Adam Coon, V. Pres. John Fleming, Sec. Robert OHIO. Portage Co. Rootstown. Gent. Asso. Rev. J. Meriam. Pres. Dea. T. Andrews, V. Pres. Plumb Creek. Gent. and Lad. Asso. Rev. FranErastus Sevmour. Sec. Ariel Case, Treas. 2 coll.eis Laird, Pres. Jas. Murray, Esq. V. Pres. Wm. I Lad. Asso. Mrs. J. Meriam, Pres. Mrs. Andrews, McJunkin, Sec. John Cowan, Treas. 8 coll. May 16. V. Pres. Mrs. A. Gibbons, Séc. Mrs. A. Case, Treas. 2 coil. Poke Run. Gent. and Lad. Asso. Esq. V. Pres. John Gwin, Esq. Sec. Treas. 8 coll. May 17. Samuel Paul, Congruity. Gent. Asso. John Dickie, Pres. Robert Rainey, Esq. V. Pres John Adair. Esq. Sec. Ephraim E. Robson, Esq. Treas. 4 coll.-Lad. Asso Mrs. Jane Porter, Pres. Mrs. R. Rainey, V. Pres. KENTUCKY. Louisville. Gent. Asso. Jacob Reinherd, Esq. Pres. William L. Vernon, Sec. John P. Harrison, M. D. Treas.-Lad. Asso. Mrs. Phebe Wurtts, Pres. Mrs. Eliza Lewis, Sec. Mrs. Catharine Ried, Treas. Donations, FROM JUNE 21ST, TO JULY 20TH, INCLUSIVE. I. AUXILIARY SOCIETIES. Orange co. Vt. J. W. Smith, Tr. Palestine miss, so. Ms. E. Alden, Tr. Abington, 1st par. Rev. S. Spring, 15.00 5 50 10 76 1; 80 92 123 88 66 34 22 00 10 00 2d. par. Gent. 69,86; La. 53,02; a 3d par. Gent. 35,31; La. 31,03 friend, 1; Hanover, Directors, Hanson, Mrs. A Cushing, Middleboro, N. par. Mrs. J. Gurney, 5 00 62,66, 135 28 Randolph, 1st par. Mon. con. 24,68; men's aux. so. 15,91, Weymouth, 1st par. 2d par. Directors, La. 60 53 42 37 19 05 664 79 Ded. amt. ac. in M.Herald for March, 75 00-589 70 Rockingham co. West, N. H. W. Ea 244 68 Stockbridge, Gent. 54,63: La. (of which to constitute the Rev. DAVID D. FIELD an Honorary Member of the Board, 50;) 53,31, N. so. Gent.23, 76; La. 13,95; Mon.con. 7,33, Tyringham, Gent. 15,12; La. 24,88, West Stockbridge, Contrib. ton, Tr. Indiv. 4 22 107 94 Candia, Gent. 30,12; La. 20; 50 12 45 04 Chester, La. 18,43; Gent. 12,04; 40 00 an indiv. 1; 31 47 18 46 Williamstown, Gent. 71,69; La. (of which Hampstead, Gent. 12; La. 7; 19 00 to constitute the R. v. RALPH W. Londonderry, 1st par. Gent. 33,60 GRIDLEY an Honorary Member of the La. 52,48, 91 08 Board, 50;) 75,42, College, 13; 160 11 W. par. Gent. 13,81; La. 28,60, 42 41 Windsor, Gent. 61,46; La. 54; 115 46 Raymond, Gent. 7 50 Salem, La. 12 00 37 79 Less c. note, & discount, 175 $1,844 48 23 02 89 75-112 77 Rutland co. Vt. J. D. Butler, Tr. 14 03 53 12 23 51 Castleton, Gent. 20,11; La.12; a 33 11 Dorset, An indiv. 2 00 Mrs. G. French, for East Rutland, Mon. con. in cong. Bombay miss. 5 00 Merrimac co. N. H. N. Abbot, Tr. Boscawen, W. Gent. 18,50; La. 11,25, 29 75 E. la. 5 00 Bradford, Gent. 4: La. 6,90, 10 90 Canterbury, Gent. 7; La. 14,07; Mon. con. 2,38. 23 45 Chichester. Gent. 3 25 Concord, Gent.35,78; La. 56,41; Mon. con. 18; 110 19 Dunbarton, Gent. 25,90; La. 24.60, Henniker. Gent. 29,36; La, 15; Pembroke, Gent. 10.25; La. 21,60, Sanbornton, Gent. 9,71, La. 3,50; a friend, 20c. Morris co. N. J. F. King, Tr. New York city and Brooklyn, W. W. 5 75 45 36 9 00 31 85 Alnu, Me. A lady, 13 41-338 41 Amesbury, Ms. Mon con. in W. par. 120 57. Arkport, N. Y. E. W. 2, J. W. 3; 30 00 Augusta, Me. La. asso. Baltimore, Md. 1st presb. chh. 10; 24 presb. 10 00 1 00 12 17 5.00 25 68 40 00 36 01 3.00 24 67 9 88 46 48-262 30 19 25 Boscawen, N. H. Mon. con. 10 32 Wantage, N. J. 42 00 Bradford, Ms. La. asso. in V. par. Briceland Cross Roads, Pa. Mr. Churchill, a traveller, Brimfield, Monson, Palmer. Western and Holland Ms, Char. so. (of which from Monson, mon. con. 26,02; chh. contrib. 13,37; fem. for. miss. asso. 26,28; Palmer. Fem. for. miss. asso. 9,60; and for hea. chil. 4;) Brownington, Vt. Mon. con. Charleston, S. C. Rev. Prof. J. Dickson, East Hampton, N. Y. Fem. miss. so. Gilderland, N. Y. Mon. con. Great Conaraga, Pa. Aux. so. Greensboro', Vt. Rev. K. Bailey, Green Castle, Pa. Fem. miss. so. Greenwich, Ct. Miss. so. 100 Miss. so. 14; fem. aux. miss. Washington, Ct. M Whittlesey, Washington city, J. Nourse, esford, Ree'd at Mayhew, with clothing, Windham, O. Rev. JOSEPH TREAT, (which constitutes him an Honorary Member of the Board,) Winthrop, Me. Rev. D. Campbell, for Lucy A. Campbell at Brainerd, Wooster, O La. asso. 127 27 1 50 10 00 1 84 Xenia, O. Rev. J. Steele, 178 60 91 00 11 89 15 00 15 00 8 00 2 35 27 00 1 00 20.00 Wrentham, Ms. Fem. ed. so. for John Cleveland in Ceylon, 30 00 37 50 00 30 00 24.50 24 00 50 Unknown, Two friends, 5; a friend, 5; m. box, kept on a counter in the country, 5,16, 15 16 Whole amount of donations acknowledged in the preceding lists, 6,034,80. 62 00 107 50 Hallowell, Me. Miss. so. 20; ia. asso. 8,50; coll. for Sandw. Island miss. after an address by Rev. Mr. Stewart, 79; Hamp. Chris. Depos. Ms. Chesterfield, Lucy Davis, 1; East Hampton, Youth's so. for wes. miss. 11,41; Worthington, char. so. 7.37, 19 78 Hartford, N. Y. Mon, con. in cong. chh. 6; c. box of Mrs. E. C. Shaw, 1,87; J. Pelton, 4,13, Jamaica, N. Y. Mon. con. Kennebunk, Me. Mon. con. Kirby, N. Y. Contrib. for Pal. miss. Monson, Ms. Thomas Lodge, for distrib. of the Holy Scriptures in Palestine, Morris Plains, N. J. 4th pay. for James Caldwell, at Harmony, Newark, N. J. Fem. mite so. New Orleans, Lou. C. Whittelsey, New York city, A female friend, 140; Miss Beekman, for Thomas Scott at Cattaraugus, 12; T. M. and M. M. L. 2; mon. cou. in Wall st. chh. 45,06; pray. so. in Rev. Mr. Dubois's chh. 8th pay. for Wiseborn Volk in Ceylon, 5 00 9.00 12 00 6 37 1 00 16 00 12 25 9 39 31 97 21 00 211 06 10 00 5 00 22 40 3 00 1 06 15 00 5 00 5 90 5 00 5.00 129 00 7 38 12.00 50 00 New York city, J. Leavitt, in binding of Northfield, Ms. A box of clothing, &c. being a legacy from Miss Fanny Barber. The following articles are respectfully solicited from Manufacturers and others. Printing paper, to be used in publishing portions of the Scriptures, school-books, tracts, &c. at Bombay, and at the Sandwich Islands." Writing paper, writing books, blank books, quills, slates, &c. for all the missions and mission schools: especially for the Sandwich Islands. Shoes of a good quality, of all sizes, for persons of both sexes; principally for the Indian missions. Blankets, coverlets, sheets, &c. Fulled cloth, and domestic cottons of all kinds. EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE. For the benefit of the Bombay mission, I enclose fifty dollars taken from the Sabbath earnings of A PHYSICIAN. June, 1827. The foregoing letter was left at the house of the Corresponding Secretary of the Board, by a person unknown. It presumed, however, that it was written by some gentleman of the faculty in Boston. From a gentleman in Connecticut to the Treasurer. Western Asia. SMYRNA. EXTRACTS FROM A LETTER OF MR. THE last number contained extracts from Mr. Brewer's correspondence to the period when he commenced a temporary residence in Constantinople, and from Mr. Gridley's until his arrival at Smyrna. We now insert a considerable portion of a letter from the latter, dated Smyrna, March 18, 1827. Demand for Tracts. faithful to their trust, to various ports frequented by the Greeks. My practice is to give not more than thirty or forty Tracts, and all of different kinds, to one captain, with the request that they be distributed only among such as can read. A few days since, I visited seven Greek vessels in the harbor; and find ing good readers on board them all, and a manifest desire for books to read on their voyage, I furnished each vessel with about 20 Tracts, telling them that this was a present from the friends of the Greeks in America, who wished them to be carefully read, and well used. Education among the Greeks, I have also visited the Greek schools lages, for the purpose of distributing Tracts, and ascertaining the state of education among Greeks. In the city, I have succeeded in finding thirty-one schools, containing in all about one thousand scholars. These are mostly boys, and under 12 years of age, the daughters being generally educated at home: this is also the case with many of the sons. The extreme scarcity of books in the Modern Greek, renders them highly acceptable. Children, especially, are delighted with them; many never be-in Smyrna, and in the neighboring vilfore having possessed, or scarcely seen, a book in their own native dialect: and usually on receiving them they manifest their joy and gratitude by many smiles, kissing my hands, touching it to their foreheads, and wishing me many years. I have had twenty applications in a day, and all from those who could read well. Parents often request books for their children, and instructers for their schools. One, a few days since, sent me The principal school has one huna polite request for twenty copies of the dred and fifty scholars, divided into "Mother's Catechism," that it might three classes, and superintended by a be recited by his pupils. Another came Greek priest of considerable learning, half a day's journey, requesting Tracts who has two assistants under him. It for the schools of his village. I gave him is, however, very far inferior to the two hundred, that each scholar who school of Occonomus, previous to the could read might have two, and prom-revolution, of which this now takes the ised shortly to visit the schools to see what use was made of the Tracts, and to supply them with spelling-books and catechisms, should it be the wish of the village to introduce them into the schools. A priest from Casaba, twelve hours distant, has just requested books for his schools, in which are 60 scholars. I have also sent many little parcels, by captains who I thought would be VOL. XXIII. place. The primary object of this school is the cultivation of the ancient Greek, the Turkish government prohibiting instruction in the mathematics and the physical sciences. Considerable attention is also bestowed upon the hand-writing. This is a free school, and under English protection. There are, also, one or more schools connected with every church, in which 34 children are trained up for public readers. These are generally small, and under the superintendence of a priest. The children are employed for years in merely reading the ancient Greek, and thus they acquire the habit of going over it very rapidly, and with all the peculiar tones and modulations, which are deemed so essential in both the Greek and Roman churches. After pronouncing a few syllables with unintelligible rapidity, the voice is suddenly raised an octave, and the syllable dwelt upon several seconds with a very peculiar trill: and by long practice the little children know perfectly well the syllables on which this special honor is to be conferred, so that all their voices rise, shake, and fall as one. But by far the larger portion of the schools are private establishments, set up by individuals, who wish employment as teachers, and for which they receive from each pupil about three dollars the year. Numbers of these are kept by enterprising young men; some by priests, and some by females. These schools are generally in small, dark, dirty apartments, and furnished with none of the necessary conveniences of a school-room. The children are seated in rows, cross-legged upon the floor. In one room, of very small dimensions, I counted sixty children. After completely covering the floor, the remainder were arranged on shelves attached to the sides of the room. In these schools, reading, writing, and arithmetic are taught. But such a thing as a book in a language they understand, I have scarcely met with in them all. A small first book for children, and the psalter, both in ancient Greek, badly printed, and on very coarse paper, are the only books deemed requisite, and even with these they are but poorly supplied. In writing, they use their left knee for a desk. Yet in these schools, where I am sure none but a Greek would make any valuable acquisitions, many of the children learn to read fluently, to write a handsome hand, and become acquainted with the ground rules of arithmetic. It is, however, little more than a mechanical process; the mind is not much cultivated by it: it does not learn the children to think. On the contrary, attending to sounds merely, being accustomed, as a daily task, to repeat them for years, without any definite ideas accompanying them, can hardly fail of forming habits of inattention, which must ever afterwards render it difficult to receive ideas through the medium of any written language. These schools seem to me to present an exceedingly important field for mis- Still a reform, I doubt not, is within the power of judicious, persevering effort. These schools must be frequently visited, religious instruction communicated, and Tracts distributed. Through them, in a single afternoon, a religious Tract may be put into five hundred families. A familiar acquaintance with instructers, also, is very desirable. And such visits generally, I am satisfied, would be very gratifying, not only to the children, but to their instructers, and their parents. Sixty voices raised at once in the acclamation, "Long life to you! long life to you!" and raised with all imaginable animation, and reiterated till I was fairly out of hearing, -have convinced me, that visits, to these schools are not unacceptable; and if long persevered in, they cannot fail of giving the missionary a very desirable influence. The books now in use, which consist almost wholly of portions of the Scriptures, must be translated, and new elementary works adapted to the present state of knowledge among the Greeks, must be prepared and introduced as opportunity occurs, and the united poverty and parsimony of the Greeks will greatly assist in their introduction. And it will be no obstacle to the introduction of any book, that to IN connexion with the foregoing statements of Mr. Gridley, the reader will be pleased to see some remarks on the Greeks, made by Mr. Fisk, just before his death, in answer certain inquiries addressed to him by the Society of Inquiry respecting Missions, in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J. Mr. Fisk's letter was first made public in the Philadelphian. The Greeks need missionaries; for though nominal Christians, they pay an idolatrous regard to pictures, holy places and saints. Their clergy are ignorant in the extreme. Out of hundreds, you will scarcely find one who is capable of preaching a sermon. Of course, there is little preaching; and that little is oftener an eulogium on some saint, than an exhibition of Christ's Gospel. The people are consequently ignorant and vicious. Before the Bible Society began its work, the Scriptures were rare, and in most of the schools that exist, the children merely learn to read ancient Greek, without understanding it. Greece offers to view an extensive missionary field; -the different divisions of Greece, properly so called-the numerous Islands of the Archipelago-a multitude of Greeks scattered over all Turkey convents innumerable--thousands of schools, now almost useless, but needing only a proper organization and suitable books, to render them nurseries of sound learning. Nor should it be forgotten that the Greek church is intimately connected with the predomin ant church in the immense and rising empire of Russia-and has more or less direct or indirect influence upon all the oriental churches-Armenian, Syrian, Nestorian, Coptic, and Abyssinian. The Greeks offer to missionaries many excellent materials to be wrought into the great spiritual building-powerful intellect, lively imagination, zeal, energy, enterprise, enthusiasm, love of learning and liberty, which four hundred years barbarous slavery have not been able to destroy, an earnest desire for civilization, a remembrance of what their fathers were, and the hope of being what England and America now are, and all these traits of character brought into action by the idea, that the present is the period of their national regeneration. The Greek church itself opens the door to missionaries. It has always allowed the distribution of the Scriptures, and has had disputes with papists on this point. The Greek patriarchs, archbishhops and bishops, have generally favored the cause of the Bible Society, and have more than once written pastoral letters to recommend its object. We have printed many thousand Tracts in Greek: they have been received with pleasure, and ecclesiastics and dignitaries of the church assist in distributing them. Among these Tracts are the Dairyman's Daughter, Young Cottager, William Kelly, Leslie's method with Deists, Watts on the end of time, Dr. Green's Questions and Counsel, and many others translated from the English. To the schools and convents we have free access for the distribution of Scriptures and Tracts, and do not often meet with Greeks who oppose our work. Several important errors of the papists have never been admitted by the Greeks, such as papal supremacy, purgatory, selling indulgences, the inquisition, forbidding the Scriptures, and giving the Lord's supper in only one kind. The Greeks, however, pray to saints, and enjoin auricular confession, and pray for the dead, and know of no other regeneration than baptism. The present is the time for a mission to Greece. The nation is roused-the elements of national aud individual character are all in motion. An impression, a turn of public opinion, the commencement of institutions which at another time would require years, might now be effected at once. It is desirable that the time of political revolution should also be a period of religious reform. Americans should undertake this mission. The prejudices of Greece are all in their favor, and strongly so in preference to every other nation on earth except the English. There is no time to be lost. It is even now too late. The |
