be relation to it, are mysterious and unfathom- | that "the wilderness and solitary place able; though doubtless they are the execu- shall be glad, and the desert shall rejoice tion of designs of infinite wisdom and right- and blossom as the rose."—The promise of eousness; and probably of boundless love God, "who cannot lie," that "all flesh shall and mercy which mortal vision has not yet see his salvation," affords sufficient ground been able to descry. "His way is in the of encouragement to the Society to renew, sea; his paths in the great waters; and his continue and extend its operations among footsteps not known."-But the operations the inhabitants of Africa, who, though of his hand in this case seem calculated whelmed in as deep ignorance, depravity, and designed to humble the friends of this and wretchedness, as any people on the surmission, and bring us to feel more sensibly face of the globe, are not beyond the reach our dependence on him for direction and of immeasurable grace, nor excluded from success. "Unless the Lord build the house, all interest in the unlimited promise of God, they labor in vain that build it. Unless that "all shall know him from the least the Lord keep the city, the watchman wak- even unto the greatest."-The wheels of eth but in vain."-But because our pro- time, with unabating velocity, roll on, and gress has been arrested in the first attempt, bear these immortal beings, unpardoned, let us not hastily conclude that we shall unsanctified, without Christ, and without never be able to establish a permament mis- hope, to the place of their eternal abode, sion in Africa. The first expedition of the when a definitive seal is set upon their Israelites against the city of Ai entirely characters-"He that is unjust, let him be failed, on account of their trespass; but af- unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him ter they had humbled themselves before the be filthy still."-Whatever, then, can b Lord, and put away "the accursed thing," done for the salvation of the present generathey were led on by "the Captain of the tion, ought to be done with as little delay Lord's host," and obtained a glorious vic-as possible.-Can we hesitete-can we lintory. Though we have not sinned exactly ger, when a work of inconceivable import"after the similitude of Israel's transgress-ance claims our attention and exertions? ion," we have sufficient cause for humilia- In view of the deplorable condition of the tion and self-abasement. We have been native population, the speedy revival and defective in many things, perhaps in every establishment of our African Mission apthing in which we ought to have "shined as pears to be a most desirable object. But a lights in the world." Have we not been formidable difficulty is presented. It is said greatly deficient in love to God and a zeal that three of our beloved missionaries have for his glory?-in a benevolent concern for already fallen as victims to the pestilential the salvation of the perishing heathen?-in climate of Africa; and why should other that "fervent charity" which "covereth a precious lives be sacrificed?-But it may be multitude of sins," and leads its subjects to answered, that there is not conclusive evia cordial co-operation in every good work? dence that our lamented brethren and sis-in that sense of dependence on God ter came to their death by the common Afwhich would excite us to invoke continual-rican fever. They had suffered indeed unly, and with earnest importunity, his blessing upon Zion, and upon "the whole world that lieth in wickedness?"-When we shrink into nothing in our own estimation, and wonder that we are permitted to touch the ark of the Lord with our unhallowed hands; and when we justify the Lord in the judgments of his hand, feel our dependence on him for every good, and place our entire and unwavering confidence in him, we will be encouraged to go on with our work, and indulge the animating expectation, that he will, in answer to prayer, appear in his glory to build up Zion in heathen lands; so der that fever; but were, in a good degree, restored to health. It is evident from the letter of Mr. Laird, that Mr. Cloud died of dysentary; and from the letter of Mr. Pinney, that this was the fact; and that Mr. and Mrs. Laird died of the same disease. This malady is not peculiar to Africa. It frequently prevails in the most healthy districts of the United States, and is attended with great mortality. Last summer, within a circle of ten or twelve miles in.dianieter, in a very salubrious part of our country, this disease, by an occasional visit, proved destructive to the lives of about 40 this would not be a sufficient reason for abandoning our African Mission.-This Mission was never located at Monrovia, as some seem to suppose. In August of last year, the Executive Committee "resolved to form, as speedily as practicable, two stations-one in the Bassa country, and one at King Sou's town;" neither of which is in the territory of Liberia, though not beyond. individuals. Did survivors, on this account, | mate, a mission cannot now be sustained abandon their habitations and seek a place in the Colony of Liberia or in the vicinity, of perpetual exemption from its inroads? No; they wisely continued to occupy the places of their past residence, and have as reasonable prospects of escaping this and other diseases, in future, as the inhabitants of adjacent districts, who generally enjoy the most excellent health.-It is not denied, that Liberia has been subject to fevers, which have terminated fatally to many white emigrants from foreign countries. its influence. They are both on the coast, But this does not prove that it will always be equally subject to the same diseases. Many portions of the Valley of the Mississippi, at their early settlement, were subject to autumnal fevers, very destructive to human life; but since these districts have been well cultivated and improved, the ordinary local causes of disease, have been, in a good measure, removed, and the inhabitants now generally enjoy health little inferior to that which is experienced in the more elevated or mountainous regions of our country. This is more especially predicable of those who have been acclimated by a residence of several years in the places where they settled. If the agriculture of Liberia were systematized, extended and carried to that degree of perfection of which the soil is capable; marshes drained and converted into meadows, or arable fields for the production of grain; comfortable habitations erected, and well ventilated; local causes of disease, as far as practicable, removed; and moral causes, especially intemperance and irregular living, guarded against with the utmost strictness and assiduity; it is confidently believed that the territory of Liberia would rarely be subjected to the desolating effects of malignant diseases. Un-ful positions, on elevated ground, not preder the blessing of Heaven, missionary operations might be pursued with vigor and effect, and extended within and without the limits of the Colony; schools established for the instruction of children, and adult persons who might be induced to attend; houses of worship erected and filled with the native inhabitants and others, convened to render homage to Jehovah and hear the Gospel of salvation through the atonement of Him who died on the cross for the redemption of sinners. But if it could be ascertained, that, on account of the unwholesomeness of the cli and the latter is 60 miles east of Monrovia.-For aught that appears, one or both of these positions, already selected, may be occupied by missionaries of the Society, if men can be found, in sufficient numbers, and with such zeal and fortitude as will animate and strengthen them to rise above the fear of suffering and even of death; and engage in the work, with the hope of being instrumental in honoring God, and of turning sinners of the Gentiles "from darkness to light."-But if it should not be deemed expedient, at present, to occupy either of these positions with a missionary establishment through apprehensions of the insalu brity of the climate, let it be remembered that there are numerous other places on that continent where new missions might be established without any ground of alarm on account of malignant fevers. This is abundantly evident from the extracts in the first article of the present number of the Chronicle, which we have made from a London Magazine. From these it is manifest, that there is an extensive field for missionary labor in Africa; that many missions have been established-long continued and greatly blessed of God. Health viously occupied, may certainly be found by exploration or correspondence with intelligent men who have long been engaged in missionary operations on parts of that continent. And may we not indulge the hope that many young ambassadors for Christ will consecrate themselves to the Lord in the missionary work, and go speedily over to take possession of some portion of the field; cheerfully willing to spend and be spent, to live or die, in their efforts to build up the kingdom of Christ in lands of Pagan darkness? MINIMUS. A CALL FROM THE MEDITERRANEAN. ADDRESS OF REV. JOSIAH BREWER, TO THE THEOLOGICAL STUDENTS IN CONNEXION WITH THE WESTERN FOREIGN MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Smyrna, March 4, 1834. DEAR BRETHREN IN CHRIST, With meekness, and symplicity, and affection, permit me to commune with you on the selection of a field in your contemplated entrance upon the ministry of reconciliation. That part of your favored land in which your lot is cast, has, beyond all question, some peculiar claims upon you. The tide of population, which sets continually from the Atlantic States to the broad Valley of the Mississippi, carries not now upon its bosom so many of the means of grace as were wont in former times to crown the less waves of emigration that reached only the foot of the Green Mountains and the Alleghenies. Would that a thousand devoted servants of our Lord were ready at this moment to go through the length and breadth of what seems destined, in the Providence of God, to be the very centre of the most important Christian nation, of the earth. Look well around you therefore, dear brethren, on our own American moral wastes, and see to it that your priests and Levites leave not the wounded and perishing to look, perhaps in vain, for some good Samaritan to have pity upon them. But, my brethren, may it not also be said to you, "The field is the world?" It is not the men of a single district, or country, or contineut, who need the Gospel; "The world lieth in wickedness," and there is no other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved, but the name of Jesus; and of Him, "how shall they hear without a preacher?" The souls of those, too, who dwell on the banks of the Ganges, or by the golden-sanded streams of Africa, or the remoter waters of the Missouri, or around the classic Hermus and Cayster, are as priceless as the immortal minds whose season of probation is passed beside the Ohio and Mississippi. Consider well, then, to what part of the great moral vineyard the Householder bids you go forth. On the one hand, let not any concealed feeling of romance or ambition call you away to foreign lands; nor, on the other, permit an equally disguised love of ease and outward comforts confine you to some quiet and pleasant parish at home. That you should experience some inward struggles of feeling and be tried by outward difficulties in settling the question of duty, I can well conceive. If, however, you can say in the sincerity of your hearts, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" I am abundantly sure, you will be guided aright. Approaching the subject with the same spirit which, I trust, actuated that first youthful martyr, Barr, in the cause of Foreign Missions, I shall expect that some of you will be content to find your graves amid these scenes of Primitive Christianity. Suffer me, then, in a few words, to invite your attention to this particular field of labor, from whence it is my privilege to address you. It is now little more than four years since 1 sat down in this city, with only one other Protestant mis sionary in the whole of Asia Minor; and now we are scarcely one to each million of its inhabitants. Every day's experience, during these years, and every week's report, has, on the whole, continually shown the necessity and the encouragement for missionary labor. What then, should hinder a great effort to send us, on the part of America, a missionary, for, at least, every 100,000 perishing souls? And why should not one half of this number, say 30, or 35, come from your wealthy region of the West? Come then, dear brethren, let a whole generation of theological students. whose health and circumstances permit, arise and bid adieu to the land of your fathers' sepulchers, and, with the spirit of Paul and John, labor in the region where these beloved disciples of the Lord first planted the Gospel! Go in a body to the fathers of your western churches, and say, "Here are we; send us" to Smyrna, and Pergamus, and Philadelphia, and Colosse, and Iconium, and Derbe and Lystra aud Antioch in Pisidia, and Galatia; and fear not that you will be told the treasury of the Lord is empty and cannot be replenished. Hasten too, before the few now in the field shall faint beneath "the burden and the heat of the day," and before other millions of Mahometans and Jews, of Greeks and Armenians, shall follow the henighted and guilty generations that have preceded them into the eternal world. Come, with that tender compassion for sinners, aud devotedness to the service of the Savior, which are indispensable alike for him who proclaims the words of eternal life whether in his own or a foreign land. Come in the belief, that up to a certain extent, (and that much greater than we are likely to witness at present in numbers) the missionary who goes abroad does as much good indirectiy at home, as if he had remained there; for "there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth;" and "he that watereth, shall be watered again." Come, however, with moderate expectations of immediate visible success; remembering also the apostle's record, "Confirming the souls of the saints, and that through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of heaven;" and calling to mind the epistle to the Church in Smyrna, "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life." Thus, brethren, though I have not stopped accurately to weigh my language, I have conveyed to you, I trust, the feelings of my heart. The Lord guide you into a decision on this important subject which will be remembered in the great day, when all this ransomed people and all the lost shall be gathered before him. .Excuse the freedom of your brother in the Lord, JOSIAH BREWER. 1 Mr. Brewer, in addressing the Corresponding Secretary of the Western Foreign Missionary Society, says, "For Asia Minor, send us, as soon as possible, at least half a dozen young men. I also earnestly recommend, Salonicia and European Turkey as an unoccupied field for 2 or 3 others to enter upon immediately.” He who follows Christ in the path of self-denial, will dwell with him in the world of glory. GENERAL RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. SELECTED AND ABRIDGED FOR THE CHRONICLE. General Association of Connecticut.This body met on the 17th June, at Vernon. Rev. Dr. Chapin was chosen Moderator and Rev. Messrs. Hickok and Man, Scribes. The sermon was delivered by Mr. Everest. A report on the state of religion was read, adopted and ordered to be published. Resolutions were adopted, recommending that ordaining bodies connected with the Association should not ordain missionaries about to go to the West, but leave that to Presbyteries where they locate; and that no candidate, sine titulo, should be ordained merely on his own request. This last was intended to check the growing practice of ordaining young men as evangelists, when they have no charge in expectation.-On Wedisday, a large number of the friends of Christ united in the celebration of the Lord's supper. Prayers were offered and addresses made by Rev. Dr. Neill, delegate from the Gen. Assembly, and Rev. Dr. Wisner, Sec. of the Am. Board. The cause of the Am. Tract Society was advocated by Rev. Mr. Eastman, of the Am. Bible Society, by Rev. Mr. Shepherd; and of the Am. Board, by Dr. Wisner, whose theme was the conversion of the world, as the ruling principle, the governing passion of our lives. He mentioned, as encouraging facts, the increase of funds, aud of a missionary spirit in Col-plete the Second Volume of the Foreign Missionary leges and Theological Seminaries, and the Chronicle within the compass of the present natuthat the Third Volume may commence design of many settled ministers in this and close with the year 1835. In time past, one country to go as missionaries to the hea- sheet, containing 16 pages, has been furnished in then.-Several resolutions were passed in every monthly number. But in the number for relation to slavery; and it was recommend-August we furnish two sheets, containing 32 paed, that collections be taken up about the 4th of July, for the Am. Colonization Society. Religious Tract Society held its meeting; which was opened with an address by the venerable, intelligent and zealous Mr. Stapfer. The Society, in the course of the year, distributed 321,000 Tracts-about 900 a day; which indeed bear a small proportion to a population of thirty-three millions. Here is a great field for the American Tract Society.-The Protestant Bible Society met on the 16th, and was numerously attended. The report of the committee labors to vindicate the rule, requiring that the Bible should be distributed only to Protestants.-Why not to all men who will receive it?-The receipts have been 44,123 francs; of which 29,300 were from the sale of Bibles; and 14,444 francs donations and subscriptions. Anniversary Religious Meetings in Paris.-A correspondent of the N. Y. Observer gives an account of these meetings. On the 14th April, the anniversaries commenced with a special meeting for prayer, which was abundantly blessed, as appeared on the succeeding days; and it is believed that Christians in France will continue to invoke the blessing of God by a meeting for prayer at the opening of their annual meetings. On the 15th, the The London Hibernian Society has under its care 1880 schools and 108,000 scholars. Of these, 875 are day-schools, with 69,188 scholars, 28,002 of whom are children of R. Catholics; 259 adult schools, with 10,722 scholars, many of whom are R. Catholics. The Society's income for the year was $35,000; 192 day-schools have been added, with 17,000 scholars.— The Society have instructed above 520,000. NOTICE TO THE READERS OF THE CHRONICLE. The Executive Committee have resolved to com ral year, ges; and, in each of the succeeding months of Sep- The List of Contributions will appear in the next number of the Chronicle. FOREIGN MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. VOL. II....No. 7. PITTSBURGH, OCTOBER, 1834. LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. In the Missionary Chronicle for June 1834, we find an interesting account of the Fortieth General Meeting of the London Missionary Society. From the excellent speeches delivered on this occasion we select the following, as being happily calculated to excite a missionary spirit. WILLIAM ALERS HANKEY, Esq. moved the first resolution, viz. "That the Report, of which an abstract has been read, be received and printed; and that, while this meeting contemplates, with the most devout acknowledgments, the success of the Society's labors, it acknowledges, with grateful satisfaction, the proofs of advancing attachment to the cause of missions on the part of their brethren, afforded by their enlarged contributions during the past year, and the number of individuals who have consecrated their labors to its service. It further unites in supplications to the Most High for the gracious influence of the Holy Spirit to rest upon the extended operations of the Society in every part of the world.” Mr. Hankey addressed the auditory, in substance, as follows: Christian Friends,-I never rose with greater devotedness to your cause than on the present occasion. Most cordially do I congratulate you on the contents of the report; and, regarding it as the most delight ful and cheering I have ever read, I can assure you that it affords me the greatest pleasure to move its acceptance. In performing this task, I shall endeavor rather to seize the spirit of the report than to follow its details; keeping in view these two important features: (1.) The Society's progressive advancement towards success; (2.) WHOLE NO. 19. The concurrence of the course of Divine Providence with its object. I shall first direct your attention to the South Sea Islands, where, notwithstanding new and formidable impediments, wo behold Christianity steadily progressing, and its important principles of self-propagation extensively developing itself. Many of the natives themselves, you are aware, have become missionaries; not merely teaching their fellow-countrymen, but conveying the gospel to remote islands. And this is as it should be; for, where a man has been himself made a partaker of spiritual blessings, he feels it indispensable to endeavor to impart them to others. I turn next to British Guiana, where we behold Christianity spreading in one of the most fertile and promising fields of the Society; seen, indeed, under a different aspect, (for our divine religion adapts itself to every possible modification of human society,) but still developing its power of progressive extension and advancement; and if none of the people in that region are personally instrumental to its propagation in distant parts, as is the case in regard to the natives of the South Sea Islands, it must be remembered that they liberally furnish means toward enabling us to do so. But before I withdraw from the West, I cannot but cast a passing glance upon those numerous is. lands of that Sea, which, in virtue of the late noble act of our country, may, in a pe culiar sense, be said to wait for the law of God. The work, however, of British Christians is not yet completed. The boon bestowed imposes upon them new and weighty obligations; and imperfect, indeed, |