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It is fashionable to speak of the conversion of the Indians as a mere utopian hypothesis, a scheme more visionary than all the visions that feed the voracious credulity of a believing generation. And yet this common prejudice is in the face of all experience, which has uniformly demonstrated that they yield the readiest and the ripest fruits to Missionary zeal. The labours of the United Brethren, of MAYHEW, ELLIOT, BRAINARD, FINLAY and others, have been crowned with ample success, and the waywardness of the savage character has submitted to the healing influences of the Gospel. If their converts have not, in every instance, been reduced into organized, intelligent and enduring communities, it was because first successes were not followed up; because the whites thought it more for their own interest to keep them in a state of degraded inferiority, than to admit them to the just rights of men; because they were neglected and cheated and corrupted in peace, and murdered in war; for any other cause, I am fully persuaded, than any incapacity in the Indians themselves, to be moulded into all the noblest forms of intellectual and moral excellence.

I thank God, better feelings and sounder doctrines are beginning to prevail. The American churches are waking from their guilty slumbers, and those wretched wanderers, so long forgotten in the dispensations of our benevolence, are no more to be considered as savage beasts which should be hunted from the earth; but as immortal beings who may be tutored for the skies. The seed has been sown which is already bringing forth a plenteous harvest to the glory of God and the salvation of men; and we who have listened to the yells of ravage and death echoed from invaded forests, may yet live, till these forlorn outcasts shall be reclaimed to the charities of society; till a message of redeeming love shall visit all their families and bring them into a rich communion of our privileges and our hopes.

Sir, I have done, I thank you for this opportunity of offering my humble tribute to the Missionary cause, and my heart responds to the declaration of gratitude which, I am sure, you will accord to the supporters of your pious undertaking.

EVIL SPEAKING REBUKED.

When any one was speaking ill of another in the presence of PETER the Great, he at first listened to him attentively, and then interrupted him: "Is there not," said he, "a fair side also to the character of the person of whom you are speaking? Come, tell me what good qualities you have remarked about him."

Religious and Missionary Intelligence.

EIGHTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY.

On Thursday, May 13, 1824, was held at the City-Hotel, New-York, the Eighth Anniversary of the American Bible Society.

An address from the President of the Society, the Hon. JOHN JAY, was read by the REV. DR. JAMES MILNOR, Secretary for Foreign Correspondence. This very appropriate address concludes in the following words :

"Our days are becoming more and heathen, and in rendering Christians

more favoured and distinguished by new and unexpected accessions of strength to the cause of Christianity. A zeal unknown to many preceding ages, has recently pervaded almost every Christian country, and occasioned the esta blishment of institutions well calculated to diffuse the knowledge and impress the precepts of the Gospel both at home

more and more "obedient to the faith," apprize us, that the Great Captain of our Salvation is going forth, "conquering and to conquer;" and is directing and employing these means and measures for that important purpose. They therefore, who enlist in His service, have the highest encouragement to fulfil the duties assigned to their respective

and abroad. The number and diversity stations, for, most certain it is, that those of these institutions, their concurrent of His followers who stedfastly and vigtendency to promote these purposes, orously contribute to the furtherance and the multitudes who are cordially and completion of His conquest, will giving them aid and support, are so ex- also participate in the transcendent glo

to ries and blessings of HIS TRIUMPH."

traordinary, and so little analogous
the dictates of human propensities opensities and
passions, that no adequate cause can be
assigned for them, but the goodness,
wisdom and will of Him who made and
governs the world.

"The Treasurer, WILLIAM W. WOOLSEY, Esq. read the report of the Committee who audited his accounts, by which it appeared that the net receipts for the year have been $41,008 44, and the expenditures for the year $43,108 87.

"We have reason to rejoice that such institutions have been so greatly multiplied and cherished in the United States; especially, as a kind Providence has blessed us, not only with peace and plenty, but also with the full and secure enjoyment of our civil and religious rights and privileges. Let us therefore, persevere in our endeavours to promo the operation of these institutions, and to accelerate the attainment of their tures. objects. Their unexampled rise, pro- "Several resolutions were then unangress and success in giving Light to the imously adopted by the Society." giving Light

"Parts of the Annual Report were then read by the Rev. Dr. S. S. WOODHULL, Secretary for Domestic Correspondence, from which it appeared that the issues of Bibles and Testaments, within the year, were 31,590 Bibles, and 28,849 Testapromote ments, making with those issued in former years, 309,062 copies of the Scrip

We have only room to present the following extracts from the speeches which were delivered on that interesting occasion. DR. JEREMIAH DAY, President of Yale College, Connecticut, in moving the resolution to adopt and print the Report, among other things observed ;

"When I look at the efforts which are now making to send the Word of Life to the nations and the families of the earth, my thoughts are carried back to a memorable prayer, which was offered nearly two thousand years since. Our Lord knowing that his hour was come, that he should depart out of this world, and ascend to his Father, gathered around him the chosen companions

of his labours, to deliver to them his dying benediction.

"When this was ended, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, "Holy Father, keep through thine own name, those whom thou hast given me. Sanctify them, through thy truth, thy word is truth." The object of this petition of Christ was, that his disciples might be made holy. The means by which they were to be made holy, was the Word of Truth. Nor were the disciples then present, the only persons for whom this blessing was asked; Neither pray I for these alone,' says Christ, 'but for them also, which shall believe through their word; that they all may be one.' "The purpose for which this prayer was offered, will most assuredly be accomplished. From that day to this, the Scriptures of truth, have been producing their effect, in sanctifying the hearts and lives of men. And the they will continue their influence, till one united song of praise shall ascend from the nations which dwell on the face of the earth.

"But never yet, did philosophic tube
That brings the planets home into the eye
Of observation, and discovers. else
Not visible, his family of worlds,
Discover him that rules them."

"What philosophical code of ethics has ever been productive of practical godliness? If you would persuade a man to enter upon a course of piety and virtue, you must come to him in the name of the God of heaven. You must deliver him a message from the throne of eternal justice: the rules of life which you propose to him, must be clothed with the authority of the Infinite Lawgiver. Your lesssons of duty must carry with them the sanction of eternal retribution.

"The happiness also, which results from the practice of holiness, is to be ascribed to the influence of revealed truth. There may be a momentary gratification from sensual indulgence

"The truth of revelation is thus efficacious, because it is the word of the living God. It is that truth which Omniscience has chosen to communicate, as the light of the world. He who formed the spirit of man within him, knows perfectly the means, which are there may be a buoyancy of spirits best adapted to control his affections, the youthful glow of health-there may

in

and carry conviction to his understanding. He can check the torrent of depravity, which all human efforts are insufficient to withstand. He has not only given us the truth-his own truth, with no mixture of error: but has secured its triumph, by an inviolable promise. For as the rain cometh down from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth; so shall my word be, saith the Lord, that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void; but it shall accomplish that which I please.'

"And, Sir, it is God's own truth, the truth of his word, and that alone, which he ordinarily blesses as the means by which holiness is attained. There are other truths, which are of high importance in the business and intercourse of life. But they will not produce obedience to the divine commands. Literature may exalt the understanding, it may spread before us the luxuries of fancy, it may cast a brightness over the face of society; but it will never rescue the heart from the dominion of sin.

"Science may greatly advance the useful and the elegant arts. It may store the mind with the treasures of wisdom, which have been accumulating for ages. It may send our thoughts far abroad among the worlds and systems of worlds, with which the heavens are filled.

be a delirious joy in the triumphs of unhallowed ambition. But there can be no substantial peace of mind, which does not arise from obedience to the truth; the foundation on which rests the felicity of heaven.

"Would you cheer the Christian who is languishing in poverty? open to him the volume in which he can read his title to mansions in the heavens. Would you revive the spirit which affliction has overpowered? spread before it the pages which will cause it to glory in tribulation. Would you sustain the soul which is sinking in death? read the invitations which direct it to look to the eternal God as its refuge.

"The same divine word, which pours light and joy into the heart of the humble believer, dispels the darkness which has rested for ages on the nations of the earth. It was this which burst the gloom in which even the Christian world was sunk before the Protestant reformation. It is this which, from that day to the present, has been shedding a brighter and brighter light upon the people who have welcomed its beams. It is this which will triumph over every remaining superstition and error; which will break up the systems of idolatrous worship; which will fill the earth with the knowledge and the glory of God."

The REV. ABSALOM PETERS, of Bennington, Vermont, of the Presbyterian Church, on moving the resolution of thanks to the Board of Managers for their services the past year; after some preliminary remarks, proceeded as follows:--ï

"Mr. President, I hope to indulge in no unholy flight of fancy; but really Sir, I never before occupied a place where I could view myself to be in so interesting a light, a citizen of the world, and a member of the church universal. I never before so sensibly felt a brother's heart moving within me, as when I look around upon the various denominations of Christians, who compose this Society, and contemplate the spiritual wretchedness of millions, who are bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. I never before felt that I was speaking to all Christendom, and uttering my voice in the hearing of the nations. I am strongly reminded by the circumstances of this meeting of the journey of Moses, 'from the plains of Moab unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah,' when 'the Lord showed him all the land' of Israel's future inheritance, saying, 'I have caused thee to see it with thine eyes.' This occasion places us upon a mountain that overlooks the inheritance of the saints. We have come up to the summit of a moral high-land, from which, in the light of heaven's sun, we may look down upon the landscape of the world. It is a light which

sets times past in present view,
Brings distant prospects home,
Of things a thousand years ago,
Or thousand years to come.'

Unrolled before us is the measureless
map of man; and from the top of this
Pisgah, we may look back on the wil
derness, around us on the multitudes of
Israel, and the march of Zion, and on-
ward to the triumph of holiness overevery
thing which tendeth to hurt or to destroy.
"There was a time, Sir, when the
sources of knowledge were open only
to a few; when neither works of science,
nor the Oracles of God could be multi-
plied excepting by the tiresome and
endless labour of the transcriber.--
Then the lamp of science and the fire
of religion burnt but dimly at a few de-
tached points on the summit of society,
while all around them was cheerless
night and winter. And that night was
long. A thousand years the church
travelled in darkness almost unmingled.
"They wandered in the wilderness, in
a solitary place; they found no city to

dwell in," while the nations around them were shrouded in a gloom which nothing but the eye of God could penetrate. The human intellect was imprisoned; the souls of men were stiffened by the chills of winter; cold and frozen as the polar snows, while the sun delays his rising on the night of the year. The cause perpetuated the effect, and the effect in its turn increased the cause, till the chains of superstition and ignorance, from the centre to the poles, had well nigh been fastened on the world. And even when, by the discovery of the art of printing, a facility was afforded for breaking the links of this spiritual and intellectual vinculum, it was long before any could be found who had skill to apply the instrument. For two hundred years therefore, the Church, ignorant of the power of this facility, lay groaning under bands that she might have burst as tow, till they were torn asunder by the strength of the Protestant reformation.

"But that which was is passed away, and that which is-yes, we bless God for the vision-that which is, claims our attention. The Church is no longer a prisoner. She is no longer a solitary wanderer in the wilderness. The present age presents her entering the fields of light and knowledge, and approaching her destined triumph. The day has dawned upon the path-way of her glory. She is looking forth 'as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners.' As she pursues her onward march across the wilderness, and rises over the mountain wave, the prince of the powers of the air, the spirit that always has wrought in the children of disobedience, recedes, and gives up the ground. The armies of Israel begin to wave the banner of victory. The mightiest conqueror in the universe is already setting his foot upon the neck of the mightiest foe. He dashes to the earth the temples of idolatry; the altars of paganism crumble to the dust at his approach; kings tremble on their thrones, and cast their crowns at his feet; while queens are becoming nursing mothers to the retinue that follow him. But we shall soon be done with the present."

The Rev. SPENCER H. CONE, of New-York, of the Baptist Church, seconded the motion, and concluded his address in the following words :

"Is it said-and does it operate as a siah?" Why, Sir, the mere anticipation discouragement upon any of our minds, of those halcyon days should animate that we shall not dwell upon the earth us with holy joy, and strengthen us with during the millennial reign of the Mes- invincible fortitude. It was not the VOL. VII.

40

privilege of David to build the temple of the Lord; but to gather together materials for the splendid edifice, was his honourable and delightful employ.What though we may not see the walls of Zion extending from the river to the ends of the earth, is it nothing to behold her already enlarging the place of her tent, and stretching forth the curtains of her habitation? It was not the pleasure of Jehovah, that the sword should depart from the house of Israel's king while he lived, yet his wars were indispensably necessary, and preparatory to the peaceful reign of Solomon.

"If it be not our lot to hear the shout of victory bursting from the marshalled host of Jesus, at the decisive battle of Armageddon, in that great day of God Almighty, when the Lord shall come out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; yet, enlisted under the banners of the great Captain of Salvation, and knowing that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strong holds, every nerve should be exerted, and every heart beat with all a soldier's ardour, while engaged in those Church militant operations which are introductory to that interesting epoch when the dragon and his followers shall sink beneath the all-conquering arm of Michael and his angels.

"Nor are we cheered alone by prophetic vision; or by the exceeding great and precious promises with which the Holy Book abounds; our souls are quickened, and our hands strengthened by actual and extensive success. Copies of the Bible have been greatly multiplied and widely circulated; and many of our immortal fellow-beings, looking into the precious volume, and with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spi

rit of the Lord. The American wilderness and solitary places are glad for them, and the desert begins to rejoice and blossom as the rose.

"Among the circumstances connected with the organization and progress of this institution, the union and fraternal co-operation of Christians of different denominations, is one of no trifling import. Reference has been frequently and eloquently had to this fact, upon occasions like the present; and I deem it a most exalted privilege to be permitted again to mention it, in terms of the purest, the loftiest approbation. No sacrifice of religious feeling, no abandonment of honest sentiment, no merging of conscientious scruples in the fashionable vortex of expediency, is the price of our fellowship in this good work. We have combined our energies and resources, and have come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty, upon Bible principles; and just in proportion to the reception of Bible truth into our hearts, in all its unsophisticated and uncommented purity, shall be the holy permanency of our union, and the unyielding activity of our benevolence. The one business of the Board has been to disseminate the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make men wise unto salvation, through faith which is in Christ Jesus; and our united fervent prayer, is embodied in the language of the Psalmist Oh God! send out thy light and thy truth. Let thy work appear unto thy servants, and thy glory unto their children. Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us; and establish thou the work of our hands upon us; yea, the work of our hands establish thou it.'

"But, Sir, I have done. The age and experience and talents all around me, cry, 'Say no more'-the claims of the occasion, and the feelings of my full heart, would not allow me to say less."

The REV. DR. WILLIAM M'MURRAY of New-York, of the Reformed Dutch Church, on seconding the fourth resolution, viz. That the thanks of the Society be given to the Vice Presidents, for the continuance of their patronage and support, observed;

"I would not presume, Sir, to open my lips on this occasion, surrounded as we are with so many abler advocates, were it not that the success which has attended the exertions of this noble Institution, has rendered it perfectly obvious, that its interests are not now likely to suffer by any incompetency of its defenders. It has pursued its glorious way thus far, so as to surpass the warm

est anticipations of its most sanguine friends, and to render perfectly inefficient the attacks of its opponents.

"But, Sir, there is something in the cause and the occasion of ourassembling to-day-there is much in the intelligence we have heard from your Report, which is calculated to call forth the liveliest feelings of the heart, to awaken sentiments of the most fervent gratitude, and

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