affliction. The people appear to be willing to maintain the gospel to their utmost abilities, but except they have some assistance they will be obliged to abandon the idea, which gives them much anxiety." The Society voted for their present relief one hundred dollars. BOOKS. THE Society voted, last year, $200 for the purchase of books for distribution. That sum was expended in the purchase of the following books: Baxter's Saints' Rest Memoirs of Mrs. Ramsay Clinton on Baptism Watts' Catechisms Jay's Life of Winter Wright & Haweis on Communion Henry on do. Hymns for Infant Minds Doddridge's Sermons to Young Persons Friendly Visit to the House of Mourning Watts' Psalms and Hymns Spelling Books Primers. Most of these books have been distributed; and they have been gratefully received. The Society has appropriated $50 for the purchase of' books, the present year. THE preacher, appointed to deliver the annual sermon, having failed the last year through ill health, no account has been given of the proceedings of the Society since November 1811. This Appendix resumes the account from that time. The success of societies, instituted for benevolent and pious purposes, seldom rises to the height of their designs. Impediments, often unforeseen, and not unfrequently insurmountable, prevent the complete execution of the best schemes for diffusing 784057 the knowledge, and promoting the practice, of Christianity. It is our constant aim to obtain the most correct information of the state of destitute churches and people, and of their comparative as well as absolute claims on our charity, and to employ the best means in our power to accomplish the end. The difficulties attending missions, whether among the new settlers, or among the native inhabitants, of our country, are not easily imagined by persons, who view the subject at a distance, and have no share in its labour or responsibility. To suffer those difficulties, however, to discourage our hopes, or to slacken our exertions, in so good a cause, were unworthy of Christians. After all the deductions that must be made, the amount of good, effected by associations like ours, is incalculable. Thanksgiv ings are doubtless ascending daily to God for their pious charities, and the blessings of thousands ready to perish will come upon the benefactors. The preceding narrative, it is believed, carries internal evidence, sufficient to satisfy the fair and candid mind, that our efforts, far from being fruitless, have, with the divine blessing, been productive of great and extensive good. Encouraged by the past, we shall be animated to the future. Nor will we doubt, that, while the object of the Society shall be faithfully prosecuted, there will be a readiness in our fellow Christians to aid it by their alms and their prayers. STATEMENT OF FUNDS. U. S. six per cent stock, 7500 dollars-real value 1st April, 1813, Union Bank stock, 6300 dollars, advance paid 413, Massachusetts State Note, 640 dolls. Bonds and Mortgages, Massachusetts Bank Stock, 11500 dolls.-advance paid $1322, $2733 39 6713 00 640 00 900 00 12822 00 $23808 39 Of this sum, 88861 56 is considered as the donation of John Alford, Esq. and the income thereof appropriated exclusively for the benefit of the Indians. $500 was presented to the Society in July last, by His Honor William Phillips, Esq. to be expended during the current year. ས ་ The collection at the Church in Chauncy Place, on the 4th of Nov. 1813, amounted to $186 40. Received from an absent member on the 6th of Novem OFFICERS, ELECTED MAY 1813. His Honor WILLIAM PHILLIPS, Esq. President. Rev. WILLIAM E. CHANNING, Assistant Secretary. Mr. JOSIAH SALISBURY, Vice Treasurer. SELECT COMMITTEE. SAMUEL SALISBURY, Esq. ALDEN BRADFORD, Esq. JEDIDIAH MORSE, D. D. Mr. JAMES WHITE, With the President, Secretary, and Treasurer. A complete List of the MEMBERS of the Society. N. B. The act of incorporation provides, that the whole number of the Society shall at no time exceed fifty members. Those to whose names an asterisk ▾ is prefixed, are deceased. * Nathaniel Appleton, Esq. Rev. Thomas Barnard, D. D. * Rev. Jeremy Belknap, D. D. * His Excellency James Bowdoin, Esq. Alden Bradford, Esq. Benjamin Bussey, Esq. *Hon. Francis Dana Hon. John Davis *Hon. Thomas Dawes Hon. Thomas Dawes *Rev. Joseph Eckley, D. D. Samuel Elliot, Esq. *Rev. John Eliot, D. D. Rev. Nathanael Emmons, D. D. *Rev. Levi Frisbie * His Honor Moses Gill, Esq. * William Hyslop, Esq. Mr. David Hyslop Rev. James Kendall Rev. John T. Kirkland, D. D. LL. D. Pres. Harv. Coll. Rev. John Lathrop, D. D. *Thomas Lee, Esq. *Hon. John Lowell *Hon. Jonathan Mason *Rev. Joseph Mc Kean, D. D. Pres. Bowd. Coll. Rev. Jedidiah Morse, D. D. *Rev. Phillips Payson, D. D. Rev. Elijah Parish, D. D. Samuel Parkman, Esq. Eliphalet Pearson, LL. D. His Honor William Phillips, Esq. Rev. John Pierce Rev. Eliphalet Porter, D. D. Rev. Thomas Prentiss, D. D. * His Excellency James Sullivan *Hon. John Treadwell Hon. Cotton Tufts, M. D. Hon Dudley A. Tyng Mr. Samuel H. Walley Rev. Henry Ware, D. D. Prof. Divin. Harv. Coll. Hon. Oliver Wendell James White, Esq. Ebenezer Wight, Esq. * Rev. Edward Wigglesworth, D. D. Prof. Div. Harv. Coll. * Rev. Joseph Willard, D. D. LL. D. Pres. Harv. Coll. Samuel Williams, LL. D. Mr. William Woodbridge. |