ries are determined to act as, under such perilous circumstances, they ought to act: they have determined to brave the storm, and still to labour; and, if it be necessary, to become Martyrs in this Noble Cause. I know that the result will be, that some of them will lose their lives; and the consequence of that will be, the rousing of the people of England, who will not permit those persecutions to be continued.

[Mr. Buxton-at the Church Miss. Soc. Ann. UNITED STATES.

Want and Supply of the Scriptures. Inquiries, made in various districts of the United States, led to the same results which have been communicated today, in the Report, and in some of the Addresses delivered, in reference to the destitution of Bibles in England. We found, in some of our oldest-settled States, where the Means of Grace were most abundant, and where Ministers and Churches were most numerous, and all the Institutions of Religion in great prosperity, even there, when the search came to be made, by inquiry of every family, we found a lamentable destitution of the Sacred Scriptures.

For several years, great efforts have been made, by various Institutions, to supply the deficiency which had been discovered; but, at last, a Resolution was passed, by one of our Auxiliary Societies, that they would specially explore the whole of their district, ascertain the deficiency, and supply it within one year.

The County of Monroe, in the State of New York, entered on this measure; and they found, to their astonishment, an actual want of the Sacred Scriptures, to the amount of 1200 Families-a number corresponding with that found in two districts which have been mentioned in this kingdom. They supplied this deficiency; and the example was followed by another and another Society; until, at length, one of our Auxiliaries passed the Resolution, "That, if the Parent Society would resolve, by the help of Almighty God and its Auxiliaries, to supply all the Destitute Families, in the whole of the United States, with copies of the Scriptures within two years, they would contribute, besides supplying their own district, 5000 Dollars for that purpose." The County of Washington passed this Resolution; and the adjacent County of St. Lawrence followed with a similar

one. The effect was felt through the whole community: County after County came forward, voluntarily contributing to this noble object; till the Parent Society was constrained, in 1829, to pass these Resolutions

-That this Society feel deeply thankful to Almighty God, that He has excited in the hearts of so many of the Conductors of its Auxiliaries the generous determination to explore the wants of the destitute within their several regions of operation, and to supply them.

-That this Society, with an humble reliance on Divine Aid, will endeavour to supply all the Destitute Families in the United States with the Holy Scriptures, which may be willing to purchase or receive them, within the space of two years; provided sufficient means be furnished by its Auxiliaries and Benevolent Individuals, in season to enable its Board of Managers to carry this Resolution into effect.

That, with the full purpose of accomplishing, by the blessing of God, this most necessary and important work, it be earnestly recommended to Ministers of the Gospel and Laymen of every Denomination, in places where no Auxiliary Societies have yet been formed, or where they have relaxed their efforts, to take immediate measures for carrying into effect the general distribution of the Scriptures in their respective neighbourhoods.

Thus the Children compelled the Pa rent, if we may so speak-though at last it was a very willing compulsion-to adopt this important measure: and you will be pleased to hear the result, so far as known when I left America.

There were several difficulties in our way.

A great fear existed, that books could not be prepared-that it would be absolutely impossible for our Printing Establishment to print, and bind, and put in circulation, so large a number of Bibles as would be necessary. Some stated, that there would be wanting 800,000; some, 600,000; and few brought it below 400 or 500,000: but, at the end of ten months, I am happy to say that our Society, after meeting every demand that had been made from May to February last, had in their Depository 100,000 Bibles and Testaments, bound, and in a state ready for delivery; and 200,000 more, not bound: while our Power-Presses, which wonderfully ac celerate the operation of printing, are continually at work in printing copies of the Word of God.

A second fear was, that there would be a deficiency of pecuniary means: but

the Lord has assisted His Own Cause, and provided a supply of the means: and, before I left America, 120,000 Dollars had been pledged, and 50,000 actually collected for this object; one noble Individual contributing the sum of 5000 Dollars.

A third apprehension was respecting the impracticability of exploring the necessity, and supplying it, even if books and money were raised-and here, undoubtedly, has been our greatest difficulty. Those acquainted with the United States well know, that, in many parts of our country, our population is very much scattered; and, in many other parts, the Means of Grace and the Spirit of Religion have not proceeded with an equally rapid pace with the population. I may here mention the extraordinary fact, that, in Ohio, the Diocese of Bishop Chase, forty years ago there was not one single White Inhabitant; and none but Indians, in the rudest state of savage life, occupied that territory; while, now, there are in that State upward of a million of inhabitants: probably the World scarcely furnishes an instance of such rapid growth; and though this is, perhaps, an instance of the most rapidlyincreasing population of any of our States, yet many other parts bear a great proportion to it. The vast Valley of the Mississippi has been peopled within a few years; and it seems almost impossible that we can supply with the Word of God or the Means of Grace, a population so fast increasing on our hands. We have, however, great encouragement to proceed in our Work, with respect to the supply of every Destitute Family, in the fact, that it has been completed in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and several other States. In Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island, it is nearly accomplished. In New York, the State in which I live, Twenty Counties have been supplied; and a great progress has been made in North and South Carolina, Kentucky, Louisiana, Alabana, Illinois, &c. Many others have also passed Resolutions to supply their respective populations within the time specified.

Thus I have the pleasure of stating, to those whose hearts I know will rejoice to hear it, that we are in rapid progress toward supplying every Destitute Family in the United States with Bibles. But we contemplate not that our Work will be done, when this shall have been ac

complished: our population is increasing with such wonderful rapidity, that, after we have done all, we shall find that we have need to begin, and do our work over again. This has been the case in many places which have been re-examined; and, in every instance, in consequence of the great influx of New Families and the rapid rising up of Young Families from the Families which were there before, a fresh destitution has been discovered, which it was necessary to supply. I verily believe, however, that, within the two years, one of which has expired, this great object will be accomplished; or, if not entirely accomplished, we shall have done great good. A new impulse will have been given to the Bible Cause —an unprecedented number of copies of the Scriptures will have been distributed or prepared for circulation-and the amount of our Funds will be very greatly enlarged. [Rev. Dr. Milnor-at Bible Soc. Ann. Powerful Influence of Books and Tracts in a Military Academy.

I was appointed Chaplain to a Military Academy in my native country. I was forewarned of the rugged soil which I was destined to cultivate; and was recommended to relinquish all idea of making any progress in the work of the Lord, under such circumstances as those by which I was then surrounded. Shortly after my arrival, I received a communication from an Officer in the Depôt, stating that he should feel himself accessary to a falsehood, did he not distinctly convey to me a faithful account of the position in which I was placed. However I might believe and rejoice in the doctrines which it was my duty to inculcate, there were those among my Congregation who believed not a word of them; and he reckoned himself among the number of the unbelievers. He had to state further, that he believed there was not a person in the neighbourhood who put the slightest faith in my doctrines. I have reason to believe that the individual, from whom I received that communication, professed opinions little different from those of an Atheist.

One day, soon after my appointment, a Cadet came to my apartments; and told me that his father had recently died, and that he had enjoined him to come and seek my acquaintance. I gave the Young Man a Tract: it might not produce its effect at the moment, but it was like throwing bread upon the waters: there was little doubt that it would be found

after many days. In two weeks from that period, a Young Man, one of the finest in the Academy, came to me, attired in his full uniform: his eyes were filled with tears: his utterance was nearly choked from emotion: at first it would appear that he had been the victim of some sad disaster: at length, he articulated the words "Gregory's Letters!" He stated, that he had been brought up without Religion-that he had lived unacquainted with God—that his mind was disposed toward Scepticism. Gregory's Letters had fallen into his hands; and, such was the effect which they produced upon his heart and mind, that, when reading them, he could not refrain from laying his hand upon the table, and saying, "This must be true!" He told me that he had found a Tract in his room, but was ignorant how it came there. I explained to him how that Tract had been given away by me; and now it had found its way to the man by whom it was most needed! When the Young Man to whom I had given the Tract was on guard, this Officer had put the very Tract which he had found into his friend's hand, for the purpose of ascertaining how he felt on the subject of Religion. The effect was such, that, in a short time, both were on their knees: soon after, they came to my apartments, and one of them, throwing his arms round my neck, inquired what he should do to be saved. It soon came to be whispered abroad, that many persons were minded to attend Public Worship; and it was not long before there were many professing, steady, zealous, practical Christians. It was not long before our Prayer-Meetings were joined by the Professors of Military and Civil Engineering, the Professors of Mineralogy and Chemistry, and the Instructor of Artillery, and as many as Seventeen Cadets. [Rev. C. M'Ilvaine.~at Nav. & Mil. Bible Soc. Ann. Detection of a Subtle Plan for drawing an

Orthodox Congregation into Error. The Book of Common-Prayer constitutes a powerful bulwark against the inroads of Heresy; for, with one exception which I shall notice, there has been no instance among us of a Congregation which adopted the Liturgy sinking into Unitarianism, too fatally prevalent in the States. The exception to which I allude is the case of a Congregation at Boston; which has gradually, and almost imperceptibly to themselves, been drawn from the Doctrines of the Episcopal Church to those of the Unitarians. It appears,

from a correspondence which had been intercepted, that the London Unitarians sent advice to some of their wavering friends in Boston, shewing the manner in which they should proceed, in drawing a Congregation from the Doctrines of the Episcopal Church, and in inducing them to become Unitarians. In this advice, the Clergy were advised to be slow-not to go to work too openly at first, but to proceed by little and little-to keep, as much as possible, the Saviour out of sight -to preach beautiful Sermons, Sermons full of Practical Christianity-to preach the Moral Duties-to take their texts from the Sermon of Christ on the Mount (I wish that they had attended to that Sermon on the Mount)-to inculcate that these subjects are of a much higher character than those which they were in the daily habit of hearing-to talk of the powerful effect of Human Reason on the moral conduct of man, in opposition to those Spiritual Influences on which others lay so much stress-not to mention the Divine Influence of the Holy Spirit, but to keep that out of sight as much as possible, in the inculcation of the otherthen, by degrees, to talk less of the Atonement, to insinuate that the Death and Sufferings of Christ are to be considered as a noble Martyrdom for the opinions which He was sent to preach, but to leave out any mention of His Sacrifice being the offering of the Son of God to his Father, in atonement for the sins of the world—and thus, it was added, gradually to strip the Lord Jesus of all the Attributes of the Divinity, by which, in the course of a little time, the Congregation would be brought, insensibly, to leave out the Godhead, and to look upon him only as mere Man; or, in other words, to become wholly Unitarians. This was the advice of the Unitarians of London to their friends at Boston: but how would this attempt, on the part of a Clergyman, have been received by the Members of a Congregation of the Episcopal Church, who had attentively read and seriously considered their Scriptural Liturgy? They would have, at once, detected the object, on the ascent of their Clergyman from the Reading-Desk to the Pulpit: they would have immediately said, "This man is a deceiver: he denies, in preaching, what he has taught us in prayer: he prays to and through the Lord Jesus, as God, whom, in his preaching, he endeavours to hold out as mere Man."

[Rev. Dr. Milnor-at Pr. Bk. & Home Soc, Anne

Remarks on the Words “ Beautiful" and “Practical," as applied to Sermons. In the account, so forcibly given by my Reverend Friend from America, of the advice sent over to the Unitarians at Boston, I was struck with two words, as applying to Sermons which, it was advised, should be preached to the people, in order to draw them gradually from a belief in the Divinity of Christ-I mean, "beautiful" and practical." Of the epithet" beautiful," I shall only say that I am sincerely glad that my friends of the Committee have not applied it to my Sermon, noticed in the Vote of Thanks; for, in the sense in which it is to be under stood in the advice in question, I hope that its application will be for ever banished from our Sermons. With their use of the word "practical" I am, also, disposed to quarrel: possibly our good friends in America may understand that word in a sense peculiar to themselves; but, here, the term, when applied to a Sermon, means preaching the Truth as it is in Jesus: I hope, therefore, when my Reverend Friend returns to his native land, that he will not tell his Countrymen that the English Clergy preach "practical" Sermons; or that, if he does, he will add, that, among us, the word means preaching the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him Crucified. [Bp. of Winchester-at the same, Zeal of Roman Catholics for the Propaga

tion of Popery.

I believe I may say, that, at the present moment, there is more zeal in the Pope of Rome-more zeal in the Cardinals of Rome-more zeal in the Society de Propagandâ Fide at Rome-more anxiety in the whole Body of the Eccle siastics belonging to that degenerate Church, than there is amidst all the Christian Denominations in Christendom, for the universal spread of the Gospel. To be sure, they spread another Gospel-a Gospel which we cannot own; but they manifest more zeal-with all the corruption which they carry with the Name of Christ to the Heathen and other Lands-they manifest abundantly more zeal than we do. In the land from which I came, at this very moment, the greatest efforts are put forth on the part of that Church to disseminate their principles throughout America. We have heard that 25,000 Dollars, during the last year, were appropriated by the Society to which I have alluded, at Rome, for the dissemination of Popery in the Western States of America. We are

told, that, in Vienna; a large Institution, composed of members of the wealthiest class in that country, have associated together as a Missionary Society, for the purpose of blasting our country with the desolating touch of Popery: and we have found, too, even in Heathen Lands— even in those Islands where the Missionaries of North America have been so abundantly blessed of God in their la bours, where a Nation has been as it were born in a day-even in that land Popish Priests have appeared, for the purpose of setting up their idols; and presenting to the minds of the people just emerged into the light of the Gospel, the idolatries of their corrupt Church. Blessed be God! the Natives are wiser than those who came to teach them: they have received their knowledge of Christ, not so much from men-though the first elements may have been communicated, in the Providence of God, by their instrumentality-as from God himself: their hearts have received the impress of his Spirit; and, where the Spirit of God, in all His converting and sanctifying influence, has entered the heart of man, where is the instance in which that man has received the abominations of Popery 2

[Dr. Milnor-at the Lond. Miss. Soc. Ann. Rapid Increase of Popery.

It is well known, that, before the War of the Revolution, the Protestants of America formed an immense majority of the population-that in the Province of Maryland alone was there any conside→ rable number of Catholics-and that the first Founders and Settlers in the Provinces of America were those who fled thither from a fear of Popery; and who always exhibited the most ardent and zealous support of the Protestant Cause: they were chiefly men who escaped to America from the apprehended persecutions of Archbishop Laud; and some before, from the time of Queen Mary. We might have supposed, therefore, that the American States would continue to be the stronghold of Protestantism, even if it were suppressed on the Continent of Europe; and the very last place where it was to be expected that Catholicism would experience success. But what is the real state of the case? So few were the Roman Catholics in America before the Revolution, that there was no RomanCatholic Bishop throughout the whole extent of the Provinces subject to the dominion of England. I, of course, except Canada from this; because, that

being a French Colony, the Religion of the people was preserved undisturbed on its cession to the Crown of England and there were, and still continue to be, Bishops at Quebec and Montreal. In New Orleans, also, a Roman-Catholic Bishop was appointed by the French Crown; but it was in the year 1791, that the first Roman-Catholic Bishopric was established in the United States, and that was in the Province of Maryland, when Baltimore was erected into a Bishopric by a Bull from Pope Pius the Sixth. This was the first RomanCatholic establishment; but, twenty years after, Baltimore was raised to the rank of an Archbishopric, and four new Roman-Catholic Bishops were appointed for Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Bardstown.

The date of these new appointments is most extraordinary; and it appears strange, that, when the Papal Dominion was overthrown in Europe-when the Pope was a prisoner, and Rome declared to be only the Second City of the French Empire-strange, indeed, does it appear, that this should be the period when the Dominion of Popery was extended over America.

After the restoration of the Papal Dominion in Italy, it may be easily supposed, that the attention of the Court of Rome was earnestly directed to the same object: accordingly, in 1824, two New Bishops were appointed for Dioceses, the seats of which were Richmond and Charlestown; and the present Pope has appointed two more-one at Cincinnati, in the State of Ohio; and another, at Mobile, in Florida: so that thus there are now, in what was exclusively Protestant America, One Roman-Catholic Archbishop and Nine Bishops, and all introduced there within our own memory.

It is not easy to reconcile it to ourselves, that Boston, once the stronghold of Protestantism, should now be the seat of a Roman-Catholic Bishop. I mention this in order to shew, that the Roman See does not sleep; but that, on the contray, she vigilantly urges on her schemes, to resume her ancient Spiritual Domination over mankind.

[Lord Bexley-at the Brit. Reform. Soc. Ann.

GENERAL.

Testimony of an Eye-Witness to the Success

and Prospects of Missions. I would state, with decision and deliberation, that, if the eloquent Preacher of

yesterday, and if the Speakers of this morning who have furnished us with such heart-cheering prospects of what they believe God intends to do for His Church, had accompanied your Deputa tion throughout the South-Sea Islands, Java, Singapore, Bellary, China, the Mauritius, India, the Southern Peninsula, Madagascar, the Cape of Good Hope-if they had witnessed every thing which we were favoured to behold, and had conversed with all the Missio→ naries of different Denominations with whom we met and conversed-if they had seen, not only the beneficial results which have accrued from Missionary Labour; but, also, every want of success, every disadvantage under which any or all of the Missionaries were placed, and the difficulties which evidently opposed their progress; they would not have taken one line, either from the picture drawn yesterday of the prospects of Missionary Societies, or from those which have been so ably drawn this morning. The Deputation did not go out as enthusiasts-with an enthusiastic attachment to one particular department of Christian Labour-to discover circumstances that would support our preconceived notions-to seize upon points that would just give a limited idea of things to the Friends of Christianity in England: but it was our determination to behold things as they actually existed, and to describe them as they were really found. Many of you have read the accounts sent home; but, for the information of this most numerous and interesting Assembly, convened from various quarters of the Kingdom and of the World, I would bear the testimony of, I trust, an honest man, who has no object to serve but the Cause of Truth, the Interests of Humanity, the Glory of God, and the Honour of the Saviour who, I rejoice humbly to hope, has brought me from darkness to marvellous light and who will bring the Heathen, in the Four Quarters of the Globe, from the same darkness into the same glorious light.

[G. Bennet, Esq.-at the Lond, Miss. Soc. Ann. Comparative View of the Success of the Go spel in Heathen and in Christian Lands.

I have sometimes been surprised to meet with persons and writers, who have represented the actual amount of the success attained by our Societies, in the present day, as discouraging; and as bearing no proportion to the energies embarked, to the sum of money ex