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Religious and Literary Entelligence.

MISSIONARY ESTABLISHMENTS.

IN our sixth volume, p. 207, &c. we announced the commencement of a highly valuable "System of Modern Geography, physical, political, and commercial." By THOMAS MYERS, M.A. of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich; publishing in parts, of which only four were then out; and we promised to report to our readers, from time to time, the progress of this great undertaking. But, such is the lapse of time, on the one hand, and such the pressure of articles upon our attention for notice in the review department, on the other, that two full years have intervened and silently slided by, during which the work has received its completion, while we have found no opportunity of resuming the subject.

In the conclusion of our former notice, we used the freedom of suggesting to Mr. Myers, the importance of being as copious and explicit in communicating useful information, relating to the moral state of the different countries, whose Geography he was led to describe, as he possibly could be in a work of that nature. It is very gratifying to us to know that our suggestion was kindly received by the liberal minded author, and that he did not deem it beneath his notice to pay attention to it. He has now both gratified our wishes, and satisfied our expectations.

In the preface to Vol. II. of this splendid work, he has presented us with a mass of the most valuable information, comprised in a dissertation on the "Influence of Protestant Missionary Establishments, in developing the physical and moral condition of man, and elucidating the dark regions of the globe;" and he has prevailed upon his publishers (Messrs. Sherwood, Neeley, and Jones) to issue it in a separate form, for the accommodation of such as are unable to purchase the "System of Geography." It forms a quarto pamphlet of about twentyfour pages, closely printed, to which is prefixed, a coloured Map of the two Hemispheres, exhibiting at one view, the progress of Christianity, and the professed religions of mankind throughout the globe. On this Map all the Missionary Stations are marked by coloured dots, after the manner of Mr. Sabine's Missionary Globes, so as to assist the eye of the reader in comparing his printed pages, and tracing out the relative situation of each station on the Map.

In a short advertisement prefixed to it, Mr. Myers says, "The influence of Missionary labours, in advancing our knowledge of the globe and its inhabitants, had become too obvious to be overlooked in an undertaking in which MAN forms so prominent a feature; while their establishment constitutes too bright, and too important, an era in the annals of Christianity, not to be interesting to thousands. In presenting these remarks to the public, in this detached form, it is, therefore, only necessary for him to observe, that he has been actuated by a desire to promote that cause, which it is not less the glory of the present age to cherish, than it will be the business of a future one to admire—a cause, which, in purity of principle and benevolence of design, has no superior, and, in perpetuity of effect, will ultimately have no equal."

We cannot deny ourselves the gratification of laying before our readers, a few extracts from this interesting document, though it would grieve us not a little, if we thought that, by so doing, we should prevent the pages from which we quote, finding their way into the hands of any friend to missionary undertakings. Mr. Myers has been expatiating in glowing terms on the dignity of man, considered as a rational and intelligent being-a moral agent-the heir of an immortal existence. It is this, as he well observes, that stamps upon MisSIONARY SOCIETIES the highest character of benevolence that human efforts are capable of sustaining; and he thus proceeds:

"Their object, which is the diffusion of knowledge, morality, and religion, through the various countries of the Pagan world, is at once the noblest, and the most comprehensive that can occupy the mind of man; and wealth, talent, piety, and devotion, are engaged, under the sanction of Divine Providence, in its accomplishment. The means employed, are the translation of the Holy Scriptures, the preaching of the everlasting gospel, the distribution of religious tracts, and the establishment of schools for the instruction of the natives in their vernacular tongues.

Although these are the grand objects of such institutions, they cannot be effected, or even attempted, without producing many collateral benefits, which connect them more closely with the design of the present work, than a superficial acquaintance with it may suggest. It was, some time ago, justly

and emphatically remarked by an eminent | the Granicus, or Hannibal the Alps-where statesman of the present day, that, "if ever Cyrus triumphed, or Cæsar bled-that is the interior of Africa be explored, it will so interesting to him, as where the army of be by Missionaries ;" and the assertion is our missionary martyrs are gaining daily daily confirmed. If we take the experi- conquests over Sin and Satan-where our ence gained in Southern Africa, as the Marsdens, our Careys, our Buchanans, and ground of our confidence, we shall find our Martyns are fertilizing the moral wil"that the hallowed name of Missionary derness, and securing for their country the of Jesus has travelled across the desert with veneration of millions, which neither her honour," and procured a friendly receparts nor her arms could ever reach.-It is tion for the heralds of salvation, even among not with half that intensity of feeling that those tribes with whom the very appearance the merchant lays his finger on the globe, of a white man was lately the signal for im- and says, here grows the fig, there the olive, mediate destruction. He, therefore, who and there the vine, which the real Christian now approaches them with the benevolence enjoys as he points to the spot where blooms of Christianity in his heart, and the milk of the tree of life, whose fruits are righteoushuman kindness on his tongue, has nothing ness, joy, and peace! to fear.--If, too, we take our stand on the western shores of that continent, and stretch the mental vision towards the depths of the interior, we behold the same interesting spectacle. The sacred cause is proceedinglization widens its sphere, industry is in-the ambassadors of the cross are welcomed-and the very men whom the cupidity of commerce had taught to traffic in their countrymen, are showing themselves amenable to the law of kindness!" What are these, but the harbingers of that day, when the venerated name of Missionary shall be a passport from the mouth of the Gambia to the banks of the Nile; and from the shores of the Mediterranean to the Colony of the Cape? Thus shall Christianity accomplish what every other motive has failed to effect!

Not a wind that blows but swells the sails, and wafts on its way, some vessel that brings us intelligence respecting regions which were before unknown, or that corrects our notions relative to those with which we were previously acquainted. Nor does this information merely relate to rocks and rivers, woods and mountains, the physical structure of the country, and its inanimate or irrational productions. No, the spread of knowledge, the march of intellect, the dispersion of ignorance and error, and the fitting of the immortal spirit for its final destiny, are the leading objects. Benevolence, too, is now added to all the other powers that were previously engaged in exploring the unknown recesses of the terraqueous globe ;- benevolence, which knows no limits but those which bound the wants of man, or circumscribe the countries he inhabits. Desarts, islands, continents, are the theatre of its enterprising exertions this life is the period of its conflict and toil-the next, the era of its reward. It is not the places where Babylon and Nineveh reared their proud walls, where Thebes and Carthage flourished, or where Balbec, Palmyra, and Persepolis stood, that are so much the objects of the Christian's inquiry, as where the cross has been planted, and the banners of the gospel unfurled.-It is not the precise point where Alexander crossed

In subordination to these grand designs, the zealous labours of missionaries are producing effects, too, that extend both the fame and the interests of Britain. As civi

creased, and the wants of a new condition of existence are created. The illumination that enables a savage to appreciate knowledge, binds him to the men, and through them to the country, that impart it; and thus a conquest is achieved, and an interest gained, beyond the power of arms to effect. The knowledge of British manufactures is also introduced at a thousand points which it could not otherwise have reached; and the labours of the New Zealander, the Otaheitan, the Esquimaux, and the Hottentot, are thus rendered tributary to the artizan of Britain.

By these exertions of benevolence a new interest is imparted to a survey of the globe. Geography, which, in its modern acceptation, is a noble and delightful study, receives increased value from its association with Christian benevolence. The knowledge of the globe, its inhabitants and products, which was formerly confined to commercial or scientific purposes, has been exalted by philanthropy, and consecrated by religion. We no longer gaze upon the map of the world merely with a view of fixing the sites of battles, tracing the courses of rivers, the directions of mountains, or the forms and outlines of countries. In these researches the mind is employed in noble pursuits-man has become more peculiarly the object of study. The establishment of Missionary Societies, and other benevolent institutions, has called the attention of thousands to the subject, who are occupied in tracing the diffusion of instruction, the growth of morality, and the increase of vital piety, in the dark parts of the earth. This renders a graphical illustration of the professed religions of mankind, accompanied by a sketch of the progress which Christianity is making through the world, peculiarly appropriate in a work like the present, where man forms a more prominent feature than in previous systems.

In presenting this sketch to the attention | Christendom; for many years its stations of our readers, it will be necessary to take were few, its success small, its disappointa brief view of the principal Societies en- ments numerous, its disasters sometimes segaged in the great work of evangelizing vere. Thousands, whose hearts glowed the world, as well as of the stations they with the most lively hope, when the first have established, and the means they have Missionaries embarked for Otaheite, had employed, for carrying it on.- It is now soon to learn that patience also was a duty.” nearly a century since the first effort was But after the faith and patience of its supmade in that grand cause; and the honour porters had for a time been severely tried, of being the first to engage in the glorious they were cheered and encouraged with the work is due to a few zealous men among intelligence that it had pleased the Great the United Brethren, frequently called Ruler of all human events, that partial sucMoravians. In the year 1732, they became | cess should smile upon their efforts. Its deeply impressed with the accounts of so elevated and liberal principles naturally many millions of the human race who were accorded with the views of those indisitting in darkness, and held in bondage by viduals, whose sole object was to convey to Sin and Satan; and they formed themselves the Pagan nations the pure and essential into a small society for endeavouring to blessings of the Christian faith. Each reconvey the benefits of Christianity to hea- volving year now brought the most satisfacthen nations. At first their beginnings were tory proofs of its utility and success; every very small, but they have now increased to anniversary witnessed an enlargement of its more than thirty settlements, employing operations, and a corresponding accession about one hundred and fifty missionaries. to the number of its supporters, and to the This society pursued its way, in the most amount of its fund; till it has now estabunostentatious and silent manner for about lished fifty Missionary stations, containing sixty years, before any others of a like na- about one hundred and forty labourers, ture were formed. In 1792, a few Baptist who are all actively engaged in cultivating Ministers, and other pious Christians, in the the moral desert of the world. midland counties of England, became impressed with similar views, and established the BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY, for the same purpose. From 'small beginnings this institutson is now marching boldly on in its glorious career of diffusing light and truth through the eastern world.

About three years after this period, the LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY was instituted," the sole object of which is to spread the knowledge of Christ among the heathen and other unenlightened nations." At the first annual meeting of the society in 1796, it was declared to be a fundamental principle of the Missionary Society, that our design is not to send Presbyterianism, Independency, Episcopacy, or any other form of church order and government (about which there may be difference of opinion among serious persons) but the glorious gospel of the blessed God to the heathen." Such were the liberal principles upon which it was founded; and it has been well remarked by the Directors, (at the commencement of their last Report 1821,) that "it arose amidst the tumult of widelyextended war, to disseminate principles which will ultimately secure the peace of the world. It arose amidst the heat of intestine divisions, in a spirit of union and kindness which, in some era, will bind together the whole human race, in one harmonious and affectionate brotherhood. It arose during a period of infidelity and blasphemy, which had no parallel in the annals of any preceding age, to convey to the barbarous and remote nations the blessings of the gospel, which were contemptuously rejected, even in the very centre of Protestant

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A few years after the formation of the last-mentioned institution, the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY arose in the bosom of the establishment, and has proceeded in its career of glory with a vigour worthy of the noble cause in which it is engaged. During the twenty-first year of its existence, the expenditure in its pious labours was about £32,000; and the committee in their report observe," the number of labourers now employed is upwards of 200-more than 10,000 children are under instruction -printing-presses are established in various places-churches have been erected-many thousands hear the word of God-and many hundred devout communicants attest that the God of all grace has blessed the labours of his servants.”

While the members of the establishment, and other denominations of Christians, were thus zealously diffusing the light of truth among the heathen nations, in various parts of the globe, the SOCIETY of WESLEYANS were not inactive. They first turned their attention to the benighted districts of Ireland, in 1799, and have since extended it to other parts of the globe, particularly to those involved in Pagan ignorance and superstition in the West Indies, Africa, and India. Their stations in these widely-extended countries now exceed one hundred, and the number of Missionaries, exclusive of Catechists, is about one hundred and fifty. Nor are these efforts for evangelizing heathen nations confined to England, or even to Britain. The SCOTTISH MISSIONARY SoCIETY has lately become an active body, and has entered into the cause with laudable zeal and intelligence. The spirit of bene

volence has also been excited by the friends of evangelical truth among the transatlantic descendants of Britain; and the United States have now their various institutions, not only for the instruction of the red inhabitants of their own hemisphere, but in the Isles of the South Sea, in Africa, and in Asia. The Protestants of Continental Europe, too, are united in the same cause, and the centre of their deliberations is at Basle, where a Seminary is maintained for the qualification of Missionary labourers.

Several other valuable Institutions likewise adorn the character of Britain, as well as to extend their blessings to the remote regions of the globe; and are successfully engaged in the various departments of that work, by which the earth is ultimately to become the temple of the Lord. But, as they do not maintain foreign stations, like the Missionary Societies, they are not so intimately connected with the developement of the natural, the intellectual, or the moral world, and are consequently not so closely associated with the object of the present plan.

[To be continued.]

CASES FOR BUILDING MEETING HOUSES.

ON Friday, in the Missionary week, a Meeting of the Contributors to the Cases presented by Baptist Churches in the country, for assistance in building and repairing Places of Worship, was held at the Committee Rooms, No. 18, Aldermanbury, when a Report of the proceedings of the Committee for the preceding year was made, from which it appeared :

That since the last Annual Meeting, the Committee had had thirteen New Cases presented to them; seven of which, viz. from Rayleigh in Essex: Cardiff Welsh Church; Hunmanby, in Yorkshire; Clare, in Suffolk; Loughborough, in Leicestershire; Earby, in Yorkshire; and Crayford, in Kent; had been approved; five remained for further consideration; and one from Chipping Sudbury had been rejected, because the Trustees, for the time being, have authority, when the premises shall cease to be used as a Place of Worship, to apply the same to such uses as they shall themselves appoint; and the power of choosing new Trustees is not in the members of the Church.

That they had also rejected the Case from the English Baptist Church at Cardiff, because they refused to send up their Deeds for the inspection of the Committee; and that they had restored to their books the Case of the Church at Blaby, in Leicester

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making a total of money received upon twelve Cases, recommended by the Committee, during the year, of £1230 2s. Od. and that there were then nineteen Cases remaining before the Committee, for collection and consideration,*

As some misunderstanding appears to have existed in the minds of individuals, as to the objects the Committee have chiefly in view, it may be right to state they are:

1. To prevent an improvident expenditure of money.

2. To see that the Meeting House is legally secured for the benefit of the Church.

3. To discountenance improper persons collecting money for approved cases.

4. To lay down such regulations as may generally apply to the expenditure of the persons collecting, and to the safe remittance, to the order of the Church, of the money collected.

5. To give, as much as possible, combined facilities to those ministers who are employed in collecting for such Cases as have been previously examined, approved, and recommended by their neighbouring brethren.

Seeking mutually to benefit those who give, by regulating and securing the application of their benevolence; and the Churches which collect, by introducing their Cases properly recommended to the public; the Committee aim only at the welfare of the interest at large; and they therefore confidently anticipate more general co-operation, as the necessity and nature of their proceedings are more publicly known; and they consider it their duty to caution the religious public against supporting Cases for Baptist Meeting Houses, which have not their sanction, as several Churches, whose Cases have been rejected by the

* Except Cases in which difficulties have arisen, on account of their Trust Deeds, there is no case uncollected upon, which has been on the books more than eight months.

Committee, after deliberate investigation, the Church among themselves, and the have notwithstanding persisted in making collections in London.

For the information of those Churches who may have occasion to apply to the Committee, they subjoin the Rules, under which they are appointed, and according to which they act.

"That the several Cases presented shall be investigated by a Committee, consisting of the Minister and two Messengers, annually sent by each of the Churches belonging to it, and of one other person from each of such Churches, (either a member or not,) to be chosen by the contributors at the Annual General Meeting, held in the month of June.

"That no Case engage the attention of the Committee, from any number of persons who are not formed into a Church, nor unless it be signed by the Church, and recommended by at least two ordained neighbouring Ministers.

"That no Case shall be dismissed or determined upon immediately on its presentation; but on its first reading, shall be referred to the consideration of a subsequent meeting of the Committee.

"That no Case shall be determined on by the Committee, until the Trust Deed of the Meeting House and Premises, or a copy of it, is sent up for inspection. and approved.

"That where there are not as many as five Trustees, the Committee will expect the Church to enlarge the number to at least nine persons, members of Churches, of the same faith and order; and that it is indispensable in all Cases, that the choice of new Trustees should not be in the surviving Trustees, but should be vested in the men members of the Church.

"That every Case recommended by the Committee, shall be collected upon in the turn in which it was presented.

"That no person can be permitted to collect upon a Case, unless he has an authority in writing from the Church.

"That the person who collects be desired once a week to deposit the money collected with the Secretary; and that he report to the Committee the amount he shall from time to time receive; and that the Church do draw upon the Secretary for the sum paid him."

It will follow, from the above Rules, that to enable the Committee to judge of a Case, a statement in writing must be sent up, which should contain the reasons for the erection, enlargement, or repair; the nature of the property, whether Freehold, Copyhold, or Leasehold; the number of members forming the Church; their profession of faith; the usual number of stated hearers; the amount of the whole expenditure, including purchase of ground, erection, deeds, &c.; the amount collected by

amount collected in other places, which will of course show the balance due. The Case must be signed on behalf of the Church, by the Pastor, Deacons, and Members at a Church Meeting, and be recommended by at least two ordained neighbouring Ministers, in their own hand's writing; and with the Case, the Trust Deed of the Meeting House, or an exact copy of it, must be sent up.

With reference to the Trust Deeds, the Committee wish to draw the attention of the Churches to the observations made by the Committee of Deputies, in the preface to the form of Trust Deed, published by them, and in which they fully coincide, "that great mischief has in many Churches been experienced, both from the imperfection of their Trust Deed, and from negligence in filling up the vacancies occasioned by the deaths of Trustees;" to avoid which, they recommend that once at least, in each year, the names of the Trustees should be read over at a Church Meeting, by which the necessity of renewing the Trust when reduced to five, will be kept in remembrance, and upon such renewals," they recommend to the Churches to select for their Trustees such persons as are most interested in the concerns of the Church, and not to select their Ministers, the Committee having frequently found, that the circumstance of the Minister being a Trustee, has led to consequences equally unpleasant, both to minister and people. The Committee have also ascertained, by many Cases which have come before them, that great mischief has been produced, by a provision which has been introduced into Trust Deeds, that vacancies of Trustees should be supplied by the survivors. Hence, in the course of time, power has been lodged in the hands of persons who have no interest in or attachment to the Church for which they are Trustees."

(Signed),

London, July 5, 1822.

By order of the Committee, E. WILKINSON. Chairman.

N. B. All Communications for the Baptist Case Committee must be addressed, post paid, to Mr. GALE, Solicitor, 70, Basinghall Street, their (gratuitous) Secretary.

LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

Just Published.

The Divine Prescience considered in Connection with Moral Agency. A Sermon, delivered at Soho Chapel, London, on Lord's-day Evening, May 19, 1822; and

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