NEW MEETING OPENED. September 14, 1819.-The New Meeting-house in Cherry Lane, in the Parish of Lymn, in Cheshire, was opened. Mr. John Thompson of Hill Cliffe commenced the service. Mr. Moses Fislier of Liverpool preached two Sermons on the occasion from Psalm xciii. 5, and 1 Cor. iii, 5, 6, 7. The brethren James Swinton, John Swinton, and James Bradford, engaged in the devotional exercises. The congregations were numerous, the divine presence was enjoyed, and liberal collections were made after each service. The Meeting-house was built by the members of the Particular Baptist Church at Hill Cliffe in Cheshire, near Warrington, and From Mr. J. M. of London.... 0 10 RECENT DEATHS. 0 0 0 6 000000 5 0 9 17 6 Rev. Thomas Flint, late of Weymouth. Just Published. is considered as a branch of that church. LITERARY INTELLIGENCE. The existence of the mother Church can be traced back as far as the year 1663. The Particular Baptist Church Meeting in Byron's Street, Liverpool, now under the pastoral care of Mr. M. Fisher, is a branch of the same church. In the year 1714, the church at Hill Cliffe agreed that the branch at Liverpool should be considered as a distinct church. The church at Hill Cliffe is now flourishing under the pastoral care of Mr. John Thompson. ABSENCE FROM CHURCH. From the Times of Nov. 22, 1819. “On Thursday the 11th inst. Benjamin Baker, John Muncey, and James Allen, in Great Eversden in Cambridgeshire, labourers, were severally convicted before the Rev. Mr. Leworthy, in the penalty of twelve pence each, for neglecting to resort to their parish-church on the preceding Sunday, during Divine Service, without having lawful or reasonable excuse for such absence." From such a mode of compelling persons to come in," the Act of Toleration secures Protestant Dis senters. RELIEF OF A DISTRESSED Mr. W. Humphry, pastor of the Baptist Church at Isle-Abbots, wishes to return his grateful acknowledgments Memorial respecting the Diffusion of the Sacred Scriptures throughout the United Kingdom; particularly in the Celtic or Iberian Dialects. By Christopher Anderson, one of the Secretaries to the Edinburgh Bible Society, and the Society for the support of the Gaelic Schools, Personal Religion: containing, 1. A General Inquiry into the Nature of Personal Religion.-2. A more particular Description of it, in its salutary Fruits and Effects.-3. Its great Importance.-4, Addresses to different Ages and Cha racters. By Reynold Hogg. In the Press. A Sermon, occasioned by the Death of the Rev. Thomas Thomas, of Peckham, by Dr. Newman; with the Address delivered at the Grave, by Mr. Griffin. Memoir of Miss Ann Price, by Joseph Ivimey. Second Edition. Preparing for the Press, in one Volume, 12mo. Price Six Shillings, Boards, a Work to be entitled, "A concise View of True and False Religion." With a List of the best English Books on Experimental Divinity, and Explanatory Remarks, By the Rev. G. G. Scraggs, A. M. It will contain about 300 Pages, and be published by Subscription in January or February, 1820. LINES written during a Journey to Chittagong, in Feb. 1818, Now faithful Mem'ry, in this calm retreat Bless'd be the hand that form'd this human frame, And oh if when this life must be resign'd, If precious seed, now sown in tears, may yield That I have served my God and not a dying world. SONNET, written in the Sunderbunds, in Bengal, in the Year 1818, THOUGH far from youthful scenes, and long-lost home Of grove and stream, of hill and dale, I roam, Though ev'ry face, and form, and stream, and tree, Though ev'ry mode and form of life I see, SONNET, written at Chittagong, in Bengal, in the Year 1818, ROMANTIC spot! And have I found at last, To the vast deep; mountains that touch the sky; Meandering through the plain-she points the eye;→→ Romantic Scenes; Here would I spend my days, And here would sing the Saviour's boundless praise. Missionary Herald. BAPTIST MISSION. CALCUTTA. Extract of a Letter from the Brethren at Calcutta, dated February 24, 1819. OUR work among the natives has been gradually increasing, and we hope the effects resulting from it bear some small proportion; though we must confess, that had we to describe to you the latter instead of the former, we should feel our selves greatly discouraged. We are thankful for what you have so kindly expressed to us on this subject, that " you do not require us to detail our success so much as our labours." From this we learn, that you do not expect that this barren wilderness should be cultivated without much toil, and repeated exertions; and that it is only in the patient pursuit of our great object, that we can expect the Divine blessing, and consequent success, upon the means we use. As far as our experience goes, it fully confirms the idea you have suggested; we see that the seed must be sown, and patience exercised, before the crops can be reaped: -the gospel must be published, it must be pressed on the attention of the Heathen, and applied to their hearts by the divine Spirit, before any important effects can result from it. It is ours to labour in the field, to sow the seed, and our heavenly Father's to foster and bring it to perfection, by the dews or showers of his Divine grace, which we desire to wait for with all the anxiety with which the husbandman waits for the early and latter rain; and though unworthy to see, and much more to reap, the crop, we rejoice that he is faithful who has spoken, and that he has declared his word shall not return to him void, but shall accomplish that where unto he has sent it. We were afraid respecting the places we built for worship among the natives, that after they had become acquainted with the design of them, they would have absented themselves, VOL. XI. or would have opposed us. It was an experiment, and we had serious fears that it might fail at the first outset. Had we conferred with flesh and blood, we should have concluded, with others, that the plan, however desirable, was altogether impracticable. We trust we entered upon it, though with fear and trembling, yet in the strength of the Lord. He has assisted us, and blessed these means in part, and we hope that he will bless them still more. The attendance of the natives, instead of growing less, has been on the increase; and instead of violently opposing, they have, on the whole, become more attentive: so that we can now speak to them for between two and three hours without the least disturbance. The first moral effect we have perceived arising from our labours, has been the production of a certain degree of seriousness in the minds of some that attend. The dreadfully black and complicated system of idolatry, to which the natives have been so long accustomed, has destroyed in their minds every thing like serious reflection about salvation; and if they talk about it, it is rather to display their knowledge by the quotation of some line or lines of poetry from their shasters, than to learn whether there is a way in which they can obtain deliverance. You will not wonder, therefore, in such circumstances, if we should ascribe to a Divine influence what in England would be attributed to decency of manners. Yet, to our unspeakable mortification, after conversing with them for some time, and gaining their consent to the truth of our message, and all we have declared, they have left us, saying, that our Christ and their Krishna were the same; so that while we have some little to encourage our hopes, we have much more to excite our fears, and lay us low in the dust. We have as yet seen nothing of that deep contrition for sin, which is experienced by those who have correct views of the holiness of God and his laws. The natives have no settled data on which we can argue with them on divine things: they 4 H are destitute of moral principles; so that instead of arguing from these, as we have always been accustomed, we have, with great difficulty, in the first place to establish them. For instance, they commonly maintain that sin in God and us is not the same thing, because he is above law; and if sin enters into him, it is consumed like fuel in the fire; and thus they take away the malignity of sin, and reduce it to a mere circumstance:-in fact, they make God himself the author of all sin as well as holiness; for, say they, "We live and move in him, it must be He, therefore, that impels us to every thing we do;" and on this principle many do not fail openly to declare, that they themselves are God. From this you will perceive, that there are many obstacles in the way of communicating religious ideas to their minds; yet we begin to see some regularly attend, and listen to better instructions; we begin to hear the name of Christ pronounced in whatever direction we go, and oftentimes by many who we should have supposed had never heard it; and we should gladly hail the day in which the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing beneath his wings, and scatter the whole of these dark clouds of superstition and idolatry. We have at present but three places of worship, in which we preach five or six times every week. Several American gentlemen have come forward very liberally, and have subscribed as much as will build nearly two more, and in the course of about a fortnight more, we hope to be taking steps about building them: (they requested the chapels to be called by one or other of the following names, Nazareth, New Bethlehem, Zion, or Jordan.) This leads us to notice another very important step that we are now taking in this department of labour. We have had frequently to lament our not being more intimately associated with the natives. Af ter preaching we had some who have followed us, wishing to inquire more about this new way, who, when they have come into the European part of the city, and seen its bustle and confusion, have made some excuse and gone back. We have also felt, on being called to preach to them, the necessity of entering fully into their modes of thinking and speaking. These considerations suggested to us the propriety of renting some ground, and building a house something like the natives' houses, that they might come to us freely, and without suspicion, and that we might have a place to give them while they remained with us as inquirers; and also accommodate those who could give us some assistance in preaching. From these considerations, we resolved to get a place, if possible, in the most populous I part of the native city. We mentioned this to our Pundit, and he immediately directed us to a spot in Doorgapoor, which we think, of all others that we know, most eligible for our purpose. After due consideration, we took it for five years, at the rate of 200 rupees annually: -some part of it, which we do not want, we have let again; which will considerably reduce the sum. We immediately commenced building our house upon it, and it is now almost finished: this, together with a place of worship, and other little accommodations, will cost about 1000 rupees, or £125. This place is about four miles from our residence; and if we are succeeded in our work, it will prove an important Missionary station. But you will be led to inquire, how is it to be supplied? Respecting this, we have been in some doubt. At first, we thought it would be best for us to reside at it alternately, for a week or a month at a time; afterward, we were inclined to think it might be better for one of us to reside there constantly; we found, however, upon mature reflection, that both these plans had their peculiar disadvantages, and we therefore resolved on a medium between them ;-viz. that Adam, Carey, and Yates, should supply it alternately for half a year at a time; and the lot being cast, it came to Adam to take the first half year. Should this step be succeeded, it may be highly desirable in the course of time to take another of a similar nature. If you consider the extent of the population that lies before us, you will readily see the necessity of adopting some such plans. The number of idolaters in this city is nearly equal to the population of London; and suppose, even in its present enlightened state, that there were not to be found in London six men to supply its spiritual wants, who would not consider that there was a dreadful famine of the word of life. This is the case here, for instead of six, there is scarcely one amongst us who is capacitated to preach with effect to the Heathen; and even were we all so, what would five or six Missionaries be in a field where a million of souls are perishing for lack of knowledge? The sickle (we mean the word of life in the Bengalee language) has been put into our hands; the field (Calcutta and its envi rons) is laid open before us; and the language of Divine Providence seems to be, "enter and labour." We have attended to this voice, and now we must continue till by faith and patience a blessing is secured. The prosecution of plans like that we are now attempting will be attended with considerable expense, because in addition to the money laid out in the commencement, we have another house establishment to support, which, though it will be nothing like the expenses of keeping house amongst the Europeans in Calcutta, will be something considerable. Since we last wrote to you we have been visited by brother Chamberlain, who came down on account of the ill state of his health. While he was with us he seemed considerably better, and his trip down to Saugor appeared to have done him much good; but we have been extremely sorry to hear since his departure to Monghyr that he has been considerably worse, and that he is by no means out of danger. While he was in Calcutta, we had the highest expectations that he would perfectly recover. He preached for us several times in Bengalee at our places of worship, and was heard with the greatest attention. He expressed his great satisfaction at the steps we had taken in native work, particularly at our commencing the Doorga poor station. His affliction is peculiarly trying to his spirits, and he says every village that he passes gives him new grief, because he cannot enter it and preach to the natives. So wondrous are the ways of God, that we are sometimes called to submit to his will, in abstaining from that by which alone we think his will can be promoted. We are persuaded that you will unite with us in praying that his life may he spared and his health restored; that he may for many years to come preach the Gospel to the heathen, and in this work be crowned with abundant success. The house built for native inquirers, which is not far from our residence, is partly inhabited by Panchoo, the nephew of Sebuk Ram, whom we have employed as a native preacher to assist us in preaching at home, and to accompany us in our itineracies. He had his mind first seriously impressed by some conversation he had with Eustace Carey and J. Peters, since which time he has manifested much diligence in his attention on the means of grace, and zeal in recommending the word to others. Should it be asked, why we employed him so soon? we reply, because we shall have him under our own immediate care, and attend him whenever he preaches, so that we can both correct and encourage him in his work; besides which it brought him into immediate usefulness, and saved him from contracting some habits that would have been disagreeable. We should have thought it very wrong to have employed him and left him alone; for though one of the boldest and most active of the natives, we know that he can do scarcely any thing when left alone, and without the presence of an European cannot preach openly, particularly in Calcutta. We hope, if constant attention is paid to him, he will prove a useful man. We mentioned to you in our last something about a long itineracy during the winter months which are now just past. Owing to the great expense that would have been incurred by it, and to our undertaking the station at Doorgapoor, we were unable to accomplish it; nevertheless, we have not relinquished the idea of it, but keep it in view as a very desirable thing whenever it is practicable. Till the station demanded the whole of our attention, Carey, Yates, and Adam made weekly itineracies alternately for about two months, during which time many books were distributed to those who could read, and the gospel was preached to many hundreds of the people. There is a Telinga Pundit, a Brahmin, who has been for some time past studying the English language with Penney, concerning whom we have reason to hope that he is seeking after salvation. Should he become a decided character, it will be with much pleasure that we shall inform you of it, at a future opportunity. As it regards native schools, we have to inform you, that we have resigned the one at Similya to the Calcutta School Society, as the Committee of that Society have selected its neighbourhood for the scene of their operations, and as it was too distant from us to receive that regular superintendence which was necessary to its prosperity. We have, since we last addressed you, built a new School-room at a part of the city called Sheldah, very near one of our residences, which contains above fifty children, and which is placed under the patronage and supported by the funds of the Calcutta Female Juvenile Society for the establishment and support of Native Schools,-a Society lately formed for our encouragement in this branch of our Missionary work. We are now likewise building another School-room close to our Molunga place of worship, being desirous to ascertain whether the proximity of a school to a place where the Gospel is preached will prevent the attendance of the children. Should this experiment succeed, we have reason to hope that the introduction of the Scriptures and other religious and moral works may be readily effected. Our school at Intalie is proceeding as usual; the numbers have suffered no diminution. Besides these three schools connected with our European establishment the American Gentlemen, whose gene |