by grace, the consistency of the plan will be at once acknowledged. That part of the Volume, which describes the origin and progress of a Protestant Mission, among the poor, benighted Spaniards at Gibraltar; as well as that, which contains such painful descriptions of the moral and civil destitution of the Parent Country; will, probably, be read with unusual interest by those, who are labouring and praying for the prosperity of the kingdom of Christ. But that interest must be sharpened into agony, when it is remembered, that Spain, in the midst of her degradation, is denominated a Christian Country, and that, too, in the nineteenth century; as well as that, notwithstanding the miseries, both temporal and spiritual, under which she is labouring, the Bible and its genuine Religion, which are the only means of her emancipation, are pertinaciously withheld from her millions of deathless, yet perishing, inhabitants. Oh! how important, therefore, does it appear for every Christian believer most ardently to implore the hastening of the period, when even that dark place of the earth, which is so full of the habitations of cruelty,' shall behold the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ!' By some persons it may be thought necessary to state the reasons, why, in the Memoirs of a professed Missionary, the Reader should be so long detained from that peculiar view of the character of the deceased. Those reasons, however, will immediately suggest themselves, after a patient perusal of the account. There will be 6 seen one of those wonderful and excellent workings in the counsel of God,' by which his servants are sometimes impelled to the fulfilment of vows, which, in their execution, have appeared so long, and so powerfully, crossed by opposing circumstances there also will be presented a practical illustration of the extreme danger of allowing the creature, in any degree, to usurp the place of God in the heart and there, too, will be learnt a lesson,. which, in order to render influential on the soul of the believer, often entails upon him such a multitude of sufferings in mind, and body, and estate, the necessity of entire conformity to the image of Christ. After all, however, it will be impossible to rise from the perusal of the Narrative, without a powerful conviction of the present mystery of the Divine proceedings. After such a series of disciplinary circumstances, which, while they qualified the sufferer for the post of duty, rendered the fulfilment of his early vows neces sary to the preservation of life itself; that he should be taken away through the instrumentality of the exposures involved, and that almost at the very commencement of his career of Missionary usefulness, is one of those deep and perplexing movements in the Providence of God, which, the more they are contemplated, the less they are comprehended by the feeble mind of man. 'Canst thou, by searching, find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than hell, what canst thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth, and broader than the sea. If He cut off, and shut up, or gather together, then who can hinder Him?' It may now be necessary to make one observation, in reference to the Appendix. It will be seen, in the course of the Narrative, by what reasons the deceased was actuated in withholding, from general publicity, so important a document. And when those reasons are weighed against the urgent solicitations of a very large majority of his Christian friends, who, from the purest motives, were, and still are, desirous of its publication; the Compiler thinks, that he may leave it with the Public to decide, whether he has done right or wrong, in deviating from the wishes of an affectionate and beloved Brother, now that he is incapable of being pained at such a procedure: In conclusion: it is felt, not less as a pleasing, than an imperative, duty, to acknowledge the kindness of those numerous relatives and friends, who have contributed their assistance, so readily, and so largely, in the prosecution of this Work. The most cordial thanks are also presented to the Subscribers, who have so generously encouraged the Compiler with their countenance and support, names having been given for about 500 copies of the Work; those names would have been published in the usual way, but for the many prohibitions, which have been received upon the subject. It has, doubtless, been a matter of some regret, that the appearance of the Volume, should have been so long delayed: the fact, however, has been, that, from some unknown circumstances, the principal documents, from which the Work has been compiled, were many months before they came to hand. May that Great Being, who searcheth the hearts, and trieth the reins' of the children of men, and who alone, therefore, can appreciate |