of the Southampton Branch Bible Society, England. 77 aided its progress. Deplorable indeed did he consider to be the state of the human mind, unblest with the advantage of those hopes and consolations which the Holy Scriptures afford: deplorable even in the midst of the most favourable external circumstances, of rank, affluence, power, and accomplishments. Such a state of mind he instanced from the memorable confession of the late celebrated Earl of Chesterfield; who, having entirely excluded the Bible from a system of education which he had arranged for his son, had confessed at the close of his life, that all the gratifications of the past had been insipid, that all his present feelings were those of weariness and disgust, and that all his future prospects were cheerless. Unenviable indeed was such a situation to be considered, and beyond expression wretched, when contrasted with the hopes and prospects of the humblest and poorest individual, who knew the value of the word of God, "And in that charter read, with sparkling eyes, "the Placed as man is amidst the wonders of creation, he considered that it could not but be, that his mind should rise from nature upward to the God of Nature : but, when he had felt his situation in the midst of infirmity, and had exclaimed, "Whither shall I go from thy spirit, and whither shall I flee from thy presence,' next aspiration of the heart, the next prayer of the soul would be, "Oh teach me thy Statutes!" It was the province then, of this Society, to circulate these Scriptures. To attempt to panegyrize them would be as fruitless as to attempt to gild the refined gold, or to add sweetness to the perfume of the violet: for omnipotence could not be exalted, infinity could not be expanded, perfection could not be improved. To circulate these statutes and ordinances, and to rejoice in the progress of their circulation, was the intention of this day's assembly. Our other charities, great and glorious as they were, he considered as sinking into insignificance, when contrasted with this as comparatively" sounding brass and tinkling cymbals." The first great want of man, after his animal wants have been supplied, is religious instruction. Open the book of God to the eyes of the people, unfold the sacred volume, and you yourselves become the weak, yet effectual instruments, of communicating the means of present grace and the hope of future glory.Shut that volume, and you take away all that is estimable and dignified in life, and all that in death can afford consolation. REFLECTIONS Of Dr. Doddridge on the death of his eldest daughter, who lived long enough to give him very agreeable hopes as to her pious dispo sition. "I have been preaching from those words, Is it well with the child? And she answered, it is well. But surely, these never was any dispensation of providence, in which I found it so difficult to say it. Indeed some hard thoughts of God were ready to arise; and the apprehension of his displeasure against me brought my 78 Reflections of Dr. Doddridge. mind into a painful situation. But it pleased God to quiet it, and lead me to a silent, cordial submission to his will. I see that I doted too much upon her; my heart was opened to her with a fond flattering delight. And now, O my soul, one of thy earthly delights is gone Seek thy greatest delight in heaven, where I trust my child is; where I am sure my Saviour is ; and where I trust, through grace, notwithstanding some irregularities of heart on this occasion, I shall shortly be. This circumstance, I must record, that I recollected this day, at the Lord's Table, that I had some time ago taken the cup at that ordinance with these words, "Lord, I take this cup as a public, solemn token, that, having received so inestimable a blessing as this, I will refuse no other cup, which thou shalt put into my hands." I mentioned this again to-day, and publicly charged the thought on myself, and christian friends who were present. God hath taken me at my word, but I do not retract it. I repeat it again with regard to every future cup. Much sweetness is mingled with this bitter potion, chiefly in the views and hopes of the eternal world. May not this be the beauty of this providence, that instead of her living many years upon earth, God may have taken her away, that I may be better fitted for, and reconciled to, my own dissolution, perhaps nearly approaching? Lord, thy will be done! may my life be used for thy service, while it is continued, and then, put thou a period to it, whenever thou pleasest." The next evening after the funeral, he adds, " I have now been laying the delight of my eyes in the dust, and it is for ever hid from them. We had a suitable sermon from those words, Dost thou well to be angry for the gourd? God knows, that I am not angry; but sorrowful he surely allows me to be. Blessed Lord, I trust thou hast received my child, and pardoned the infirmities of her short, childish, afflicted life. I love those, who were kind to her, and those that weep with me for her: shall I not much more love thee, who art at this moment taking care of her, and opening her infant faculties for the business and blessedness of heaven! Lord, I would consider myself as a dying creature. My first born is laid in the dust; I shall shortly follow her, and we shall lie down together. But, O, how much pleasure doth it give me to hope, that my soul will rest with her, and rejoice in her for ever! But let me not center my thoughts here it is a rest with, and in, God, that is my ultimate hope. Lord, may thy grace secure it to me; and in the mean time give me a holy acquiescence of soul in thee; and now my gourd is withered, shelter me under the shadow of thy wings." Thus did this good man observe the hand of God in all the afflictive events, in which he was concerned; and so careful was he to improve every such occurrence, in order to strengthen his submission to the divine will, to weaken his attachment to the world, and to increase his value for the supports and consolations of religion. And how happy an effect this had to render his trials easy, and to make them subservient to his spiritual improvement, will be easily imagined by every pious reader." Extract of a Letter from Rev. Mr. Henderson. 79 RUSSIAN BIBLE SOCIETY. By an obliging correspondent in Liverpool, we are favoured with some late and interesting intel ligence respecting the exertions making in Russia to spread the Word of Life throughout the vast regions of that empire. We have room in this Number only for the following extract of a letter from the Rev. E. Henderson. My dear Brother, St. Petersburgh, Décember 11-23, 1816. IT is now very long since we wrote to one another, owing, I believe, to the same cause, the expectation of our communicating our mutual details at your comfortable fire-side, which expectation, however, for reasons best known to infinite wisdom, has been entirely frustrated. The state of our dear brother Paterson's health, though the ostensible, cannot be looked upon as the real cause of my coming to this country, for I am happy to say, that he is by no means so ill as was represented. The pressure of business has, indeed, especially of late, somewhat reduced him; but he is again recruiting, and hopes to be able by the beginning of Febru ary to undertake a journey to Sweden, which I have no doubt will, by the Divine blessing, effect his complete recovery. Our Heavenly Father must, therefore, have had some ulterior end in view, in directing my steps to this place; and it is my duty to wait with humble patience and docility of mind, till he be pleased to make known unto me his holy will. In the mean time, there is no occasion for me to sit idle. Here is ample employment for many labourers in the Bible vineyard. With amazement you have contemplated the exertions of the Russian Bible Society in its dawn; you have watched its progress with a growing interest; and regarded the accumulation of its energies as one of the most surprising moral phenomena of the age: but these are mere incipient successes. Nothing may yet be said to have been achieved in comparison with what remains to be accomplished. Within the short space of four years, it is true, the Society here has printed the Scriptures, in whole or in part, in no less than sixteen different languages; yet it has been ascertained, that the languages and dialects used in this immense empire, constitute nearly an eighth part of those spoken on the face of the globe. Now, granting that some of these dialects approximate so nearly to each other as to be mutually understood by different tribes, and that others are current among a population so scanty as to render it advisable rather to teach them to peruse the book of revelation in another language, than be at the trouble and expense of translating it into their vernacular tongue,—what a number still remain in which the glad tidings of saving mercy have never been sounded! How great the aggregate of human beings under the Russian sceptre, whose minds have never been illumined with the light of the divine glory shining in the face of Jesus Christ! The time, however, the set time, appears to be come, when the true light shall shine on those that dwell in the land of the shadow of death; and all these shall gather themselves together and flow as one stream into the church of the living God, to learn his ways and walk in his paths, showing forth the praises of Him who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light With you I had rejoiced to hear, from time to time, of the spirit which animated, and the pros. perity which attended the exertions of the Russian Bible Committee; but now that I have seen with my eyes what is going on here, and the manner in which the business is conducted, I must acknowledge, "the half hath not been told me." Here are men who view the Bible cause, I was going to say, in all the magnitude of its importance, but that is impossible; it is unattainable by the mightiest mind, either of man or angel; but they consider it as one of the most momentous subjects that can possibly claim their attention; and they act accordingly. Yet, joyful as it is on the one hand, it is grievous on the other, to think that with their utmost exertions, they cannot keep pace with the growing demands which are daily pouring in upon them from every quarter. The The call for the Sclavonian Scriptures is loud and urgent. When it was recently intimated that 500 copies were to be sold, the repository was almost stormed; and the whole number went off immediately. Not a mail leaves Petersburgh without carrying along with it some copies of the word of God; and few return without letters of thanks, fresh orders, or the pleasing information of the establishment of new Societies. We wait with the most impatient anxiety for the appearance of the brightest gem in the imperial crown of Alexander, the translation of the glorious gospel into modern Russian. Through this medium it will be rendered accessible to upwards of thirty-four millions of our fellow men. translation is going forward. Pray that the Holy Spirit, under whose infallible inspiration the Sacred Writings were originally composed, may rest in an abundant measure upon the translators, that they may be enabled to give to their countrymen a luminous and faithful exhibition of the revealed will of God. The accounts from the Crimea are extremely encouraging. Jews, Mahomedans, and Pagans, seem prepared to receive the gospel. Mr. Paterson, of Karass, has been there this summer, and has had many opportunities of distributing the Turkish Tartar New Testaments. Imans, Effendi, and Mallahs, have received copies with much apparent gratitude and joy. Let us bless the Lord for these tokens for good, and let us persevere in prayer and faith, and we shall yet see greater things than these. Surely these are glorious days in which we are privileged to live; and yet this is only the earnest and first fruit of the latter day glory. Let me hear from you soon, and do not forget to send me a budget of news. ANNIVERSARIES OF BIBLE SOCIETIES. The N. Y. Female Auxiliary B. S. held its Anniversary Meeting on Wednesday, the 25th inst. in the Assembly Room of the City Hotel; when the annual Report was read, and an eloquent address was delivered by the Rev. Dr. Romeyn. We expect to have it in our power to insert the Report in our next number. THE ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE AMERICAN BIBLE SOCIETY will take place, agreeably to the Constitution, on the second Thursday* (being the 8th day) of May next. Our readers will please to correct a mistake in the first Volume of this Publication, page 117, ne 16. Instead of Tuesday, read Thursday. THE CHRISTIAN HERALD. VOL. III.] Saturday, May 3, 1817. [No. 6. IN our last Number we inserted a letter from the Rev. E. Henderson, giving an encouraging account of the progress of the Bible cause in Russia. By the late arrivals, we have received other letters of that distinguished friend to the circulation of the Holy Scriptures; also other intelligence of the most cheering description concerning Bible and Missionary exertions in various parts of the world. The following very recent communication from our worthy and obliging correspondent at Liverpool will doubtless be read with no ordinary satisfaction. To souls susceptible of the elevating emotions of virtuous praise, and emulous of that distinction which is derived from being foremost in acts of beneficence to their fellow creatures, and in promoting the glory of God, the encomium which is passed upon the Christian females of this country, whose example has produced the noble effects stated in the communication, must be as gratifying, as it is honourable to that sex, whose praise-worthy deeds we have so often occasion to notice. FEMALE BIBLE SOCIETY AT LIVERPOOL Extract of a Letter to the Editor of the Christian Herald, dated, LIVERPOOL, 25 March, 1817. DEAR SIR, "A Ladies' Society for this town and neighbourhood has this day been formed under very favourable auspices. The patronage already obtained for the society is flattering; the Right Honourable the Countess of Derby, the Right Honourable Lady Stanley, Mrs. Canning, and several other ladies of rank and influence, having patronized it, a liberal subscription was entered into at the close of the meeting, which was held for the purpose of organizing the society; associations are about immediately to be formed, for the purpose of carrying the distribution of the scriptures into complete effect throughout the town and neighbourhood; and an association of Female Domestics is about to be also organized on Friday, under the direction of the Committee, for the purpose of supplying this useful class of the community with the lively oracles of God. "Thus you will perceive, we are determined to keep pace in exertions for the cause of Christ with our brethren and sisters on the other side of the Atlantic; and it will, I am persuaded, be not a F |