Bible cause in Prussia and Sweden.

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From His Majesty, the King of Prussia, to the Prussian Central Bible Society in Berlin, March 6, 1816.

The Brief View which on the 4th of this month you laid before me, of the result of your endeavours to promote the diffusion of the Holy Scriptures, has been highly gratifying to me, on account of the religious spirit with which this beneficial undertaking has been conducted and carried on, even in the most unfavourable times. Convinced that in it you will find your reward, and en. couragement to proceed in your labours, nothing remains for me but hereby to assure you of my acknowledgment of it.

(Signed)

FREDERIC WILLIAM.

The

From the Rev. J. Paterson, Gothenberg, July 6, 1817. The Gothenberg Juvenile Society has increased to 640 members, and has this year already raised 1064 rix dollars, banco. The Bibles and Testaments I brought for them, in various languages, for distribution among foreigners, were a welcome present. They see many pleasing effects of their labours. Finnish New Testaments which they distributed some time ago among the soldiers of that nation in garrison, have produced much good. They They are the only means of instruction which these poor men enjoy, and they peruse them diligently. Of this the following anecdote will afford a proof: the President of the Juvenile Soeiety had occasion, as officiating chaplain for the garrison, to examine the Finnish soldiers previously to their receiving the communion. On approaching one of them, the officer said, "As to that fellow, it is vain to ask him any thing; he cannot read." But on inquiry, it was found that he could read, and read well. Astonished at this discovery, the officer demanded to know how he had acquired this talent all at once; when it appeared, that the receipt of a New Testament had inspired him with so strong a desire to know what it contained, that he set about learning to read; a task which he accomplished in the course of two months.

EXTRACTS

From the Twenty-Third Report of the London Missionary Society,'

Continued from page 73.

LASCARS AND CHINESE IN LONDON.

The Mahomedans, in West-Ham Baracks, accepted with delight the scripture Tracts presented to them; and which being printed in the Arabic Character, excited peculiar attention. A room at the depôt, occupied by Portuguese Lascars, was supplied with Testaments. Some instances have occurred of Lascars, who having, when here before, received religious instruction, on their return to England from a fresh voyage, applied to the Committee, earnestly solicited Copies of the Scriptures, with which they were enabled to supply them, having received fifty Copies of the Portuguese New Testament from the British and Foreign Bible Society. The Committee, on the whole, feel encouraged, by perceiving that their efforts in behalf of these strangers have been productive of real advantage.

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23d Report of the London Missionary Society.

SEMINARY.

The directors are covinced that it is their duty to exercise the most deliberate and cautious discrimination in the choice of those who are to be their active instruments in carrying on the grand designs of the society; and on whose piety, talents, and diligence, must depend, under God, the efficiency and success of its operations. There are at present in the Seminary at Gosport, twenty Students, respecting whose religious character, missionary spirit, promising abilities, and correct deportment, a report highly favourable and satisfactory has been made, both by the Rev. David Bogue, under whose tuition they are placed; and also by a deputation from the directors, who recently visited the Seminary, and examined the Students individually.

FUNDS.

The expenditure of the Society amounted, in the last year, to nearly NINETEEN THOUSAND POUNDS; but the contributions have been more than equal to the expenditure.

The directors express their obligations to Ministers, Congregations, Auxiliary Societies, Female Friends, and Juvenile Societies; among the members of which last bodies they descry the future Subscribers, Directors, and Missionaries of the Society, who will far exceed, they hope, both in their efforts and their success, the present generation.

INTENDED MISSIONS.

Having laid before the Society a brief account of the proceedings of the Directors during the past year, and a compendium of the information received from their Missionaries, it is proper to state what are the objects immediately in view, and which they trust that the Board of Directors for the following year will be enabled to accomplish.

The Mission to Madagascar, which has been so long in view, they have not been able to commence, although more than ever inclined thereto, by the strong recommendation and friendly. promises of the Governor Farquhar, of the Mauritius. That gentleman has diligently collected the memoirs of the former Catholic Missionaries, in order that the future labourers may derive instruction from their failure; he has procured the intineraries of intelligent travellers to every part of that island: he has corresponded with the Chiefs who may be able to forward the object; and bas collated, and reduced into the form of a Dictionary, a great number of words of the language of that country, which is pow become a portion of the British Empire. Such is the encouragement that our society possesses for an attempt to evangelize the vast island of Madagascar; and the directors trust, that, in the course of the present year that attempt will be made.

Another great object which has engaged their attention, is the commencement of a mission to the Mongul Tartars, at Irkutsk, in Siberia. Mr. Paterson and Mr. Pinkerton have earnestly recom. mended a mission to Irkutsk.r. Stally brass, a student of Homerton College, has devoted himself to the work, and is on the point

23d Report of the London Missionary Society.

89

of proceeding to St. Petersburgh, where he will reside a few months, for the purpose of acquiring the Russian Language, and then proceed to the place of his destination. The Directors are. now anxiously engaged in selecting a proper person to follow Mr. Stally brass, and to unite with him in the arduous undertaking; and they are happy in the prospect of obtaining from the Government of Russia every desirable facility in the progress of the work.

MISSIONARIES OF THE YEAR.

In the course of the past year, a very considerable number of Missionaries has been sent forth to different parts of the world: Mr. Pearson, to Chinsurah; Mr. Medhurst and Mr. Slater, to Malacca; Mr. Lowndes, to Malta; Messrs. Taylor, Kitchingham, Evan Evans, Brownlee, and Moffat, to different Stations in Africa; Messrs. Bourne, Darling, Platt, and Williams, to Otaheite; Mr. Smith, to Demerara; Mr. Donaldson, to Surat; Mr. Stally brass, about to sail for Irkutsk; and Mr. Gyles, with his family, for Otaheite in all seventeen; twelve of whom are accompanied by their wives.

CONCLUSION.

The sum of 2001. has been granted to the Bâsle Missionary Seminary. After noticing the establishment of a similar Institution at Amsterdam, the plans of the Netherland Society for the Dutch possessions in the East, and the increase of Missionary zeal in America, the Report adds:

It must afford delight to witness the growing zeal of the various societies of British Christians-the Moravian, the Baptist, the Wesleyan, and the Church Missionary Societies-all animated by the same spirit, and, in their several connexions, striving together for the faith of the Gospel. The world is a vast field, wherein ten thousand labourers are wanted, and in which all may exert their utmost energies without giving the least occasion for envy or interference. Our combined efforts, however, with the blessing of God, will, we trust, in a few years, produce a wonderful change on the face of the Moral World.

The Directors hope that the statement now laid before you will afford satisfaction and pleasure; that it will appear to you that the Society is making a gradual progress in the great work of evangelizing the Heathen; that the Islands of the Southern Ocean are waiting for the Law that went forth from Sion; that the light of Truth begins to penetrate the thick clouds of darkness, and to expose the abomination of Idolatry and superstition in India and China; and that in Africa, especially, the glory of divine grace is rendered illustrious, in the conversion of multitudes of the sable sons of Hain, relieving them from the curse of Canaan, and making them partakers of the blessings of Abraham.

Now unto Him who has favoured us with the rich privileges of his glorious Gospel, and who honours us as instruments of conveying them to others--to him be glory in all the Churches cons federated in the Missionary cause! Amen, and Amen!

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Remarks on the destitute condition of Africa.

AFRICA.

Extract from Travels in the Interior of Africa, by Mungo Parke. Although the negroes in general have a very great idea of the wealth and power of the Europeans, I am afraid that the Mahometan converts among them think but very lightly of our superior attainments in religious knowledge. The white traders in the maritime districts take no pains to counteract this unhappy prejudice; always performing their own devotions in secret, and seldom condescending to converse with the negroes in a friendly and instructive manner. To me, therefore, it was not so much a subject of wonder as matter of regret, to observe, that while the superstition of Mahomet has in this manner scattered a few faint beams of learning among these poor people, the precious light of Christianity is altogether excluded. I could not but lament, that although the coast of Africa has now been known and frequented by the Europeans for more than two hundred years, yet the negroes still remain entire strangers to the doctrines of our holy religion. anxious to draw from obscurity the opinions and records of antiquity, the beauties of Arabian and Asiatic literature, &c. But while our libraries are thus stored with the learning of various countries, we distribute with a parsimonious hand the blessing of religious truth to the benighted nations of the earth. The natives

We are

of Asia derive but little advantage in this respect from an intercourse with us; and even the poor Africans, whom we affect to consider as barbarians, look upon us, I fear, as little better than a race of formidable but ignorart heathen.

66

Perhaps a short and easy introduction to Christianity, such as is found in some of the catechisms for children, elegantly printed in Arabic, and distributed in different parts of the coast, might have a wonderful effect; the expense would be but trifling; curiosity would induce many to read it; and the evident superiority which it would possess over their present manuscripts, both in point of elegance and cheapness, might, at least, obtain it a place among the school books of Africa.

"The reflections which I have thus ventured to submit to my readers on this important subject, naturally suggested themselves to my mind on perceiving the encouragement which was there given to learning (such as it was) in many parts of Africa. I have observed that the pupils at Karmalia were most of them the children of Pagans; their parents, therefore, would have no predilection for the doctrines of Mahomet. Their aim was their children's improvement; and if a more enlightened system had presented itself, it would probably have been preferred."

A number of gentlemen in Claremont, (N. H.) assembled on the 29th ult. and organized a Society for the religious education of an orphan child, under the care of the American Missionareis in Asia. The Rev. Stephen Farley was chosen President, and Mr. D. Parmelee, Treasurer.

Good effects from the distribution of religions Tracts. 91

FROM NATCHEZ.

Extract of a letter to the Editor of the Recorder, dated Natchez, Sept. 10, 1817.

DEAR SIR,

Our school continues to flourish, and we have the satisfaction of thinking that our labours are not in vain. Three of our pupils have become hopefully pious. One of these the Lord has called home to himself: her death was made the means of awakening one of the others, and the third was awakened by the reading of those little silent messengers of truth which the New England Tract Society has successfully sent abroad in such numbers. If the members of that Society fully realized the importance of their own exertions, and knew the extent of good they have already done, I firmly believe that to a man they would double their subscriptions, and that too without diminishing their contributions to other benevolent objects. Suppose that only this single soul had been prepared for heaven by their Tracts, what an unspeakable good has been effected! Can money be any counterpoise to the value of an immortal? Shall the world itself be laid in the balance -or ten thousand worlds-one soul infinitely more than outweighs them all!

If I seem too " zealously affected" you will forgive me. How can I feel otherwise when I see precious souls coming to Zion from this region of comparative darkness-and when these converts are my own dear pupils? What were the particular means of awakening the first I do not know-perhaps the Tracts; she was a constant reader of them: Her religious impressions were not discovered till she was brought to her death-bed. For some time before she was fond of retirement and religious reading-but some circumstances led her to stifle her feelings till she could do it no longer. We have no reason to doubt that she died in the Lord.

Ours

One year ago there was no church of any kind at Natchez; now there are three-the Methodist, the Baptist, and our own. consists of 20 members. The exact number of members in the others I cannot give; their condition however I believe is prosperous, and we are glad of their assistance. In the whole state we have but five Presbyterian preachers. I hope we shall be remembered by our brethren in New England.

A Tract Society has been formed in our School. While we were deliberating on the best method of getting Tracts into circulation, and regarded the difficulties in our way as almost insurmountable, our young ladies of their own accord, and without our knowledge, formed themselves into a society for the purpose. We had not even dared to suggest the thing to them, lest the hint should prove premature, and defeat our wishes. Thus the Lord relieved us from our perplexities, and showed us that he could work without us. The Society is wholly confined to our School, and in their first quarterly subscription they have raised nearly 30 dollars. 'Not unto us, not unto us, but unto thy name, O Lord, he the glory.' I remain in the hope of the Gospel, Yours, &c. R. PEARCE