those we have in England. The beneficial effects of this institution are already very conspicuous; many objects of distress have been relieved, and the spiritual instructions administer ed have been attended with the most blessed effects; our society has gained much good by being called into active exercise as visitors. In this employment, they have had frequent opportunities of witnessing the great advantages of reli gion; and whilst they have been watering others, God has abundantly watered their own souls. Thus we endeavour to leave no means untried; but to use every effort in our power, in order to raise unto God a spiritual church. The deplorable condition of the heathen world should excite our tenderest compassion, and call forth all our energies to raise them from that state of ignorance and sin, into which they are awfully fallen-What an affecting consideration is it, that the Hindoos profess to have upwards of THREE HUNDRED MILLIONS OF GODS, and that the most sublime worship which can be paid to these deities, consists in repeating loose songs, while the dancing girls (prostitutes of the temple) dance before the idol. I have repeatedly witnessed scenes of this kind, which too bad to admit of description. When the Bramins address the people, it is not to recommend to them any moral principle, but to are describe the wars, the victories, the quarrels, and the licentious amours of the gods -The most celebrated of their deities are the most vicious, and nothing is considered as more acceptable to these gods, than to repeat their wicked exploits.-What then must be the moral condition of a people whose very objects of worship were considered by them as the chief supporters of iniquity? The appearance of devotion which some of them assume, has a tendency to deceive persons on their first arrival in the country; and I confess that when I first noticed their regular attendance at the temples, their apparent devotion, and reverence for the gods, I thought their conduct a great reproach to numbers professing Christianity; but since I have become better acquainted with them, I have learnt that they never once pray for an improvement in their moral or spiritual condition; but that the constant subject of their prayers, is revenge on their ene mies, riches, prosperity in their families, &c. &c. The vengeance, superstition, and wickedness of the heathen, surpass all power of description.-And this is the people amongst whom we are called to labour." Who is sufficient for these things?" O pray for us, and exhort the thousands in England to pray for us, "that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified." NEW SOUTH WALES.-We have received, after long delay, several Letters from this station, of which the following are extracts: From Mr. LEIGH, dated Sydney, Sept. 26, 1818. With respect to the Mission, things are going on well; we have a good work in hand. At this time three chapels are nearly finished, two at Sydney, and one at Windsor, all of which will not cost the society more than £500. The people do more than we could expect; many persons subscribe liberally. Here is one instance: some time since I was at the house of Thomas Moore, Esq. J.P. Liverpool, when he said to me, "Mr. Leigh, I have been considering what I should give you towards building your chapel. I have concluded to give you £20. sterling for one at Sydney, £10. for one at Windsor, and 10. for one at Parramatta." We have, in addition to this, several large subscriptions, a list of which we have agreed to send you by the next return. There is one consideration, however, which will call for all we can raise, and that is, building is very expensive in this part of the world; a common mecha nic will not work for less than ten shif lings per day; and building materials are very high in price; nevertheless I believe the Lord will help us according to our want. Our congregations, upon the whole, are on the increase; and in most places are very attentive in the house of God. I believe good has been, and will be done, not merely in New South Wales, but in other parts of the world, by persons who leave this colony from time to time. We have several soldiers in the East Indies, who, according to their abilities and opportunities, are striving to do good to the souls of men; some of whom re. ceived their first knowledge of Divine things in New South Wales. We have likewise some at New Zealand attempting to civilize the heathen, who have been bought to know God. Our increase has not been so great as we could wish. Nevertheless some addi. tion has been made, but on account of some, who I believe are gone to heaven, and others who have left the colony for different parts of the world, our number is no more than when I wrote to you last, 72. We are truly thankful for these, when we consider where we are, and the people among whom we dwell. Our late harvest has been very good, for which we desire to be thankful. The From Mr. LEIGH, dated When I take a retrospective view of this Mission, I cannot but rejoice in its progress. When I first entered upon it, I had frequently to sleep upon the ground, with only my top coat for a covering, and my saddle bags for my pillow; but now a people has been raised up, who provide us with good beds, and many comforts. This, as it shows the regard of the people to the gospel, is encouraging, but it is more so to witness the conversion of sinners to Christ. This is the best of all; to lie in a barn upon the ground, or in the open air, would be considered no hardship to your Missionaries, if it would be the means of bringing sinners to the Saviour. We are much encouraged in our work by the kindness of his Excellency Governor Macquarie, He has given us a piece of land in Sydney, on which we are building our chapel; Thomas Wylde, Esq. has also given us a lot which joins to the piece his Excellency was pleased to bestow upon us, which lots together, make our premises very commodious; for which gifts we have returned thanks in behalf of the society. In addition to the above donations, the Governor has given us land et Parramatta, on which to build a Mission chapel. At Windsor, the Rev. S. Marsden has given us a very convenient piece of land, on which we are building a small chapel. From Mr. LEIGH, dated I send you an account of the opening of our new chapel in Sydney. On Sunday last, at nine o'clock in the morning, I preached a sermon to our congregation in our old place of worship, and we left it with thankful hearts. In the evening brother Lawry opened the new chapel, and am happy to say, that we had a large congregation. I cannot express what I felt during the service. A nest chapel that will accommodate 200 people, built, and given to the Methodist Mission in this place free of expense; a large and attentive congregation assembled to hear what the Lord would say to them by his minister, and a zealous brother to assist me in the preaching of a free and full salvation. value of it we have known by experience. But notwithstanding our former heavy privations, the people of the colony have done much in charities. A subscription was entered into for the relief of the poor in the interior, and a sum of not less than £400. was raised. After this a Bible Society was established, and our subscription amounted to more than £300. besides various other collections. Sydney, February 24, 1819. The clergy are at all times willing to advise with us, and likewise encourage us in our work. I believe nothing upon earth would give them so much consolation as the reformation and conversion of the people in this colony. Their hearts are truly set upon their work, and great good has been done by their labours in the gospel. Although we have endeavoured to supply as many places in this colony as we possibly could, yet many settlements are without the gospel. Such is the scattered state of the people that we cannot visit all of them. We are invited, time after time, to come over and teach the people the way to heaven; but we cannot comply; this is a matter of great grief to us. Surely the people may say, No man careth for our souls." The state of our Sunday schools is very pleasing; the children learn with great rapidity. Several have committed to memory Mr. Thomas Wood's Catechism, and a Catechism lately published by the Rev. William Cooper, the resident minister in Sydney; we have hope, that several children have the fear of God before their eyes. Our teachers in the Sunday school are in general pious persons. From these schools we doubt not that many will rise up to call the Lord blessed! Sydney, March 17, 1819. The state of our society in this place is encouraging; besides the good some have experienced directly, I believe many in this town have felt the moral effects of the gospel. Our Sunday school in Sydney is going on well; we are blessed with pious teachers, and many of the children are inclined to love and fear the Lord God of Jacob. When I take a view of this Mission, and look back to the time when I first visited the numerous settlements in this colony, I cannot but acknowledge that God has been with us; many have been brought from a state of darkness to light. To God let us ascribe the praise, for it is the Lord's doing, and marvellous in our eyes. From Mr. LAWRY, dated Sydney, October 29, 1818. Far removed as I am from my most dear friends and country, I do not forget the many kindnesses and expressions of love which you poured upon me during my residence in the metropolis; for which, were it in my power, I would most gladly make some suitable returns; but this I can only do in word, not in deed. It would be pleasing to me to write you a long letter describing a gorious revival of genuine religion, but this pleasure also is reserved to some future period; yet the Lord has not left himself without witnesses in this isolated part of his creation. On the subject of foreign Missions, nothing is uninteresting to you, and though it would be very pleasing to your intimate friendswho are employed ou foreign stations to give every particular, yet this must not be expected, as volumes instead of letters must then be transmitted you. In order to give you a view of this Mission, I will detail a few particulars of my last tour round the colony, a journey of 150 miles, which I completed within a fortnight. My first place of preaching was Parramatta, a charming village (called a town in New South Wales ;) here is a good congregation, many sensible and well-disposed people, very friendly to our mission. Thence we proceed 20 miles to Windsor, on the banks of the Hawkesbury; this town is less than the former, yet its vicinity is the most fertile, and the population the most numerous of any in the colony. There are a few that fear God, they love our cause, and are building a chapel. From Windsor I proceed to Portlandhead,on the banks of the same river; in this district are several steady people who emigrated from Scotland, and of the Presbyterian persuasion. While in this district, I availed myself of an opportunity of speaking to a tribe of native blacks. They were preparing for war with another tribe, making swords (of timber) and womaras (a sort of club,) and spears in great number for the combat; discovering this as I rode through the woods, I put my horse up at a settler's house, and walked towards them. As I approached the women and children ran away, but the king, with several men, came to meet me. I inquired why the children were carried off; they replied that many of them had been taken away by men in black clothes, and put to a school in Parramatta, and they feared I was come on that errand. After assuring them to the contrary, the king despatched messengers after the absentees, who presently mustered them on the spot where I was conversing with their chief. I A native corrobbera is rather curious: it is a sort of festival held at the full of the moon; on which occasion several tribes or clans meet by previous consent; they dance all night, and feast on such provisions as they can procure, and celebrate some rites peculiar to themselves; but they are adverse to admit whites to see their ceremonies performed; indeed they have customs quite unknown to us, nor do they seem willing for us to know them. On these occasions they seldom assem ble in greater numbers than one or two hundred; an old woman, daubed with pipe clay, performs the part of a leader. Though women are perfect slaves to the men in common life, all their movements are guided by her, their festivals are generally followed by hostilities. Their principal employ is fishing, which they perform with great ability. After they have fished a proper time they retire into the wood, and divide mutually what they have thus caught; so that if one family has proved unsuccessful, they get an equal share with the rest; they have all things common; after they have taken their repast, they stretch themselves on the ground, and so spend the night, having no other bed than the turf. It is remarkable, they seldom stop in the same place a second night, they are ever on the move. e. They have a slavish fear when it is dark of some evil spirit or bad thing, which they say often comes down from the clouds and carries of their children; this idea they borrow from seeing the eagle descend upon and carry off his prey. Of God, or any thing good, they appear quite ignorant and unconcerned. Their manners are very much corrupted by the Europeans, whose vices they copy. About 40 miles from Portlandhead is the district of Airds, the inhabitants of which are chiefly Roman Catholics (if they are any thing, for indeed it is very little they understand of Divine things.) Átnine o'clock on Sabbath morning I preached to about 30 of them, who heard with great attention. If I ever prayed with my whole heart, it was there in the midst of the wood, among the Irish Catholics, who gladly received the word. I think my consolations on my way to Liverpool, (the village where I slept) were a sufficient compensation for my voyage of 16,000 miles. As to the success of the gospel in this colony, I have no doubt; and I exult in it for many reasons. The station is certainly one of the most important under your direction. From us, in a few years I expect to see Missionaries sallying forth to those numerous islands which spot the sea on every side of us. The Friendly Isles, the Tegees, New Hebrides, New Caledonia, New Zealand, New Georgia; and then to the north again, very contiguous to us, are the fine islands of New Guinea, New Ireland, Celebes, Timor, Borneo, Gilolo, and a great cluster of thickly inhabited Missionary posts. How often I have thought of the good which, to all human proba. bility, would result from one Missionary more for this place, one for Van Dieman's Land, and one for Newcastle; this would be a good supply; but I doubt of seeing them arrive at present. I thank God, I do not regret having journeyed so far to be a helper in this great work of God, which is now carrying on in the earth. My health is very good, and my mind very happy. The Mission is indebted for the land on which the Chapel is built at Windsor, to the kindness of the Rev. Samuel Marsden. This act of Christian charity was acknowledged by Mr. Leigh and Mr. Lawry, in a joint letter. Mr. Marsden's reply will be read with interest. On my return from Sydney, your letter was delivered, in which you express your acknowledgments for the donation of the ground at Windsor, to build your chapel and house upon. In reply to which I can only say, that I feel much pleasure in having it in my power to meet your wishes in this respect. To give you the right hand of fellowship is no more than my indispensible duty, and, were I to throw the smallest difficulty in your way, I should be highly criminal and unworthy the Christian name; more especially, considering the present existing circumstances of these extensive settlements, where the harvest is so great and the labourers are so few; the number of clergymen belonging to the Establish ment, when compared with the wants of the people, and their labours, are in a great measure confined and local. I am fully persuaded that your ministerial labours among the colonists and their servants, will tend to promote the general welfare of these settlements, as well as the eternal interests of immortal souls. You may rely with confidence upon my continual support and co-operation is all your laudable attempts to benefit the inhabitants of this populous colony. The importation of convicts from Europe, is very great every year; hundreds have just landed on our shores, from various parts of the British empire; hundreds are now in the harbour ready to be disembarked, and hundreds more on the bosom of the great deep, and hourly expected. These exiles come to us laden with the chains of their sins, and reduced to the lowest state of human wretchedness and depravity; their number and vices are continnally adding to the great mass of moral corruption, and call loudly upon all, who are able, to use every exertion to communicate moral and religious instruction. We must not expect that governors, magistrates, and politicians can find a remedy for the dreadful moral diseases, with which the convicts are infected. The plague of sin, when it has been permitted to operate upon the human mind, with all its violence and poison, can never be cured, and seldom restrained, by the wisest human laws and regulations that legislators can frame. Heaven itself has provided the only remedy for the cure of the plague of sin; the blessed balm in Gilead; to apply any other remedy will be lost labour. In recommending this at all times and in all places, we shall prevail upon some to affords much encouragement, though the try its effects; and whoever do this, we times are dark, and the overflowing of know they will be healed in the self-same ungodliness makes us afraid; we must hour. I pray that the Divine blessing expect great difficulties in a place where may attend all your labours for the good sin and satan have obtained such uniof immortal souls in these settlements. I versal sovereignty, where his kingdom am often struck with astonishment when appears to be firmly established, and I reflect upon the mysteries of Divine where his subjects are unitedly devoted goodness, that the Father of mercies to his intersets; however, let us go on should accompany with his gospel, the and sound the ram's horns; the walls very outcasts of the human race to the of Jericho will fall in time. We are feeble, euds of the earth; no doubt his gra- but the Lord is mighty, and will make cious designs are to bless some of these his power known, and bring his Israel out unhappy victims of vice and sin, for their of captivity, to the mount Zion, to the fathers' sake, as many of them are known new Jerusalem which is above. to have pious parents. This consideration WEST INDIES. JAMAICA-Extract of a Letter from Mr. UNDERHILL, dated 17th March, 1819. Yours of December last I have just received, for an answer to which I beg leave to refer you to our District Minutes; assuring you, that I am not merely willing but that I rejoice to be employed in any place, or in any way, to further the great and glorious cause in which I have the honour to be engaged; for I do consider it the greatest honour that can possibly be conferred upon me, to be engaged as an ambassador to beseech the children of men to be reconciled to God. O that I may obtain grace to be faithful, as yet it is my meat and drink to do the will of him that sent me; and I feel a growing attachment to his work; my soul glows with love to poor perishing sinners, so that had I a thousand lives I would freely give them to be employed as I now am. The following is a short account of the conversion and happy death of an old and great sinner, who died July 23, 1818, praising God, and exhorting all around him to "seek the Lord while he may be found, and to call upon him while he is near:" John Scott was a negro slave, belonging to CH's estate, in the parish of St. D. He lived about 80 years, altogether a stranger to the things of God; during which time he was notorious for drunkenness, swearing, theft, and many other sins. He was ignorant and wicked beyond all human hope of recovery; but with God nothing is impossible. It pleased the Lord to convince him of his sinful state, by the instrumentality of one of his fellow-slaves. She, like John, had grown old in sin, but being brought to the means of grace the spirit of conviction took hold upon her, and feeling the sentence of condemnation in her heart, she fled by faith for refuge to the hope set before her, and found, by joyful experience, that "there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," and that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made her free from the law of sin and death;" and thereby enabled her to "walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." But no sooner did she exchange the spirit of bondage for the spirit of adoption, than she began to be concerned for those who were enslaved by sin, and particularly for John, having formerly lived with him as his wife; and although, to use their own language, "she knew him to be too much old, and too bad wicked, she would do any thing for great Massa who make peace and love to her soul." With these views and feelings she began to pray for him, and to talk to him; for which labour of love she received nothing but curses and abuse for a considerable time; yet still, seeing him upon the brink of ruin, she could not give him up, but the more wickedly he opposed the counsel of God against himself, the more earnestly did she intercede with God for him; uutil at length the Lord, in answer to her importunity, "Spake with that voice which wakes the dead, And bade the sleeper rise." She now, with a joyful heart, brought him to the house of God, and under the word his convictions were increased, so that his only cry was that of the gaoler, "What must I do to be saved?" This was his experience in the latter end of April, when she brought him to class; but owing to his very bad character, the leader would not receive him. This was a severe trial to both the old people, but they were not to be intimidated. The Lord had touched her conscience, and she who had successfully pleaded his cause |