Account of Moneys received by the Treasurer of the General Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions, from Feb. 25, to March 24, 1831. From a lady in Portsmouth, N. H. for the Burman mission, per Rev. Baron Stow, Y. Z. for printing tracts in Burmah, Accompanied by the following note: 1,00 20,00 "Sir,-In 1st Corinthians, 16th chapter, and 2d verse, it is written: 'Let every one of you lay by him in store as God hath prospered him.' In compliance with the above injunction, I enclose 20 dollars, which I wish to have appropriated to printing and circulating tracts in Burmah. "Feb. 26, 1831. Yours, &c. Y. Z." From Dea. James Loring, Treasurer of the Boston Bap. For. Miss. Soc. for female schools in Burmah, having been contributed by the Fem. Pri. Soc. of the Federal-St. Bap. church and congregation, Boston, under the pastoral charge of Rev. H. Malcom, per Mrs. H. Lincoln, Treas. 38,00 68,00 Treasurer of the Baptist State Convention of Massachusetts, it having been received from the Wendall Association, for the Burman mission, per Rev. J. Going, Mrs. Maria T. Jackson, and Mrs. Eliza B. Rogers, daughters of the late Rev. Stephen Gano, Providence, R. I. being the first payment for the purpose of supporting and educating a heathen child in Burmah to bear the name of their fate venerated parent, per Rev. H. Jackson, This generous donation was accompanied with a pledge that it should be continued till it shall amount to the sum of one hundred dollars. From Baptist Fem. Miss. Soc. New Bedford, being the first payment towards supporting and 25,00 25,00 1,00 75,00 Mr. M. Ball, Ag't of the Board, having been collected by him in S. Carolina and Georgia, 275,00 W. R. Stockbridge, Esq. Treas. of the Cumberland Bap. Miss. Soc. Aux. &c. having been contributed as follows, viz. Mrs. Nancy Ilsley, Treas. of the Burman Fem. Ed. Soc. of Portland, for the education of -244,03 Mrs. Holingbroke, Treas. of Fem. Bap. Mis. Soc. Middletown, N.J. per Rev. A. Maclay, 5,01 per W. Colgate, Esq. New-York, A lady in Rutland Co. Vt. in consequence of reading Mrs. Wade's journal and address, per Rev. Hadley Procter, Dea. James Loring, Treas. of the Boston Bap. For. Miss. Soc. it having been contributed at the monthly concert for prayer, by the four Bap. churches in Boston, for education of female children in India, 10,00 112,00 Bap. church in Gibbonsville and West Troy, N.Y. being avails of collections taken at their monthly concert for prayer, to aid in printing the Bible in Burmah, per Rev. A. Vaughn, 20,00 Rev. Daniel Hascall, Treas. of the Madison For. Miss. Soc. Aux. &c. A donation of several friends, to the heathen, to be appropriated to the exclusive object of printing the New Testament in the Barman language, 50,00 The following is an extract from the letter enclosing this donation: "Dear brother in the Lord,--I have now the pleasure of forwarding you one hundred and fifty dollars, being the donation of several friends to the heathen. I hope that in addition to this you will receive soon fifty dollars more from the Baptist church in this place. You will be particular in the appropriation of the above to the exclusive object of printing the New Testament in the Burman language, agreeably to the desire of the donors. I hope the 1000 dolls. will be made up. Let our dependance, after the most faithful and diligent use of means, be on God alone for the blessing of salvation which it is his divine prerogative to bestow." Yours in a precious Saviour, Several ladies of the Baptist church and congregation under the pastoral care of Rev. J.C. Welsh, Warren, R. I. being the first payment for the support and education of a Burman boy to be named John Carnes Welsh, A few females of Philadelphia and Frankford, a part of which is to be expended for the purchase of various articles to be forwarded to Mrs. Wade in Burmah, and which with the balance is to be appropriated at her discretion, per Mrs. Hetty Gillison, and Mrs. Mary Davis, The Juvenile Miss. Soc. Burlington, N. J. for Indian missions in the U. S. by Mr. Peter 1:50,00 25,00 100,00 10,00 MEMOIR OF REV. WILLIAM STAUGHTON, D. D. By the kindness of Rev. O. B. Brown, of Washington City, we are permitted to extract the following Memoir from the manuscript of his Sermon, occasioned by the decease of Dr. Staughton, delivered Jan. 3, 1830, from 1 Thess. iv. 13. THE great Author of being has implanted in our nature a fondness for perpetuity. It is a germ which grows with time and strengthens with experience. It is a principle which fastens upon every object of delight. The scenes of childhood, endeared by the fondest recollections, never fail to interest us. When we revisit those scenes, we look with earnest solicitude for every former object; and if a tree, under whose branches we found shelter, is removed, its loss spreads over the mind a cloud of regret. How much more a living object! A parent-a husband-a minister of God! He was as a tree whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof unto the end of all the earth. His branches were a shade from the scorching rays of noon, and a protection from the midnight storm. His fruit was meat for all. To many who are gone before him, he marked the path to heaven; and to many lingering survivors he now has led the way. His hand and his heart were alike open to all. His instruction guided the youth to virtuous maturity. His counsel was the support of the fatherless, and the widow's never-failing consolation. We now look for him, but his place is vacant. The little one listens to catch his gentle accents; but silence reigns. The desolate widow waits for his coming, that her sorrow may again be turned to rejoicing: but she looks in vain. Even his own widowed mourner, bereft at once of an earthly guardian and a spiritual father, weeps for the consolations which she had so often heard him impart to others. We look for him in the halls of literature and science; but he is not there. We go to the holy sanctuary; but another fills his place-his melodious voice is no longer heard-his eloquence has MAY, 1831. 17 ceased to charm-his mild persuasions cease to lure the soul from the maze of error into the love of holiness and obedience of the faith. Why, O Death, art thou so cruel! Does the monster sway an omnipotent sceptre? and is there no balm for the wound which he inflicts? Desolation is in all his goings, and inconsolable sorrow follows his footsteps. The grave closes upon its victim, and a cloud of darkness gathers around the tomb, which the light of philosophy can never penetrate. Must mortals survey the dreary prospect, and sink in despair? No; blessed be God for his triumphing grace: there is a cheering ray emitted from the throne of heaven, shining through all the gospel of inspiration, dispelling the gloom of mortality, and kindling in the soul a confident hope of everlasting life. It is the voice of the Holy Ghost, proclaiming the victory of the Son of God over death and hell, and his triumph over the tomb. This light, beaming upon the soul of the apostle, and rising in holy extacies, breaks out in the following language: "I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." Proportioned to the estimated value of the object, is our sorrow for its loss. The more valued our friends, the deeper must be the wound which their decease inflicts. The pilgrim regards with peculiar interest, that loveliest, brightest star, which is first the harbinger of the morning, then the glory of the evening; and if, while surveying and admiring its beauty, it should vanish forever from his view, it would leave a regret which every rising dawn, and every retiring twilight would revive. Such must be the regret which the decease of our venerable brother brings to every sensitive mind. He was not an ordinary man. He was indeed a man of like passions with others: but he shone, a star among stars, of peculiar brilliance. We would not be understood to represent him as perfect. He had his imperfections, or he would not have needed death for their cure. To exhibit the true character of a man, we must view his life as one undivided period. The sun itself has spots; which, if taken alone as proof of the character of the orb, could demonstrate its opacity; but we regard it as a unit, and its glory overpowers our vision. If the character of Abraham had been but partially exhibited, we should not have esteemed him "the friend of God" and "the father of the faithful." If but one or two traits in the life of David were known, we should not consider him "the man after God's own heart." If nothing of Peter but his inconstancy had been transmitted to us, we should not have regarded him as a rock, and a principal pillar in the temple of God. But the whole life of each of these eminent saints, taken as a unit, exhibits a loveliness of character, which every Christian would be happy to emulate. Such also is the character of our venerated brother, whose departure we now mourn. His imperfections were few and venial. His virtues were great and many. A brief outline of what he was, may not be uninteresting. The city of Coventry, in the county of Warwick, England, was the place of his nativity. His ancestors, for several generations back, were eminent for their piety, and were in communion with the church of the same denomination in which he lived and died. One of them was deacon in the church of which John Bunyan was pastor; a participant in the persecutions of that eminent man of God, and his companion in the prison where he wrote the Pilgrim's Progress. The grace of God, though not communicated by natural descent, is often bestowed on children's children in answer to the prayers of the faithful. So God answered the supplications of his parents in the early conversion of their beloved William. They had removed to Birmingham, where, before he had attained to the years of manhood, he became the hopeful subject of divine grace, and was united to the church in Cannon Street, under the pastoral care of the late Rev. Samuel Pearce. His ardent piety and promising talents, soon brought him into high estimation; and in the nineteenth year of his age, he was called to the public ministry of the gospel. He was educated at the Baptist academy in Bristol, under the care of the late Dr. Evans; a seminary to which our denomination is indebted for the instruction of many of the profoundest scholars and greatest divines that have adorned the profession. His room companions at this institution, were the Rev. Mr. Hughes, Secretary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the Rev. John Foster, author of that celebrated work called Foster's Essays. His subsequent career shews the assiduity and success with which he pursued his studies. After the death of Dr. Evans, Dr. John Ryland, pastor of the church at Northampton, was called to the presidency of that institution; and young Staughton, invited to the pastoral duties of that church, accepted the charge. During this period, he formed an jatimate friendship with the late Dr. Andrew Fuller, which continued till interrupted by that fell destroyer of all sublunary bliss, the hand of death. His continuance with the church at Northampton was not of long duration; for God had appointed for him another field, and given to his mind an inclination calculated to fulfil the divine purpose. He early conceived the intention of coming to America; and no persuasions of his friends, no prospect of rising to superior excellence in his native country, could induce him to relinquish the determination. In 1793, being then in the twenty-fourth year of his age, he bade a last adieu to the shores of his nativity, and landed in Charleston, South Carolina. He first settled at Georgetown, in that State; but the climate was not friendly to the health of himself or family. In 1796, he took charge of the academy at Bordentown, in New Jersey; from which place he removed to Burlington, in the same State, where he conducted with great success a flourishing grammar school. During this time, his ministerial labors were promiscuous. He held his membership in the church at Jacobstown, under the pastoral care of the late Dr. Burgiss Allison, a place convenient to his residence; but his ministry was not confined to any particular congregation. While in Burlington, he collected together the little number of fourteen professed believers, with whom he united, and constituted the Baptist church in that town. While he continued his residence there, it pleased the Lord so to bless his labors, that in 1804 the number was increased to eighty. At this time he relinquished the grammar school, and removed to Philadelphia to enter upon the pastoral duties of the First Baptist Church in that city, to which he had been invited. Here he entered more extensively into the field of his ministerial vocation. This, of all others, was the work in which he most delighted, and in which he principally excelled. He found the church composed of less than two hundred communicants, and but a thinly scattered congregation. Multitudes, attracted by his eloquence, crowded to hear the word, which he faithfully and zealously proclaimed; and it was attended with the demonstration of the Holy Ghost. In four years, the number of communicants was doubled, and the congregation so increased as to require a house of double its former dimensions to contain the worshippers. The place was enlarged, and still crowded with a solemn and attentive audience. In 1811, ninety-one members were dismissed from this church, and constituted into a new and distinct church, with the view of opening a place of worship in another part of the city. At their unanimous request, Dr. Staughton united with them as their pastor, leaving the First Church with nearly five hundred communicants, and a house for worship of twice the dimensions of that in which they worshipped when he first came among them. The new church with which he united, established their place of meeting in Sansom-Street, where they erected a spacious house for meeting, and assumed the name of the "Sansom-Street Baptist Church of Philadelphia." With this church he labored till 1823, at which time the number of its communicants was increased to four hundred and thirty-one. During his residence in Philadelphia, his labors were always unremitted. Besides appropriating a part of his time to the education of the youth, and a part to the instruction of young candidates for the ministry, several of whom he always had under his care, he often preached four times on a Lord's day, and from three to six evenings in a week. In addition to this, he constantly pursued a regular course of reading, wrote much for the press, and devoted a portion of each week to religious conversation and visits among his flock. His work was his delight. It constituted both his labor and his respite for in it, the Lord was with him. In this period, he baptized nearly a thousand persons who professed hope in the pardoning mercy of Christ. His talents, his eloquence, his learning, and his manifest sincerity, gave him a celebrity which was equalled by few, and by none transcended. Nor was his ministerial usefulness confined within the sound of his own voice. To the young licentiate, he was a father. A profound observer of human nature, he was well able to encourage the diffident, to check the aspirant, and with paternal affection to impart to all, the most salutary instruction. In most of our principal cities, the pulpits of our denomination are filled with students of his tuition; and there is scarcely a hamlet in United America, where |