the earthly one was but an imperfect type. It is this example of devotedness to the cause of God, of deadness to mere worldly possessions and enjoyments, which the apostle exhibits for the imitation of Christian believers in every age of the world. Abraham especially, firmly fixing the eye of his faith upon the promise of God respecting the coming Messiah, and the innumerable blessings which should accompany the establishment of His kingdom, borne up by that inward testimony of the Divine Spirit connected with the faith which was imputed to him for righteousness, looked down through the vista of generations yet unborn, and joyfully anticipated the day when a numerous progeny of spiritual children should be raised up to call him blessed.

4. Isaac and Jacob inherited the same promise, and, in the exercise of a similar faith, looked forward to the happy era when the fulness of time should arrive for the accomplishment of the promised blessing. In this faith these all died without receiving the promise. And by this and the other illustrious examples of obedient faith recited in this chapter, we are stimulated to the exercise of a firm confidence in the promises of God under similar circumstances of trial and afflictions, of crosses and privations in the discharge of duty, though we may die without receiving the reward of our labor in this world, or of realizing those expectations we had formed respecting the extension of the Redeemer's kingdom among men.

Having thus attempted to ascertain the original meaning and design of the text, we will endeavor,

III. To apply the doctrine to the case and circumstances before us. In respect to the Liberia mission, it had been in contemplation by the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church from the time of its organization. So early as the year 1820 the subject was brought before the General Conference, and the committee to whom it was referred reported favourably to its being undertaken; and at every subsequent session of the General Conference the necessity and importance of commencing a mission in Africa was admitted by the Conference, and urged upon the attention of the bishops; and that nothing might be wanting on the part of the Missionary Society, the managers gave assurances that the funds requisite for the support of the mission should be furnished. Why then, it may be asked, was it not sooner undertaken? The answer is, that no suitable persons could be found who were willing to embark in the hazardous enterprise. And although it was fully believed by those who were solicitous to establish a mission on the coast of Africa that God had promised to give those heathen to His Son for an inheritance, yet many of them died without having witnessed the fulfilment of this promise.

The obstacles, however, were at length overcome, and the day star from on high seemed to be dawning upon benighted Africa. At the

General Conference in 1833, our beloved brother, whose death we are now called upon to deplore, the Rev. Melville B. Cox, voluntered his services, and was appointed by the proper authorities of the Church for this important mission. His whole soul seemed to be absorbed in the work of evangelizing Africa. He fully believed that the set time was come to favor this part of the world with the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and he looked forward by an eye of faith to the time when those sons of Ethiopia who were stretching out their hands unto God should receive His salvation; but he died without 'receiving the promise,' though he saw it afar off, embraced it, and under the influence of this faith became a sojourner in that strange land. He was, indeed, permitted not only to see, but to set his foot on that land of promise, and even to sow some of the good seed of the kingdom. Before, however, he was allowed to witness the growth of that seed, he was called to be an inhabitant of that heavenly city' whose builder and maker is God.' But though he died in the faith, not having received the promises,' his soul exulted in the prospect of the future emancipation of those sons of Ham from the thraldom of idolatry and sin. And we humbly trust that his ardent anticipations will yet be realized in the entire renovation of that vast continent by the power of Divine grace, and of its complete subjugation to the empire of Jesus Christ.

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But as this was designed as a funeral discourse for our departed brother Cox, it will naturally be expected that I should give some account of his life and death. This must necessarily be brief, not only because time will not permit a minute detail of facts, but also because the materials with which I have been furnished are somewhat scanty. The following facts respecting his early life, his conversion and call to the Gospel ministry, and some of his labors in that work, have been furnished by his twin brother, the Rev. Gershom Cox.

Melville B. Cox was born in Hallowell, Maine, November 9, 1799. Favoured by the example of his pious widowed mother, he had the benefit of an early religious education. It may indeed be said, in some sense, that he feared God from his youth. At the age of seventeen he obtained peace with God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and made an open profession of religion by joining the Methodist Episcopal Church.

It was soon after this that his mind became impressed that it was his duty to call sinners to repentance. With a view to fit himself more perfectly for this holy work, he applied himself diligently to such studies as might enable him to understand and explain the Holy Scriptures; and by his assiduity, though employed in secular concerns, in reading and attending lectures, he acquired a considerable share of education, and subsequently obtained a partial knowledge of the Latin

and Greek languages. At the age of twenty he entered the travelling ministry, in which he remained preaching with acceptance and usefulness for four years. His health now failing him, he located and entered into business. But finding this business uncongenial to his mind, and his health being in some measure restored, he removed to the city of Baltimore, where he remained four years, during which time he married and buried a wife and child. During his residence there he edited, with great acceptance, the weekly paper called 'The Itinerant.'

After much deep exercise of mind and prayer, he now resolved to devote his remaining strength and days to the work of the ministry. He was accordingly received as a travelling preacher in the Virginia Conference, and in 1831 received an appointment in Raleigh, N. C. After preaching here and discharging the other duties of a minister for three months, his health again failed, and he was confined with a painful sickness for several months. He, however, gradually regained his health, and was able to attend the General Conference, which was held in Philadelphia in 1832. It was while here that he volunteered his services, at the suggestion of the bishops, as a missionary to Africa, under the auspices of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church. After visiting his friends in the east, and making suitable preparations for his voyage, he set sail from Norfolk, November 6, 1832.

In this mission his heart was deeply engaged. I recollect well his speech at the anniversary of this society, previously to his departure, at which he expatiated largely and eloquently upon the high importance of the enterprise in which he was engaged, the probability of its terminating fatally to his own life, and the sweet anticipations he entertained of laying his bones upon the shores of Africa. The audience could not be otherwise than affected with these remarks. But his feelings and views are more fully expressed in the following letter addressed to his brother:

New-York, June 13, 1832.

MY DEAR BROTHER,-So far as an appointment from others, and the fixed intention of myself can make it so, there is now no longer any uncertainty about my mission to Liberia. If God will, I shall go to Africa; and I assure you, my dear brother, if I can estimate my own feelings upon this subject, that I had rather be an humble missionary of the cross there, begging my bread from kraal to kraal, traversing its interminable deserts on a camel, or sleeping in the tent of an Arab, than to be the emperor of its millions. I, perhaps, even glory in the honor of such an enterprise. I love its name. Paris and London have not half its charms. Palaces sink into insignificance before it, and the gay and giddy court which throngs them, has now far less interest to me than the aproned Bassas. Indeed it has something too sacred in its designs and too lofty in its promise, to be compared with

the conquests of kingdoms, the pageantry of show, or glitter of wealth. It has for its object the salvation of spirit-of souls, undying and immortal as our own, and heaven for its eternal reward.

Liberia, I do truly believe, is to be the "land of promise," as well as that of the "liberated;" not indeed to myself, but to thousands of my fellow beings, now groaning under the cursed bonds of slavery; and to thousands more, now sitting in heathenish darkness, it must be as the rising sun of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I see, or think I see, shed upon its burning sods, the dew of heaven, and the light of God. Clouds from Europe and America, fraught with the benevolence of thousands, are gathering over it, and heaven itself, with the mercy of a God, is bending to do it good. This, brother, is not ideal; it is not ardor's feverish view; it is literal and plain truth. In my coolest moments upon this subject, I believe all that is bright, or beautiful, or cheering in hope, rational in reason, or sustaining in faith, is blended in the Godlike enterprise of evangelizing Africa to God. Africa must be redeemed, or the word of God must fail. It must be redeemed soon, too, or the Christian world is greatly mistaken in the “ signs of the times." I know it hath its darker side, that there are obstacles to be overcome, difficulties of an appalling kind to be encountered, and even mountains to be moved. But what are these? If He who said to uncreated night, "Let light be," but speak, light shall cover all Africa, and its dead shall live.

I know too that he who engages in this great work must not expect beds of down, sofas of ease, or tables of luxury. He must be content to bear the scalding rays of a vertical sun, to feed on an African potatoe, if need be, to breathe the miasmata of its low lands, to meet a Nubian blast, and, perhaps, to lay him down and die. But God's word hath taught me that all of these can be made the ministers of mercy, and even of joy. If God be in the mission, a den of lions shall be a quiet home, or a burning furnace a paradise. In his hand pain is pleasure, privation plenty, and Africa as America. And if I be the humble individual designated in the providence of God as a missionary to this land of darkness, my soul says, whether it be the path of suffering or enjoyment, of life or death, it shall be the joy of my heart to go. Yes, I'll go-go to its burning sands, its luxuriant vales, its moon mountains, its cloggy cottages and palaces, if such they may be called, and I'll tell them the story of the cross. I will tell them how God hath loved them; that even they were not forgotten in the history of redemption; that Christ has died for them, that he has risen, and that for them he now intercedes.

And shall I fear, my dear brother, to do this? Shall I hesitate, or go with a reluctant step? God forbid. And, dear as we are to each other, will you not say, God forbid it, too? I think I love you-love her who gave us birth, and her who has so often cheered our path through life; but, tender as are these associations, I thirst to feel that the winds of heaven are wafting me to its shores. I long to breathe air never inhaled by the Christian-to be within some of those little mud walls, telling for once to heathens, properly such, the tragedy of Calvary. The thought, brother, seems sweet to my soul. I think God will be with me. I think Christ will give a power to His own name and truth there, that I have never before witnessed-a power that

devils cannot resist. And should I be the instrument of the conversion of one, and should that one become a herald of the cross to gather in his thousands, it will be enough. I can then lay me down and die, with feelings sweeter far than on "softer bed," or in healthier clime.

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Please to commend the interests of the mission to the people of your charge. Enlist for it all the prayers you can, especially the prayers of the poor." Prayers are better for the missionary than gold, though both are necessary; but if the one be secured, the other will follow as necessarily as the effect follows its cause.'

At this time his health was feeble, and it was generally feared by his friends that his constitution would not bear up under the weakening influence of an African climate. Such, however, was the ardor of his soul, and his zeal in the cause, that he surmounted every obstacle, determined to brave the dangers of the ocean, and the unhealthiness of an African climate, for the purpose of extending the Redeemer's kingdom on that vast continent.

Contrary to his expectations, the ship had a long and tedious voyage, touching at Sierra Leone, and other places on the southern coast of Africa. This, however, gave him an opportunity of visiting the settlement at Sierra Leone, and some other places. These visits were faithfully improved in making observations on the manners and habits of the people, and of obtaining that sort of knowledge which should enable him to prosecute his mission with the greater success. The result of these observations he afterward communicated to the managers of our missionary society, under the title of Sketches of Africa,' in a style and manner which evinces that he held the 'pen of a ready writer.'

His feelings and views on his arrival at Monrovia, may be seen in the following extracts of a letter directed to the board :—

DEAR BRETHREN,-I am sure you will join me in grateful acknowledgments to a gracious God for my safe arrival at Liberia. It is of his mercy I am here. To him be all the praise.

Of my voyage I will here only say it was a stormy and a long one. We were more than two months from coast to coast, and more than four to Cape Montserado. But, thank God, we are here—here safely. Though more than two months on the coast before our arrival, not one of our number was lost until we were safely set on shore at Monrovia. Since then death has taken one from our company; one that was too far gone, however, with the pulmonary consumption, long to have survived in any climate. With this exception, we are all as well as comers" in general. Some have had slight attacks of the fever, which, it is said, all must have; the remainder are waiting, some patiently, others anxiously, their seasoning. For my own part, I have no painful fears on the subject. God, I know, has both life and health in His keeping-what is good, that will He do. I have had too many instances of His goodness in my rather lonely enterprise, to be at all afraid to trust in Him now.

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