1821.]

Relig. Intel.-Report of the have greatly limited our operations. To no small number of applicants for aid, we have been obliged to return answer, we know your wants, we feel for you in your desolate condition, we wish to help you, but we cannot-because our treesury is exhausted.

The Missionaries employed, have laboured with a zeal, activity and perseverance highly creditable to them; and their labours, through the spirit working with the word, have been effectual both to the building up of believers and the turning of sinners upto the Lord. One of them, in his Journal transmitted to the Directors, says: "When I commenced preaching among this people, it was a time of general stupidity in the church and society. I appointed a meeting for the church soon after I entered upon my labours; but so great was the indifference of the members, that very few attended; and at a public meeting appointed in the week, only eighteen persons assembled to hear the gospel. Finding it impracticable to assemble the church as a body, I resolved to visit and converse with each member individually, respecting the state of his mind, and the importance of engaging with more zeal in the active duties of religion. After visiting all the members of the church, I called a public meeting for the purpose of addressing them unitedly, and setting before them their responsibility as a church. All the members were present but two; and the meeting was unusually solemn and interesting. From this time, the aspect of things seemed to change. Every week, and almost every day, disclosed something more interesting. A spirit of prayer prevailed in the church, and no sooner had this taken place, than a number discovered unusual seriousness; the voice of the awakened sinner succeeded, and the joy of new-born souls praising the Redeemer. A general seriousness now prevailed through the Society. Meetings on the Sabbath and in the week were full and solemn, and a considerable number eventually appeared to give evidence of a change of heart. Before the close of my labours I baptized twenty children and two adults; received eighteen to the communion of the church; and succeeded in healing unpleasant difficulties in the church society."

This is but one instance, among many which might be adduced, of the en

Domestic Missionary Society. 493

couragement there is to labour in waste places, and of the value which eternity, it is believed, will stamp upon such labours.

The Directors could allow their Missionary to spend but a short time in this place, on account of their inability to support him for a longer period.

The D. M. S. originated in an application for counsel and aid from some broken down and impoverished places, to one of the district associations of the state. This body carried up the subject to the General Association,-by whom it was referred to a select committee-who reported the outlines of the present constitution. The declared object of the society, an object steadily and not in vain adhered to by the Directors through five successive years, "is to build up the waste places of Connecticut, by furnishing the destitute with religious instruction." Shall this object be abandoned? Shall it be relinquished as unattainable, and the desolate be consigned to perpetual desolation?

To show, that this need not be the disastrous issue, and in ardent hope that it will not, we submit to the society assembled, and to the clergy, churches, and congregations of Connecticut, the following plan:

The Directors are persuaded that the plan is practicable-as well as highly important, and that there are peculiar facilities and encouragements for attempting its accomplishment at the present time.

This State contains two hundred and ten churches of the Congregational order. Thirty of these are destitute of a settled minister,-including eight ordinary vacancies, that will soon, in the providence of God, supply themselves with pastors. This reduces the number which need assistance to twenty-three, or let it be stated at twentyfive. Some of these churches and congregations need but little aid to enable them to support the ministry: nor will they all, it is hoped, need that aid long, provided the embarrassments of a first settlement are surmounted. Most of them have some established funds, while a few have but very little strength remaining. Ten of these, at least, are so contiguously situated, that two of them by uniting, can maintain a minister without external aid. To execute such an arrangement, it would only be necessary to send suitable

Missionaries to labour among them, with a view to that object. This has been the obvious and progressive tendency of past exertions-though only incidentally directed to that end. Ten of the waste places that are vacant being thus disposed of, but fifteen remain to be provided for. Five of these might get along on each receiving one hundred and fifty dollars annually, The other ten would each require two hundred dollars a year,-amounting in the whole to two thousand seven hun dred and fifty. According to this estimate, two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars of charitable aid would enable all the destitute waste places of the State to enjoy, statedly, the privileges of the Sabbath, the sanctuary and the sacraments. To furnish this sum, there are two hundred and ten churches and congregations, which on an equal division, would average about thirteen dollars to each. Or, an annual contribution of fifteen dollars from every congregational society in the State, would produce three thousand one hundred and fifty dollars; a sum adequate, on the most liberal calculation, to meet the existing demands to build up the waste places of our beloved Zion.

But there is a great inequality in the resources of these ecclesiastical societies, let the amount to be raised be proportioned to their respective ability, and the whole may be more easily obtained. Were fifty of the two hundred and ten societies to contribute twentyfive dollars each; a hundred, fifteen dollars each; and the remaining sixty, five each, the aggregate would be three thousand and fifty dollars.

The object may be accomplished in a manner still more easy. In each of the societies of the first class mentioned above, there are two persons at least, who can give, individually, five dollars a year,—thus reducing the proportion of the several congregations to which they belong to fifteen dollars. In each of the hundred of the second clas mentioned, there is certainly one individual who can give five dollars a year-leaving only ten to be furnished by the congregation at large. In each of the sixty societies whose proportion is five dollars each, there must be five persons who can well afford respective ly to contribute or subscribe a dollar from year to year. This can be done. There are in the State of Connecticut

fifty congregations who can each give twenty-five dollars a year, that their bereaved brethren and fellow-citizens may regularly enjoy those means of grace,-in the precious benefits of which they themselves so richly share. There are in the state one hundred other societies who can each collect fifteen dollars a year; and sixty more who can raise five. There are in the hundred and twenty towns which compose this enlightened and highly favoured christian community, one bundred and twenty persons who can each furnish ten dollars; one hundred and twenty more who can each contribute five; a thousand more who can each spare one; the same number who can spare half a dollar each; making in the whole more than three thousand dollars.

We make these several statements, not so much to recommend this precise course to the churches as to show at what a small expense to each church and society, so great a work of benevolence can be accomplished. We have no doubt that, if the subject is regularly proposed to the churches and congregations, and each goes through the form of making a contribution, the result will be a supply that shall cause the heart of the desolate to sing, and in its consequences give joy to angels. The prospect of giving to every church and society in the state a pastor, must touch the heart of the patriotic, the humane and the pious.

Peculiar are the facilities, encouragements and obligations for the perform ance of this work of christian charity; the inducements resulting from the combination of circumstances are indeed without a parallel. The original design of our ancestors in fou iding, uader God, this long flourishing republic, -the reproach of merely saying, "be ye warmed and clothed and fed,"the increase of the productive resources of the whole by the cultivation of the lands that now lie waste-the com parative ease with which the work can be done the inspired injunction to “communicate and forget not,”—the obligation arising from the privileges enjoyed; "freely ye have received, freely give," the mutual augmentation of happiness derived from the fact, that it is "more blessed to give than to receive;" the political and civil welfare of the state at large; the good of posterity; the increase of the love of christians in that intercommp.

the Bethel flag in the early part of the summer, meetings have been held on board of vessels two, three and four evenings in the week, which have been generally interesting and not unfrequently affecting, but always profitable. Generally well attended by seamen of every grade from the commandant down to the lowest man and frequently over crowded. The stated meetings in the Mariner's Church are on the Sabbath forenoon a sermon; afternoon from two to three o'clock prayer meeting; in the Evening a sermon; every Wednesday evening a Lecture; on the afternoou of the first Tuesday of every month the United General Prayer Meeting.

For these services they are dependent on the ministers in the city and others that may happen to be here. On a Sabbath in August, it happened that no minister could be procured. The Committee met at the Church at the usual hour in the morning, and being made acquainted with the fact of their disappointment, they resolved that the audience should not be sent away, but that they would try to make the day profitable to them by efforts of their own. They accordingly occupied the time with prayer and exhortation and in the evening did the same. At the close of the meeting one in particular, seemed rivited to his seat after the audience had retired. On being enquired of he seemed to be overwhelmed with a sense of his sin. He had, he said, with six others,come there to make sport and ridicule; but how changed, how awfully distressed, he could not leave his seat, he could not go from the house without first seeing one who had exhorted them, and beg to know what he must do to be saved. He had followed the seas a long time, had a good uncle in port, who had often wished him to come and make it his home at his house, but he had been inattentive to his intreaties, and spent his time and money in profligacy; he now for the first time saw his error (or felt it) and should now go to his uncle, and endeavour to prepare to meet his God. He expected to be despised and ridiculed by his companions, but that he could endure as a trifle. Six or eight others were deeply affected and stopped to enquire what they should do to be saved. At the close of each of the four meetings on board of vessels last week and the lecture in

their church,one or more marinersstopped, and with anxious solicitude made the same enquiry. On Friday evening, on board the vessel, an old veteran seaman, but a new born child of grace spoke with powerful effect to his brethren seamen of the wonderful dealings of a compassionate Saviour to his precious but hell deserving soul, and then upon his knees poured out his soul in supplications for their salvation. At the close of the two o'clock prayer meeting yesterday one came forward entreating what shall I do. I have followed the seas twenty years, and te day for the first time learned that there was a place for poor sailors in a church, and for the first time realized the presence of a God. I cannot leave this place so; you must stay and pray with and for me, and tell what a poor sailor can do. Several other seamen joining their anxious solicitations, and enquiring for mercy, the brethren were compelled to stay and spend most of the day in instructing and praying with and for them.

This is an account of what is passing here in one week, and what shall we say and what must we do. The work is the Lord's, and to him be all the praise and glory.

On Friday at evening, meeting with an acquaintance, an Episcopalian, pointing to the dock-he says, do you see that (it was the Bethel flag,) will you go there to night for me? My brother applied to me to go in his stead and I engaged that I would, but there is a young man under conviction and I must go and see him before every thing else. This I think looks well.

PEACE SOCIETIES.

Extract from the Fourth Annual Report of the Peace Society in London,

1820.

The Committee of the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace trust that through the encouragement and co-operation of their Christian brethren, the great principles they have endeavoured to exhibit and to promote, have already obtained a stability which gives the strongest conviction of their durable influence, and they may be allowed, from the eminence on which they believe the Society now stands, to look back on the events and vicissitudes which have marked their progress, grateful if they bave been enabled successfully to in

culcate those important truths, the consequences of which are so closely connected with the virtue and happiness of individual as well as social man.

They have ever considered, that principles so much in accordance with the lovely and peculiar character of our Holy Religion, so beautifully displayed in the temper and conduct of its Founder-so friendly to human improvement-so encouraging to moral exertion-so conducive to the well-being of man—must have their foundation in Immutable Truth. They wished to bring them to the test of honest inquiry-to the ordeal of deliberate investigation. The result has answered their expectations, it has often exceeded them. A Society, originating with a few individuals, has seen its influence and its ramifications extending through a large portion of our own country; while the exertions and the success of of our trans-atlantic brethren have been, perhaps, even more efficient and more encouraging than our own.

In connexion with our own efforts, it is to us a subject of the most complacent feeling, that among the great people so closely allied to us by cominon ancestry, by common language, and in so many respects by common institutions, there are numerous societies cordially co-operating with us in the promotion of our bigh and important objects. We have already slightly adverted to this, and we cannot refrain on this occasion from wafting across the Atlantic our sincerest and warmest congratulations to our American brethren, with our prayers for their continued, their rapidly increasing success.

During the past year, we have received considerable encouragement from the correspondence of our continental friends. Though the restraints upon public meetings in some countries, and the poverty of others, added to those Revolutions which have agitated many of them, though these and other circumstances have prevented the establishment of Foreign Auxiliary, Societies, yet we are persuaded that our cause is prospering. Its progress, its peaceful progress, disturbs not the superficies of things, and may not, in consequence, be discerned by the careless observer; but a great change is manifestly going on in the hearts of men, and beneath the frozen surface of seeming indifference, mighty principles are at work, and will sooner or later exVol. 3.-No. IX. 63

hibit themselves in their benign influ

ence.

One new Tract, No. 6, consisting of extracts from a sermon by Dr. Bogue, has been published by permission of the author; also editions of Nos. 2, 3, and 4; No. 2 in Dutch, and the Third Annual Report, have been printed, in all, 54,000 copies; making a total of 207,000 that have been printed since the formation of the Society. The sales and distributions this year are about 30,000. Tract No. 3, has been translated into Spanish, and an edition is in preparation. The amount of subscriptions and donations received this year is £413 8s. 1d. which the Committee lament to say falls considerably below the receipts of the previous year: and as a very extended field of labour is now open to them, the Committee earnestly solicit the attention of their friends to the collection of additional subscriptions, without which they will be unable to meet the demands on them, particularly for the translation of tracts and documents into foreign languages. They trust the exertions of their advocates will be stimulated by this appeal, and that while no opportunity is lost for circulating the tracts of the Society, they will be provided with the means of availing themselves of those encouraging circumstances which they hail as giving the promise that their great object may be finally accomplished. Several of the Auxiliaries are prosperously engaged in promoting the views of the Society. The Committee cannot, however, state ac curately the number of Subscribers, from the want of returns. New Auxiliaries have been established at Bath, Bristol, Southampton, Plymouth, and Stockton.

Copies of the Tracts have been transmitted by a member of your Committee, when on the Continent, to the Kings of France and Spain, through the regular channels of communication. Much attention has been excited to the subject in Paris, and your Committee hope that some measures will soon he taken into that capital to promote the cause. Opportunities have been embraced for forwarding Tracts to different parts of the world; and from the seeds thus sown in the British dependencies and in different nations, may we not reasonably look for some fruit ?