The following paper has been circulated, on this

subject, by the Society.

LONDON SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIANITY AMONG Dec. 27, 1814.

THE JEWS.

Reports having been circulated, prejudicial to the object and interest of this Society, the Committee have judged it expedient to inform the public, that its affairs are put upon a footing which promises to ensure more confidence and stability to the Institution, than it has ever possessed.

Its debts are in a course of immediate liquidation';the collection of its revenue will, in future, be conducted in the most unobjectionable manner;-regulations are adopted, which, without violation of the FUNDAMENTAL FRINCIPLE, have so far modified its operation, as to afford to Christians of every denomination the opportunity of promoting the common object, with perfect consistency, and an assured confidence that their contributions will be applied to specific objects, or general purposes, at their own discretion.

The following Resolutions, with others of a similar tendency, were this day unanimously passed.

At a Meeting of the Committee, at Freemasons' Tavern-W. H. Hoare, Esq. in the Chair:

Resolved, That the Spiritual Concerns of the Society connected with the Chapels, the Schools, and the Education of Missionaries, be henceforth separately conducted by Churchmen and Dissenters respectively.

That the Episcopal Chapel and School be a distinct concern in the hands of Churchmen."

That the Jews' Chapel and School be a distinct concern in the hands of Dissenters.

That the Hebrew New Testament, the Printing-office, the Manufactories, and Female Asylum, be a distinct and separate concern, forming one common centre of union to all parties.

That the three distinct concerns have each its own particular Committee.

That the proceedings of all the three Committees be comprised in one Report, and be read together, annually, at the same time and place.

The 26th Number of the "Periodical Accounts," the publication of which we noticed p. 409 of our Second Volume, detailed the state of the Mission from January to July, 1813. The 27th Number has just appeared, and carries on the narrative to November, 1813; with some subsequent notices up to January, 1814. We shall take the earliest opportunity of furnishing our readers with the most important information.

At the Annual Meeting of the Society, held at Kettering on the 4th of October, it was Resolved,

That, as those who have hitherto been most active in collecting for the Mission are becoming less capable of exertion, it be earnestly recommended to every Minister of the denomination through the Kingdom, who ap proves of the object, to do every thing in his power to promote it.

Foreign Intelligence.

WESTERN AFRICA.

In our last, we stated the difficulties and dangers under which the Church Missionaries laboured on account of the Slave Trade; with their state of health, and their own reflections on the disasters and difficulties of the Mission. We are happy to hear,. from various quarters, that these statements have awakened a lively interest in the ultimate success of that Mission; and that benevolent persons begin rightly to appreciate the magnitude of the under taking, and its important aspect on the present and eternal happiness of the inhabitants of West Africa.

We shall now : proceed with our extracts from the communications of the Missionaries.

Death of Herman Meyer,

(One of the Lay Assistants of the Mission..)

In my last to you, I would have made some mention (says Mr. Wilhelm, in February last) of Mr. Meyer's intention to marry, and settle for himself in Sierra Leone, without consulting the Society's will; but Brother Renner persuaded me rather not to be forward, as his intentions had not as yet prompted him to any proceeding contrary to his engagement with the Society; and we might hope that, one day or other, before he should take such steps, he would become aware of the danger of choosing his own ways, without reflecting on his duty toward God, and the Society in whose service he engaged in which case it would have been much better, not to have mentioned any thing that might render his character suspicious.

As death soon removed him out of all temptation to take further steps contrary to his engagement with the Society, and grievous to us; and as what I can farther mention respecting him cannot rejoice and encourage the mind of any Christian; I would rather bury this

of my account in the grave; but, considering that I cannot injure him by stating simply the truth; and that what cannot encourage and rejoice, may yet tend to warn and admonish others to examine their intentions well, before they engage in a service in which selfdenial and indifference to worldly emolument are absolutely indispensable; I cannot think it altogether unbecoming to make some reflections on what I saw and heard of Mr. Meyer.

So far as I became acquainted with him in Mr. Steinkopff's congregation, I did highly esteem him; and so I did in the beginning of his stay here. He kept himself diligently employed: his behaviour was obliging: he read his Bible, and seemed to relish Christian Conversation.

After a short time, however, he discovered to me his anxiety about getting on with his salary; questioning in what way he could possibly set up for himself after the four years of his engagement with the

Society were expired, if he could not by that time save some money. order out to greitojams go

I bade him not to trouble his mind with such cares; but to trust in God's providence for future times, as well as for to-day: assuring him that I myself cannot lay up money from my salary; and that, though his salary was smaller than that of the Missionaries, yet would he every day find the same victuals prepared for him, which we have for ourselves.

When I found him still uneasy about the want of many other things beside food, and heard that Meisner was in the same anxiety, I advised him to make first an experiment for a year or two, and if then their prospects should not be more satisfactory, they might freely open their minds, and declare their wants to Mr. Pratt; assuring him that the Committee of our Honourable Society consists of Gentlemen who would take their case into mature consideration, and would not leave them in distress.

This was enough to silence; but, I think, not enough to satisfy him, on this subject.

By and by he declared to Brother Renner that he would wish to be again married; and that with a person who could talk the Susoo Language, and had received some religious education: and, as Brother Renner could not possibly foresee what wrong steps Meyer might be tempted to take on this occasion, he told him of such a person as he desired. As soon as he became acquainted with her he found her a suitable person. But, at the same time, he was tempted to listen to the fair promises of advancement with which her father immediately filled his mind," that, if he should become his son-in-law, he needed not to stay in Bashia, and be a workman and a storekeeper there; nor needed be to depend on that support which he received from the Society; but that his daughter had a lot and a house in Sierra Leone, and that he would instruct him in trading, and set him up in business there." He got also a vessel promised for the purpose of carrying on trade in the rivers along the coast. The young woman likewise declared to him, that she should not like to live in Bashia...

Of these things he told me by way of asking my advice; but it soon appeared that he was not much disposed to receive any advice contrary to his captivated in

[Jan. clination. I bad him be cautious, and not proceed without consideration and prayer; and that he should not leave this place and his vocation without first having consulted the Society, and obtained their consent. He objected against this, saying, that the Missionaries were authorised to settle such things among themselves; and that he knew the intention of his heart; which was to serve the Society in a better way than by sitting down in Bashia and working. "Can I not make myself more useful," he asked, "by trading as well for the mission as for myself; and when I bring you the provisions and goods which you occasionally want into the river, so that you need not go to Sierra Leone yourselves?" Confident that the Missionaries would never agree to his purpose, I replied, that he would do right to bring it forward in a meeting.

By and by, when he perceived that it was not very likely he should obtain our consent for leaving Bashia, he betook himself to sinful and desperate measures: leaving off working, absenting himself from familyworship, spending the Lord's Day and half the week-in the place of his father-in-law, and behaving himself in a surly and quarrelsome manner toward each of us. At that time he brought Brother Klein into a Palaver, on a very worldly, proud, and foolish pretext.

When I perceived that he was going about to seek some occasion for bringing the guilt of his crooked ways upon us, I began to avoid conversation with him; and so to shew my disapprobation of his conduct, for a while, more by silence than by words. But I got tired of seeing him wasting his time; and, therefore, as Mrs. Renner one morning expressed a wish that a book-shelf and some benches might be made for the girls, and met with a murmuring answer, I seconded her, euforcing his duty upon him, but met, likewise, with a fretful scold. I then told him that it was not my intention to excite his passions, or to dispute, and that he should rather first consider whether I treated him wrongfully. Upon this he began to do something, but not that which we desired him to do. The next day he shewed a ragingly fretful temper. At breakfast he scolded first the children, who had to keep his room in order and to wait upon him then he began with Mr. Renner, and afterward with me, telling us he was not our slave, to be set to