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come of the year amounted to £68,582. 4s. 8d. This sum includes £11,766. 11s. 9d., the legacy of the late Horatio Cock, Esq., of Colchester. The receipts through Associations were £6,897. 6s. 5d. more than those of last year. The expenditure of the year was £55,638. 16s. 5d. An enlargement of the Society's operations in the West Indies and China is contemplated. The Institution at Islington was reported to be in a sound and thriving state, and to contain twenty-five Students. Thirty-one new Associations have been formed during the past year. The number of Missionaries sent out in the year was four in holy orders, and five Catechists and artisans. In the West African Mission there are 474 communicants, and 3,100 attendants on public worship. In the year 30,081 copies of different publications have been issued from the Malta press. The school labours of the Rev. F. Mildner, of Syra, were proceeding satisfactorily. At Smyrna there are upwards of 500 children in the schools. In Egypt the Missionaries were prosecuting their labours with diligence in the midst of many difficulties. In the several Missions of the Society in India and Ceylon a steady progress was reported. The Calcutta Corresponding Committee thus describe the state of this part of India, with reference to the progress of Christianity in that country :

"It is impossible to convey to friends at a distance any thing like an adequate idea of the state of things at this Presidency. There are numbers of intelligent, educated, and well-informed young men among the natives, whom knowledge has taught to see the monstrous folly and absurdity of Hindooism, who, notwithstanding, have no less feeling of hostility to the Christian religion; too proud to be led by error, but not humble enough to search for and submit to truth. There are others with a general conviction of the truth of Christianity on their minds, but who, from fear or interest, will not submit to its requirements. Others are halting between two opinions, and waiting for some more favourable opportunity; while a few, a very few, are ready to renounce father and mother, sister and brother, houses and lands, for Christ's sake. The fields here truly may be said to be white unto the harvest. O for the spirit of a Schwartz, a Martyn, a Brainerd, to animate the minds of some of the able youths of Oxford and Cambridge, to induce them to listen to the cry, Come over and help us,' and gladly to lay their honours and acquirements at

the feet of Christ, and to feel that they are only worth possessing, when, by the grace of God, they are thus consecrated. to the highest and noblest purposes ! "

The BISHOP OF OHIO, who has come to England to obtain pecuniary assistance in behalf of the Episcopal Church of America, and to invite young men of piety and talent to enter into the ministry in that community, gave the following account of the spread of Popery in the diocese with which he is connected:-Let the Meeting be informed, that Popery, with all its errors, was annually extended in that district by the arrival of numerous bodies of its professors. Was it known amongst them, that since the year 1792, when the number of Roman Catholics in the then American States did not exceed 18,000, they had increased, according to the accounts of some, to 800,000? though he did not concur in thinking, that they amounted to that number. He should, he thought, be nearer the correct statement, if he estimated the whole, at present, at 550,000. But was not that an enormous increase, an awful spread of error within that period? Let him not be understood as saying, that this increase was the result of proselytism. Protestantism gained as many from Popery as would fully counterbalance any loss it had sustained by proselytism to the Romish Church. The causes of the increase were principally these:-First, that America had extended her geographical boundary, and now included within her limits persons professing Popery, who did not before belong to the Union. In the next place, the numbers had been increased by migrations from various parts of the continent of Europe; but by far the largest portion of this increased number had gone over from Ireland. He would estimate the increase from that source alone to be 400,000 of the whole. These circumstances, then, gave to the Protestant Episcopal Church of America strong demands on their brethren in Great Britain, for the inroads which these migrations from her shores were constantly making amongst them. They were one people; and, though separated by a wide extent of ocean, they were united in the belief of one common faith, and in the worship of one Lord Jesus Christ. He would then say to that Meeting, that he had come from the far west, as the fisher of men, to collect men of decided piety, and no other. He came to solicit young men of that description to go forth with him to his remote church: he sought for them to go out, not to increase

their worldly fortunes, or to promote their worldly comfort, but to go forth to be educated for the Mission on which they would be sent when properly qualified. This was one of the objects of his visit. But he had come also for another object : he came to seek in this country the means of giving proper education, not alone to those young men who might go out with him, but for diffusing the benefits and blessings of education generally.

For

this purpose he asked for pecuniary aid to the extent of £2,000; and because the sum was so small, he feared there was some danger of his not getting the whole of it; however, his confidence in those to whom he appealed was strong; and when he saw before him a sea of heads, and a sea of hearts, he was dis'posed, as a fisher of men, to do his Master's bidding, "Let down the net."

III. THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY. THE Thirty-first Anniversary Meeting of this Society was held at Exeter-Hall, on Wednesday, May 6th, and was more numerously attended than any Meeting since the formation of the Society.

It was announced that the chair would be taken at eleven o'clock, but long before that time, notwithstanding the unfavourable state of the weather, every part of the Hall, save a few seats reserved on the platform, was so closely occupied, as in many instances to be inconvenient to the parties; but even with that inconvenient pressure, there was not sufficient room for all who claimed admittance. Under these circumstances it was determined that the lower room should be opened for those who could not gain admission into the greater, and that after the Report had been read to the large Meeting, it should be taken down and read in the lower room, where the Treasurer of the Society, John Thornton, Esq, had consented to take the chair. Several distinguished supporters of the Society kindly acceded to the suggestions made to them, that they should deliver their addresses to the Meeting in the lower room. Amongst these were the Hon. and Rev. Baptist Noel, Rev. Charles Daly, Rev. John Clayton, and the Rev. Dr. Morison. At eleven o'clock Lord Bexley, the President of the Society, came on the platform, accompanied by the Marquis Cholmondeley, the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, Lord Lorton, Lord Mountsandford, Lord Teignmouth, the Bishop of Ohio, the Rev. Archdeacon Corrie, the Rev. J. W. Cunningham, J. P. Plumptre, Esq., M. P., J. Hardy, Esq., M. P., S. Lushington, Esq, .M. P., and many other distinguished supporters of the Society.

The Speakers at this Meeting were Lord Teignmouth; the Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry; the Bishop of Ohio; the Rev. Archdeacon Corrie ; the Rev. Dr. Spring, Representative of the American Bible Society; the Rev. John Leifchild; the Rev. W. Yate,

the

Missionary from New-Zealand;
Rev. John Hannah; the Rev. John
Williams, Missionary from the South-
Sea Islands; the Rev. Hugh Stowell;
T. R. Guest, Esq.; and the Marquis of
Cholmondeley.

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The Report stated that the distribution by the Paris Bible Society had, in the year just closed, amounted to 62,194 Bibles and Testaments; the distribution of the previous year had not exceeded 55,666. The accounts from Paris contained also most gratifying intelligence of the progress of the Society in Switzerland, in some parts of which a distribution to the amount of 27,000 copies had been effected by two of the Society's colporteurs. It further appeared that the visitation of the cholera in several parts of Spain drove many, chiefly of the more wealthy classes, to seek an asylum in France, where their attention had been called by the Agents of the Society the holy Scriptures, which had hitherto been a sealed book to them. The Report gave extracts from Dr. Pinkerton's report of the distribution of Bibles and Testaments in the north of Europe. From this it appeared that 27,935 copies had been distributed last year in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, German, Polish, and other languages; and that a considerable number of these had found their way into the hands of Roman Catholics. As a proof of the necessity of great exertions on the part of the Society, the Report mentioned that an image in a monastery was visited by at least 150,000 pilgrims in the course of the year; that it kept twenty bookbinders in constant employment, to stitch up and prepare for delivery a history and description of this image, such was the great demand for it. Unfortunately, however, there was no demand for the New or Old Testament; indeed, they were not ailowed to be sold at all. After adverting to the satisfactory progress of Bible distribution in other parts of Germany, in Sweden, and Russia, the principal

Bible Society of which latter place had already distributed 717,977 copies of the sacred Scriptures, the Report adverted to the state of Portugal and Spain. In the former country there was now no prosecution for religious opinion, but every man was allowed to choose which religion he pleased, and to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. In the islands of the Mediterranean and in Greece the distribution of the holy Scriptures had gone on favourably; and the prospect was equally favourable in Moldavia, Wallachia, Bucharest, and part of Persia.

In Calcutta, and other parts of the East Indies, there had been a much greater than ordinary distribution of Bibles and Testaments, and larger collections had been made to forward the objects of the Society. The accounts from New South Wales, and the islands of the Pacific, were also most satisfactory. Two translations of the New Testament into the language of the different islands in the Pacific had been brought to this country by the Rev. W. Yate, and the Rev. J. Williams, and were now in the course of being printed by the Society. The attention of the Society had, during the last year, been greatly directed to the West Indies, with the view of an extensive distribution of the Scriptures to such of the newly emancipated negroes as could read. An extra subscription of £15,000 had been raised for the purpose of promoting that object without interfering with the gene. ral funds of the Society. The first shipment made by the Society to that part of the world consisted of 73,695 copies of the Scriptures, the conveyance of which was given by the owners of the vessels without any expense to the Society. From returns from the Isle of France, it appeared that 60,000 negroes had received civil freedom, not one in ten of whom knew how to read; and the ignorance was, of course, great in proportion. Adverting to the progress made by the North American Bible Society, the Report stated that its receipts in the last year were 88,600 dollars; that its issue of Bibles and Testaments exceeded 110,000 copies, making the whole distribution, since the commencement, one million, one hundred and thirteen thousand.

first was a legacy of £11,695. 12s. 9d., (less by the legacy duty,) being a bequest of the late Horatio Cock, Esq.; and the other a sum of £15,000., given exclusively for the Negro Fund. But when these were taken into account, the general subscriptions of the Society would be found to be little less than

those of the previous year. In these were included a sum of £29,184. 13s. 7d.; being the amount of free donations from Auxiliaries to the Parent Society. The expenditure within the year was £84,249. 13s. 4d., leaving a balance exceeding £23,000; but the engagements of the Society amount to above sixty-nine thousand pounds. The distribution by the Society in the past year amounted to six hundred and fifty-three thousand six hundred and four Bibles and Testaments, and portions of the holy Scriptures, including those sent to the West Indies, &c.; but even after deducting the latter, it would be found that there had been a considerable increase of the issues in the last year as compared with the previous years. The Report, after again adverting to the exertions made for the West Indies, and the prospect held out that those exertions would, under the divine blessing, be attended with complete success in the religious instruction of the negro, proceeded to state, that the present year, 1835, was the third centenary anniver. sary of the first printing of an English Bible. It then contrasted the state of society, and of England generally, of that day, with their condition at present; and traced the moral greatness of England now, compared with what it was then, to its exertions to promote the free circulation of the holy Scriptures. At that period the Bible was a ponderous, clumsy, and at the same time an expensive book. At present it was neatly and elegantly printed, of a convenient size, and so reduced in price as to be placed within the reach of almost every class of society. At that time the number of copies in circulation was very small; the extent of the demand in the present day, as contrasted with that, might be judged of from this fact, that in one day last month orders had been given for 365,000 copies of new editions. The circumstances under which the Bible was first printed in England afforded striking a contrast as any he had mentioned. The first English copy of the Bible had not been sent forth to the public under the auspices of any body of men. It was not even printed in England, but made its appearance at

The entire receipts of the past year amounted to £107,926. 1s.; being the largest amount ever received in one year since the Society's first commencement. In that amount there were two items which could not be included in the permanent income of the Society. The

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Zurich, where it was printed under the care of one who was in exile on account of his religion, the venerable Coverdale. Now, however, the highest and most distinguished nobles of the land, and the highest dignitaries of the Church, deemed it an honour to be associated for the purposes of ushering multiplied copies of it into the world. The Report concluded by an eloquent exhortation to the members of the Society to persevere in promoting the great work in which they were engaged, in faith, in confidence, and in brotherly love.

The REV. W. YATE, from New-Zealand, stated, that the Missionaries in that island had been diligently employed in translating the word of God into the native tongue; and the whole of the New Testament had been completed about six months. The difficulties they had to contend with were very great: there was no grammar of the language, and they had to use great efforts, and search for words, and for appropriate and significant modes of expression. Thirty-eight chapters of the book of Genesis had been completed also; and as far as they had gone, he thought the translation was so correct, that it would not stand in need of any material alteration when another edition should be called for. They had formed a Committee for conducting the translation; and had from time to time called in the aid of natives, upon whom they thought they could depend. If ever they made any mistake, they were sure to be laughed at by the natives, some of whom would say, as they saw them pass, "There goes the booby who made such a mistake the other day!" When the first portion of the New Testament was translated into the language of New-Zealand, it was very cordially received by the natives. In consequence of the formation of elementary schools, about eight hundred of them could read; and immediately after the Scriptures were brought into the country, those who could read were supplied with the parts; but they were supplied with them as the fruits of their own industry: no one copy was given away; but the people expressed their willingness to work, as some of them did for six weeks, that they might obtain the portion of the word of God. That mode of obtaining them had led the possessors to value them more, and to take greater care of them, than if they had received them free of all charge. When they received a copy, they invariably read it to their families, and those who had time read it morning, noon, and night. In his visits to the native villages, he had often seen five or six of them

meeting together, reading chapters, and asking pertinent questions. That was a very different scene from what he had witnessed for the first few years of his residence among them. Formerly they delighted in dancing, in singing warsongs, in relating silly tales, and in devising schemes of cruelty and blood; but the pleasure which they experienced while engaged in reading the word of God was far greater than any they experienced while engaged in their native amusements. And they entertained a high respect for the Bible as the word of God. They did not ask, "What does Mr. Yate, or Mr. Clark, or Mr. Hamlyn say?" but, "What does the Bible say ?" They took up the language of Scripture in its most literal meaning; and when they came to passages which they did not understand, they would run to the Missionary in order to have them explained. One instance Mr. Yate related, which, though it might appear ludicrous, did not, he fully believed, arise out of any intention on the part of the individual to do wrong. A boy who was in his employ came to his room one day with his head reeking with train-oil. He told the boy how contrary he had acted to his wish, and how very unpleasant he had made himself. A number of persons were sitting near under a veranda, to whom the boy called cut, "Hear what this angry man says! Do you not tell us that we are to do all that the Bible says?” "Certainly I do," replied Mr. Yate; "but what has that to do with your making yourself such a frightful figure ?" "Why, Jesus Christ says in his Gospel, that when we fast we are not to disfigure our faces, but to anoint our heads. morning the pig got into the stable and ran away with my breakfast, so that I was obliged to fast therefore I went and anointed my head with oil." Mr. Yate took occasion from that singular interpretation of the word of God, to explain the nature of fasting on the following Sabbath, and to point out the difference between a voluntary and an involuntary fast. Another circumstance he related to show how the natives valued the word of God. A flag was about to be given to the natives in a certain place, that they might hoist it on particular occasions, and three were brought out that they might make their choice. An old native named Deepa got up, with the Scriptures in his hand, and told the people to listen to him, for that he had got something new to say to them. Holding up the Scriptures, he said, "If you get this book into your hearts, you will not quarrel any more; you will not stop to inquire how much you may get by

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he hoisting of that flag. Jesus Christ ays in this book, This is my command. ment, That ye love one another.' Now, ho else could have told you this? Could ny of the natives? No; for they never ard of such a thing. Could any of the ropeans? No; for they only think of .hat they can gain. Could the Missionrics? Not unless they learned it out of .hat book. No: Jesus Christ himself has aught it us; and he says, 'This is my commandment, That ye love one another." Then he concluded by exhorting all present to learn to read, that they might be tble in their own tongue to understand he wonderful works of God. The edition of the Scriptures which they possessed had been printed in New South Wales; it comprised the Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistle to the Romans, and the First Epistle to the Corinthians. But the Missionaries had since translated the whole of the New Testament, and the British and Foreign Bible Society had promised to render them assistance in printing it. He did hope that before long they should be able to complete a translation of the whole Scriptures, and present t to the New-Zealanders in their own congue. When the boxes containing the Scriptures arrived in the island, the natives said, "A box is come full of knowledge, which shall go from the North Cape down to the South. We have often had something come which we thought good, -casks of rum, and barrels of powder, and boxes of muskets; but what is now come is to teach us not to drink rum, nor to set fire to powder, nor to use muskets, but to do us good for ever and ever." Mr. Yate then read a few extracts from letters written by the natives, in which, with much force and simplicity, they evinced the high estimation in which they held the word of God. One earnestly requested a copy of the Gospels, offering a large pig as payment; another promised to save his wages to purchase it. Another said that his heart was sick for the word of God, and that he desired it more than axes and blankets.

The REV. J. WILLIAMS, Missionary from the South Sea Islands, said, that he had been employed for the London Missionary Society in those islands for about eighteen years. Missionaries were sent forth by Christians to visit distant lands; and when they had done so, and had acquired a knowledge of the languages, and translated the word of God into those languages, then they needed the aid of that Society, to put their labours into a permanent and lasting form. If he looked to the continent of

Europe, the Bible Society was there; if to Asia, the Bible Society was there also; or if he regarded many-millioned China, or the extensive regions of Africa, or the beautiful islands which bestudded the bosom of the Pacific, in all those portions of the globe he found the Bible Society, enabling the Missionary to overcome his difficulties, and assuring him, that, when he had laboured industriously and successfully, permanency and stability should be given to his labours. That had been the case in reference to the labours in which he and his brethren had for years been engaged; for no sooner had the version of the Scriptures, which they had been instrumental in accomplishing, been presented to the Bible Society, than the Committee munificently agreed to print five thousand copies for the natives. Mr. Williams then presented the first portion which had been printed to the noble Chairman, containing the Gospel of St. Matthew, wishing his Lordship to regard it as an earnest of what would be presented to him at some future period. When he first visited the islands there was no part of the Scriptures in the native tongue; now they had the whole of the New Testament in the Taheitan language, and the whole Bible was in progress. Their American brethren, also, had effected a translation of the New Testament, many thousand copies of which were in circulation. A similar labour had been accomplished by the Wesleyan Missionaries at Tongataboo. Mr. Yate and his brethren had been translating also, so that the once-cannibal New-Zealanders would soon be able to read in their own tongue the wonderful works of God. The work of translation among such a people was no easy task. When he went to the islands the natives had no letters, no signs of language, no hieroglyphics, no idea of communicating words by figures or marks on paper. King Pomare was the first to learn to write; and when it was noised abroad, that he was able to converse with the Missionaries at a distance, by means of a few marks made on a piece of paper, all the natives were astonished, and regarded it as a prodigy. It had been the aim of the Missionaries to get as correct a version as possible. Each Missionary took his allotted portion of the translation, and when he had completed it, he sent it. to his brethren for inspection; they examined it carefully, and made any remark which they thought necessary. It was then returned to the translator, who corrected it, availing himself of the

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