WEEKLY LEAVES, or INTELLIGENCE, communicated by the U. E. C., from Oct. 18th to Nov. 9th, 1850. No. 42—45. 1. Recent intelligence was received from our South Greenland congregations, Lichtenau and Friederichsthal, according to which their external and internal condition was undisturbed, and not distinguished by any unusual occurrence. The missionaries endeav ored, whenever the state of the weather permitted, to visit their members on the out-posts, and the latter on their part, were wont to return to the mission-stations to celebrate the festival seasons of the church. The last winter had been very mild, and nowhere had any great want of food prevailed. The single br. Uellner from Friedrichsthal has arrived in Europe on a visit. 2. On the British West India islands, many cases of sickness had occurred among our dear missionaries, and the afflicting news was received from Jamaica of the death of the married sr. Mary Ann Kiergaard on the 21st of September, in the 44th year of her age. Br. Charles B. Ellis in Montgomery, Tobago, has been appointed to serve the mission in Antigua. Br. and sr. Elliot, who had been on a visit in England, sailed from London for Jamaica on the 17th of October, accompanied by the single sisters Maria Schuetz and Caroline Plessing. The single br. Andrew Kremser, who has been called to the mission service in the Danish West India islands, had left Herrnhut on his way to Altona. The single brn. Conrad and Eisloeffel had reached Nieuwendiep in Holland on the 27th of October, where they were waiting for a favorable wind to set sail for Surinam in South America. We commend our numerous brethren and sisters of the missionband, who are during the present stormy season at sea, to the especial and most fervent prayers of our people. 3. Br. Voss in Paramaribo, Surinam, had commenced a Sunday-School on the 11th of August with 500 pupils. 4. The congregation at Neuwied had been favored to enjoy a precious season during the centenary jubilee celebration, commemorative of the formation of this congregation on the 16th of October, 1750. 5. Our brethren in Christiansfeld, in Denmark, had again been placed under the necessity to give up their church for the purposes of an hospital. (Our correspondent at Berthelsdorf states in his letter, that this congregation was again suffering from the in conveniences and troubles of war; for although the Danish army continued to occupy the position on the Eider, the number of the sick and wounded was so great, that the hospitals in their immediate neighborhood were insufficient to contain them all. They had, therefore, to be sent to the interior of the country, and the chapel in Christiansfeld had been selected as a lazaretto, and the meetings to be held in the choir-hall of the single sisters' house. The Dares are said to have at least 5000 sick and wounded.) The members of our congregation in Christiansfeld request to have an especial interest in the prayers of their brethren during the present warlike state of things in Denmark. All who cherish true, christian sympathy, (Rom. 12, 15.) will not fail to include in their prayerful regards, our dear brethren and sisters in Jamaica, during the prevalence of the cholera, that they may abide under the shadow of their Almighty God and Savior, and not "be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noon-day." Ps. 91.-ED. The congregation at Salem, N. C., celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the consecration of their church, on the 14th of November, ulto., and we entertain the hope that our readers will soon have the pleasure to read a description of this interesting celebration, prepared by the pastor loci.-ED. FOREIGN MISSIONS. SKETCH OF THE MISSIONARY EFFORTS OF THE BRETHREN AMONG THE PERSIANS, CALMUCS, AND OTHER ASIATIC TRIBES. [Translated for the Miscellany, from the "Missions-Blatt."] We can report to our readers in reference to the design of the Brethren to attempt a new missionary enterprise in Chinese Mongolia, a measure which was strongly recommended by Dr. Guetzlaff during his recent visit in Herrnhut (in August), and we embrace this opportunity to commend this important effort to the prayers and prayerful aid and support of all our readers. The Brethren's Church from the very beginning of her missionary career had in view the old as well as the new world. Count Zinzendorf already had earnestly regarded the wants of the countries in Asia, especially of Persia and Mongolia, and, in confirmation of the truth of this remark, we refer to the following lines composed by him: Wer weiss, wenn man in einem Thor Wo nicht auf Daechern, doch in's Ohr In the year 1735 he sent a brother to St. Petersburg in Russia, who was directed to institute enquiries about the nations of Asia, and whether it was possible to penetrate to China by means of Russian caravans. In the year 1736 three of our brethren proceeded to the north of Asiatic Russia in order to preach the gospel to the heathen on the Frozen or Arctic Sea. But they were seized, imprisoned and sent back before they reached their place of destination! In 1742 a brother was sent to China accompanied by two other brethren, whose field of labor was to be among the Calmucs. But these were also unsuccessful in this mission. Subsequently two physicians, Kriegelstein and Eller, and at a later period two others of the same profession, Rueffer and Hocker, undertook the journey to Persia in order to spread the knowledge of the gospel in this country. Of this number Dr. Kriegelstein died at Kasan in a Russian prison, after enduring many sufferings, and Rueffer sank on his return from Ispahan under a load of indescribable sufferings and trials. The two other brethren returned home without having been able to succeed in their benevolent enterprise. In the year 1764 it was resolved by a synod of the Brethren's Church to plant a colony of brethren in the province of Astrachan in southern Russia, in the hope, that the Lord would from that spot open a door of access to the Persians and Mongolians. Thus arose in the midst of a solitude the settlement of Sarepta, at the junction of the Sarpa stream with the Wolga, a lovely garden of God, surrounded by wild nomadic tribes, which still flourishes, under the benign protection of the Lord, as a congregation that is not unmindful of its original destination. As the great highway from Petersburg and Moscow to Astrachan and India runs near by Sarepta, the Brethren very soon had an opportunity to hold intercourse with the passing caravans of heathen tribes, and to preach Christ crucified to Armenians, Persians Indians and Tartars. A few years after the formation of Sarepta, the brethren Neitz and Hamel removed to a horde of Calmucs, whose prince or khan Tachmuth, had formed an attachment to them during his stay on the Sarepta tract, and who now welcomed them to his people. They lived among this horde, in true Calmuc style, for the space of several years, wandering with them through the great steppe (or vast prairie-like plain,) with their felt-tent, kibitka, t and cattle, but they found no susceptible heart willing to receive the word of God. "The Calmucs or Oelot are the most remarkable branch of the Mongol race. They themselves maintain, that their primitive residence was situated between Koko Noor (the Blue Lake) and Thibet. Long before the time of Genghis Khan, a part of this people is said to have made an expedition to the west, as far as Asia Minor, and to have lost themselves there among the mountains of Caucasus; but the rest who had remained in Great Tartary, received, from their Tartar neighbors, the name Khalimik (the separated). In fact, they call themselves, to this day, Khalimik, though Oelot, which signifies the same thing, continues to be their proper appellation. They have been divided, at least since the dismemberment of the Mongol empire, into four principal branches, called Khoschot, Derbet, Soongar, and Torgot. The greater portion of the Khoschot Calmucs has remained in and around Thibet and on the Koko-Noor, and it is said to have been under the protection of the Chinese since the downfall of the Soongar Calmucs. The horde of Khoschots (warriors), which is still united under the Chinese sovereignty, received its name from the courage which it displayed under Genghis, and is rated at 50,000 souls. For this reason, and also because the family of their princes derives its origin immediately from the brother of the great Genghis, the Khoschots maintain the first rank among the Calmuc tribes. A part of them, about 1800 families, settled on the Wolga in 1750, and voluntarily submitted to the Russian sovereignty. The Derbet Calmucs subsequently separated into two parties. One of them became united with the Soongars, and was finally destroyed with this once most powerful horde in the war with ChiThe other party settled on the Ural, Don and Wolga. The Torgot (Wolgaic) Calmucs seem to have been formed into a dis na. * A horde or company of this wandering people, dwelling in tents or wagons, and migrating from place to place, for the sake of pasturage, plunder, Such are some tribes of the Tartars in Asia. A horde usually consists of fifty or sixty tents.-Encyc. etc. †The Kibitka is a Tartar vehicle, consisting of a frame of wood, rounded at top, covered with felt, and placed on wheels, serving as a kind of movable habitation.-Webster. tinct horde, later than the other Calmuc branches. They submitted to the Russians in 1616, and settled on the Wolga, for which the Russians called them the Wolgaic Calmucs. But the oppressions of the Russian government having excited dissatisfaction among them, they returned to Soongary in 1770, and put themselves under the Chinese protection. All these different tribes were formerly, or are at present, under the rule of their own khans, who are tributary to the government under which the horde lives. There is also a colony of baptized Calmucs, to which the Russian government has granted a fertile territory, with the city Stavropol, in the Orenberg district of the government Ufa. This colony has been much augmented of late. In the same district, there is like wise a small colony of Mahommedan Calmucs, formed of proselytes which the Kirghises have made and received among themselves.". The religion of the Mongols and Calmucs is called Lamaism. In this religion the Shigemooni (or the Schag Dschamuni) is honored as the founder of their religion, "in whom the highest Being, Buddha, appeared incarnate in the world for the last time, 1000 B. C., and instituted Lamaism, and now rules the world in its present state of misery. The Dalai-lama (i. e. the great lama) is honored as his representative, and is also worshipped as one of their many Boorchans or god-men. The Dalai-lama is at the head of both ecclesiastical and secular affairs in Thibet, which may be considered as a theocratical state. He is considered not as a mere visible representative of the divinity on earth, but as a real divinity himself, dwelling among men. The belief in his eternal existence is connected with the doctrine of the transmigration of souls. His worshippers believe that the divinity, as soon as it leaves the body of the Dalai-lama, immediately takes possession of some other body in a supernatural way, so that he only changes his exterior form, and not his actual existence. The usual residence of the Dalai-lama is in two monasteries situated in the vicinity of the capital, Lassa, in each of which he dwells alternately. He is surrounded in every direction by a vast number of priests. The natives, as well as a great crowd of foreigners (for all the Mongol tribes of Russia acknowledge him) undertake fatiguing pilgrimages in order to pay their homage to him, and obtain his blessing. He receives them sitting upon a kind of altar, upon a large and splendid seat, with his legs crossed. He salutes no one, never uncovers his head, rises up before no one, and is satisfied with laying his hand upon the head of his worshipper, who believes that he has thereby obtained the pardon of his sins. His worshippers believe that the supreme divinity lives in him, that he knows and sees everything in the deepest recesses of the |