rather popular opinion, that Indian Doct- || grounds. To these, and to others in our ors are remarkably skilful; but I have neighbourhood, we endeavour to impart seen much to establish the contrary sen- || instruction. Our neighbours are at this timent. Generally we find those, who denominate themselves Medicine men, or women, of all others, the most ignorant and superstitious.

time very much scattered to their huntings; nevertheless we find a few, to whom my brethren, as well as myself, endeavour to communicate the tidings of salvation.

Could not a studious Indian lad, of promising talents and manners, and of You are aware of our desires that the capacity to read English with facility,|| scattered, peeled, and perishing tribes, and to write a fair hand, find, in our hap-||should be gathered into a colony, in the py United States, a moral, kind friend, || vast, unsettled regions west of Missouri who could help him to a thorough knowl- and Arkansas. Daily experience urges edge of the science of medicine? We the importance of this measure. The should be exceedingly thankful, if one Cherokees, who have not been chased such from our school could be thus high-from place to place like most others on ly favoured. The favour would have a direct bearing on the subject of Indian reform. His residence and services among his people would have a tendency to correct their superstition, and to improve their minds, as well as to contribute to their comfort, and he would, of course, be qualified for a Missionary, and for many stations of importance in his na-izing the unsettled tribes, and the detion.

our borders, but who have from the first, been allowed to occupy a country of their own, of sufficient extent to screen them from the ruin which follows a closer

connexion with the whites, may with propriety be now called a civilized people, increasing in number, and improving in arts and science. The subject of colon

tached hordes, requires no stronger argument in its favour, than a comparison of the flourishing Cherokees, with the thou

is daily increasing. For the accomplishment of this design, we daily pray.

Our crop of wheat, corn, and vegetables, the past season, was the most productive of any the Mission has ever gath-sands of wanderers, whose wretchedness ered. We have, however, sustained a severe loss in the destruction by fire, of about 50 tons of prairie hay, a loss which in this place, cannot be remedied. If the winter should prove severe, we shall scarcely be able to save the lives of our stock.

Two young brethren from Cincinnati, Ohio, have lately united with us, with the intention of bearing a part of our Missionary labour; we hope they will be found valuable acquisitions to the Mission. Their arrival imparted much pleasure, as the want of Missionaries was very great. Brother and sister Simerwell have, this fall, with the approbation of the Missionaries, been about two months absent on a visit to Kentucky, and in my absence, the care of the male department of the Mission devolved wholly on brother Lykins, and that of the female department on my wife.

Many Ottawas from the North have passed our place the present autumn, on their way to more southerly hunting

Deeming that the dawn of that day is perceivable, when the great trumpet shall be blown, and when the outcasts which were ready to perish, shall come to the true worship of the Lord, it is with pleasant anticipations that I subscribe Affectionately yours,

so far as possible, the present condition || emigrants, those among them who were of the natives in the vicinity of the colo- || professors of religion were embodied into ny, with the view of establishing hereaf ter, should circumstances permit, a more extensive and permanent station among these so long benighted and oppressed of our fellow men.

a congregational church by an ecclesiastical council convened for the purpose in Park street Church. Sermon by the Rev. S. E. Dwight, from Psalm xviii. 31. Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto

Previous to the embarkation of these God.

TABULAR VIEW

OF PROTESTANT MISSIONS THROUGHOUT THE WORLD,

IN THEIR GEOGRAPHICAL ORDER.

Compiled from the London Missionary Register for January and February 1825,
and from the preceding Survey.

mention of only about 2,000. Other similar instances of deficiency might be pointed out. Nearly a hundred schools were also mentioned, without any notice of the number of scholars, which they contain. Probably the whole number of pupils in the schools established by missionaries, falls not much short of 100,000.

The above tabular view is as perfect as can well be expected. Still it is very defective in some of its parts; especially in reference to the number of Native Assistants employed, the number of Pupils in the Schools, and the number of Communicants in the Churches. In several instances, in the principal Survey from which the table was compiled, the Native But the deficiency in the statement resAssistants connected with missionary sta-pecting the number of Communicants in tions are said to be "many," and in other instances it is only stated in general that there are native assistants. The whole number may be 500. In estimating the number of Pupils, we have adhered to the documents embodied in the above named Surveys. But it falls far short of the truth; as may be seen from the following fact. In a general view of the Wesleyan missions in Ceylon, it is said, on the authority of one of the missionaries in that island, that the whole number of pupils connected with those missions, is between 9,000 and 10,000: but in the survey of the several stations, owing to the want of documents, we find the

the mission churches, is believed to be far greater, than in respect either to the Native Assistants, or the Pupils. From but few stations do any returns appear. Had we time to make, ourselves, an extensive examination of documents, we might doubtless approximate much nearer to the real number of those, who, from unevangelized nations, have publicly professed the Christian faith. The Moravians estimate the converts connected with their missions at 30,000. It should also be added, that in the above table all the male labourers at the missionary stations are reckoned: but the ordained missionlaries amount to but little more than 400.

Mr. Ellis estimates the number of communicants in the Society Islands at 2,000. Upwards of 25,000 of these are coloured people in connexion with the Methodist denomination About 4,000 are members of the Baptist Church.

MARCH, 1826.

13

RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE.

ORIGIN OF SUNDAY SCHOOLS.

Mr. ROBERT RAIKES was born at Gloucester (Eng.) in the year 1735. His father was the printer and proprietor of the Gloucester Journal, and to this business the subject of our memoir succeeded, by which he is said to have acquired a competent property. We are not acquainted with the circumstances of his education, or the events of his early life, but active benevolence distinguished his manhood, and that Divine principle (without which all pretensions to religion are as the sounding brass and tinkling cymbal) was first called into action by the forlorn condition of the Prisoners in the Bridewell of Gloucester. His property, his pen, and his influence, were devoted to provide for them, not only the things needful for this life, but the more important advantages of religious and moral instruction, in order to prepare them for the enjoyment of a happier world.

so powerfully impressed upon his mind as to decide him at once for action. He immediately went and entered into a treaty with the school-mistress to take charge of a certain number of destitute children on the Sabbath day, and this proved the grain of mustard seed which has already produced a great tree, whose branches overshadow our own land, and whose roots are extending to the most distant regions of the earth. May its growth advance with accelerated progress, till the sons and daughters of ignorance and vice shall find a refuge under its fostering shade!

Mr. Raikes agreed to give this poor woman one shilling for her day's employment, and he soon found three others who were willing to undertake a similar task. He now communicated his plan to the clergyman of the parish (the Rev. Thomas Stock,) who promised to co-operate with him by visiting the schools on Sunday afternoons. Mr. Raikes printed a little book which he distributed amongst them, and the Society for the promotion of Christian Knowledge, sent him a number of Bibles and Testaments for a similar purpose. The effects produced on the conduct of these hitherto wretched children in a short time, cannot be better told than in the language of a woman living in the neighbourhood, who declared that 'the place was become quite a heaven upon Sundays in comparison to what it used to be. At the end of three years the number of scholars increased to 300. Many of these, as well as their parents, had scarcely ever been seen within the precincts of a church, but now numbers of them began to attend with regularity, and as many as fifty were sometimes present so early as seven o'clock in the morning.

The circumstances which led to the formation of the Sunday School System, may be reckoned amongst the many proofs which the history of the world furnishes, that Providence has frequently caused the most magnificent effects to spring from means the most simple, and by the steady persevering efforts of an individual, the most important ends have often been accomplished. With a sensation of delight, which none can conceive, but those who have drunk from the seme perennial fountain, Mr. Raikes, when on the threshold of Eternity, related the interesting story of the origin of Sunday schools. One day in the year 1782, he went into the suburbs of his native city to hire a gardener. The man was from home, and while Mr. Raikes awaited his return, he was much disturbed by a group of noisy boys who infested the street. He Mr. Raikes not only possessed energy asked the gardener's wife the cause of for bringing his benevolent system into these children being so neglected and de-action, but prudence for conducting it. praved. Her emphatic reply was, "O, In a letter to a friend, written about this Sir! if you were here on a Sunday you period, he says, "I cannot express to you would pity them indeed, we cannot read the pleasure I often receive, in discoverour Bible in peace for them." This an- ing genius and innate good dispositions swer operated with the force of electri- among this little multitude. It is botanizcity, and called forth all the energy of his ing in human nature. I have often too, benevolent soul. "Can nothing," he the satisfaction of receiving thanks from asked, "be done for these poor children? parents, for the reformation they perceive Is there any body near that will take in their children. Often I have given them to school on a Sunday?" He was them kind admonitions, which I always informed that there was a person in the do in the mildest and gentlest manner. neighbourhood who would probably do The going among them, doing them little it." At this important moment (to use kindnesses, distributing trifling rewards, his own language) the word "try" was and ingratiating myself with them, I hear,

have given me an ascendency, greater than I ever could have imagined; for I am told by their mistresses, that they are very much afraid of my displeasure." Besides attending to the instruction of the children in their religious and social duties, he was particular in inculcating habits of cleanliness; and however mean or ragged their clothing might be, he insisted that each child should come to school with clean hands and face, and combed hair; as he well knew that attention to these little decencies of life, have a wonderful tendency to advance civilization amongst the lower classes of society.

It is proposed that the following arrangements shall be made for providing the army with Bibles and Testaments, through the medium of the Chaplain-General only :

1. That commanding officers shall be directed, by the Adjutant-General, to send to the Captain-General an immediate return of the number of Bibles, and books of Common Prayer, in possession of the men, and the number necessary to furnish one to every man who can read.

2. That, exclusive of the requisitions which may follow this Circular instruction, the Chaplain-General will procure, from the Naval and Military Bible Societies, and other sources, such a number of Bibles and Testaments, and Books of Common Prayer, together with such religious Tracts as he may think sufficient, to be lodged, as a depot, in the orderly room of each corps, in order that recruits and others, wanting such books, may be

During the first three years, the estab lishment of Sunday schools was chiefly limited to the vicinity of the city where they had originated, but when the plan had, in the opinion of Mr. Raikes, been fully tried, he conceived that it should be more widely disseminated. For this pur pose, he inserted a paragraph on the sub-provided from time to time, as they may ject in his own Journal, which was copied into several of the London and provincial papers. The plan was adopted soon after in London, and the first name on the list of the first Sunday School Committee in the metropolis, appears to be that of the celebrated Jonas Hanway. The success of the first effort now called the dormant zeal of many into action, the establishment of Sunday schools proceeded throughout the nation with the rapidity of lightning, and before the close of his valuable life which occurred in his native city on the 5th of April, 1811, he had the exhilarating satisfaction of seeing Sunday schools for Three Hundred Thousand Children established throughout the British Empire.

EXERTIONS FOR SOLDIERS AND SAILORS.

THE British government has taken measures to supply its army with Bibles and Testaments, and its seamen with floating chapels and with preachers, at the public expense. The order and regu. lations with respect to the army, as promulgated by the Duke of York, the Commander-in-Chief, are as follows:

require them: that these Bibles, &c. shall be kept in a chest, and that the state of this depot of books shall be inspected at. the half-yearly inspections, and the number of Bibles, &c. in store, inserted on the back of each half-yearly Return, to be submitted to the Adjutant-General. The Adjutant-General will furnish the Chaplain-General, half-yearly, with a return of what is required to keep these depots of books complete.

3. It is proposed that the expense of furnishing these books to the soldiers now in want of them, as well as to all the recruits who may, from time to time, join their respective corps, shall be borne by the public. But that each man who is found, upon the usual periodical examination of his necessaries, to have lost or disposed of his books, shall be again provided from the depot of Bibles at his own expense, and commanding officers of corps will address to the Chaplain-General a return every six months. (Signed)

London, Feb. 1825.

C. CANTAUR.
E. EBOR.
W. LONDON.

The Commercial Institutions of the city of London, wise in respect to their own interests, have contributed to the funds of the Society instituted in behalf of Seamen.

Horse Guards, March 11, 1825. The enclosed Code of Regulations "for providing the army with Bibles and Testaments," having been recommended by the prelates whose signatures are attach- Upon looking over the list of donations ed thereto, and approved by the king, I to the Seaman's Friend Society, attached have the commander-in-chief's commands to the Seventh Annual Report,-says the to transmit them for your information and Editor of the Mariner's Magazine,-our guidance, and to express his Royal High-attention was particularly arrested by the ness's expectation that they be strictly adhered to by the regiment under your command.

Sir, your most obedient, humble servant, H. TORREN, A. G. Officer commanding.

liberality of some of the public mercantile Institutions. The monied Institutions of London appear to feel that they have a deep interest in the efforts that are made to diffuse among seamen principles which inculcate the strictest integrity, and

which enjoin fidelity and industry. Prop-
erty can certainly be more safely entrust-
ed in the hands of men who have a due
sense of moral obligation, than to those
who are dead to all sense of virtue and
morality; men who acknowledge no law
but necessity, and who consider an unre-
strained indulgence of all the most debas-
ing passions as perfectly legitimate and
allowable. From among a very large
number of smaller donations, from simi-
lar institutions, we select the following,
as instances of unusual munificence:-

Bank of England,
Corporation of London,
East India Company,

$444
463

444

Worshipful Company of Drapers, 420
London Assurance Company,

Royal Exchange Company,
West India Dock Company,

ANECDOTE OF DR. D

230

230

238

$2,469

Illustrative of the difference between a speculative and practical knowledge of the truths of the gospel.

Dr. Dwas a man of strong mind and extensive reading; of an amiable disposition and polished manners. He had nearly finished his course of studies in the university of Groningen, and had obtained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, a grade in literary honours conferred by some universities on the continent of Europe. He had published a Treatise in Latin, de Systemate Leibnitiano, de vera miraculi Notione, et de speciali Dei Providentia, which established his reputation as a scholar of the first rank. As he had devoted himself to the study of theology, he left Groningen in the year 1767, and came to Utrecht, where the most celebrated professor in theology, at that time drew students to attend his lectures from every quarter. Dr. Dprofessed a deep reverence for the Christian religion. He had studied the doctrines, was thoroughly learned in the arguments by which they are maintained and defended,

and had determined soon to enter into the ministry. But with all his learning and decent profession, he was a stranger to the saving influence of divine grace; and had never experienced the converting power of the truth upon his own heart. He was satisfied with a speculative knowledge, and supposed that nothing more was necessary to fit him for the ministry, or render him safe as it respected his own peace and happiness.

diate inquiry into the cause of his disquietude. Without the least reserve, he communicated the state of his mind, and the occasion which had produced it.

The preceding evening he had received a letter, which informed him of the death of an excellent man, the Rev. Dr. N——, whom he greatly loved, and with whom he had lived in the strictest bonds of friendship from early youth. Oppressed with grief, he first felt the pangs which such an event is calculated to excite. But the sensibility of nature soon gave place to other reflections, and aroused anxietics and feelings of a different kind. The death of his friend introduced his own death to view. He realized the possibility of being also cut down suddenly in the prime of life. Eternity, with all its solemn importance and consequences, impressed his soul: then, for the first time in his life, he was convinced of his misery. He then saw and felt that he was a guilty, depraved sinner, that he had no resources in himself, no righteousness of his own. Alarmed and distressed, he had passed the night with conflicting passions, and sought consolation in vain from all he knew of the gospel. He had now become as calm as, under such impressions it is perhaps possible to be, and appeared sincerely desirous of instruction. "Tell me," said he with great eagerness, "tell me where and how a wounded and accusing conscience can find peace? What must I do to be saved?" After some observations which were judged applicable to his present exercises, his friend referred him to the precious atonement of the divine Redeemer, by which the greatest of sinners who believe in Jesus, are justified. But of this, added his friend, you need no information; you are intimately acquainted with the doctrines of the gospel. is true," he replied, "it is true, I am acquainted with those doctrines. I have studied them, I understand them individually, and in their connexion, and can explain them to others, and defend them against adversaries. But my knowledge is merely speculative; I have only viewed them in theory as perfect and divine; but never applied them to myself. I know not how to repent, or how to believe. I know no more how to approach the throne of grace as a condemned sinner, or with what exercises and in what way to come to Jesus, than the most ignorant creature on earth. "Sit down," added he, "and instruct me."

It

An instance so striking and pointed seldom occurs, where a man of great learning and information, even in the truths of religion, was laid as low at the footstool A friend, who was in habits of intima- of sovereign grace, as the most ignorant cy with him, calling one morning to see sinner; and where the difference between him, observed a pensive air, and an unu- speculative and experimental knowledge sual seriousness mixed with distress in his is so clearly displayed. It need only be countenance, which prompted an imme-added, it pleased the Lord to direet his