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promise that I would never go by Parkgate. I was exceedingly impatient to be in Dublin, in order to prepare for my examination. When I reached Chester, the captain of the Parkgate vessel came to me, and invited me to go with him. The wind was fair, the vessel was to sail in a few hours; he was sure I should be in Dublin early the next morning, whereas a place in the Holyhead mail was doubtful, and at best I must lose the next day by travelling through Wales. My promise was a bitter mortification to me, but I could not dispense with it. I drank tea with a very large party. About eight or nine o'clock, they all went away on board the vessel; and of the 119 persons who embarked as passengers, 118 were drowned before midnight!"

Buxton had already begun to feel the importance of religion. This extraordinary escape seems to have deepened the impressions previously produced, and to have rendered them permanent. A very dangerous illness, in which his life was almost despaired of, led him, in the words of his biographer, to yield "to that ascendency of religion over his mind, which gave shape and colouring to the whole of his after life."

He who watched over and preserved the life of the youth, whose subsequent career was destined to confer such unspeakable blessings on the African race, does not, however, disdain to embrace in his tender care the most ignorant and barbarous savages of that vast continent. "The Lord knoweth them that are his," and guards them from all evil with the same watchful love, whether "barbarian, Scythian, bond or free." Moffat, in his narrative of "Missionary Labours and Scenes in South Africa," thus describes an incident in the lives of Berend and Africaner, who, though at the time heathens, and violently opposed to the gospel, afterwards became devout and earnest Christians. "Among the remarkable interpositions of Providence in saving his life from destruction," says Mr. Moffat, "Berend, more than once, repeated the following with much emphasis. It happened when he was engaged in desperate conflict with Africaner, from whose lips I likewise heard it. They had been engaged for hours in mutual strife, taking and retaking a large herd of cattle. By means of the drove and bushes, each had managed to screen himself from his opponent. Suddenly a passage opened in the troop, which exposed the combatants to each other.

Their

rifles were instantly levelled; but, at the moment they touched the triggers, a cow darted in between them, and the two balls lodged in the animal, which fell dead on the spot. But for this interposition, they would probably both have fallen, for they were most expert marksmen. Titus, a man who could take his gun in the dead of night, enter an immense pool in the Orange River, swim to the centre, take his seat on a rock just above the surface of the water, and wait the approach of a hippopotamus, which he would shoot just as it opened its monstrous jaws to seize him; a man who would deliberately smile the moment he laid the lion dead at his feet-this man, who appeared incapable of fear, reckless of danger, would say to me, when I spoke of this fact, 'Mynheer,' alluding to the power of the gospel, 'knows how to use the only hammer which can make my heart feel.'"

In ascribing this escape to Divine intervention, many persons may be disposed to deride. the supposition as fanatical or superstitious. It will appear to them absurd to suppose that the King, eternal, immortal, invisible, the blessed and only Potentate, should stoop to guard the lives of these two miserable naked

savages, engaged in despicable and incessant brawls. But such persons surely forget, or disbelieve, that even these degraded barbarians were endowed with an immortal nature, and destined to an eternal existence; each the possessors of a soul to which there was not, in the perishable splendours of earth, anything comparable in value.

About thirty years ago, a deputation from the London Missionary Society, consisting of Mr. Bennett and the rev. Mr. Tyerman, was -appointed to visit the foreign stations of that body. These gentlemen went forth, like Paul and Barnabas, commended in faith and prayer to the providence of God, and for a period of nearly ten years were kept unharmed amidst innumerable perils. In another part of our work we propose to draw from the narrative of their voyages, compiled by the poet Montgomery, another remarkable instance of providential interposition. At present, however, we only extract from it the following incident in the early life of Mr. Tyerman, as detailed by him in public just before leaving England. The event, we may observe, is illustrative of the providence of God, unaffected by any theory we may form as to the nature of dreams.

Yesterday," said Mr. Tyerman, addressing his audience," was the anniversary of a great and very remarkable deliverance, which I experienced in the year 1793. At that time I was intimate with several young men, as gay and trifling as myself, and we frequently spent our sabbaths in pleasure on the Thames. Early in the week, on the occasion referred to, I and four others had planned a Sunday party down the river; to make the most of it, we agreed to embark on Saturday afternoon, and proceed to Gravesend. On Friday night, when 1 lay down to rest, a transient misgiving, whether it was right so to profane the sabbath of the Lord, gave me a little uneasiness; but I overcame the monitory feeling, and fell asleep. On Saturday morning, when I awoke, the thought came upon me, but again I resisted it, and resolved to meet my companions in the afternoon. I was about to rise, but while I mused I fell asleep again, and dreamed. I thought myself in a certain place, whither Divine Providence often led me at that season of my life. Here a gentleman called me to him, saying that he had a letter for me, which I went to receive from his hand. When I reached him, he had opened the enclosure and appeared to

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