1832. Annual Meeting of the American Colonization Society.-American Tract Soc. 89

tempted to make account of his good works, who cares for them? Is he disposed to treat the natives with imperiousness or impatience, they run away from him, and he must sooner or later resort to friendly words, or else he will find himself alone. If he says to one, 'go away'-he comes directly; and to another, 'come hither'— he walks off. It is therefore best, that he pursues his appointed course with patience, exerts himself to the utmost of his ability without ever forgetting that he is a poor sinner and an unprofitable servant. The district in which our hermitage is situated has much that is pleasant and attractive, were it not exposed so frequently to violent storms. There are indeed several circumstances which are productive of inconvenience to us, and may sooner or later induce some Greenland families to remove hence. Of these, the principal are, the want of good and wholesome fish, particularly herrings, (with which we have been latterly supplied from Lichtenau,) the scarcity of eggs, found in such abundance at the other settlements, and last, though not least in importance, the failure of brushwood, which we cannot now obtain without a journey of two days. Of grass we have hitherto had no lack, but the supply is not sufficiently large to admit of our increasing very considerably our present stock of cattle. Thus far, however, the Lord has helped us, and he will continue to supply our need, according to his gra

cious promise.

DOMESTIC.

FIFTEENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY.

THE society met in the capitol at Washington,
with a large audience, January 16th. In the ab-
sence of Charles Carroll, Esq. the president of
the society, Gen. C. F. Mercer, of Virginia, one
of the vice presidents took the chair. Delegates
were present from numerous state and branch so-
cieties. Letters were read from Mr. Madison,
Judge Marshall, and La Fayette, expressing
their favorable views of the society and deep
interest in its success. The annual report was
read by the secretary, Rev. R. R. Gurley.
Resolutions were offered by Gen. Vance of Ohio,
Mr. Archer of Virginia, and Mr. Bates and Mr.
Everett of Massachusetts, all members of Con-
gress; and by Mr. Lear, Gen. Jones of the dis-
trict of Columbia, Rev. Mr. Bacon, and Prof.
Fitch of New Haven, Ct. and Rev. W. Colton,
of the navy. Messrs. Bacon, Everett, and Ar-
cher addressed the meeting at considerable
length; the last of whom declared that he had
recently changed his views, and from being an
opposer, had become a friend of the society.
An abstract of the report will be given here-

after.

AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY.

Special Meeting for promoting its objects. WHILE the fields of usefulness opened before this society have been extending, and solicitaVOL. XXVIII.

tions made to it for aid becoming more pressing, and the evidence of the divine blessing following the labors of the society more abundant, its pecuniary resources have not increased in a corresponding manner. From the first of May, to the first of December, the society expended $31,283, while its receipts from all scources except loans, amounted to only $23,271; leaving a deficiency of $8,011.

A meeting was called in the city of New York on the 6th of December, to devise means for relieving the society from its embarrassment, at which addresses were made and a subscription commenced, which was raised to about $4,000; $1,340 of which was for circulating tracts in foreign lands. At this meeting it was resolved, that, in view of the fields of labor opened before the society, it was exceedingly desirable that, at least, $10,000 should be raised immediately to supply our own country, and $10,000 more for the destitute in other lands.

Facilities and Fields of Usefulness.

Tract Magazine.
The following paragraphs are taken from the

The society has great facilities for extensive usefulness. Five hundred and seventy evangelical publications, in six languages, from the small child's tract to the Rise and Progress, Pilgrim's Progress, the Call to the Unconverted, and the Saint's Rest, are stereotyped; of which more than 20,000,000 have already been circulated, and blessed, in an eminent degree, in the conversion of sinners to God. In all our principal towns auxiliaries are formed, and depositories commenced; missionaries are penetrating heathen countries, and opening the way of access to them; and nothing is wanting, by the blessing of God, but one united movement from the friends of evangelical truth, to send these messages of grace, without delay, to every family of our nation, and to millions in other lands who are perishing for lack of knowledge.

These facilities of usefulness the committee cannot but regard as a most sacred and responsible trust, received from the great Head of the Church; especially when they consider that it is a first principle of his gospel that it is to be sent to those who have it not, who never will seek to obtain it, and will die unblest with its saving influences, unless their spiritual wants are "sought out," and it is carried and tendered to them by the hand of Christian benevolence.

After noticing the extensive fields open in this country, the society proceeds to notice those which solicit its aid in foreign lands.

But wide and interesting as are the openings for usefulness in our own country, they can scarcely be deemed more attractive than those in foreign lands. The committee have, from the pen of the late lamented Mr. Evarts, an estimate made on a careful examination, and connected with a statement of the facts on which it is based, that $1,500 annually is needed for tract operations at the missionary station in Bombay, among not far from 12,000,000 who speak the Mahratta language; $1,000 at Ceylon, among 11,000,000

12

All these applications, demanding, as the committee believe, the speedy appropriation of at least $10,000, they are pained to say yet remain unanswered; for, inviting and urgent as they are, what can the committee do? They cannot deny these calls and if they should make appropriations to meet them, it is only taking the same from the personal funds of members of the committee, who are now more than $6,000 in advance of an exhausted treasury!

who speak in Tamul; $1,500 at the Sandwich || Give us a writing that tells about Jesus Islands; and $1,500 on the Mediterranean. The Christ.'" missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church, through Rev. Messrs. Robertson and Hill, have applied for an appropriation to aid their tract operations in Greece. The Moravian Brethren have expressed the satisfaction with which they will embrace the co-operation of this society in their labors. The secretary of the Paris Tract Society has earnestly applied for aid in their endeavors to diffuse a knowledge of the gospel among 32,000,000 of France. The tract Society at Hamburgh has made an earnest appeal. The Rev. Mr. Knill, of St. Petersburgh, has expressed the need of assistance in their tract operations in Russia. The circulation of tracts has been commenced among the uncounted millions of China, where a great veneration is entertained for every thing printed; all, even those speaking different dialects, read one language; and where it seems the gospel must, for the present at least, be diffused almost solely by means of the press. And in Burmah, where the attention of the first Christian inquirer was rested by a tract, and where tens of thousands seem now inquiring the way of salvation, we hear the respected and beloved, self-sacrificing missionary, Dr. Judson saying, "During the great annual festival which is just past I have given away nearly 10,000 Tracts, giving to none but those who ask. I presume that there have been 6,000 applicants at the house! Some come two or three month's journey, from the borders of Siam and China. Sir, we hear there is an eternal hell. We are afraid of it. Doctor, give us a writing that will tell us how to escape it.' Others come from the borders of Cassay, a hundred miles north of Ava. 'Sir, we have seen a writing that tells us about an eternal God. Are you the man that gives away such writings? If so, pray give us one, for we want to know the truth before we die.'' Others come from the interior of the country, where the name of Christ is a little known. Are you Jesus Christ's man?

EASTERN BEGGARS.

ar

There is one consideration of thrilling interest, connected both with the calls from our own country and abroad, to which the committee cannot refrain from inviting the most serious attention: The rapidity with which hundreds of thousands and millions may be reached by this means of grace, who otherwise, to human view, must perish without the gospel. Within two or three years, by suitable contributions and efforts, some portion of the gospel may be conveyed, by means of this society, to the entire 13,000,000 of our population, while all the other benevolent operations of our land shall be moving on without hindrance. Or look at Dr. Judson, when penning the above extract, accompanied by one solitary laborer who could speak and write the language, and with 6,000 applicants for tracts at his own house, during a single festival, some of them having come two or three months' journey. Is there a Christian in our land who would consent to withhold from any missionary sacrificing his short life among the heathen, as many tracts as he can circulate? Is there a pleasure we can procure with money, which would not be imbittered, if it were the price of a tract which any missionary might give to a dying heathen? Can the churches withhold $10,000, now wanted for distributing 1,000,000 tracts in foreign and pagan lands? Or can they withhold the still larger sum necessary to plant and sustain 30 laborious agents in appropriate fields extending over all the more destitute portions of our own country?

Miscellanies.

In no respect, perhaps, do heathen countries differ more strikingly from those where Christianity prevails, than in the extreme poverty and wretchedness which they every where exhibit. Not only do we not look to them for any of the higher efforts of mind, but we find the people almost destitute of industry, energy of character, skill, foresight, good husbandry, and mutual confidence. The mass of the people in every heathen country are not only servile and debased in their morals, but miserably poor and destitute of the comforts of life. In the district of Jaffna, in the island of Ceylon, it is estimated that one third of the population are beggars. The statement here given of their character, and of the arts with which they make their solicitations for aid, are taken from the Wesleyan-Methodist Magazine, for which they were furnished by Mr. Roberts, a missionary at Point Pedro, in Ceylon.

The religious mendicants and common beggars of India form a much larger portion of the population than those of other countries. To account for this, we have only to look at the numerous ceremonies and superstitions of this people. Has a man to take a journey to any sacred der to receive the benefits of that pilgrimage, place "for the good of his soul?" he will, in orcall together the beggars, and most liberally supply all their wants. Has he to engage in any its results? he will do the same thing; and when mercantile transaction, which is uncertain as to offerings are made to the gods, it is a most favorable time for the beggars; as on those occasions large quantities of food are always to be obtained. On the birth of a child, the Brahmins and beggars go to the house of the happy father, and have their wants relieved; especially if the little stranger is a boy. On the twelfth or ed for the first time, whole troops of the lame, the thirty-second day, when the child's head is shavblind, the deaf, the dumb, and the fatherless, may be seen moving towards the place. In the sixth month, when rice is first given to the child, these place. Many are the blessings pronounced, and importunate visiters again occupy the same right wonderful are the predictions of the future

glory of this happy child. Faithful and numer-
ous are their promises, that they will visit them
again on the day when his ears are to be graced
with the ponderous rings, and when the barber
is, for the first time, to perform his important
function. And so sure as they are in the land of
the living, will they go to the same place, and
talk over all the events to that period of the
young man's life. They have, however, another
promise to make; they will be with him on his
bridal day; they will then come to celebrate his
praise. Absent on such a day! they will never
be so ungrateful as that! When that period has
arrived, again these squalid and clamorous
guests make their appearance. "Bridegroom,
live for ever! May your strength never wither!
May your bride be like Lechimy! May she
bear you numerous sons!" A person would sup-
pose they had now done with their benefactor:
but not so: they have another wretched hope;
they may live till the time when his bones shall
be carried to the place of burning; and on the
eighth day after that event takes place, they may
be found again in groups around the same door.
And as long as there is a wife, a son, a daugh-
ter, or a friend, to perform the annual rites to the
manes of the deceased, will they yearly resort to
the same place.

of

am left alone. I never go to the low castes to
ask for charity: I would not even drink of their
I am of high descent, and
water. No; no.
therefore come to your door. Give me a little
of the rice which you give to the dogs, or that
which has been left upon your plate. My lord,
I went to the house of the great one, but he filled
my hand with the burnt rice of the chattee. Yes
terday only my thirst was quenched, and last
night I ate nothing. When you die, my lord,
charities only will accompany you."

When several beggars are together, they be gin to praise the person whose liberality they wish to excite, in such a way as he can bear; or they begin to abuse those whom they know to be his enemies. "Why did that Pariar try to injure this excellent gentleman? Is not our lord of a great family? Well did I know his father; what an age did he live to see!" "Yes, yes," says another, "that was his charity; and how much the son resembles him! only let him follow the same course, and he will attain the same number

all this prosperity! Some beggars carry nothing but ill-fortune wherever they go: but see what bring! This will be the best year you have ever

seen.

I must see you again the next year, and then I will remind you of these things."

of years. How great is his learning, and his gait is like the stately swan. What a disposition! Ah, he is the man for the multitude. He is the chief man amongst the noble, the gener ous prime minister, the finest gold, the ruby in. his birth, the bearer of the symbol of the plough, In soliciting charity, or on receiving it, their and the king of the vellalahs. Like unto him sayings are so numerous, it is impossible to give there will never be another. May he ever be more than a few of them. "Charity, charity, sixteen years of age.* Sir, we must eat of your O charity! my bowels are withered, they burn, rice this day." Should they succeed, they will, my life flies! O king of the palanquin, for the when the meal is finished, put their hands on belly there is nothing! My numerous years say their bodies, and say, "May your belly always be refreshed as mine has now been." On the first to you, 'I shall not come here many more times.' My eyes are dim; my teeth are gone; and my day of the Tamul new year, "Sir, I came here limbs tremble. Ó, my lord, let me see the light last year, and how many have been your blessyour countenance! A blind man, a blindings! How fortunate for myself, that you had man, is at your door. A child without a father.t O relieve my wants, and great will be your felicity. The virgin charity, the virgin charity! My children are dying for want of food; only place your hands upon their heads, and you will prosper: though you give them ever so little, it will be seen again in your own family. Will you not preserve my life? O father, I have come under your roof. God is indeed the greatest, but you are the next. I am so weak, I cannot return to my hut: food, food: let me sleep beneath your shade. A widow, a widow, my thali is torn off. My husband has fallen; but I must bear another child. Give me a little rice water: the people have all turned me from their doors; but, ah! you will not do so. Delay not, for that will take away the reward. Charity is of itself a victory. Is a good spring made less by taking away the water? The more you give the more you will have. O lady, O mother, if you relieve my wants, your thali will ever remain. May the feet and hands of your husband be ever kept from evil. May you have a male child. O queen, let me see your lotus-like face. If you turn me away, whither shall I go? Give me a piece of old cloth, and I will praise you in every place; yes, your name shall spread abroad, and great will be your fame. O man of the great family, O the amiable gentleman, give to the orphan: what profit is there in giving to others? Give to the orphan. Look at one of the most miserable. Where are my fields, my house, my children, and my wife? They are gone, and I

The beautiful wife of Vishnoo.

† Many children never know their fathers. The Kanneyatharam, which consists in giving A marriage portion to a poor virgin.

The marriage jewel, (equivalent to the ring,) which is taken off after the husband's death.

eaten

The religious mendicants feel no pleasure in seeing those of the other fraternity come to the same place for relief; and sometimes they deal out to them a most plentiful share of abuse. "Why has that fellow a hunch back? What is the cause of that elephant leg? From what did that leprosy proceed? Why has that woman her husband? Have not all these things come upon them through the sins of a former birth? Such wretches therefore ought not to be reliev ed." Should the dispenser of charity not relieve them, or dole out a very scanty supply, they will immediately vent their imprecations on his head: "That low fellow shows what he sprang from. The ignoble slave will not even give the husks of his grain. The upstart must carry his umbrella at midnight. The low caste wished us to ask for the night charity. He will soon be ruined." And just as they are going away they will ask with a sneer, "What, is there not rice for the mouth of the corpse?"§

* In allusion to a youth, who, by virtue of his offering to Sivan, always retained the age of sixteen years.

Widows are said to have eaten their husbands. He is not nice to defend himself from the sun when there is none to injure him.

This is the lowest of all, as they must then take what has been handled.

In allusion to the custom of putting rice in the mouth of a person after death. It is an intimation

also that there will be none for the mouth of the individual after his death; so great will be his pov

erty.

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.

DECEASE OF THE CORRESPONDING SECRETARY.

ACCORDING to the appointment of a wise and sovereign Providence, the Board is again called to mourn the death of its Corresponding Secretary. The Rev. ELIAS CORNELIUS, D. D. died at Hartford, Connecticut, on the twelfth of February, in the thirtyninth year of his age.

After the most diligent and prayerful consideration of the subject, attended with much anxiety lest he should mistake the path of duty, Dr. Cornelius decided, early in December, to accept the office to which he was appointed at the last annual meeting of the Board, and early in the following month he arrived in Boston, to enter upon the duties of it. His health was not then good. While in Boston his mind was much occupied in making arrangements with his associates for conducting the labors at the Missionary Rooms, and by various plans and measures adapted to give increased efficiency and extent to the operations of the Board, with other cares incident to the commencement of a new course of duties. Besides these, he was almost daily engaged in preaching or making addresses on missions in Boston and the vicinity, and preparing for an agency of four or five months, which he contemplated in the Middle States. During this time he often spoke of being ill. He left Boston on Saturday, the fourth of February. On Monday he arrived at Hartford, quite exhausted and in much pain. He, however, attended the Monthly Concert for Prayer, according to a previous appointment, and addressed the audience, which was the last of his public labors. He was immediately confined to his bed; and notwithstanding all that medical skill and the kindest attentions of friends could effect, his disease, an inflammation on the brain, hastened rapidly to its fatal termination, and his soul took its departure on the following Sabbath morning. During his sickness he was exercised with much pain, and at intervals, during the last twenty-four hours of his life, his mind was affected. The pain he bore with excmplary patience, and resting firmly in Christ and his atonement, he spoke of his death, and met it when it arrived, with perfect composure. The funeral of Dr. Cornelius was attended at Hartford, Feb. 15th. An appropriate sermon was preached by the Rev. Dr. Hawes, from John xvii. 24.

At a meeting of the Prudential Committee, held on Monday, the 20th of February, the following minute was ordered to be entered on their records; which, although it has not been customary in similar cases heretofore, it is thought expedient to publish.

It having pleased the wise and sovereign Disposer of events to remove from his earthly labors the Rev. Dr. Cornelius, a member of this Committee, and Corresponding Secretary of the Board, who died at Hartford, Connecticut, on the 12th instant,

Resolved, That the Committee desire to be solemnly affected by the repeated strokes of God's afflictive providence, with which they have been visited during the past year, and particularly to notice with humility and submission the recent death of the Rev. Elias Cornelius, D. D., lately a member of this Committee, and Corresponding Secretary of the Board; who, immediately after entering on the duties of his office, has been suddenly removed, in the vigor of life and in the height of his usefulness: and while the Committee mourn their own personal loss, and the loss which the Board and the cause of Christian benevolence generally have sustained by this event, they would acknowledge with unfeigned gratitude to God, the piety, the unwearied zeal and public spirit, the enlarged views, the sound judgment, the industry, the amiable and affectionate disposition, and the other qualifications for his office, possessed by their late beloved associate and brother, by which he secured universally the confidence and affection of the Christian community, was highly successful in labors in behalf of the Board and other benevolent institutions, and promised eminent and continued usefulness to the missionary cause.

Resolved, That the Committee affectionately terder their condolence to the bereaved widow and family of the late beloved Corresponding Secretary, and pray that this heavy affliction may promote their spiritual good, and that the consolations of the gospel, which abounded to him in his life, and sustained him in death, may be their comfort and support under this and every other earthly trial.

boring Towns held its 19th annual meeting at Northampton, Oct. 13. The usual reports were presented, and addresses were delivered by Rev. H. Bardwell and Rev. E. Pond, a deputation from the Board.-Mr. Daniel Stebbins, North

A RESOLUTION adopted at the last annual meeting of the Board was inserted on p. 363 of the last volume, instructing the Prudential Commit-ampton, Secretary; M. J. D. Whitney, Treasurer. tee, to make a respectful application to the American Bible Society for aid in printing the holy scriptures and parts thereof in Greece, Bombay, Ceylon, and the Sandwich Islands. The application was made, accompanied with a statement of the amount of aid which was desired and could be advantageously employed during the ensuing year.

MASSACHUSETTS. The Auxiliary of Franklin County, held its 19th annual meeting at Rev. Mr. Bradford's meeting-house in Montague, Wednesday Oct. 12. The usual reports were read, and other business transacted, and the audience addressed by Rev. H. Bardwell, and Rev. E. Pond, who attended as a deputation from the Board-Gen. Asa Howland, Conway, The Southern Auxiliary of Windham County Secretary; Franklin Ripley, Esq., Greenfield, held its 7th annual meeting at Westminster, Treasurer. Sept. 28th, Rev. S. Holmes, and Rev. J. S. EmThe Auxiliary of Northampton and the Neigh-erson, were present as a deputation.-Rev. Den