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limits which become a Christian character: this we believe would ultimately tend to their greatest good. Before we quit this subject, we would remind our friends of the former advice of this meeting, that where any have injured others in their property, the greatest frugality should be observed by themselves and their families; and although they may have a legal discharge from their creditors, both equity and our Christian profession demands that none, when they have it in their power, should rest satisfied until a just restitution be made to those who have suffered by them.

The amount of sufferings reported this year, for tithes and other ecclesiastical claims, and a few demands of a military nature, is upwards of fourteen thousand four hundred pounds. We have received epistles from all, except one, of the Yearly Meetings on the Ameri can continent. From these we observe with pleasure, that besides a watchful care to support the testimonies of our own Society, our brethren beyond the Atlantic are engaged in various acts of benevo lence for the welfare of their fellow-men.

Dear young friends, our hearts are warmed with love to you. We desire that it may be your frequent concern to seek for an estab lishment on the only sure foundation, and to wait in humble watchfulness for the teachings of the Heavenly Instructor. If conflicts of mind should attend you, and prove painful and humiliating in their nature, this is no cause for dismay. Those who steadily pursue the path of a true disciple, will, through the goodness of the Lord, at times be permitted indubitably to feel that they are the objects of his paternal regard. Thus they will have cause to acknowledge the great benefit of patient religious exercise. They will from their own experience know an increase of true faith in the power and perceptible support of the Holy Spirit. Ascribing this to the free gift of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, they will become firmly persuaded that the tendering power of Redeeming Love, though undervalued by too many, is above all things precious. We are consoled in the belief, that the feet of many of our beloved young friends have been turned into this path. And it is our earnest desire, that neither the fear of man, the offence of the cross, an aversion to the simplicity of the Truth, nor the activity of their own wills, may interrupt their progress; but that they may, through the unfoldings of Divine counsel, come to know an establishment in that faith which giveth the victory.

And, dear friends, you who love the Truth, and who are in the vigour of life; feeling as you must the many blessings of which you have been partakers, and the privilege it is to be employed, in the smallest degree, in the service of the Lord, let it be your concern to offer your hearts to his disposal, and, under his sacred guidance, to become devoted to the support of his cause.

May our dear elder brethren and sisters, though often depressed on various accounts, be, by continued watchfulness unto prayer, endued with capacity to trust in God. May they receive that Divine

support which will enable them acceptably to endure the remaining trials of time; and, being preserved in liveliness and meekness of spirit, be prepared to enter into rest everlasting-Farewell. Signed in and on behalf of the Meeting, by

WILLIAM DILLWORTH CREWDSON,

Clerk to the Meeting this Year.

FOR THE CHRISTIAN HERALD.

Letter from a Friend-ON RUINS.

June 25, 1809.

We have often, my friend, conversed together on the effects of ruins on the mind. We have felt that chilling sadness which steals upon the soul when we have seen the proudest structures of human art, and the noblest efforts of human genius, alike subject to decay, alike destined to oblivion. With what melancholy sensations have we viewed the towering grandeur of Palmira, now mouldering into dust; and the beautiful ruins of Balbec, now encumbering the plains which they once adorned. When we behold all that elegance of ornament which wealth could purchase or luxury desire, which art could form, or genius could invent, the unheeded subject of a decay so complete, of a ruin so universal, must not pride go out, and ambition stand appalled? But, my friend, a nobler monument than Balbec or Palmira boasts, is fallen. "Tis Man! Man, the workmanship and device of Him who formed and governs nature. If we weep that human magnificence must yield to decay, why should we pass unheeded by the grave of man? "Tis here, my friend, the honour, the wealth, and the glory of this world have retired, "to feed the worm and moulder into dust."―Here those who once were rolled in pomp, who once were pampered in luxury, and charmed by the syren voice of flattery, must sink together. Where are the triumphal arches of conquerors? where the statues of heroes, and where the palaces of kings ?-Tumbled to the earth by the rude hand of time, or hastened to destruction by the promiscuous pillage of modern barbarians.-But where are these heroes, conquerors, and kings? Why should they desert these former scenes of their luxury? Why forget these proud memorials of their honour? Alas! they as well as their monuments of grandeur, sleep in Oblivion's tomb! Their dust is wafted on every breeze, and the incautious foot of every stranger violates the ashes of the illustrious dead! But let us, for a moment, my friend, repair to the silent abodes of those who occupied the middle station while in life. How still and solemn is the scene. As we enter these regions of long and dread repose-how do the thousand concerns of life drop from around us, and sink beneath our care!-No marble monument designates the place of their interment;-no proud inscription tells the world their glory

"But o'er these bones, from insult to protect,

"Some frail memorial is erected nigh;

"With uncouth rhymes and shapeless sculpture deck'd,
"Implores the passing tribute of a sigh."

And indeed, my friend, this common lot of humanity deserves a sigh; but not for the dead, 'tis for ourselves. Contemplating this destination so certain, this doom so awful, what heart but the Christian's does not tremble? And where are our schemes of pleasure? our projects of ambition? where is the pomp of power? and where the "insolence of office?-These are regarded as too trivial for thought. Death, judgment, and retribution, are now the awful subjects on which our minds are employed; life is reviewed; characters are examined, and religion esteemed. A thousand pious resolutions are formed. We live indeed; but solemnity stamps new features on our very existence. These little tufted hillocks, these tombs of the silent dead, speak a language which all must hear, and which all may understand.

"Time was, like you we life possest,

"And time shall be, when you shall rest."

Yes, my friend, soon shall it be-soon shall our probation terminate-soon shall our friends be clad in the vestments of mourning, and soon shall these sad offices which we have discharged to others be performed to us. "Slow through the church-way-path we saw them borne," is the language we may apply to thousands. Do we reflect that this is our fate? and do we remember that it advances with a step as sure as time and rapid as thought ?—that it is a fate which our vigilance cannot prevent, nor our efforts baffle? A consideration so solemn should induce all to action. Our world is a mighty mass of ruins. There we have seen mingled together, in one common destruction, the altars of religion and the abodes of vice, the temples of God, and the seats of human science; regal magnificence and rural wretchedness; the halls of legislators and the tombs of heroes. With this mighty collection our bodies soon must mingle-this destiny we cannot escape. But, my friend, there is one ruin more awful than all others, which we may prevent-the eternal ruin of our souls. A desolation so tremendous, yet so certain and permanent, we may prevent, but we cannot repair. Let us then arouse all our dormant faculties to vigilance. The season of repose is over, 'tis time for action. Soon shall a long repose weigh down our eyes in death-a repose from which we must awake to an endless happiness or an interminable inisery. Yours, &c.

BRITISH AND FOREIGN BIBLE SOCIETY.

To the obliging attention of an estimable correspondent in Liverpool, the Editor of the Christian Herald is indebted for a copy of the Fourteenth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Its contents are of the most animating description. It exhibits the zeal and exertions of Christians in various parts of the world to be greatly augmenting; and the beneficial results of their labours, to spread the word of life, furnish abundant evidence that the

work is truly of the Lord; that it is blessed with his smiles, and accompanied by his power, in accomplishing his gracious designs towards our fallen world. The increasing disposition among the Roman Catholics, not only to peruse it, but to aid in circulating it more extensively, and the desire manifested to a considerable extent by Jews, Mahomedans, and Pagans, to peruse and converse about its sacred truths, add fresh interest to the relation given of the operations of that stupendous Institution which has been so eminently instrumental in producing these blessed effects.

We have room in this number for only a few extracts from the above mentioned Report. The remainder will appear in course. We shall not observe the order in which the matter is arranged in that document, but select it în a manner deemed most suitable for our publication.

The following account is given of the distribution of the Scriptures from the Depository in London :

Faithful to the duties of their appointment, your Committee have attended to the applications made to them from various quarters and have distributed copies, in different proportions, to the following places :

EUROPE.

Russia-France-Switzerland--Wurtemberg-Sleswig-Hols tein-Konigsberg--Neuwied-Freyburg-Hamburg-RostockKreutznach-Hamm on the Sieg-Cologne-Waldeck-Madeira -Italy and Malta—Smyrna.

DOMESTIC.

Ireland-Sunday School Society-Donnegal-Hibernian Society in London, for their numerous Schools-For School-masters and others in the South of Ireland-Belfast-Ballymena-For poor Irish in London-Convicts at Sheerness, and proceeding to New South Wales-Portsmouth-German Emigrants-Poor Italians and other Foreigners in London-The Guardian Society-Society for the Relief of Distressed Seamen.

ASIA.

Isle of France-Malacca and Penang-Ceylon.

AMERICA and the WEST INDIES.

Canada-Cape Breton-Philadelphia-Demerara-Nassau, New Providence-Honduras-Scotch Colony in Upper CanadaHayti-Barbadoes-St. Christopher's-Nevis-Jamaica-Antigua -St. Vincent's-Tortola.

The number of copies issued in this manner, and to Subscribers, &c., at cost and reduced prices, from the 31st of March, 1817, to the same period in 1818, is,

89,795 Bibles, and 104,306 Testaments;

making, with those circulated at the Society's expense, from differ ent presses on the Continent, the total issued by the British and

Foreign Bible Society, in somewhat less than thirteen years, more than TWO MILLIONS of Bibles and Testaments.

The Domestic occurrences of the past year, though not distinguished by any new or peculiar features of interest, have been such as to furnish the members of your Society, and the friends to the general cause, with ample matter of congratulation and thankful

ness.

The extent to which the formation of Auxiliary Societies had previously been carried, left little ground upon which Institutions of this nature could be erected. When it is considered that the number of Auxiliary and Branch Societies in Britain alone, amounted, at the close of last year, to nearly 500, independently of Bible Associations; and that scarcely a county in the Island was destitute of one or more of these Auxiliary Establishments, it is with no less surprise than pleasure that your Committee are enabled on the present occasion to report so respectable an addition to their number.

Of those which will appear in the general List, your Committee regard it as their duty to specify, with particular commendation, "The Merchant Seamens' Auxiliary Bible Society."

The object of this Institution, (which was formed on the 29th of January last in the Egyptian Hall, at the Mansion-House, London, under the auspices of the Lord Mayor, and various Noblemen, Gentlemen, and Merchants of the first consideration,) is, "to provide Bibles for at least, 120,000 British Seamen, now destitute of them :" and with so much vigour and judgment have its proceedings been commenced, that within two months after its formation, 133 outward-bound ships, containing 1721 men, were visited at Gravesend, by the Society's Agent, Lieutenant Cox; and 580 Bibles and Testaments were gratuitously distributed among them.

It is most gratifying to learn, from the weekly reports of the Agent, that (a very few instances excepted) he met with a cordial reception from both the officers and men. On hearing him deliver his message to the Commander of one of the ships, a common seaman exclaimed, with visible emotion, "Thank God, there are some who care for our poor souls." The Captain of a Swedish vessel wanted words to express his gratitude for a Bible, and could scarcely believe it was a gift: saying, "It is very good, very good indeed: we pay a great deal of money for God's Book in my country." And while the Captain of a French vessel was reading the Testament which he had received, his crew was observed to be looking over his shoulder, with the most serious countenances, anxious to know its contents. Such have been some of the immediate effects of the Merchant Seamens' Auxiliary Bible Society.

On the importance of this Establishment to the Mariners themselves, their immediate employers, and the community at large, your Committee consider it unnecessary to expatiate it will, they trust, be deeply felt by every British subject; and more especially by those who, from considerations of property, occupation, or

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