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gious books and treatises in foreign countries, as well as throughout the British dominions." The credit of originating this Society is due directly to the Rev. George Burder, and the Rev. Samuel Greatheed, who had themselves published pamphlets denominated " Village Tracts." What also more remotely led to its establishment was the publication of the "Cheap Repository," by Mrs. Hannah More and others, about the year 1795. Previously to this, however, the Society in England for promoting Christian Knowledge, incorporated in 1647, had published and distributed books and tracts.

The officers of the Society are a Committee, several Secretaries, and a Treasurer. The Committee consists of four clergymen and eight laymen. The Treasurer and Secretaries are members of the Committee.

The Society began its operations by publishing and distributing Tracts in England only, and only in the English language. Now it publishes and distributes them in no less than seventy different languages, and in almost all the countries of the world.

The receipts of the Society for the year ending May, 1832, were £31,376 6s. 11d. and the number of publications circulated, 11,714,965. The whole circulation of its publications at home and abroad amounts to nearly 165,000,000.

The Secretaries of the Society, in 1829, were, the Rev. Richard Waldo Sibthorp, B. D.; the Rev. Joseph Hughes, A. M.; and the Rev. C. Scholl. John Broadley Wilson, Esq., Treasurer. Mr. Hughes has been one of the Secretaries of the Society from its organization.

The Society next in order of time to the London, grew out of a small association, formed at Bâsle, in 1802, which, in 1812, became a regular organized Society. It never has greatly extended its operations.

To the Bâsle Society succeeded, the same year, (1812,) an Institution formed at Berne. This Society has been more efficient than the Bâsle Society.

The first Society in the United States partaking of the nature of a Tract Society, was the Massachusetts Society for promoting Christian Knowledge, instituted at Boston, in the year 1803. The Hon. Samuel Phillips and Professor Tappan took a very active part in its formation. For a num

ber of years its operations were considerable, but it has, since the formation of the American Tract Society at Boston, in May, 1814, and the American Tract Society at New York, in 1825, turned its attention principally to Domestic Missions. Considering its means, it has accomplished great good. The Society has printed and distributed 8,224 books, 30,350 tracts.

Since the formation of the American Tract Society at Boston, similar Societies have arisen elsewhere, and are now common in all parts of the country. But the largest and most considerable, and that, indeed, to which almost all others, not excepting, in some respects, the one at Boston, are auxiliary, is the American Tract Society, instituted at New York in 1825.

From the greater facilities at New York for circulating tracts, especially in the western parts of our country, as well as for other reasons, it was judged best, in 1825, to establish a Society at New York,.which should take the general character of a parent institution. Accordingly, with good understanding on the part of the friends of truth at Boston and at New York, such a Society was formed and has since been the leading Tract Society in the country at large.

The officers of the Society are, a President, a Vice President, a Corresponding, a Visiting, and Financial, a Recording and Assistant Secretary, a Treasurer, and 36 DirectS. V. S. Wilder, Esq., President; Mr. William A. Hallock, A. M., Corresponding Secretary; Rev. Ornan Eastman, Visiting and Financial Secretary, and Moses Allen, Esq., Treasurer.

ors.

The receipts of the Society for the year ending, May, 1832, were $61,905 07, and the expenditures $61,808 40. The number of pages printed, 88,547,000, and the number circulated, 384,837,720. The number of new Auxiliaries recognized, May, 1832, was 146, making the whole number then on the Society's list, 997. Reckoning the Society at Boston, and the Pennsylvania Branch at Philadelphia, with all their respective auxiliaries, which are to the former 703, and to the latter 429, including also 1,227 to which the Tract Magazine is sent, the whole number is 3,336. These are scattered through the whole extent of the United States, and are patronized by all denominations of evangelical Christians, though some have, besides, other societies. of their own, for the promotion of their own particular views.

The American Tract Society at Boston may be considered as, in a great measure, the Parent of all other Tract Societies in the country. Some others were formed before it, but it was more active and enterprizing in its early operations, than any other; and, in 1825, when the American Tract Society at New York was formed, it stood without a rival in the world, except the London Tract Society. It has since, too, continued its operations, and is now, amid all the Societies in the country, second only to the American Society at New York.

The officers of the Society are, a President, a Vice President, 7 Directors, an Executive Committee of 5, a Secretary, and a Treasurer, with an Assistant Treasurer. The President is the Hon. William Reed; Rev. James Kimball, Secretary; John Tappan, Esq., Treasurer; and Mr. Aaron Russell, Assistant Treasurer.

The receipts of the Society for the year ending May, 1832, were $12,606 49, and its expenditures $12,237 84. The number of pages distributed was 14,500,740. Auxiliaries, 703, of which 140 are in Maine, 164 in New Hampshire, 196 in Vermont, and 294 in Massachusetts. Of the whole number, however, 117 only made donations during the year, and the receipts of the Society arose principally from the sale of tracts.

The London, the American at New York, and the American at Boston, are the three largest Tract Societies in the world. Their publications may be found in China, Burmah, and in India; in the islands of the sea; in the countries round the Mediterranean, in the different countries of Europe, in North and South America. Many have been saved through their instrumentality, but many are still perishing through lack of knowledge.

There are other Tract Societies in this country, as the Connecticut Religious Tract Society, instituted at New. Haven, 1807; the Vermont Religious Tract Society, formed 1808; the Protestant Episcopal Tract Society at New York, established in 1810; and the Baptist General Tract Society at Philadelphia, formed in 1824. This last has à hundred and fifty Auxiliaries and a number of Branches. There is also, the American Doctrinal Tract Society, formed May, 1829.

(D.)

Foreign Missionary Societies,

The Church itself may be considered as in some respects a Missionary Society, and the Apostles as the first missionaries.

After it was first extended to Cornelius, the Gospel soon spread abroad among the Gentiles, and though retarded here and there, at various seasons, and sometimes almost lost in obscurity, it has, on the whole, gradually been advancing ever since.

Passing, however, the labors of the Apostles and their successors down to the time of the reformation,-not counting those of the Papacy as worthy to be named,-and considering those of the Dutch and Danes, though protestant, as scarcely better on account of the worldliness attending them, -the commencement of what may more appropriately be called modern missions, is to be traced to the Society of the United Brethren, or Moravians, a denomination of Christians of a somewhat peculiar character, which arose among the followers of John Huss, about the middle of the 15th century.

The United Brethren, or the Moravian Missionary Society was formed at Litz, 1457, and was then small, consisting, according to some, of not more than 600 persons in all. Some of the principles of the Brotherhood, are-that of governing themselves simply by the Bible,-that of standing prepared to suffer all for conscience sake, and—that of refusing to bear arms in defence of religion. The present number of the Society may be from 18,000 to 20,000.

The Moravians may be said to be a missionary community. As a Christian people, they live in great simplicity, and this is the case with their missionaries. Of course their expenditure is small. Their missionaries in a great measure support themselves. None engage in the work except from their own choice, and none are retained who would relinquish it.

They first began their missionary operations in the Danish West Indies, in 1732, and they have now, besides this field, six others under cultivation, namely, one in Greenland, first occupied in 1733; one in Labrador, first occupied in 1770;

History of the Protestant Church of the United Brethren, by the Rev. John Holmes.

one in North America, first occupied in 1734; one in South America, first occupied in 1735; one in British West Indies, first occupied in 1732; and one in South Africa, first occupied in 1736, and renewed in 1792. The whole number of stations in all these fields is 41; of missionaries 209, and of converts about 43,600. The amount of the monies by which their missionaries are sustained is $10,056.*

The Missionary Society of the English Wesleyan Methodists was formed in 1786, by the Rev. John Wesley, and the Rev. Thomas Coke, D. D., and others. It has its annual meeting in May, and is under the care of the Conference, the President and Secretary of the same for the time, being the President and Secretary of the Missionary Society. The business of the Society is conducted by a General Committee, consisting of the President and Secretary of the Conference and 48 other members. The stations under the Society's care, as reported Jan. 1832, are,-I. In Europe:-16 in Ireland, 1'in Sweden, 4 in the Mediterranean, and 3 in France. II. In Asia:-1 in Palestine, [vacant] 5 in Continental India, 7 in Ceylon, 7 in the South Sea. III. In Africa:-16. IV. In America :— South, 40; North-British Dominions, 53; in all, 153. The number in the Society at the several stations is 42,243, the number of Missionaries and Assistant Missionaries, 218. Children in the Mission Daily and Sunday Schools—in Ireland, 5,000; in the Mediterranean, 25; in India and Ceylon, 5,074; in South Africa, 143; in West Africa, 180; in the South Sea, 1,411; in the West Indies, 7,110; in British North America, 4,564. Total, 25,420. Receipts of the Society, about £50,000 a year.

The English Baptist Missionary Society owes its origin to the zeal and influence of the Rev. William Carey, now Dr. Carey, one of its first missionaries, and was formed at Kittering, October 2, 1789. Previously to this time, at a meeting of the Baptist Association in Nottingham, Mr. Carey preached a sermon from Isaiah ii. 3, the principal divisions of which were, expect great things; attempt great things.' This produced a favorable influence. The title or name by which the Society announced itself was that of "The Particular Baptist Society for the Propagation of the * Missionary Intelligence of the United Brethren for Feb. 1832.

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