13th Report of the Bri. and For. Bible Society. 133 we are not excited to pray for the welfare of the British and Foreign Bible Society, that it may extend its labours of love." The information from Madeira, respecting the distribution of the Portugese New Testament in that island, is very satisfactory. The Roman Catholic Clergy there, who, for the most part, possess copies of it, so far from discountenancing the circulation of the New Testament encourage the purchase of it; and much disappointment has been frequently expressed by the inhabitants, that they cannot obtain the whole Bible in their own language. A large assortment of Spanish and Italian New Testaments bas been sent to Gibraltar for distribution. The transactions in America, as connected with the object of the British and Foreign Bible Society, have ever been viewed by your Committee with peculiar interest. It is therefore with no small satisfaction that they are enabled to announce the establishment of a General National Institution on that Continent, under the denomination of "The American Bible Society." The following brief statement from the Committee of the Louisiana Bible Society will be heard with interest. "Numerous applications have been made for Bibles by the free people of colour; the Catholics, even the strictest of them, are willing, with scarcely an exception, to receive and read the Bible. The Spanish inhabitants have been remarkably pleased by obtaining the New Testament in their native language, and have received it with demonstrations of joy; and some slaves who were able to read, have been gratified with copies. "The first 1000 Spanish Testaments, furnished to the above Society by the British and Foreign Bible Society, were just distributed as the second donation of the like number arrived. "The applications from Spanish captains of vessels have been numerous; and few have sailed from New Orleans for a Spanish port without taking a few copies.” Your Committee, upon receiving this information, immediately ordered a further supply of 1000 copies to be placed at the disposal of the Committee of the Louisiana Bible Society. Your Committee, in concluding this division of their Report, have only to express their cordial esteem for the sister Institution in America, with an assurance that the members of the British and Foreign Bible Society will ever most cordially rejoice in its suc cess. In that part of America which is subject to the British dominion, a Bible Society has been formed in Nova Scotia, under the title of the Auxiliary Society of Yarmouth and Argyle, in which towns Branch Societies had previously existed, in connexion with the Nova Scotia Auxiliary Society. This Society has remitted to your Committee the sum of 871. 17s. 10d. currency, the amount of its subscriptions. Your Committee have also to acknowledge the receipt of 100 sterling from the Quebec Auxiliary Society. The Missionaries at Labrador are pursuing with great assiduity 134 13th Report of the Bri. and For. Bible Society. their useful labours, in completing their translation of the New Testament into the dialect of the Esquimaux. The Acts of the Apostles have been printed in the course of the past year. Their diligence is encouraged by the increasing disposition of the Esquimaux for the profitable perusal of the Scriptures. From the Auxiliary Bible Society of the People of Colour in Kingston, Jamaica, your Committee have received a second remittance of 1411. 6s. 8d. currency, with an expression of unfeigned regret that the means of the Society are unequal to its wishes. The Auxiliary Bible Society at English Harbour, in the island' of Antigua, has also remitted the further sum of 251. sterling. At Berbice an Auxiliary Bible Society has been established, under the patronage of His Excellency Governor Bentinck, with an assurance of his endeavours to promote its laudable views. The information was accompanied by a remittance of 501. sterling. Some Bibles and Testaments which were sent to Saint Kitt's have been distributed among the negroes in that island, and eagerly read by them. Your Committee, in consequence, have cheerfully complied with an application for an additional number of Bibles and Testaments, for sale or gratuitous distribution, The formation of an Auxiliary Bible Society for the peninsula of Sierra Leone, and the British settlements and establishments on the western coast of Africa, has been announced by His Excellency C. McCarthy, Governor of Sierra Leone. This pleasing intelligence has been followed by remittances to the amount of 2117. 16s. 8d. sterling, as contributions from the New African Auxiliary. Your Committee are much indebted to the care of the Reverend G. Thom, in the disposal of the Bibles and Testaments sent to him for distribution at the Cape of Good Hope. Many Bibles have been purchased by the 72d regiment, and small sums have been received from slaves who would not accept the Scriptures gratui tously. Several copies have been consigned to the charge of Mr. Schmelin, a Missionary in the interior, at a distance of ten weeks journey from Cape Town, for the use of the Namaquas, among whom he is successfully labouring. Some of the converts of this nation who could read were brought to the Cape. Mr. Thom. further states the gratitude of the Hottentots and slaves when they receive the whole Bible, as a reward of their industry in reading the Scriptures. The intelligence from the Rev. J. Read, at Bethelsdorp, in South Africa, is also very gratifying. He mentions, that a Hottentot named Sampson, who, though more than fifty years of age, had learned to read, upon seeing the Bibles sent for distribution, exclaimed, "These are the weapons that will conquer Africa ; they have conquered me." The first purchaser of a Bible was a Hottentot, who, at the age of forty, had also learned to read. Fifty Bibles were presented on the first day of distribution to as many children, who could read well. Mr. Read hopes, from the progress made in a few months, that there will soon be but few chil dren of whom the same may not be said. He adds, that there are a vast number of adults who can read the Bible. Liverpool Religious Tract Association. 135 A small Society has been established in the interior, under the name of the Caledon Auxiliary Society, which has intimated its intention of sending a remittance of 198 rix dollars; and a supply of Bibles and Testaments has been forwarded to it by your Committee, as well as to several other stations in that quarter of the globe. The Appendix to the Report will contain an interesting letter from the Rev. E. Bickersteth, respecting the favourable disposition of the Susoos, Mandingoes, and some other natives of Western Africa, to receive Arabic Bibles. Your Committee are equally anxious to encourage and gratify this disposition. In concluding the Report of their proceedings, and of the transactions connected with the Society in the Foreign Department, your Committee have to express their grateful acknowledgments to the foreign Bible Societies, and their correspondents in general, for the valuable and interesting communications with which they have favoured them. The limits prescribed to their Report, as well as to its Appendix, must necessarily restrict their inclination for publishing much which would be read with deep interest. They earnestly solicit the continuance of those communications from the Societies in connexion with them, and their correspondents in all parts, as well for their own gratification as for that of the public in the United Kingdom, and in other parts of the world, who feel an interest in the object of Bible Institutions. [To be continued.] RELIGIOUS TRACTS. The following extracts from the last Annual Report of the Liverpool Religious Tract Association, (Auxiliary to the Tract Society of that place,) contains some useful hints relating to the distribution of Tracts, which are highly deserving of the attention of similar institutions in this country. From the charge laid upon them at the last Anniversary, your Committee lost no time, but proceeded at once to look out for channels in which to circulate the streams of your bounty. The borough jail was amongst the first of these channels: and when the leisure and character of its unhappy inmates were taken into account, it was thought proper to furnish them with bound sets of the Tracts accordingly two copies of the entire publications of the Society are now in the hands of the debtors, and one copy, besides single Tracts, amongst the felons. This measure cannot fail to meet with your cordial approbation, since every one must be aware that the legal measures of the executive, however well intended, have not that moral tendency which improves those they imprison. They require to be salted with something more spiritual than law, in order to prove salutary to the lawless. In bringing, therefore, the solemnities of eternity to bear along with the sanctions of jurisprudence, you are aiding at once the cause of 136 Liverpool Religious Tract Association. God and of the country; enthroning patriotism upon the high sympathies of religious zeal, and expressing, in one act, loyalty to the king, and " to the King eternal." Your Committee had bound sets of their Religious Tracts, (in six volumes,) placed in the cabins of the Dublin and Newry Packets, in the Steam Packets upon the Mersey, and in the Wigan Canal Boats. The Committee are happy to inform this meeting, that the Captains of the Dublin Packets have kindly engaged to circulate single Tracts amongst their passengers, and are now employed in doing "business for us in the great waters." The Committee have found much pleasure in circulating Tracts amongst the houseless seamen, amongst the market people, and about the docks. They have also found a valuable auxiliary in a recently formed Society for visiting the sick and the poor. Some of the Visitors enter fully into your views, and will render their Society the medium of conveying the healing leaves of the tree of life to the forlorn and destitute. It may be proper to add, that Tracts have been widely circulated in Formby and the neighbourhood: nor will it be presumptuous to hope that they have had some share in kindling that spirit of inquiry and seriousness which is now breaking out in that village. Your Committee have only to add, that upwards of 12,300 Tracts have been circulated by them in the course of the past year. We are aware that to some it will appear strange to lay so much stress upon Tracts. Engines apparently insignificant are not likely to commend themselves as effective means of usefulness. And as men in general judge from appearances, many will suppose that Tracts are as low in the scale of means, as they are in the scale of money. Looking at their puny body, and not at their powerful spirit, they come thus to be underrated. But were your Committee allowed, they do not think it impossible to prove that Tract Societies form a new era in the history of knowledge and of faith. Whilst religious instruction was confined to folios and quartos; whilst it existed only in Bodies of Divinity and learned Dissertations on Morals, books were too dear to be purchased, and too long to be read generally the consequence was, that knowledge was a fountain sealed to that part of the community who needed it most. Fifty years ago, an author would have been ashamed of a book in behalf of Christianity, which was not as heavy as his writing desk; but now "we are not ashamed of the day of small things," because it is the day of great effects, and bearing successfully upon that class who cannot digest folios, nor follow out logical demonstrations. And as this class is too numerous to be neglected, we cannot do better than furnish them with such food as they can bear; and thus we shall pave the way for the use of strong meat: for experience has proved, that Tracts should have been first, and folios last, in the discipline of the public mind. And Interview between Mr. Milne and Sabat. 137 this discovery, though late, is not too late tobe useful. Upon such grounds, therefore, your Committee account for their opi nions and their practice in regard to Religious Tracts. MISSIONARY INTELLIGENCE. MALACCA. An Account of Sabat. At Penang, Mr. Milne met with Sabat, who, after making a zealous profession of Christianity, had apostatized to Mahomedanism. We shall relate what happened, in Mr. Milne's own words. 'Jan. 26.-To-day met with Sabat, the Arabian, formerly a convert to Christianity, under the labours of the (late) Rev. Henry' Martyn, and subsequently employed by the Bible Society in Bengal. To me his aspect seemed interesting in the highest degree, and his conversation discovered a very acute intellect. I had before heard of his conversion and labours, but knew nothing of his apostacy till he himself mentioned it. The causes which led to this unhallowed step, he endeavoured to explain; but I could not well understand them. The facts of his apostacy, and of his having subsequently written a book professedly in favour of Mahomedanism, are, I suppose, generally known; nor did he himself conceal them. On putting some pointed questions to him, he said, 'I am unhappy! I have a mountain of burning sand on my head! When I go about, I know not what I am doing!' 'He says, What I did in renouncing Christianity, and writing my book, (which I call my evil work) was done in the heat and fury of passion, which is so natural to an Arab; and my chief wish now is, that God may spare me to refute that book, page by page. I know that it contains all that can be said in favour of Mahomedanism; and should I live to refute it, I shall do a greater service to the gospel than if it had not been written.' He spoke with rapture of the Rev. Mr. Martyn, and of several missionaries. 'Were every hair on my body,' said he, a tongue, I could not fully tell that man's worth. I knew, and have been with, the Rev. Messrs. Cran and Desgranges at Vizagapatam. O what lovely men! I know the Baptists at Serampore also; they are worthy men; but I cannot receive their doctrine of adult baptism.' The case of this poor man much affected me, and Major M'Innes, who was also present. We afterwards visited and conversed with him. Before leaving Penang I wrote a letter to him, (he understands English,) exhorting him to speedy repentance and turning to the Lord. He wrote an answer to me, after my return to Malacca, which commences thus "Sabat, the corrupted, turned, and lost servant of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the man of God, the Rev. W. Milne," &c. Towards the close, he says, Though my body be not with the truth, yet my heart, soul, and understanding, are with it; nor shall they |