Cardinal Gonsalvi was suffering under a chronic disease, and consulted three physi cians, who declared on being questioned by the sick man, that this disease would be followed by death in a shorter or longer time, according to the manner in which he lived; but they advised him unanimously to give up his office, because in his situation mental agitation would be fatal to him. "If," inquired the Cardinal, "I give myself up to repose, how long, gentlemen, will you guarantee my life?" "Six years," answered the doctors. "And if I continue in office?"-"Three years

most."

at

"Your servant, gentlemen," replied the Cardinal, "I should prefer living two or three years in doing some good, to living six in idleness."

One of the Greek youths from Scio, sent to this country by Mr. Temple, having been present and having excited considerable interest, the Society passed a resolution, which will probably secure a support to one of these promising young strangers, during the course of his education for future usefulness.

The officers of the Society for the present year are:-ELIPHALET LOUD, Esq. Prest.; Rev. A. RICHMOND and Mr. SETH HUNT, V. Prests.; Rev. JONAS PERKINS, Sec.; Dr. EBENEZER ALDEN, Treas.; and Mr. SILAS PAINE, Jr. Auditor.

The next meeting was appointed at the meeting house of the Rev. Jonas Perkins, in

American Board of Foreign Braintree, on the 3d Wednesday in June.

Missions.

ANNIVERSARIES.

Palestine Missionary Society.

Composed of individuals residing in Norfolk, Plymouth and Bristol Counties, Massachu

setts.

This Society held its third anniversary at the meeting house of the second parish in Randolph, on the 16th ult. At half past 10 A. M. the meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. Mr. Huntington of North Bridgewater, after which the Minutes of the last annual meeting were read. The Society then attended to the Reports of the Secretary and Treasurer; and three Resolutions were passed the two first relating to the Reports; the third being as follows; viz.

That the members of this Society consider the object in which they are engaged, as highly interesting and important; and that they now renew their pledge of persevering and increased efforts, that, by the blessing of God, this object may be attained.

The movers and seconders were,-Rev. Daniel Huntington of North Bridgewater, and Mr. Rufus Anderson, Assistant Secretary of the Parent Institution-Rev. Samuel Colburn of Abington, and Henry Hill, Esq. Treasurer of the Parent Institution-Rev. David Brig ham of Randolph, and Rev. Richard S. Storrs of Braintree. By some of these gentlemen addresses were made adapted to the occasion. The meeting was then adjourned to the afternoon, when, in connexion with other customary exercises, a sermon was preached by the Rev. Daniel Thomas of Abington, from Acts xvi, 9, Come over into Macedonia and help us. A collection was then taken."

CONNECTICUT.-Middletown Upper Houses. Ladies' Association. Mrs. J. L. Williams, Pres., Mrs. Samuel Stocking, V. Pres., Mrs. Silas Sage, Sec., Mrs. Thomas Stow, Treas.; six Coll.-Gentlemen's Association. Rev. Joshua L. Williams, Pres., Joseph Wilcox, V. Pres., Israel Russell, Sec., Cornwall Doud Treas., six Collectors. Formed May 5th.

Durham. Ladies' Asso. Mrs. David Smith, Pres., Mrs. Submit Camp and Mrs. Timothy Stone, V. Pres., Mrs. Alice P. Wadsworth, Sec., Mrs. Gurnsey Bates, Treas., six Coll.--Gent. Asso. Rev. David Smith, Pres., Abner Newton, V. Pres., Timothy Stone, Sec., Samuel Curtis, Treas.; six Collectors. Formed, May 21st.

Middletown Lower Houses. Gent. Asso. Rev. John R. Crane, Pres., John R. Watkinson, V. Pres., Richard Rand, Sec., Richard Hubbard, Treas., 17 Coll. Formed May 25th.

Westfield, (cong. soc. in Middletown.) Ladies' Asso. Miss Polly Clark, Pres., Miss Sally Galpin, V. Pres., Miss Maria Roberts, Sec., Mrs. Asa Boardman, Treas., four Coll.-Gent. Asso. Rev. Stephen Hays, Pres., Jedediah Wilcox, V. Pres., Enoch C. Roberts, Sec., Eli Wilcox, Treas.; four Coll. Formed May 26th.

Middlefield, (cong. soc. in Middletown.) Ladies' Asso. Mrs. David Lyman, Pres., Miss Polly Augur, V. Pres., Mrs. William Lyman, Sec., Mrs. Charles Hubbard, Treas.; three Coll.-Gent. Asso. Eli Coe, Esq. Pres., Obed Stow, V. Pres., William Lyman, Sec., Phineas Augur, Treas.; three Coll. Formed May 27th. Killingworth. Ladies' Asso. Mrs. Philander Parmalee, Pres., Mrs. Jared Buel, V. Pres., Mrs. Nathaniel Wright, Sec., Mrs. George Elliot, Treas.; six Coll. --Gent. Asso. David Dibble, Pres., Nathaniel Wright, V. Pres., David Redfield, Sec., Elias Bushnell, Treas.; six Coll. Formed May 28th.

North Killingworth. Ladies' Asso. Mrs. Asa King, Pres., Mrs. Roswell Hull. V. Pres., Mrs. Dan Lane, Sec., Mrs. Samuel Davis, Treas.;. eight Coll.-Gent. Asso. Rev. Asa King, Pres., John Hinckley, V. Pres., Dan Lane, Esq. Sec., Dr. Rufus Turner, Treas., eight Coll. Formed June 8th.

Mr. ANDERSON, the Assistant Secretary of the last month.-At the time this sheet goes the Board, returned in good health, early in to press, Mr. EVARTS is supposed to be on his way from New-York to Boston.

ERRATUM:-In the last number of the Herald, p. 193, the receipts of the American Bible Society should have been stated at $41,008 44; and its issues of Bibles 31,509, and of Testaments 28,849. The mistakes probably arose from the sources of information.

It will be recollected that, at p. 241 of our last volume, we inserted a brief memoir of the Rev. James Richards, furnished by his missionary brethren in Ceylon. Many facts, however, pertaining to the character of Mr. Richards previous to his leaving this country, were not in the possession of his later associates, and are probably contained only in that private correspondence, in which, from time to time, he gave utterance to his ardent and unwavering attachment to the missionary cause. From a collection of this correspondence, a friend has had the kindness to, make a number of extracts and forward them to us; connecting with them a few notices of undoubted credibility. It will be interesting to trace the progress of Mr. Richards's mind, before missions to the heathen abroad had been attempted from this country.

in the vicinity of the town in which he resided, appears to have been the extent of his most ardent hopes. The idea of his

Mr. Richards was a child of prayer, consecrated to the service of God from his earliest infancy; and so serious and unexceptionable was his deportment in child-preaching the Gospel to distant Heathen, hood and early youth, that many of his had then probably never entered his own Christian friends were ready to believe he mind, or the minds of his parents. But had, in the first years of his life, been sanc- when, in Williams College, he began to tified by the Holy Spirit. But it was not converse with Mills and others of a kintill the age of thirteen, as he believed, that dred spirit, on the deplorable condition of he embraced the Savior by a living faith. || pagan nations; when they prayed, and And so great was his sense of his own contemplated the dying command of Christ un'worthiness, and his fear of obtruding to preach his Gospel to every creature, in himself among the friends of Christ, that all the world; his vision began to enlarge; he delayed for many years to make a and before the end of his third year in colpublic profession of religion. Subsequent lege, he had come to the fixed purpose of events have shewn, however, that, while spending his life among the heathen;-a his religious character was unknown, ex- purpose from which he was never aftercept to his more intimate acquaintance, wards known for one moment to swerve, he was making rapid advances in the and which was formed with only the condivine life. For a long period, he sacreddition-IF THE LORD WILL. ly consecrated one entire day in each month to fasting and prayer; and a delight-vacation, which was in the fall of 1808, reful grove, at a little distance from his father's house, became almost daily the place of his retirement; and witnessed, there can be no doubt, his meditations and his fervent prayers.

When Mr. Richards first entered on a course of study preparatory to preaching the Gospel, he contemplated no extensive field of labor. To be useful in some small destitute parish, like a few which he knew

VOL. XX.

He returned to his parents in the ensuing

vealed to them his unalterable determination, and with great earnestness pleaded before them the cause of the heathen. Happily for him, after the subject had come fully before them, they were as ready to give him to the heathen, as he had been to consecrate himself; and thus the parents and the child enjoyed, whenever they were together, till his final departure, the enviable pleasure of uniting in a most noble

30

sacrifice to the cause of that Savior who died for them. There were no misgivings. No difficulties or dangers discouraged or disheartened them. In fami ar conversation, his father, now an aged officer in the Congregational Church in Plainfield, Mass. once said to him, "James, when you think of leaving your father's house, and all your connexions and friends, and your native land; and when you think of the trials and hardships to which you will be exposed; do you not sometimes feel like giving back-does not your heart recoil?" "No, Sir," was the reply, "never, for a moment." From the time of this conve1. sation till he left the country, says one his most intimate friends, "his mind ap peared to be as constantly fixed on its beloved object, as the needle is to its pole."a In a letter written to his parents from the Theological Seminary, Andover, under date of February 1810, he says;-"I must tell you that two natives of the Sandwich Islands, Henry Obookiah and Thomas Hopoo, have arrived in this country. Brother Mills has found them out, and has placed one of them at his father's house. What the Lord means to do with these poor heathen, we know not; but this we can say, "The Lord's hand is not slortened that it cannot save,' and he will fu. I his promises in giving his Son the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession?

I have just been reading Horne's Letters on Missions. 'We say,' he writes, "that to love our neighbor as ourselves, and to do to all men as we would that they should do unto us is the consentaneous voice of the Prophets and Apostles, of the Law and Gospel. But do we do as we say, and practice as we believe? The richest fruit of our philanthropy has been a cold, ineffective piety. We have said, be ye free; be ye civilized; be ye converted; but we have eaten as heartily, slept as soundly, dressed as expensively, and enjoyed every good thing within our grasp as freely as though the heathen had been as happy as ourselves. We have had no fellowship with our Savior in his agony, and bloody sweat, his prayers and tears for the salvation of mankind.-We are chargeable with the perdition of all the poor heathen whom our diligence might have saved! and assuredly their souls will the Lord require at

our hands." "

In a letter to his parents, dated Andover, July 4, 1810, he says;-"The time, I hope, is not far distant, when some from New England, and perhaps from this Institution, will sacrifice every thing that the world holds dear, to carry the news of salvation to hose who never heard of a Savior. Last reek, four of the brethren presented them

selves before the General Association of
Massachusetts assembled at Bradford, and
declared it to be their determination to
spend their lives among the heathen, if the
Lord should prepare the way. Their
names are Adoniram Judson, Samuel New-
ell, Samuel Nott, and Samuel J. Mills.
They went at the particular request of the
Rev. Dr. Spring, of Newburyport, Mass.
who had accidentally found out some of
their feelings. You may think it strange
that my name was not among them; but
these four were thought a sufficient num-
ber, and all of them except Mills are of
more advanced standing than myself. At
the request of the Association, they stated
ir thoughts on the subject of Foreign
ssions; and the business, was referred to
ommittee, who reported that it was ex-
pient to appoint a number of persons, as
a Board of Commissioners for Foreign
Missions. They proceeded accordingly to
appoint such a Board. It is expected that
this Board will soon meet, and make pre-
parations for effecting a mission among the
heathen. O that the Lord may direct
them to such measures as he will own and
bless, and may many prove by their con-
duct, that they really believe the time is
now come, when the Lord's house must
be built-when the heathen must have the
Gospel. I hope the spirit of Apostolic
days will soon be re ived. I trust this is
the dawning of a orious day to some
poor idolater, to some benighted pagan."

In August of the next year he thus writes;-"I have now sent in my name, and given myself away to the Board of Commissioners. I expect, immediately after the approaching examination, to go with brother Warren to attend a course of Medical Lectures at Dartmouth College. How much more I shall be permitted to see my dear parents, I know not.-But this earth is not our home. This is not the place to enjoy an inheritance, but to gain it not to live with friends, but to make them-not to dwell in the rich port, but to sail on the boisterous ocean-not to sit down at the royal wedding-feast, but to act as servants. This life is for toil, the next for pleasure-this to bear the cross, that to wear the crown."

The time of Mr. Richards' departure from this country was delayed far beyond his expectation, by the war with Great, Britain. After finishing his course of study at the Theological Seminary in September 1812, he had spent nearly two years at Philadelphia, in connexion with the Medical School and Hospital, when he found that it required a strong exercise of submission, to meet the obstacles which so long debarred him from entering on the benevolent labors to which he had for

In his last letter to his parents, he says, "The principal trial," he wrote to his "I must now bring this letter to a close; brother, now a missionary at the Sandwich and what shall I say? Shall I tell you how Islands, under date of February 1821, it gratifies us to learn that you are so "that I now experience in consequence of comfortable and happy in the decline of my sickness, is inability to do the proper life? Shall I tell yon that we are more and work of a missionary. And this is a great more happy in our work, and that we trial, both by day and by night. No other have never repented having engaged in 199 subject ever engrossed my feelings like O, how would your hearts beat w that of preaching the Gospel to the hea-joy, my dear parents, could you with

the harmony, the zeal, the activity, the anxiety, the prayerfulness and the devotedness of the dear missionary brethren and sisters! And could you converse with the dear native converts, and be present at our sacramental tables when all our number meet around them, methinks you would break out in the language of one now in heaven, "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation." My own labors and sufferings I expect will soon be ended. Through the mercy of our God and Savior, I look forward to that period, with lively hope of seeing the Redeemer "face to face," and of joining the general assembly and church of the first born, and con mencing the song, 'Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.""

At the grave of Mr. Richards, a suitable monument is erected, having an Epitaph inscribed on it in English and in Tamul.

American Board of Foreign Missions.

PALESTINE MISSION.

JOURNAL OF MESSRS. GOODELL AND BIRD.

Cause of their leaving Malta.

Malta, Oct. 17, 1823. According to the suggestions of the Prudential Committee, that we might, for some years to come, find it advisable to employ our winters in travelling, we had a season of prayer and mutual consultation, about the middle of September, respecting the points, which of us should travel the approaching winter, and where we should go.

For various reasons, but chiefly because Mr. Temple was the only one of us who could superintend the printing of modern Greek, it was unanimously determined, that he should remain in Malta. The other two, it was thought expedient, should make preparations to embark for the Greek isles and for Smyrna by the middle of October. In the interval, by two or three arrivals, letters were obtained from our brethren in Syria, so representing the state of things there, that, in the begining of the present month, we had another meeting of consultation, in which it was concluded that our destination for the winter should be changed from Greece to Syria. We have been instructed to make Jerusalem, as soon as possible, the seat of our mission and residence; and now providence seems to have opened the way beyond our highest hopes. We almost fear to delay a single moment in embracing ||

directly to our missionary home, taking with us our families and goods.

On the 21st they engaged a passage on board "La Divina Providensa," a Maltese brig, bound to Cyprus and Beyrout.

Review of their Labors and Mercies.,

During the nine months which have elapsed, since the kind hand of our heav enly Father brought us to this island, we have generally enjoyed uninterrupted health, and have had more comforts and fewer cares and anxieties, than ny of those who preceded us in this mission. Agreeably to our instructions, we have devoted our principal time and attention to the attainment of language, and, in the mean time, have assisted in preaching several times a week in English to very attentive hearers; in conducting various little religious meetings with different classes of society, in different stages of religious knowledge and experience; and in managing a Sabbath school consisting chiefly of English and Greek children and youth of both sexes, who have committed about 40,000 verses of Scripture and hymns. We have been happy in possessing these immediate means of usefulness, while we have been engaged in study; and we trust a future day will show, that the labor bestowed upon Malta by other missionaries and by ourselves, has not been in vain.

Parting Celebration.

22. As we shall probably sail before the opportunity afforded us, of proceeding the Sabbath, we this evening commemorat