of what was done in this country, for the same salutary cause of disseminating the Holy Scriptures. We will thus mutually learn what our merciful Savior has done, and is doing, in both countries. Before I conclude, permit me, sir, to express to you the feelings of the most sincere and true esteem, with which I have the honor to be, sir, Your most obedient and devoted servant, PRINCE ALEXander GalitZİN, (Signed.) St. Petersburg, November 30, 1816. President of the Russian Bible Society. Extract of a letter from Alexander Tourguereff, Secretary of the Russian Bible Society. (TRANSLATION.) ST. PETERSBURG, August 21, 1816. SIR,-Permit me to express my sentiments of acknowledgment and satisfaction for your letter of 23d May, which you did me the honor to address to me, and in which you communicate such interesting particulars respecting the establishment of an American Bible Society. I make not the least doubt, sir, but that your projects for the propagation of the word of God will be crowned with full success; and at the first session of the Committee of the Russian Bible Society, I will gladly give an account of the happy result of your deliberations. They will undoubtedly participate with me the joy excited by the intelligence of this event, and the hope of shortly seeing (thanks to your efforts) the divine light of religion penetrating the most distant regions of your hemisphere, and illuminating those who, by the impenetrable ways of Providence, have hitherto been deprived of it. Sir, your most humble and most obedient servant, ALEXANDER TOURGUENEFF, Secretary of the Russian Bible Society. From the Secretaries of the Hamburg and Altona Bible Society, communicated through the hands of the Right Rev. William White, President of the Philadelphia Bible Society. We have learned with great satisfaction from the publications which have reached us, that the loud voice of the friends of the Bible in America, has demanded and produced a union of the interests of all the provincial Societies, by the establishment of a National Bible Society. We cannot better express our joy at this event, than by a request to be made acquainted, through the medium of your printed reports, with the result of your endeavors to diffuse the pure word of God throughout the wide dominions of the states of North America. However great the distance at which we live from each other, we feel ourselves associated with you in the blessed vocation of offering those revered documents, upon which the faith of all Christians rests, to such of the children of men as do not possess them; and of thereby leading them to a nearer and fruitful knowledge of our Holy Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who "of God is made, unto all that believe on him, wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." To glorify the name of Christ be, therefore, the aim of our exertions; exertions which cannot fail to receive the ap probation and blessing of God, even though but few evidences of it should be seen in this life. We send you along with this epistle twelve copies of our Report for this year, to be distributed among your provincial Societies; and by this act commence an intercourse and connection with you, which we desire to render as extensive as we can. You will undoubtedly be able to make it as instructive to us, as it will be interesting, by the rich fund of experience which your activity will supply. How much will you discover favorable to the advancement of our design! and, on the other hand, how many difficulties will you encounter! A wise application of the former, and a careful consideration of the latter, cannot but yield valuable information to us, who have scarcely yet begun to mature our plan of operation. With joyful aspirations we look forward with you to that day when "the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea;" when "there shall be one fold and one shepherd ;" and when all differences among Christians shall end in the worship of God and his anointed, in spirit and in truth. May the head of his church, the Lord Jesus Christ, who knows all the true members of the same, of whatever name or people they may be, exceeding abundantly increase their number by smiling upon the labors of Bible Societies in all parts of the world; thereby marking them out and lifting them up for a sign of the times, to which the nations shall look and praise him! Do not misconstrue it as presumption, that we address you in our own language. There are among you many who were formerly inhabitants of Germany, and still speak German; and these will be our interpreters. We shall, on our part, thankfully receive your answer in the English language, with which we are acquainted, as soon as it shall be agreeable to you to honor us with the same. Please to accept the assurance of our inmost veneration. JOHN DANIEL RUNGE, J. H. MUTZENBECKER, GILBERT VAN DER SMISSEN, Secretaries to the Hamburg and Altona Bible Society. OF THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY. President. Hon. ELIAS BOUDINOT, LL. D. of New-Jersey. Vice-Presidents. Hon. JOHN JAY, of New-York. MATTHEW CLARKSON, Esq. of New-York. DANIEL D. TOMPKINS, Vice-President of the United States. Hon. CALEB STRONG, of Massachusetts. Hon. JOHN COTTON SMITH, of Connecticul. Hon. ANDREW KIRKPATRICK, Chief Justice of the State of New Jersey. JOSEPH NOURSE, Esq. Register of the Treasury of the United States. FRANCIS S. KEY. Esq. District of Columbia. Hon. BUSHROD WASHINGTON, of Virginia, Judge of Supreme Court of U. S. Hon. CHARLES COTES WORTH PINCKNEY, of Charleston, South Carolina. His Excellency THOMAS WORTHINGTON, of Óhio. JOHN BOLTON, Esq. of Georgia. FELIX GRUNDY, Esq. of Tennessee. Secretaries. Rev. JOHN MASON, D. D. Secretary for Foreign Correspondence. Rev. JOHN B. ROMEYN, D. D. Secretary for Domestic Correspondence. Treasurer. RICHARD VARICK, Esq. Mr. JOHN PINTARD, Recording Secretary and Accountant. |