Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It was formed at Philadelphia, April, 1814. The Convention holds its sessions triennially, and is composed of delegates from Missionary Societies, State Conventions, Associations and other religious bodies, and of individuals, of the Baptist denomination, who contribute to its funds. The payment of $100 entitles a delegate or individual to a seat and vote in the Convention, on his first becoming connected with the body; and the payment of $300 at or before each succeeding triennial meeting thereafter, to a seat and vote at such meeting; and in the same ratio for additional seats and votes; but no member of the Convention is entitled to more than one vote. The officers of the Board are (1838-9) a President, fifteen Vice Presidents, three Corresponding Secretaries, (Home, Foreign and Financial,) a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer and an Assistant Treasurer, and forty Managers. The Board have an annual meeting for mutual advice, and a monthly meeting at their Missionary Rooms in Boston, for the transaction of business requiring immediate attention. At the annual meeting, eleven constitute a quorum and at the monthly meetings, five. The Board have under their charge twenty-three Missions -twelve among the Indians of this country; three in Europe, to Germany, France, and Greece; one in Africa, to the native tribes in and around Liberia; and seven in Asia, to the Burmans, and Karens, Siam, China, Arracan, Assam, and the Teloogoos. Connected with these are seventy stations and out stations, one hundred missionaries and assistants sent from this country, and nearly one hundred native preachers and assistants, fifty schools, and five printing establishments, with fifteen printing presses. The number of pages printed at Maulmein, Burmah, in 1837, were more than 17,000,000. Thirty-eight churches have been organized, numbering two thousand members, about five hundred of whom were added to the churches in 1836-7. The annual expenditure of the Board is about $100,000. Officers of the Board for 1838-9, the Rev. Jesse Mercer, D. D., President-the Rev. Lucius Bolles, D. D., Home Secretary, the Rev. Solomon Peck, Foreign Secretary, the Rev. Howard Malcom, Financial Secretary, and the Hon. Heman Lincoln, Treasurer. The official publication of the Board is the "American Baptist Magazine," issued monthly. The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America was established in 1819. The Society has a President, five Vice Presidents and a Board of Managers consisting of thirty-two members. The Society supports mis Pawnees, the Indians in the Oregon country, the Sioux, the Ojibwas, the Stockbridge Indians, the New York Indians, the Abernaquis. These 26 missions embrace 85 stations, at which are laboring 126 ordained missionaries, 9 of whom are physicians, 11 physicians not preachers, 25 teachers, 10 printers and book-binders, 8 other male, and 178 female assistant missionaries; in all 358 missionary laborers sent from this country; who, with 7 native preachers and 108 other native helpers, make the whole number of persons laboring at the several missions under the patronage of the Board, and depending on its treasury for support, 473. Of these 7 ordained missionaries, 1 male and 10 female assistants-in all 18, have been sent forth during the year now closed. Through the instrumentality of the missionaries, 49 churches have been gathered among the heathen, embracing 6,062 members. Seven seminaries have been established by the missionaries, and are sustained at the expense of the Board, for the education of native preachers and other assistants, in which are 336 pupils. There are also 8 other boarding schools, embracing 304 pupils; besides 154 free schools, in which 6,140 children and youth are receiving a Christian education. Under the care of the missions are 13 printing establishments, with three type founderies and 24 presses. The amount of printing executed at these presses during the year 1838, including school-books, portions of Scriptures, religious tracts, etc., amounted to 665,862 copies, and 29,880,404 pages. The officers of the Board are Hon. John Cotton Smith, LL. D., President, Hon. Stephen Van Rensselaer, LL. D., Vice President, Rev. Calvin Chapin, D. D., Recording Secretary, Charles Stoddard, Esq., Assistant Recording Secretary; Hon. Samuel Hubbard, LL. D., Rev. Warren Fay, D. D., Hon. Samuel T. Armstrong, Charles Stoddard, Esq., John Tappan, Esq., Daniel Noyes, Esq., and Rev. Nehemiah Adams, Prudential Committee; Rev. Rufus Anderson, D. D., Rev. David Greene, and Rev. William J. Armstrong, Secretaries for Correspondence, Henry Hill, Esq., Treasurer, William J. Hubbard, Esq., and Charles Scudder, Esq., Auditors. The General Convention of the Baptist denomination in the United States for Foreign Missions, and other important objects relating to the Redeemer's kingdom, owes its origin to the interest awakened among the Baptists in this country by the accession to their denomination of two of the missionaries, (Messrs. Judson and Rice,) who were sent out to India with Mr. Newell and others, in 1812, by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. It was formed at Philadelphia, April, 1814. The Convention holds its sessions triennially, and is composed of delegates from Missionary Societies, State Conventions, Associations and other religious bodies, and of individuals, of the Baptist denomination, who contribute to its funds. The payment of $100 entitles a delegate or individual to a seat and vote in the Convention, on his first becoming connected with the body; and the payment of $300 at or before each succeeding triennial meeting thereafter, to a seat and vote at such meeting; and in the same ratio for additional seats and votes; but no member of the Convention is entitled to more than one vote. The officers of the Board are (1838-9) a President, fifteen Vice Presidents, three Corresponding Secretaries, (Home, Foreign and Financial,) a Recording Secretary, a Treasurer and an Assistant Treasurer, and forty Managers. The Board have an annual meeting for mutual advice, and a monthly meeting at their Missionary Rooms in Boston, for the transaction of business requiring immediate attention. At the annual meeting, eleven constitute a quorum and at the monthly meetings, five. The Board have under their charge twenty-three Missions -twelve among the Indians of this country; three in Europe, to Germany, France, and Greece; one in Africa, to the native tribes in and around Liberia; and seven in Asia, to the Burmans, and Karens, Siam, China, Arracan, Assam, and the Teloogoos. Connected with these are seventy stations and out stations, one hundred missionaries and assistants sent from this country, and nearly one hundred native preachers and assistants, fifty schools, and five printing establishments, with fifteen printing presses. The number of pages printed at Maulmein, Burmah, in 1837, were more than 17,000,000. Thirty-eight churches have been organized, numbering two thousand members, about five hundred of whom were added to the churches in 1836-7. The annual expenditure of the Board is about $100,000. Officers of the Board for 1838-9, the Rev. Jesse Mercer, D. D., President-the Rev. Lucius Bolles, D. D., Home Secretary, the Rev. Solomon Peck, Foreign Secretary, the Rev. Howard Malcom, Financial Secretary, and the Hon. Heman Lincoln, Treasurer. The official publication of the Board is the "American Baptist Magazine," issued monthly. The Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in America was established in 1819. The Society has a President, five Vice Presidents and a Board of Managers consisting of thirty-two members. The Society supports mis sions in Africa, among the Indian tribes, and more extensively domestic missions in various parts of the United States. In 1838, it had 182 missionaries, 34 teachers, 818 scholars, 2 physicians, and 2 mechanics. Its receipts for the same year were $90,105. The Foreign Missionary Society of the Protestant Episcopal Church in a sense was formed in 1820, though it has since been greatly modified. In 1838, it had nine ordained missionaries, one printer, nine female assistants, two male assistants, twenty native teachers, 1,145 scholars, one press, printed in five years six and a half millions of pages. Its receipts were $27,193. Rev. John A. Vaughn, is Secretary and General Agent, and Charles J. Aldis, Treasurer. Its seat of operations is New York. The Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church was established in 1837. Its receipts as reported in 1838 were $44,748. It has missions in China, Northern India, Western Africa, and among the Western Indians. Its number of missionaries is 38. Hon. Walter Lowrie is Corresponding Secretary, Rev. John Breckenridge, D. D., General Agent, and James Paton, Esq., Treasurer. (D. p. 122.) Jews Societies. The London Jews Society was formed in 1808-9, and has been an efficient and useful society. According to its Report for 1831, it has, besides three missionaries in India under the inspection of the Madras Committee, thirteen missionaries, in the ten following places and countries, namely, two in England, two in France, one in Hamburg, one in the country adjacent to the Lower Rhine, one in Bavaria, one in Frankforton-the-Maine, one in Dresden, one in Dublin, two at Malta, and one at Smyrna. The Society has printed an edition of the Hebrew Bible, and an edition also of the German, corresponding to it. It has also translated the Bible into JudeoPolish. The receipts of the society for 1831, are reported to have been £14,144 7s. 2d. The Philo-Judean Society was formed in 1827. It is an English society, and has for its object the circulation of the Holy Scriptures and Tracts among the Jews, and diffusing religious information among Hebrew children and adults. The American Society for meliorating the condition of the Jews was formed at New York in 1820. Considerable was expected from it for a time by some, but it seems on the whole not to have accomplished much. It had funds at one time to the amount of $30,000, but these had become reduced in 1827 to $15,900 60. The Society purchased a farm of five hundred acres for $6,000, at New Paltz, on the west side of the Hudson, opposite Hyde Park, but whether it still possesses it and what its operations are, is not known. The Rev. Dr. Rowan was employed as an Agent of the Society for some time. The Female Jews Society of Boston and its Vicinity, was formed June 5, 1816, and for several years paid over its funds to the London Jews Society. Of late, it has employed its funds differently; and at present it supports one missionary, the Rev. William Schauffler, under the direction of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Its income is understood to be about $500 annually. It has a permanent fund of more than $2,000. It has had auxiliaries in different parts of New England. It is a striking and affecting fact, that after the lapse of many centuries, the Jews are beginning to return to Palestine, the land of their fathers. In a late "New York Evening Star" it is said, "Within a few years great numbers have gone thither they amount now to 40,000, and are increasing in multitude by large annual additions. In the first day of the month a large number of Israelites from the States of Morocco, arrived at Marseilles, in order to embark there for the coast of Syria, and proceed thence on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem." (E. p. 140.) Home Missionary Societies. The Connecticut Missionary Society is one of the oldest Home Missionary Societies. It originated in the following manner. The General Association of Connecticut petitioned the Legislature in 1792, for a contribution to be taken throughout the State, for Missionary purposes. The petition was granted for three years successively. The Ġeneral Association sent Missionaries to New York, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. On June 21, 1798, the General Association formed themselves into a Missionary Society. The name of the Society was the Missionary Society of Connecticut. The |