Mrs. Pidgeon has since joined her beloved partner in glory. She fell asleep in Jesus on the 9th of January 1812. From an union of several years with her excellent husband, and from an acquaintance with a large circle of religious friends, the language of Canaan had become familiar, to her; but the closing scene of her life, which was terminated by conSumption, was reserved for the display of divine grace in her everlasting salvation.

"Her God sustain'd her in her final hour: Her final hour brought glory to her God!"

The sick bed was to her the bed of consolation; and death, which proves to so many the king of terrors, was to her the messenger of peace. Possessed of the victory

that overcometh the world, she was enabled to sustain the increas ing pressure of her disease with uncommon patience and submission. Her resignation to the Divine will was exemplary: never did a murmuring word drop from her lips. Her will was perfectly resigned to the will of Jesus; and she experienced it

"Sweet to be passive in his hands,
And know no will but his."

Her interest in the blood and righteousness of Christ was clear and bright through her last illness, Her hope was alone upon Christ, the Rock of ages; she knew in whom she believed, and frequently desired to depart, that she might be with her living Head for ever. The Sun of righteousness shed his refulgent beams upon her during the whole of her confinement; her peace flowed as a river; her joy was great, and her consolations abundant. After committing her five little ones into the hands of her heavenly Father, she bid adieu to time, and entered on a neverending eternity of blessedness. Dublin.

AARON.

Considerations of this nature have not only governed this Society in the choice of its first scene of labour, but they led also to the benevolent establishment of the colony of Sierra Leone. They animate the exertions of the African Institution. They induced many of the same humane men who led the way in these two designs, to associate some years since for the purpose of bringing over to this country many African youths for education; in order that they might, under the Divine favour, carry back to their native tribes the blessings of Christianity and civilization. The climate of this country is found to be so injurious to Africans, that this last attempt is now abandoned: but the Society for Missions to Africa and the East has the best prospect of becoming an instrument of conveying extensively these blessings to Western Africa.

At Bashia, on the Rio Pongas, about a hundred miles north of Sierra Leone, in the very centre of what has been the principal seat of the slave-trade, this Society has erected a settlement; and, at Canoffee, a few miles distant on the same river, another has been formed: a third is about to be established, at the express invitation of the native chief, on the Rio Dembia, between the Rio Pongas and Sierra Leone; which has been named Gambier, in token of respect for the noble President of the Society.

Little success could be expected with the adults, on a coast where the slave-trade had debased the minds and depraved the morals of the population. It is with the children that the Society hope, by the Divine blessing, to succeed. The Missionaries have, according ly, hitherto chiefly occupied them selves with the young. About 120 children are now under their care: and, as it is necessary to contribante, in part at least, toward the

support of many of these children, the Society allows 51. per annum for each child so circumstanced. Many sons of native chiefs are among their scholars; the good effect of which circumstance, in attaching the parents to the Missionaries, has been manifested on several critical occasions: and, the confidence of the natives being now gained, the Missionaries feel the way opened to them for announcing the good tidings of salvation by the public preaching of the Word.

The Missionaries themselves express the greatest confidence and the most lively hopes of success among the children. Schools are opening for them in different places. The Rev. Messrs. Wilhelm and Klein, lately arrived in Africa," have been well instructed in the national system of education so happily establishing in this country; and furnished with every thing necessary for organizing schools in Africa on that admirable plan. The Society hopes, by these measures, in conjunctionwith other bodies, to remunerate Western Africa, in some small degree, for those flagrant wrongs which she has suffered from the cupidity of men calling themselves Christians.

It was with this view, principally, that the western coast of that continent was adopted as the first scene of the Society's exertions.

On this coast, from 3 to 400 children may be brought under the Christian care of the Missionaries and their number kept up by constant succession, as the elder children shall leave the settlements. Native schoolmasters will, doubtless, arise from these seminaries,. to diffuse the knowledge of letters and of Christianity among their tribes; and many of the most promising of these young men, having first proved their competence for the work, may go forth, ordained by the Missionaries, who have it

their power, according to the constitution of the Lutheran Church, to admit such persons to holy orders; as the Lutheran ministers in India, under the protection of the "Society for promoting Christian Knowledge," ordained the useful and eloquent native preacher Sattianaden. A native youth, edu cated in the school at Bashia, ac quainted with several of the African tongues, of good talents, and with an earnest desire to understand the Scriptures, that he may transfuse them into those tongues, has been in this country, and will probably return hither to study for that end in the Society's seminary. The Committee cannot but hope, that this will prove the first-fruits of a plentiful harvest; and that God will raise up many native witnesses of the truth and power of the Gospel.

But the support of settlements to such an extent-the Christian universities of Western Africa, as we trust they will prove with all the children, Missionaries, laymen, and females requisite for carrying on this design; together with such assistance as it may be occasionally requisite to afford to the various native schoolmasters and preachers, who may be sent forth from them, at no distant period; all this is far beyond the present means of the Society: but Divine Providence has so led on the Society toward this object, and has placed it so much within the hope fan early accomplishment, that the Committee entertains no doubt but that when the friends of Missions throughout the country fully understand its wants, they will come forward with a liberal and permanent supply.

MALTA AND THE LEVANT.

The revolutions on the continent having ruined the ancient Romish Society, "De propaganda Fide," the Missions maintained by that body are dwindling away. The

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Committee have had much interesting communication on this subject with Dr. Naudi from Malta, who strongly urges the Society to send well-qualified men to carry the Gospel into the Levant and throughout the Archipelago where there are the most promising openings for usefulness, in reviving decaying Christianity, and in instructing the Mahometans in the faith of Christ. Two or three zealous young Clergymen, willing to accommodate themselves to the customs of the East in respect to manners and dress, and who can speak the Greek or Arabic lan guage, or both, would be the honoured instruments of confirming and propagating the doctrine of the cross in countries dear to them as scholars, from classical associ ations, and more dear to them as Christians, from sacred! The Greek Christians seem to know little of the differences in point of doctrine which subsist between them and us; and prudent meir would find, it is believed, no serious obstacle to their preaching to them the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Malta has not been placed in our hands merely for the extension and security of our political greatness. The course of Divine Pro vidence, since that island has been in our possession, seems plainly to indicate, that the united Church of England and Ireland is called to the discharge of an important duty there. The Romish Church is manifestly in a state of gradual but rapid dissolution. Its scattered members ought to be collected. What Church is to collect them? The prevailing form of worship in the East almost universally, and in the rest of the world generally, is episcopal. Was ever such an opportunity presented for extending Christianity, in that primitive form of its discipline, which is established in the United Empire? The scattered sheep look for

But the Committee have ever kept it anxiously in view, that the widest field of labour opened before them in the East. Here an almost boundless scene of usefulness presents itself to the whole Christian world.

The free and unlimited access which Great Britain has acquired by her armis to all the regions beyond the Cape of Good Hope, displays the grandest theatre ever offered to Christian exertions. The Missionary who devotes himself to the service of Christ among uncivilized men, has to encounter the slow and arduous labour of fixing their language, and then teaching it to these tribes, before they can read the wonderful works of God: but, throughout the East, two thirds perhaps of the whole human race are already so far civilized as to possess a written language, and yet remain ignorant of the way of salvation! Into many

of

these

languages the Word of God is already translated, or is actually in the course of translaCHRIST. GUARD. Vol. IV.

tion. Here, indeed, the fields are white unto the harvest! A young Clergyman, master of the Ethiopic, Persian, Arabic, or Syriac, of the Tamul, Cingalese, Bengalee, Hin dostanee, or Malay, may take the Scriptures in his hand, and read them in their own tongue to mil lions of his fellow-men perishing for lack of that very knowledge! Or, if his heart is fixed on extending the savour of Christ's name still more widely, let him go forth

and labour with those excellent men who devote their skill and their time to the transfusing the Word of God into some of those languages-spoken and written by almost countless multitudes-which are not yet enriched by the Divine Word.

An edition of the Arabic Bible has been recently printed from the Arabic text in the Polyglot, and published under the munificent patronage of the Bishop of Durham. A new translation, however, better adapted for general acceptance wherever the Arabic language is read, is now proceeding with all prudent despatch in India, toward which the Society has contributed the sum of 500l. This, together with a new Persian translation of the Scriptures, may soon be expected, from the liberal protection of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the zeal of the vari

ous friends in India.

Here, then, a new scene presents itself, before we reach India, The shores of the Persian Gulf and of the Red and Arabian Seas, accessible every where to British enterprise, will receive the Word of Life at our hands. And will no one offer himself, to be the messenger of these glad tidings? Does no learned, wise, and devoted servant of God long to renew that glorious day, when reading and hearing what their forefathers once heard, many shall gather round him, and say one to another How hear we every man in our own 3 M

tongue, wherein we were born! Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judea-in Egyptand Arabians-we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.

In the southern part of the peninsula of India, Malabar and Travancore invite the Christian Missionary to visit the ancient and venerable Church of the Syrian Christians of Malayala. These ancient Syrian Christians trace the establishment of their church to the preaching of the Apostle Thomas. They have maintained a regular episcopal succession from the earliest ages, and in all important points accord with the faith of the primitive Church. No Christian surely can read Dr. Buchanan's interesting account of this Church, without feeling ardent affection toward its members.

His Majesty's Government has discovered a laudable anxiety to remove, in some measure, the reproach of negligence from the country. Orders were long since sent out for the re-establishment of schools throughout the British dominions in Ceylon, in which island there are about half a million of professing Christians: and both there, and in the newly-acquired conquests in the Indian seas, it will doubtless continue to act on the wise and liberal policy of countenancing every prudent attempt to extend the powerful dominion of true Christianity over its native subjects, and will sanction any man who shall conduct himself properly in pursuit of this object.

The conquest of Java has rendered Britain mistress of the whole Malayan Archipelago. Multitudes of native Christians are scattered throughout these islands. Into the Eastern Malay, the Scriptures are already translated and printed, by the care of the Dutch; and they are now in the course of translation

into the Western, by the care of the British. Clergymen settled in Prince of Wales's Island, near the coast of Malacca, would possess incalculable opportunities of diffusing the knowledge of their Saviour's name! Into the languages of Java and Celebes, the Scriptures are not yet translated. These are now British possessions; and we are bound, on every principle of duty and of policy, to communicate to their inhabitants the Word of Life.

These, and many other parts of the East, call loudly for our aid. The Committee have only to wish that the interesting "Christian Researches in the East," published by one of their body, the Rev. Dr. Claudius Buchanan, may be the means of awakening many suitable persons to offer themselves for the service of Christ in the vast scene of Christian labours which those Researches unfold!

With the design of entering on any promising part of this field which might be accessible, the Committee established a corre sponding Committee at Calcutta. To this Committee the sum of 5007. has been granted in aid of the translations of the Scriptures carrying on in India. This sum will be applied to forward the publication of a large and cheap edi tion of the Scriptures in the Arabic tongue.

The Corresponding Committee at Calcutta proposed to the Soci ety the very promising and important measure of appointing public readers of the Scriptures in the market-places of the principal towns in the East-a measure al ready adopted by the Mahometans and Hindoos, in respect to their own sacred books, without the slightest mutual offence. To this object the Society has appropriated the sum of 250l, annually-and trust that the success of the mea sure will be such as to induce the public, by its liberal contributions,