JUVENILE MISSIONARY SERVICES.

The following Services for the Young will be held in connexion with the Missionary Anniversaries on the afternoon of Lord's Day, April 24th. The services will commence at three o'clock, and close at a quarter past four.

TUESDAY, APRIL 26TH.

ANNUAL MEMBERS' MEETING.

The Annual General Meeting of Members of the Society will be held in the Library at the Mission House. Chair to be taken at ten o'clock.

This meeting is for members only. All subscribers of 10s. 6d. or upwards, donors of £10 or upwards, pastors of churches which make an annual contribution, or ministers who collect annually for the Society, and one of the executors on the payment of a legacy of £50 or upwards, are entitled to attend.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 27TH.

ANNUAL MORNING SERMON.

The Committee announce with pleasure that the Rev. Daniel Katterns, of Hackney, will preach the Annual Morning Sermon on behalf of the Society, at Bloomsbury Chapel. Service to commence at eleven o'clock.

ANNUAL EVENING SERMON.

On the same day, the Annual Evening Sermon on behalf of the Society will be preached at Surrey Chapel. The Committee have pleasure in announcing that the Rev. Alexander Maclaren, B.A., of Manchester, will be the preacher on the occasion. Service to commence at half-past six.

THURSDAY, APRIL 28th.

PUBLIC MEETING AT EXETER HALL,

The Annual Public Meeting of the Society will be held, as usual, in Exeter Hall, at which Lord Radstock, has kindly consented to preside.

The Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, the Rev. Thomas Evans of Delhi, the Rev. A. Saker of Africa, the Rev. Kilsby Jones of Bedford Chapel, Camden Town, and Wm. McArthur, Esq., of the Wesleyan Mission, are expected to speak. Chair to be taken at eleven o'clock.

Tickets for the Meeting may be obtained at the Mission House, or at the vestries of the various chapels.

YOUNG MEN'S MISSIONARY ASSOCIATION.

The Annual Meeting of the Young Men's Association will be held at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, in the evening of the same day, at seven o'clock. The Rev. Dr. Edmond, Rev. W. Landels, and other ministers will address the meeting.

FINANCIAL RESULTS.

The necessity under which we lie of going to press before the close of the month, precludes giving our readers the complete results of the very liberal and noble response that the churches have returned to the appeal of the Committee. The statement in the last Herald brought the receipts of the Treasurer to the end of January, and left a probable deficiency of £4800. The total amount of special contributions was then £1,241 7s. 11d.

The receipts of February fulfilled our anticipations, and at its close the probable deficiency had been reduced to £1500. The reduction is not owing entirely to special contributions. This item amounted at the end of February to £2,258. The increase on our general purposes fund was very considerable; but as some special contributions are unavoidably mixed up with it, we are unable accurately to state the augmentation in what we may hope will prove the permanent income of the Society.

We are thus within sight of a possible termination to our anxieties, by closing the year without any deficit at all. It is, of course, impossible to say at this moment how the receipts of the month of March may affect this conclusion; but at the time we write the receipts have been double what they were during the same part of the month last year. One third of the month has yet to expire, and if the receipts only equal those of last March, the Society will end this year of anxiety with little, if any, debt at all. Should this anticipation be fulfilled great will be the obligation to Him whose is the silver and gold, and who has so graciously helped us in our difficulties and trials. Even as the matter stands, the warm expressions of sympathy, the generous help, the Christian self-denial, that the crisis has evoked, are a large return, and we may read in them a renewed proof of the care and goodness of our God.

The happy effects of this crisis will not be confined to the churches at home. From the mission field itself we are beginning to receive very precious tokens of interest and sympathy. Our young missionary brother, the Rev. H. Pigott of Colombo, Ceylon, sends us the following gratifying information. He had arranged to visit during the month of February the eleven jungle stations which constitute the district in which he labours, to lay before the converts the state of the Mission funds, to incite them to the support of their own pastors, and to stimulate them to a larger liberality in the cause of God. At the time of his writing two only of the stations had been visited, and here is his report :

"On Tuesday, Feb. 9th, at a meeting at Weilgama, I found the people all willing to help; though very poor. Their annual subscriptions have been about sixteen shillings. They are to contribute three pounds this year. At Hanwelle they will increase their subscriptions from fifteen shillings to £7 10s., and hope to send me names for thirty or forty shillings more."

Although the meeting of the church in Colombo was fixed for March, as it was thought desirable to learn what the native churches in the jungle would do first, at a church meeting held on the 4th Feb. the brethren determined at once to begin their collections. Twelve persons subscribed £121 5s., and Mr. Pigott adds,-"We expect more from members, and perhaps £100 more from the public." The members of this church are

for the most part Burghers and Europeans.

Our converts in Africa are not less liberal according to their ability, and we have received from the Rev. R. Smith the following very interesting account of the manner in which their hearts have been stirred :

"Last Monday evening, Jan. 25th, we had a deeply interesting missionary meeting. After Mr. Fuller and I had addressed them, several of the members spoke of the blessings that the gospel had brought them, and their desire to contribute something. Towards the close of the meeting an aged African woman came up to the table, and placed a shilling thereon,

saying, 'I don't know about my food to-morrow, but my heart say I must give this to God.' She had scarcely spoken, when a number left the chapel to bring something. Several poor men who do not earn more than a shilling a day, came with smiling countenances and said, placing two shillings and a threepenny piece down, 'Dis for me, dis for my wife, and dis for my child.' One very poor woman said, 'Me no get money; I go give two bunches of plaintain.' Just as we were leaving the chapel a young man (an inquirer) came running in with a shilling and a bar of soap, saying, 'Take this for missionary.' Since the meeting others have brought starch, mattocks, and fowls. The result of the meeting is cash £2 Os. 2d.; goods 10s. 9d; total £2 10s. 11d. And we may expect

other donations."

"Is the question asked," continues Mr. Smith, "what influence has the gospel upon the minds of cruel and benighted Africans? Why, dear Sir, some who were at that meeting and gave liberally, once refused even a cup of cold water to the missionaries."

Thus abroad, as well as at home, the crisis of this year awakens the deepest solicitude, and calls forth a generous and self sacrificing liberality.

MISSIONARY LABOURS IN HAYTI.

BY THE REV. W. H. WEBLEY.

I shall begin with St. Raphael. We found here, as Baumann has informed you, about twenty-three Christian people, saved from the wreck of perhaps some ninety or hundred persons, who had been baptized by unworthy men calling themselves Missionaries of the Cross. A young, pious, intelligent Brother, Metellus Menard, was engaged in preaching the Word to them, and endeavouring to keep them together. During the two days we spent with them, we had frequent opportunities of conversing with them, and of forming our judgment respecting them. So pleased in every respect were we with them, that, on the second day after our arrival, we called them together, held a meeting with them, formed them into a church, got them to choose two deacons and a pastor, and gave them all the advice we could respecting church membership and discipline. In the evening we held a very interesting service, ordaining a pastor, marrying a couple, and administering to them the Lord's Supper. Metellus is a worthy, good, devoted young man. The senior deacon, good old Fouquett, is also a fine man, an old soldier, a thorough disciplinarian, keeping the members in as good order as he would a regiment of the line, and, above all, a man with a sort of puritanic piety. His fellow deacon is his son-in-law, and is also a devout Christian of long standing. Here, then, is a native church formed in Hayti, just upon the plan you so much desire, with its own native pastor, supporting himself by his calling as judge of the peace, and not so much as entertaining the idea of support from any foreign society. They are now engaged in building a chapel. Four or five have been added to them during the year, and two more are about to join them, an adjutant-commandant and his wife. Altogether, then, I consider their prospects very encouraging. Metellus corresponds with me pretty regularly, and his letters are always interesting. I have already made out for him a church book, and I am now about to draw up a few rules for their church discipline, and which I hope soon to send to them. Our good Wesleyan Brother, Bishop, who is located at Cape Haytien, forty miles from St. Raphael, also helps them by his counsel and an occasional visit. Indeed, before the church was organized, he baptized for them-of course by immersion-two candidates; and he tells me he never enjoyed a baptism more in his life, it seemed so much like the scriptural

way of doing it. May our Heavenly Father prosper this little church, and raise up many more such in this unhappy, priest-ridden country. So far our journey to the north was not in vain.

PORT-DE-PAIX.

Perhaps, before going further, I ought to say a few words about Port-de-Paix, distant about ninety miles from Cape Haytien, and along the same northern coast. A Baptist mission was begun here January 18th, 1849, by Miss Howard as schoolmistress, and Mr. and Mrs. W. Jones as missionaries, from the American Baptist Free Mission Society. After labouring there for about two years, our good Brother changed his views upon the Sabbath question, became a Sabbatarian, and was recalled by his Society. Since then no other missionary has been sent to them. We found there, however, five Baptist brethren and sisters, and to these two of our members from Jacmel had just been added. We, of course, preached for them; but as we arrived during the carnival, we had few of the town's people to hear us. On the Sabbath afternoon, in a "large upper room" belonging to one of the brethren, we administered to them the Lord's Supper. That was indeed a melting season. They had been deprived of the ordinance for years, and now, on once more partaking of it, they fairly wept for joy, whilst we could hardly restrain our own tears. The town contains a population of perhaps 4,000, and would form a fine mission station, from which the churches of the Cape and of St. Raphael might be reached, the former by sea, and the latter by land.

PROGRESS IN JACMEL.

As to Jacmel, we have had a year of severe trial, I in my family, and many of the members in theirs; yet, all things considered, a year of great blessing. During the year we have had three deaths in the church; whilst disease, sorrow, and death, in their own families, or in the families of relatives, have been the portion of many of our beloved people. From these and other causes, therefore, our congregations have very much suffered throughout the year. Five persons have also been baptized, and amongst them Mrs. Baumann and Adelaide. One of the candidates was a young man who resides about eighteen miles distant from here, on the road to Port-au-Prince, in a locality where, by God's blessing, he may be made very useful. He much resembles Lolo in stature, in features, and, what is better, in piety. We rejoice, too, to know that, like Lolo, he is so anxious for the conversion of others, and so zealous in his efforts to bring his relations to a knowledge of the great salvation, two or three of whom he already gets to chapel with him. The other two are quite young girls of perhaps sixteen and eighteen, daughters of members, and whose Christian career we shall naturally have to watch carefully, especially in such a land of temptation to evil as this. One of them Lolo found one day in his garden, behind a bush, and overheard the following prayer:-" O Lord, how is it so many people understand and enjoy true religion, whilst I have been so long hearing about it, and cannot feel it too? Make me to know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and to enjoy religion." Two others, man and wife, of whose conversion we have every hope, expect also soon to join us. The Lord increase us a thousandfold this year, and revive amongst us His glorious work!

THE SCRIPTURE READERS.

As to our Scripture readers, I do not hesitate to say that they do more for the mission than the same number of white missionaries possibly could do; their intercourse with the people, and the confidence the people have in them, being such as foreign agents never could command. Lolo is quite a model Scripture reader, and eminently suited to his work. Every week, as regularly as the Friday comes round, his horse is saddled, and his weekly journey into the mountains is performed. His duty is to go from plantation to plantation, to converse with the people, to read and expound the Scriptures where practicable, occasionally to collect a few families together for reading, exposition, or prayer, and in every suitable way to attempt to bring souls to God. And when I tell you that already he has been useful to the conversion of some four-and-twenty souls,