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From the Weekly Recorder, April 17.

Female Cent Society of Chillicothe.

A SOCIETY of this denomination has lately been organized in this town. A constitution has been adopted and subscribed by above twenty females, and there is reason to hope that the number will be considerably augmented. Agreeably to the constitution of the Society, the Society is to consist of females only, married or unmarried; and they are to be such as sustain a religious or moral character. Those who become members are required to pay one dollar in advance, and one cent a day through the year, to be discharged quarterly.

The funds are to be distributed in the following manner :One fourth is to be sent to the professors of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, and one fourth to the Theological Seminary at New-York, to be applied to such students of divi nity as may need pecuniary aid. One fourth is to be given to such students in this State, as have been received as candidates for the ministry by some presbytery, and are preparing to attend either of the aforesaid Seminaries, for which they may require assistance. The remaining fourth is to be distributed in alms, for the relief of the indigent, and in procuring books for poor children who may attend the Sunday Schools in this place. To this general arrangement for disposing of the funds there are some exceptions, according to circumstances, which we need not particularize.

The education of poor and pious young men for the minis try of the Gospel, which is the principal object of this Association, is unquestionably a matter of vast importance; and we know not how any Christian can refuse his aid in contributing for this purpose, according as God has prospered him, provided he possess sufficient information of the deplorable situation of many parts of the United States, in regard to spiritual instruction.

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Extract of a letter from Norfolk, Va., dated May 11, 1816.

"THE people of Norfolk are crowding the Meeting Houses, and numbers seem to be much concerned for the salvation of their souls. Prayer meetings are held in private houses now, where a few months since, card parties, &c. were held."

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AN ELEGANT THOUGHT.

In a speech at the formation of a Methodist Missionary Society, in Sheffield, (England,) the Poet Montgomery, has the following beautiful sentiment. In the Bible Society, (said he,) all names and distinctions of sects are blended till they are lost, like the prismatic colours in a ray of pure and perfect light. In the Missionary work, though divided, they are not discordant; but like the same colours displayed and harmonized in the rainbow, they form an arch of glory, ascending, on the one hand, from earth to heaven; and on the other, descending from heaven to earth, a bow of promise; a covenant of peace; a sign that the storm is passing away, and the Sun of Righteousness. with healing in his wings, breaking forth on all nations.

THE

VOL. I.]

Saturday, June 1, 1816.

[No. 10.

Extracts from the correspondence of the British and Foreign Bible Society, dated March 1, 1816.

From the Committee of the Bible Society at Lund, in

Sweden.

Lund, Dec, 9, 1815. It is in the midst of a bloody contest for civil liberty that mankind have been roused to a sense of higher and spiritual concerns. The dazzling meteors of a false light are vanishing before the bright Star of Revelation, which, with hea venly force, breaks through the clouds.

The unremitting and successful zeal of the British and Foreign Bible Society, to spread the light of the Gospel to all the world, and in all known languages, has deservedly met with the admiration and blessings of all who have any feelings for heavenly truth. On joining our sentiments to these, we embrace this first opportunity of offering you our cordial greetings. But, my lord and gentlemen, you have another claim on us, and that is, our humble and sincere thanks for the liberal donation of 300l. which you have generously bestowed on us. Our Society has thus, by your goodness, commenced under the most promising auspices; and we have every reason to hope and trust, that our endea vours will be blessed and furthered by him, who alone can give the increase." Fervent and unremitting are our prayers to him, that, with his holy word, he will vouchsafe to give his Grace and Spirit.

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From the Rev. R. Pinkerton.

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St. Petersburg, Dec. 11, O. S 1815. THE emperor is now returned to his capital, to shed blessings, I trust spiritual as well as temporal, on the heads of his numerous subjects. Our noble President informed me, yesterday, that his majesty had already spoken with him about the Bible Society, had expressed great joy at its prosperity, begged the prince to promote its interest to the VOL. I.-No. 10. K

utmost of his power, and promised every assistance on his part. His majesty even added, that he spake from personal knowledge of the value and utility of the Holy Scriptures. Are you not ready to exclaim, Oh, Russia! thy deserts shall yet rejoice, and blossom as the rose! On thy Siberian wilds the Sun of Righteousness shall yet arise, and dispel the moral gloom which has so long hung over the minds of their numerous tribes: the glory of the Gospel day shall cause more exultations in their tents than the transitory blaze of the Aurora Borealis.

Yes, under the benign influence of Heaven, and the fostering sun of imperial aid and example, the Russian Bible Society shall surely prosper. The subject has received that consideration from the emperor's mind which its importance. deserved, and has produced that conviction which stimulates to action. Its claims are founded on principles which Russians unanimously recognize; and hence it is, that the more attention it excites, the greater are its conquests in every quarter of the empire. At present, the Bible Society is the frequent subject of conversation in almost every circle in this great metropolis.

From Mr. Miller, Director of the Schools in the city of Irkutsk.

A priest in Moscow, having lost his all in 1812, through the French invasion, went to market, and purchased an old feather-bed for his family. On taking off the cover, to have it cleaned, he found a packet of bank notes among the fea thers, amounting to 705 rubles. Notwithstanding his poverty, the honest man went, and made known this circumstance to government, which appointed to him the third part of this sum as his lawful property; but even this the good priest could not think of applying to the relief of his wants, but transmitted the whole sum, which was 235 rubles, to promote the object of the Russian Bible Society.

A surgeon, lately deceased, in the government of Tamboff, has left six thousand rubles to the Russian Bible Society.

These are examples, my dear friend, worthy of being known among the benevolent of Great Britain. From the Right Rev. N. Hertzberg, Provost of the province of Hardanger, Ullensvang, near Bergen, in Ñor

way.

July 10, 1815.

Lately I received your annals, viz. the Tenth Report, for 1814, and a summary account of the British and Foreign

Bible Society, of which I had never heard any thing but the name before; thus receiving, in a moment, what I could not have hoped for in a year. I read-read again; and, after reading it ten times over, it still delighted me. Í lifted I up my hoary head, and, from my inmost soul, fetched sighs of gratitude to the Paternal Ruler of the universe. So many thousands, said I, refuse genuflection to the Baal of our times; to indifference! so many thousands languish for the knowledge of the everlasting Gospel! O, what immense good are you doing, from Greenland and Labrador to the uttermost part of Siberia; from Lapland to Van Diemen's land; yea, throughout the whole earth! What tender solicitude to procure the Bible for the poor inhabitants of Iceland! Thus the divine oracle is fulfilled: "Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world: in them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun.' Psal. xix. 4.

From the Committee of the Swedish Bible Society.

Stockholm, July 30, 1815. During the three months of its independent existence, the Swedish Bible Society has received many proofs of a general interest in its favour; possessing, as patron, the sove reign; as first member, his royal highness the crown prince; as honorary members, many of the highest officers of the state; and the number of its annual members amounting to 300 persons of all classes. Hence the Society has con ceived the fondest expectations of the final success of its exertions. His royal highness the Crown Prince has graciously bestowed upon the Society a gift of 2,400 rix dollars, Banco; and the other members, encouraged by this high example, are not slow in contributing, every one his mite. By the donations already received, the Society is enabled to procure, without loss of time, a large edition of the whole Bible in Swedish; and necessary measures, to this effect, have been adopted. In the sister kingdom, Norway, a foundation is also laid for a Bible Society, whose establishment, the common benefactor, his royal highness the Crown Prince, has powerfully promoted, by a generous donation of 6,600 rix dollars, Banco. The enlightened clergy of Norway, and many of its reflecting inhabitants, have evinced the sincerest zeal for the advancement and accomplishment of this Institution. Thus every thing seems to announce the approach of that joyful day, when the word of the Lord shall be found in the smallest cottage of the North.

Extracts from an address of Prince Galitzin at the second anniversary of the Russian Bible Society.

Lovers and promoters of the Divine Word! When you were assembled, last year, in this place, to receive from the Committee, chosen by yourselves, their first Report concerning the undertaking founded on your Christian zeal, and supported by your bounty, you were saluted by the joyful tidings that, at last, also, we were become witnesses of the word of life. Doubtless, in the present meeting, the ardour of your zeal is ready to inquire, does, then, the word of God increase among us?

Though it be not given unto us, to observe how the word of God grows in the hearts of men, (this being known to him alone who giveth the increase to that which is planted and watered by man;) yet those dispositions towards the word, which are manifest before our eyes, bear witness of its internal growth. The number of zealous promoters of the dissemination of the word of God increases; and, where there is sincerity in the sowers, there never will be a want of the divine blessing upon the seed. The number of those who thirst to read and to hear the Divine Word, increases also. What can be more encouraging? The husbandman may sometimes be in want of rain, or sunshine, or even of seed itself; but, to the sowers of the word of God, of all thing, surely, a prepared soil is most desirable, because their seed never fails, their spiritual sun never sets, and the heavenly showers are never withheld. On the present occasion, I cannot refrain from anticipating certain pleasing, and most promising, features contained in the Report to be laid before you, respecting the prosperity of the Russian Bible Society. Our pious emperor, though at a distance from Russia, labouring for the good of the nations, yet always present with all that is calculated to promote the welfare of his people, and of mankind, has, even in these circumstances, given us a new token of his regard to the work of the Bible Society; for he has granted the same privileges to promote its correspondence, that are enjoyed by the dif ferent departments of government themselves*. Our most sincere union with the British and Foreign Bible Society, also continues to be preserved, by which we are so essentially aided in our most difficult undertakings, and enabled the more easily to accomplish them. We can even say, that Providence has stretched out a gracious hand, and favoured

*Not only the privilege of sending all letters, free from postage, but also of sending Bibles, by post, to any part of the empire, free from charge.

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