past waiting to baptize, but have not been able to do so. Thus you see that we have been long sowing the seed of the kingdom in tears, and not without hope that ere long we shall reap in joy an abundant harvest. However it may be, Haiti is the land of our fond choice, and as long as we live her sons and daughters shall be the objects of our toil and

earnest solicitude. And may we not indulge the expectation that our heavenly Father will hear the prayers you and our beloved friends at home so kindly offer? Oh! yes, and here reposes our confidence. In those prayers we hope long to share, and long to live to enjoy the blessedness of the success which they may be the means of spreading amongst us.

ST. HELENA.

Mr. WADE, an American missionary to Burmah, in his passage to America, for the recovery of his health, visited St. Helena, and there became acquainted with the baptist church, of the existence of which we have had pleasing evidence by a contribution to this Society. In his letter to the Editor of the Baptist Missionary Magazine (American) he gives an account of its origin, which we doubt not will be interesting to our readers. He states that Mr. Bertram, the pastor, had left England with the intention of labouring at the Cape of Good Hope, but that learning there the spiritual destitution of the people at St. Helena, he felt a strong conviction that it was his duty to go there; that when he arrived he knew not a person on the island, but that he soon formed acquaintance, and procured a private house, which he opened for preaching; that the chaplains of the colony reported him to the government as irregular, but that his credentials being produced, the governor declared them to be legal, and dismissed him; that numbers of the most respectable families attending his ministry, another effort was made against him of holding unlawful assemblies. This obliged him to purchase and license a chapel, and shortly after several who gladly received the word were baptized. Mr. WADE found that Mr. Bertram was preaching the gospel with all boldness, and the Holy Ghost was making it the power of God to the conversion of souls. Religious meetings for preaching or prayer were held almost every evening, and about forty had been baptized, one of whom was Mr. Janisch, a young married gentleman of German origin and excellent education, whose father, now dead, was many years Dutch Consul, had educated his son for the army, but that since his conversion he had devoted himself to the ministry of the gospel. Mr. WADE adds:

had been turned out of doors by those on whom they were dependent, because they would follow Christ in baptism; but they remained firm under their sufferings, nor did we hear them complain.

As the Lord was pouring out his Spirit beaten by their parents or other guardians, to upon the people, we had many delightful prevent their attending the meetings. Others meetings, and witnessed many hopeful conversions. About sixty in all were baptized, and some twenty more were expecting to be baptized soon. The greater part of the native inhabitants are exceedingly ignorant, having scarcely any knowledge of science, or of the St. Helena is truly missionary ground, but, world beyond their own little island, and still as in other places, it is mostly among the poor less of religious truths beyond what is con- that the gospel finds its way to the heart; and tained in the Book of Common Prayer. Many the little baptist church which has been begun are quite as ignorant of God and religion as there claims the prayers and sympathies of Burmese or Karens; but we saw there also the churches in more favoured lands; and some of the finest specimens of Christian they need a sympathy which extends beyond character, exhibited under the suffering of the mere sound of words. Their chapel is not pain or want, that I have ever seen in any yet free from debt, their pastor is wholly country. One who had been reduced from dependent on them for support, and their affluence to poverty, now a widow, old and almost suffocated with dropsy in the chest, was calmly waiting till her change should come, and blessing God for every thing. Several young ladies had been repeatedly

means are small. If their chapel were free from incumbrance, they would feel quite happy, but if they lose it they will be again exposed to the annoyances of government.

HOME PROCEEDINGS.

WEEKLY MEETINGS OF THE COMMITTEE.

It may be convenient for our friends who are in the habit of attending the weekly meetings of the Committee of the Baptist Missionary Society occasionally, to know that it is intended to hold them for the next six months, not on Thursday, but on Tuesday, at eleven o'clock.

PRINCIPLES.

Though the Missionary Herald is designed to give missionary intelligence, we deem it important that it should contain now and then the results of the experience of missionaries, and of missionary societies, on what may be called the principles of missions. To treasure up these results for the information of the churches at home is important, and it may often be of service to suggest them to our brethren who may be contemplating the honourable and arduous work of the missionary.

The importance of regarding that work as for life is well illustrated in a review of the Life of Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith, which appeared some time since in the American Biblical Repository.

"She entered the missionary service for life." We have heard missionaries, who acted on this principle, say, that they had already experienced the "hundred fold in this life," according to the promise. All who are supremely devoted to this work, regard enlistment in it for life as essential to the highest happiness as well as to the greatest usefulness. It is a great means of posthumous influence for a missionary to die on the field of his labour. His tomb or headstone in coming years will be moss-grown with hallowed associations. His bones will, in some spiritual sense, be like the bones of Elisha. A missionary who dies on his field, is like a plant that goes to seed on the spot where it grew, and scatters itself upon the wings of the wind. Christians at home associate his name with the martyrs. There is a canonizing disposition in the human mind. The names and memories of the faithful are titular influences to pious feeling and sacred efforts. This law of social influence may be one reason why the death of his saints is precious in the sight of the Lord. We cannot think of the death of a missionary in his field of labour otherwise than as a most appropriate and desirable termination of his course. It gives the friends of missions confidence in their work, adds moral power to appeals, excites respect for the cause in the community, to know and feel that missionaries are missionaries for life. But this is to be viewed rather as a privilege than as a duty. Efforts to recover health and to prolong life by a return to one's native land are obviously desirable and proper, and are not inconsistent with the general principle in question. Let us hear the opinion and feeling of Mrs. Smith upon this point.

"An enlistment for life, as a general thing, is quite essential to the permanence of this great enterprise. If I anticipated returning in seven years, I should be thinking more about that event, I fear, than I ought. Now I try to realize that this is my home for life; that here are all my interests. I do not wish to feel that I am a foreigner, but a denizen; and I hope to live, if it please God, to a good old age, among this people."

YOUNG MEN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

This Association is proceeding with energy and perseverance. Arrangements are in progress for holding upwards of twenty missionary meetings in various parts of London. They are designed chiefly for the young, and for the parents of Sunday school children, and addresses will be delivered on the claims of the mission. The next lecture will be delivered in the Mission House on Wednesday, the 24th January (not the 17th), by the Rev. JOHN ALDIS, of Maze Pond.

FUNDS.

It is impossible to tell at this time of the year how the Society will stand in relation to funds at its close. The receipts of the following three months are generally larger than during any equal term throughout the year. Thus far there is a falling off in donations to the ordinary purposes of the Society and in the contributions raised by several of the churches. The first deficiency was to be feared, as friends who might have given to the general purposes of the Society, have given towards the liquidation of the debt. But diminution of contributions from the churches is on all accounts to be deplored. We hope it is only apparent and temporary. Every pound of deficient income this year as compared with last, cannot fail to appear at the close of the year as a pound of debt-a result peculiarly discouraging to those friends especially who have so nobly aided in liquidating the present debt. Let us implore the churches who have this year done less than last, to recover their position, and save the Society from what we should deem a catastrophe-incurring through a falling off in the income-a new debt in the very year in which the old one is to be extinguished.

THE LATE MR. THOMAS THOMPSON, OF AFRICA.

The church at Tuthill Stairs, Newcastle upon Tyne, of which Mr. Thompson was a member, have recently contributed to the purchase of a tablet to be placed at Bimbia to his memory. The stone has been sent to the Mission House, and will be forwarded by the first opportunity. The "Dove" was compelled to leave it (and some tons of supplies for our brethren) behind.

DR. HOBY'S MEMOIR OF DR. YATES.

We are happy to hear that the expense of the first edition of this interesting memoir has been met by the sale of part of the edition. The profit of the remaining copies on hand will be devoted as an expression of affectionate esteem to the family of our deceased and honoured brother. The author will be glad to receive any orders.

PRIZE PAINTING OF THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST.

A paragraph that appeared some time ago in the "Times," in reference to this painting, seems to have produced in some quarters the impression that the thousand pounds, to which the prize picture was entitled, was given from the funds of the Baptist Missionary Society. It cannot be necessary in the case of most of our readers to correct this impression; but lest in any quarter it should prevail, it may be stated that the Society have done nothing beyond allowing two of the pictures to be placed for a few months in the library of the Mission House.

FOREIGN LETTERS RECEIVED.

AFRICA......Clarence................. Merrick, J.........August 1.

It is respectfully requested that where it is practicable the friends in the country ordering Missionary Cards, &c., would at the same time kindly mention the name of a country bookseller, and his London agent, through whom the parcels may be sent, or such other mode of transmission as may most economise the Funds of the Society.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

The thanks of the Committee are presented to the following friends

Mrs. Meredith, for a parcel of tracts, for Mrs. Denham, Serampore;

R. B. Sherring, Esq., Bristol, for a parcel of books, for Revs. J. Merrick and W. Newbegin, Bimbia;

Miss Christian's class, Sunday School, John Street, for a box of clothing, for Mrs. Milbourne, Western Africa;

Mr. C. W. Williams, for a parcel of prepared boxwood for engraving, for Africa;

W. L. Smith, Esq., for a box of clothing, &c., for Miss Vitou, Clarence;

Rev. Dr. Hoby, for a parcel of clothing, for Kev. J. Merrick, Bimbia;

Rev. S. Brawn, Loughton, for a parcel of clothing, &c., for Rev. J. Lawrence, Mo nghir.

The thanks of the Committee are also presented to Mr. Gladstones, for the plate and several copies of the portrait of Mr. Fuller.

Also to Mrs. Moore, Hackney, for a parcel of books and magazines.

Mr. Newbegin begs thankfully to acknowledge the following donations for Africa, from the undermentioned friends:

Lady Buxton, £2, for school materials;

Miss Gurney, £5, for general purposes;

Sabbath School, &c., Whitchurch, by Mr. Swain, £1, for bibles;

Friends at Necton, for parcel of clothing;

Friends, by Mrs. Brock, Norwich, for ditto;

The Misses Mackie, Norwich, for ditto;

Friends, by the Misses Culley, Norwich, for ditto;

The Misses Barber, Norwich, for ditto.

The respectful thanks of the Committee are presented to Mr. J. C. Dennis, for his kindness in repairing gratuitously the instruments of the "Dove."

CONTRIBUTIONS,

Received on account of the Baptist Missionary Society, during the month of

November, 1848.

Salmon, Mrs, for Debt 5 00

GLOUCESTERSHIRE.

Collection ...... 10 15
Contributions

Thomas Coote, Esq... 85 0 0 Collingham

E. R. Rogers......... 5 5 0