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of what had taken place soon reached others of our villages, and produced a great commotion among them; some said we had become crazy, had lost ourselves, and were doing great wickedness in forsaking the religion of our forefathers, which GOD had given expressly for the Indians, for them to hold to, to the end of time. This produced great confusion among our people; some cried one thing and some another; but some came from time to time to hear for themselves this new way, and were convinced that we had found the true light; that the good Book the white men had, was verily the Word of the living GOD, and JESUS the only Saviour of sinners.

In this way, a light was lit up in our village, and continues to spread, though great darkness and opposition remain with many of our people.

Two of the young men that were in England, NEGUIE-ETWASSAW and SEGWASKENACE, on their return, joined immediately with the christian party, and rejoiced much in beholding what GOD had done for their people: they have continued with us steadfast until this

day.

We wish we could give a more pleasing account of the other men that were in England, but we can in truth say no better of them, than that they are in darkness, and do the works of darkness. The Chief that was in England is a violent opposer to all the ways of the white people, and uses all his influence to persuade his people to retain their old ways; he is much given to his cup, and laughs at the thought of GOD seeing and calling us to an account for our conduct. We are sorry to say these things of this Chief, but we will not deceive you. We hope and pray that GOD will give him repentance, and shine into his heart to give him the true light.

These, Brothers, are the great things that GOD has done for us, whereof we are glad. Though we see but little yet, we are assured that we have found the true light; that the good Book is the Word of the true and living GOD, which he has given for all nations. We believe that JESUS CHRIST his SON is the only Saviour of sinners. We believe that we are all brothers, and that GOD hath made all nations of one blood, to dwell on all the face of the earth. We believe nothing but the SPIRIT of JESUS can make men love one another as brothers. We believe that JESUS is the true GOD, and eternal life. We believe that all nations and languages that receive the LORD JESUS, and walk in him, will meet together in heaven, as one family of brothers, praising GoD and

the REDEEMER for ever and ever. These things we believe and are assured of, and our hearts are comforted. He lightens our trials, makes our labour pleasant, and prospers the work of our hands, and we take delight in cultivating the earth, which He causes to bring forth food for man and beast.

Brothers, you will unite with us in praising the LORD, and in beseeching Him that He would perfect the mercy He hath begun in the midst of us, and fill the whole earth with the knowledge of His truth. YOUNG KING, &c. &c.

Brothers, you will now listen to a few words our young men desire to speak to you.

NEGUIE-ETWASSAW and SEGWASKENACE to their friends in England. Brothers, we feel happy that our head-men have taken it up to send you a Talk. They have said so much, that little remains for us to say at this time.

Brothers, we remember you all, and your kindness to us while in your country, and your good counsel to us; this we hold fast, and endeavour to follow. We remember you talked to us of the good Book; the knowledge of which, you told us, was what delivered your forefathers from the wild way in which they formerly lived, and had advanced them to that prosperity and happiness which we witnessed. . You said you desired that we and our people should come to the knowledge of the good Book, that we might be alike happy. This good Talk made our hearts glad, hoping it would be so with us and with our people.

Brothers, our hearts were greatly rejoiced, when returned safely to our country, to find the minds of our people were turned from the old way to hunting wisdom from the good Book, and that they were keeping the Sabbath as GOD had commanded.

Brothers, this made our hearts light and joyful, and we readily joined with our fathers and brothers that held to the Word of God, and kept the Sabbath-day.

Brothers, we know that you will greatly rejoice at this good news from the Senecas. This is what you so much desired should take place among us.

Brothers, our way of worship differs some from the way of the Society of Friends, yet we trust we love all who hold to the word of GOD, and believe and trust in the SAVIOUR.

Brothers, we keep fast hold of the chain of friendship which reaches from you to us. We feel determined to keep hold of our end we hope and trust our brothers will keep hold of their end.

Relating principally to the FOREIGN MISSIONS carried on under
the direction of the METHODIST Conference.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

ANNIVERSARY OF THE WESLEYAN-METHODIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, 1822.

We are happy to say, that the pleasing anticipations respecting this Anniversary, which we were led to express in our Number for April, have been fully realized. The friends of the Wesleyan-Missions have again assembled, from various parts of the country, to listen to a Report which was eminently calculated to call forth their humble thanksgivings for the encouragements of the past year; and have solemnly renewed, under a more than ordinary influence from above, and with feelings of increased compassion for perishing souls, their pledges of inviolable fidelity to this holy cause.

The THREE ANNUAL SERMONS before the Society were preached on the 25th and 26th of April, by the REV. JOHN JAMES, of HALIFAX, the REV. DR. ADAM CLARKE, and the REV. HENRY MOORE. These appropriate and able Discourses were highly interesting to the numerous and respectable auditories, who assembled in the Chapels at Spitalfields, Great Queen Street, and City Road.

A PUBLIC PRAYER-MEETING was held at the City-Road Chapel, at Six o'clock in the morning of the 26th; for the purpose of specially imploring the divine blessing on the Anniversary, and on Christian Missions throughout the world. This was found, by the Ministers and People who attended it, to be a most edifying and delightful addition to the usual services of the occasion; and we strongly recommend that, wherever it is practicable, a similar Meeting should always be included in the arrangements made for the Anniversaries of Auxiliary Societies. We are persuaded that Prayer,-solemn, fervent, and united Prayer,— is among the most necessary and most powerful of those means by which Christians are now peculiarly called to promote the work and cause of GOD; and that, in fact, without an increase of their prayers, in connexion with the continuance and augmentation of their pecuniary contributions, the grand object of our common hope and effort,-the conversion of THE WORLD,-will never be accomplished. We rejoice, therefore, in every indication of a growing spirit of supplication among those who take an active part in Missionary Institutions.

SERMONS were also preached, in aid of our Missions, on Sunday, April 28th, in all the Chapels of the Wesleyan-Methodists in the London Circuits. To the various Preachers from the Country, who kindly added their valuable services to those of their Brethren now stationed in Town, in thus pleading the cause of Missions before our congregations in the Metropolis, the Society is under much obligation. We are glad to learn that their labours were successful; the Sunday Collections having, in almost every Chapel, exceeded those of the last year,

although, in most cases, Branch-Societies exist in connexion with these several Chapels, each of which had previously held its own Annual Meeting, and had remitted, together with Subscriptions and Donations, the public Collection then made; so that the Sunday Collections at the General Anniversary are, in fact, the second congregational Collections, for this object, made at those places in the course of the year. We deem it but justice to our liberal friends in and near London, to notice this circumstance.

After stating, which we do with unfeigned gratitude, that the whole of the Collections and Donations, received in connexion with this Anniversary, amount to upwards of TWELVE HUNDRED POUNDS,-being an increase of Two Hundred Pounds above those of the last year, we proceed to lay before our readers, as usual, an account of the General Meeting.

ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY,

AT THE CITY ROAD CHAPEL, ON MONDAY, APRIL 29,

JOSEPH BUTTERWORTH, ESQ., M. P., IN THE CHAIR.

THE Meeting was opened with prayer, by the PRESIDENT of the Conference; and the Chair was then taken. The Chapel had been crowded for some time. The platform was occupied by the members of the General Committee, by official Members of the Auxiliary Societies from the Country, and by Ministers and Gentlemen connected with other Missionary Societies. Letters were read from SIR SAMFORD WHITTINGHAM, K. C. B., late Governor of Dominica, and from MR. WILBERFORCE, expressing their good-will to the Society, and their decided approbation of its objects and labours; and regretting their unavoidable absence from the Meeting.

THE CHAIRMAN introduced the business of the Meeting by observing, that at the period of the first propagation of the Gospel, it had pleased GOD, in the course of his Providence, to make use of the Roman Empire to give facilities to the preaching of the Gospel, which apparently would not have existed had not one government prevailed over the greater part of the world. At the present period, if this country did not possess an extensive dominion in Europe, we had considerable influence even there, by our character, by our commerce, and by our power. Our colonies were most numerous, populous, and important, spreading through a very large portion of the Pagan world. These were given to us, not to fill us with pride, not to promote luxury and dissipation, but to be used for the highest and most important purposes. When we considered that we possessed Gibraltar, the key of the Mediterranean, and the means of diffusing the light of truth into Spain, and that our influence extended to the Ionian Islands, which brought us into the neighbourhood of Greece, and the Turkish Empire ;-if we crossed the Atlantic, and considered the important colonies where our own language prevails, and the access which our possessions there give us to every part of the great American continent;if we re-crossed that ocean and looked at Africa, and the stations of Sierra Leone and the Cape of Good Hope,-and went further east to Ceylon and the great Empire of Continental India, where are nearly one hundred millions of souls under the British Crown ;-if we considered that the Colony of New South Wales had the elements of a mighty empire within itself, and the influence which our settlements and rising power and commerce there gave us in the Pacific Ocean ;—we must feel that as a nation of professing Christians, Divine Providence has assigned us a most important work to do, and that every individual was called upon, both by providence and by grace, to do his duty. Those who had money should give their money; it should be at the service of the great GOD and his cause. Those who had time or talents to devote, were called to give their time and talents to Him. And those who could not give these were to pray to GoD to pour out his blessing on his Ministers, and on those who take an active part in the extension of his kingdom. On this very day we learned that the new states in South America were thrown open to the commerce

of Great Britain. This he considered as favourable to the spread of divine truth, which GOD will send there by his Missionaries. At a late meeting of the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society letters were read, which had been received from their Agent in South America, in which he stated, that some Spanish Officers had purchased Spanish Testaments, which books they had not seen before. They read them with delight, and entreated the Agent to permit them to purchase others for distribution among their companions in arms, in that part of the world. He would only advert to another circumstance; we met there not as an insulated Society, not as pretending to engross the whole of Christianity or of Missionary zeal to ourselves. We rejoiced that other communions were uniting heart and hand; and it was with great satisfaction that he saw that the Noble President of the Church Missionary Society had honoured us with his presence. Some of the members of the Baptist Missionary Society, which had done so much in the East, had also favoured us with their attendance; and a friend from the London Missionary Society would likewise address the meeting. He trusted that they all should rejoice together in the common LORD, and the common SAVIOUR.

The Report was then read. It took a rapid review of the Missions supported by the Society in France, Gibraltar, Ceylon and Continental India, New South Wales, New Zealand, Western and Southern Africa, the West Indies, British North America, &c.; from all of which the accounts are generally very satisfactory. The number of Missionaries now employed, including several Native Assistant Preachers, but exclusive of mere Catechists and Schoolmasters, was stated to be 149; who occupy 105 Stations. The number sent out during the last year was eleven, of whom five are married. The number of Members in the Foreign Missionary Stations, was, when the last year's returns were made up, 28,699; and the returns of the current year, as far as they have yet been received, indicate a very considerable increase, especially in some of the Islands of the West Indies. The receipts of the year ending Dec. 31, 1821, were £26,883. Os. 1d. The expenditure was £30,925. 2s. Id.; to which must be added the Balance due to the Treasurers, Dec. 31, 1820, viz. £3526.3s. 10d.; so that when the last account was made up, the Treasurers were in advance for the Society to the large amount of £7568, 5s. 10d. This Balance, however, we understand, has since been somewhat reduced; and the Committee express their perfect confidence, that a work so important to the com-mon cause of Christianity, and to the eternal interests of the human race, will not be suffered to appeal in vain to the benevolence of the Religious Public.

The First Resolution,-" That the Report now read be adopted, and printed under the direction of the General Committee,”—was moved by the Right Honourable Admiral LORD GAMBIER. His Lordship said, he had received the honour of a kind invitation to take a part in the proceedings of this day, and it was with great pleasure and gratification to his own feelings that he accepted it. To say that his heart was deeply interested in the blessed work in which we were engaged, was too feeble an expression of what he felt, and what he thought he ought to feel, on the occasion. If there were a work of GOD, a labour of love and charity, which surpassed all others, it was the blessed cause for which they were that day assembled. He had the honour to hold an office, upon the staff, as he might say, of a similar institution; and he should, at all times, feel the greatest pleasure in adding his feeble aid to the important work in which this Society was engaged. The Report was so full of animating and encouraging matter, and so fraught with numerous passages deserving attention and remark, that it was unnecessary for him to make any observation to recommend the resolution for its adoption. It was truly gratifying; and he had felt the highest pleasure in receiving and reading the accounts from the pious and zealous Missionaries of the Society in different parts of the world, where the work of GOD was greatly prospering in their hands. One or two communications in the last Report had impressed him very much, and he would beg to be allowed to bring them again under the notice of the meeting, as a proof of what they owed to the mercy and goodness of GOD, in thus blessing their labours.-[His Lordship then read some passages out of the last Report respecting the Ceylon Mission; and then proceeded to observe-] What abundant encouragement was this for the Society to persevere in its labours. Schools were certainly of great importance, as with the young we might expect to make the greatest progress, and they laid the foundation of future success. It appeared, from various circumstances in the Report, that the Society's labours in this respect had been wonderfully blessed.—Another instance which he would bring under their recollection, from the last Report, was to him very remarkable and very encouraging. The account, to which he referred, gave some interesting particulars of the conversion of an aged Malabar in Ceylon, and, though it might be very well re

collected, he wished to bring it again before the Meeting. It stated that he was then employed as the head schoolmaster at Trincomalee.-[His Lordship here read the account as it stands in page 57 of the last Report.]-His Lordship said, he apologized for taking up so much of their time, but this account had appeared to him very interesting. It was very remarkable that a man who had carried his prejudices so many years, should, at an advanced age, be brought to CHRIST. Here was sufficient encouragement to persevere in this great and glorious work. "Let us remember," said his Lordship, "that this is the cause for which the Son of GOD took upon him our nature, went through all the sufferings of his life in the flesh, and sealed his great work by his blood. What then ought Christians to do for him? They ought to use every energy of mind, and every power of the soul, to promote his glory. You have abundant reason to be grateful, in the highest degree, to ALMIGHTY GOD, for the blessing he has bestowed on the work of your hands. Go on, and may the LORD abundantly bless your labours, and give you the reward which shall finally be bestowed on his children."

JAMES STEPHEN, JUN., ESQ., Barrister at Law, in seconding the Resolution, addressed the Meeting nearly as follows:-"I beg to second the motion proposed by the Noble Lord. Although I differ with respect to some minor points of discipline from the great body of Christians whom I have now the happiness to see before me, I confess I could not without self-reproach have absented myself, on such an occasion, from this Society's great annual jubilee,-from this season of mutual consolation and mutual exhortation,-from this day when we meet to commemorate those triumphs which GoD by our efforts has permitted to be gained in this fallen world:-I say, Sir, that I could not without self-reproach have been absent; for that Church to which I belong, has taught me to say, "I believe in the communion of saints," and it is here I see that communion, and stand among a branch of the "holy Catholic Church;" and much as, from circumstances of early education and early prepossession, my mind is disposed rather to incline its attention to the institutions of that church of which I was bred a member, yet I must confess there is in the operations of this Society something which is peculiarly touching to the heart of every one who has learned to value the Gospel of his REDEEMER. There are Societies of men,-God bless them all !— who are engaged in visiting the shores of the Mediterranean by their agents, or in attacking Pagans in their strong holds and sumptuous palaces; but if I ask, where are the chief operations of the Wesleyan Missionary Society, the answer is, they are there where there is nothing to excite sympathy, they are there where there is much to disgust fastidious taste,-they are there where there is nothing of adventitious circumstance to attract the mind,-they are in the midst of the squalidness and wretchedness of our species,-in the cabins of Ireland, and in the huts of the West Indies. This last circumstance, had there been no other, would have impelled me, as by irresistible necessity, to contribute my support, feeble as it is, to its operations. It is known to you, Sir, and to those around me, that I have some hereditary claim to take an interest in what concerns the improvement of the African. It is well and beautifully observed in that Report which has been read to you, that not merely the direct effect of your West India Missions is most blessed and delightful, but that the incidental benefits, which are continually springing up from the instruction of the negro population of our colonies, are scarcely less gratifying. And, Sir, allow me to say, that one of these great incidental effects, to which no christian in heart among all those professing christianity, can be insensible, is, that I see in the operations of this Society, the surest, the best pledge of the consummation of those efforts, which good, and virtuous, and holy men, have been making for the universal abolition of that "abomination of desolation," the slave-trade. Missionary labours promote this by their collateral effects, because their tendency is to raise the tone of moral sentiment throughout society. Give me a white population in our Islands, deeply imbued with sentiments of true christianity; give me a coloured population, worshipping at the same altar; and give me a slave population, imbibing the spirit of the Gospel of JESUS CHRIST;-and then there will not be one who will dare to violate so far his allegiance to his GOD and SAVIOUR, as to engage in what I would call in strong terms, but not too strong, this accursed trade. There is one passage in the Report which no man can be reminded of without feeling his heart leap within him; I refer to the description of the state of the negro slaves in one of the islands, to whom christian instruction had not till lately been imparted,-those poor, degraded, ignorant creatures, so ignorant that even your Missionary could have almost persuaded himself he was dealing with brutes instead of men, and would have despaired of their recovery, had it not been for the VOL. I. Third Series, JUNE, 1822.

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