them down in the worst bondage—that of ❗ pay, the church for all the labours and sacrithe soul. Their domestic relations, their fices that have been bestowed on the work social intercourse, their business transactions, of Christian missions. all bear the impress of heathenism. Their times of sorrow, and their hour of dissolution are full of darkness. The future world is either unknown by them, or greatly fear. ed. They are not prepared for heaven; they cannot look forward with peace and hope to the enjoyment of God's favour throughout unceasing ages. Should we not feel deeply concerned for their lamentable condition? Should we not charge upon our souls the duty of earnestly caring for these wretched people, of showing towards them the same compassion which we trust our Saviour has shown towards ourselves,-of using for them the same means by which our minds have become enlightened in the knowledge of the true God and eternal life? The numbers of the heathen are so great, their moral blindness and degradation so extreme, the difficulties which hinder their conversion so apparently insuperable, that some may be in danger of doubting the suc cess of all missionary efforts; indeed there are those who consider the missionary work a hopeless undertaking-who ask, what can the feeble efforts of Christians avail in such a cause? We have a short answer to these doubts. The work is God's. Therefore, it is not hopeless. He works by means-by our efforts, by our prayers. Therefore we have much to do; our agency is indispensable, because God has appointed it. Now, the success of the past is one of our encouragements as to the future. Past success is an earnest or pledge of what "the Captain of Salvation" will hereafter perform. And we may hope for the much more widely extended and the far more rapid spread of the gospel in times to come. Many heathen languages have been acquired; the Sacred Scriptures have been translated into many tongues; hundreds of churches have been formed; thousands of youth are under religious instruction; and native ministers of the gospel are now preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ to their countrymen. All this is most animating, even if it must be regarded as only the day of small things. All this is most encouraging, not because it proves the work nearly done, but because it shows the work begun, and shows also, what is chiefly to be regarded, that the blessing of God has been granted to these missionary efforts. That blessing, without which all our labours would be in vain, shall not be withheld in future. The light of the gospel shall rise higher up in the regions of heathenism, and spread far abroad over the land, and pervade every pagan temple, and shine into every dark mind of man, and "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."Such is our faith and our hope. For this we labour-for this we pray. We may not live to see that happy time. Our years are fast passing away. We stand now on the threshhold of a new year, and we know not that we shall see its end. Many who began the last year with us now rest from their labours, and doubtless many of our readers will be called to their rest before this year has run its course. The hea then, too, are dying-passing from the reach of our benevolence. "But the word of our God shall stand forever." While we feel deeply our own frailty, let us rejoice that Christ ever liveth, and his compassions fail not. And let us do with our might what our hands find to do, before the night overtake us. Then we shall have an assured confience in the final and glorious success of our labours, and being Enough has already faithful until death we shall receive a crown and far more than re- "of life. Far from being hopeless, this great work is now in the course of successful accomplishment. The statistics on the first and second pages of this number show that many lights have been kindled in the dark places of the earth. Much leaven of the gospel has been spread among the nations. Many trees of righteousness have been planted in desert lands; much fruit has already been gathered. Redeemed souls are now with Christ, through God's blessing on missionary labours, and others are on their way to that better world, whom we shall hope to meet before long, and to unite with them in the songs of praise to him that hath washed us in his own blood, and made us kings and priests unto God been done to repay DONATIONS TO THE BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS IN NOVEMBER. SYNOD OF N. JERSEY. Pby. of Elizabethtown. Woodbridge 2d ch., 19,94; Liberty corner ch. 31,00 Pby. of New-Brunswick. Freehold 1st ch., 41,50; Cranberry 1st ch. 24,00; do. 2d ch. 47,20; New-Brunswick ch. mo. con. 24,00 SYNOD OF PHILA. Pby. of Philadelphia. Abington ch. 120,00; Phila. 10th ch., five mo. con. colls. 211,30; Chesnut Level ch. Fem. For. Miss. Soc. 15,25, do. Male For. Miss. Soc. 14,00; Phila. 7th ch., 'a member,' 50,00 2d Pby. of Phila. Tinicum ch. 3,14; Doylestown ch. mo. con. 22,04 Cross cr. ch. 11,00; Amsterdam ch. 2,09; SYNOD OF OHIO. Pby. of Wooster. 17 09 Rev. Mr. Cobb, 5,00; Rev. Mr. Graham, 3,00 8 00 SYNOD OF ILLINOIS. Coll. at meeting of Synod Pby of Palestine. SYNOD OF KENTUCKY. Pby of Louisville. 136 70 Pby. of Transylvania. Rev. JOSEPH PLATT, to con him 1. m. 12 35 7.00 100 14 30.00 Pby. of W. Lexington. 410 55 25 18 Pby. of N. Alabama. Pby. of Carlisle. Graceham, Md., Jno. Stewart, 10,00; Mc Connellsburg ch. 38.00; Greenhill ch. 11,00; Wells Valley ch. 6,00 Pby, of Northumberland. CENTRAL BOARD OF FOR. MISSIONS. E. Liberty, Adonijah,' ann. don. 10,00, in full to con. THOS. ETKINS, 1. m.; do. 10,00 in part, to con. J. BARR 1. m.; Canonsburg, Rev. Matthew Brown, D. D., 50,00; Alleghenny city 1st ch. Hon. W. C. Grier, 30,00; Pittsburg, 1st ch a lady,' by F. G. Bailey, 100,00; do. a lady,' by Miss Legan, 5,00; do. Mrs. Addy Beers, 25,00; do. 2d ch M. B. Lowrie, 10,00; W. W. Wilson, 5,00 44 10 245 00 Donations in Clothing. THE DOMESTIC MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. JANUARY, 1843. BOARD OF MISSIONS. THE NEW YEAR. On the threshhold of a new year, we are oppressed with some considerations which are awful, in regard to the evangelizing of mankind. Before explaining ourselves more fully, let it be premised that our church is theoretically undivided, acknowledging its proper work to be the conversion of the world; that the Boards of Missions are merely portions of the church, charged, for convenience sake, with the administration of means to this end; and that the Foreign and Domestic Board are inseparably connected, and must flourish or fall together. The work which our readers and ourselves are to do, must be done in our lifetime. In such a span, a year is a great period. To multitudes it will be their last year: Reader, it may be the last to you. It is fair to compute, that during this period there will die thirty millions of human beings, of whom more than five hundred thousand will die in our own country. now has. Consider for a moment what It makes the heart faint to contemplate the apathy of Christians in regard to our peculiar national position. The common way is to compare our land with others of equal population, in the old world; and to set off a million of souls here, against a million there. But this is to overlook the truth, that no country on earth is situated just as ours. Those which most reOn surveying such a prospect, the semble it are the British colonies in the Christian soul cannot but break forth other hemisphere. For the grand considthus-Souls are perishing-time is flying eration is, that we have not merely mil-I have done nothing-I must awake lions, but millions in a forming state. The and hasten! True, brethren, the divine mass is ductile, like molten brass ready sentence applies distinctly and pointedly for the casting. The shape now given is to your case: Whatsoever thy hand find-given for coming generations. The church eth to do, do it with thy might; for there which we found in a western hamlet is is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, founded for children's children. The nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou same efforts in Spain, or even in Great goest. Britain, would be quite another thing. Consider what Presbyterian Pennsylvania or Carolina would have been, if settled by Pizarro: and bless God that our land was peopled after the reformation. Apply the principle to the rising states of the West, and then inquire, What can be done to give the gospel to our country, and thus to send it down to posterity? Can What can you do, this year, towards giving the gospel to your countrymen ? There is not an instant to be lost, in deciding. The King's business requireth haste. We say familiarly that time and tide wait for no man: but there is a tide in the affairs of men; and there may never be such an opportunity as the church VOL. XI.- -4 not much be done by means of the Assem- || tion, and imagine that you gave, not mere bly's Board? ly your two mites, not your tithe, not your income, but your all-life included—and you will have given no more than thousands gave of old. And is there any cause in which it were so reasonable? Shall the heathen give wealth and life to Perhaps it may be new to some, often as it has been repeated, that in fourteen, years, there have been formed by missionaries of the Board more than five hundred churches, of which a good proportion are now large and flourishing; that since" their gods, which are yet no gods?" the organization of the Board, not less Shall mammon-worshippers compass sea than two-fifths of all the churches formed, have been formed by their missionaries; that during the period above-mentioned, there have been sent out more than twelve hundred ministers; and that during the last five years more than half the churches formed in connexion with the General Assembly have been formed by their missionaries. But it is nevertheless equally true, that more than 600 feeble churches are struggling without pastors, and more than 600 settlements are ready to have churches, each of which, if thus supplied by us, might be a centre of saving light, for generations to come. and land and hazard body and soul, for money? Shall slavers jeopard their lives in the direst climes for victims, and soldiers sacrifice every thing for a breath of glory? And shall Christians, scarcely saved, and saved by the death of the Son of God, scruple, and linger, and count over their pittance, when the honour of that Saviour makes the demand? Oh tell it not among the Gentiles, publish it not in the companies of the ungodly! Brethren, we have but one life to live, and its sands are rapidly passing. This year has begun to run as swiftly as the rest. Our great western country-for the Reflect on the corps of missionaries theme is too yast to become hackneyed-now in the field. The church, as a body,' is greater every day. The new states is unspeakably interested in supporting already have a third of our population. them. Yet the church does not support They will soon have the majority, and will send back an influence on the Atlantic regions. But that population and that influence will depend, for quality, on the degree in which they shall be Christian. These things make us believe, that there never was any equal portion of the globe in a condition so imperatively asking for domestic Christian effort. Meditate on the momentous truth, that we have among us, and almost exclusively in that territory over which our church extends, more than twenty-four hundred thousand slaves, who have souls; who are dying; who must have the gospel; and who must have it from us, as we would stand clear of the blood of their souls at the judgment-seat of Christ. them. The liabilities of the Board, at this time, are not less than $25,000. The church has not come forward to remove this burden. True it is, that the deficit is caused by increased effort, and new appointments; and it is easy to say that these appointments ought not to have been made. But we ask a patient consideration of this truth: for years we have been praying for an open door, and for men to enter, and now that God hath given us both, we are about to turn our backs on them. Let it not escape notice, that these increased expenses are neither more nor less than a precise index of the degree in which we may, without an hour's delay, go about the great work of our lives. Shall we stop? Shall we palsy the arm of the Board-our own arm--by forbidding it to evangelize the souls represented by these increased expenses? Shall we say that we cannot give, each, three-eighths of a dollar, which Now what can any man do that shall more please Christ than to make known his blessed gospel to these souls? You are entering another year. O Christian, dismiss the fear that has haunted you, that you would impoverish yourself by giving if bestowed by every communicant, little to Christ. Make a bold supposi- "would disembarrass our domestic mis sions? We almost blush to ask the died for you---do not spend this year, as question. you have spent others, in preparing to work. For the danger is, that life will end, without your having begun to labour and to contribute, as a steward of God. Take, therefore as the motto for 1843, the words of the apostle Paul, "He that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; HE THAT SHEWETH MERCY, WITH Another year is beginning. Earnestly and affectionately do we beseech the reader, to lay down these lines, and review the year just ended. Ah! you have done less for Christ than you resolved to do; less than you expected to do; less than you would have wished, if called to meet your Judge. You must soon meet Him. In the expectation of so meeting him who FULNess. CHEER COMMUNICATIONS FROM MISSIONARIES. MISSOURI. dying love and living care of the blessed Redeemer. These people seemed very much to enjoy the privileges of the occasion, and expressed their earnest desire to secure in some way, the regular preach FROM A MISSIONARY IN HINDS Co. A Church Organized in the Wilderness. About the last of May, in fulfilment of a Presbyterial appointment, I made an ex-ing of the word and administration of the cursion some seventy miles south-west of this, for the purpose of visiting a neighbourhood in Wayne county, known as the "Virginia Settlement." The population consists chiefly of emigrants from Virginia, most of whom have settled there within four or five years past. I was met here, according to appointment, by a brother in the ministry, for the purpose of holding a protracted meeting. We found some half dozen families of Presbyterians who had been for some years almost entirely destitute of the public ministrations of the word and ordinances. We commenced a meeting on Friday before the last Sabbath of May, which clossd on Sabbath evening. During the meeting a church was organized, consisting of thirteen members, two others were afterwards added, making in all fifteen. It has two elders, and is styled the church of Clark's Creek. ordinances among them. And their expectations of supplies are directed chiefly to your Board. The few ministers of this Presbytery are so remote that the nearest of us must ride sixty or seventy miles, in order to visit them. It is by their urgent request that I present their situation to the Board, and ask that if possible a missionary may be sent to labour among them, and in the surrounding country. They are feeble and could do but little towards his support, but I am authorized to say that the sum of $100 could be raised for one half of the labours of a missionary to be divided between this neighbourhood and the town of Greenville, about ten miles farther south. And should they get a man who would preach to the acceptance of the people generally, they might calculate on aid from men of the world sufficient to raise the amount to $150 per an num. Several of the parents came forward The neighbourhood and the surroundand embraced the opportunity of dedicat-ing country present an interesting field ing their infant offspring to God in bap- for missionary labour; it is rapidly filling tism, a precious privilege which for up, and in many instances with emigrants some time past they had not been permitted of respectability and intelligence. But to enjoy. in a moral and religious point of view, it may still be regarded as a wilderness, unsupplied, except by here and there a farming Baptist brother, or a Methodist On the Sabbath, the table of the Lord was spread, and this little church united for the first time in commemorating the |