female assistants. The school consisted, in September last, of one hundred and twenty-nine pupils. Of these, twenty-five were day scholars; and fifty males and fifty-two females were boarders. Of the boarders, eight were whites; the rest were Indians, belonging to eleven different tribes. A farmer, a steward, and a clerk, are much needed in connection with this establishment; and the buildings need painting to preserve them from the effects of the weather; and additional buildings are wanted: but, in consequence of the depressed state of the society's finances, the executive committee have not felt themselves at liberty to incur the expense of these improvements. The number of missionaries supported wholly, or in part, of Churches aided, in the several states and territories, is as follows: in Michigan, three; in Kentucky, four; in Tennessee, two; in Mississippi, one; in Missouri, one; in Alabama, three; in Florida, three in all, seventeen. Foreign Mission, at Athens, in Greece.-Rev. Messrs. Hill and Robertson, missionaries; Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Robertson; and Miss Mulligan, assistant. There are at Athens, maintained by these missionaries, a school for boys, consisting of one hundred and ten pupils; and a school for girls, of one hundred and sixty-seven pupils. There is also a printingpress, at which have been printed, previously to November 8, editions of three tracts; a portion of Colburn's Arithmetic; and a portion of Jacob's Greek Reader; and the missionaries had already for the press, a translation of Goodrich's Geography, and a Modern Greek Grammar. VIII. BAPTIST GENERAL TRACT SOCIETY.-This society was organized at the city of Washington, February 25, 1824. In December, 1826, the society removed the seat of its operations to Philadelphia, on account of the facilities there afforded for immediate and ready transportation to the depositories and societies in every part of the Union. The following exhibits a brief view of the society's progress, from its formation in 1824, to December 1, 1832: IX. HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETIES.-The Connecticut Missionary Society was formed June 21, 1798. By the general association of the state, that body constitutes itself the Missionary Society of Connecticut. The great field of its operations has been the Ohio, called New Connecticut, or the Western Reserve. It has assisted in establishing about four hundred Churches. In 1799, the Massachusetts Missionary Society was established. In 1816, the Domestic Missionary Society was formed; but was united to the former in 1827. The United Society is now auxiliary to the American Home Missionary Society. The American Home Missionary Society was formed in New York, May 10, 1826. It was instituted with the concurrence of other domestic missionary societies, and sustains the general character of a parent institution to them all. The whole number of ministers employed by this society, during the year, (1832-1833,) according to its annual report, is six hundred and six, which is an increase of ninety-nine since last year. These have labored, either as missionaries or agents, in eight hundred and one congregations, missionary districts, or fields of agency, in twenty-one of the United States and territories, and in the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada-four hundred and eleven being settled as pastors, or employed as stated supplies in single congregations; one hundred and thirty-seven extending their labors to two or three congregations each; and fifty-eight, including agents, being employed on larger fields. Of the missionaries and agents thus employed, three hundred and ninety-seven were in commission at the commencement of the year; two hundred and forty-one of whom have been re-appointed, and are still in the service of the society. The remaining two hundred and nine have been new appointments since the last anniversary; making, in all, six hundred and six. The amount of ministerial labor reported as having been performed, within the year, is four hundred and sixteen years and nine months. The number reported as added, within the year, to the Churches aided, has been six thousand and forty-one: viz. one thousand seven hundred and fifty-seven by letter, and four thousand two hundred and eighty-four by examination, on profession of their faith. One hundred and one of the Churches aided have been blessed with special revivals of religion; and the number of hopeful conversions reported, (the larger portion of whom are not embraced in the reported additions to the Churches,) is three thousand four hundred and thirty-five; making the probable number of conversions, under the labors of our missionaries within the year, about seven thousand. The number of Sabbath schools sustained, during the whole or a part of the year, under the ministry of our missionaries, is seven hundred and seventy; embracing thirty-one thousand one hundred and forty scholars. The number of Bible classes reported, as conducted by the missionaries themselves, has been three hundred and seventy-eight; embracing eleven thousand one hundred and ninety-five pupils of all ages. The number of subscribers to the principle of entire abstinence from the use of intoxicating drinks, reported in the congregations aided, is fifty-three thousand seven hundred and forty-six, which is seventeen thousand three hundred and forty-four more than the number reported last year. It appears that the missionaries of this society have increased, in seven years, from one hundred and sixty-nine to six hundred and six, and the congregations and missionary districts annually aided in their support, have increased from one hundred and ninety-six to eight hundred and sixty-one. These missionaries have labored in the service of the society, the full amount of one thousand seven hundred and seventyfive years. Under their ministry, seventeen thousand five hundred and seventy-nine souls have been reported as added to the Churches, on profession of their faith, within the last six years. They have also reported, each year, from ten thousand to thirty-one thousand four hundred and ninety-eight children, instructed in Sabbath schools, and from two thousand to eleven thousand and eighty in Bible classes; while, according to their ability, they have been efficient helpers in every good work which has claimed the attention of the benevolent on the fields of their labor. It may be added to the foregoing, that Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, and some other states, have efficient Home Missionary Societies, within their limits. An efficient home missionary has recently been instituted by the Baptists. The general association of the Presbyterian Church has also a board of missions, formed in 1818. Its principal operations are domestic. In 1832, the number of its missionaries was two hundred and twenty-six, who had performed, in all, one hundred and fifty-four years of labor. The number of Sabbath schools in the congregations, assisted by the board, is from twelve thousand to fifteen thousand. This is the more interesting, as these congregations are principally in the southern and western parts of our country. Hopeful conversions, during the year, were two thousand. The amount of funds employed by the board was twenty thousand one hundred and thirty-two dollars, and twenty-one cents. CONCLUSION. HAVING thus given as full a sketch of the history of the Church as our limits would allow, together with a brief account of the religious rites, ceremonies, &c., of various nations, and a view of the principal missionary and other benevolent societies of the present day, we cannot better occupy our few remaining pages, or form a more appropriate close of our labors, than by introducing to our readers the following article from the Missionary Annual for 1833. We would only premise, that though it goes in some measure over the same ground which we have occupied in the previous pages of this work, yet, by condensing the leading facts in the history of the world, relating to Christianity, and placing them in bold relief and near connection, it forms a useful review of the subject, and will tend to fix it strongly in the mind. The author does not seem to dwell as much as he ought upon the advantages which the Americans possess, of propagating the Gospel; and on this point much might be added, which would add materially to the force of his argument. But, as we have barely room for the article as it now stands, we have thought it best to insert it unaltered, merely hinting at this evident omission. THE STORY OF THE WORLD. BY JOSIAH CONDER. "And sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them."—Matt. iv. 8. Ir may assist us to form a just idea of the present aspect of the world we live in, now approaching the close of the sixth millennium, (or thousand years,) if we cast a rapid glance over the previous chapters of its eventful history. The argument of the mysterious drama may be told in few words. It is the story of a race of creatures, for the most part in open revolt against their Creator and King. Over the first seventeen hundred years, the deluge has drawn an impenetrable veil the genealogy of one family alone has survived;-and but for the promise given to our first parents, the whole race had perished. Again the earth was peopled; but the revolt was perpetuated in the families of the sons of Noah; and the history of idolatry, and of its punishment, comprises the next great section of the melancholy record. That of the Jewish Church runs in part parallel with it, and serves as both an epitome of the larger volume and a key to it. Reckoning from the time that Joshua achieved the conquest of the promised land, the Jewish history occupies about fifteen centuries. The controversy between Jehovah, as the God of Israel, and the chosen race, the depositaries of the oracles and promises of God, terminated in the catastrophe of the city and nation. But their fall proved "the enriching of the world." The hidden purpose of God was suddenly developed in the universal character of the Gospel dispensation. Nor was it long before the Church had expanded to the utmost limits of the last great monarchy of the old world, and even passed beyond its boundaries. From Augustus to Antonine, the Roman empire comprised the historic world; extending from the Euphrates, on the east, to the Western ocean, or, in Scripture "When God designed true language, "from the river to the ends of the earth." religion should obtain among the Gentiles," remarks Origen, "he had so ordered things by his providence, that they should be under the one empire of the Romans; lest, if there had been many kingdoms and nations, the apostles of Jesus should have been distracted in fulfilling the command he gave them, saying, Go and teach all nations. It would have been a great impediment to the spreading of the doctrine of Christ all over the world, if there had been many kingdoms. For, not to mention other things, these might have been at war with each other; and then men would have been obliged to be every where in arms, and fight for the defence of their country." As Christianity advanced, the pagan power grew weaker; and three centuries exhibited the displays of the Divine judgments upon the Roman world, the rejecters and enemies of the truth, and the persecutors of the Church. At length, paganism fell, and Christianity was publicly recognised as the religion of the empire. But Rome was no longer its capital. The imperial convert removed the seat of empire to the banks of the Bosphorus; and from that period, the city of the Cæsars declined, till, by successive sieges and conflagrations, by tremendous earthquakes and inundations of the Tiber, its ruin was consummated. In the eighth century, the metropolis of the world was reduced to the seat of a mere duchy; and its prelates acknowledged the supremacy of Ravenna. The political triumph of Christianity was too soon followed by its spiritual decay. And now, as in the case of the Jewish people after the punishment of their heathen oppressors, the Christian Church, with its rulers and priests, became the subjects of a righteous dispensation of moral discipline and judicial punishment, in consequence of the great apostasy. "In about three hundred years after the ascension of our Lord," remarks the learned Lardner, " without the aids of secular power or Church authority, the Chris. tian religion had spread over a large part of Asia, Europe, and Africa; and, at the accession of Constantine, and the convening of the council of Nice, it was almost every where, throughout those countries, in a flourishing condition. In the space of another three hundred years, or a little more, the beauty of the Christian religion was greatly corrupted in a large part of that extent, its glory defaced, and its light almost extinguished." The obscuration of scriptural light, the resurrection of a persecuting power in the form of the papal monster, the rise and triumph of the Mahometan imposture, and the contraction of the Christian world within the nar row limits of Western Europe, hemmed in between the Ottoman and the Moor,form the outlines of the second great section of modern history. A second deluge, not of waters, a deluge of barbarism and superstition, seemed to have overwhelmed the world; and the Christian ark could only be dimly descried above the flood. The divine evidence of Christianity was then as completely under eclipse, as was the divine nature of its Founder, when, in the hour of his redeeming agonies, he exclaimed, "My God, why hast thou forsaken me ?" The "gates of hell" seemed to be prevailing over the Church; and it must have required a strong faith, at such a crisis, to believe in the faithfulness of Him who has promised to be with her even to the end of the world. But the morning of a moral resurrection came. Christianity, at first seen and recognised by few, in process of time manifested afresh her divine energies; and the evidence of her heavenly origin and authority has been, perhaps, more singularly illustrated by her revival, than by the miracles that attended her first triumphs: as the restoration of Israel from their long captivity afforded a more |