Per

assured me that the disappointment would be very great, unless some should have an opportunity of hearing the bene ficiary; I therefore consented that notice should be circulated of a meeting the next morning. As there is no large village in the town, the extent of the notice was very limited. At the appointed hour we arrived at the place of meeting, which was a ball-room in a public house; it was the largest room to be obtained. We found it filled with women, to the exclusion of all the men, and many other females. To preach to them under these circumstances could not afford general satisfaction. ceiving that there was a clean yard, with a beautiful grass-plot, before the house, I told them I had no objections to the pulpit, if they had none to the seats. They at once acceded to the proposal, and were soon all seated; a few on benches-many on the ground-some on the fences-and others on the trees, which overshadowed the congregation. A short discourse was delivered from "O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord." Mr. Chew followed with a short address all appeared to be gratified --many eyes were filled with tears. It was not expected that a collection would be taken up on the occasion; but the people appeared to desire it, and to be waiting for an opportunity to contribute. A hat was sent among them as they continued seated on the grass, and about twelve dollars were cast into it: a more liberal contribution than $500 would be in any of the lower churches in New-York.

66

The "two mites" of the widow mentioned Mark xii. 42, are frequently referred to in the present day. I think I have not met with a more full exemplification of her case than the following, which occurred at RI preached on Monday evening. At the close of the meeting, it was stated that on Wednesday I should pass through R again, and that if any persons were desirous of contributing more than they were prepared that evening, they might, in the mean time, leave it with their pastor, and I should receive it on my return. On Wednesday a small sum was handed to me by the Rev. Mr. "And here, sir," said he, "are four cents-the offering of a very poor widow, who came four miles this morning on foot, to cast these mites into the treasury!" "Surely," said I, "she of her want has cast in all that she had, even all her living."

The duties of my agency have led me into many Christian families; and the observations I have made in relation to the character of the early instruction almost universally imparted have inspired the hope that the succeeding generation will so far surpass us in labours, sacrifices, and

successful efforts, that ours will scarcely deserve to be recorded. The mission box, in many instances, appears to be the first object to which the pious mother studiously turns the eyes of her rising offspring-the missionary cause almost the first presented to their minds. It has sometimes been easy to imagine that I heard the shout from "little ones"-" Hosanna to the Son of David -Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord-Hosanna in the highest."

I preached at Son the Sabbath, for the Rev. Mr. T, in the morning, and for the Rev. Dr. P. , in the afternoon. It was stated that I should remain there until Tuesday morning, and that additional donations would be gratefully recieved at Dr. P- -'s. The quarterly meeting of the Sabbath school was held on Sabbath evening, and the rewards and premiums distributed among the children. On Monday morning at a very early hour, among others, these children began to bring their offerings. They continued to call and inquire for the missionary and young Indian, through the day. It was supposed that all of the premiums distributed (consisting of bibles, testaments, and tracts,). were thus cheerfully cast into "the treasury," and almost every child, brought from one to twelve cents, beside their books. All of their conduct evinced an unusual excitement of feeling. On Tuesday morning they continued to come with their gifts; and even after we had started on our journey we met them on their way to Dr. 's, with their books and their mites. At L-I was kindly received in the family of the Rev. Dr. B. After the services of the Sabbath, we were sitting at the table, conversing about our mission schools among the Indians. Dr. B's youngest child, a son, about thirteen years of age, hearing the conversation, rose from the table and retired. In a few moments he returned, and presented to me a small silver medal, saying, "It is not worth much; but I received it as a reward for diligence; and I now wish you to send it to the Indian school at Cataraugus to be given to the best Indian boy." O! what may we not anticipate from the tens of thousands, rising up to manhood, under the influence of sentiments and feelings like these! The Lord grant that our most animating anticipations may be realized.

P

Affectionately yours, &c. JAMES C. CRANE,

INTERESTING NARRATIVE. AT the last Anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the EARL OF RODEN, after a few prefatory remarks, proceeded as follows,--

But, my lord, I think I should be guilty

of a great dereliction of my duty, and be justly chargeable with ingratitude, were I not to bring before you a simple fact, the truth of which I can avouch, and which is connected with the proceedings in which we are engaged. It is about-I will not say how many years ago-I knew a man who was involved in all the pursuits of folly and dissipation, who lived in the world, and for the world, whose chief desire was to gain the world's applause, and who looked only to that which was calculated to give him pleasure here below; I knew this person, engaged in the pursuits of the day, walking through the streets of Dublin on the anniversary of a Bible Society: he was led by, what he then thought, idle curiosity, to enter the room where that meeting was held; ashamed of being seen in such society, ashamed of being engaged in such a work as was then going on, he looked for the most secret part of the room in which to take up his station; and there he heard opinions delivered, there he heard sentiments declared, which, indeed, were altogether strange to him; and he was led to argue thus with himself, "If these opinions be true, then I am wrong; if these sentiments are founded on the Scriptures, which I profess to believe, then I am in error." He determined no longer to build his faith on the hearsay of others, but to read for himself, and see whether these things were true A good man, who had addressed the assembly, stated, that all hearing and reading would be in vain, except the Spirit of God brought home to the heart that which was heard and read. This good man also told them that God would give his Holy Spirit to all who ask Him. The individual to whom I have alluded, went home from the meeting deeply affected: and whether that night or next morning, I know not, poured forth his prayer to Him who is the hearer of prayer, to Him who knows the desires of the heart, that He would lead him in the right way, and bring him to a right understanding of the Scriptures of truth. I need hardly tell your lordship and this meeting what was the result of an application like this: and I need not, and I could not, tell your lordship and this meeting what was his astonishment when, in the perusal of the sacred volume, he found, what he never knew before, that he was a sinful creature in the sight of his Maker and his God. It would be impossible for me to tell you, on the other hand, what was his joy, and what was his peace, when the word he read there, was brought home to his heart, that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. This man to whom I have alluded, I then knew, and I know him now; he has since experi

enced a very large portion of those trials and of those calamities which are common to men; he has experienced some, my lord, calculated to make flesh and blood to wince, but in that blessed book, which it is the object of this Society to circulate, he has found a hiding-place from the storm, he has found a covert from the wind, and he has found one who has borne his iniquities, and carried his sorrows. That individual to whom I have alluded, is now permitted to have the great privilege of testifying to this assembly the obligations he is under to Anniversary Meetings of the Bible Society.

THE TRUE MISSIONARY.

THE following character of the devoted Missionary, was drawn by the Right Honourable CHARLES GRANT, M.P., at the late Anniversary of the Church Missionary Society, in London.--

There is something peculiarly attractive and admirable in the character of zealous and devoted Missionaries-in their separation from the common objects of human desire in their decided preference to these, of even difficulties and dangers in the cause of Christ in their systematic abstraction from the practices and pleasures of mankind-in that love of Christ, which tears asunder the dearest charities and sympathies of our nature: there is something in this, and in the concentration of all the powers of the heart to one purpose, which must strike every pious and well-disciplined mind with admiration. And when we add to this, the real object of those efforts--and there is no object which we are so apt to forget-but look at the object of the Christian Missionary, as contrasted with that of the heroes and conquerors of this worldlook at the standard under which the Missionary marches, and look at the standards of the followers of earthly ambition and of earthly power: their mottos and their standards are indicative of universal conquest, and their trophies are the spoils of conquered nations; but look at the standard of the Missionary-the cross of the Saviour whom he follows-and there you see at once the motive and the object, the principle and the example, the suffering and the triumph! Here you may see unravelled, in a moment, all that was paradoxical before. Here you see how a man can be the meekest and yet the most resolute man in the world. Here you may see how he, who pants only for death, should yet rejoice to submit to a long life of privation, and sorrow, and suffering.

My Lord, this is no imaginary picture. Can we not appeal to recent experience, in proof, that the picture is, in fact, too faintly drawn? Need I mention to you the name

of MARTYN? Need I say that it is a question, whether, in all history, there is a spectacle more sublime, and more deeply touching, than the spectacle of Martyn, unaided and alone, passing month after month in the capital of Mahomedan Persia, and there exhausting his health and strength in proclaiming that name, which he had found dearer to him than his life?

Or, if a spectacle still more touching can be exhibited, it is the same individual, sinking under excessive anguish and suffering, into that disease which terminated his mortal existence, and laying his head upon the grave which received him. But Martyn has left inscribed in that solitudethat there he had found a Friend, a Benefactor, and a Comforter.

But, my Lord, as I have touched on this recent instance, let me recall to your remembrance one of an older date-one of the first of Missionaries. Let me speak of him, who said, with something like contempt, Our light afflictions, which are but for a moment, work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. And let me ask you, what were those light and momentary afflictions? They ran through a course of thirty years, spent in labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons frequent, in deaths oft, in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by his own countrymen, in perils by

the heathen.

But we have heard to-day, that the same spirit is still alive. We have been told, very eloquently and pathetically, of the West African Missionaries; and while my friend was speaking, another near me alluded to an expression used by a distinguished character respecting the French armies sent against St. Domingo-that they were - marching to their graves. Let us not, however, be alarmed at these words; nor let them damp the courage of any future Missionary. They may be marching to an early grave: but we cannot stop therethey are marching to an early immortality.

RECENT MISSIONARY INTELLI-
GENCE.

[FROM THE LONDON MISSIONARY
REGISTER.]

Church Missionary Society.-Advices from Sierra Leone to the end of May, state that the Rev. G. R. Nylander was dangerously ill, and his death daily expected.

Mr. Pope, at Freetown, Sierra Leone, was taken ill on the 21st of March, and died on the 30th: he was most actively and usefully engaged, in Freetown, which is suffering under the want of Chaplains. The Rev. T. C. Deininger, at Malta, finished his career in holy joy, on the 22d of April.

Mrs. Lisk has returned from Sierra Leone on account of ill health. She arrived in London on the 20th of June, improved by the voyage.

The Rev. Michael Wilkinson, Mrs. Wilkinson, and Miss Cortis, who sailed from this country in April of last year, arrived at Calcutta on the 1st of November.. Miss Cortis has since been married to the Rev. Andrew Jetter, one of the Society's Missionaries. Mr. and Mrs. Wilkinson have proceeded to Gorrockpore, which had been selected as the scene of their labours.

Despatches from Madras, of the middle of January, represent the Rev. Joseph Fenn's health to be in a precarious state.

The Rev. Samuel Marsden, with the Rev. Henry Williams and his family, embarked at Port Jackson for New Zealand, on the 23d of July, and landed at Rangeehoo on the 3d of August. Mr. Marsden re-embarked for New South Wales, on the 5th of September. The ship was wrecked in the Bay of Islands, on the 7th; but no lives were lost. Mr. Marsden was detained till the 14th of November, when he embarked with the Rev. John Butler and his family, and Mr. and Mrs. Cowell, and arrived in safety at Sydney, in the beginning of December.

Despatches have subsequently reached the Society from New Zealand, to the date of the 11th of February, at which period the Missionaries were well and the natives peaceable.

London Missionary Society.-The following students at the Gosport Seminary have been appointed Missionaries:-Mr. John Edmonds, Mr. George Pritchard, and Mr. Samuel Kidd. On Monday, May the 24th, Mr. and Mrs. Edmonds, destined to Chinsurah, and Mr. and Mrs. Kidd, to Malacca, sailed from Gravesend, in the Pyramus, Captain Brodie. Mr. Pritchard is destined to the South Seas.

The Rev. Isaac Lowndes has issued proposals at Corfu, for printing an English and Modern Greek Lexicon, with an Epitome of English Grammar in Modern Greek. It will form an octavo volume of 600 pages, closely printed in double columns.

The Rev. W. C. Loveless, with Mrs. Loveless, arrived at Liverpool on the 4th of June, having left Madras on the 14th of January. Mr. Loveless has been absent between eighteen and nineteen years.

Mr. Crane's report of moneys received on his late tour.

New-York, Aug. 31st, 1824.

Z. LEWIS, ESQ.

Dear Sir,-In acknowledging through the Register the receipt of the following sums, during my late tour of ten weeks, it is my

VOL. V.]

[No. 11.

LEY.

PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN
CHURCH IN THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.

From a Funeral Sermon preached in that
Church on the 26th of July, by the Rev.
Gardiner Spring, D.D.

THE REV. PHILIP MELANCTHON WHELP LEY was the son of the Rev. Samuel Whelpley, a respectable clergyman of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was remarkable from the first dawning of his boyhood, for an early maturity of talent, from which his friends augured the happiest consequences. His avidity for knowledge and taste in the selection of its purest sources, were observable at an age when other boys are usually governed by instinct and animal feelings only. His aspirations after excellence were as ardent as they were laudable; and it was evident to all observers, that he was to be a scholar and a man of literature, whatever else time might, or might not make of him. No unpropitious circumstances could repress his spirit of inquiry-no other avocations prevent his mingling with the learned who had left their intellect at least, enshrined and vocal in the temple of human science. I might indulge myself at large upon this portion of his character and history, if every thing of this sort, in this solemn moment, did not seem to me comparatively worthless. The natural disposition of our departed friend was singularly composed, and well balanced; his temperament full of kindness; his heart true and firm in his attachments; and his feelings admirably regulated towards those who differed from him in VOL. V.

41

this life, might run counter to him, as he was steadily pursuing the path of apparent duty. The Apostle Paul notes the want of natural affection among the highest crimes. In our ral affection were in the highest degree obbrother, the ardour and faithfulness of natuservable; and were it proper, I could here refer to facts which evidence a filial sentiment, that are rarely surpassed.

But the place in which I stand warns me against dwelling upon what are at best mortal characteristics. I hasten to speak of what defined his character in the sight of God, and stamped it with excellence for eternity. Religiously brought up as he was from his infancy, his training led to more than a quick moral sense, until about his eighteenth year, when God was pleased to send his law in its power, as a sharp sword into his heart, and he became under the ministry of the Rev. Dr. Richards, in Newark, the subject of pungent and lasting convictions. I have heard him speak of this period, and these convictions, with a modesty and diffidence that were most exemplary and gratifying. In a revival of religion in the first congregation in that town, which took place shortly after this, he found that the Lord was nigh, not only to convict and to bruise, but also to pardon and heal; and, as he humbly hoped, he then submitted himself to the righteousness of God as a sinner, and sought and found mercy in the Redeemer. His evidences of conversion were ample, and he was received into the communion of that church a few months after.

From this period, his friends earnestly desired the consecration of his talents to the work of the ministry; and the Spirit of God,