father but by the Son. No man can stand justified before God but he who stands there covered with the imputed righteousness of Christ. No man can receive the Spirit but he to whom the Son, whose Spirit he is, imparts him. In Christ dwelleth all fulness. On Him is laid all our help. In Him are treasured up all the riches of Divine grace and mercy. God, therefore, now deals with sinners through Christ. Christ has been lifted up, as was his type the brazen serpent, in the wilderness, that whosoever believeth in him may be saved. Such is God's plan of mercy. Such is the gracious scheme of redemption. Such the way of life.

Now this plan of redemption evidently supposes that we are dead. And to believe in Christ, therefore, we must have a clear conviction (I do not say how deep and strong), but a clear and full conviction that we are "dead in trespasses and sins;" that we cannot justify ourselves in God's sight; that we can do nothing to reconcile our souls to God; nothing to make us acceptable to Him; nothing to produce penitence, or feeling, or peace, or joy in our hearts. Oh! my dear reader, have you been brought to this state and conviction before God? Are you "sure that the judgment of God against you is according to truth;" that you are verily guilty before Him; and that you are not only condemned, but that you deserve the condemnation which is written against you? Have you been driven from all the refuges of lies in which men naturally hide themselves from this conviction? Have you given up your vain efforts to establish a righteousness of your own; either by comparing your character with that of others, and it may be with some who are professors of religion, and taking comfort from the thought