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evening, very wet with the rain. The 15th being the day of their yearly feast, nothing else could be attended to until that was over; they killed two fat beeves, and had melons, cucumbers, beans, corn, &c. in abundance. They finished about sundown, agreeing not to dance as is their custom; but to attend early in the morning to hear sermon. Crane addressed the people, and thanked them for their good behaviour. I never witnessed more civil conduct among as many white people, even when convened on more important occasions. He thanked the good Spirit for giving them that day so many good things; and told the people to come early in the morning to sermon. They came, as directed, before breakfast; and there were more than a hundred souls. I preached to them from Eph. v. 6, and it was the most attentive feeling meeting I have ever seen in this place. Several appeared very solemn, and one black man was in tears.

As I had found out, that some white people who reside near the lower town, were in expectation that the reserve land, of two miles square, at that place, would shortly be sold, and that they were wait. ing for an opportunity to purchase; and as I thought it would be very prejudicial to the Indians, and very detrimental to the missionary cause, to have a number of such people settled here, I proposed to the chiefs, that they should make a proposal to congress to exchange as much of their land along the line of the late purchase for this reserve. After the chiefs had consulted a little, they replied, that they would be willing to give land to congress for this reserve; but they could not do it without the consent of other nations. "But," said they, "we will ask our father the President, to give us one half of it, and the other half to the missionary or minister, who will come and live with us." He then delivered a speech, or petition, which I wrote down as interpreted, to be sent to the President, and which has been forwarded. I then set out for the lower town, and arrived at Mrs. Whi

taker's next day, a little before noon, where I met with the Rev. John Anderson, who was appointed by the Board of Trust to spend two months amongst these Indians.

Lord's day, 18th. I preached here from Gal. vi. 7. Mr. Anderson preached in the afternoon. On Tuesday Mr. Anderson preached at the village, and on Wednesday I sat out on my journey home.

Extract from the Sixth Report of the Religious Tract Society.

[From a Clergyman.]

"I HAVE dispersed a few hundreds of your tracts in my chapelry and neighbourhood, during the last two years; and, thank God, he has made them a blessing to many.

"When I entered on my ministry here, less than one-fourth of the inhabi tants attended public worship on Sunday mornings; few or none in the afternoon. Now, I have often the satisfaction of meeting two-thirds of my neighbours at chapel, morning and afternoon, on the Lord's day. Communicants, for the last two years, have been double the number they were before; and an earnest desire to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, is in general manifest in our little village.

"I have reason to conclude, that God has wrought this happy change among us by the means of your tracts, as much as by all my feeble efforts united."

As it must be pleasing to the benevolent to hear of the progress and success of missionary exertions, the following will be peculiarly animating. From June 1, 1804, to June 1, 1805, the donations and subscriptions for the use of the London missionary society were sixty thousand, nine hundred and ninety-three dollars, and thirty-three cents!

On the 5th inst. was opened in this city an Independent Church, under the pasto ral care of the Rev. John Hey.

OBITUARY.

Memoirs of Mrs. Hannah Hodge, who died in Philadelphia, Dec. 17th, 1805, in the 85th year of her age.

Or the subject of this memoir it may be said without exaggeration, that, for more than half a century, she had de

served the appellation of" a mother in Israel." The circumstances of her early life were, likewise, closely interwoven with the most remarkable occurrences which attended the great revival of religi on in Philadelphia, in common with many

other places, through the instrumentality of the Rev. George Whitefield. For these reasons it is believed, that a biographical sketch, somewhat more ample than usual, of this truly excellent and remarkable woman, may not be devoid either of instruction or entertainment to the readers of the magazine.

Mrs. Hannah Hodge was born in Philadelphia, in January, 1721. Her father's name was John Harkum: he was by descent an Englishman, and by occupation a tobacconist. Her mother, whose maiden name was Doe, or Doz, was a descendant of a French protestant, who fled his country on account of his religion, in consequence of the revocation of the edict of Nantz by Lewis the 14th, A. D. 1685. This family of Doz, with other French protestants, were principally instrumental in erecting the first presbyterian church in the city of Philadelphia. Associating with a few English and Irish, whose sen timents they found substantially the same with their own, they built a small wooden house for public worship, where the first presbyterian church now stands. Of this church the Rev. Jedidiah Andrews, a congregational minister from New-England, was called to be the first pastor. His unyielding attachment to certain measures, which he judged to be important in organizing the congregation and settling its government and worship, dismembered it of several persons who had been most active in its formation, and who from that time joined the episcopal church. Among these was the maternal grandfather of Mrs. Hodge. Her own father and mother, however, remained in connexion with the congregation of Mr. Andrews, and under his ministry she was born, and lived to the age of about eighteen years. From her childhood she was disposed to a degree of serious thoughtfulness, and was a constant attendant on public worship. But it was her settled opinion, in after life, that she was totally unacquainted with vital piety, while she remained under the pastoral care of Mr. Andrews. By him, notwithstanding, she was persuaded to join in the communion of his church, of which she was a member for two or three years.

When Mr. Whitefield first visited America, she was deeply affected by his preaching, on which she assiduously attended. She has often told her friends, that after the first sermon which she heard him preach, she was ready to say with the woman of Samaria, "Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did." The preacher, she said, had so ex

actly described all the secret workings of her heart, her views, her wishes, her thoughts, her imaginations, and her exercises, that she really believed he was either more than mortal, or else that he was supernaturally assisted to know her heart. So ignorant was she then, of what she well understood afterwards, that all corrupted human hearts are much alike; and that he who can paint one, justly and in lively colours, may present a picture which many will recognize as their own.

The effects produced in Philadelphia, at this time, by the preaching of Mr. Whitefield, were truly astonishing. Numbers of almost all religious denominations, and many who had no connexion with any denomination, were brought to inquire with the utmost earnestness, what they should do to be saved. Such was the engagedness of multitudes to listen to spiritual instruction, that there was public worship regularly twice a day, for the space of a year, and on the Lord's day it was celebrated generally thrice, and frequently four times. An aged man, deeply interested in the scenes which then were witnessed, and who is still living, has informed the writer, that the city (not then probably a third as large as it now is) contained twenty-six societies for social prayer and religious conference; and probably there were others not known to him. So great was the zeal and enthu. siasm to hear Mr. Whitefield preach, that many from the city followed him on foot to Chester, to Abingdon, to Neshaminy, and some even to New-Brunswick, in New-Jersey, the distance of sixty miles. She, the narrative of whose early life has led to the notice of these circumstances, gave the writer a particular account of an excursion of twenty miles, which she made to Neshaminy on foot, to attend a religious meeting there. But so far was she from applauding herself for it, that she condemned both herself and others, as chargeable with imprudence and extravagance. She said, that in these excursions, the youth of both sexes were often exposed to danger and temptation, and that the best apology which could be made for them was, that they were both young and ignorant, and that they had wanted either the opportunity or the inclination to hear faithful preaching, till their attention had been engaged by Mr. Whitefield. She used, indeed, often to remark, that the general ignorance of real piety & experimental religion was, at that time, truly surprising. After the first impressions made by Mr. Whitefield, four or five godly women in the city, were the

principal counsellors to whom awakened and inquiring sinners used to resort, or could resort, for advice and direction. Even the public preaching of ministers of the gospel, some who were no doubt practically acquainted with religion, was not, it would seem, always the most seasonable and judicious. Mr. Rowland, a truly pious and eloquent man, being invited to preach in the Baptist church, proclaimed the terrors of the divine law with such energy, to those whose souls were already sinking under them, that not a few fainted away. On this occasion, however, his error was publicly corrected by the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, who, standing at the foot of the pulpit, and seeing the effect produced on the assembly, interrupted and arrested the preacher by this address: "Brother Rowland, is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?" Mr. Rowland, on this, changed immediately the tenor of his address, and sought to direct to the Saviour, those who were overwhelmed with a sense of their guilt. But, before this had taken place, the subject of the present memoir had been carried out of the church, in a swoon which lasted for a considerable time.

It has not been ascertained how long her mind remained subject to legal terror, without any measure of the comfortable hope of the gospel. Her exercises, however, are well known to have been of a very violent and distressing kind. At one time she was brought near to the borders of despair, insomuch that she even refused to listen to the counsel of Mr. Tennent, or even to suffer him to pray with her, under an apprehension that it would but aggravate her future condemnation. In this state of mind she was visited by the Rev. Dr. Finley, who prudently waved a direct discussion of her case, but gradually and insensibly drew her attention to the all-sufficiency of the Saviour: "And who knows," said he "but there may be mercy and pardon there for you." He then left her. But the words "who knows but there may be mercy for you,"

melted her soul. They seemed to chime in her ears after he was gone. She fell upon her knees, and poured out her heart before God in secret; and she was enabled so to trust her soul into the Saviour's hands as to derive some hope of the divine acceptance, and a measure of consolation, from that time. She experienced, however, a number of fluctuations, before she gained any thing like an established peace of mind.

It was at this period, that she, with a number of others, endured persecution for conscience sake, and were even excluded from their parents' houses, for considering and treating the salvation of their souls as the one thing needful. The subject of this narrative, during the time of her banishment from her home, supported herself by her needle. She had a sister who was similarly circumstanced with herself. They rented a room, and lived comfortably and reputably on the fruits of their own industry, and before their father's death, they had the happiness of seeing him fully reconciled to them, and of hearing him express his regret for the severity with which he had treated them.

In 1743 a church was formed by Mr. Gilbert Tennent, out of those who were denominated the followers and converts of Mr. Whitefield. No less than 140 in'dividuals were received at first, after a very strict examination, as members of this newly constituted church. The admission of a large number more was delayed, only because their exercises and spiritual state had not yet attained such maturity as to afford satisfaction to themselves, or to the officers of the church. But among those received on the first examination was the eminent christian whose story is here recorded, and who was to be, for more than sixty years, one of the brightest ornaments and most useful members of the church with which she now became connected.

[To be continued.]

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