204 HENRY KIRKE WHITB'S REMAINS. 



circumstance of life I can join with Job, who, ahove 

 fourteen hundred years before Jesus Christ, exclaims, in 

 the fervour of holy anticipation, " I know that my 

 Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter 

 day upon the earth ; and though after ray stin worms 

 destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God," 



The power of the gospel was never more strongly 

 illustrated than in the late mission to Greenland. These 

 poor and unlettered tribes, who inhabit nearly the ex- 

 tremest verge of animal existence, heard the discourses 

 of the Danish missionaries on the being of a God. with 

 stupid unconcern, expressed their assent to everything 

 that was proposed to them, and then hoped to extort 

 some present for their complacency. For ten years did 

 a very learned and pious man labour among them without 

 the conversion of a single soul. He thought that he 

 must prove to them the existence of a God, and the 

 original stain of our natures, before he could preach the 

 peculiar doctrines of the gospel, and he could never get 

 over this first step ; for they either could not understand 

 it, or would not, and when no presents were to be had, 

 turned away in disgust. At length he saw his error, 

 and the plan of operations was altered. Jesus Christ 

 was preached in simplicity, without any preparation. 

 The Greenlanders seemed thoughtful, amazed, and con- 

 founded ; their eyes were opened to their depraved and 

 lost state. The gospel was received everywhere with 

 ardent attention. The flame spread like wild-fire over 

 the icy wastes of Greenland ; numbers came from the re- 

 motest recesses of the Northern Ocean to hear the word 

 of life, and the greater part of the population of that 

 extensive country has in time been baptized in the name 

 of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost. 



I have now filled my sheet. Pardon my prolixity, and 

 believe me, my prayers are ofl*ered up frequently for your 

 continuance of the path you have chosen. For myself, I 

 need your prayers — may we be a mutual assistance to each 

 other, and to all our fellovz-labourers in the Lord Jesus. 

 Believe me your sincere friend, 



H. K. Vv'hitt:. 



