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225

SUMMARY OF MISSIONARY PROCEEDINGS.

OUR Summary for the present quarter will be short, because of most of the Societies we have given an ample notice in the abstract of their annual reports, contained in our Religious and Philanthropic Intelligence.

The venerable SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE is not included there, because we are not aware of the period at which its annual meeting is held; but we are happy, in this place, to lay before our readers the following encouraging view of its operations.

From the Annual Report of this Society, it appears that the amount of books issued last year is as follows:

Bibles (exclusive of Dr. Mant's).

New Testaments and Psalters
Common Prayer Books

Other bound books..

Tracts half bound

Tracts and papers gratuitously.

32,199

45,682

85,301

75,550

827,044

176,315

1,242,091

Several fresh books have been added to the Society's publications. Tracts in Greek by St. Athanasius, Chrysostom, Basil, Gregory, and Nazienzen, have been printed for distribution in the Ionian Isles. Supplies of books have been granted to the settlers in South Africa, to the Chatham Garrison, and the King's Bench Prison. The Special Committee for counteracting blasphemous and infidel publications have printed upwards of a million of tracts, of which about 900,000 have been circulated, at an expense of £4000, and the same course of operations has been kept up for another year.

The Society's receipts for the year amounted to - £51,822 3 3 Expenses 8 50,421 18 The number of Members has increased to 14,530; and of Diocesan Committees, at home and abroad, to 225.

The total number of Children, reported as receiving assistance in their education from the Society, is 181,946;-16,230 of whom are in the Metropolis. The actual number, however, is much larger; the Diocesan and other returns being very imperfect. Of the foreign proceedings of the Society, we are not in possession of very recent intelligence; but cannot avoid expressing a wish that it would add to its polemical Greek tracts, some of those powerful appeals to the consciences and hearts of men, with which the writings of the Fathers of the Church abound, and which are particularly adapted to the present state of their countrymen.

The MORAVIAN Mission holds no annual meeting; and as the Synodal Committee directing its proceedings is located at Hernhutt, in Germany, we do not receive the most prompt intelligence of its success. Its pecuniary difficulties are, we hope, however, decreasing, as the last year's contribution of the London Association in, aid of its funds, exceeded, by eight hundred pounds, that of the preceding year, and nearly trebled its first contribution four years ago. Including the adult females of the Missions, 170 labourers are now employed by this unassuming Society, which includes in its congregaVOL. V.-No. 9.

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tions 30,000 converts. The Lord add daily to their number of such as shall be saved!

The fruits of faith have already appeared in some of the poor Esquimaux of Labrador, who have made a contribution of seal blubber, producing thirty tons of oil, to the funds of the Bible Society, that, in their own language, more heathens might be presented with that book "6 so far more precious than any thing else in this world." So sensible are these people, whose feelings and ideas are in general somewhat blunt, of the benefits they have received in the gospel, and so anxious that others should partake them also.

The BAPTIST Mission goes on prospering, and, we doubt not, to prosper, in the East. In the Molunga place of worship, at Calcutta, where the service is conducted in Bengalee, a more lively attention than usual has been evinced by the natives. That at Moonshee Bazar, originally erected at the expense of a pious female servant, is about, at her request, to be removed to a more convenient spot, she herself cheerfully engaging to contribute to the expense incurred. The two other native chapels are pretty well attended. The good effects of education are very visible here. One of the Missionaries of the Society lately asked his Pundit, who had visited every school connected with the Society, to examine its progress, "whether he had witnessed any effects of the instruction now afforded to children." He replied, "Yes, Sir: the effects are astonishing, both among the Children and the Parents. A few months ago, before your books were introduced, if I had asked a boy at school what was the matter during the late eclipse, he would have replied, that the giant Rahoo was eating the moon; and would have joined in the beating of drums, &c. to frighten him, that he might let go his grasp. But now they all know better: they see such an event without alarm, know it to be produced by the shadow of the earth, and despise the foolish ideas and customs which they formerly entertained and practised. A few months ago, had a snake bitten a person, he would have done nothing but immediately call for a Priest to repeat a muntra' or incantation, 'over him; and if the snake was poisonous, die in the repetition, but now, as soon as he is bitten, he puts no faith in muntras, but directly ties a bandage over the wound, and gets a hot iron applied, to burn out the poison; and if he gets it done quickly, there is great hope of his recovery, even though the snake were poisonous.' 'The other day,' he continued, 'one of the Hurkarahs' or letter-carriers, while all the servants were sitting together in my house, expressed his intention of swinging; as he had made a vow, when he was ill, that if Siva would preserve his life, he would perform this act of holiness to his praise. All the assembly, instead of receiving this declaration of his piety with approbation, and encouraging him to put it into execution, as they would have done some little time ago, now, with one accord, blamed him for his folly, and made him desist from his intention!"" To the disgrace of our government, the brethren of the mission still have to complain of the burning of Hindoo widows, which (can it be believed of Christian rulers?) is always done under the authority of a magistrate's warrant. An act of the British legislature, of but a single page, might in a moment put a stop to the practice; though we blush for our country, when we add,—yet does not? Spite, however, of this shameful indifference to the spread of the gospel, on the part of the European government, idolatry is slowly yet evidently on the decline in Bengal. The temples built by former Rajahs are quietly suffered

by the present one to go to decay, whilst the allowance for their maintenance has dwindled from 25,000 rupees to a few hundreds. At Dinagepour, the Mission has a church of sixty converts, seventeen of whom were recently baptized; and fourteen candidates are speedily expected to be added, by that initiatory rite, to the visible church, in this heathen land. The schools at Seampure are prospering, whilst the college and two houses for professors are roofed in. A Brahman has just been baptized there. In Java, a few of the Malays seem to awakened to a spirit of inquiry after the God who is preached in these villages by the indefatigable heralds of the cross, though in few instances are any very visible effects produced. Since the restoration of the island to the Dutch, the active agents of this most useful Mission have indeed been subjected to such restrictions in their labours, that, after the failure of an application to the King of the Netherlands by a deputation of the Committee of the Society, Mr. Robinson has been withdrawn from Batavia, to join, at the invitation of Sir Stamford Raffles, the Mission on Sumatra. Received with his wonted kindness by that liberal and enlightened governor, he has commenced preaching in Malay, with success, at the seat of government, which Mr. Evans has left for Padang, and Mr. Burton is about to leave for Nias, a most important post, as we shewed in our last; as are, indeed, more places upon the island; than Missionaries have yet been sent to supply, though we hope they will not long be left destitute; for the Mahomedan priests are very active in making converts, whom their teaching renders ten-fold more the children of Satan than before. The schools, on the whole, are still increasing, and one for girls is about to be opened at Fort Marlborough, in the house of a Malay lady, about eighty years of age, the verandah of the Missionaries being objected to as so distant (though not in fact ten minutes' walk,) that their bigger girls might be stolen, a thing of which they are much afraid, as daughters are valuable property, saleable as wives. The number of schools forming and formed on this island, has excited considerable alarm, and some opposition, principally from the Melims, or chief Mahometan priests; but the strongest party, with the governor of course at its head, is for the schools, and their opponents are pretty quiet now. In the West, as in the Eastern Indies, the Mission of the Society prospers, for in Jamaica, in five years a thousand negroes have been added to the church on earth, several of whom have, in a triumphant death, given good evidence of their being translated to the church of the first-born, written in heaven. The new chapel at Kingston was opened on the 27th of January, upwards of two thousand hearers being within the building, and five hundred upon benches without. The service induced some gentlemen, unknown to the Missionaries, not only to vindicate, but to advocate their cause, and earnestly to solicit support for an institution “ SO likely to be advantageous to the public welfare."

The LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY, like its sister institutions, is making progress, though slowly, in the East. At Chinsurah, a school for girls is established in the government house, and though, from its unfavourable situation, it is attended but by few scholars, their being able to read and write a little, and to commit to memory the whole of Mr. Pearson's catechism, is justly considered an extraordinary acquisition for a Bengalee female, so degraded is the sex in the East. A new school-room is about to be opened, in a populous neighbourhood, after the holidays, connected with the licentious Doorga

Poojah, or festival of Doorga, are over. The congregations in the chapels are numerous, though too generally indifferent to the great truths which they there hear proclaimed. At Belgaum, the exertions of an association, recently formed for the promotion of evangelical religion, have, in the distribution of the Scriptures, been blessed to the awakening of an evident concern for their immortal interests, in the minds of two Brahmins, and of some other natives, who have put away their idols, and are now serious and anxious inquirers after the truth as it is in Jesus. A wide field of usefulness seems to be opening here, requiring the labour of more than one Missionary, active as he is in the discharge of his important duties. The opening of a Hindoo temple at Bangalore, lately presented a very curious spectacle; for whilst the heathen priest within was burning incense to his idol, the Christian Missionary, by permission of the people, was standing in the porch, reading to the auditory, deeply attentive to what he said, the living oracles of God. At Surat, the Missionaries are diligently employed in printing Tracts in the Gujeratte tongue, together with elementary books for the native schools, which are slowly on the increase there. Mr. Fyrie is also about to print in that language, a small volume of discourses, on the leading doctrines of the Gospel. The Brahmins here seem to be making inquiries after this new way, and some of them to be favourably disposed to its reception. From the West Indies, we have no recent intelligence, except from Berbice, where a new school-room is erecting, towards which the governor and the fiscal have both been contributors, as has also been the case with several respectable planters. In Russia, things wear an encouraging aspect, as the school, established by the emperor at St. Petersburgh, under the direction of Mr. Knill, is in a flourishing state, and much concern is awakened amongst the inhabitants, especially those of German origin, relative to eternal things. The latter work has been chiefly effected by the instrumentality of a Roman Catholic priest, "a zealous and heavenly minded man," to use Mr. Knill's own liberal expressions, "who preaches in German frequently, and from house to house, and holds a Missionary Prayer Meeting in his own house on the first Monday of the month. He also distributes copies of the sacred scriptures, &c." The Governor of Siberia has expressed his satisfaction with the conduct of the Missionaries, to whose love, zeal, and promptitude, he declared himself an edified eye-witness, fully persuaded of the purity of their intentions, and particularly interested in their welfare. Prince Rataffe, and the Missionaries and artisans who accompanied him, have, we are rejoiced to learn, arrived in safety at Port Louis, as has Dr. Philip at the Cape, after a three months' tour into the interior of Africa. We are sorry to find that he was much indisposed when he reached home; but are happy to hear, that, when the last accounts left him, he was convalescent.

The CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY has formed a ninth Mission to the North-west Indians on the Red River, with great prospects of usefulness amongst the numerous tribes, to which access may thence be attained. M. Jowett has returned to Malta, in company with some of the Missionaries of the Society destined for India. The new commercial arrangements between the Foulah country, and the colony of Sierra Leone, seem to promise the opening a door of success to the active agents of this Society in Western Africa, a field peculiarly their own, and on which they can produce many

triumphant instances of the blessing of Heaven upon their unwearied exertions in the saving conversion of sinners from the errors of their way to the only living and true God.

To the new METHODIST MISSION chapel at Jaffna in Ceylon, 3000 rix-dollars have been subscribed by the inhabitants; and at that station, and all over the island, increasing interest seems to be excited amongst the heathen by the labours of the Missionaries, and increasing alarm among their priests. The Brahmins themselves begin to express some fear that Christianity will one day overthrow their system, and even to predict the time when it will be overthrown; whence they bend all their power and sagacity against it, mocking, abusing, and publicly disputing with its teachers, as occasion offers-a conduct much more promising to their conversion to the gospel, than was their former indifference to it, and to its heralds. The number of these is increasing, by the addition of young men on the island, as local preachers, in Portuguese and Tamul, by whose aid, about sixty public services in a month are held in the Jaffna circuit only, in the school-rooms, rest-houses, bazars, wherever, in short, a company can be assembled together. At Hobarts town, in Van Diemen's land, a religious society has been formed by some pious persons removed thither from New South Wales. So novel a circumstance as preaching and praying in a public assembly, in a country, some of whose European inhabitants had not heard divine service for twenty years, excited very riotous proceedings in the populace; but the threat of appealing for protection to the Lieutenant-Governor, who has evinced a disposition very favourable to Missionary exertions, soon allayed the ferment. A Missionary has indeed been left there, who was on his way for New South Wales, all classes of the people being desirous of a minister amongst them. The field is wide, as the natives are very ignorant and uncivilized, but seem not to have many prejudices to subdue their notions of religion, being, like those of their fellow savages in other parts of the world, extremely simple and obscure,— confined principally to the worship of a good spirit, who rules the day, and the propitiation of an evil one, to whom they attribute the empire of the night. The Mission to New South Wales is in a state of prosperity, encouraged by the Governor, and slowly making converts among the settlers and the natives. Mr. and Mrs. Leigh are proceeding thence to New Zealand, where they intend to fix their settlement, at Mercury Bay, a spot recommended by Mr. Marsden, for the commencement of their labours, and also by its being under the government of Shungee, the chief formerly in London, a number of whose friends and under-chiefs reside there. Other Missionaries were expected at Sydney in time to proceed with them to this place of their destination. In Southern Africa, a new chapel is building at Salem, the most promising of the Albany settlements, where the Missionary is much patronized by the local authorities, and esteemed by the people. In Western Africa, this Society acts as a very useful auxiliary to the Church Mission, with whose labourers its agents live as brethren. Considerable good seems to have been effected by the Wesleyan Missionaries here, especially amongst the recaptured slaves, trophies of British humanity now, as, beneath British preaching, we hope they will soon become trophies of redeeming grace. The Missionaries at St. Mary's have made a settlement at Mandanaree, a native town in the territories of the King of Combo, by whom they are encouraged and protected, though the Mahometan

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