MR. GRIFFIN'S SPEECH, the day of brotherly concord-the Bible! the Bible! through Bible Socie-Delivered before a Meeting held in the city ties! of New-York, immediataly after the for mation of the American Bible Society, Mr. Chairman, I am persuaded that there is no perTM son present, who does not feel the inspiration of this occasion. For my Come then, fellow-citizens, fellowchristians, let us join in the sacred covenant. Let no heart be cold; no hand be idle; no purse reluctant !Come, while room is left for us in the ranks whose toil is goodness, and self, I congratulate my country, that whose recompense is victory. Come we now find on her annals the name cheerfully, eagerly, generally. Be it of the American Bible Society. This impressed on your souls, that a contri-is an occasion to awaken the best feelbution, saved from even a cheap indul-ings of the heart. We are assembled, gence, may send a Bible to a desolate not to rouse the rancour of political family; may become a radiatory point zeal; not to arrange plans of foreign of "grace and truth" to a neighbor-conquest; not to shout the triumphs of hood of error and vice'; and that a victory: we have a nobler object; to number of such contributions made at aid the march of the everlasting Gosreally no expense, may illumine a large pel through the world,-to spread atract of country, and successive gen-broad a fountain, whose waters are inerations of immortals, in that celestial tended for the healing of the nations. knowledge, which shall secure their present and their future felicity. The design of this august institution is not merely to relieve the wants of But whatever be the proportion be- our own country, but to extend the tween expectation and experience, thus hand of charity to the most distant much is certain. We shall satisfy our lands: to break asunder the fetters of conviction of duty--we shall have the Mahometan imposture; to purify the praise of high endeavors for the high- abominations of Juggernaut ; to snatch est ends we shall minister to the bles- the Hindoo widow from the funeral sedness of thousands, and tens of thou- pile; to raise the degraded African to sands, of whom we may never see the the sublime contemplation of God and faces, nor hear the names. We shall immortality; to tame and baptize in set forward a system of happiness the waters of life the American savwhich will go on with accelerated mo- age; to pour the light of heaven upon tion and augmented vigour, after we the darkness of the Andes; and to call shall have finished our career; and back the nations from the altars of devconfer upon our children, and our chil-ils to the temple of the living God.dren's children, the delight of seeing the wilderness turned into a fruitful field, by the blessing of God upon that seed which their fathers sowed, and themselves watered. In fine, we shall do our part toward that expansion and intensity of light divine, which shall visit, in its progress, the palaces of the great, and the hamlets of the small, until the whole "earth be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea!" A soul immortal, wasting all her strength; M m These high objects are to be accomplished by the universal promulgation of the Bible; the Bible-that volume conceived in the councils of eternal mercy, containing the wondrous story of redeeming love; blazing with the lustre of Jehovah's glory: that volume, pre-eminently calculated to soften the heart, sanctify the affections, and elevate the soul of man; to enkindle the poet's fire, and teach the philosopher wisdom; to consecrate the domestic relations; to pour the balı of heaven into the wounded heart, to cheer the dying hour, and shed the light of immortality upon the darkness of the tomb. I reiterate the mighty term-the Bible; that richest of man's to its centre this distracted globe, the treasures-that best of Heaven's gifts. Bible has re-commenced its triumphs. Amazing volume! In every of thy pa- This tree of heaven's planting has ges, I see the impress of the Godhead. stood and strengthened amidst the How divine are thy doctrines, how prostration of thrones, and the concuspure thy precepts, how sublime thy sion of empires. The apostolic age is language! How unaffecting is the ten-returning. The countries of Europe, derness of an Otway, or an Euripides, which lately rung with the clangor of when compared with the heart-touch-arms, are now filled with Societies for ing pathos of thy David or Jeremiah! the promulgation of the Gospel of How do the loftiest effusions of a Mil-peace. Through those fields, but lateton or a Homer sink, when contrastedly drenched in human blood, now flow with the sublimer strains of thine Isai-the streams of salvation. Europe is ah or Habakkuk ! And how do the bending under the mighty effort of expure and soul-elevating doctrines of tending redemption to a world. Kings thy Moses or thy Paul look down, as and emperors are vying with the humfrom the height of heaven, upon the blest of their subjects in this stupengrovelling systems of a Mahomet ordous work. The coffers of the rich Confucius! Give this Bible an em-are emptied into heaven's treasury, pire in every heart, and the prevalence and there also is received the widow's of crime and misery would yield to mite. But there is one nation which the universal diffusion of millenial glo-has stood forth pre-eminent in this cary. Destroy this Bible; let the ruth-reer of glory. With the profoundest less arm of infidelity tear this sun from veneration, I bow before the majesty the moral heavens, and all would be of the British and Foreign Bible Socidarkness, and guilt, and wretchedness; again would "Earth [feel] the wound, and nature "Sighing through all her works, [give] ety. This illustrious association, (its history is recorded in heaven, and ought to be proclaimed on earth,) has million and a half of volumes of the been instrumental in distributing a word of life; and has magnanimously expended, in a single year, near four hundred thousand dollars for the sal stitution is the brightest star in the constellation of modern improvements, and looks down from its celestial elevation on the diminished glories of the Grecian and Roman name. Eighteen centuries ago, the divine author of our religion, about to ascend to his native heavens, pronounced with|vation of man. This transcendent inhis farewell voice, "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." A little band of Christian heroes obeyed the heavenly mandate; and, clothed in their master's armour, encountered and overcame the united The electric shock has at length powers of earth and hell. But the reached our shores. Local Bible Soapostolic age did not always last.-cieties have been heretofore establishSeventeen hundred years have since ed in this country; but they wanted elapsed, and more than three fourths extent of means, comprehensiveness of the human family are still envelop-of design, and consolidation of action. ed in Pagan or Mahometan darkness. It was to be expected, and the ChrisA lethargy, like the sleep of the sepulchre, had long fastened itself on the Christian world. It was the tremendous earthquake of modern atheism, that roused them from this slumber: and while, during the last twenty years, the vials of God's wrath have been pouring upon the nations, convulsing tian world had a right to expect, that the American nation would arise in the majesty of its collected might, and unite itself with the other powers of Christendom, in the holy confederacy for extending the empire of religion and civilization. This auspicious era has now arrived The last week has witnessed an august assemblage of the of the late Rev. Mr. KIRKLAND, misfathers of the American Churches, of sionary to his tribe, he lived a reformevery denomination, convened in this ed man for more than sixty years, and metropolis from all parts of the coun- died in the Christian hope. try, not to brandish the sword of reli- From attachment to Mr. Kirkland, he gious controversy, but to unite with had always expressed a strong desire one heart, in laying the foundation of to be buried near his Minister and Fathe majestic superstructure of the ther, that he might (to use his own exAmerican Bible Society. Athens pression) "go up with him at the great boasted of her temple of Minerva; resurrection." At the approach of but our city is more truly consecrated, death, after listening to the prayers by being the seat of this hallowed edi-which were read at his bed side by his fice. It is not a mosque containing,||great grand-daughter, he again repeator reputed to contain, the remains of ed this request. Accordingly, the famthe Arabian propbet, but a fabric rear-ily of Mr. Kirkland, having received ed and devoted to the living God by information by a runner that SKENANthe united efforts of the American DON was dead, in compliance with a Churches. Fellow-citizens! will you previous promise, sent assistance to coldly receive this honor, or will you the Indians, that the corpse might be not rather show yourselves worthy of conveyed to the village of Clinton for this sacred distinction? I am persua-burial. Divine service was attended ded, that your munificence and zeal in at the meeting house in Clinton on this holy cause will be recorded as an Wednesday 2 o'clock P. M. An adanimating example to the nation. For dress was made to the Indians by the to whom should it be reserved to elec-Rev. Dr. BACKUS, President of Hamiltrify this western continent, but to the ton College; which was interpreted London of America? Our country by Judge DEAN of Westmoreland. has long stood forth the rival of Eng-Prayer was then offered and appropriland in commerce and in arms; let ate psalms sung. After service the her not be left behind in the glorious career of evangelizing the world. concourse which had assembled from respect to the deceased Chief, or from the singularity of the occasion, moved to the grave in the following order: Students of Hamilton College. CORPSE. INDIAN S. Mrs. Kirkland and Family. Judge Dean, Rev. Dr. Norton, Rev. Mr. Ayre. DIED at his residence near Oneida Castle, on Monday the 11th March, SKENANDON, the celebrated Oneida Chief, aged 110 years; well known in the wars which occurred while we were British colonies, and in the contest which issued in our independence, as the undeviating friend of the people After interment, the only surviving of the United States. He was very son of the deceased, self-moved, returnsavage, and addicted to drunkennessed thanks through Judge Dean as inin his youth ;* but by his own reflections and the benevolent instructions * In the year 1775, Skenandon was present at a treaty made in Albany. At night he was excessively drunk, and in the morning found himself in the street, stripped of all his ornaments and every article of clothing. His pride revolted at his selfdegradation, and he resolved that he would never again deliver himself over to the power of STRONG WATER. Officers of Hamilton College. terpreter, to the people for the respect shewn to his father on the occasion, and to Mrs. Kirkland and family for their kind and friendly attentions. SKENANDON'S person was tall and brawny, but well made; his countenance was intelligent, and beamed with all the indigenous dignity of an India Chief. In his youth he was a brav and intrepid warrior; and in his rip years, one of the ablest counsellorsments, and to riches in the temple of among the North American tribes. He earthly fame, SKENANDON, in the spirit possessed a strong and vigorous mind, of the only real nobility, stood with and though terrible as the tornado in his loins girded, waiting the coming of war, he was bland and mild as the ze-his Lord. phyr in peace. With the cunning of His Lord has come! and the day the fox, the hungry perseverance of approaches when the green hillock the wolf, and the agility of the moun- that covers his dust will be more retain cat, he watched and repelled Ca- spected, than the Pyramids, the Mannadian invasions. His vigilance once solea and the Pantheons of the proud preserved from massacre the inhabi- and imperious. His simple " turf and tants of the infant settlement at Ger-stone" will be viewed with affection manflats, His influence brought his and veneration, when these taudry ortribe to our assistance in the war of the|naments of human apotheosis shall Revolution. How many of the living awaken only pity and disgust. and the dead have been saved from" Indulge, my native land, indulge the tear, the tomahawk and scalping-knife by "Thit steals impassioned o'er a nation's his friendly aid is not known; but individuals and villages have expressed gratitude for his benevolent interpositions, and among the Indian tribes he was distinguished by the appellation of the "White man's friend." doom; "To me each twig from Adam's stock is near, "And sorrows fall upon an Indian's tomb." Clinton, March 14th, 1816. At the third Annual Meeting of the General Missionary Society of the Western District, convened at the village of Whitesborough on the first Tuesday' in February, 1816. EDWARD GRIFFIN, Esq. in the Chair. Society proceeded to make choice of offiThe meeting opened with prayer-The cers for the ensuing year. On canvassing votes, the following persons were found to be elected: Although he could speak but little English, and in his extreme old age was blind, yet his company was sought. In conversation he was highly decorous, evincing that he profited by see-the ing civilized and polished society, and by mingling with good company in his better days. To a friend who called on him a short time since, he thus expressed himself by an interpreter: "I am an aged hemlock: the winds "of an hundred winters has whistled Rev. S. F. SNOWDEN. Pres't. Ambrose Cone, Horatio Burchard, Tru*through my branches; I am dead at Dunham, Henry Newbury, Ebenezer Rayman Smith, Horace Hastings, Sylvester "the top. The generation to which I mond, Abram Plumb, Ebenezer C. Merri"belong have run away and left me;man, Daniel W. Randall, John Townsend, "why I live the Great good Spirit only ||John Powel, Corresponding Committee. "knows. Pray to my Jesus, that I may have patience to wait for my appointed time to die." Honored Chief! His prayer was answered; he was cheerful and resigned to the last. For several years he kept his dress for the grave prepared. Once, and again, and again, he came to Clinton to die; longing that his soul might be with Christ, and his body in the narrow house, near his beloved Christion teacher. While the ambitious but vulgar great, 1 principally to sculptured monu TREASURER'S REPORT OF 1816. Received of the Individual D. .. Society at do. do. Clinton, 40: 00 10: 00 Whitesborough, 23: 50 New-Hartford, 80: 00 Utica, 10: 00 |