3152 9

8008

Dividends and Advances on Ac-
count of India Mission .....
Vote of Credit to Bp. of Calcutta, 500 0
Vote of Credit to Bp. of Barbadoes, 50 0
On Account of the Society's House,2230 6 9
Salaries, Rent, Taxes, Books,

Packing Boxes, and Sundries, 2999 13 9

Total... 64,201 7 4

New Rules for District Committees. To meet the increased exertions of its supporters by increasing facilities and accommodation, is the task which now presses itself most immediately on the Society's attention: and the first and principal measure resorted to during the last year, in discharge of this duty, has been the adoption of a New Set of Rules for District Committees.

On the first establishment of these Committees in the year 1809, the regu lations for their government were framed solely with a view to extend the operations of the Parent Society and augment its funds: shortly after, when these objects were in some degree secured, the Rules were so far altered as to provide for the accommodation of Committees, by the formation of Depositories in their respective Districts; and, subsequently, the Members of the Parent Society were allowed to purchase books from the Depositories at the same prices as from the Society's booksellers in London. But, in order to guard against a greater demand upon its funds than they were then able to meet, it was thought necessary to limit this purchase of books by Members of the Society, and to require that one-third at least of the money collected within each district should be remitted to the Society as a benefaction: the great increase, which has subsequently taken place in the receipts of the Society, induces it to attempt the removal of both these restrictions: the Rules recently adopted afford the same advantages to Members residing in the country as to those in London and its neighbourhood; and the demand of a third of all money collected for District purposes is relinquished: Committees may dispose of books to local Subscribers,

or to any other person, upon such terms as may be deemed expedient by each Committee, provided they account to the Society for the difference between the Member's price and the cost price of all books so disposed of. By this arrangement the entire controul of the local funds of each District is left to the discretion of those, by whose exertions and liberality the funds have been obtained.

The new regulations having reference simply to the benefit of those Districts in which Committees are established, and none whatever to the increase of the Society's means, it is confidently hoped that all District Committees, while they avail themselves of the advantages thus offered to them, will keep in view the important object of contributing to and thereby enabling it to assist poorer the General Funds of the Parent Society, Districts at home, and to maintain and extend its operations abroad.

Other New Regulations.

An alteration has been introduced into

the Rule which respects pecuniary collections made by Clergymen for the use of their parishes. For the future, in cases of this description, books may be purchased to the whole amount of the collections at cost prices, and may be obtained either from the Society in London, or from any of its District Committees.

Another important step which has been taken by the Society, in order to promote an increased distribution of its books, is a considerable reduction in their price. From the Catalogue appended to this Report, it will appear that Bibles, Testaments, Psalters, and Books of Common-Prayer may be purchased by Members at a reduction, on the average, of five per cent.; and the charge to Committees, and the cost prices, are lowered in a similar proportion.

Revision of Books and Tracts.

The last and not the least considerable measure to be noticed in this place, as designed, and it is hoped calculated, to further the objects of the Society, is the Revision of its Religious Books and Tracts. The work is proceeding on the principles explained in the last Report; and the degree of progress that has been made during the present year is quite as great as had been anticipated. The nature of the task forbils every thing like precipitation and hurry, and its com

pletion will not be effected for a considerable period of time: but the Society pledges itself to persevere until the whole of the works on its Catalogue have been carefully examined.

Native-School Fund for India.

The establishment of Native Schools will occupy, for the future, the principal attention of the Society in the East. The Special Fund formed for that purpose amounts, at present, to about 8000l. Liberal contributions have been received from the Prelates of the United Church, and from many distinguished and benevolent individuals. But the peculiar circumstances of the times have retarded the progress of the subscription; and some more favourable occasion must be taken to engage general attention, and turn the current of public bounty into this safe channel, before the expectations of the Society can be realized, or the demands of its Committees in the East be adequately answered.

The Society has appropriated nearly 3000%. out of this Fund to various pur. poses; and has made itself responsible to a much larger amount, for the expenses which its Committees may incur in promoting the education of the people of Hindoostan. This considerable out

lay has not been confined to one particular spot; but has been extended, nearly in equal proportions, to every part of the country. It is humbly but confidently hoped, that a work, which has begun so well, will be carried on with the same spirit and success. Each succeeding despatch, and every fresh arrival from the East, furnish accumulated evidence to prove that education, and education alone, can overcome the prejudices of the Heathen, and prepare the way for the reception of Christianity. And when this fact is understood in Europe, as completely as it appears to be understood in India, the Society may expect those important additions to its Native-School Fund, which will enable it to answer the purposes for which it was formed.

LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Appeal, by the Directors, on the State of the Funds.

AN inquiry into the income and expenditure for the three quarters of the current Missionary Year, has shewn that the receipts of the Society, for Contributions made to it between the close March, 1827.

of the account presented at the last Annual Meeting and the 31st December, have fallen short of its expenditure during the same period, by 9000l. and upward.

This state of the Society's pecuniary affairs has produced effects much to be regretted, on those resources, which the generosity of its founders and early promoters, and of others subsequently, had provided for its stability. The indulgence of the Treasurer, in allowing himself to be put in large advances, can only be accepted to a limited extent; and the consequence has been, that the Directors have, with pain, seen themselves under the necessity of ordering considerable sales (to the extent of upward of 70001. sterling) of the permanent resources of the Society, so as to have brought the property to an amount to which their best judgment dictates that it should not be reduced. The importance, nay the necessity, of maintaining a considerable reserved fund of available property, in order to the due maintenance of regu larity and credit in the Society's affairs, is, the Directors presume, no longer a matter of doubt with any considerate individual.

The present value of the Stock now held by the Trustees, after the sales which have been made during the current and some former years, is about 20,000. sterling; an amount falling greatly short of the total of one year's expenditure (the past average of which may be estimated at not less than 35,000%), and which, in the judgment of the Directors,

and also in that of other Friends and Members of the Society who have directed their attention to the subject, may with propriety be regarded as a suitable measure of such reservation.

The Directors trust that enough will be found in this brief yet important view of the Society's pecuniary affairs, to call forth the most zealous exertions of its supporters, in maintaining that progressive advance in its resources, which, while it enables the Directors to fulfil the obligations which its past measures have contracted, will justify them in prosecuting its actual undertakings with an honourable and consistent vigour. Viewing the present diminished state of the Society's reserved Funds, as considerably below the measure which a prudent regard to its welfare would prescribe, it cannot but be desirable, also, that the Directors should be enabled (at

X

least by the reservation of Legacies), gradually to repair the encroachments made on those Funds, so as to render them more nearly commensurate to the average amount of one year's expenditure.

The Directors can assure their constituents that they are desirous to endeavour to strengthen and render effective the leading Stations of the Society, rather than increase them indefinitely: but it will be obvious, that, on whatever plan their operations are conducted, the growing ordinary charges, and those unexpected and considerable sources of expense which inevitably spring up, render an augmenting income absolutely neces sary; and, while the necessities and

claims of the Heathen World continue so vast and urgent as they are, and the effects produced by the united efforts of Christians as yet fall so far short of what their obligations, their ardent desires, and their confident hopes equally dictate, nothing is, surely, less to be anticipated, than that they should suffer the labours of Missionaries to languish from a deficiency in those means, by the extent of which they must unavoidably be limited.

Progress of the Society.

It is with great satisfaction that your Committee are enabled to repeat their conviction, that the interest felt by British Christians in the spiritual welfare of the Jewish Nation is progressively increasing. This fact has been confirmed by the united testimony of those Clergymen, who have, during the past year, visited the various Auxiliaries: they have generally found a more numerous attendance at the Meetings, and have perceived a growing attention to the subject among many who had hitherto been insensible to its importance. Three new Auxiliaries have been formed during the past year-one in the city of Bath, another at Huddersfield, and the third at Birmingham; while, in several other

new places, collections have been made by pious individuals, and a foundation has been thus laid for more extended exertions in future.

Receipts from Sales of Ladies' Work.

With renewed feelings of thankfulness, your Committee acknowledge the important aid derived from the contribu tions of their Female Friends to the reof Work in London alone, and of some sources of the past year. From the Sale of the residue subsequently at Brighton, the sum of 2661. has been received; which, with the sums of three former years, has added nearly 1000l. to the funds of the Society. At Bath, Bristol, Cheltenham, Derby, Gainsborough, Gloucester, and Southampton, similar Sales have been held, which have also

been proportionately productive.

Hopeful Events among British Jews.

In the last three Reports, your Committee have expressed their conviction, not only that a diminished hostility has been evinced by the Jews of England toward the labours of the Society, but that a measure of attention toward Christianity itself has been awakened among them. This conviction has certainly been strengthened and confirmed by the events of last year.

The disposition on the part of some of their Rabbies to discuss the point at issue, in the pages of the Jewish Expositor, still continues to be manifested; and there is reason to hope that that publication is read by many among them, who have thus had, perhaps for the first time, both sides of the question present

ed to their consideration. The continued attendance of some Jews and Jewesses at the Monthly Typical Lectures, preached by your Chaplain on the First Sunday Evening of the month, at the Episcopal Jews' Chapel, has encouraged him to open a second Lecture, addressed to the Jews, on the First Wednesday Evening of each month, in which he has been promised the assistance of some of the most able and zealous advocates of the cause of Israel: the Rev. Charles Simeon, the Rev. Wm. Marsh, and the Rev. John Sargent, have already assisted in this work; and, on each occasion, several Jewish hearers have been present, to listen to their forcible arguments and affectionate appeals.

A degree of attention to the subject of Christianity has also been awakened among the Jews of some of the largest

commercial towns at a distance from the metropolis, which may be traced, under the Divine Blessing, to the Auxiliary Societies established in those places.

At the Meeting of the Liverpool Society, held in August last, a considerable number of Jews were present, and about fifty attended a Sermon afterward, addressed to them from the pulpit; and, on the following day, a conversation was held with several of them, who, if they did not profess themselves convinced of the truth of what they heard, evinced during the discussion a truly candid and amicable spirit. When it is considered, that, on the first establishment of a Society at Liverpool, much bitter hostility was displayed by the Jews, the pleasing change which has recently appeared may well operate as a stimulus to the friends of the cause to renewed perseverance in the work of faith in which they are engaged.

The baptism, at Plymouth, of the Officiating Reader of the Jewish Synagogue in that place, was stated at p. 558 of our Volume for 1825: his Wife has since been baptized at Exeter. In the same city, another Jew has been baptized, and another at Bristol; both of whom have been quickened in their pursuit of Divine Truth by the instructions of Mr. Alexander, the Reader above mentioned, with whom they had been previously acquainted. The Committee remark, in reference to these hopeful occurrences—

In recording such instances of the conversion of individuals, through the means of your Society, your Committee would desire to be always understood as expressing the language of that charity which hopeth all things, the stream of which a few, or even many, disappointments must by no means be permitted to interrupt. While, however, they would exclude with abhorrence those feelings of unchristian suspicion which such disappointments have a tendency to engender, they would encourage every proper exercise of caution; remembering that God alone searcheth the heart, and that time and future conduct are in all cases necessary to confirm and establish religious sincerity.

The Best Method of Addressing Jews. In concluding their report of what is hopeful among the Jews in England,

your Committee would refer to an Appeal which they ventured last year to make to their Clerical Friends, in behalf of such Israelites as might be found resident in their respective parishes.

Your Committee can imagine, that the supposed difficulty of addressing the Jews may have hindered some from making the attempt, who were otherwise disposed to admit the force of the Appeal itself. Few feel themselves prepared to enter on the Jewish Question, or on learned critical discussions of the interpretation of prophecy, and the refutations of those objections which the Jews are much more able to produce than Christians in general to answer.

Your Committee would mention, however, for encouragement under such circumstances, that the experience of the Society has shewn that little good is to be expected from merely learned and critical disputations with the Jews, for which so few are prepared, and which often only tend to irritate the pride and obstinacy of contending parties. The Gospel must be preached from the heart to the heart: the Jew must be treated as our fellow-man and our fellow-sinner: the curse of the law, under which he lies, must be urged upon his conscience, and the necessity of a thorough conversion of heart must be proved from his own Scriptures: thus the attention of the Jew will be turned away from those

cavils and objections which it is easy to urge, and fixed upon vital and practical points. What your Committee conceive to be the proper method of dealing with the Jews will be best understood by a reference to their Tracts, Nos. 42, 44, and 47, drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Thelwall; by an attentive perusal of which they conceive any of their friends who may wish to converse profitably with Jews will, under the Divine Blessing, find themselves competent to do so; and which, therefore, they earnestly recommend to their notice.

Schools.

Of the Schools your Committee are enabled to present a satisfactory report. Nine boys and eleven girls have been admitted during the past year: seven boys have been put out as apprentices, and ten girls have been placed as servants in Christian Families. The progress of the children in religious knowledge during the last year has been satisfactory; and their public examination in Lent, in their Catechism and in the