TREASURER'S ACCOUNT. The subscribers being appointed a Committee to audit the account of Richard Varick, the Treasurer of the American Bible Society, report, That they have inspected the account exhibited by him of his receipts for the Society, from the 1st day of May last, to the 31st day of July last, inclusive; (being three months.) That from that account it appears, that on the said 1st day of May last the Treasurer had in hand a balance of one hundred and seventy-eight dollars and thirtynine cents; that he has since that day received, for six thousand dollars of the six per cent. funded debt of the United States, then standing in his name in trust for the Society, and by him sold, pursuant to a resolution of the Board of Managers for that purpose, six thousand dollars; and from dividends of stocks, office rents for parts of the Depository, and collections, donations, and sales of Bibles and Testaments, eight thousand two hundred and ninety-five dollars and thirty-six cents; amounting in the whole to fourteen thousand four hundred and seventy-three dollars and seventy-five cents. The Committee further report, That they have also examined the debits of that account, and have compared the several items of charge with the respective vouchers in support thereof, and found them correct; and that the whole expenditures by the Treasurer for the Society, during the same period of three months, (including uncurrent bank bills and vouchers for deposits to the credit of the Treasurer, and by him paid over or transferred to the Agent of the Society,) amount to fourteen thousand two hundred and forty-three dollars and six cents. And there remained in the hands of the Treasurer, on the said 31st day of July last, in cash, the balance of two hundred and thirty dollars and sixty-nine cents. The Committee further report, That the funds of the American Bible Society in the hands of the Treasurer, on the day last mentioned, consisted of the following stocks, (for which certificates were produced to us by him,) and of the balance of moneys in his hands as above stated, viz. 1. 100 shares in the Bank of America, equal at par to 2. 10 half shares of stock in the Marine and Fire Insurance Com- 4. The balance of cash in the hands of the Treasurer, $10,000 00 250 00 7,500 00 230 69 $17,980 69 Amounting in the whole to seventeen thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars and sixty-nine cents. All which is respectfully submitted, JOHN ASPINWALL, CORNELIUS HEYER, Committee New-York, 3d August, 1819. TREASURER'S ACCOUNT. The subscribers being a Committee appointed to audit the account of William W. Woolsey, the Treasurer of the American Bible Society, report: That we have examined the accounts exhibited by him, from the 1st August, 1819, at which time he came into office, to the 30th April, 1820, and do find, that, including a balance of two hundred and thirty dollars sixty-nine cents, paid over to him by Richard Varick, Esq. the late Treasurer, he has received, on behalf of the Society, from collections, donations, sales of Bibles and Testaments, &c. the sum of. And that during the same period he has paid out on behalf of the Society the sum of $27,297 30 24,728 16 The vouchers for which we have examined and found correct. 2,569 14 The Committee further report, That the funds of the American Bible Society in the hands of the Treasurer on the 30th day of April, 1820, were as follows: 1. 100 shares of the stock of the Bank of America, equal at par to $10,000 00 2. 10 half shares of stock in the Marine and Fire Insurance Company, Savannah, $25 each, 3. 7,500 dollars of six per cent. funded debt of the United States, at par, 4. The balance in the hands of the Treasurer, Amounting in the whole to 250 00 7,500 00 2,569 14 $20,319 14 The Committee also report, that on referring to the audited account of Richard Varick, Esq. late Treasurer, from 1st May, 1819, to 31st July, 1819, inclusive; and adding the receipts and expenditures therein to those contained in this account, it appears that the total receipts from 1st May, 1819, to 30th April, 1820, inclusive, NOTE.-The Society are at present under large engagements for printing, paper, &c. 1 APPENDIX. Translation of a letter from one of the Secretaries of the PROTESTANT BIBLE SOCIETY OF PARIS, dated Paris, 16th January, 1820, to the Rev. John M. Mason, D. D. Secretary for Foreign Correspondence of the American Bible Society, New-York. SIR, AND VERY HONORED BROTHER IN JESUS CHRIST, It is with a real pleasure that I find myself charged by the Committee, to inform the Society of which you are the Secretary, of the formation in this place of a Bible Society, under the name of The Protestant Bible Society of Paris, and to testify its regret at not having done it sooner. We send by this conveyance to your Committee twelve copies of our first report and two of our regulations. You will have the goodness to present them to it as a feeble mark of our esteem, and of our desire to fraternize with it. You will see there, sir, that the Bible Society of Paris is founded on the same principles and with the same views with those which have preceded it in the same career. To recall to those who forget it the good news of salvation, the news of God manifesting himself in flesh, and dying upon a cross to save sinful man-and thus to shed abroad light where all was darkness, morality where all was corruption, life where was nothing but death, by putting into the hands of all, the glorious Gospel of God the Savior-that divine word from the Lord himself, and to the efficacy of which alone are promised all the miracles of grace. Such is the object which is proposed, by the Bible Society of Paris. And thanks to the succors and to the blessings from on high, she has reason to applaud her first step. The American Bible Society will learn with pleasure, and with gratitude to Him who is the cause, and to whom alone belongs the glory, that this fine France, so richly endowed of God, awakens at last from her long lethargy with respect to religion, and participates with the rest of the known world the inestimable benefits of Bible Societies, and that she will join her prayers to those of all true christians, that the Lord would please to bless and to accomplish his work, and to call to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, by the reading of his word, so many millions of immortal souls, which are all languishing far from him who is the way, the truth, and the life, and by whom alone they can be saved. Accept, sir, and very honored brother, and render acceptable to your committee, the fraternal salutations of ours, and its wishes that the Lord would be pleased to crown your efforts always with new success, and enable you to obtain the sole recompense to which you attach any value, that of conducting captive souls to the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you and with us. Amen. Your very humble servant and brother in Christ, J. MONOD the Son, Adjunct Pastor of the Reformed Church, and one of the Secretaries of the Bible Society of Paris. Extract of a letter from the Secretary of the PHILADELPHIA BIBLE SOCIETY, dated Philadelphia, August 11, 1819. I have been instructed by the Managers of the Bible Society of Philadelphia, to express to the Managers of the American Bible Society the sentiments of regard which they entertain for their brethren of that Institution, and to open a friendly correspondence with the Board. Although the Bible Society of Philadelphia cannot consider it conducive to the general interests of the Bible cause, to be at present so connected with the American Bible Society as to become an auxiliary in name; yet, as all Bible Societies are in fact auxiliaries in the grand cause of truth, this Society will ever cherish those affectionate feelings toward their brethren of the American Bible Society which they confidently hope will be reciprocated most cordially. I will only add, that this Board are willing to co-operate with their brethren of the American Bible Society, in any plans which may be considered useful to advance the object which both labor to accomplish. Extract of a letter from the Hon. Bushrod Washington, a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, and one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society, dated Washington, March 8th, 1820. I had the pleasure to receive your esteemed favor of the 8th ult. together with a Bible from American stereotype plates, for which I return to the Managers of the American Bible Society my grateful acknowledgments. As to the execution of the work, it merits the highest commendation. Although my sight is not good, I read it with great ease, much more so, and with less fatigue to the eye, than print of the same size in most other books. As to its freedom from typographical errors, I can form no just opinion, having only had time to read a few chapters; I have no doubt however of its accuracy. You do me but justice, kind sir, in imputing to me the most favorable opinion of the design and operation of the National Bible Institution. Extracts from the Eighth Report of the NEW HAMPSHIRE BIBLE SOCIETY, September 22, 1819. With a view of increasing the usefulness of the Society, the Secretary was directed to make inquiry respecting the jails in the several counties; and to cause the Scriptures to be distributed among the prisoners, so far as there should be hopeful prospect of utility. To the commanding officer at Fort Constitution, near Portsmouth, thirty Bibles have been sent for the benefit of the soldiers there stationed. By direction of Lieutenant Colonel Walback, the following acknowledgment has been made: "The officers at this post tender their thanks to the Directors of the New Hampshire Bible Society for their voluntary offer of supplying their men with the Holy Scriptures: and we hope that they may be as zealous advocates in the cause of religion and truth, as they have been in the cause of their country." The Board have also had in view the wants of seamen belonging to Portsmouth, and of those who visit that port occasionally; and one of their members has been requested to pay attention to this class of our fellowmen, and to give them a sure guide to the haven of eternal rest. The Board continue to receive pleasing information of the grateful man ner in which the Scriptures are received, and of their being blessed to the recipients. One instance we will recite, as given by a brother. He thus relates it. "I called on a poor man, with a family of seven children, and asked him whether he had a Bible? He replied that he had none; that he was poor, and could spare nothing to purchase one. 'Do you wish for a Bible? Yes, Sir.' 'If I give you one will you engage to read a portion in it every day?' 'I will.' On giving him one I urged upon him the consideration of its worth, and the infinite importance of duly regarding its precious truths. He was affected on receiving the invaluable treasure; and it was hopefully blessed to the conviction and conversion of himself and his wife. God was afterward worshiped in his family." Extracts from the Fourth Semi-Annual Report of the BIBLE Society of JEFFERSON COLLEGE, Pennsylvania, October 8, 1819. Agreeably to the arrangement mentioned in our last report, 400 Bibles were received from the American Bible Society at New-York, and in addition to these, different members of this Society have received for distribution 40 Bibles and 80 Testaments from the Young Men's Western Bible Society at Pittsburgh, and 50 Bibles and 12 Testaments from the Rev. Mr. Fairchild, Morgantown. We distributed, since our last semi-annual meeting, 317 Bibles and 44 Testaments, making in all, since this Society commenced its operations, 827 Bibles and 99 Testaments. The confines of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and some of the contiguous parts of the State of Ohio, are the places where we have principally effected our distributions. And, notwithstanding our exertions, and the liberality of other Bible Associations, there are still in those regions hundreds as destitute of the Bible, and of every other means of grace, as the savages of the wilderness. In the course of our experience, though we found some who appeared to receive the Word of life with indifference, yet many laid hold of it with evident emotions of gratitude and joy, and a few, the sons and daughters of affliction, who had been made, in some degree, to feel the importance of its truths, but who had been deprived of it by indigence or misfortune, clasped it with tears, as the inestimable gift of heaven. The fact that many are found destitute who are willing to receive the Scriptures, furnishes with abundant ground of encouragement for continuing and increasing our efforts, and gives us a practical refutation of the arguments generally adduced by the opposers of Bible Societies, that "few in our country are destitute of the Bible, and none are willing to receive it as a gift." From our connection with the American Bible Society every dollar that we pay goes in some way to advance this noble object; it perhaps gives a Bible to a mariner, a prisoner in the dungeons, or to a red man of our American forest in his own language. This Bible, under the direction of an all-wise and gracious Providence, may prove the means of saving a soul from eternal death-a soul, whose value far surpasses all the wealth in the world. Let us then, by our pittance, our exertions, and our prayers, humbly endeavor to bear a part in the benevolent design of diffusing the light of divine truth through the darkened regions of our globe. |