rendered them very much the reverse. The lower rooms have no other floor than the earth, and those of the second story have little to keep out the storm, except rude batton shutters. The whole is surrendered to every kind of filth, to a most disgusting degree. But what is far worse than all the rest put together, is the multitudes on multitudes of fleas, with which the whole premises are infested. What I have suffered from these vermin, I apprehend will awaken a horror at the recollection, as long as I live. A small compensation to the soldiers, who had been stationed in the ship, and who had to go into quarantine with us, until purified from all pestilential taint derived from our contact; cleared our rooms of the other filth. But the fleas bid defiance to every measure, either of discharge or defence. It is literally true, that in the mornings, I have found the neck and wristbands of my shirt, thickly speckled with blood, from the depredations of these vermin during the night. You can easily judge from this, of the repose enjoyed by the victim of such assailants. But for this, our situation would not have been so uncomfortable. The very hospitable attentions of the American consul, have enabled us to furnish our rooms with all that is necessary for our accommodation, such as tables, chairs, beds, &c. Articles of provision, whatever we choose to order, are every day supplied at a cheap rate, by boats from the city. A high wooden pailing separates between the rooms, and the yard in the centre of the lazaretto. The prisoners of quarantine are all required to be in their rooms at sundown, when the gates, which allow a passage into the yard through this pailing, are locked, and not opened again until eight o'clock the next morning. Not fully aware of the strictness of their regulations, the first morning of my confinement, I had risen early. Finding the gate

locked, I waited an hour. Still no turnkey appearing, I became impatient, and with some effort, succeeded in surmounting the wooden pailing, and obtained the liberty of walking in the yard. In the course of the day, however, I was called before the officer who has the charge of the place, and threatened with an information to the governor for disorderly conduct. As it becomes every culprit to do, I made an apology and promised amendment, and so was dismissed.

The regulations of quarantine are extremely rigid. If a stranger visits his friend in quarantine, and shakes hands with him, or even touches him, he will have to go into quarantine with him. If two persons in quarantine for different periods-for instance, one for forty days, and the other only for a weektouch each other, either by accident or design, the person in for a week will be condemned to the forty days, with the person by whom he has been touched: and the same consequence will ensue, from only handling or touching the same article, if of woollen or linen, by two persons under quarantine for different periods. A few days ago, while passing near some sailors in the yard, who were amusing themselves by playing ball, their ball struck me, and you can hardly think what a perturbation it threw me into, lest the occurrence might subject me to other forty days, to be devoured by the fleas. It happened however, that the sailors belonged to a vessel, whose period of quarantine expires as soon as my own.

No evidence of health, will obtain any reduction of the period for which quarantine has been ordered. After we had been a few days in the lazaretto, we transmitted to our consul a petition, to be laid before the board of health, stating the perfect health in which the vessel had remained during her stay at Messina; our own entire health, since we had gone into the lazaretto;

the great inconvenience, to which we were subjected by so long detention, and not omitting the very unpleasant discomforts, to which we were compelied to submit, in our disagreeable abode. But the consul thought it too hopeless an undertaking to present it.

There are not many undergoing quarantine at this time, in the lazaretto. The seafaring community generally prefer passing their time on shipboard, to spending it in this dreary abode. The want of society is one ingredient, and not a small one, in the hardship of my situation. My companion, W. O., is a worthy man, without any thing unpleasant in his disposition or habits, and I account his company no small privilege. But the turn of his mind is altogether mercantile. On the subject of religion he wants interest; and there is, on the whole, too little similarity in our views and habits, to beget much kindred feeling between us; so that I feel very much alone. This has led me more to reflect on, and feel the value, of that item of Christian morality which we are assured at the great day of accounts will be rewarded with such special approba tion, "I was in prison and ye came unto me." I am persuaded words can hardly convey an adequate idea of the cordial, which the mind of a man who has been long the tenant of a prison, receives from a visit of kindness on the part of one of his fellow men. Oh! how much does the world need the spread of the gospel among its inhabitants, to produce in them, that disposition, to alleviate each other's hardships and soothe each other's sorrows, for which there is 30 much occasion, in this vale of tears; and which the gospel always will produce, in exact proportion to the degree in which it is received into the heart. If my little taste, (and it surely has been a very little taste,) of the privations of confinement, has the effect to awaken me to a more prac

tical regard to that duty which has given the name of Howard to "everlasting remembrance;" the duty of "remembering the forgotten; attending to the neglected, and visiting the forsaken"-then I shall not regret the few days of confinement I have suffered here.

The idleness in which much of my time has been necessarily passed, has constituted another heavy item, in the catalogue of my calamities. Employment, I have long thought, where there is a capacity for it, to be a blessing. Now I am sure of it: since I have tasted so sensibly the misery of idleness. He was a wise man who said, "the oil of gladness will glisten on the face of labour only." I am verily persuaded, that much of the pleasure, which the higher classes find in their dissipations, springs from the labour they are made to undergo, in the pursuit of them. I might indeed employ myself as much as I pleased, in reading and writing. And the kindness of the consul has furnished me with books, not indeed on religion, for I believe he has none, but of history and entertainment. The want of exercise, however, with confinement, by increasing the atony of my nervous system, has forbid such employments, except in small measure; and the consequence has been almost entire idleness. But what is there, from which the Christian may not derive profit? The misery of compelled idleness, may operate as a salutary correction for the neglect of duty, when the season of useful industry was enjoyed: and whatever produces repentance for sin, is to be ranked among the first of blessings. Sloth is one of the vices of our nature, and one of the very worst. I believe few Christians, have any adequate sense of the sin they commit, by the indulgence of this corruption.

Cut off from the privilege of ministering to the flock I have left far behind, and uneasy in mind, for the very little I have done in time

past for their profit, I have endeavoured to contribute a mite, towards supplying my former lack of service, by furnishing them with a token of my very affectionate remembrance, in the following pastoral letter; a copy of which I beg you to receive, in lieu of any thing further at this time from

Your very affectionate Friend, &c.

Messina in Sicily, March 6th, 1820.

Very dear Brethren of the Congregation of -Though far separated from you in body, I am often with you in spirit; feeling, I trust, something of that deep interest in your welfare, which twentyfour years' labour among you, must almost of necessity have produced. While wandering, a stranger in strange countries, and passing masilent sabbaths, excluded from the privilege of publishing or hearing the precious Gospel of our Lord and Saviour, I have been led to ruminate much on the days and years that are past, when I went up with you to the house of God and kept our solemn holy days.-The result upon my mind has been, an increased desire towards you; and I feel myself impelled to give you this proof of my affectionate remembrance. Fain would I once more offer you some advice and exhortation, which it is possible the Lord may bless to your profit. Of necessity, it must be some time yet before the earnest wish of my heart can be gratified, in my restoration to the beloved service of proclaiming to you the words of eternal life; and as all things future are covered with uncertainty, it may never be the case; but the present may prove a farewell address. The burden of all I have to say to you is this-Give all diligence to know the Lord Jesus Christ, in the power of his grace, receiving his gospel into your hearts, and cleaving to it as that, and that only, which gives substantial comfort under all the

labours and afflictions of this life; while it holds forth the joys of immortality in the life that is to come. I hope I can say and testify, that the result of all I have seen and felt, since I have been separated from you, is an increased conviction that this short life is redeemed from vanity and vexation of spirit, only by those present comforts and future hopes, which the gospel furnishes-But my testimony on this subject is not needed.-Revelation furnishes a cloud of witnesses. Men who were great men in their day; men of whom the world were not worthy; have sacrificed their all for the gospel; have sealed it with their blood: and to encourage us to tread in the footsteps of their attachment, have left us their testimony that they counted not their lives dear to them in so doing; and shall you not, my brethren, give diligence to know this Saviour, who was so precious to them; to feel his grace upon your hearts, and to know the consolations of his gospel in your souls.

That there are among you some, to whom the Lord Jesus is dear; who have at times tasted that he is gracious; I rejoice to think and one of the consolations I have enjoyed, amidst the discomforts I have experienced, while feeble in health, and far from the enjoyments of my family and my home, has been a hope that to such, my weak ministrations have not been without some use; and that we shall, if not in this life, yet in a short time, meet in a better; to rejoice in one another, as those who are made kindred by grace,-the trophies of the Redeemer's love. To such I would say, Gird up the loins of your minds, and grow in all that constitutes the reality of the divine life. Remember that religion cannot be cherished in the soul without vigorous effort, put forth in daily care and watchfulness. Hence it is called a fight, a warfare. Those who are not making progress

in it, are certainly going back; will assuredly grieve the Holy Spirit of God; and feel the consequences, in the withered comforts of their souls, and the blighted usefulness of their lives. Remember, I beseech you, how much is incumbent on you, to promote in the world, the honour of that Redeemer who has bought you with his blood, and who calls you to the important station of shining as lights in the world," and being "the salt of the earth."Whose hands should build the house of the Lord, but yours? Who should make sacrifice for the interests of Zion, but you?

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But it has been all along the distress of my soul, to fear that a number in the congregation, have never seen as they ought to see, nor felt as they ought to feel, on the all important subject of personal religion-contenting themselves with a name to live while they are dead." To such, my conscience bears me witness, I have often endeavoured to give warning; and would to God, this testimony I now send across the waves of the ocean, might be blessed to convince them that the real Christian is a very different character, from the mere formal professor; who is in truth, still a man of the world.-A very different character in the feelings of his heart, and in the regulation of his life-"If any man be in Christ he is a new creature; old things are passed away and all things are become new." And let me once more beseech you to reflect, that that gospel which you fail to accept, must hereafter heighten exceedingly the condemnation to which you expose yourselves. It is impossible but the Judge of all the earth, who does right, will visit the abuse of gospel ordinances, and the rejection of gospel grace, with a severity equal to the greatness of the crime-and, believe it, the crime is represented in the word of God, of no less magnitude than " treading under foot the Son of God, and counting the

blood of the covenant an unholy thing." Nay, my brethren, do not deceive yourselves. Eternity is fast hastening upon you; and it is no small enhancement of your present privileges, that they will soon cease to be yours.

Elders of the church, let me beseech you, to look well to yourselves, and to the flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers."-Realize the importance of your station. In the bonds of brotherly affection, counsel, advise, reprove, and admonish, as those who are accountable for all who are under their care. Provoke the zeal of others, by being yourselves zealous. In wisdom, sobriety, faith, charity, and universal godliness, be ensamples to all. And especially let your daily prayers be offered up for the interests of Zion. Neglect not to minister at the bed of sickness, and overlook not the fatherless and the widows within your charge.

Heads of families, once more be reminded by your absent pastor, who has often admonished you upon the subject, that the souls of your dear offspring are a trust committed to your hands, of more worth than worlds. Let not all your care terminate on their perishing bodies. Believe it, an earthly inheritance, without grace, will assuredly prove a curse, and not a blessing; and the greater the inheritance, the greater the curse. Teach them early and late, that system of gospel truth, without the knowledge of which they cannot be saved. By your wholesome discipline, and godly example, form them to habits of early piety, which may guide them to latest life. Let the truth be upon your minds, when you lie down, and when you rise up, that if they are saved, you are called to have a special instrumentality in their salvation; and if they perish, through negligence on your part, at your hands, the blood of their souls must be required.-And