of the funds of this humane institution, they have been enabled to contribute to the relief of seventy indigent widows of deceased members, many of whom have young and helpless children, who must otherwise have suffered great privation and distress. That number still remains on the list, on annual donations. The funds of the Society amount to a little more than $30,000, which is well secured by mortgages. In the offering this Report to the Society, the Committee cannot avoid taking a review of the past, and calling their attention to the future. This institution was incorporated in the year 1770, and was intended solely to relieve the wants of the suffering widows and fatherless children of deceased members. Up to the year 1796, the amount expended in donations was $14,185-from that time, until 1821, the amount was $63,143, to which may be added, the sum of $1,685, disbursed for the education of the children of deceased members, between the years of 1808 and 1812, making a total of $79,013, which has been applied in the most judicious manner, and in a way most congenial to every heart that "feels for others' wo."

This Society was intended as a permanent charitable fund, and it is with regret that your Committee are compelled to state, that its resources are declining, whilst deserving objects for its relief are increasing. At the same time, however, they indulge the most sanguine hope, that this fact being known, will stimulate its generous members to renew their exertions; not only by punctually paying their quarterly dues, but by inducing others to unite with them in this noble cause of charity. It is presumed that every respectable shipmaster, at least those who have families, will at once enrol his name as a member, when he is reminded that an institution exists, which will secure to the partner of his joys and the children of his love, a refuge from want and distress, in the event of his misfortune and death, to both of which, his calling so imminently exposes him. If they should never need it, he will have the consolation of knowing that his charity will be faithfully applied, to relieve the families of those who, like himself, have encountered the dangers of the sea, and like him been exposed to the peltings of the pitiless storm. But if, on the contrary, he should be wrecked by wayward fortune, and those dependent on him be deprived of their support, to know that his wife and children are not to be wholly destitute, must afford him unspeakable consolation, even in the hour of death. It is also to be hoped, that an appeal to our respectable and wealthy merchants, would not proveunavailing. Although they can derive no pecuniary benefit from the institution, yet when it is considered that it is for the advantage of the helpless families of those whose labours have been spent, and whose lives perhaps been lost in their service, it is natural to expect they will feel no small degree of solicitude on the subject, and be induced to follow the example of the great Father of his Country, who early became an honorary member of this Society. Your Committee feel confident, that by adopting the means recommended, they cannot fail of success; and they look forward with pleasing anticipation to the time when this Society, by an increase of its funds, shall be enabled not only to alleviate the bodily sufferings of the Widow and the Orphan, but to instruct the minds of the latter, so as to render them useful members of the human family. In behalf of the Committee,

CHRISTOPHER PRINCE, Secretary.

JAMES LOVETT, Chairman.

LIVERPOOL BETHEL UNION.-REPORTS.

AN interesting case lately occurred.-One of the Bethel friends, seeing the door open of a house of ill fame in the neighbourhood, looked in, and saw there, sitting by the fire, a young man, an American. He said, if the youth was not particularly engaged, he would wish to speak to him. The young man came to the door. The friend then observed, "We have at hand in the next street a meeting for sailors, and should be glad of your company." "A meeting! what to do?" "For prayer: will you go, shipmate? it will do you more good than stopping here." After some hesitation, he said, "to be sure, I ought not to be here in such a place as this; God has been very good to me, for I was washed overboard in a gale of wind in the passage from America to this port, and was preserved from death by a miracle. I ought not to forget to be grateful for such mercy; but, this girl! ob, this girl, she got hold of me, and was hurrying me to destruction. I ought to thank God for his mercies." He then burst from the girl, turned a deaf ear to her invitations, locked his arm within the arm of our Bethel friend, stowed himself away in the Bethel prayer meeting, and appeared much affected at the solemn service, and thankful that he had escaped the snare.

Thursday, Oct. 25.-Some of the Bethel Members, in passing through a street, where were many abandoned characters, and seeing a door open, looked in. Several young females were there, and three or four seamen, whom they had allured into their nursery of misery and guilt. The members addressed them thus, "If none of you are particularly engaged this evening, there is a Sailors' meeting just at hand, and we should be glad of your company." The same invitation was given to the girls. One excused herself by not having shoes. Another had no apron ; she was advised to borrow one; she went up stairs and brought down a piece of coarse cloth and tied it before her. Thus equipped, she and another of the women entered the prayer-meeting with the Bethel friends. They behaved with the greatest seriousness and decorum, and returned home, but not with the same depraved feelings they brought with them. The next evening some Bethel friends called at the same house, when one of the girls stated that her sister, who had accompanied her to the prayer-meeting, was so affected and alarmed that she would no longer remain with them, but had returned home to her friends. She was entreated to inform them where her friends resided, but she would not: she appeared in great confusion, conscious, as it was supposed, that she had been the guilty instrument in prevailing upon her sister to forsake the home of her parents and join with her in the works of iniquity.

N. B. Upon later inquiry, the above conjecture appears correct, and it has been satisfactorily ascertained that a change has been effected in the life and conversation of the girl who had returned to her parents.

Oct. 29.-Two sailors waited upon a member of the Bethel companies to be informed of the evenings and places where the Bethel prayermeetings would be held. They were asked if they had just arrived in port." No, sir, we have been here these two weeks; we do not expect to go to sea immediately, having no employment; and we conceive it will be more comfortable to spend our evenings at a prayer-meeting than in a pot-house. We were unacquainted with these meetings before last

week: being with a shipmate in a public-house drinking, a person came in and said there was a sailor's prayer-meeting in the next street. We sat talking about this meeting while drinking our ale; at last, we agreed to go, and spend half an hour there instead of calling for more drink; and, I assure you, sir, we found ourselves greatly melted with the good prayers the kind people were making for sailors. We also had Tracts given us. We could scarce close our eyes that night for thinking of it. We never before thought what sinful creatures we were. We purpose going all weathers to any part of the town." On turning to go away they said," May a sailor's blessing rest upon you all.”

The Committee for Boarding and Lodging-houses have to state, that they have continued to visit, by District Visiters, the houses selected by them, the housekeepers of which continue to follow up the views of the Society, by promoting among Seamen their attendance at places of worship on the Sabbath, and by encouraging the reading of the Scriptures in their houses.

Your Committee have arranged and distributed Libraries in all the houses in which Seamen are at present, and others are ready for distribution when required. They have made the Bible, Testament, and a volume of Tracts, the ground-work of each Library, and for the present satisfy themselves with giving one book for each Seaman, intending to increase them when found necessary.

MARINE BIBLE SOCIETY.

Donations, &c. received from January 1, 19 March 7, 1822.

TO READERS AND CORRESPONDENTS.

WE have received a communication from "The Editors of the Reformer," with two numbers of that work; but this number of the Herald had proceeded so far through the press, that we have room only to say, that unless those persons who commenced the attack on Mr. Ward and the Serampore Mission will come forward in their own names, we do not think it worth our while to take any further notice of the subject, as the statement of Messrs. Bethune and Colgate, in our opinion, remains unanswered. There are some things, however, in the communications of the Editors of the Reformer on which we may remark, but if they are really desirous to seek the truth, we would recommend them to accept the proposition of B. and C. to refer the subject to commissioners,

(Translated from the German for the Christian Herald.)

I was born at Jonkioping, in Sweden, December 5, 1721. My pàrents endeavoured to give their children a good education. For this purpose, the family were assembled every morning and evening to prayers, when the servants also were required to attend. After prayers, my mother made it a constant practice, to repeat passages to us from the Scriptures, particularly such as treated of the life, sufferings, and death of our Saviour, and of the persecutions which his disciples had to endure for His name's sake. On such an occasion, I once inquired what had been the reward of the disciples of Jesus for all this? She then replied: "They have been richly rewarded; for they are now inexpressibly happy in his heavenly kingdom." With eyes full of tears, I said: "Oh, dear mother! I wish I had lived at the time our Lord was upon earth; I should willingly have served Him as faithfully, and suffered for His sake." My mother replied: "O, my child! had you lived at that time, you had perhaps been among the number of those that cried, crucify, crucify Him!"-"Ah, no, said I; that I should not have done; I would have loved Him fervently!" Upon this she gave me her blessing, and prayed to our Saviour to make me His property, and to screen me all my life against sin and the temptations of this present evil world, till I should be with Him in his heavenly Kingdom. "There," she added, "will all such, as have loved the Saviour here, and faithfully cleaved to him, enjoy eternal happiness with His disciples." This made a deep impression upon my mind, and then it was, as far as I can remember, that, for the first time, I felt a tender love to the Saviour, and in process of time, I often prayed to Him, that He would enable me to become and remain a true child of God.

At the age of about four years, I experienced a remarkable preservation of my life. I ran out of our house with a spoon in my hand to the Wetter-lake, which was not far distant. Here I seated myself on the extreme edge of a broad board which was fastened over the water. I threw up the water with the spoon into the air, and observed with delight, the drops falling down like pearls. A woman, who was just drawVOL. VII.

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ing water from the lake, called to me, to be on my guard; upon which I replied, I should not fall in. But scarcely had she returned to her house, when she heard me plunging into the water. She hastened back to the lake, jumped in after me, and with much ado succeeded in laying hold of my hair, and drawing me out. Thinking I was dead, she carried me to my parents, who with the whole family were absorbed in the deepest grief. Meanwhile I was put into a warm bed, and after some time revived, and was completely restored.

My father departed this life during my minority. My mother was desirous that I should become a preacher of the Gospel, which was much according to my own inclination; yet at last she suffered herself to be persuaded by her relations to put me under the care of a famous surgeon and apothecary at Gothenburg.

At an early period, the consciousness of my lost condition, and the desire to become a child of God, had been stirred up in my mind; whereby I was restrained from many sinful practices. Yet, notwithstanding this, I often acted contrary to my good resolutions; and repentance and repetition of siu followed each other in succession. In the 13th year of my life, I approached with fear and trembling for the first time to the Lord's table; yet, while enjoying this heavenly banquet, I felt inexpressibly happy.

Such was the state of my mind when I came to Gothenburg. At first, I had the good will of the people of the house, where I entered as an apprentice, and this continued to be the case so long as I sided with them. But the great concern I laboured under, to be saved, soon turned the scales against me, and caused me a good deal of vexation. Whenever I could, I retired into solitude, forsook all worldly amusements, and employed the little time left at my disposal, in pouring out my heart before God. Many a time I rose from my bed, even on nights that were bitter cold, and prayed on my knees, that God would grant me the full assurance that I was forgiven. I prayed from the bottom of my heart, but felt no comfort. I then thought, that my sorrow on account of my sin was not yet sufficiently pungent. I represented King David to myself as a pattern, who testifies concerning himself: "I am weary with my groaning; all the night make I my bed to swim; I water my couch with my tears." I wanted to imitate him, but my endeavour was in vain. I did not doubt the all-sufficiency of the Redeemer's sacrifice; but I conceived I ought to bear still more tokens of a penitent sinner about me, ere I could be pardoned. I now became a zealot for the law-often reproached others with their sins, and by my strange conduct, drew upon myself hatred and oppression. Still I bore all cheerfully, and did my opponents every kind office that lay in my power. Two fellow inmates of the house were come to the same conviction, that they must undergo a change, if ever they should be saved. One of them, by his doubts, occasioned a great deal of grief to me; he imagined he dared no longer hope for pardon, for this reason fell into a deep state of melancholy, and even had thoughts of taking away his life. I tried all in my power to cheer him, principally because I dreaded the reproach he would bring upon the Gospel by such a step. Once, however, he signified to me his full determination to execute his design. This threw me into an indescribable anguish ; and although I had at that very time some pressing business to attend to, I notwithstanding abruptly left the company, went