Mr. Walker, at Gaboon, suffered much
as I have done. After two years and half's
residence he returned to the States, and is out
again and strong.
Mr. Ashwall in the
Cameroons for a year and a half suffered
very much. He went to England, and since
his return for three years has enjoyed excel-
lent health. His brother came since I did,

has passed through much such an ordeal, and is gone home expecting the like benefit. I fear I tire you with so much of myself, but I think I have a cause. I desire to be directed by unerring wisdom and counsel from on high, and whether my life be protracted or shortened, to live to the glory of God.

Since the foregoing paragraphs were in type a letter has been received from Dr. Prince, containing the following passages :—

The afternoon I returned from the Gaboon, | a journey home, but there were arguments in Mr. Newbegin became so sick I feared a few hours thereafter he would die. When be boarded us to welcome our return, he had the aspect of a man with black jaundice, or as if his face had been exploded by gunpowder, the particles of which had embedded in his skin. He has determined to turn homewards, and asks for my certificate. I mean to seal it with a recommendation for him never to adventure back. He wants the physical qualities for a labourer in this country.

Thankful I am I went to Gaboon. The condition of my body called loudly for change. I could fairly have put you to the expense of!

the soul which stilled those in the affections of the parent and son; wherefore I am truly thankful for the little remitting the Lord has granted, and for the sincere will I have to expend it in his cause amongst this people. He is honoured by making me useful in my double capacity at the Gaboon. He brought me back to save Newbegin and our highly valued deacon Wilson, and I hope he'll cause testimonies to be seen that he has brought me amongst the people to bless them. My prayer was never to be returned for any lower purpose. Our new chapel is commodious. There is no jarring amongst us.

WEST INDIES.

JAMAICA.

Mr. Abbott sailed from Falmouth on the 1st of August. In a letter written three days previously he says, "My medical attendants urge immediate rest and change, and recommend my leaving in a sailing vessel for the sake of a long seavoyage. I have therefore taken my passage in the 'Calypso,' which vessel leaves this port the day after to-morrow, and we may hope will reach London, D.v., between the 15th and 20th of September. I suffer from extreme debility and loss of voice, from which, the doctors say, there is no hope of my recovering in this climate, but they are sanguine as to the beneficial effects of a long seavoyage."... Mr. Abbott requests that he may not be asked to take any public service till he has had some rest, and the sanction of experienced medical men.

BELLE CASTLE.

Mr. Jones, writing August 5th, says, "On the 9th of May I baptized twenty persons, who were added to the church. Four have been restored during the last two months. Since I came here there has been a clear increase of about sixty persons, and new inquirers still join us now and then. To the Lord be all

the praise."

Mr. Burchell, of Rochdale, is about to prepare a memoir of his brother, the late Rev. T. Burchell, and will be happy to be entrusted with any letters or documents which may aid him in his work.

STATISTICAL REPORT FOR 1846 OF THE EDUCATIONAL SOCIETY IN CONNEXION WITH THE BAPTIST WESTERN UNION.

It is important to call the attention of the friends of the Baptist Missionary Society to one or two facts connected with the state of its finances.

For several years the receipts of the Society for ordinary missionary purposes have steadily increased.

They amounted in 1843 to

£15,280

16,979

16,340

18,583

21,490

The increase here is progressive and gratifying, and, for all purposes, the increase has been in proportion.

But it must be remembered that during the last year especially the legacies and donations were very large-some thousands of pounds larger than usual.

For this fact the Committee desire to record their devout thanksgiving to God and to His grace. It suggests also, however, the importance of systematic and strenuous effort on the Society's behalf. The Auxiliaries have done much less last year than they did in 1845, and thus far in 1847 it is to be feared they are doing still less than they did in 1846. There is a downward tendency which must be arrested at once if the Society is to be kept free from increased embarrassment. The diminution of income from Auxiliaries is owing to two causes. Fewer churches collect: and collecting churches give less.

In the sixteen following counties eighty-one more churches aided the Society in 1845 than aided it in 1846: an average of not less than five defaulting churches

In the nine following counties the Society received aid in 1846 from thirty-three more churches than aided it in 1845.

Other counties not named had as many contributing churches as in previous

years.

In nearly every county, too, the churches that did contribute, contributed in 1846, on the average, much less than 1845.

For this year the Society can reckon on no large legacies; but few donations have been as yet received. The receipts from Auxiliaries are thus far even less than those obtained in 1846, so that without strenuous exertions the Society will be at the close of the year in very serious difficulty. The remedy is plain. Let EVERY church work; and

Let all our churches be ALWAYS working. The Committee wish for this cause no more than it justly claims; but acting in their Redeemer's name and for the

world, they request with great confidence that no church will withhold its contribution, and that in each church there may be such systematic and continuous effort as shall secure an adequate result.

AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONS.

It will interest many of our readers, doubtless, if we lay before them an epitome of the present state of the missions conducted by our American brethren, as recorded in the report of the American Baptist Missionary Union, which has just reached us. We have especial satisfaction in doing this, as the divine blessing has attended the exertions of these brethren in an unusual degree in some of the fields they have occupied. In reference to the year ending March 31, 1847, they write as follows:

times and seasons, and the nature and habit of every plant of the field that he hath planted, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall; and his wisdom, and might, and affectionate thoughtfulness may be seen as clearly where he nightly distils the silent dew as where he hath divided a water-course for the overflowing of waters, and sendeth on the earth the great rain of his strength. Of this quiet order and method, and without observation, have been God's spiritual dealings with several of the Indian missions, with those to France and Greece, with the Bassa mission, with the Teloogoo and China missions, and we may add Tavoy. Though some of these missions are "little among the thousands of Judah," and in others has been heard "the voice of weeping, lamentation, and great mourning," yet in them all have been seen, and are still to be seen, the foot-prints of Him "whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting."

In reviewing the history of the past year, but the all-wise Husbandman knoweth the the executive committee have perceived so many marks of divine favour to the missions, and so numerous and gratifying instances of spiritual prosperity and enlargement, that they invite the attention of the Board to a particular consideration of some of them, as an expression of their gratitude to God for his great mercies, and as an encouragement and incentive to a more vigorous prosecution of the missionary work. In almost every mission, we might say in every mission from which the annual returns have reached us, God has distinctly manifested his gracious presence, and in most of them his power to create anew and save. In several portions of our missionary field the months of harvest and the harvest-home shouts of the rejoicing reaper have continued through all the year. Verily "the ploughman has overtaken the reaper, and the treader of grapes him that sowed seed." Nor have the manifestations of the great grace and power of God been limited to the more cultivated and productive missions. They have been no less signal, and are hardly less worthy of devout acknowledgment, where the manifestations have been those of considerate tenderness and gentleness, where strength has been made perfect in weakness, and where the burdened missionary, knowing Him who had said, "My grace is sufficient for thee," has been enabled to glory in his infirmities, that the power of Christ might rest

him. The grace of God hath various admeasurement. The exhaustless fountain is ever full and ever hastening in its glad courses;

SUMMARY.

The whole number of missions sustained by the Union is 16, with 50 stations and more than 93 out stations, under the care of 99 missionaries and assistants, and 144 native helpers. Forty-five of the missionaries are preachers. The number of churches reported is 108. 1783 have been added to the churches the past year on profession of faith; and the whole number of members is about 10,000. The number of schools is 59, and of pupils from 1500 to 1600.

PROSPEROUS MISSIONS.

The missions in which the grace of God has most abounded unto their edification and enlargement the past year, are the Shawanoe, the German, the Assam, and the Burman and Karen.

SHAWANOE.

pared with the limited extent of the population to whom these missionaries minister, and the adverse circumstances with which they must continually struggle, this increase in the number of professed believers is almost unprece dentedly large, and displays in a correspondent measure the exceeding riches of divine grace in Christ Jesus.

In the Shawanoe mission the annual report gives fifty-six as the number of additions to the churches on profession of faith in Christ; and a late communication announces the baptism of fourteen others, making the whole number of recent converts seventy. The subjects, with three or four exceptions, are Ottawas, Stockbridges, Delawares, Putawatomies, and Shawanoes; the tribes among whom four missionaries are labouring, with a few female assistants and We are again permitted to report abundant native helpers, at four distinct stations. Com-manifestations of divine favour to this rapidly

GERMAN.

ASSAM.

growing mission. The stations of Hamburg forced by fines and imprisonment. Messrs.
and Berlin, with their numerous out-stations, Lehmann and Hinrichs at Berlin, Mr. Sander
bave had large experience of the grace of God at Oberlingen, Mr. Steinhoff at Marburgh and
the past year, and the hearts and hands of our elsewhere, and Mr. Oncken at Koenigsberg and
brethren have been greatly encouraged and Elbing, not to mention other and severer cases,
strengthened. At Hamburg the additions to have been made to feel, by deprivation, the
the church in 1846, by baptism, were seventy-value of the rights of conscience and of "free-
three, making their whole number, deducting dom to worship God."
losses by deaths and exclusions, 286. New
converts have also been added to the little
bands gathered at Elmshorn, Pinneberg, Wil-
helmsburg, and other out-stations. A like
delightful progress has been made at Berlin
and its associate stations. Seventy-three were
baptized in the course of 1846, making their
present number 233; of these, 165 are resident
in Berlin, and the remaining sixty-eight in ten
out-stations. The reports from other portions
of this widely extended field are of the same
cheering character, so far as received. Ten
have been baptized at Memel, the eastern ex-
tremity of the Baltic, making their number of
church members twenty-five; and six at Bres-
lau. At Marburg twelve were added to the
church on one occasion; and at various places
in the duchy of Nassau, in Baden-Baden, and
Baden see, &c. Twenty-three others were bap-
tized during the same missionary excursion.
Nineteen in various parts of Hessia were bap-
tized on a previous tour. Additional members
have been received at Stettin, Allenstein, &c.;
and in various places, Breslau, Stettin, and in
Eastfriesland, Westphalia, Elsass, &c., new
churches have been or are soon to be con-
stituted. In Denmark the church at Aalborg
has had accessions, and its state is prosperous.
Difficulties have occurred at Copenhagen, and
the missionary connexion with Mr. Monster
has been closed.

Ten years our faithful missionaries had toiled and wept there, and waited for the Lord as they that watch for the morning; but the day of God's visitation was still deferred, and, excepting here and there a solitary token of the Spirit's presence and power, those beloved brethren were constrained to believe rather than see that "the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy." At length the time to favour Assam was fully come. "An unusual seriousness," says Mr. Bronson, "became apparent among the children of the Orphan Institution. It continued steadily to increase. A great improvement in their daily deportment and a tenderness of conscience began to be visible. I felt assured that the Spirit of God was setting home to their hearts the instructions they had received. I gave them Pilgrim's Progress and the parables of our Lord. These were blessed to their greater awakening. As they read of the man clothed in rags, burdened with sin, and turning a deaf ear to the entreaties of his own loved family, that he might escape from the City of Destruction and obtain eternal life, their own falling tears and earnest inquiries showed that they too felt their perishing condition and need of the Saviour's forgiveness. At length one of the eldest sought an interview with me. He begged to know what he should do. His sins, he said, were a heavy load, on account of which he had no peace of mind. He had long prayed in secret for light, and for a new heart, but his prayer was not heard; he feared he must perish. He knelt with me in prayer. Others were found in a similar state, who also had long been in the habit of secret prayer. The conversation and preaching of our beloved brother Brown was greatly blessed. The time appointed for our yearly missionary meeting had come. We suspended the school, and gave ourselves wholly to prayer and conversation, and declaring the glad tidings of salvation. At sunrise, noon, and evening they came together to hear the word of God. It was deeply moving to hear the native Christians plead with their countrymen that they would renounce idolatry and embrace the gospel; and it was still more affecting to see the orphan children, one after another, losing their burdens at the foot of the cross, and rising in the presence of all to tell what God had done for them. Truly "out of the mouths of babes and sucklings God perfecteth praise." Those scenes will never be effaced from my We regret to add to this cheerful outline of memory. Day and night, which ever way I spiritual progress a darker shade. The princi- turned, I could hear the voice of prayer or the ples of religious liberty, so clearly understood song of praise. The love of God, the boundand widely enjoyed in this country, are but in less, mysterious love of God in dying for sinful the infancy of their development even in Pro- men, seemed to be the theme that filled every testant Germany. Our brethren are still sub-heart. On Sunday, the 29th of November, we jected, at various points, to restrictions en- stood by the water's side; and in accordance

Some progress has been made in Hamburg and Berlin towards providing suitable accommodations for public religious worship. At the former place, where the worship-hall has become too strait for their crowded assemblies, a lot of ground has been purchased with a warehouse standing on it, capable of holding, with slight improvements, 600 hearers. At Berlin, also, a very favourable location has been secured, where it is hoped the church will be able to build a temporary house before the close of the current year. The funds required for these objects, in addition to contributions made by our German brethren, "whose poverty abounded to the riches of their liberality," were generously supplied by British churches and individuals; Mr. Oncken having collected £450, and Mr. Lehmann nearly £1200, in their visits to England the last year. Bible and tract operations have been carried forward with their wonted energy; 387,405 tracts have been issued, in German, Danish, Dutch, and Polish; and 5649 copies of scriptures. Also about 5000 copies of other works, such as Memoir of Mrs. Judson, Haldane on Romans, Haldane's Evidences, Pengilly, &c.

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