gospel were so amazing, that it seemed as if a general awakening of the Greenlanders was about to take place in that part of the country. It is true, only between forty and fifty were baptized within that period, most of the others not having resolution enough to forsake their usual places of hunting and fishing, and to fix their residence with the Brethren for the purpose of enjoying regular instruction. But though, in consequence of this, many of them for a season, lost their first serious impressions, and some even wandered to the southern or the northern parts of the country, yet most of them afterwards returned, beeame concerned about their souls, and were admitted as members of the congregation; while others prosecuted their inquiries after divine truth at the Danish colonies, and were there received into the bosom of the Christian church. From this period, indeed, the whole Greenland nation displayed a new and improved temper towards foreigners, whom at first they had so hated, dreaded or despised. Many who formerly derided and mal-treated the Brethren, now came and begged their pardon; and even those who once were the most intractable, stood along the shores as the missionaries sailed by, entreated them to land, and tell them the words of God.*

As it was impossible for the Brethren to make so frequent or so extensive visits among the Heathen as the loud. ness of the call demanded, they were obliged, in many cases, to rest satisfied with the simple testimony of the young converts, when they went abroad in search of provisions. But though the scattering of their little flock in summer ultimately promoted the extension of the gospel, the missionaries often felt the most painful emotions, and the most anxious solicitude, at the prospect of their departure, lest any evil should befal them, from the numerous snares and temptations to which they would be exposed. On one of these occasions, they sent for all the baptised,

• Crantz's Hist. Green. vol. ii. p. 34, 38.

both men and women, and spoke with them separately, before parting with them. They were like Jacob when he dismissed Benjamin, his beloved son. They entreated them with tears in their eyes, not to forget the Lord Jesus, who was crucified for them, and to watch over their own hearts, while surrounded with temptations from the Heathen. This the young converts promised to do, and praised the Lord for the grace he had manifested to them during the winter. The Brethren then blessed them and kissed them, and went down with them to the strand. There they once more addressed them, from these words of the apostle: “ And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up, and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified." The Greenlanders then set off in their boats, and the missionaries, in the meanwhile, sung a hymn on the shore. In the course of the summer, some of the converts frequently came to see them, and informed them of whatever circumstance occurred among them. In these cases, where several of them met together in the same place, nothing could be more conspicuous than the brotherly love they manifested toward each other; even the Heathen bore testimony to their exemplary behaviour. There were, however, some instances of misconduct among them; and therefore, on their return, the Brethren spoke with them, one by one, in order to remove every kind of misunderstanding between them, before restoring them to their separate meetings, and the kiss of charity as a token of their closer fellowship. On this occasion, most of them displayed remarkable ingenuousness, acknowledging their faults with readiness, and begging each other's pardon with tears.*

With regard to the Heathen, the accounts which the Christian Greenlanders gave of them on their return, was, One of the baptised

on the whole, of a favourable nature.

found several of the men sitting together, talking with con

• Crantz's Hist. Green. vol. ii. p. 38, 39, 45.

cern about their souls; and they even constrained him to sit down, and converse with them. A man who had never been baptised, and who had even manifested an enmity to the gospel, but yet could not leave his brother who had embraced it, was one day called upon by some of the Heathen to tell them of the good news of salvation. His heart immediately smote him; he burst into tears, and began to pray, acknowledging his own sinful miserable condition. At a place further north than the missionaries usually went, one of the baptized found some Heathens, who were extremely desirous to hear the gospel. They urged him to sit and talk with them the whole night. The second night he stole away into a little hut to get some rest; but they, discovering his retreat, obliged him to rise, and gratify their desire of further conversation. A celebrated Angekok, at this place, dreamed that he was in hell, and that he heard and saw things which it was not possible to utter. He wept two whole days together, and then told the people he would no longer deceive them with his sorceries.*

After this general awakening had lasted about three years it began in 1746 to subside among the Greenlanders.Many of those who had heard the gospel and been impressed by it, were still undetermined, and endeavoured to get rid of their convictions, and even to deter others by force or fraud from joining the congregation. The Angekoks, in particu. lar, afraid of losing their reputation, and the profits of their impostures, laboured to terrify the poor people by the strangest inventions, and the most ridiculous tales. One of these deceivers, in order to show that the gospel was a mere fiction invented by the foreigners, remarked that some of the believers had died, though their teachers had promised that such as believed in the Son of God should never die. This, however, he was afterwards so ingenuous as to acknowledge was designedly a false interpretation of their words, with a view of misleading his countrymen. There was also

• Crantz's History of Greenland, vol. ii. p. 49.

a conjuror who brought heavy charges against the Christians, maintaining, that their new doctrine and way of life, frightened away the sea-fowl, after he, by his art, had released them from the subterranean regions. A strange Angekok came and warned the people not to listen to the believers, for that he had performed a journey to heaven with the view of ascertaining how it went with the souls of the deceased Greenlanders, and that he there found all the baptized in a most deplorable condition, without food and raiment; while those who had not received the gospel were blessed with affluence and plenty. A frightful report was also brought of a Christian Greenlander, who had died at the northern colony and appeared again, perfectly naked, saying, that he had been thrust into a dark dismal hole, where he endured the most exquisite misery. Such of the savages as sought an apology for neglecting the gospel, readily credited these foolish stories, and added, that the Europeans inflicted these punishments upon them, because the Greenlanders had murdered their ancestors; and though such as were now in the country did no harm to their bodies, yet they endeavoured to render their souls miserable hereafter. Most of them, however, paid little regard to these idle fictions, and as soon as the first impressions of them were effaced, they came in great numbers to visit the Brethren, and to hear the word, especially if they understood that any of the converts were to be baptized.*

Meanwhile the little flock of Christian Greenlanders increased both in numbers and in grace. Many painful circumstances, indeed, occasionally occurred among them; but nothing else could be expected in a congregation collected from among savage Heathens, since the church of Christ on earth, even in its best estate, is only a hospital of sick people, who have begun to recover, but have yet the seeds of disease in their constitution, and are still liable to partial relapses. Their intercourse with their Heathen countrymen was attend

• Crantz's Hist. Green. vol. ii. p. 54, 70, 78.

ed with no small danger to their spiritual interests, yet it could not be altogether avoided, as they were obliged to be often and long abroad in search of food. On these occasions, the savages, as they were no longer able to withstand the force of the truth, had recourse to every species of allurement to seduce the converts to join in their revellings, that so they themselves might have an excuse for resisting and stifling the convictions of their own minds. The more, indeed, that the baptized and the catechumens experienced the advantages of daily instruction, and the many inconveniences attending their being scattered abroad, the more they endeavoured to live together under the inspection of their teachers, and the more cordially did they submit to the external rules of the congregation, which they saw aimed at their spiritual prosperity, not at their temporal subjection. When, therefore, they were under the necessity of going to the fishing among the islands, they went almost all to one place, that they might hold their meetings together; and as soon as they procured what was sufficient, they hastened back to their teachers. They were, indeed, more and more sensible of the love of the missionaries towards them, since notwithstanding their own accumulated outward labour, one or other of them always devoted his time to their service, either going to sea with them, or visiting them frequently; and when none of them could be with them, the converts followed the advice of the helpers and band-keepers, who informed the Brethren from time to time of whatever occurred among them. On the whole, indeed, the missionaries had abundant cause to rejoice over them as their spiritual children whom they had begotten in Christ Jesus, and to stand amazed at their growth in knowledge and in grace, especially considering that they were so lately not only Pagans, but the most brutish and degraded of the human

race.

Crantz's Hist. Green. vol. R. p. 69, 78, 80, 93, 95.