Ladies of the Benevolent Society, it was $1119 31 requested that at the end of the year some account of the manner in which it' We was distributed might be given you. therefore take the liberty to present to you the following statement. 17 00-1119 31 The board of Trustees began their supplies on the 1st of January, (1813) and have continued them weekly to the present time; during which period applications have been received from two hundred and fifty-nine families. Of that number fifty have been referred to other sources for supplies, or have been found on inquiry not to be so necessitous as to require the attention of the Board. Two hundred and nine families have received partial or constant supplies from the Board. The average number supplied weekly by the Board, has been about one hundred and fifty families containing from 4 to 500 persons. The sums appropriated for ten weeks amount to Five hundred and fifty-eight dollars and seventy-seven cents, exclusive of wood; of which about fifteen cords have been distributed. The Board have also entrusted to the Female Benevolent Society for distribution, in cash and goods, $153 31 ets. and have also placed under their direction an additional sum of $100 for the purchase of materials for spinning, &c. which last sum is to be acounted for hereafter to this Board. So far as the Board have been under advantages to judge, the amount entrusted to that Society has been very judiiously appropriated. There remains now in the Treasury one hundred and sixty-three dollars and forty-seven cents; and there also remains uncollected $17, which sum it is expected will enable the Board to continue their supplies until the first week in April; at which time, unless further subscriptions are received, the supplies must cease." And After the date of the above report the balance then on hand was distributed in the same manner as therein stated. within a few days past the Society have received the following communication from the Female Benevolent Society, giving an account of the monies entrusted to their care: "To the Secretary of the Charitable As- SIR, The first hundred dollars which was given us in clothing, was distributed according to the best judgment of our committee in those families which appeared to them the most destitute. The fifty dollars, given in money, "to be disposed of at the discretion of the Society,' appropriated in the following manner, viz. Ten dollars to each of our committee, (four in number;) with which they clothed poor children to go to school and to meeting. The remaining ten dollars was retained for the use of the sick. was The hundred dollars given for stock, has also been improved in the following manner: One hundred and sixty-one spinners have been employed, and four thousand four hundred and eighteen skeins of yarn have been spun. Twentyeight weavers have woven one thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven yards, of cloth. Sixteen pair of hose have been knit. One hundred and fifty garments and five pair of cotton cards have been distributed in pay for spinning and weaving. The stock now on hand is valued at one hundred dollars. As it may not be unpleasant to you to know what the Society have done otherwise, we take the liberty of adding the following schedule. (To be continued.) III. My way was down the gaping tide:Foundering upon the yawning brinkWhelming in endless night-I cried; 'Save, Lord,-or I forever sink!' Then on the bounding waves I saw- "Weakling of faith, why didst thou fear?— IV. I never saw his watery path; Nor thought I that he could attend; Till mercy, in the guise of wrath, Taught me to own my Heavenly Friend. Lord, I in thee henceforth confide! My bark, no more by tempests driven, Safe wilt thou through the ocean guide, And waft me to the shore of Heaven! O. F. TO CORRESPONDENTS. Φιλόψυχος is requested to forward the constitution and laws of the charity libraries, to which he refers, that they may be published either in whole, or in an abridged state. He is informed that ten sets of the three first volumes of the Minor Panoplist, in boards, will be delivered to his order, for the use of these libraries, on application to the Publisher of the Panoplist. Several communications are on hand, which will be mentioned more particularly hereafter. After consulting with several friends of the Panoplist, as to the utility and propriety of the measure, we have concluded to offer the following premiums for original communications to be inserted in the current volume of our work: viz. One of Twenty Five Dollars to the writer of the best composition in prose; the rule of judging to be the tendency of the pece to do good: One of Fifteen Dollars to the writer of the best piece of poetry: aud One of Ten Dollars to the writer of the second best composition in prose. The persons, according to whose decision the premiums shall be distributed, will be entitled to respect and deference. All original communications contained in the current volume, with the exception of those written by the editor and the judges, will be taken into consideration, without any request or intimation on the part of the writers. There is no necessity, that the writers should be known to the editor. It is always convenient, however, that original communications should have signatures. It is to be remembered, that the preceding offer is not to be construed as limiting, or in any way affecting, the power of the editor over communications. Our correspondents, who may be influenced by the preceding offer, will bear in mind, that the sooner communications are made, the greater will be the probability that they will be inserted in the current volume, as there may be a press of matter toward the close of the year. Whether a similar offer will be made another year must depend upon the result of the present offer. -Though the value of the premiums may appear small, yet it is as great as that of some of the premiums offered for original compositions, in the English Universities. TO SUBSCRIBERS. OUR distant subscribers ought to be informed, that the irregularity and delay, experienced in the receipt of our num bers by mail, are not chargeable to us; but must be laid to the crowded state of the mails. In several instances, the Panoplist has remained for weeks in the Boston postoffice. Hence it has happened, that later numbers are sometimes received by our subscribers before earlier ones. The postmaster at Boston has declared his disposition to forward our work, with as little delay as possible, not only for the sake of obliging us and our subscribers, but for his own convenience. He conceives himself obliged by law, however, to send all the newspapers, though pamphlets should be delayed. Very pr bably delays, similar to the one described at Boston, have occurred in other offices on the road. As we have fully stated the complaints of our subscribers to the postmaster, and as we have now returned to our former practice of printing but one number in a month, we hope that there will be less occasion for complaint hereafter. Subscribers are informed, that a few deficient numbers can be supplied at present, for twenty cents each; and, whenever deficiences shall probably have arisen from mistake or negligence on our part, they shall be supplied without expense. The fact is, however, that we incur a des advantage by supplying deficient numbers at the price above stated, as broken volumes may be left on hand in consequence of it. For the Panoplist. 5INNERS, IN A SPIRITUAL SENSE, BLIND AND DEAF. Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see....Is. xlii, 18. attention to the solemn truth, that Impenitent sinners are, in a spiritual sense, deaf and blind. A person, who has always been destitute of the bodily organ of sight, is unable to form just conceptions of external objects. The sun may shine in the glory of a cloudless sky, while to him all is total darkness. Describe to him, in the most lively colors, the beauties of creation, and you fail to give him any suitable ideas of these objects, because he never saw them. If we consider these words as prophetic, they have reference to the period of our Savior's advent, when the Gentiles should be brought into the holy family of God; and, thus received, they are an earnest expostulation with the Gentiles to forsake their idolatry, and receive the illumination of the Gospel. The prophet, however, addressed himself immediately to the Jews, and designed to reprove them for their unbelief and rejection of the truth. His language is strong and impressive; and, as the persons addressed were favored with the natural organs of sight and hearing, no candid mind will be liable to mistake his meaning. He here exhibits, with affecting emphasis, the moral state of all men, while unrenewed by the Holy Ghost; and, by his example, he furnishes us with divine authority, as to the Holiness and sin, in their manner in which the impenitent true character, are other objects should be addressed. At this of distinct vision. So also is ime I would direct the reader's the divine law. Its beauty and VOL. X. Moral and religious truths are as distinct objects of vision to the mind, as the earth, the sun, or any material substance, is to the eye. The holy character of God, for instance, may be discerned with perfect clearness; and it abideth forever, an object of delightful contemplation. The same holds true of the character of Christ as Mediator, The loveliness of truth is, likewise, an object of distinct vision; and may be seen and contemplated with as much fixedness and certainty, as any material object. 7 excellence are viewed with unutterable delight, by all who love its precepts, and are properly awed by its sanctions But the holy character of God, the complete, perfect character of Christ, the loveliness of truth, holiness and sin-with the glories of the divine law, are objects, which the natural eye seeth not. These are spiritual objects, and can be discerned only by a spiritual vision. This spiritual vision, exists in those only, who have a temper and disposition harmonizing with the divine law, and pleased with the perfect character of Jehovah. When this temper and disposition are possessed, the things of the Spirit of God are received; the person enjoys spiritual light; and the secret of the Lord is with him. I make these observations, for the purpose of leading you, my readers, to just views, on this important and essential point in theology, and of making a proper distinction between that discernment, which arises from a well-informed understanding, and the discernment, which accompanies a temper and disposition harmonizing with the divine law. The latter is a spiritual discernment, and comprises all that is intended by spiritual knowledge. your Unless, my readers, views are correct on this point, you are novices in religion, and are not prepared to reap the best advantage from attention to the subject now under consideration. The persons addressed by the prophet are blind, but their blindness is of a peculiar character the destitution of spiritual discernment. They know not the true character of God. They discern not the loveliness of truth. And, in addition to this dreadful and universal malady, they are deaf:-deaf to the calls of hope;-deaf to the invitations of mercy;-deaf to the threatenings of the divine law;deaf to the intreaties of compassion. Can it be necessary to go into an elaborate proof, that this is the deplorable and affecting condition of all the impenitent? One might well suppose that the evidence, which is constantly exhibited, of this fact, would banish every doubt from the mind, and fasten an unshaken conviction upon it. Had the sinner just views of the divine law, could he feel indifferent towards it, and knowingly transgress it? Did he discern the glory of the divine character; could he be silent, ungrateful, and rebellious? But in his present state he finds fault with the divine dispensations; contends with God as partial and unjust; gives the reins to his selfish appetites, and habitually disobeys. Nor does he perceive the beauty of holiness, or the nature of sin. The former never excites his desires; the latter never excites his disgust, in itself considered. Its delusive objects he pursues, with all the intenseness of an eager, insatiate appetite: and this too, when assured by God himself, that the end of these things is death Nor does he perceive the loveliness of truth, and therefore rejects it. His dislike will be great, in proportion to the clearness and force with which the truths of the Gospel are exhibited. Hence sinners often denounce, as false > 1814. Sinners, in a Spiritual Sense, Blind and Deaf. and unintelligible, some of the plain, essential truths of the Bible; those precious truths, which delight and support the humble believer They may professedly receive the Gospel as a sys. tem of truths, that are correct and obligatory; but the system, in their hands, becomes so garbled, that it loses its divine form, and loveliest features. The habitual disregard of these truths, as manifested in their lives, proves them to be insensible to the excelience of revelation. How uniformly do they neglect to study the Scriptures But why neglect them? All, who discern the excellency of the doctrines, which the Sacred Volume contains, delight to examine the word of God; and they dwell, with joyful particularity, upon its sublime, ennobling, consoling discoveries. How palpably absurd would it be to imagine, that the person, who beholds and relishes the beauties and sublimities of the material creation, should yet never contemplate them, and never speak of them. Such a course could be pursued by him only, who was born blind, or who, with the loss of his eyes, had also lost all recollection of what he once beheld. Nor can any one rationally doubt, that all are in total spiritual darkness, who do not feel a peculiar interest in the Gospel, delight its lovely truths, and glory in its institutions. The language of facts must be the language of conviction. And what the sinner's habitual conduct declares to be true respecting himself, it is madness to deny. Equally striking and affecting is the evidence, that the spirit ually blind are, likewise, spiritu ally deaf. God calls them to the belief and practice of the truth; he invites them in the most endearing and moving strains; he sets before them, and proffers as their portion, all the happiness of which they are susceptible; but they remain unmoved, and will not obey He admonishes them, reproves them, and threatens them, with all the terrors of Omnipotence in anger, but they still remain unmoved, and refuse to obey. In his Providence, by frowns and smiles, he solemnly enforces the calls, intructions, and invitations of his word; but they regard Him not. Why? If all this does not move them, what can effect the object? Ah! they are deaf, They have not heard. Their ears have they closed. The language of Scripture is explicit on this subject. The passage at the head of this paper is full and plain. Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye bund, that ye may see. The same truth is stated in the 16th verse of the same chapter. I will bring the blind by a way that they knew not. Also verse 6, 7, I the Lord have called thee to open the blind eyes. The passage from the prophet is quoted by St. Luke. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor, and recovering of sight to the blind. Our Savior, indeed, restor ed sight to,those who were natur, ally blind. But this constituted a very small portion of the great work, which he came to accom, plish. He gave himself a sacrifice, that such as arc spiritually blind might receive their sight and be saved. 1 Cor. ii, 14. The natural man receiveth nos |