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manner in which the concerns of the Protestant Episcopal society for the advancement of Christianity in South Carolina,' have been conducted; that we regard it as a useful instrument, under the divine blessing, of reorganizing and re-establishing the decayed churches in this diocese, and recommend it to Episcopalians, as a society worthy of their highest confidence, and most liberal patronage." The bishop has administered confirmation in four parishes, but the number of persons confirmed is not mentioned. One ordination only has been held by the bishop; Mr. Thomas H. Taylor, mentioned last year as a candidate for orders, having been ordained deacon in Philadelphia, by letters dimissory. Five persons have been admitted as candidates for holy orders, and the whole number at present, belonging to the diocese, is seven. Three churches have, in the course of the year, become vacant.

We gave, last year, the bishop's sentiments on the important subject of Sunday schools, in our number for September. It is again urged by him on the attention of his clergy, in the following manner : "I will detain you from the business of the convention, no longer than until I have again expressed to my brethren of the clergy my earnest desire, that, wherever it is not found, as the result of much endeavour, utterly impracticable, Sunday schools should be instituted by them, having for their object, chiefly, the Christian instruction of the poor, and the lowly in condition, (whatever be their colour,) and their children. Schools of this description, under the conduct of able, pious superintendants, assisted by many young members of the congregations, continue to flourish at St. Philip's, St. Paul's, and St. Michael's churches, in this city. That at Columbia is in a condition which reflects great honour on the present rector of the church there, as well as on his predecessor, who instituted it, and the pious and benevolent members of the congregation, who have so zealously co-operated with them both. The rector of St. John's, Berkley, cheerfully perseveres in the course of catechetical instruction on Sundays, of which report was made to you at the two last conventions. Efforts, I am aware, have been made in other places, and are still progressive, of which I am not, at present, in possession of the particulars."

The number of scholars in the Sunday school of St. Philip's is not stated in the parochial report of the present year. It was opened, as we stated in our last abstract, in May, 1820, with twenty-nine scholars, and had increased, in February, 1821, to nearly

two hundred children. The rector observes, that it is "in a state of progressive improvement," and "there has been introduced into it, within the year, among the more advanced pupils, the study of Porteus's Evidences of Christianity." In St. Paul's the school has increased a little within the last year, and is now in a prosperous and improving condition. The number of pupils is sixtyfive, and the vestry have appropriated pews for the accommodation of such of them as are not otherwise provided for.

The Sunday school in St. Michael's church, established in November, 1819, is in a flourishing condition. "There are sixteen teachers, and seventy-two children, mostly belonging to the congregation. Through the kindness of the vestry, pews have been provided for the children of the poor, and many now enjoy the advantages of publick worship. Several classes of these interesting subjects of Christian benevolence have been formed; and some of them have been placed in the publick secular schools. There are, likewise, about thirty children of colour, instructed under the immediate eye of the ministers of the church."

In Trinity church, Columbia, the school consists of one hundred and fourteen children, fifty-four of whom were added during the last year.

The rector of St. John's, Berkley, made the following interesting report on the instruc. tion of the people of colour. "I cannot forbear stating a fact, which, to every unprejudiced mind, must tend to recommend this labour of love. Among those whom I have instructed, and afterwards baptized, are two men, who, from their frequent intoxication, (nay, habitual drunkenness,) had become almost useless to their owners, but who, since they have joined the church, have completely reformed, and are valuable to their masters. One has been a communicant upwards of three years, and, within that period, has never been known to be intoxicated once, though intrusted with a responsible office on the plantation, where he would not fail to be observed, yet where opportunities for indulgence would not be wanting; he therefore has given sufficient proof of his reformation. The other became a member of the church, through baptism, last May; and, although he has not undergone the same length of trial, yet he lately gave a strong manifestation of the sincerity of his profession, by manfully resisting an inveterate habit, when opportunity threw temptation in his way; he has likewise regained the good-will and approbation of his master. I have selected these instances, in

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particular, as affording good evidence of the efficacy of religious instruction to this description of people; habitual drunkenness being of all vices the most difficult to be cured." The subject of the general theological seminary, on which the bishop dwells with that earnestness which becomes the character of one who is ever solicitous for the best interests of the church, has led to the following excellent remarks upon the habit of indiscriminate charity which prevails too much among the members of our church; a habit arising from the most benevolent and liberal motives, but which is not just, because it is not met by other denominations with a correspondent spirit. And even if it were so met, even if there were a perfect reciprocity, the general result would be the same. there is not and cannot be such a reciprocity. Other denominations have no doubts as to the validity of our ministry, nor do they consider the unity of the Christian church in the same light that we do, as involving a necessity of union in the sacraments and other external ordinances. But our readers, we are sensible, will think we are detaining them too long from the more valuable remarks of the bishop. "It is true," he observes, "that the calls on the beneficence of the members of our church, in every part of the union, are numerous and frequent; but are they all of a character, which gives them a reasonable claim to the compliance which they in general so indiscriminately meet with? My brethren, this interrogatory is suggested by that seem ingly inconsiderate habit of giving, which, too little attentive to the nature of claims preferred, gives alike to all, and thus too little to that, which, on consideration, might be felt, most consistently, to demand our concern. Let me earnestly entreat, that I may not be thought to imagine myself possessed of any authority here, to dictate or direct the disposal of your religious munificence. Let me, however, be permitted to speak, at the same time, the deep sense I entertain of the duty which appertains to me in this place, to suggest and advise whatever may seem to me needful for the welfare and honour of the church, whose interests are made, by the peculiar nature of my ministry, my most anxious care. It is under this impression of duty, that, in the spirit of affection and respect, I would beseech my brethren, to lay seriously to heart the necessities of their own church; and, by a seasonable discrimination and reserve in favour of them, endeavour to place this church on a footing of some comparative advantage with others, rendered by the constant liberality and persevering zeal of their members, eminently prosperous. It is the

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glory of the Lord, in the diffusion of sound Christianity, with all its salutary influences upon the spiritual, moral, and even temporal state and character of men, that we are mainly to consult, in our munificence, with respect to religious purposes and institutions; and it surely is incumbent on us to exercise it, under the control of some well digested persuasion of our own minds, as to what is useful, good, and true."

The committee, to whom this part of the bishop's address was referred, recommended, that each minister, with the concurrence of the vestries of his own, or of any vacant congregation in which he might officiate, should preach a sermon, within the ensuing year, on the subject, which should be followed by a collection for the benefit of the seminary; that the members of the convention, individually, should welcome and aid the agent of the trustees of the seminary, in making collections; and that the bishop be requested to prepare an address, to be printed with the journal, circulated separately, and read, in the several churches, on the Sunday preceding the discourse abovementioned. This report was unanimously adopted, and the bishop's address to the members of the church in South Carolina, accompanies the journal. We forbear to make extracts from it, in the hope that we shall find room, in a future number, to publish it entire. The appeal which it makes to the zeal and liberality of the laity will, we trust, interest the friends of the church, equally, in every part of the union; and if there be any considerations chiefly applicable to South Carolina, as the southern extremity, it will not be difficult to perceive, that they should be read with similar views and feelings by us, who are on the opposite point of the same circle.

Much of the time of the convention was occupied in devising ways and means of providing a more effectual support for the bishop. Two funds have been begun, one called the bishop's common fund, the other the bishop's permanent fund; the one to provide for his immediate and continued support, the other to accumulate untouched, till it becomes a perpetual and sufficient source of revenue. During the past year, a small but gradual increase has taken place in the permanent fund, and the contributions to the common fund have advanced to nearly one thousand dollars. The convention recommend to the several congregations to increase the permanent fund,

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By a per centage on the state tax of each individual; by a per centage on the income of each respective church; by a moderate tax on each pew; by a small,

but specifick sum, to be paid by each individual; by any other preferable mode; towards the support of the bishop's fund." They further recommend, that a sermon be preached annually, in every church, and a collection made for the immediate support of the bishop, until the permanent fund be adequate to the purpose; and they enjoin it as a duty on the standing committee, to request, in their name, the assistance of the society for the advancement of Christianity. As soon as an annual support of fifteen hundred dollars can be raised as a compensation to the church, over which the bishop presides as rector, for the extra expenses to which it is subject by his absense in the episcopal visitations, all sums subscribed, together with the interest, are to be appropriated, exclusively, to the increase of the permanent fund.

The delegates to the next general convention are, the reverend Dr. Gadsden, and the reverend Messrs. Hanckell, Tschudy, and Lance, of the clergy; and colonel Lewis Morris, and William Heywood, and Robert J. Turnbull, esquires, and the honourable Benjamin Huger, of the laity.

and ordinances of the Lord's house, in this state, is greater than at any one period since it was originally settled by Christian people. It is a circumstance, too, well calculated to affect me, as an elder brother, with emotions not easily expressed, that, while, in most instances, our churches are supplied with ministers statedly serving them, there is no instance, within my knowledge, in which the duties of their ministry are not performed with faithfulness. I see, indeed, my brethren of the clergy, who, I trust, are, by this time, well enough secured, by their acquaintance with me, against any suspicion of my using, either to them, or concerning them, any words of flattery, occupied, in many instances, amidst much danger, inseparable, in some seasons, from the peculiar character of our climate; I see them, in these circumstances, as well as often amidst much privation as to the comforts and accommodations of life, with cheerful patience and assiduity, endeavouring to fulfil their sacred obligations; anxious, mainly, that their people should take no hurt or hindrance by reason of their negligence.' Can I, then, forbear affectionately to urge upon my brethren of the laity, the claim which their ministers so reasonably, nay, which they religiously have, (for it is in the Lord's word that it is founded,) to be en

The standing committee, for the ensuing year, are the reverend Christopher E. Gadsden, D. D. the reverend Paul T. Gervais, the reverend Frederick Dalcho, M. D. the reverend Allston Gibbes, the reverend Chris-couraged and strengthened in their work, by tian Hanckell, David Alexander, Joseph Johnson, M. D. Keating Simons, John Daw son, major Samuel Wragg.

On comparison of the journal of the present year with that of the last, it appears that the church in South Carolina is gradually increasing. In St. Paul's church, Charleston, the number of communicants, reported in 1821, was seventy; in 1822, it is one hundred and ninety. In the country parishes, the increase is small, but continual. The bishop has given the following statement of the general condition of the diocese, at the close of his address. "My brethren, in bringing this address to a close, I cannot but ask you to join me in the indulgence of grateful emotion towards him who is head over all things to his church,' in that, notwithstanding some discouragement from circumstances too obvious to require to be mentioned, the condition of the Protestant Episcopal church, in this portion of it, is evidently, on the whole, still progressively improving. Although, as has been reported to you, some important stations of our ministry are at present unoccupied, and although we are in want of ministers for some scenes of missionary service, which the society for the advancement of Christianity is desirous to provide with it, yet the number of places now statedly supplied by us with the offices

the confidence and kindness of those to whom they minister, their acquiescence in their pas toral counsel, and that due provision for the comfortable subsistence of themselves and their families, without which, their case, temporally considered, is almost of all men's the most miserable."

After prayers by the bishop, followed by the episcopal benediction, the convention adjourned.

North American Indians. Extracts from Mr. Hodgson's journal of his tour among the Indians, continued from p. 136.

"And, indeed, their situation is an enviable one. In a happy exemption from most of the cares and many of the temptations of common life-conversant with the most delightful and elevated objects of contemplation-stimulated to perpetual activity, by an imperious sense of duty-and conscious of disinterested sacrifices in the noblest causecan we wonder if they manifest a degree of cheerfulness and tranquillity, seldom exhibited even by eminent Christians, who are more in the world? I was particularly struck with their apparent humility, with the kind

ness of their manner toward one another, and the little attentions which they seemed solicitous to reciprocate.

"They spoke very lightly of their privations, and of the trials which the world supposes to be their greatest; sensible, as they said, that these are often experienced, in at least as great a degree, by the soldier, the sailor, or even the merchant. Yet, in this country, these trials are by no means trifling. Lying out, for two or three months, in the woods, with their little babes-in tents which cannot resist the rain, here falling in torrents such as I never saw in England-within sound of the nightly howling of wolves, and Occasionally visited by panthers, which have approached almost to the door-the ladies must be allowed to require some courage; while, during many seasons of the year, the gentlemen cannot go twenty miles from home (and they are sometimes obliged to go thirty or forty for provisions) without swimming their horses over four or five creeks. Yet, as all these inconveniences are suffered by others with cheerfulness, from worldly motives, they would wish them to be suppressed in the missionary reports, if they were not calculated to deter many from engaging as missionaries, under the idea that it is an easy retired life.

"Their real trials, they stated to consist in their own imperfections; and in those mental maladies, which the retirement of a desert cannot cure.

"In the course of our walks, Mr. Williams pointed out to me a simple tomb, in which he had deposited the remains of a younger brother; who lost his way in the desert when coming out to join them, and whose long exposure to rain and fasting laid the seeds of a fatal disease. It was almost in sight of one of those Indian mounds, which I have often met with in the woods, and of which the oldest Indians can give no account. They resemble the cairns in Scotland; and one of the missionaries mentioned having seen a skeleton dug out of one of them. "Three young ladies were staying at the settlement, and assisting in its establishment, until the husbands of two of them should return from the Arkansaw, where they are exploring the country, to fix on an eligible situation for a mission to those Cherokees, who have been induced to sell their lands in Georgia to the government of the United States, and to seek a subsistence in the wilder forests beyond the Mississippi.

"I was highly gratified by my visit to Elliot-this garden in a moral wilderness; and was pleased with the opportunity of seeing a missionary settlement in its infant state, before the wounds of recent separation from kindred and friends had ceased to bleed, and habit had rendered the missionaries familiar with the peculiarities of their novel situation.

"The sight of the children also, many of them still in Indian costume, was most interesting. I could not help imagining, that before me might be some Alfred of this western world, the future founder of institutions which were to enlighten and civilize his country-some Choctaw Swartz or Elliot, destined to disseminate the blessings of Christianity, from the Mississippi to the Pacifick, from the Gulph of Mexico to the Frozen Sea. I contrasted them in their social, their moral, and their religious condition, with the straggling hunters and their painted faces, who occasionally stared through the windows; or, with the half-naked savages, whom we had seen in the forests a few nights before, dancing round their midnight fires, with their tomahawks and scalping knives, rending the air with their fierce war-whoop, or making the woods thrill with their savage yells. But they form a yet stronger contrast with the poor Indians, whom we had seen on the frontier-corrupted, degraded, and debased by their intercourse with English, Irish, or American traders.

"It was not without emotion that I parted, in all human probability for ever in this world, from my kind and interesting friends, and prepared to return to the tumultuous scenes of a busy world; from which-if life be spared-my thoughts will often stray to the sacred solitudes of Yaloo Busha, as to a source of the most grateful and refreshing recollections. I was almost the first person from a distance, who had visited this remote settlement; and was charged with several letters to the friends of the missionaries. I believe they had pleasure in thinking that I should probably in a few weeks see those, the endearments of whose society they had renounced for this world: it seemed to bring them nearer the scenes to which they had recently bid a last adieu. I felt a strange emotion in being thus made the link of communication between these self-devoted followers of our blessed Lord, and the world which they had for ever quitted; and, when I saw with what affection they cherished the recollection of many, whose faces they expected to see no more in this life, I turned with peculiar pleasure to our Saviour's animating assurance-There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or lands, for my sake and the gospel's, but he shall receive a hundred-fold now in this time, and in the world to come life everlasting."

"After parting with the reverend Mr. Kingsbury on the banks of the Yaloo Busha, we proceeded through the woods, along an Indian path, till evening, when we reached the dwelling of a half-breed Choctaw, whose

wife was a Chickasaw, and whose hut was on the frontier of the two nations. We found him sitting before the door, watching the gambols of fifty or sixty of his horses, which were frolicking before him; and of more than 200 very fine cattle, which at sunset were coming up as usual, of their own accord, from different parts of the surrounding forest, where they have a boundless and luxuriant range. The whole scene reminded me strongly of pastoral and patriarchal times. He had chosen this situation, he said, for its retirement (in some directions he had no neighbours for fifty or a hundred miles,) and because it afforded him excellent pasturage and water for his cattle: he added, that occupation would give him and his family a title to it as long as they chose. He had a few slaves to cultivate as much land as was necessary, and occasionally killed as many deer in as many hours. Near the house were some bones of the buffalo; but that animal has not been seen in this part of the country for many years. He gave us a hospitable reception; and spread a bearskin for each of us in his only room, which we occupied for two nights, the following day being Sunday. "As our host spoke English very well, and was very intelligent, our quiet meals gave me an opportunity of obtaining some information from him relative to the Indians.

"His wife, a pleasing young woman, ate with us, but would not or could not speak English; and I often smiled to find myself sitting over a cup of coffee between a Chickasaw and Choctaw.

"He told me that great changes had taken place among the Indians, even in his timethat in many tribes, when he was young, the children, as soon as they rose, were made to plunge in the water, and swim in the coldest weather; and were then collected on the bank of the river, to learn the manners and customs of their ancestors, and hear the old men recite the traditions of their forefathers. They were assembled again, at sunset, for the same purpose; and were taught to regard as a sacred duty, the transmission to their posterity of the lessons thus acquired. And thous halt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. He said, that this custom is now abandoned by all the tribes with which he is acquainted, except, to use his own words, where there is, here and there, an old ancient fellow, who upholds the old way' -that many have talked of resuming their old customs, which the whites have gradually undermined; but are unable, from the loss of their traditions-that he supposes that

these might be recovered, from distant tribes over the Mississippi; but that the Choctaws are acting more wisely, in seeking civilization."

"My half-breed Choctaw also informed me, that there were tribes or families among the Indians, somewhat similar to the Scottish clans; such as, the panther family, the bird family, the racoon family, the wolf family: he belonged to the racoon family, but his children to the family of his wife; families being perpetuated in the female line-an institution originating, perhaps, iu polygamy. By marriage, the husband is considered as, in some degree, adopted into the family of his wife; and the wife's brothers are regarded as, in some respects, entitled to more influ ence over the children than their own father. The suitor always consults them (sending the usual propitiating offering of a blanket) when he wishes to marry their niece; and if they approve, the father consents as a matter of course. I have since had this confirmed by information from many different sources.

"Those of the same family or clan are not allowed to intermarry; although no relationship, however remote, can be traced between them; and although the ancestors of the two parties may have been living, for centuries, in different and distant nations: a marriage between a brother and sister would not excite a stronger sensation, or be more loudly condemned. Indeed, wherever any of the family or clan meet, they recognise one another as brothers and sisters; and use one another's houses, though personally stran gers, without reserve.

"With respect to the religious belief of the Choctaws, he said that it is a prevailing opinion among them, that there is a Great Spirit, who made the earth, and placed them on it, and who preserves them in their hunting jour neys, and gives them their luck in life;' that, however, they do not often think of him-that they believe that all who die, go to the spirit country: but that some suppose it is divided into two nations; the one abounding in fine woods, and deer, and buffaloes; the other destitute of both-that these imagine, that when the spirit of had men leaves the body, it proceeds on the same road as that of good men, till the road forks, when it takes the way to the bad country, supposing it to be the other-that many expect a great day, when the world will be burnt and made over again, far pleasanter than it is now, when the spirits will return from the spirit country and settle again upon it; and that near the place where they were buried, will be their future home. He here pointed to a sermon book which he received from his

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