important to be neglected, or but imperfectly occupied. Arrangements have recently been completed for transferring to this field our late agent in Canada, Rev. W. F. Curry; and, with the divine blessing, the Committee hope, at the next anniversary, to report more encouraging results from this promising, and yet, in some respects, difficult field of labor.

MICHIGAN H. M. S.

This auxiliary, in consequence of the resignation of the Secretary and Agent, and the embarrassments which have so greatly afflicted the West, has accomplished little during the past year, except to act as the advisory correspondent of this Committee in the appropriation of funds, and the location of missionaries. Efforts are in progress to secure the constant labors of an efficient agent, which on this field are both greatly needed, and promise to be highly productive to the cause of religion.

CENTRAL AGENCY FOR THE WESTERN

STATES, AT CINCINNATI, 0.

The cause of Home Missions receives increasing encouragement on the field of this agency. Great obstacles which had been thrown in its way are fast disappearing. Although the ecclesiastical agitations of the day, the pressure in pecuniary affairs, and the prevailing sickness in the West, have presented hindrances of uncommon magnitude, yet the prosperity of the Agency is undiminished. At the annual meeting in October last, the Agent reported that the receipts had exceeded the amount of collections in any preceding year. But the most cheering results are, "that a large portion of the congregations where the missionaries labor, has been blessed with revivals of religion, and many sinners give evidence that they are born again."

The number of missionaries who have labored under the appointment of this Agency is 28, and the receipts have amounted to $3,408 58.

Our valuable agent, Rev. HENRY

OTHER AGENCIES IN THE WEST'.

In Indiana, the Rev. SAMUEL G. LowRY has continued his services, a part of the year, as the Agent of this Society. His object has been, not so much the soliciting of funds, as the looking up of the scattered sheep of the Great Shepherd-the visiting of feeble churches, to become acquainted with their condition and wants, to encourage them to put in requisition their own resources and to seek the aid of the benevolent in securing fo themselves and their children the blessings of a permanent ministry. The Literary Institution at Crawfordsville, obtained his services, the latter part of the year, as its financial agent. But we hope still to avail ourselves of his counsel in prosecuting the missionary work in Indiana, and to have the co-operation of the friends of Christ within her limits and out of them, in extending to her destitute counties and rising villages the sacred influences of truth, and the power of the world to come.

In Illinois, the Rev. ALBERT HALE has been prosecuting a similar worka work of great labor and self-denial, and yet vital to the intelligent and successful prosecution of the missionary enterprise. Funds cannot be judiciously expended, until the ground has actually been explored, and the results of personal observation are made the basis of specific action. It is to be ascribed, in a great measure, under God, to the active and efficient agency which the

Society has been able to employ in this state, for successive years, that so much has been done by missionary labor for its moral and religious improvement. The large territory which the state comprises, and the adjacent sections of the state and territories on the west and north of it, each requiring a large amount of similar labor, make it quite impracticable for a single agent to meet the demands which are made for his services. We are happy to announce, therefore, that the Rev. FLAVEL BASCOM-well known in the state as a devoted minister, has been associated with Mr. Hale in the agency, and from their united efforts, in connection with those of the churches which have already become our efficient co-workers, we anticipate a large increase of good fruits in the field of their culture.

EVANGELICAL SOCIETIES OF GENEVA AND

FRANCE.

From the reports which we receive from these societies, from our correspondence, and from the various information which we obtain of their operations, we have an increasing conviction of their importance to the cause of truth and Protestant Christianity—of the excellent spirit with which they are conducted, and of the strength of their claims to the beneficence, the sympathy and the prayers of the American churches.

No appropriations, however, have been made in aid of these societies the past year, owing, in part, to the difficulty of obtaining sufficient funds to meet the pressing necessities of the destitute at home, and, partly, to the fact that the attention of the churches has been specially called to this department of benevolent enterprise, during the year, with reference to a distinct organization for its superintendence and direction.

CONNECTION OF HOME MISSIONS WITH EFFORTS FOR THE CONVERSION OF THE

HEATHEN WOrld.

It is impossible for christian hearts to be zealously affected in advancing

one department of the cause of benevolence, without feeling a sympathy for the rest. The objects of the great religious charities are identical; and all their organizations, conspiring parts of a beautiful system of machinery, devised by the same Infinite Mind, and moved by the same living Spirit. Hence the conductors of this Society, in prosecuting Home Missions, do not account themselves as laboring for this country alone, but for all the moral interests of man. They regard the work of converting the United States, as in direct fulfilment of the duty of converting all mankind. Not only is this republic a part, and an important part, of the world, and therefore covered by the command to "teach all nations," but Heaven has given it a peculiar fitness to engage in the moral conquest of other lands. The triumph of the Gospel here, will bear to its triumph abroad, the relation of the means to the end. It is a necessary prerequisite to the great work, for whose accomplishment we ask, when we pray, "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is done in heaven."

This connection of Home Missions with the work of evangelizing the heathen world, is seen in the fact that a large portion of the laborers, and the means for foreign missions are furnished from this country. There are commanding points of influence, which the armies of Emmanuel, in the subjugation of the world to Christ, must gain, and must hold, in order to the readiest conquest of the whole.

America is one of these points. It is the recruiting ground, where soldiers of the cross are to be enlisted; a magazine, whence the instruments of the holy war are to be supplied. That it is intended by Providence for this purpose, is evident, from its immense capabilities. It has a continent for its territory; and as has been said, "God sifted three kingdoms, to find seed to plant it." Before a century shall have revolved, its population, like its resources, must be counted by hundreds of millions. On the Atlantic border alone, its enterprise launches

forth from 3,000 miles of sea-coast. The home-bred, hardy character of self-reliance and daring which Americans derive from their country, its physical nature, its popular institutions, and the rapidity with which great events crowd its history, makes them the very people from whom missionaries are to be chosen. They are outstripped by none in commercial adventure, and in scattering abroad the elements of evil; may not the same enterprise, if sanctified, be relied on for equal activity in the diffusion of good? Whose ships are moored to the icebergs of the southern pole, and pursue their prey amid familiar haunts, in regions yet unnoted on the charts of other nations? They are Americans. Who supplies the rum, which brings back upon the half converted islands of the Pacific the gloom of returning heathenism; and furnishes that liquid madness in the heart of Persia, and at the foot of Caucasus? Americans. Whose slaveships hover on the coast of Africa, and under the pretext of a foreign flag, stow their holds with human cargoes for the markets of the West? Again, the answer is, Americans! In these, and a thousand other cases, we see how much our nation is debtor to the whole world, and what her enterprise is capable of accomplishing. Let the energies of this nation, then, be speedily and thoroughly evangelized. A people whose language contains so much of the science and literature of the worldwhose commerce spreads her sail on every sea, and drops her anchor on every strand--whose Christianity is comparatively fresh from the fountain, and unmixed with the traditions, and unfettered by the establishments of men--such a people is an agent, appropriate and responsible for a large share of the instrumentality of converting the world. And it may be truly said, the world is waiting for us. Doors are opened in almost every part of the earth, but America is not ready to arise and enter. Why is it, that almost in vain, nearly every missionary station abroad cries for more living helpers, or if these may not be granted, for the means of put

ting the word of God, or, at least, a christian tract into the hands of inquiring heathen? America is not ready. It may almost be said, that so far as the occupancy of new fields is concerned, Foreign Missions have gone about as far as they can go, until there shall be more piety at home. This is apparent from the disastrous effect, which the late fluctuations in the affairs of this country produced on the missions in foreign lands--silencing the press, disbanding schools, and sending thousands of their pupils back to Paganism. We feel constrained, therefore, to labor for the conversion of our country, and our whole country; not merely to preserve its civil freedom, and its religious privileges unimpaired-not only to save its present or its future millions from eternal wo-not for any, nor for all these ends, merely, but also for a still larger and nobler object. Our aim is not the conquest of America RATHER than the world--but America FOR THE SAKE oF THE WORLD!

CONCLUSION.

With such convictions of the magnitude and relations of the work assigned us, we again commend it to the prayerful and beneficent regard of all, who desire the triumphs of the Gospel over the corruptions and miseries of our race. It is a glorious privilege, to be co-workers with God in such a cause. It is infinite condescension in him, to bring it to our very doors, and permit us, in the delightful service of ministering to the wants of our own brethren, to raise up instrumentalities, and multiply resources, which are to fill the earth with the trophies of his grace, and heaven with the songs of his redeemed.

Shall we not, then, prize the privilege, and joyfully consecrate our personal efforts, our silver and gold, our faith and our prayers, to the attainment of such an end?

The field of our labor is associated with all that is endearing in home and country--in institutions, civil and sacred, that bless us in this life,

swer for, of evils she has imposed upon other nations, when it was her privilege, as it certainly was within her power, to do only good. It is probable that few have thought seriously of the deep and solemn responsibilities of this country, in regard to the other nations of the earth, in which her powerful influence is felt. Is it said, that as we have no established religion, so we cannot, as a nation, exert a religious influence on the world? And is it really true, that because we have no national church, with its creed and formulary to impose upon our people by force, therefore we have no religion? And is it true, that our influence abroad may lawfully be exerted for evil but not for good, and that by the peculiar character of our institutions, we have full liberty to carry curses to our fellow men, but are forbidden to convey to them blessings? No, sir, if there is a religious nation in the world, it is here in these United States; and if liberty is not a mere name among us, then we are permitted to strive, by the combined force of our example and precepts, to bring all nations under the benign influence of the Gospel. And although this government, as such, cannot, of course, act, as a society, for the spread of knowledge and religion in the earth, yet I hold that this nation is deeply responsible for the moral influence it exerts on the human race, and each individual in our community is accountable, as an individual, for his particular portion and share of that influence.

I, therefore, regard your Society, sir, as acting upon the whole world, when you are endeavoring to promote morality and religion at home. Why, sir, one of the first obstacles that meets the foreign missionary abroad, (I speak now of Turkey,) is the persuasion of the people, that the Americans and English have no religion. They look with complacency upon the different eastern sects of Christianity,of Mohammedanism, and even of heathenism, because there is a show of respect to some religion; but from all that they have seen of Englishmen and Americans, they are fully satisfied that we are utter de

spisers of all religion, and while they respect us for our talents and improvements in the arts and sciences, they despise us for our infidelity.

In Pera, the suburb of Constantinople, in which the Europeans reside, there are no less than four Roman Catholic churches, and I know not how many priests; and all these churches are open for daily and weekly worship: while, on the other hand, the Protestants have lived year after year without even the form of worship. When I first arrived in Constantinople, with Rev. Mr. Smith, nine years ago, one of the English merchants there expressed the greatest satisfaction that we were going to have preaching in English, for, said he, we are living here exactly like the heathen. A chapel, which had been fitted up within the precincts of the English ambassador's palace, remained for some time unopened for want of a chaplain, and his excellency, the ambassador, afterwards concluding, that even so much show of religion as an empty house of worship was an unnecessary appendage to a palace, converted the chapel into a kitchen, where food was daily served up, which, no doubt, was more in accordance with his lordship's taste.

The English government subsequently, at the earnest request of some of the merchants, I believe, commenced erecting a chapel, but owing to some peculiar circumstances, the progress of the work was stopped, and for seven years the foundation and naked frame work of the building have stood, bleaching in the sun and rain, a perpetual reproach to the Protestant name and the Saxon blood, and a most indubitable confirmation of what had before been uttered hundreds of times, and believed, that the English and Americans have no religion. That chapel, I am happy to add, has recently been finished, and a chaplain is on the ground who has probably, before this, entered upon the duties of his office.

O, sir, I am deeply pained, when I think of the evil influence that has been exerted on that country by ours,