instance they have been received with expressions of satisfaction, and often of lively gratitude. Such as have received them at the half price, with an engagement to pay the whole, have completed the stipulated sum with strict fidelity. Often, upon a first visit to an abode of penury and wretchedness, has a collector been reminded, that it was more becoming in her to give than to receive, and that to raise a penny per week for any other article than food or raiment was wholly impossible; but when she has once succeeded in convincing such that she has sought only their welfare, and has kindly directed them how to provide, by a prudent disposal of their income, for their own comfort and that of their families, not only has the weekly penny been easily spared for a Bible, but, in many instances, the collector has afterwards been requested to receive even a shilling a-week in the summer, as a provision for the temporal wants which might be felt in the winter: thus the poor have been essentially served, by being taught to serve themselves."

Ladies' Branch of the Plymouth Auxiliary Society." It has been stated by your Committee, that nearly 1700 copies of the Scriptures have been distributed by the Society. In addition to this, 185 individuals have been supplied with Testaments from the Loan Stocks of the Associations—a plan devised by Mr. Dudley, with a design of obviating the disadvantages, which experience has fully proved were too likely to attend gratuitous distribution. By means of these Loan Stocks, furnished chiefly by small subscriptions from the members of the Committees, every individual, however poor, may be immediately put in possession of the Scriptures, in a manner the best calculated to insure their perusal and preservation. Your Committee cannot here refrain from expressing their unqualified approbation of this part of the system, which has proved a source of joy and consolation to many of the sick poor in particular; or from stating, that in no instance has a single copy been lost which has been issued from this source."

FOREIGN.

Paris Bible Society." The department de la Somme alone counts about six thousand individuals in a state of great religious privation; but it is there in particular, among these reformed

Christians, so long forgotten, that the faith of their fathers has been preserved in all its purity. For want of the sacred books, of which violence had deprived these obscure families, and from replacing which either fear or poverty had prevented them, oral traditions had transmitted from generation to generation the most interesting narratives, the most important lessons, and the holiest precepts of the Bible. Passing from the memories of the fathers to the children, the most fervent prayers, and hymns the most proper to nourish faith and hope, have never ceased to resound in their cottages, and the paternal benediction has stood in place of that of the minister of the Lord. When at length the written word of God returned to the bosom of these insulated families, what thanksgivings have been offered up for this unexpected blessing of Providence!"

From Mr. Charles Enslin, Secretary to the Wirtemberg Bible Society, dated Stuttgardt, March 8, 1820. "When his Majesty visited, a few weeks ago, the School of Industry, he entered into conversation, on the subject of the Bible Society with Mr. I otter, one of its Directors. This active friend of ours gratefully acknowledged the accommodation his Majesty had graciously afforded to the institution by having favoured it with part of a building for the establishment of a printingoffice; and took the liberty to add, that the institution would derive an additional advantage from being allowed the free use of the remainder of the house.

"The King replied-Let the Society make an immediate application to my ministers; and, if any difficulty should arise, they may directly apply to myself, and I will take the necessary measures for the accomplishment of their wish. At parting, the King added, If the Society should have any other request to make, let them freely apply to

me.

Two days after this interview, the King sent a donation of five hundred florins (about fifty pounds). You will, no doubt, join us in giving thanks to our God, for having thus favourably inclined the heart of our King towards our institution.-The number of Bible Associations is still on the increase. One of our parish clergy lately preached several sermons to his congregation, on the subject of the Bible Society, and called upon his parishioners to come

cursions from similar tribes on every side, Abyssinia may fear for her existence as a Christian nation. That Christianity would not soon disappear from the country, may be inferred from the great attachment of the people to their religion, an attachment which has been tried by numerous opposing circumstances for many centuries. But how much longer Christianity might exist without a general knowledge of the Scriptures would be a bitter experiment to make-an experiment happily not suited to the benevolent genius of this age.

"And if, from this brief view of Egypt and Abyssinia, we turn our eyes to that vast continent in which these countries lie, with what feelings shall we rise from such contemplation! We are apt to survey with some pleasure the little good which we have been enabled to do; we are, thank God, encouraged to proceed by every opening prospect of hopeful fields of labour; but to us in Malta, if we but open and enlarge our hearts, here, full before our view lies Africa, left to these latter ages of the world as a standing monument to remind the benevolent of something which they have not done; the learned, of something they have not discovered; left, perhaps, to humble and shame us,but certainly not to discourage or dismay.

"Every one may in some degree in fer the state of Africa partly from general moral principles, and partly from a knowledge acquired by means of a most demoralizing traffic. From these too slender premises, many are led to consider, as difficulties nearly insuperable, the hostile superstitions, the barbarous inhuman customs and savage horrors, which reign there to an almost unlimited extent, while at the same time, lost in inquiry concerning the best practical measures, the mind turns alternately from one project to another, and travels through all the plans that can be devised, of research, of civilization, of education; till weary, spiritless, and desponding, it is ready to shrink from attempting any.

"By encouraging the translations of portions of the Scriptures, into the spoken dialects of Africa the Bible Society may, consistently with its simple principle, render most essential aid to the melioration of that continent. "

Amboyna Bible Society.-"When I lately arrived at a large Negary (village), the name of which is Lileboi, north-west from Amboyna, upwards of 800 persons,

in order to convince me of the reality of their faith in the only true and living God, brought all their idols before me, and acknowledged their foolishness. I advised them to pack them all up in a large box, (into which they formerly used to be put for their night's rest), and to place a heavy load of stones upon them, and to drown them in the depth of the sea, in my presence. They all agreed to follow my advice: a boat was made ready for the purpose; and with a great shout they were carried out of the Negary, and launched into the bosom of the deep. After this business was over, we sang the first four verses of the cxxxvi. Psalm. This is the fruit of the Gospel of Christ."

SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. It has long appeared a desirable object with many benevolent persons to promote useful parochial libraries, which seem more than ever called for since the general extension of education, and the wide diffusion of immoral, antichristian, and seditious publications. The associates of Dr. Bray have done as much as their funds would allow, for more than a century, towards promoting this object; but their efforts have been necessarily inadequate to the necessities of the case. We are glad, therefore, to find that the Society for promoting Christian Knowledge has resolved to encourage the general formation of parochial libraries, the books of which are to be lent out for the benefit of the inhabitants. The books furnished by the Society are to be limited to such as are on their list. Any minister of a parish, being a member of the Society, may obtain books and tracts, for this purpose, at the reduced prices, on application to the Board, or to any of the Diocesan or District Committees: and in cases where a parish may stand in need of such a library, but may not be able to pay for it even at the reduced prices, aid will be granted by the Board, on ap. plication from the Incumbent, through the Bishop, the Archdeacon, or the District Committee. These libraries are to be placed under the sole direction of the parochial minister, subject to regulations to be established by the Board.

An edition of the Bible and of the Book of Common Prayer, in the Irish Language and in its appropriate type, has been undertaken by the Society.

1

The issue of books and tracts, in

counteraction of infidel publications, has very greatly increased, especially in the manufacturing districts; and the Board are preparing to furnish further assistance as it may be wanted.

LONDON SOCIETY FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE JEWS. In presenting their last annual Report, the Committee state the addition of eight Auxiliary Associations; namely at Lancaster, Liverpool, Exeter, Plymouth, Plymouth Dock, Helston, Penzance, and Penryn.

An Auxiliary Society was also esta blished some time since in Brussels, by some of the British residents in that city, whose attention had been drawn to the object by Mr. Way's visit a few months before. The immediate object of the Society is to "ascertain the state of the Jews in the Netherlands, their numbers, sentiments, morals, and religious habits." They request to be furnished with some Hebrew Testaments and religious tracts, for distribution among the Jews. An Association has also been formed in the town of Frankfort on the Maine, under the direction of a zealous friend to the object-Mr. Senator Von Meyer.

Preliminary measures have been adopted at Amsterdam for the establishment of a Society in aid of this cause, which must be considered as peculiarly important, when it is remembered that more than 28,000 Jews are found amongst the inhabitants of that city. The result of the experiment so liberally undertaken by the Rev. Mr. Simeon, with respect to the English Episcopal Chapel in Amsterdam, having been successful, the Society have entered into an arrangement with the congregation, by which they are to defray the expenses of the chapel, while the Minister, as a Missionary to the Jews in that city, is to be supported from the funds of the Society. The Reverend A. S. Thelwall, of Trinity College, Cambridge, was appointed to the station. The Committee have resolved to send Mr. E. H. Simon, a Jewish convert, who has for some time past been pursuing his studies at Edinburgh, under the joint patronage of the London Society and the Rotterdam Missionary Society, to assist Mr. Thelwall, for which he is qualified by his knowledge of the Dutch language, and of the peculiar sentiments and habits of his brethren.

The Auxiliary Society of Boston, in America, has continued its contributions

to the Society's funds, and renewed the expressions of its zeal.

The permanent income of the Society exceeds that of last year by the sum of 15001., the receipts being 11,2011. Several legacies have been bequeathed for its benefit. The demands on the institution have, however, greatly increased, and are likely to continue doing so.

There were in the Society's schools forty boys, and forty-one girls. Six boys and seven girls had been admitted since the former anniversary: seven boys had been apprenticed, one girl had gone to service, one has been withdrawn by her parents; and one is removed, as the Committee have great reason to hope, by her heavenly Father, beyond the need of earthly instruction, to his own immediate presence in heaven.-The building designed for the boys' school, near the chapel, Bethnal Green, was completed the year before, and has, since that time, been occupied. That for the girls was in a state of great forwardness.-The Committee have disconti nued the printing-office, but have entered into an arrangement with the printer to take apprentices from the boys' school, and to employ the Jews hitherto employed in it. Two editions, of 2,000 copies each, of the Hebrew Testament, have been struck off from the stereotype plates; another edition, of the same number of copies, is in progress. Two thousand copies of the Epistle to the Hebrews have been printed in the form of a separate publication; and 70,000 copies on cards, in Hebrew and German Hebrew, of three addresses to the Men of Israel, taken respectively from the second, third, and thirteenth chapters of the Acts of the Apostles. Many thousand tracts in Hebrew, German Hebrew, German, and English, have been printed of which those in the Hebrew, and German Hebrew were stereotyped. An edition of the New Testament in German Hebrew is completed, and will be immediately put in circulation, and arrangements have been made for proceeding as soon as the type is at liberty, to an edition of the Old Testament in the same character.

A translation of the New Testament into the dialect of the Polish Jews, has long been meditated by the Committee; and the Rev. Mr. Solomon will be employed in carrying it on. He has already nearly completed the Gospel of St. Matthew. The Committee have availed themselves of the most favour.