For my a of a the day of brotherly concord--the Bi- MR. GRIFFIN'S SPEECH, ble ! the Bible ! through Bible Socie-Delivered before a Meeting held in the city ties! of New-York, immediataly after the for Come then, fellow-citizens, fellow mation of the American Bible Society: christians, let us join in the sacred co-|Mr. Chairman, venant. Let no heart be cold ; no I am persuaded that there is no per hand be idle; no purse reluctant ! -son present, who does not feel the inCome, while room is left for us in the Ispiration of this occasion. ranks whose toil is goodness, and self, I congratulate iny 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-lings 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 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 ataid 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 The design of this august institution present and their future felicity. 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||These high objects are to be accomthe wilderness turned into a fruitful plished by the universal promulgation field, by the blessing of God upon that of the Bible; the Bible--that volume seed which their fathers sowed, and conceived in the councils of eternal themselves watered. In fine, we shall mercy, containing the wondrous story do our part toward that expansion and of redeeming love ; blazing with the intensity of light divine, which shall lustre of Jehovah's glory: that volvisit, in its progress, the palaces of the ume, pre-eminently calculated to softgreat, and the hamlets of the small, en the heart, sanctify the affections, until the whole “ earth be full of the and elevate the soul of man; to enkinknowledge of Jehovah, as the waters | dle the poet's fire, and teach the phicover the sea !" losopher wisdom ; to consecrate the domestic relations ; to pour the balın A soul immortal, wasting all her strength; | of heaven into the wounded heart, to Thrown into tumult , raptured or alarmed, cheer the dying hour, and shed the At aught this world can threaten or indulge, Resembles ocean into tempest wrought, light of immortality upon the darkness To waft a feather, or to drown a fly. of the tomb. I reiterate the mighty Mm 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 concuspare 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 unter the mighty effort of expure and soul-elevating doctrines oftending 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 or dous 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 Jess arm of infidelity tear this sun fromveneration, I bow before the majesty the moral heavens, and all would be of the British and Foreign Bible Socidarkness, and guilt, and wretchedness; ety. This illustrious association, (its again would history is recorded in heaven, and " Earth [feel] the wound, and nature ought to be proclaimed on earth,) has from her seat, Sighing through all her works, [give) million and a half of volumes of the been instrumental in distributing a signs of wo, " That all was lost." word of life, and has magnanimously ; Eighteen centuries ago, the divine expended, in a single year, near four author of our religion, about to ascend hundred thousand dollars for the salto his native heavens, pronounced with vation of man. This transcendent inhis farewell voice, “Go ye into all the stitution is the brightest star in the conworld, and preach the gospel to every stellation of modern improvements, creature.” A little band of Christiansand looks down from its celestial eleheroes obeyed the heavenly mandate;/vation on the diminished glories of the and, clothed in their master's armour, Grecian and Roman name. 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 sepul- tian world had a right to expect, that chre, had long fastened itself on the the American nation would arise in Christian world. It was the tremen-| the majesty of its collected might, and dous earthquake of modern atheism, unite itself with the other powers of that roused them from this slumber: Christendom, in the holy confederacy and wbile, during the last twenty years, for extending the empire of religion the vials of God's wrath have been and civilization. This auspicious era pouring upon the nations, convulsing) has now arrived The last week bas witnessed an august assemblage of the of the late Rev. Mr. KIRKLAND, mis fathers of the American Churches, ofsionary to his tribe, he lived a reformevery denomination, convened in thised 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 Fa. the 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; letate psalms sung. After service the her not be left behind in the glorious concourse which had assembled from career of evangelizing the world. respect to the deceased Chief, or from the singularity of the occasion, moved to the grave in the following order: Students of Hamilton College. Died at his residence near Oneida Castle, on Monday the 11th March, SKENANDON, the celebrated Onei- Mrs. Kirkland and Family. da Chief, aged 110 years; well known Judge Dean, Rev. Dr. Norton, Rev.Mr. in the wars which oecurred while we Ayre. were British colonics, and in the con- Officers of Hamilton College. test which issued in our independence, Citizens. 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 iuin his youth ;* but by his own reflecterpreter, to the people for the respect tions and the benevolent instructions shewn to his father on the occasion, * In the year 1775, Skenandon was pre and to Mrs. Kirkland and family for sent at a treaty made in Albany. At night| their kind and friendly attentions. he was excessively drunk, and in the mor- SKENANDON's person was tall and ning found himself in the street, stripped brawny, but well made ; his counteof all his ornaments and every article of nance was intelligent, and beamed with clothing. His pride revolted at his selfdegradation, and he resolved that he would all the indigenous dignity of an India never again deliver himself over to the Chief. In his youth he was a brav power of STRONG WATEJA. and intrepid warrior; and in his rin CORPSE. . doom ; years, one of the ablest counsellors ||ments, and to riches in the temple of among the North American tribes. He earthly fame, SKENANDON, in the spirit possessed a strong aud 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 zc- bis Lord. phyr in peace. With the cunning of Ilis 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-l 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 mantiats, His influence brought his and veneration, when these taudry ortribe to our assistance in the war of the naments of human apotheosis shali 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 “ To me each twig from Adam's stock is near, gratitude for his benevolent interposi- “ And sorrows fall upon an Indian's tomb." tions, and among the Indian tribes he Clinton, March 141h, 1816. was distinguished by the appellation of the “White man's friend." At the third Annual Meeting of the General Missionary Society of the Westeru District, convenid at the village Although he could speak but little of Whitesborough on the first Tuesday' in February, 1816. EDWARD GRIFFIN, Esq. in the Chair. English, and in his extreme old age was blind, yet his company was sought. The meeting opened with prayer The In conversation he was highly deco- Society proceeded to make choice of offi cers for the ensuing year. On canvassing rous, evincing that he profited by see the votes, the following persons were found ing civilized and polished society, and to be elected : by mingling with good company in his Rev. S. F. SNOWDEN, Pres't. Rev. MOSES GILLET, V. Pres't. better days. DANIEL W. RANDAL, Sec'y. To a friend who called on him a E GRIFFIN, Esq. Treasurer. short time since, he thus expressed Rev. Noah Coe, Rev. Moses Gillet, Rev. himself by an interpreter: S. F. Snowden, Rev. John Truair, Mr John "I am an aged hemlock: the winds Powel, Directors. of an hundred winters has whistled Ambrose Cone, Horatio Burchard, Tru man Smith, Horace Hastings, Sylvester through my brancbes; I am dead at Dunham, Henry Newbury, Ebenezer Ray- the top. The generation to which I mond, Abram Plumb, Ebenezer C. Merri" belong have run away and left me; | man, Dan.el 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 TREASURER'S REPORT OF 1816. * appointed time to die.” Receiver of the Individual Clinton, Whitesborough, swered; he was cheerful and resigned New-Hartford, to the last. For several years he kept Paris, his dress for the grave prepared. Once, do, Sangerfield, Hanover, and again, and again, he came to Clintou to die; longing that his soul might Shrburne, Otisco, be with Christ, and his body in the W stmoreland, Homer, naro' bouse, near his beloved Christi u teacher. While the ambitious but vulgar great, not paid, supposed to be about 150 Dollars. Balance of cash in the Treasury as per Acc't. rendered principally to sculptured monu- from the last year, 230 : 01 Rome, do. Utica, do. do. do. do. do, do. do, do, do. do. do. do. D. C. 40:00 10:00 23 : 50 80:00 10:00 31 : 00 36 : 00 21:00 36 : 50 40 : 00 26 : 75 45 : 75 43 : 00 Geneva, do. do. do. do. do. do. 443 : 50 Balance due from the several Individual Societies but Total 674 : 41 |