eyes suffused in tears, obeying his command, "Do this in remembrance of me." A great number of spectators were looking on, with apparent solemnity and respect.

There are several others whose minds have been deeply exercised, who have not made a publick profession, one or two entertain a hope. There has, for a few weeks past been more general concern manifested, than at any other period since I have been in the place.

I have recently commenced a Bible Class among the married ladies, which is in a very flourishing state.

I have, for several months, kept up one among the little girls, from which I anticipate more than can now be estimated.

I have more pleasure and more encou ragement, in my labours, than I ever expected to witness in the same length of time. But I wish never for one moment to forget, that it is not I, but the Lord who is accomplishing whatever good may result.

REV. DR. E. S. ELY.

TENTH COMMUNICATION.

Proceedings of the Assembly's Board. On the 14th of September, 1828, the general agent visited the church in Frankford, Pa. under the pastoral care of the Rev. Thomas J. Biggs; and after the sermon by the agent, eighty persons of the congregation with great alacrity, came forward to have their names enrolled as annual contributors, under the usual form of subscription to the Board of Missions. By this simultaneous effort of the members of this religious society, forty dollars may be expected to accrue annually to the Assembly's missionary funds.

On the 15th of September, the executive committee appointed one missionary to labour for four months in the county of Geauga, in Ohio; one for six months on the south-eastern part of Ohio, along the Ohio river to the bounds of the presby. tery of Ebenezer; one for six months at three different locations in the state of Pennsylvania; one for six months to St. Charles and its vicinity, in the state of Missouri; one for six months to St. Francisville and its vicinity, in the state of Louisiana; one for six months in two dif ferent places in Pennsylvania; and one for six months at Pensacola and its vici. nity, in Florida. A short time previous, the committee appointed a missionary for six months to the state of Alabama; another to the state of Illinois for six months; and another for six months to the bounds of the presbytery of Ebenezer.

One of our missionaries lately sent to the state of Missouri, is about to be settled as a pastor in the church at St. Louis;

having received a unanimous call from the people.

The Rev. Mr. Winchester, who spent four months in our service last year, and the rest of his time as a supply in two churches, which aided him by produce; and who has not received one dollar in money from any other source than our board; out of his one hundred and thirtytwo dollars of missionary pay, he has made us a donation of five dollars.

On the 21st of September, the general agent preached in the morning of the Sabbath, in the church in Kingston, N. J. under the pastoral care of the Rev. David Comfort, and although the weather was unfavourable to general attendance, yet through the influence of the discourse, and of the pastor of the people, fifty members of this small congregation gave their names as annual contributors to the Board; the greater part of which were for fifty cents each. Several of the subscribers were coloured communicants.

On the evening of the same day the general agent preached in the church in Princeton, N. J. under the care of the Rev. George S. Woodhull, and after sermon, Samuel Bayard, Esq. one of the elders, and one of the Board of Missions, presented to the agent a donation of 30 dollars. With great cheerfulness the communicants and others came forward, and five persons subscribed one dollar each; four gave 25 cents each; and sixty offered fifty cents each; making the annual subscription amount to 36 dollars; and the whole sum obtained that evening, 66 dollars. Mr. Woodhull and his session have spiritedly entered into the measures of our Board; and expect to obtain a further addition to our funds. It is worthy of remark that in this congregation, three professors in the Theological Seminary, and one professor in the college, were enrolled on the same list with seven fellow-worshippers, who are people of colour. In this contribution the rich and the poor meet together.

The agent acknowledges the receipt of one dollar from Capt. Jos. Robinson; of 50 cents from Mrs. Ray; and of 10 dollars, from the Shippensburg congregation, Pa. under the care of the Rev. Henry R. Wil

son.

A letter was received and read in the executive committee, on the 24th of September, from Mr. John Peters, clerk of the church in Lawrenceville, Tioga co. Pa, in which he informs us, that the communicants of that church are about 20 in number; that the village in which it is situated contains about 40 houses; and that our missionary, Mr. John M. Dickey, has lately preached there on two successive Sabbaths, to about 200 hearers, in

such a manner as to excite general attention, and give universal satisfaction. This little church appears of late, he says, to have been stirred up, not only to pray, but to act. They collected 15 dollars for a tract society; and have lately organized an association auxiliary to our Board of Missions, which expects before the close of this year to remit 70 dollars to our funds. They are urgent that Mr. Dickey should be directed to labour among them for a time at least; and they feel confident that they could for his support during the first year contribute 200 dollars.

"When you consider," says Mr. Peters to the Corresponding Secretary, "the destitute situation of this part of the Lord's vineyard, and think that there are here Tioga, Potter, and M'Kean counties without a Presbyterian minister, and with out a single church of that order, except the one in Lawrenceville, and that it is at present the only place in which a good stand can be made, with a prospect of success, I hope you will use your influence in our behalf."

To this station the committee design to send a missionary as soon as possible; but many other infant congregations are in the same circumstances, and cry for teachers, when no teachers can be found för them.

From a letter dated at Morgantown, Va. and addressed to our President, the Rev. Dr. Green, the following extracts are presented:

"If an acceptable minister could be located in this place, and preach also occasionally in the vicinity, he would receive from the congregation 200 dollars. I would pledge myself for 150 dollars for the whole of his time. I do not at present know of any disengaged minister in this part of the country, who would be acceptable to the congregation, and who (obtaining a moderate support) would be likely to build up the church in this place. To raise the sum abovementioned, the preacher must be acceptable. Most of the contributors are not members of the church; and they require not only piety and orthodoxy in their preacher, but also a lively and fluent elocution, and pleasing address. If you can send us a young man endowed with the above qualifications in a tolerable degree, I have no doubt of his receiving the above support. To obtain the subscription, however, the people must first hear him. If the minister should prove acceptable to the people, and the Lord should bless his ministrations to the increase of the church and to the promotion of a religious feeling in the community, in any considerable degree, the time may be short during which we should need your aid; but if these

pleasing anticipations should not be realized, the time may be long. I may remark, that we have here a Bible Society, Sabbath School, and a Tract Society, The church consists of about 50 communicants, who are mostly females in moderate circumstances; and some are straitened. We have a commodious meeting house, for which we are yet in debt about 100 dollars. The town contains about 600 souls; is healthy, and living in it is cheap. An academy has been tolerably well endowed in this town by the legis lature, which will probably be organized in two years; at which time, if the minis. ter be a man of learning, and is willing to increase his means by an increase of his labours, it is very probable that the presidency of the academy will be conferred upon him, with a salary of 4 or 500 dollars. Permit me to implore the favoura ble attention of the committee, and to be. seech them, if consistent with their means and plans, to compassionate our condition, and come to the help of this church in the wilderness-this vine of the Lord's planting, which is well nigh perishing for want of culture: and may the Lord incline your hearts, and direct your way towards this region of moral and religious desolation."

Other similar applications will be presented in future.

E. S. ELT, General Agent,

ELEVENTH COMMUNICATION.

In the Executive Committee, Sept. 29, 1828, the General Agent reported a donation of $5 from Mrs. Mary Allison, of Huntingdon, Pa. A letter was read from the Rev. James Thompson, of Alexandria, Pa., in which he informs the Agent, that after his visit to that place, 15 additional subscribers to those already reported were obtained; and that the Female Missionary Society of Alexandria had resolved to become auxiliary to the Board of Missions. This Society, he remarks, was formed for the purpose of supporting a missionary in Huntingdon county; and they still expect their funds, together with such aid as this Board may give them, to be appropriated to that purpose. He has remitted to the Agent $50 from this auxiliary, and expects to forward more before next spring. Mr. Thompson adds, "A few days after you were here, I brought the subject of the General Assembly's Missions before our people at Shaver's Creek and obtained 43 subscribers."

The Rev. John Peebles has paid the Agent $30 from the Female Missionary Society of Huntingdon, which has also become auxiliary to our Board; and gives

the pleasing information that thirteen additional subscriptions have been obtained in the church at Hart's Log.

TWELFTH COMMUNICATION.

Philadelphia, Sept. 22d. 1828.

Rev. Dr. Ely, Agent, &c.

Dear Sir,-In behalf of the South Carolina Domestic Missionary Society, I desire to make an application through you to the Executive Committee of the General Assembly's Board of Missions on a subject of vital importance to the Society.

The two great bodies engaged in Domestic Missions, viz. the Assembly's Board and the American Home Missionary Society, present so imposing a character, and are so much nearer the seats of theological preparation, that the S. C. Society can never hope to obtain missionaries while their calls seem to come in competition with the claims of those bodies; so that we must perish for lack of vision as sure as their objects are opposed.

In this state of things, I ask now, if your Committee, do not consider S. Carolina also as a part of the field they wish to cultivate? And if they do, whether they are not willing to transfer to us some of the men, whom they have engaged, we becoming responsible for their support, at a rate not lower than what is proposed by your Board? And if so, what number you can and will relinquish? I should desire to see and become acquainted with them before their going out, if we can obtain any.

It deserves to be noticed that most of the waste places and destitute congregations to whom the S. C. Society affords aid, are Presbyterian; that many Pastors of that denomination are wanted in the state, and that it is a primary object of that Society to provide for the supply of pastors by bringing desirable men on the ground, in contact with those who are now unsupplied, and they desire only such men as would not object, should Providence open the way for it, to settle in that part of the country.

The Society consists of Presbyterians and Congregationalists, though no evangelical people are excluded by the constitution: their operations are sanctioned by the Synod, and some of the most active and efficient ministers who have been settled over Presbyterian congregations within a few years commenced their labours in S. C. as their missionaries.

Hoping to hear from you in reply very speedily, as I am now on my way to the South, I remain, Dear Sir, yours respectfully,

JOHN DICKSON. P. S. The Female Domestic Missionary Society of Charleston, also want a mis

sionary for that important station. They propose a salary of $1000 I believe, (not less than 800 I am sure, and I know they have given $1000 in former years) to a City Missionary, so that a man of a small family might act in that capacity. No man will answer in S. C. in city or country, who does not unite warm and humble piety, to good sense and good feelings. I mean something liberal; and generous, in opposition to narrowness, prejudice and superciliousness, towards a people so far behind their Northern brethren, in educa. tion, and improvement of every kind.

REPLY TO THE REV. MR. DICKSON.

Philadelphia, Sept. 29th, 1828.

Rev. John Dickson.

Dear Brother,-Your letter written in behalf of the South Carolina Domestic Missionary Society was laid before the Executive Committee of the Board of Missions of the General Assembly; and I am instructed to say, that the Committee deeply sympathise with you, and your Society in the difficulties and obstructions which you have experienced in your pursuit of missionaries. We have found it impossible to procure half the number of labourers for our own Board which are urgently solicited from us by destitute regions of the country.

Since your application was first communicated, our General Agent has used his best endeavours to secure some young men for your section of the church; and, so soon as any can be found, we will transmit them to the care and patronage of the South Carolina Society.

We will inform Mr. John K. Cunningham, and Mr. Hugh Caldwell, two missionaries under commission from us, for six months each, that so soon as they have fulfilled their present engagements they shall have our hearty approbation to visit South Carolina and act under your direc tions.

If they should not soon become settled pastors, it is highly probable that they will resort to your bounds.

That the Lord may prosper your Socie. ty, and fill your state with the blessings of the gospel, is the prayer of your brethren of our Board.

E. S. ELY, Cor. Sec. and Gen. Agent. The General Agent has reported to the Executive Committee a donation of $20 from Mr. William Nassau, senior; a contribution of $23 from the Presbyterian Church in Bridgeton, N. Jersey, under contribution of $50 taken up in the Third the pastoral care of the Rev. B Hoff; a Presbyterian Church in this city, after the missionary sermon before the Synod of Philadelphia was preached by Rev. George Duffield; and $13 from contributors in

THIRTEENTH COMMUNICATION.

[The extracts of letters below are interesting, mainly, as a brief record of the last days and sorrows of Samuel Bryson, a promising youthful missionary, in the service of the Assembly's Board, whose eye but glanced at the "field of the world" and then closed in death.

The first agent commissioned by the Board of Missions to solicit funds for them, was Mr. Samuel Bryson, a Licentiate of the Presbytery of Huntingdon. He entered the Theological Seminary at Princeton in blooming health, and was one of the most intelligent, active, and pious members of that institution for two years. It was his design to have gone through the full course of three years; but in the midst of his studies he was affected with a cold, which was neglected, until it deprived him of the use of his voice. In this situation, unable to study, and able to speak only in a whisper, he was anxious to do something for the missionary cause, which had long engaged the warmest affections of his heart. But what could he do? He was fast hastening to the grave with a pulmonary complaint; and to preach was impossible. A brief statement was written for him, to show to the friends of Zion; and with this in his hand, like a beggar with his petition, (but a beggar only for Christ's sake) he went forth under the auspices of our Board.

He made his way as far south as Prince Edward County, Va., and there closed his earthly career in the family of Dr. W. S. Morton, who had compassion on the dying stranger, and for months gratuitously afforded him as good a home as he could have found this side of heaven.

The only return for this kindness which he could make was made by some instruction whispered to the child of his benefactors, and by his fervent prayers for their perpetual happiness.

The following extracts from his letters will excite sympathy for this young man, while they exhibit something of the trials of an agent sent forth to promote any of the great benevolent objects of the day. Callous indeed must be the heart of that man, who for the sake of any one but his Redeemer, and for the welfare of souls, would undertake to solicit funds, even from the pious among the rich men of this world.

In a letter addressed to Dr. Green, dated Richmond, Va., Oct. 31st, 1827, he thus writes:

"Though I had no particular instructions respecting the time and manner of reporting, I suppose it expedient, by this

vices.

"Nineteen or twenty days immediately succeeding the date of my commission, were necessarily occupied in business of my own, which time I hope, if permitted, to fill up in the service of the Board. I have not yet been actually doing for them a full month.

"As their agent, and recommended by them, I have generally been kindly and hospitably treated. Though at the same time I have generally been denied as to the object of my coming; and the reason generally assigned is, that they have given, for the present, or are engaged to give, all they can to religious purposes.

Indeed, wherever I have been among the people of our church, the attention of the people, if not their liberality, has been drawn to a variety of objects; so that as one replied, “They have given to this and similar objects, or at least fancy they have, all they were able." Besides, other societies are much better known than this. Indeed, I-find many liberal Christians who are entire strangers to this Board of Missions. But though I might, I shall not trouble you with further reasons for the little I have done.

"It may be expedient to give a particular statement of the collections I have made. The names I shall give as they are signed, without titles.

"Philadelphia, Sept. 17th and 18th, received of Ezra Stiles Ely $10, of Robert Ralston $10, of Silas E. Weir $10, of Samuel C. Ely, 50 cents. The two last of these donations are subscribed, but owing to a sudden call from the city, were not collected. Total collected in Philadelphia $30 50.

"Landisburg, Oct. 10, received of James M. Olmstead 50 cents, of James Diven 50 cents, of John Diven 50 cents, of Samuel Linn 50 cents. Total $2.

"Shippensburg, Oct. 11, Henry R. Wilson $1, David Nevin $1, Stephen Culbertson, $1. Total $3.

"Chambersburg, Oct, 12 and 13, Solomon Patterson $5, M. Colhoun $5, Susan Sloan 82, K. M. Ross $1, Ann Allison $1, Ann Lindsey $1, Mrs. (G.) Chambers $1, J. B. Ross $1, John King $1, John Brewster, $1, N. Culbertson 50 cents, Wm. Pym 25 cents. Total $19 75.

"Greencastle, Oct. 13 (Sabbath) and 15, received of one 50 cents, of another $1, though I made no proper effort in this place. Total, $1 50.

"Washington, D. C. Oct. 20-24, received of James M'Clerg $5, Jos. Anderson $5, Matt. St. Clair Clark $5, Cash $1, P. M. Gallaudet $1, William Williamson $1, James R. M. Bryant $1, Josiah Bosworth 50 cents, Anne Blagden 25

cents, a friend of missions 7 cents, George Watterton 60 cents. Total $21 32. "Fredericksburg, Va. Oct. 26 (Sabbath) 29-nothing done. Received of an individual $1.

"Richmond, Va. Oct. 30 and 31. The reply is here as usual. The people are contributing at present to other objects as much as it is prudent to ask of them.' Yet received here of John W. Gordon $2, of Benjamin Brand $2, of Charles B. Williams $1, of James Gray $1. Total $6. May possibly receive more in this place.

Accordingly, if my calculation be right, I have actually received in trust for the Board, $74 57, and have on my donation book $85 07. It may be thought strange, that of the $74 57 which are, or should be, in my hands, I can only transmit $40. But, sir, my expenses have been great, and may be yet greater, and I feel it important in this strange land, to have something in my pocket. But I trust the Board will lose nothing by me, though they may not gain much.

"My manner is to lay my business first before the pastors and elders. If they insist that it would not be prudent to solicit for this purpose at the time, I forbear, judging always of the force of their objections, and pass on. If they permit, they give me the names of persons from whom to solicit. Between Philadelphia and Mifflintown, Pa., I did not call; but all the way from the latter place to this, I did what I could in every town and city through which I passed."

In a letter, dated at Hampden Sidney, Prince Edward Co. Va. Nov. 5, 1827, he wrote thus:

"You did me a favour in recommending me to the employment which has brought me here, and I shall take it as an additional favour to be permitted to address you on this business.

"For though I hope it has been a blessing to me, and may be hereafter, and though I have no complaint to offer respecting the difficulty or disagreeableness of my service, yet I feel at present pretty clearly called to give it up. I have all the way been careful to seek direction from those I thought most capable of giving it; and the whole tenor of that counsel seems to lead me to this conclusion. In the first place, I find myself incapable, from want of speech, of informing the minds, and exciting, to any extent, the charities of the people respecting the claims of your Board. Without information and excitement afresh on this particular subject, they will give nothing, a few individuals excepted. But in the second place, among those who understand this object and acknowledge its

claims, I can find but few whose liberality is not engaged by some other benevolent object. And thirdly, there are some (1 might mention five or six pastors) who think this Board ought to give place to the American Home Missionary Society, and who, for that reason, are not free to encourage the former. These obstacles have been in my way from the first, and I find them increasing southward. In RI solicited from a few of the most benevolent, though I had been almost forbidden by one of the pastors, and they gave me in all six dollars; but they gave it with such a liberal kind of reluctance, that I was almost induced by my reflec tions afterwards, to carry them back their respective donations. It was evident that they were doing, and devising to do, much in Bible and Domestick missionary operations.

"All these considerations operate in strengthening the conviction that I ought, if possible, to lay aside every thing which would interfere, and submit to the treatment of some skilful physician, for the recovery of my voice. A mode of treatment has been prescribed by a number of respectable physicians, at different times, but with one consent; and this mode I have never yet adopted; partly because I did not fully credit the prescription, and partly because of adverse circumstances. But I lately heard of this prescription's effecting a cure in a similar case. I heard of this just as I last left home, and it made me pause. But as the Board had taken me up, and paid me 33 dollars in advance, I concluded to come on, and wait the Lord's will to afford me some convenient place and opportunity to do as that patient had done.

"And now, sir, though I am at a loss where or how to live while taking medicine, I feel it a duty to make it my object, and the only object to ascertain. And if the Lord has smitten me enough, perhaps he may be pleased to heal me; though I deserve to be beaten sorely. But, sir, I have no wish to trouble you with my concerns; and my trust is fixed in God. I love him the more as I feel his rod; and I hope, by his grace through Jesus Christ, I shall-but only this, please pray for me. I find it difficult sometimes to possess myself in patience.

"I expect to make use of my commission as an introduction on my way home; but not to solicit, unless some favourable opportunity may offer, nor, unless I am more successful than I have been, shall I expect any further allowance than the 33 dols. first advanced. And as soon as I am able, that is, (if the Lord will allow,) as soon as I find a convenient opportunity to sell my horse, I hope to remit to the Board