The society, under the direction of their missionaries and school masters, has distributed many religious and moral publications and school books, and several thousand copies of the catechism compiled by the Worcester Association of ministers. These all were the donations of individuals. A number of respectable gentlemen, not resident in the counties of Worcester and Middlesex, in 1816, expressed a wish that the society should be opened for the admission of all in the Commonwealth, who approve its plan, and are disposed to promote its objects. The proposal was cordially embraced, and the necessary measures adopted to carry it into effect. A branch society was the last year formed in the District of Maine. The parent society has recently received important and substantial patronage from Boston and Salem. Thus countenanced by the pious public, and aided by the liberality of the affluent, the Society, lifting up holy hands for the blessings of Heaven, now rise to more extended views and to brighter prospects. The recent transactions and the present state of the society will appear from the following report of the Board of Trustees, presented in October last. REPORT. At a season in which the Christian community is beyond example fruitful in works of benevolence, and in which the hope is raised that the season is fast approaching, when "the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth," the Trustees join the members of the Evangelical Missionary Society in devout acknowledgments, that our Association is allowed to take a humble part in building up the kingdom of the Redeemer. In seeking for objects most deserving of our charity, and whom upon the uniform principle of our institution, we might aid in the acquirement of Christian knowledge, we are established in the following important facts. A very large part of the newly settled territory in our country remains unfurnished with religious instructers. A field is found, to whose cultivation the combined charities of all the associations formed for the diffusion of a knowledge of the gospel, might be usefully applied. We find but few parts of this wide field which have not occasionally been visited by teachers, commissioned by some of the various classes of Christians. Their visits have been generally transient; their intercourse with the people limited; their instructions too often of a sectarian complexion. We have, therefore, been left to deplore the disgust and division which have been excited, and the small progress which has been made on communicating consistent and reasonable ideas of the Christian religion, and in promoting the great interests of morality and piety. From the survey we have made, and from the experiment of many succeeding years, we are still more confirmed in the belief, that missionary labour can seldom promise a harvest, unless a particular portion of the vineyard is allotted for cultivation; and the teachers who are employed, in addition to an enlarged charity and habitual piety, are also proficients in general literature, and possess a good fund of theological knowledge. We consider the instrumentality of this Society in the establishment, during the last year, of the Rev. Mr. Frothingham, at Belfast, in the District of Maine, as a signal smile of divine providence. In him we repose high confidence as a man of knowledge, a sound theologian, a pattern of Christian prudence and charity, and as one who will, by his enlightened and zealous instructions and corresponding example, shed a general lustre on pure and undefiled religion. Some of our members who aided in his installation, give the most encouraging views of the prosperity and prospects of the religious society in that place, and they will probably stand in no farther need of our charity. The usual appropriation of $200, has been made to the Rev. Silas Warren, of Jackson; and the Trustees have a full persuasion of his diligence and fidelity as a minister, and of the success which has attended his endeavours to promote knowledge among the rising generation, and to advance the cause of Christ. One hundred dollars has been paid Mr. John Barrett for service he has rendered in the vicinity of Belfast. His report gives satisfactory information, that he faithfully executed the duties of his commission, and that he addressed Christians who had a desire to be instructed in the word of life. As an expression of our sympathy with the Rev. Seth Stetson, of Plymouth, whom we view as an independent inquirer after truth, and who has at heart the honour of the Redeemer and the best interests of his religion, we appropriate towards his support among his own people, $50. We have cheerfully met an earnest solicitation from respectable inhabitants of Brooklyn, in Connecticut, that we would aid them in their endeavours for the settlement of the ministry, * See Christian Disciple, New Series, No. 4, p. 336. and have employed Mr. David Reed to preach to them for three months. We invite the friends of our religion to consider the present as a peculiarly favourable season for devising liberal things to spread the knowledge of Christ. Reports from various parts of our land justify the belief, that there is a rapid multiplication of friends to the truth as it is in Jesus. It should animate us to perseverance in our work, that the system we have adopted meets general approbation, and that the ministers we have ordained and the churches we have established, may be referred to as fruits of our labours. We entreat all who are charitable to give us the means of doing still more extensive good, and to join with us in a humble prayer that Christian truth, charity, and righteousness may prevail. Statement of the Funds of the Evangelical Missionary Society of Massachusetts, Dec. 1, 1819. Amount of the accumulating fund Balance in the Treasury for appropriation Balance in the hands of the Vice-Treasurer A considerable legacy of the late Miss Russell, of Charlestown, the amount of which is not certainly ascertained, is added to the fund. List of Donations in 1818. $1418 52 360 35 56 53 do. in Northborough $14 50 6 15 10 15 52 23 41 17 62 30 2 From Ladies of West Church Society, Boston From Houlton plantation, Maine From a Lady in Brighton List of Donations in 1819. From the young Misses of the North Church Society, Salem From Ichabod Tucker, Esq. From the Female Cent Society in Shrewsbury A Friend A Friend Ladies Cent Society Concord $50 5 15 1 1 14 13 Officers of the Society. Hon. ISAAC PARKER, L.L.D. President. Rev. EZRA RIPLEY, D.D. Vice-President. Rev. SAMUEL RIPLEY, Cor. & Rec. Secretary. Rev. FRANCIS PARKMAN, Vice-Treasurer. Rev. Aaron Bancroft, D.D. Rev. Nathl. Thayer, D.D. Deacon Moses Coolidge, Trustees. Rev. Isaac Allen, $5 7 65 Stephen Higginson, Jr. Esq. Stephen Higginson, Jr. Esq. Alden Bradford, Esq. The next annual meeting of the Society will be holden in Boston, on the first Thursday in October, 1820, and the religious exercises will be performed in the West Church. First preacher, Rev. Abiel Abbot, of Beverly; second preacher, Rev. Mr. Channing. Conversion of the Jews.-The London Society for promoting christianity among the Jews has existed eleven years. New Series-vol. I. 61 During the last year there was considerable discussion in England, respecting the good effected or likely to be effected by its exertions. Some account of the publications on this subject may be found in the British Critic, from which the following abstract has been made. The London Society has expended in ten years about 95,000l., and its receipts during the last year amounted to 10,091. 11s. 8d. If we inquire what these ample funds have enabled the Society to perform towards the promotion of its object, we shall be informed by its various reports, that it has opened a Meeting-house for the benefit of those Jews who might be converted, or appeared well disposed for conversion; that it has built an Episcopal Chapel, on Bethnal Green, for the accommodation of those converts, who might prefer the ministrations of the Church of England; that it has established schools in which there are at present 43 boys and 35 girls; and that it has printed an edition of the New Testament in Hebrew. We learn, however, from the same sources of information, that the Meeting-house is shut up, and to be dispos ed of, as the conversions produced by this Society are benceforth to be conducted on the principles of the Church of England; the society itself having, as it appears, fallen entirely, or in a great measure, under the control of those who style themselves "the Evangelical Party" in the Church. The Episcopal Chapel, on Bethnal Green, continues open, and is, we are informed, well attended; not however by Jews, or by the converts of the Society, who might probably be accommodated within a single pew in any Church,-but by those Christians who usually resort to the Chapels in which an Evangelical clergyman officiates. The schools do not appear to be confined to the children of Jewish parents; not a few others have found admission there; and as for the Hebrew Testament, it would probably have remained as lumber in the ware-room of the Society's printer, had not the Bible Society taken the greater part of the impression at less than the cost price; (10th Report, p. 24, 26.*) and the Rev. L. Way and his associates * We find, by examining this Report, that another and corrected edition is preparing in Stereotype, and that the Society have met with some circumstances of encouragement as well as discouragement. The following anecdote is given: A Polish Jew, residing in this country, but not able to read the English language, was, under God, converted to the faith of Christ by reading the Gospels in the Hebrew tongue, which had been put into his hands by this Society. He made a public profession of his faith by baptism at the Episcopal Jews' Chapel, on the 20th of August last. His conduct since that time has been such as to afford the best hope of his sincerity. |