for it is one of those mornings which seem to paralyse the energies of the dark-skinned Creoles, and render them almost incapable of any exertion. It is strange to see so many persons in the streets in such stormy weather; but they are hastening to the class-meeting, which is always held on Sunday morning at six o'clock. Some hundreds are thus accustomed to assemble with their leaders, that they may speak to one another concerning their experience in the things of God, and receive the counsel their various states demand to direct and cheer them in their pilgrimage to the skies.

There would not be so many, but that it is the last Sabbath morning on which they are to be privileged with the opportunity of meeting together in that old sanctuary towards which their footsteps are tending. This has been to not a few of them their birthplace for eternal life. Thither they have for years gone up in company to take sweet counsel; and there they have worshipped God and listened to the words of eternal life. The dense gloom of the morning is in sympathy with the feelings of hundreds in that city; for the thought to them in very mournful chat She vear old houiet y lacred to their thoughts, is soon to be taken down. To many it is the dearest spot on earth, around which cluster the most thrilling and cherished memories of their lives. After this day has passed they will worship within those hallowed walls no more. Tears glisten in the eyes of many who, through the chilling rain, are trudging to the much-loved spot.

Coke Chapel stands on the east side of a large square which forms the centre of the city of Kingston. The square is several hundred yards in extent either way, and is adorned with some of the finest buildings that enrich the city. Were it under better management, it might be made both pleasant and beneficial to the inhabitants. In a prominent position, at the corner of one of the principal streets, stands the building which bears the name of the venerated founder of the Wesleyan missions in the West Indies,-Dr. Coke. It is, however, more frequently designated by the

in glorious triumph over death, to find the loved ones that had gone before to the happy spirit-land. It was with solemn, chastened joy that he joined the multitude assembled to do honour to the memory of a mother in Israel in singing,—

Give glory to Jesus our Head,

With all that encompass His throne;

A widow, a widow indeed,

A mother in Israel is gone!

The winter of trouble is past;

The storms of affliction are o'er;

Her struggle is ended at last,

And sorrow and death are no more."

When she has taken her seat, other speakers follow; and the minister has always to select one from several who rise at the same time to tell what the Lord has done for their souls. A glorious testimony is borne by many happy witnesses to the riches of Divine grace, and the enlightening, saving power of the Gospel of Christ. That hallowed spot has been the spiritual birthplace of nearly all of them; for it is there they heard the truth that has made them wise unto salvation, "being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God which liveth and abideth for ever." And many more would bear the same testimony, if opportunity could be given. The time has long passed when the meeting should have been closed; but numbers rise up each time that a speaker sits down. When less than half an hour remains before the time for commencing the evening public service, the minister has to make the announcement, while a dozen, at least, are on their feet as candidates for the next opportunity to be heard, that the lovefeast must now be closed. The singing of a hymn and a brief prayer terminate one of the most interesting services, and certainly the most memorable lovefeast, he has ever witnessed.

He has only a few moments to spend in the privacy of his study, and to partake of a slight refreshment, before he again presents himself in the pulpit to conduct the last religious service that is to be held within those walls. On the morrow the premises are to be given up to the contractor

for the new building which is to occupy the same site. A large concourse of people is gathered all around the place, in addition to the crowd within, for the communion service is to close the day; and the members of the Methodist churches have gathered from many parts to be present on this occasion. All are anxious to share in the last administration of the Lord's Supper in that holy place, where they have so often realized the presence and blessing of the church's living Head, and received the instruction which tendeth to life. By a private staircase underneath the pulpit, and communicating with the household apartments on the ground floor, the minister upon whom the services for the day have devolved, again ascends to his place, to commence the closing service in that birth-place of many souls.

Appropriate to the occasion is that beautiful composition of Charles Wesley's, which the preacher selects as the opening hymn:

"See how great a flame aspires,

Kindled by a spark of grace."

Sweet and full is the volume of sound with which tuneful voices give expression to its glowing and triumphant strains; the whole of that vast congregation making melody in their hearts unto the Lord, and singing with the spirit and with the understanding also. Grand and beautiful above all other sounds is the music of the human voice, lifted up in heartfelt praise to Him who sits enthroned upon His mediatorial throne to govern our world in love. Prayer follows the hymn of praise, and the hearts of many go with the words of the minister, as, leading them up to the Divine footstool, he supplicates that the blessing of the church's loving Head may be given to crown the present and influence the future even more abundantly than it has been vouchsafed in the past. The thirty-seventh psalm is read, and another hymn of praise rises up to the Divine throne; the loving homage of grateful hearts to the Giver of all good.

When the sound has died away, and the congregation have settled down into as much quietude as the density of the crowd filling every available spot will permit, the text is announced,—! Sam. vii. 12: "Then Samuel took a stone, and

set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of ib Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." Reviewing the history of the past, the preacher goes back to the time when scarcely a ray of light pierced the thick darkness that overspread these beautiful colonies of the west; and the thousands of the injured children of Africa who had been consigned to so sad a destiny through the avarice of white oppressors, were not only subjected to all the unmitigated evils of slavery, but were shut out from the light of Divine truth and the hopes of life and immortality inspired by the Gospel. No man in those days cared for their souls, or stretched out a hand to lighten the cruel burden of oppression that was heaped upon them. He dwells upon the operations and manifestations of a beneficent, wise, and wonder-working Providence, in sending the missionary to their help. He sketches the condition of things as they existed when the only ministers of religion in those lands were slaveholders and slave-oppressors, deeply sunk, like others around them, in depravity and vice, and concerned about the dark-skinned heirs of immortality amongst whom they lived only so far as they could make them minister to their pleasure, or wring out of their sweat, and blood, and unrequited toil, the means of gratifying the demands of an unscrupulous avarice.

He speaks of the time when a few miserable erections, dignified with the name of parish churches, were only opened occasionally at the pleasure or convenience of the depraved incumbents, and were often closed for weeks and months together; when scarcely the name of religion was known among the people; the Sabbath day was forgotten, or only remembered to be devoted to unrestrained riot and debauch by the planters; and unblushing licentiousness overspread the land. He goes back to the period when, in compassion to the miseries of hundreds of thousands of Africa's children languishing in slavery and moral night under the proud flag of Britain, the Divine Head of the church first put it into the heart of a planter and slaveholder, made wise unto salvation under the ministry of Mr.

hundreds are unable to gain admission; for numbers who have been drafted off to form other churches are there. The spot is dear to them all, and the occasion is one in which they are profoundly interested. Sweet and powerful are the strains in which that large congregation of church members encourage each other to

"Antedate the joys above,

Celebrate the feast of love."

The presiding minister offers the preliminary prayer; then bread and water are passed round, and all eat and drink together as members of the same family, the same household of faith, and the children of the same Heavenly Father. Born of God, passed from death unto life, they are looking forward with hope and joy to the period when, within the veil, they shall pluck the ambrosial fruits and drink the vivifying streams of that upper Paradise, and be happy together with Him for ever and ever.

Thanksgiving made for the earthly food and comfort, and the collection taken for the poor of the church, some of them speak their experience of the things of God, in accordance with ancient practice and those scriptural precepts which admonish Christian believers to exhort one another, and make confession with their lips unto salvation, declaring to those who fear God what He hath done for their souls. It might cause the sceptic to doubt the truth of his own carnal reasonings, it might shame the arrogance and pride of the anthropological traducer of man's noble and immortal nature, to witness the moral elevation which religion has imparted to many in that assembly, and listen to their statements. Rising sometimes into strains of lofty and powerful eloquence, these sable men and women tell of what God and religion have done for them. Yet these are represented by narrow-souled bigots of fairer complexion, too blind to see the broad line of demarcation which separates man in all his varieties from the brute, as nearly allied to the ape and the gorilla. Brought up out of the lowest condition of life by God's blessing upon missionary labour, they shine gems of immortality, flashing with the light of intellect and glowing with Christian graces,