posed by its President to be religiously impressed and we are happy to learn from our eastern brethren, that Dartmouth College exhibits much seriousness, and that in Williams' College more than half of the entire number of its members are preparing to enter on theological studies. Among this extensive corps of the future ser, vants of the cross, let us not forget about thirty students in the Mission School at Cornwall, in Connecticut, and seven in the African School at Percipany, in New-Jersey; the former are children of various heathen countries, the gift of a very marked and affecting providence to the christians of America, and are destined to return to the shores and to the forests from which they wandered, richly laden with good for their native land; the latter are descendants of Africa, and hope, one day, to bring to their much injured mother, with the tears and confessions of America, her offering of recompense in the Gospel of the Son of God.

But besides education directly ministerial, the Assembly are rejoiced to observe that religious instruction in general continues to be increasingly provided for the youth of the church. Bible classes are multiplying, and can never multiply too much; while Sabbath Schools, one of the happiest inventions of the age, are every where extending their benign effects both on the teachers and the taught. NewYork contains nearly eighty of these schools, and educates about nine thousand scholars; Philadelphia about fourteen thousand, Baltimore about eight thousand, and other cities in proportion. Nor can we forbear to mention, that within one of our Presbyteries the opportunity for the reception of religious instruction, afforded by these little nurseries of truth, has been embraced by many members of the Romish communion, who were prohibited from entering a Protestant place of worship.

That spirit of multiform benevolence which so eminently marks the present era throughout christendom, has of late, addressed its compassionate regard to the condition of our seamen. Not only have tracts and bibles been distributed in numbers among our shipping, but places of worship have been opened in our Atlantic cities expressly for the use of sailors and their families.

The result has been gratifying beyond the most sanguine hope. Not only have that too long neglected class of men shewn themselves sensible of this mark of Christian remembrance, and willing to attend on public ordinances (a privilege from which they thought themselves in a great measure excluded by their dress and appearance,) but they have listened with deep earnestness to the word preached to them: tears have flowed over their hardy cheeks, and hearts which no hardships could move, nor storms appal, have been broken and melted under the Gospel's gentle voice. The gratitude and affection they manifest toward their religious teachers, and the solici tude they evince for further instruction. and an interest in the prayers of Christian people, are truly affecting, and pungently rebuke the luke-warmness and apathy of those better taught and more highly favoured. The effect upon their moral habits is immediate and striking, and has drawn expressions of the utmost astonishment from their former employers. The Asseinbly would suggest whether these men might not be made of essential use in the diffusion of the Scriptures, and the furtherance of the Missionary cause.

The Missionary spirit is another distinguishing characteristic of the age. Dissolving the worst rigours of sectarian bigotry, the spirit of missions, which is emphatically the spirit of heaven, has directed towards the miseries of perishing millions, that zeal which had been worse than wasting itself in contests between the members of Christ. The Assembly witnessed with exultation the triumph of this spirit in the formation, three years since, of the United Foreign Missionary Society; and they now rejoice in being able to state, that the exertions of that Society, have, at length, produced a mission which, from the marked circumstances of Providence in preparing its way, the spirit of devoted zeal which distinguishes its members, and the abundant prayers and offerings of God's people which have thus far accompanied its steps, bids fair for accomplishing the greatest and happiest effects. A mission family consisting of seventeen adults and four children, and containing two or dained ministers, a physician, and a number of pious persons acquainted with agriculture and the mechanic

arts, have taken their departure for the Arkansaw River, with the design of forming a permanent missionary establishment among the Osage tribe of Indians. The Chiefs of the tribe approve and invite the mission, and the paternal smiles of our general Government have encouraged a design so directly calculated to promote their civilization and moral improvement.

But while regarding on one hand the much injured Aborigines of our own land, the church has not been unmindful, on the other, of a race among us who have a claim no less imperious to our compassion and our prayers. The Colonization Society have at length enjoyed the long wished for gratification of seeing a ship depart from the American coast, bearing to Africa a company of her descendants, enlightened and free, and destined, as they hope, to provide upon her benighted shores, a sanctuary both for liberty and truth. The ship was sent out by government and accompanied by an armed vessel for her protection. She has safely reached Sierra Leone, on her way to Sherbro, which is contemplated as the site of the proposed colony. The Assembly, while contemplating these efforts abroad, think it right to add, the condition of slaves in several districts of our own country, is not without circumstances which in some measure relieve the picture of their general condition. Their religious education is, in some cases, assiduously attended to; they worship in the families of Christian masters; and numbers of them give the clearest evidence of being Christians themselves. Some of our Southern churches contain in their communion, some three, and some four hundred slaves.

The cause of Domestic missions continues to receive that assiduous attention which its importance to our country so imperiously demands.The settlements on our extended frontier, and the destitute parts of our country in general, have received a large amount of missionary labour.— Yet it is with equal pain and surprise the Assembly are compelled to state, that although the field for such labour has, during the year, been widely extended, the funds of the Board, instead of a proportionate increase, have experienced an alarming declension-insomuch that a less amount by one fifth of missionary service must be distribu

ted this year than was the last. They regret that the plan proposed by the last Assembly for the formation of societies auxiliary to the Board has operated in a manner very different from what was contemplated; and they earnestly exhort the Presbyteries which have taken this auxiliary form to use their most assiduous efforts that the collection for the general fund of the Board shall not be impaired by that arrangement.

We now turn to a subject which awakes the liveliest emotion in every christian bosom, the subject of religious revivals. If religion be, as it doubtless is, the highest interest and best happiness of man, the extension of its influence and the augmentation of its power, must constitute the most invaluable of all human blessings. The enemy of genuine revivals of religion cannot be the friend of man, and has little reason to account himself the child of God. It is with gratitude and heart-felt joy the Assembly are enabled to declare that on this subject the past has been a year of signal and almost unprecedented mercy. So extensive indeed, is the general region, and so multiplied the peculiar spots in it, which have felt this blessing that we are at a loss to particularize. Between seventy and eighty churches are mentioned individually in the reports of their respective Presbyteries as having been visited with special seasons of refreshing from the presence of God.~ The most copious of these effusions of the spirit have been experienced within the bounds of the Presbyteries of Onondaga, Oneida, Otsego, Albany, North River, Hudson, Jersey and Grand river. Of the congregations within these portions of the Church those which appear to have been the most eminently blessed are those of Homer and Smithfield in the Presbytery of Onondaga; Geneva in the Presbytery of Geneva; Utica, Whitesboro, New Hartford and Clinton in the Pres

bytery of Oneida; Cooperstown, Sherburne and Pleasant Valley in the Presbytery of Otsego; Stillwater, Malta, Ballston, Galway, Schenectady and Amsterdam, in that of Albany; Pleasant Valley and Marlboro, in the presbytery of North River; Hopewell in the Presbytery of Hudson; Elizabethtown in Jersey Presbytery; and Jamestown and Ellicott in the Presbytery of Erie. While in the Pres

bytery of Grand River, no less than fifteen contiguous towns have felt these quickening visitations of the Spirit of God. In some of the congregations enumerated above one hundred members have been added to a single communion.

The general characteristics which seem to have marked these revivals of religion, are a deep and solemn stillness-pungent and humbling conviction of sin-an insatiable thirst for social religious exercises—a spirit of importunate and persevering prayer-an ardent concern for the welfare of others-and a general zeal for the cause of truth and the interests of religion. The blessing has fallen on persons of all ages and of all conditions; nor has it been confined to those of any one religious denomination. The advocates of error, as well as the slaves of vice, have felt its power and demonstrated its effects; the Universalist has abandoned his fallacious dependence; the Socinian has owned the divinity of Jesus; the Deist has bowed to the inspiration of the Bible; and even the avowed and hardened Atheist has fallen before the throne of God. Strifes and animosities have suddenly disappeared: drunkards and gamblers have been effectually reformed; and many of the abandoned and profane converted into blessings and ornaments of society. These glorious displays of grace and power have for the most part had this general impress of Jehovah's work, that their beginnings have been small and seemingly insignificant. An obscure prayer meeting, thinly attended by some of the humblest and poorest of the Lord's people, or a small and forgotten country school, has often been chosen as the theatre on which the operations of his Spirit have been first perceived: while, in other cases, the meeting of parents with their baptized children, has been honoured of God for the pouring out of his richest blessing upon both. In some of the Churches days of fasting and prayer have been observed for the express purpose of seeking a revival; and in many instances such seasons of ardent and united supplication have at length received an evident answer from on high.

The spirit of active and inventive benevolence, a benevolence which seems to seek and to watch for new forms of human want and of suffering only that it

may meet them with new forms of pity and of aid, continues to make the period in which we live, and, notwithstanding the pressure of the times, in a very honourable degree to characterize our beloved and happy land. Female hearts and hands take, as heretofore a prominent share in all these works of love. So many indeed are the associations throughout our country for humane and pious purposes of every form, that charity, where it has but a solitary offering, is almost bewildered in its choice. Among the institutions of this kind to which the past year has given birth the assembly notice with pleasure the establishment of a school lately formed in Philadelphia and which is now the third in our country, for the education of the Deaf and Dumb.

The Bible cause is flourishing. The late annual meeting of the American Bible Society presented a report which is calculated to gladden the heart of ev ery believer. This noble institution continues increasingly to unite the affections and concentrate the efforts of christians of every name, and to evince the same spirit of enlarged philanthropy and of vigorous enterprize which so gloriously distinguish the parent socie ty in Britain. May its means become as great as its plans are extensive, and its efforts like its wishes know no bound but the limits of the world.

From communications made by del egates from the General Associations of Massachusetts, Connecticut and New-Hampshire, and the general Convention of Vermont, the Assembly are happy to learn that the Redeemer's cause continues to flourish among our eastern brethren. Many of the churches in their respective connexions have been visited with the special influences of the Holy Spirit. The Theological Seminary at Andover is represented as in a flourishing condition, and the spirit of christian benevolence as increasing.

In closing this report the Assembly congratulate the churches on the increasing proofs of the divine goodness which have been experienced through the last year; they are not indeed without many reasons for humiliation, especially in the prevalence of intemperance in some of the districts of our country and the prevalence of lukewarmness in others; but though buman sinfulness be but too conspicuous, divine mercy is paramount throughout

ble Society on his return from the Levant. Malla, November 4, 1819.

Egypt, as having fallen under my more immediate observations, claims the first place.

Here we behold, though in circumstanees of great depression and ignorance, one body of professing Christians more numerous than the rest, occupying a line of country not less than 500 miles in length, and extending their influence southward, beyond the deserts of Nubia and Senna, into a considerable part of Abyssinia.

Identified by name with Egypt, and possessing much influence from their hab its of business and from the knowledge of the language long since imposed upon them by their conquerors, the Copts may certainly be considered as the dominant christian church of these parts. There are, bowever, many Greeks whose Patri

archi resides at Cairo; the influence of this church is acknowledged also in a part of Abyssinia: otherwise they have no churches south of Cairo, but consider their jurisdiction to reach to Alexandria, Rosetta, Damietta, Suez, Candia, Tunis, and Tripoli, in the west; at all which places they have convents, though at the one last mentioned they have not for many years had a priest. The Latins have likewise at least eight convents, four of which are considerably to the South of Cairo. The Armenians have a Bishop at Cairo, and in

dividuals of that nation are settled far to

the south, in all the principal towns of Egypt, as bankers to the government.

Leaving out of our present consideration the ruling power of the Turks and the immensely extended population of the Arabs, the number of whom is variously estimated, from two and a half to four millions, it is not possible to behold without a living interest these several churches of Christians. What their respective rites and tenets may be, it falls not within the province of a Bible Society to enquire. It is enough for us that ail agree in a reveronce for the Holy Scriptures, as a source of truth. Our earnest hope is, therefore, that by furnishing them with copies of that book, we shall be found the friends of all: the best friends, inasmuch as from ignor ance of this holy volume, as one of the Fathers well observes, has sprung much of the evils of heresy and schism. Bearing the olive-branch of peace, we trust in due season to behold the ark of the church of Christ at rest from these troubled waters.

Among the Copts (of whom, as being the most numerous, saw the most, though I visited all) I found no difficulty in distributing the Arabic Bibles, but, on the contrary, the greatest willingness to receive them. Upon my first arrival at Cairo, on my return thither from quarantine in the Consulate, and by letters since re

ceived from Egypt, their desire to possess them has been manifested.

In endeavouring to explain to the Patrination, and to others, the plans and operaarchs, the Bishops, the Lay-heads of their tions of the Bible Societies, I met with such difficulties as might be expected from a people extremely destitute of general European knowledge, and utterly ignorant of the nature of voluntary association for benevolent objects. Familiarized to fear. they shrink from ostensible services, which might carry them out of the beaten track midity, much as we may lament it, we canof a religion barely tolerated. At this tinot be surprised; let us ask ourselves, "What, with their limited means, should we do more than they? What proof have we that we should be more intelligent or active? Among the Jews I had little op portunity of making inquiry, from the appearance of the plague, both at Alexanconfinement necessarily attendant on the dria and Cairo. South of Cairo, there are none in Egypt. In Gondar, the capital of Abyssinia, there are about a thousand, who were described to me by Mr. Pearce as keeping much to themselves, and being very tenacious of their religious books.

If any motive drawn from the circumstances of a people can impel the friends of the Bible Society to make a great sacrifice, the situation of Abyssinia may most peculiarly claim the tribute of funds, of learning, and of labour. How deeply Christianity must once have been seated in the hearts of the people of that country, appears from a great variety of proofs; but now, nominally a christian empire, it is distracted by the feuds of various chieftains who aspire to supreme power, without even a hopeful prospect of peace being settled by the successful superiority of one. Thus situated, composed of various Christian, Mohammedan, and Heathen tribes, all independent, fierce and warlike, and exposed to incursion from similar tribes on every side, Abyssinia may fear her existence as a Christian nation. That from the country, may be inferred from Christianity would not soon disappear the great attachment of the people to their religion, an attachment which has been tried by numerous opposing circumstances for many centuries. But how much longer Christianity might exist without a general knowledge of the Scriptures, would be a bitter experiment to make an experiment happily not suited to the benevolent genius of this age.

And if, from this view of Egypt and Abyssinia, we turn our eyes to that vast continent in which these countries lie, with what feelings shall we rise from such contemplation! We are apt to survey with some pleasure the little good which we have been enabled to do; we are, thank God, encouraged to proceed by every opening prospect of hopeful fields of labour: