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to their brethren of Israel in the camp at Kadesh.

We have seen that there is a

rich inheritance before us, if we enter upon it under the guidance and in the fear of the Lord. But our enemies that dwell in the land are strong, and their cities are walled and are very great. There are giants to be overcome, among whom we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so doubtless we were in their sight. Yet, brethren, it is an exceeding good land, and if the Lord delight in us, then be will bring us into this land and give it us. Listen to us, then, we beseech you, and let us take counsel together, not whether we shall go up and possess, but how we may most wisely and promptly enter.

Brethren, all that we enjoy in this happy country we owe, under God, to the influence of a preached Gospel. The religious principles and virtuous habits which prevail among the inhabitants of these United States, and which are the basis of all our prosperity, were implanted by our pious fathers, who possessed able ministers of the word in large proportion to their own numbers. It is a fearful truth, that the number of evangelical ministers as compared with the whole population, has been from their time continually decreasing. And notwithstanding all the revivals with which the Master hath graciously visited us-the many Elishas upon whom the mantles of our departed Elijahs have fallen,-notwithstanding the numerous and faithful laborers whom the Lord of the harvest has raised up and sent into his vineyard, it is most alarmingly true, that the population of our beloved country is increasing very much faster than the number of God's servants who minister to their spiritual necessities—that all the efforts and prayers which Christians now make for this object, do not effect a supply of the present wants of perhaps a million of neglected souls among our fellow-countrymen—and that, to augment more rapidly this growing evil, swarms of strangers are pouring in upon us, and becoming constituent parts of our national community-whose poverty calls for and readily receives our kindness and succor, but whose ignorance and superstition and sometimes their crimes, so unfit them for appreciating our institutions, civil or religious, as to require that more than the ordinary amount of instruction and piety should be brought to bear upon them, and influence their character. Now, as citizens of a much favored country, we tremble while we look on all this, with the full knowledge that our liberties and all our consequent blessings are safe, only so long as the people shall be intelligent enough to perceive the arts of the demagogue, and honest enough to resist his temptations, and that this honesty and this intelligence are to be hoped for alone through the direct and indirect influence of the religion of Christ.

But oh, brethren, as citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, we must shudder to think, that in neglecting or unblest by this religion, our countrymen will lose not only their liberties but their immortal souls-and that this land, the hope of the Christian, even more than that of the political world, may, through the unfaithfulness of this generation-nay, of our own selves, become a lamentation in the universal church.

But it is not merely the fruitful evil of the human heart unreached by the means of grace, that we fear. Noxious weeds, sufficient to poison our moral atmosphere, would spring up of themselves in the neglected field. But not content with this, the enemy, while we sleep, is sowing tares broadcast among our scattering stalks of wheat. Popery has already dispersed her emissaries in the garb of Christian teachers through our states, in great numbers and in every direction. Laying aside for present purposes her most disgusting enormities, she invites to her bosom, as with maternal regard for their untaught souls, the myriads who wander like sheep that have no shepherd. The Roman Catholics have under their exclusive control some of the most flourishing literary institutions in the country. Who can be blind to the sudden and recent rise of their many colleges, high schools and common schools-cathedrals and nunneries? Is Popery a friend to knowledge and to popular education? Ask all the story of her career in Europe. What then is her object? She would monopolize and pervert what she cannot prevent. Our people are not yet quite so degraded as to sit down in contented ignorance. But if she can induce them to come with their thirst for truth to her, she hopes to deceive them, by substituting her own polluted soul-destroying potions for the pure fountain of living waters. If the young national mind shall be entrusted to her training,

she hopes to break its free spirit into passive obedience to her ghostly authority; and thus, reined and curbed, it will be easily harnessed into any car of civil tyranny. Intelligent travellers tell us, that the despots of Europe are already exulting in anticipation of this result. Yes, it is beyond all doubt, that the European politicians seated upon or upholding arbitrary thrones have leagued with the hierarchy of Rome to subvert our religion and our liberty-and render us like their own subjects,-Papists and slaves! American Christians, shall this be done? Will you lie supinely by, while these schemes of the arch enemy are developed and accomplished! Forbid it patriotism-Forbid it Heaven! By the memory of your fathers, whose sacrifices and prayers secured your present happiness; by the love of Christ, whose sufferings and death redeemed you from the bondage of hell; we beseech you not to be wanting in this hour of trial. Brethren, what can we devise or do, to stay this threatening flood of ruin?

These considerations are important to our Christian friends of every denomination, who love with us the same country, and serve the same Lord. There are others which address themselves to as peculiarly as Baptists. Our numerical strength is hardly inferior to that of any Christian communion in the United States. And yet scarcely one of them is so inadequately supplied with a regular ministry. Our peculiar opinions must flourish if any where in the midst of free discussion and intelligent inquiry. Hence it is that our denomination is here more extensive than in any other part of the world. But we are stifling the growth of our own cause, by a careless indifference to our own resources. We have allowed others to possess themselves of all the advantages under Heaven, and then we have boasted of relying on Heaven alone. But have we not sometimes deceived ourselves and attempted to disguise our sinful coldness under this profession of self-renouncing? Is not God humbling us before his people, because we had forgotten that his talents must not be buried, but employed. Perhaps we need to be taught that great lesson inscribed on all his works of creation, of providence, of grace, that "to him who hath shall be given." Certain it is, brethren, our churches holding the doctrines and ordinances of the Gospel in the simplicity of apostolic teaching, do not so commend the truth we hold, as to call for the praise and love and imitation of all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Especially is this true in the hundreds, we might say thousands of our churches which know no pastoral care, but that, too little prized or sought, which the Great Shepherd will vouchsafe. Tell us, brethren, what must be attempted, to enable all our bands in the host of Israel to walk more worthily of our high trust, bearing, as we think we do, the ark of the testimony.

And we could shed tears over the unnatural disunion of our little companies-the cruel jealousies and distrust which dissever and weaken them. United in heart and effort as those who have one Lord, one faith, and one baptism-we would be, as we ought to be, the very chiefest in influence and usefulness of the religious bodies in this country. Yet how many-shall we say nearly one halfof our brethren, of whose faith and piety we dare not, and do not doubt-who are zealous for the truth, and seem ever to seck first the kingdom of Heaven; men whose attachment to our free institutions is unquestionable-and men too of clear minds and sanctified hearts,-have been led by their peculiar circumstances and a combination of events to misunderstand all the great leading efforts of Christian benevolence, and among them, our Society, and to believe them founded in improper motives, and conducted on wrong principles. Under these impressions they cannot, we would not have them, join in labors which they could not conscientiously commend to God in prayer. But can nothing be thought of to disabuse the minds of these our beloved but mistaken brethren? Surely, if we could win them to our side, and go on hand in hand with them in the walks of Christian duty, would they but share our joy in the self-rewarding toils of active exertion for Christ's sake, how much would both their hearts aud ours be gladdened; how much would be gained to the cause of God. There is power both of intellect and of piety in our denomination to a degree, which ought to be instrumental of incalculable good. But it is divided among our many separated churches, and lies slumbering and wasted in the bosom of each. Oh, that these churches could learn to feel and act in concert, that this power might be stirred up and well directed, an overwhelming force, against the enemies of truth, of our country and of our God?

Brethren, these are some of the reflections with which our Society has traversed the field into which three years ago you sent it to explore and labor, and bade it God speed. You then spent a few hours only over our enterprise, and no more was necessary to secure all the advantages of a favorable commencement. But we now bring to you considerations of vital importance to the well-being of all you love or hope for in this world or the world to come; and we feel that the great interests which have convened you, the interests of the Redeemer's kingdom cannot be better advanced by you than by interrupting your session as a Foreign Missionary body for one or two days, and bringing your thoughts and your prayers, to a serious deliberation upon the objects, the duties, and the labors of our society. You are here from all parts of the Union, and severally bring information as to the state of our denomination, and the efforts of the adversary in your respective neighborhoods. It is a favorable opportunity for consultation on the best course to be pursued in prosecuting a work whose full magnitude is yet undiscovered, though what we know of it humbles us to the earth by its solemn responsibilities. Before your next triennial assembly, the crisis we are approaching may be past, and all wisdom, and effort, and prayer, subsequently bestowed, may be in vain, because too late.

We ask you, therefore, brethren, when you adjourn for the meeting of our Society, to adjourn until the deliberations growing out of our affairs and relations shall be concluded, even though protracted for several days.

K

The Committee to whom was referred the Communication from the American Sunday School Union, beg leave to offer the following REPORT:Your Committee are persuaded that nothing need be said in favor of Sunday Schools, or to increase the interest the Convention already feels in their multiplication and success throughout the world.

Formed, as the American Sunday School Union is, on the broad principles of Christian philanthropy, it seeks to establish a Sunday School wherever a youthful population, sufficiently numerous, can be found.

Within the first ten years of its existence, it has organized in our own happy land more than 16,000 schools, attended by nearly 1,000,000, scholars, instructed by 125,000 teachers. It has granted a suitable library of Sunday School books to each military post occupied by the soldiers of our army, has contributed for the translation of the Memoir of Mrs. Judson and other works for the benefit of the Sunday Schools in France, and has given an entire set of their publications to the most important missionary stations of the various evangelical denominations, and among others to the mission in Burmah.

In view of these considerations, the Committee beg leave to recommend the adoption of the following resolutions:

Resolved, That this Convention greatly rejoice in the success, which has attended the efforts of the American Sunday School Union, in their laudable enterprise of bringing under moral and religious instruction the youth of these United States.

Resolved, That this Convention feel grateful to God, for the ability afforded to the American Sunday School Union, to aid our mission stations, by grants of their publications.

Resolved, That we regard with pleasure the efforts they are now making to raise the sum of $12,000 for foreign distributions, and recommend to our brethren cordially to co-operate with the Society in their benevolent enterprise.

Respectfully submitted,

GEO. F. ADAMS, Chairman.

L

Report of the Committee upon New Fields of Missionary Labor. Your Committee have applied themselves to the delightful task assigned them by the Convention, with a determination to keep in view the affecting statement of the Son of God, that the field is the world. And whilst they have looked at so many of the fairest portions of the globe, still under the dominion of sin and Satan, who seem to riot in the richness and extent of their spoil; they have deemed it proper to select only such places for cultivation as hold out peculiar claims for our compassionate regards, arising from our existing relations toward them, or the circumstances in which they are brought to our notice at the present time. A most interesting and important field of missionary labor, to which we would earnestly direct the attention of the Board of this Convention, is the city of Madras, and that portion of the Madras presidency, which stretches northward from the city along the bay of Bengal, towards the city of Calcutta, for about 600 miles, embracing the country of Tellingana.

Among some of the reasons which we would urge why the American Baptists should occupy the field, are the following:-1. The fact that there is no Baptist church, in the south of India, embracing the whole, of the Bombay, and Madras presidencies-2. This tract of country is wholly unoccupied,- (we mean the one already described; of course excepting Madras itself.)-3. The connexion of the Madras presidency with our missionary stations in Burmah, the whole of the ceded provinces in that empire being placed under the control of the Madras government, which occasions constant intercourse between the two countries.— 4. The fact arising out of this connexion, of a great number of European converts belonging to our mission stations in Burmah, constantly returning to the Madras presidency, where they have no home, and where constantly their influence is lost to the Baptist cause, but which influence, if properly fostered, might most probably, as in the case of other European converts in India, be improved to very important purposes.-5. There are Baptist converts of other missionaries, now residing in that presidency, and especially Mr. Van Someran, in Madras, a gentleman of piety and liberality, who maintains a correspondence with some portions of our body in this country.-6. The interesting character and superior intelligence of the vast native population of the Tellingana country; and it is believed that missionaries stationed along this tract of country, might bring their direct labors to bear on at least forty millions of the people in India, some of the stations along this coast being at the mouths of the rivers Kishua and Godavera, which are the grand entrances to the heart of the immense Mahratta territory.-7. There are several native converts already made among the people, one of whom, a very intelligent Brahmin, has begun to preach the Gospel. He was converted by means of tracts which were distributed by missionaries, who died without seeing any fruit of their labors, and the man had to travel upwards of 200 miles, in order to be baptized by Mr. Lacey of Cuttack.-8. The New Testament in Tellingana, and a Grammar of the Tellingana language, have been putished by Dr. Carey, and a part if not the whole of the New Testament has been prepared and published by the Missionaries, De Grange and Pritchett, of the London Missionary Society.-9. We consider that a mission under the Madrass presidency, besides its direct benefit in blessing so large a portion of the human family, would give importance and interest, and influence to the Missionary operations of our Board in the East. Lastly, your Committee would suggest, whether Madras would not be a suitable place, where an agent of our Board might be placed who would render very desirable assistance, in various ways to your missionaries in Burmah.

Your Committee would express the lively interest which they feel in the promising commencement of labor in Germany. When we reflect upon the large emigration annually occurring, from various parts of Germany to the United States, we feel persuaded that our patriotism and benevolence will suggest the anxious and

liberal cultivation of this soil.

We beg leave also to make mention of Western Africa, as affording an ample field for toil and effort; and, from an examination of documents which bear very strong marks of credibility, we would urge the immediate occupancy of Bassa

Cove, the new established colony. The appointment of a missionary to Hayti is mentioned in the Report of the Board: this new effort we hail with much satisfaction, and, from a variety of circumstances, are induced to recommend that this mission may be strengthened as early as practicable.

A very interesting communication was handed to your Committee, from the Boardman Society of Inquiry in Waterville College. It contained a letter from the Rev. Mr. Tracy, of Singapore, who held up New Guinea as an inviting opening to American Baptists. The Committee, however, feel constrained to omit any recommendation, from want of more definite information and a fear of too wide an extension of labor.

Our sensibilities have been painfully excited, on behalf of many other nations groaning under horrid forms of paganism and perverted Christianity, and we could name many an island, and empire, whose fields are white unto the harvest, but we dread lest by an ill-directed compassion, we should fall into such an expansiveness of effort, as should result in weak and feeble attacks on the strong holds of sin and Satan. We rejoice that the cry of the church is gone forth- the world for Jesus-the world for Jesus!' but we believe that different departments of Zion must concentrate their efforts on particular places; we would, in reference to Burmah especially, in view of its teeming millions, take the liberty to advise, that this mission be strengthened by new stations: we regard it as a sphere large enough for the agency of almost any society. But there are very clear indications of Providence which satisfy your Committee, that it is their duty to commend the Chinese empire to the Board, as an inviting field for research and Christian_effort. The extent of territory from North to South is about 1450 miles, and from East to West, 1260. Its population is variously estimated, but all writers agree that it is immense. With regard to their boasted antiquity we have nothing to do. Our business leads us to think rather of their millions, in connection with the end of time; and alas, they have gods many, and lords many. At the present time they have so far departed from the system of Confucius, that to use one of their own expressions their gods are "in number like the sands of Hang river."Although the arts and sciences have been cultivated for ages, and this people are called half civilized, yet female infanticide prevails to a most deplorable degree. Some of their writers on ethics argue against it; but while they find fault with the stream of death, they cherish the poisonous fount: they cannot prevent the practice, while they honor the system which gives it parentage.-The impatience with which this empire has permitted European or any foreign interference, is well known, and all its institutions are guarded by a wall of prejudice which if unassisted by the sword of the Lord the Spirit will long survive their celebrated wall which constitutes their glory and defence. But we look down on China from the hill of prophecy, and we see her countless millions all walking in the light of the Lamb. The zeal of the Lord will perform this thing. The advance guard of the church has long been reconnoitering China, and some of the heroes of the Cross believe they have discovered vulnerable points. The statements of Morrison, Gutzlaff, Abeel, Jones and others have produced a deep and far-spread interest in our American Zion, and we are urged on every hand to go up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. Your Committee have very deliberately regarded this subject, and reflected upon the statement of the Report of the Board in reference to a road from Burmah to China. They do, therefore, strongly recommend, that the Board take immediate measures for sending out missionaries to Bankok, who may prepare themselves in that city by a knowledge of the languages to labor in China. They regard this spot as one of singular importance, on account of the facility by which the Gospel may be introduced, by strangers, into the celestial empire. It is vain for imperial edicts to prevent the introduction of foreigners, and foreign books; for if the Chinese at Bankok are converted, they will on return evade the police, and their opinions must spread. In the mean time, we hope that the road referred to may be discovered, in which case we advise that one or more of the brethren qualified for the task should proceed from Bankok, and attempt an entrance from Burmah. We are quite satisfied that early preparations ought to be made, for it is highly probable that the questions now mooted between the Governments of China, and Great Britain, will lead to a state of things which shall subserve the spread of Christ's kingdom. The voyage too of the Bi

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