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Letter of Lowe Ah Cook, a Chinese.

language before, but this is first letter I have hold the pen to write to you, which from the first beginning and to these day. Now I am a stranger here, my mother, my brother, my sister and all my friends and I had left them every one there behind me; therefore then I had great desire to go to any way to learning the English language, to be a interpreter to treade with stranger, that is for my living so I had been to one place on eastward, which is called Collenarry, and I stopped there one year and two days, and there were seemed nothing good to me, for I had return back unto my own country again, then I heard Mr. Milnor he want a man come home with him, so I did engage to be servant to him, ⚫ came over this country, and I had been home once since that, and last time I came over that was not long and I had tired that such situation, then said I unto Mr. Milnor to get me any kind of imployment, but that which I was tired of it, and he is very good to me also and immediately he got a place for me which is Mr. Dummar's store, from thence every Sabbath day I had rested and often walked in the city and pass many time the door of the churches, when I was not think that the religion in my heart, because for I know that the heven and hell and we are sinners in the blood, were brought to death but know not the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, and he died for us and he make peace with God for his people, that I do not know not before that in process of time it came to pass I have met your mother and then she showed me to go to the Sunday School which I am now going at every Sabbathday, therefore you and me is one known another then who think that I am so far from you and how in suddenly be drawn near the side of you at the moment time, that it is no men can tell, but God, he is nothing on earth be do hard for him, and he work in one minute there much better than we can work all the day of our lives. O how glorious is our Father our God who reigns above the sky, and who sent the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night; and who spread the flowing seas abroad and made the mountains rise, and who filled the goodness upon the earth with food for us; O how the Lord wonders are displayed, whereever we turn our eye if we survey the ground every inch we tread or gaze no matter how high upon the sky there is not a place where we can flee but makes God is present there. So now he gave the goodness also. I do blest be the Lord he had put forth unto your hand to pull me out of the darkness and awoke me up from in the dream; because I know that myself I was born in the wilderness, and the deep sleep fall upon me all time. Now I desire to return unto my own country again in a few months from this; but I hope one thing if Mr. Morrison, he will gave goodness to me seen you do then I am surely my eyes shall be open and I will be see many and many were they are blind. O but we are hoping the Lord he shall gave us fulfilled in his prophets. He is not for I am now able to write but according you word and I must try, for I know you instruct me from your heart and I oath my word I never will

Encouragement to the Deaf to attend the house of God. 63

forget you kindness as long as I live, I have no more to say at present, I remane your humble servant,

LOWE AH COOK."

The letter needs no comment, God by his Spirit, appears to have carried home the instructions of Mr. Nitchie to the heart of his pupil, and while learning to read, he has also been taught to love the word of God, which reveals so glorious a work as that of redeeming love. You will observe that his language is mostly scriptural; the reason is obvious, he had never read any other book in English but the Bible. His views on the essential doctrines of the gospel are very correct; how simply, yet with how much faith does he express himself on the doctrine of original sin, are sinners in the blood."

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ENCOURAGEMENT TO THE DEAF TO ATTEND the HOUSE OF GOD.

The following instance evinces the possibility that those may recover their hearing who have long mourned in secret, because the voice of salvation has fallen on their ears confused and indistinct. JOHN HARWOOD was born Jan. 10th, 1709-10; his life passed on to the verge of manhood, in the towns of Lymington and Portsea, in the county of Southampton.

More than forty years he was employed as a labourer in his Majesty's yard at Portsea, and was known by the name of Honest John, which, while it sheds a fragrance on his memory, prevented his elevation; his solicitous friends sought his promotion, but it was answered " a better man could not be put in his place."

Before the military guarded the yard, he usually spent his watch-nights in meditation, prayer, and praise; but his chief delight was his early walk on the Sabbath morning, to hail the sun emerging from the ocean. The sublimity of the prospect, united with the general tranquillity of his mind, produced a serene solemnity, in which temper he heard from the lips of his reverend pastor Mr. Newman, the words of eternal life.

Work on the Lord's day was not then so frequent in the King's yard; when pressed to it he often refused, and if it appeared to him a work of necessity, the necessitous reaped the fruit of his labours; with the residue he bought books of devotion.

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On the first Sabbath of a probational sermon by Mr. Fareham, in his 82d year, after an increasing deafness of sixteen years, (eight of which were exceedingly painful) on that day he presented himself to God with his hearing perfectly recovered.

The good old man tottered cheerfully to the house of God, and was seen-not as was his usual custom, literally on tip-toe, with fixed eyes, and with a countenance which alternately indicated sorrow or joy, as he heard or did not hear-but with showers of tears, testifying his gratitude, and his possession of joys unspeakable and full of glory.-The days were past in which he tried every situation and attitude to hear; and his friend was no longer wanted to show him the appointed hymns and portions of sacred Scripture.

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Bible Societies. Poetry.

At the close of public worship, he expressed, in broken accents, his gratitude and joy, calling on all to unite with him in praise, adding, "Now God has totally removed my fears-I shall die in a little time-a little while enjoy my Redeemer's pledge of love, and then close my days." His hearing and assurance of the favour of God in Christ remained till his death.

After enjoying these blessings sixteen months, he awoke early on the morning of his 84th birth-day, and finding himself extremely thirsty, called his niece; she went to fetch him some refreshment, and on her return, found him in the same posture-but his spirit was with God.

Reader, art thou deaf? for the sake of example attend the house of God; thy recovery is not impossible-he was an old man when his hearing was restored. [Lond. Evan. Mag.]

BIBLE SOCIETIES.

At a meeting of the N. Y. African Bible Society, 21st March, the following persons were elected Managers for the ensuing year:

Rev. W. Miller, Jacob Matthews, Thomas Miller, James Varick, George Degrass, Lewis Carter, Sandy Lattion, Robert F. Williams, William Lambert, Andrew Smith, Abram Marks, James Baker, George Colling.

After which the Managers retired and appointed their officers, viz.

Rev. William Miller, President; Mr. Jacob Matthews, first Vice· President; Rev. James Varick, second Vice-President; Mr. Lewis Carter, Treasurer: Mr. George Colling, Secretary.j

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A Society has been recently formed in the upper part of Albemarle and Nelson Counties, (Virg.) for the diffusion of Religious knowledge, either by appropriating its funds to the purchase of Bibles, or for the benefit of Missionary exertions. It is to be Auxiliary to the American Bible Society for the present year.

THE LOVELINESS OF EARLY PIETY.

Fair as the herald rays of morṇ,

That tinge the eastern sky,
Is infant reason's gradual dawn,
In each discerning eye.

But fairer still in Virtue's eyes,
Those prospects unconfin'd,
With which Religion's beams arise
Upon the youth:ful mind.

Sweet are the lark's aspiring lays,

The buoyant clouds among;
But sweeter far the Saviour's praise,
In youth's devoted song.

All lovely is the queen of flowers;
But lovelier fær than she,

The blooming youth's expanding pow.
Adorned by Piety.
[ers,

Fair is the lily of the vale,

The verdant hills beneath;
And sweet the cowslip of the dale,
In Spring's returning wreath.

But fairer still, and sweeter far

Than Zephyr's balmy breath,
The retrospects of Virtue are,

And beautiful in death.

Bright flaming upward through the
The sun pursues his way; [skies
But brighter far the just shall rise
Upon the judgment day!

THE CHRISTIAN HERALD.

VOL. III.]

Saturday, April 26, 1817.

[No 5.

First Annual Report of the N. Y. Female Union Society for the promotion of Sabbath Schools.

In the commencement of this interesting Report, an account is given of the first Sabbath Schools established in New-York, and we presume, of the first in the United States. They are traced as far back as the year 1804, when that venerable mother in Israelwhose name and whose praise are connected with the formation of some of the earliest and most valuable charitable establishments which adorn our city-the late Mrs. Isabella Graham, instituted two Sabbath Schools for giving religious and catechetical instruction to ignorant poor children. So little disposed at that time were these heedless youth to reap the benefit of the kind attentions of Mrs. Graham, and her unwearied exertions to promote their moral and spiritual improvement, that she found it necessary to bribe. their regular and punctual attendance by pecuniary rewards. One of these schools she superintended herself for several years; and it was relinquished only a few months before her decease, in consequence of a number of the subjects of her care being provided for by the catechetical schools which the Evangelical Society had then established for affording religious instruction, once a week, to indigent children in the suburbs of this city.

Dr. Pole's History of Adult Schools, soon after it was published in Great Britain, having been sent to this country, was read by Mrs. Graham with great delight; and her benevolent mind always alive to the wants of humanity, and ever disposed to do all in her power to relieve them, determined immediately to improve the information which that history afforded, by making an essay of a similar undertaking in the vicinity of her residence. She accordingly opened an Adult School at Greenwich on the second Sabbath of June, 1814.

The Report then proceeds as follows:

She called on families for adults willing to be instructed, and on young people employed at the manufactories, whose time in the morning of life is so occupied by manual labour as to leave little for the cultivation of their minds. When she had given her scholars a lesson in the first principles of reading, Mrs. Graham entered upon a course of religious instruction, beginning with the creation of the world. After relating to them the commandment given to

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Report of the N. Y. Female Union Society

our first parents when placed in the garden of Eden, she inquired whether any one of them could inform her if Adam kept the commandment? All were silent: she addressed herself to a woman upwards of forty years of age, saying, " Mrs. W. can't you tell me?" Her reply was, "No, I never heard of Adam." For three

successive Sabbaths Mrs. Graham instructed her school. Before the fifth Sabbath, she had ceased from her labours, and entered into the rest prepared for the people of God. "Matrons!" says her funeral sermon, "has she left her mantle? Are there none among you to hear her voice from the tomb, "Go, and do thou likewise?" "Maidens! are there none among you, who would wish to array yourselves hereafter in the honours of this virtuous woman?" Yes! her mantle has descended, and more than three hundred matrons, and maidens, are carrying on the last work she was engaged in on earth.

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Mrs. Graham's example was soon followed by Mrs. V, of Somerville, New Jersey, who opened a school there. Two more schools were opened in this city; but as no Society existed for their support, the work made but slow progress.

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Early in the year 1815, the Ladies of Philadelphia commenced their exertions in Sunday School teaching; and as they formed Societies, they soon outran their sisters in New-York, in this useful work. Various publications relative to Sunday School Union Societies in England, were received from Mr. Stephen Prust of Bristol in December, 1815. In these, notice was taken of what little had been done in America, and warm wishes expressed for our perseverance in the good work. A union of all denominations in this city was earnestly desired by the few who were engaged in Sunday Schools; and they anxiously looked to the other sex to come forward in so arduous an undertaking, wishing only to be assistants to them. The time, however, was now come, and a sovereign God often shows himself peculiarly so in his choice of instruments. He who could level the walls of Jericho by the blowing of trumpets, or discomfit an army by a pitcher and a lamp; He who chose the door keeper of a Methodist Chapel, and a poor Weaver, to begin the work in Bristol, and in Ireland, pleased to employ the weaker sex to form the first Sabbath School Union in the United States.

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A meeting of females of different religions denominations was called on the 24th of January, 1816, and on the 31st day of the same month, this Society was organized. It was contemplated to give instruction to female adults and youth of both sexes; but many male adults pleaded for the same privilege. From all embarrassment attendant on the latter circumstance, this Society was soon relieved by the formation of the "New-York Sunday School Union," by gentlemen of different denominations; the latter so soon followed the former, that the two Societies may be considered Co-eval.

At the first quarterly meeting of this Society, reports were received from sixteen schools, and information of two more about to

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