furnish the necessary means for performing it, was the immediate occasion of the formation of this Society. True, the Constitution of the Society was so framed as to embrace "all lands" within the sphere of its appointed benefactions, and its ministry of love has blessed many at home and abroad for whom our foreign missions have not been designed; but the chiefest work of the Society has been to attend on those missions, and through them to bear the bread of life to the famishing nations. An honorable work this has been, and well fulfilled. At first limited and humble, it has increased in magnitude and importance with the success of missionary labors, and vindicates itself to-day as sustaining no inferior rank. Catholic missions may perform their work of nominal conversion, and establish a commingling of heathenism and Christianity in which it is difficult to determine the larger ingredient of the two, without the written Word; but the higher and more blessed ends of Protestant missions demand a Bible for every Christian convert, and for every family in which it will be read. As converts are multiplied, as Christian schools increase and Christian civilization starts up among the wastes of idolatry and superstition, in that ratio the work of Bible distribution must increase likewise. Its relative importance grows just as the cause of missions succeeds. In the early years of this Society's existence, when the numbers of Christian converts in heathen lands were few, when there were few Christian families, and Christianity was making its first impress on social life, it was a limited sum only, a few thousands per year, which could be advantageously spent in the Bible department of our missionary operations. Now, for a single year $14,750 are imperatively required by the Missionary Union, besides near half that sum, additional, which has been expended by the direct agents of this Society, on fields which the missions of that Union have opened. And this is but an illustration of what is yet to be. If it pleases God to grant success to the labors of our foreign missionaries, the calls for Bibles will continue to increase relatively precisely as they have done, and the work of this Society, as the coadjutor of the Missionary Union, will increase in the same proportion. It is not therefore too much to say, that the friends of the Missionary Union should be friends of this Society likewise,-its supporters the supporters of this Society,and that the prayers which ascend to heaven for blessings on the one should supplicate blessings upon the other. It is worthy of being noted, and should serve to awaken gratitude to God, that this Society has been able during the past year to meet the entire demands of the Missionary Union upon its treasury. The sum required, originally fixed at $15,750, but reduced to $14,750 on a reexamination, when first stated seemed a large sum to be raised; and when the numerous other calls upon the Society, and the untoward circumstances of the year were considered, it was a faint encouragement only which could be given, that the money should be forthcoming. But God, who is rich in mercy, was better to us than our fears, and the whole of this large sum, supplying fully the necessities of the Missionary Union for the year, has been appropriated.* The Board do not doubt that the Society will unite with them in congratulations at such an event, and join with them in fervent prayers that the same may be true of the operations of future years. As already intimated, the Board have appropriated moneys through other channels. 2. To the Rev. Amos Sutton, D.D. For Printing and Distributing Scriptures in Orissa, 3. To the Rev. J. G. Oncken. For Printing and Distributing Scriptures in Germany, For Distributing Scriptures in France, 5. To the Grande Ligne Mission. For Distributing Scriptures in Canada East, (among the Cana dian French,) Total foreign appropriations for the year, GERMANY. $1,000 00 6,511 76 521 51 217 50 $23,000 77 For many years the operations of the Society in Germany, under the wise and efficient superintendence of the Rev. Mr. Oncken, have been of the happiest and most satisfactory character. It has pleased God to make Mr. Oncken and his excellent co-laborers the means of a religious movement so wide in its range, and so happy in its results, as to merit the title of a new Reformation. Where Popery still prevailed in some sections, and where in others a State religion, declined from the Protestantism of Luther to Rationalism and Infidelity, had abandoned the people to a spiritual darkness not less gross, these heralds of salvation have spread themselves in every direction, preaching the gospel in its simplicity, restoring the ordinances to their primitive form and significance, and scattering broadcast among the people the written Word of God. The hand of the Lord has been with them; thousands have become obedient to the faith; numerous churches have been formed and supplied with pastors; and the Bible has been welcomed with a new love to thousands of homes and hearts. Thus has a new element of spiritual life been planted among the German people, and its growth and development are no longer doubtful. Progress in the same ratio for a few generations would effectually change the character of Germany. It would cover the land with churches, * In a note acknowledging the receipt of the last appropriation of the year, the Rev. E. Bright, Jun., Corresponding Secretary of the American Baptist Missionary Union, says: "Your favor of the 7th, with the remittance of $5,750, was received in due time. Your Board will accept the thanks of our Executive Committee, for grants within the year, sufficient to meet all the demands, so far as we know, of Scripture translation, printing, and distribution, in missions of the Union to March 31, 1851." such as once were planted in Judea, and make it as the garden of the Lord. The part which this Society has borne in that work has been no unimportant one. It has, from year to year, supplied Mr. Oncken with Scriptures as required, and has sustained a large number of colporteurs in circulating them through the German States. These men bear them from house to house, reading and teaching as they go, and this humble instrumentality becomes in numerous cases the power of God unto salvation. The total sum expended by the Society in Scripture operations in Germany, (including $1,500 appropriated to Denmark and Norway,) has been, in fourteen years, $34,957 50. The appropriations of the year now closed, $7,111 76. In consequence of the absence of Mr. Oncken from the country during several months, and of his sickness on his return, the correspondence of the Society with him has not been as ample as usual, and the details of the Society's operations in Germany which we are able to give, are therefore less numerous than those given in some former reports. The year has been one of marked activity and success.* Bibles and Testaments to the num * In a letter dated May 28, 1850, Mr. Oncken says:-"The work of God in which we are engaged, especially the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, is constantly on the increase, and we only need a half a dozen more colporteurs to enter on yet unoccupied fields of usefulness." In a letter dated June 28, 1850, he says: Some of your colporteurs are setting the parts in which they labor into a complete uproar. Brother Schlessier, of Schleswig, has roused the clergy against him and the Baptists to such a degree, that several of these gentlemen have published it to the world, that the Church is in danger from the spread of Baptist sentiments. In the ensuing month there will be a convocation of the Duchy of Schleswig, when, among other things, the question is to be discussed, what means can be most successfully employed to rescue the Church, and to prevent the spread of Baptist principles. We have recently sent a brother, supported by the Northwest Association of our churches, to help brother Schlessier, as he cannot any longer draw the net alone. A little church has already been formed at Schleswig, and the opposition of the clergy is only helping the good work on, as many persons begin to attend the religious service there, who otherwise would most likely never have come. Our indefatigable brother, Feltang, at Oldenburg, in the Grand Duchy of that name, is laboring with great succuss among Protestants, Roman Catholics and Jews. He has left his isolated abode on the Iade, in the Marsh, and has settled at Oldenburg, the capital of the Grand Duchy. As a native of that part of the country, and hav ing prayed for more than thirty years for its spiritual renovation, I rejoice exceedingly that through your colporteurs, and by other faithful brethren, the good seed is now sown far and wide. In the middle part of next month I hope to visit that part. Brother Rittman, your colporteur for Hamburg, is laboring incessantly, and has now commenced to go from house to house, by which many copies of the Holy Scriptures are introduced into the families of the rich. From his journal you will learn a little of his experience in this work. Our Female Missionary Union distributed in May and June 206 copies of the Scriptures. January 25, 1851, Mr. Oncken writes: Our efforts in the work of Bible circulation during the past year have been most encouraging. I am now printing from the plates of the 64mo Testament, 15,000 copies of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the Epistle to the Romans, and the Psalms. These I propose to distribute as tracts, stitched singly. They are chiefly designed for Cath of ber of 29,045 copies have been circulated in Germany at the expense this Society during the year, and if to these are added 2,554 copies circulated by our agents for the Edinburgh Bible Society, the total number of copies is 31,599. It is, too, a gratifying and encouraging fact, as indicating the value placed upon the Bible by the recipients, that very many of them were purchased from the colporteurs. Moneys so received were paid over to Mr. Oncken, and put into use again in the same process of spreading the Word of God. It is difficult to estimate the probable spiritual results of such a year's labor. They can be fully known to Him only who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in working. With our dim vision, however, it is given us to see enough in the results to awaken the heartiest thanksgiving, and to stimulate us to cheerful and increasing labors. Mr. Oncken has urged increased appropriations in all his letters, and it has been the aim of the Board to meet the wants of his field as far as made known to them. He has expressed a desire to print an edition of 10,000 copies of the Danish New Testament, but the Board have as yet taken no definitive action upon the subject. The ability of the Board to perform this work will depend on the liberality of the friends of the Society. It should be early understood and remembered, that the operations of the Society under Mr. Oncken cannot be sustained effectively during the coming year, without large expenditures. During the past year the work has been facilitated greatly by receipts from the sales of Bibles and Testaments, but this is a resource which is rapidly exhausted, and large replenishments will be indispensable at an early date. The Board are reluctantly constrained to add, that they know of no authority for statements which have been made in this country, to the detriment of the Society's work in Germany, that Mr. Oncken or his coadjutors had conscientious scruples about circulating Luther's version, and, specially, that the word "taufen," used to denote the ordinance of baptism, was an offense to them, and the occasion of a new translation projected by Mr. Oncken. Mr. Oncken and his coadjutors have circulated thousands of copies of Luther's version, every year for many years, and every letter from Mr. Oncken comes with accounts of the happy spiritual results, and with appeals for more means for the same work. He has, indeed, projected a new translation of the New Testament into the German language, a thing not uncommon in Germany, but his letters to the Society have expressly indicated it as a private enterprise, to be carried olics. These 105,000 single portions of Scripture will cost about £100, and I trust your Board will readily make this sacrifice for the good of many precious souls, who are not able to purchase a New Testament. As my funds are, however, now quite exhausted, I shall be greatly obliged by an early remittance, to enable me to pay colporteurs, &c. One thousand dollars were sent to Mr Oncken at once, on the receipt of this letter. forward at his own expense, which he would refrain from requesting the Society to participate in, lest injury might ensue to its established work of circulating the common version of the German people. Mr. Oncken's reason for the project of a new translation, as given in his letters to the Society, is of a general nature. He believes there might be a translation more scrupulously faithful to the original than Luther's, and his purpose is to make a trial with that view. Should his attempt prove successful, unquestionably he would be glad to see the new translation circulated by such patronage, but he would not cast away an experienced and known good for an experiment which might fail. His views are entirely those of a judicious and practical man. As to the use of the word "taufen," he says, in a letter dated Feb. 22, 1850, a part of which was published in last year's Report: "Though the undeniable meaning of taufen' is to dip, yet has its misapplication to infant sprinkling greatly weakened its force and meaning. This, however, would not induce me as yet to give it up to the sprinklers. I believe Christ has rather made it our duty, by restoring his long lost ordinance of believer's immersion, to restore the full import of taufen. As Baptists, we speak therefore always of Christ's ordinance as a 'TAUFE,' and of this invention of man as a 'Besprengung." He communicates substantially the same views in a later letter, dated May 28, 1850. FRANCE. An appropriation of $500 to the American Baptist Missionary Union, for the distribution of the Holy Scriptures in France, was made by the Board of the preceding year, and paid over from that year's receipts. Another appropriation of the same amount was made directly to the Rev. T. T. Devan, M.D., by the same Board, and paid from the receipts of the year just now closed. These sums, with a small amount received from the sale of Bibles and Testaments by colporteurs, constitute the full amount of means expended in France during the past year. › A letter was received from the Rev. E. Willard, Missionary of the American Baptist Missionary Union at Douay, some time in the last summer, asking instructions in regard to the expenditure of the money received by him, this being the first appropriation for the distribution of the Scriptures which had reached him from this Society. Instructions were accordingly sent, but the Board have received no intelligence from him since, and are not able therefore to inform the Society of the results of their bounty in that quarter. Mr. Willard seemed greatly pleased with this remembrance of the French mission, and hoped it would be an earnest of future supplies. "Permit me here to express my joy," he says, "on the reception of this token of your liberality, which it would have made my heart glad to receive years ago. The most glorious work that France has of late seen, has been sadly retarded by want of means. One hun |