first symbol given of the missionary preacher thereafter, is that of an angel standing with the right foot on the sea, and the left on the land, holding an open book in one hand, and lifting the other up to heaven, and swearing by Him who lives forever, that from that date the mystery of God shall be finished in less than one more prophetic time; (verse 6.) [A period of three hundred and sixty solar years,] during the sounding of the seventh trumpet, as the same had been declared to His servants the prophets. (7.) This symbol is an eminent figure of the true missionary of the Gospel in these latter times, acting under the consciousness of the near approach of the end of our dispensation. More particularly is this angel a striking symbol of the deceased Bishop, whose memory we revere. His ministerial career was distinguished by the fact that his feet being shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace, passed over both sea and land, grasping in one hand the precious Bible-the written word of God -while with the other uplifted he pointed perishing sinners to heaven -to Jesus, the High Priest of our salvation, seated at the right hand of God the Father everlasting, to make intercession for us. Like this symbolic angel of the apocalypse, whose right foot is represented as resting on the sea, so it was the principal aim of this sainted Bishop to preach the Gospel to the perishing heathen beyond seas. Like that other angel of the apocalypse (xiv. 6,) flying in midheaven, having the everlasting Gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, the missionary career of this illustrious servant of God was distinguished by his voyages hither and thither across the Atlantic, borne on the wings of the wind, backward and forward from Africa to America, whenever the great interests of his missionary work were to be promoted thereby.

II. I add, in the second place, that the deceased BISHOP was self-sacrificing in the discharge of his missionary duty. This fact has already become apparent in what I have just said. To choose the dark, benighted land of Africa, destitute as it has been both of civilization and Christianity, as his special field of labors, is evidence at once to the self-sacrificing spirit that animated him. And this humble choice appears in a still more self-sacrificing light when we consider that the West Coast of Africa, where he labored, has been for centuries the by-word, the jeer, the hissing, and the scorn of the rest of the nations of the earth. Africa, since her ancient glory has passed away, has been associated with every thing that is low, vile, mean, and contemptible by the proud, haughty, avaricious, and uncharitable nations. But despite this mean estimate of his fatherland by a supercilious civilization, this great missionary of the Cross, like another Moses, chose rather to suffer affliction with his ancestral race in Africa, than to enjoy the riches and treasures of Anglo-American civilization. (Heb. xi., 24, 25.) Like St. John in his vision, having tasted that the word of God was sweet to his own mouth, he must speak thereof before peoples, nations, tongues, and kings, however bitter the experience

in the blessed company of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the holy patriarchs and prophets! Let thy great soul depart in peace from this world of misery and sin, for thy labors here have been well done, truly and faithfully finished! Depart therefore beyond the reach of temptation, beyond the power of Satan and sin; in the name of the Father who created thee; in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who died for thee; in the name of the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, who sanctifieth and preserveth thee. May the angels, which minister to the heirs of salvation, attend around thee; the glorious company of apostles and the goodly fellowship of prophets receive thee; may the noble army of martyrs, the triumphant band of confessors, the multitude of saints who have gone before, welcome thee to thy rest, wherein thou shalt rejoice in hope of that blessed resurrection, in the which, with all the blest ot God, thou shalt receive again thy body made like unto Christ's glorious body; and shalt have thy perfect consummation and bliss in the kingdom of eternal joy. And grant, O most merciful Father, that we, who remain behind, may finally have our part with him and them, abiding in Thy fear and love, and patiently abounding in our work, until our change shall also come through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Yes, my dear brethren, we are only justified in referring to these sainted examples in order to stimulate us onward in the pathway to glory, by making our calling and election sure. And in order that

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this glorious end may be attained, it is necessary that we, like that Christian Bishop, just passed on from grace to glory, should, in our day and generation "patiently abound in our work until our change shall also come, as we are taught in an ancient liturgical office of the church. Like him we have a work to do for our blessed Saviour in this island of the sea, where we have chosen to cast our lot. him we have raised in this spiritually dark land, the glorious standard of the cross. Like him we have commenced in obscurity to build a church here upon the ancient foundation which Jesus Christ himself has laid. Let us therefore patiently endeavor to emulate the sacred pentalpha of virtues which shone so couspicuously in the life and character of the deceased Bishop, and which we have just been contemplating with so much admiration. May each one of us, like him, feel that we are called to be messengers, both in word and action, of the everlasting Gospel of Christ. May each one of us, like him, make the same self-sacrificing efforts for the enlightenment of those who sit in darkness. May each one of us, like him, exhibit the same unyielding perseverence in pursuing the good work that we have taken in hand. May each one of us see our several labors, according to our respective spheres, crowned with an abundant and honorable success. May each one of us, in fine, like the good Christian Bishop whose virtues we now commemorate, finish our course with joy, by going to our final rest in that sublime peace of God which surpasses all human understanding.

wreaths of the victor's laurels shall be set as a crowned circle around his brow. Generally, the primitive founders of such great enterprises, after effecting the most difficult and unthankful part of this mighty work, die unrecognized, unwept, unhonored, and unsung. Others, who come after them, enter into their labors and receive the honors of success by reaping what their predecessors had sown, long after the hand which sowed has been forgotten. But our illustrious missionary, whose virtues we commemorate, was an exception to this general rule. Though he commenced in obscurity, he lived to bring that work forth from its primitive oblivion. He lived to see the work which had an humble beginning increase and grow upon his hands. The handful of corn sown upon the mountains became a promising harvest. And he reaped the fruits of his own planting and watering, when God gave the increase, by being raised to the honorable dignity of an overseer— a superintendent or Bishop, in his own ecclesiastical connection, over that whole field of God's moral vineyard, which had been the scene of his missionary labors. Hence he was successful in a manner that very few men ever attain to in this life, however much they may deserve it. The tardy development of centuries, in their slow progress, can only show here and there a character who has made such a successful consummation to his labors as this deceased Bishop accomplished. It is rare to behold a mere twinkling scintillation in the distant heavens thus increase in brilliancy and proportion, until it shines as a star of the first magnitude in the moral universe of God!

V. I pass now to add in the fifth and last place, that he finished his course with joy. This fact every one must have anticipated, as the natural sequence of what I have already had occasion to say. How could it be otherwise with a man conscious of such a mighty mission as he had given to him! What else could we expect from one who had been so self-sacrificing in fulfilling that mission! What other result could such long persevering and devoted labors have! Why should not a man, in fine, whose labors had been crowned with so much honor and success, finish his course with joy! It is not surprising, therefore, to us to hear his last dying testimony, when he was told by his attending friends who stood by his bedside, that the moment of his departure was near. It was perfectly in keeping with his glorious career for him to say: "For this end I have lived, and therefore I am not afraid to die." Like another Paul, he could truly say: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." (2 Tim., iv., 6, 7, 8.)

Go, therefore, Christian Bishop, to rest from thy earthly labors,

if

good of the Negro race; that it is the most comprehensive in its aims, the most practical in its operations, and the most beneficial in its results. And therefore, as a son of Africa deeply interested in the welfare of a race which of all others may be called the suffering race, I venture to ask your hearty co-operation with this Society and a zealous, affectionate interest in Africa and the Negro race. If as philanthropists you grieve over the wrongs inflicted on Africa and her children, if, as christians your spiritual sensibilities are affected at the darkness and the sin which still prevails within her borders; you anxionsly desire the spread of the gospel through all her quarters; if you wish to provide a city of refuge whither the oppressed and suffering Negro may flee from the thraldom of the nations and where he may stand up erect, blessed with the liberty wherewith the Gospel makes men free; then I say that by participating in the labors and sharing the burdens of this Society, you are privileged, in the Divine Providence, to realize to a measurable degree all your desires, and be a co-worker with God in hastening the day when Ethiopia shall stretch out her hands to God."

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(Colonization Herald, of October.]

A late Tribute to Bishop Burns, of Liberia.

The following brief discourse is from the pen of a colored Epis-. copal minister, who is dedicating his endeavors to the cause of the Gospel in Hayti. He justly appreciates the devoted labors of his brother in the Methodist Church in Liberia, and their signal success. It is gratifying to observe the ties of affection which invite kindred hearts, widely separated in the kingdom of our common Lord, and which must ultimately create a union in the church universal, and among all nations.

A sermon by the Rev. James Theodore Holly, Missionary of the Episcopal Church to Hayti, preached before Trinity Congregation, Port au Prince, July 26, 1863.

"Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his."-Numbers xxxiii. 10.

Behold in this exclamation, my Christian hearers, the enraptured wish, nay, I may say the envy that even a wicked man expressed, in beholding afar off in prophetic vision, the peaceful end of a truly good man! Balaam, that wicked-hearted prophet-the Simon Magus of the Hebrew dispensation, who, like this latter personage in the apostolic age, was willing to buy and sell spiritual gifts for the sake of gain-was led to make this exclamation, after he had tried in vain to curse Israel from the high places of Baal, but found that there was no divination against him whom God keeps as the apple of His eye, and holds in the hollow of His Almighty hand. The false prophet was made to see that all such live in security amidst every

adversity, and finally pass from this life in the peace of God and the hope of a blissful immortality to the bosom of Jesus. Thank God, that not only is virtue its own reward, and vice its own punishment, but that vice is always compelled to render tribute to virtue,by confessing out of its own guilty lips the praise of real goodness, which it hath not itself, whenever this virtue is manifested in others. Thank God, that however truth may be crushed to earth in any given age or place in the world, and falsehood rampant over its prostrate form; yet the eternal decrees of God, foreordained before the "morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy," have left us in no doubt in reference to the final and complete triumph of righteousness; for

"Truth crushed to earth shall arise again—

The eternal years of God are hers;

But error, wounded, writhes in pain,

And dies amid her worshipers."

And even during the long ages of seeming triumph, in which error has held its midnight debauch over our globe, it has been forced, nevertheless, to say, with a guilty prophet, of him whom it would curse because of his envied purity: "Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his!" and at other times to cry out in consternation and alarm, by the voice of devils: "Saying, let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth! Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art: the Holy One of God." (Mark i. 24.) Thank God, I say again, this is the tribute that vice must ever pay to virtue!

If, then, it is a fixed decree of God, that even the wicked shall have the just in everlasting remembrance, as the continual terror of their own unhappy fate, by the contrast thus vividly brought before and kept in their minds, how much more in consonance with God's eternal purposes of righteousness must it be, that the good should remember the holy deeds of the sainted dead, in order to console them under every adversity in this life; and to stimulate them to run ever onward and upward in the pathway to glory in that life which is to come!

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Hence we are taught by the Church each time that we come to the commemoration of Christ's sacrificial oblation of himself, once offered, around the table of the Lord's Supper, to Bless His holy name for all his servants departed this life in His faith and fear; beseeching Him to give us grace so to follow their good examples, that with them we may be partakers of His heavenly kingdom.'

In the spirit of this prayer I come to speak to you to-day of the virtues of the Rev. Francis Burns, a missionary of the Cross of Christ in Africa, who fulfilled the vocation of a Methodist Bishop or Superintendent of the missions of that religious denomination in the Republic of Liberia; and who departed this life in the city of Baltimore. State of Maryland, and United States of America, in April last, soon after his arrival in that city, in ill-health, for a temporary