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Missionary Retrospect and Foreign Intelligence.

BAPTIST MISSION.

REV. DR. CAREY.

Extract of a Letter from the Rev. W. Ward to W. Burls, Esq. dated Serampore, Aug. 5, 1817.

"We are all pretty well. Mr. Ran

dall and I have both been ill of bilious attacks, but are better. Dr. Carey is passing through this trying season very mercifully yet."

A MEMBER of the church in Calcutta, who had been encouraged to devote himself to the ministry, has been sent to labour at Moorshudubad. The ex

cellent letter of advice sent to him by the missionaries, shew the spirit by which these excellent men are influenced, and the sentiments which they wish to be propagated among the heathen.

"Serampore, Nov. 30, 1816.

"Dear brother Ricketts,

“We have been much encouraged by your disinterestedness and devotion to the cause of Christ. We hope that

these desires will ever be cherished with the utmost solicitude, and that they will Carry you forward till you become well qualified to speak the two languages you will want, the Bengalee and Hindoost'hanee, and be wholly absorbed in the blessed work of winning souls, so that this shall become as your daily meat and drink.

"You are about to take up your abode as near as possible to what was once the capital of Bengal, and which is still called the city. In your immediate vicinity you have more than a million of souls, without there being any other messsenger of salvation beside yourself who will care for their state. What an important and most awfully responsible situation! Read Ezek. xxxiii. Many of the persons who will visit and converse with you will be found not deficient in reasoning and sophistry. You will, therefore, need a good knowledge of gospel doctrine, and of the languages in which you are to convey your ideas. We are very anxious that you should choose a place of abode very near to Moorshudubad, that you may be able, in as short a time and as freVOL. X.

quently as possible, to itinerate through it, distributing in these interesting jour neys the word of life, the precious seed which cannot perish, but must bear immortal fruit. If you live at too great distance, the natives cannot visit you, and almost the whole of this immense

population will die without ever having once heard the glad tidings of salvation. The nearest healthful spot, therefore, to the city should be chosen. As your services at Berhampore will only be once a week, or so, you can easily visit it in a boat.

"With respect to the dispositions we wish to recommend to you in fulfilling the great object you have in view, we need not cnlarge: we are persuaded you from every harsh expression, and your own mild temper will ever preserve ther than win the natives. Your aim is every thing else that would offend ra to draw, not to frighten or repel your hearers. Zeal for God, tempered with deep compassion for men-earnestness in your addresses, mixed with the tenderness of a kind and anxious parentand a holy conversation, will not fail to gain you the respect and confidence of the natives. Your heathen and Musulman neighbours must always be welcome to your house and presence: nothing must give you greater pleasure than their visits, let them come at whatever hour of the day they may. Reading to them the divine word, accompanied with serious application and prayer, will shew them that you love their souls, and that you are seeking their eternal good.

"The doctrines we wish you to preach are, we hope, already interwoven into your own conceptions and gracious feelings. Those doctrines, however, which distinguish the gospel as a system of redemption, we wish you to lay as the basis of all your discourses: these are, the fall and total depravity of man-his being in an absolutely perishing condition, with his whole understanding dark, his entire affections polluted, and his whole will alienated from God, ending in a complete spiritual and voluntary incapacity to save himself-the over flowing mercy of God in Christ-the complete atonement, and perfect righteousness, and all-prevalent interces sions, of Christ-his gracious naturethe work of the Spirit—the necessity of L

regeneration and a holy life-the indispensible necessity of conversion-a future state of everlasting rewards and punishments. But, as you will find, that the awful deceptions under which all your hearers labour, are all connected with the merit of works, you must constantly labour to shew that salvation is by grace, through faith in Christ, and not of works. In destroying their confidence in works, you will, without the disagreeable labour of exposing these systems in detail, accomplish the work at once, and bring them immediately to the grand doctrine of faith in the Redeemer, where indeed they can alone find life and peace. The preaching of this doctrine by the apostle Paul, as 'well as the revival of it at the Reformation, and by Whitfield and others, produced a harvest which yet replenishes and exhilirates the whole church of God; so that your work will not consist in gaining petty victories in argument over their superstitions, but in preaching the doctrine of faith, of the cross,' as the ground of acceptance with God, to the utter exclusion of all works of merit; and this doctrine being received, the mind will at once reject the whole system of superstition; and every direct and unwelcome attack on particular acts of idol worship will be rendered unnecessary.

"In prosecuting your ministry, you will consider yourself as a person bearing tidings, tidings of the last consequence to be known, enriching for ever those who cordially believe them. But this news must be carried to the souls committed to you, as they are widely scattered, and know not as yet the value of a gospel ministry, nor the pleasures of meeting for congregational worship. Beware of the insinuation, that Missionaries can do little in the way of preaching; this must be left to the converted natives. To resist this temptation it is only necessary to listen to the apostle: It pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.' This then is to be your great and daily work, the most important and most necessary part of your whole ministry, viz. constant visits to the natives, either on foot, or on horseback, &c. If the natives are not visited, nothing can possibly be done in a case where ignorance is so great, and the natives so shy of familiar intercourse.

"We hope, at some future time, to enable you to set up schools, but at present funds are wanting.

The spiritual state and labours of the native assistants who may be near you,

must be watched over with a kind, but a daily attention: they must be stirred up to their duty; and the growth of religion in them will be an object you will not neglect. Upon their spirituality and scripture knowledge depends their usefulness. Pray with and for them daily. Converted native assistants are, as means, the very hope of India.

"Thus, dear brother, we have given you a few ideas on the nature of that blessed ministry to which you have devoted yourself. Oh! that you may have, in an abundant degree, those influences which are absolutely necessary to all, to qualify them for this work, to make them useful in it, and to enable them to persevere. Our most affectionate concern and prayers accompany you. May you, in that day, present to the Great Shepherd many children whom he may have given you, and hear him say, 'Well done-thou hast been faithful over a few things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.'

"We remain," &c.

Letter from the Rev. Adoniram Judson, American Baptist Missionary in Burmah, to a Minister in London.

"

Rangoon, March 30, 1817.`

"Rev. and Dear Sir,

"I WROTE you under date of August, 1815, in reply to yours of the preceding year; but am apprehensive, from certain circumstances, that the letter was lost, together with many others, which were forwarded by the same conveyance. It is nearly four years since I settled in this place, during which time I have been wholly employed in studying the language. Mrs. Judson and myself have lately written some little things in Burman, and I am now engaged in translating the gospel of Matthew. We were joined a few months ago, by Mr. Hough (Huf) and family, from America. He was pastor of a Baptist church in New Bedford, and acquainted also with printing, having acquired the art from childhood, in his father's printing-office. He brought a press from Bengal, and since the beginning of this year, we have published two tracts, and hope shortly to publish an edition of 500 of Matthew, which is now in the press. I cannot refrain from noticing the opportuneness of my bro ther's arrival. I had just become competent to write somewhat intelligibly in the language, and not being apprized of Mr. Hough's leaving America, had just been writing to Bengal to inquire

whether they could print what I should send them, or whether I must come round myself, when, behold, at this very crisis, a printer walks into the missionhouse, with all the apparatus about him. May he be to the Burmans all that Mr. Ward is to the Hindoos!

"In regard to translating, I proceed with fear and trembling. I feel that I am not yet sufficiently versed in the language; and indeed should hardly have ventured to make the attempt at present with a view to publishing, had I not, by mere accident, discovered a copy of a translation of Matthew, on palm-leaf, madė, I suppose, some years ago, by a Roman Catholic padre. This 1 derive affords me great assistance. some help, also, from a manuscript of Matthew, left here by Mr. Chater, which, with some revision by another hand, has been printed at Serampore. This, however, is quite unintelligible to Burmans, unless they are furnished with some previous ideas, which may serve as a key to open the meaning to their apprehension. After Matthew is done, I am desirous of desisting a little, and applying myself to study, and preaching to the natives; and to this I am induced by the consideration, that the printing cannot proceed any further at present, for want of paper and types, -our present types being in a miserable state, some new, and some worn flat, which we cannot account for, as so little work has been done with them at Serampore. Our remittances from America, also, have been hitherto so limited, as to prevent our incurring any great expense, beside that of necessary subsistence. It is painful to write, as usual, that no Burman has yet been brought to the knowledge of the truth. Yet so it is. We now and then discover something hopeful, but it passes away. We are breaking up the ground, and beginning to sow the precious seed. may the Lord display his power, and change the face of this barren wilder

ness!

whose faces I shall never see-whose conversation I shall never enjoy.

"I have been particularly interested in the accounts of the Baptist Society for Ireland, which Mr. Lawson sent me, and heartily wish I could testify, my sincerity in some other way than by words."

CALCUTTA.

"Two other victims immolated on the

funeral pile.-Last Thursday week, a Sutee, or female sacrifice by burning, no less remarkable on account of the firmness displayed by the victims, than from some extrinsic circumstances, took place at Kalee-ghat. The victims of superstition, in the present instance, were the twowives of Neeloo, a physician and inhabitant of Shobhabazar, the first aged twenty-three, and the second only seventeen. By a regulation of government, before any sacrifice of this nature can take place, notice must be given to the Police; and we are informed, that the officers attached to the Police establishment of the twenty-four Purgun nahs, with a laudable humanity, employed many endeavours to turn the misguided from their fatal determination. Their persuasions, however, being utterly disregarded, it was suggested, we believe, by Ram-Mohun-Raya, that in the actual mode in which females are burnt on the funeral pile of their hus bands, there had been a wide departure from the method prescribed by the books of the Hindoos, and that the correction of this irregularity, in the present instance, might not only lead to the saving the immediate victims, but also of many others on future occasions. According to the usual method, it seems, previous to the fire being lighted, the females Olay themselves down beside the corpse, when such a quantity of wood and other combustible materials are immediately heaped upon them, that if, in the agony inflicted by the flames, they should be desirous of retracting, it is utterly beyond their power so to do. This is probably a mere invention of the brahmuns to deprive their victims of all free-agency; but, if we are rightly instructed, the Shastra explicitly directs that fire shall first be applied to the fuel on which the corpse is laid, and while it is in a state of ignition, the wife shall go, if she pleases, and lay herself down upon it. Agreeably to this view of the law, we understand that it was determined, that the wives of Neeloo should have

"I suppose, that you know nothing more of me, than that I am a Baptist missionary, in Rangoon, from America, except what I have already written. Nor have I much else to say. I was once in England, but my business lay wholly with the Pædobaptist Missionary Society. I frequently regret (as I have mentioned somewhere else) that my change of sentiment concerning baptism had not occurred before my visiting England; in which case, I should have sought an interview with many whose names I greatly love and respect, but

the full benefit of this latter mode of sacrifice. The brahmuns were prevailed on to give their consent. It is with pain, however, that we are obliged to add, that the hopes entertained from the experiment, in respect to a change of determination on the part of the victims, were altogether disappointed. The flames had no sooner began to rise, than the elder female deliberately walked into the midst of them, and quickly afterwards the younger followed her example, but previously with great animation addressed herself to the by-standers in words to this effect- You have just seen my husband's first wife perform the duty incumbent on her, and you will now see me follow her example. Hence

forward I pray do not attempt to prevent Hindoo women from burning,otherwise our curse will be upon you.' We are informed, that this young woman then flung herself into the flames, apparently with the same unconcern as she had been accustomed to plunge into the Hoogley river, in order to perform her morning ablutions and devotions. We have heard of several respectable and intelligent natives openly testifying their abhorrence of the cruel ritual of the Sutee-and it is probable that a similar sentiment prevails in the minds of many others, though prudence may induce them to conceal it."-From the Oriental Star, published in Calcutta.

Domestic Religious Intelligence.

RESOLUTIONS OF CONDOLENCE

OF

Protestant Dissenting Ministers.

AN EXTAORDINARY GENERAL MEETING of the three denominations of Protestant Dissenters was held on December 9, 1817, to consider the best mode of expressing their sentiments of condolence on the occasion of the lamented death of the Princess Charlotte Augusta of Wales. At this Meeting, which was numerously attended, the Rev. Dr. John Rippon was called to the chair. The expressions of affectionate and deep regret to the memory of the Princess were strong and universal: these were heightened by the recollections of the gracious and condescending manner in which her Royal Highness had received the deputation after her marriage; and from its having been understood, that both at the time, and afterwards, the Princess had signified, how much she was gratified at the token of respect paid her by the Dissenting Ministers.

The following are the Resolutions which were unanimously adopted by the Meeting, and ordered to be printed in the public papers:

"That having so recently been admitted into the presence of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, to offer our congratulations on the auspicious nuptials of

his Royal Daughter, and his Serene Highness Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg, and having had the honour of personally addressing the illustrious and happy Pair on the same event, we cannot but feel most powerfully the sad reverse of circumstances, occasioned by the lamented death of the Princess Charlotte and her

son.

"That though we deem it most expedient and respectful to abstain from such communications of our condolence on the mournful occasion, as might revive the painful sensations which must have agitated the minds of her Royal Parents and his Serene Highness Prince Leopold; we do, nevertheless, consider it our duty, as a body, to testify our deep sense of the great loss which the nation has sustained by that afflictive event.

"That, from the talents and acquirements of her Royal Highness, from her attachment to those principles of true freedom, civil and religious, which have been the bases of our country's felicity and glory, from the countenance which her public conduct and domestic virtues afforded to the interests of good morals and the exercises of devotion and piety, and from her courteous and condescending manners, we were led to anticipate, in common with the country at large, extensive blessings to the community under her rule, if she had lived to fill the throne of this United Kingdom,

"That the Almighty having been pleased, in the course of his Providence, to disappoint our sanguine hopes, by removing her, we trust, to a better world, we bow in humble submission beneath his chastening rod, and hope, and pray, that the Universal Sovereign will cause good to arise out of this national afflic tion, and that he may still continue to be a wall of fire round about, and the glory in the midst of our land. (Signed,)

JOHN RIPPON, Chairman."

CELEBRATION

OF THE

REFORMATION FROM POPERY.

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"III. That such pure and undefiled' religion by the Holy Scriptures alone is taught: and that they therefore should be accessible in every language, to every individual, of every nation on the globe; and that all attempts to limit such diffusion, oppose the beneficent purposes of God, and the best and only perfect happiness of man.

"IV. That equally intrusive and unworthy are all efforts authoritatively to impose any expositions of those Holy Scriptures, which every man for himself is entitled to investigate, and to expound; and which every man should read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.'

"V. That the experience of Europe, from the third to the sixteenth century, has demonstrated that these great principles are as important in their practical operation, as, in theory, they are cor

rect and that to their violation are

mainly attributable those multitudinous
ills, which, for that long period, afflicted
and oppressed the world.
humanity, deformed the Christian faith,

" VI. That this meeting could not enumerate all those evils which flowed from that abundant source-but that the

WE intimated in our last Number, that a Public Meeting had been announced, to commemorate the glorious event which took place in Saxony in 1517, when Martin Luther first opposed the corruptions of Popery. This meeting was accordingly held on Wednesday, the 30th of December, 1817, (the day on which our British Reformer, Wickliff, “ finished his course with joy;" scriptures were forbidden :—That their sacred truths were displaced by corrupt more than 30 years before Luther.) His traditions and simple, true, and spiriRoyal Highness the Duke of Sussex presided on this truly animating occasion, tual worship, by superstitious forms:That crusades were substituted for the and delivered the most enlightened sentiments on the subject of civil and repeace-announcing gospel, ignorance for ligious liberty. Many ministers and knowledge, and persecution for goodgentlemen, of different denominations, their dogmas on the fears and on the will to men:-That priests, operating by instructed the meeting by their speeches; hopes of the deluded and untaught, exand a company of more than 1000 per-clusively amassed both wealth and sons gave the liveliest demonstrations of the gratification they felt in the recol-gencies, purchaseable from them, enpower: That absolutions and indul lection of the many blessings which, as Protestants, they had derived from the Reformation from Popery.

The following are the Resolutions passed unanimously:

"I. That the right of every man to worship God according to his conscience, is a natural, unalienable right-anterior to all social institutions; which no human authority should ever presume to violate or restrict.

"II. That religion is not intended to aggrandize a peculiar class, nor to become an engine of State; but to inform the judgment-to purify the heart to mitigate, by heavenly consolation, the calamities of life-and to inspire hopes of immortality, blissful and sublime.

The Royal President was prevented by the heavy fog from being in time; the Chair was therefore first taken by the Rev. Charles Simeon, of Cambridge.

couraged crimes :-That admission even into heaven was made dependant on their dear-bought masses, and their prayers: That the people groaned in wretchedness, and that monarchs trembled on their thrones :—and that a domination, interested, arbitrary, and injurious, extended over the fortunes, the intellect, and consciences of men,

"VII. That, afflicted at the retrospect of evils so much to be deplored, this meeting delight to trace even those gleams of moral light, which in the fourteenth century partially dissipated a gloom so oppressive and profound; and that the memories of Wickliff, of Jerome, and Huss, and of the Waldenses, are enshrined within their hearts.

"VIII. But that it is the peculiar and important object of this meeting to celebrate, at this tri-centenial period, that glorious Reformation which, in 1517, commenced in Saxony: which

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