by Rev. Matthew Wilks. 243 old-say Hannah-say Deborah-say Dorcas-say Mary and Martha-say Magdalen say Priscilla say Phebe and a bright constellation besides, not only the ornament of their tender sex, but greatly instrumental in alleviating human wo, and also in forwarding the designs of the Gospel. Go, ye widows, the uncontrolled possessors of great wealth-without son, without daughter. Where is your charity-where your melting compassion-where your liberal donations-Where is the widow's mite? Go, ye pious matrons, train your offspring in habits of godliness-inspire them with sentiments of liberality-and of economy at honie, that they may do something abroad. Go, ye converted young maidens, you are to praise the name of the Lord. Lay out yourselves for Christ. Remember, the women kneaded the dough. But, Thirdly. Men who are especially formed for labour, they are the destined instruments in conducting the grand designs of Providence: come forward, therefore, ye princes, ye nobles, ye merchants, ye mechanics, ye ministers, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Some of you have the tongues of the learned, some the pen of the ready scribe, some almost the wealth of a Croesus, and some a commanding influence. Consecrate your talents to Christ. The Master is come, and calleth for them. Let all bear on the subject, and tell in the account. We have had a Fuller, a Townsend, a Hanson, a Hawkes, a Taylor, in our day, who have consecrated their wealth to the name of the Lord. Will it not for ever disgrace the memory of others, when it is recollected, that after amassing vast sums, they have not bequeathed one shilling to the Son of God? But there are others who have done more more than kindle the fire-more than freight the sacred vessel. They have consecrated themselves. Behold a Crantz, a Brainerd, a Swartz, a Carey—all men of renown; and, behold a Van der Kemp-brought up, not at the feet of Gamaliel, but in the most celebrated universities of Europe, versed in living and dead languages, fostered among the branches of science, stationed in a distinguished post. A spark of the Missionary fluid was conducted to his congenial soul. Van der Kemp, thy character was instantly formed-thy choice determined tby labours incessant-thy success great-thy death deploredthy reward eternal glory. Besides these, there is a host of other Missionaries. If their acquirements are not equally great, their spirits are equally devoted. They are pushing to the East, to the West, to the North and the South. O that the kingdom of darkness may fall before them! I will now close my address, with a few words to the Society, Directors, Ministers, and Missionaries. 1. To the Society, Although you, my Christian friends, have no merit of your own to plead before God, yet you certainly de serve well of mankind. There have been those who have founded hospitals for the sick, schools for the illiterate, or comfortable receptacles for the infirm and aged. Their memories are all embalmed; but your primary object is the spiritual, the eternal interest of men; the salvation of their souls. Great good has been 244 Rev. M. Wilks, on Missionary Zeal. effected by your instrumentality. Your zeal has provoked many. You live in an eventful age, and the universal concern to advance the Redeemer's interest, even in troublous times, is not one of the least prodigies. Expect great things, and never be weary in well doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not. 2. To the Directors You, my honoured brethren, are chosen to move a vast machine and pilot a bulky vessel, even amidst sunken rocks, quicksands, and narrow straits. The property of the Society is committed to your management. It devolves on you to choose and appoint the Missionaries. Great confidence is reposed in you, and great responsibility, both to God and man, awaits you. I know you often tremble for the ark. You are the nervous cords in our whole system and you give to the Society the sensitive touch, either of pain or pleasure. In the commencement of our operations, you had every thing to learn, and you have bought your experience. The Christian world and Missionaries will reap the advantage. From them you should meet with every possible encouragement. 3. To the Ministers. You, Sirs, are the highly favoured of the Lord. On you he has bestowed the grace to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. Your influence is not small in your own congregations and connections. Promote by all possible means a spirit of emulation among them. Be first in every thing generous and noble; it will raise your credit-advance your usefulness, and endear your name. You are leaders and examples to the flock; and leaders must not sculk into the rear. Remember this Society. You do, or should belong to it; it requires, it deserves your warmest support. 4. To the Missionaries. My brethren, your office raises you high in the public opinion; Christians carry you in their hearts. Yours is an arduous work. While I venerate, I tremble for you. You are the hand of the Directors to execute their decrees; neither let this be paralyzed in their service, nor lifted up against them. You are an eye to the blind pagans; let your eye be single. Brethren, though your service be laborious, it is honourable-be encouraged. You will find in the Directors tender parents, and in Christ all you can desire. Cast yourselves upon his gracious carehe will both keep, comfort and bless you; and if he make you instrumental in saving but one poor pagan, it will afford you more delight in a dying hour, than the warrior who has conquered an empire by the sword, will experience in his last moments. Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. NEW RELIGIOUS PUBLICATION IN FRANCE. It is confidently asserted, that arrangements have been made for a Protestant publication in France, to be conducted on the plan and in the spirit of the Evangelical Magazine edited in London, Turkish Version of the Bible to be printed at Paris. 245 EXTRACTS. Third Number of Monthly Extracts from the Correspondence of the British and Foreign Bible Society. The following are Translations of the Documents occasioned by the application of the Professor Kieffer, of Paris, for permission to undertake the edition of the Turkish Bible, &c. 1. From His Excellency the Duke de Richelieu, to Professor Kieffer, Interpreting Secretary to the King of France, for the Oriental Languages. Sir, Paris, July 25, 1817. 1 grant you with pleasure the leave which you have asked for your intended journey. The Society established in England for the purpose of disseminating the Bible, could not, I believe, have made a better choice than that which they have made of you, to superintend the work which they wish to see executed at Paris; and I doubt not but you will justify this honourable distinction. I forward you herewith a letter for His Majesty's Ambassador in London, and beg you, Sir, to accept the assurance of my perfect consideration. 2. From the Minister of Finance, Count Corvetto, to His Excellency the Duke de Richelieu. My Lord Duke, Paris, July 30, 1817. By a letter which your Excellency did me the honour of writing to me on the 18th instant, I was informed, that the Bible Society in London solicits the liberty of importing into France, duty free, a certain quantity of oriental types and paper, which they have dispatched from London, for the purpose of printing a Turkish Version of the Bible. This request appears to your Excellency such as to admit of compliance, the necessary precautions being taken to prevent its abuse. I concur in the opinion of your Excellency, and shall write to the Director-General of the Customs to that effect. I have the honour to be, &c. From Professor Kieffer. Amsterdam, September 5, 1817. I have this moment received a letter from Baron de Leyden, one of the Curators of the University of Leyden, expressed in the following terms : "Sir, "Not having as yet returned to the Hague, I received here the letter with which you honoured me. I am sorry you should have had any trouble with regard to expediting the manuscript of the Academy of Leyden; since I believed I had given you assurance that the business would meet with no difficulty whatever. If it had been possible, for me to go to Leyden, the necessary formalities would have been accomplished; but I hope 246 Rev. R. Morrison, Canton. immediately to dispatch the documents to His Majesty's Ambassador at Berlin. I trust,, Sir, that a work so interesting will give as much satisfaction to yourself as it will prove advantageous to literature, and to the object of the Bible Society in England." From the Rev. Robert Morrison, Canton, China, Feb. 24, 1817. I have acknowledged the receipt of the last grant of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to me, for the purpose of translating, printing, and distributing the sacred Scriptures in Chinese. An edition of 9000 copies is about to be struck off at Malacca, in consequence of its being thought imprudent to do it here. I am sure the Committee of the Bible Society will enter fully into the feelings and views of one, who lives under a Government decidedly hostile to the introduction of Christianity in any form. We wish to use no other than peaceful endeavours. We must not be impatient. We will, in a humble dependence on divine aid, go forward; doing as much towards the accomplishment of the object as circumstances will permit, and cherishing, at the same time, the hope of a change in the views of the rulers of this populous country. I have desired Mr. Milne to print, together with the New Testament, an edition of the Book of Genesis; and, I think, it is likely that he will print some copies of the Book of Deuteronomy, which he has himself translated. Should I not remove thither myself, I purpose to send down the Book of Psalms, at the close of the year. From the Swedish Bible Society, addressed to the President and Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, by their President, His Excellency Count M. Rosenblad. Stockholm, May 27, 1817. The Swedish Bible Society hereby acknowledge, not only the favour of 250l. sterling, whereof 100l. have been delivered to the Bible Society lately established at Wexio, but also your Lordship's present of the excellent and instructive work of Mr. Owen, on the rise and progress of the British and Foreign Bible Society. It is with the most lively and agreeable sensations of gratitude and reverence, that the Swedish Bible Society have received these renewed proofs of the ardent zeal and care of the British Bible Society, in promoting the progress of the Sacred Word and Doctrine in this Peninsula. Supported by an assistance $6 efficacious, and aided by the daily and more extended benevolence of all classes of our countrymen; under the evident blessing of Providence, which is highly interested in the success of this holy cause; the Swedish Bible Society advances with equally certain and rapid steps to the object of its destination. That word which is a lamp to our feet, and a joy to our hearts, will no more be a hidden treasure, or a candle under a bushel, but a treasure open to all who seek it, a light revealed to all who do not willingly shut their eyes against it. If there still remains Speech of the Landgrave of Hesse. 247 among us a faint echo of the levity of an age, which after having punished itself, has passed away, it can but be compared to the feeble scream of the night owl at the approach of day. The morning breaks forth, and silence reigns; the sun appears, and all nature undisturbed sings the praise of the great Creator, and the love of the Redeemer. When at length all tongues shall acknowledge Christ to be the Lord; when all knees shall bend at his name, and all souls in him find the way, the truth, and the life; what joys shall then be showered into your hearts, what benedictions shall accompany your memory to posterity, ye generous men, who, in the hands of the Lord, have been such mighty instruments for spreading the knowledge of truth and salvation among the tribes of the earth! How great will your reward be in the land of light and per fection, when every sacrifice made on your part, will for ever be recompensed by him, who knows those that have worked for his name, without having been weary in well doing! Speech of His Serene Highness the Landgrave Charles of Hesse, President of the Sleswick-Holstein Bible Society, at their First Anniversary, held in the City of Sleswick, on the 13th of April, 1817. Every well-wisher to the cause must have felt a sacred joy, on perceiving the excellent spirit which manifested itself so gloriously in both Duchies, at the first call upon our countrymen by the Bible Society. That Society, which has done such incalculable good, not only in England, but also out of it, is now happily diffused over every Protestant country; and, in particular, the Russian Empire seems anxious to fulfil, in the strictest sense, the high commission given to the disciples of our Lord to spread His Gospel among all nations of the globe, according to the declaration of the Evangelist, (Matt. xxiv. 14.) " And the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world, for a witness unto all nations." We behold Indians, Malays, Hottentots, and other very remote nations, reverentially and most gratefully receiving the Gospel announced to them in the Bible.. They embrace the Saviour with joy; and adore Him, who died for them, as the Son of the Father, as their Redeemer. And in our country, did we not witness both rich and poor, hastening to contribute their gifts, and their mites, towards the establishment of a general Bible Society? Every one considered it as a pious work, pleasing in the sight of the Lord; and was eager to join an Association, the object of which appeared so truly Christian. The era had arrived, of which the prophet Amos, in chapter viii, verse 11, speaks, “Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but of hearing the word of the Lord." How singularly applicable appears this prophecy to our highly favoured country! While almost all Europe was |