RHODE ISLAND HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Rev. THOMAS SHEPARD, D.D., President; GEORGE G. RICHMOND, Esq., Providence, Treasurer; Rev. A. HUNTINGTON CLAPP, Providence, Secretary.

The receipts of this Society, for the year ending March 1st, were $1,403.29, exclusive of $500 from the Connecticut Missionary Society. There were also received into the Treasury of the Parent Society, during its financial year, $125.74; making the total to the cause, $1,529.03,-exceeding the amount of last year, by $383.66. The expenditures within the State were $1,700.50.

Eight missionaries have been in commission during some portion of the year, and the churches to which they have ministered, have shared in the work of grace which has blessed the land. "Yet, all these churches," says the Secretary, "remain pecuniarily feeble, nor do they promise early self-support. Still, the Society feels that not one of them can be spared, and has acted on the principle of rendering the liberal aid essential to their existence, in the trying time through which they have passed."

The Society, in the death of its Treasurer, GILBERT RICHMOND, Esq., has lost one of its firmest supporters, as well as the Church of God a humble, earnest, and self sacrificing laborer for the advancement of the Redeemer's kingdom.

CONNECTICUT MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

Rev. HORACE HOOKER, Secretary; E. W. PARSONS, Esq., Treasurer. Office at Hartford.

The receipts of this Auxiliary, for the year ending March 1st, were $6,694.52. The expenditures within the State were $4,664.08. The amount forwarded from the Treasury to the Parent Society, during its financial year, was $3,400, and to the Rhode Island Home Missionary Society, $500. There were received by the Parent Society: in payment of legacies, $8,002.04; from congregations and individuals, $11,494.67-in all $19,496.71; making the total from the State, $26,191.20; which is $211.41 less than the amount of the preceding year. The amount expended beyond the limit of the State, was $23,396.71, exceeding the amount of the previous year, by $1,240.00.

The number of missionaries in commission, during some portion of the year, is thirty nine. The main characteristic feature of the year, in reference to the churches aided, is their enjoyment, to an almost unexampled degree, of the renewing and sanctifying influences of the Holy Spirit. The number of hopeful conversions, in some of these churches, has rarely been exceeded during any year since the organization of the Society. No inconsiderable part of the converts, however, are children in the Sabbath schools, or young persons who have slight resources separate from their pa

rents, so that the pecuniary ability of these churches has not been greatly increased. Their peculiar circumstances will make them longer dependent on their brethren, whose encouragement and assistance have been to them so great a blessing.

"There does not, indeed," says the last Report of the Society, "appear to be any valid reason for expecting that religious institutions will, for many years, be enjoyed in this or any other community, in due extent and vigor, without the intervention of Home Missions. From gradual decay, originating in local changes-if not from sudden shocks caused by more culpable instrumentality -even in millennial days, there will, perhaps, be members of the christian confederacy needing the sympathy and beneficence of their more favored associates. When there is no more room for the exercise of benevolence, in extending the Gospel where Christ has not been preached, this relation of strength and weakness, of abundance and necessity, may be essential to the healthy action of the Church. At any rate, the employment of a part of its means, in 'strengthening the things that remain,' is proved by the fruits to be well doing," and we should no more be 'weary' in this work than in making new conquests."

PHILADEPHIA HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.

JOHN A. BROWN, Esq., President; HENRY PERKINS, Esq., Treasurer; Rev. ROBERT ADAIR, Secretary. Office at Philadelphia.

The receipts of this Auxiliary, for the year ending March 1st, were $7,474.22. There were also received from this field, at the office of the Parent Society, during its financial year, $1,575.54, viz: from New Jersey, $980.99; from Pennsylvania, $184.05; from Maryland, $30; and from the District of Columbia, $80. The total contributions, therefore, from this region to the cause of Home Missions, have amounted $9,049.76; or less, by $594.53, than those of the previous year. The expenditures of the Auxiliary, during the year, have been $8,069.73, and the balance in the Treasury, on the 1st of March, was $815.93.

Fifty eight missionaries have been sustained by the aid of this Auxiliary since the last Report, viz: 8 in New Jersey; 49 in Pennsylvania; and one in Delaware. Though the missionary congregations have suffered, in common with others, from the prevailing pecuniary embarrassment of the country, yet most of them report more or less of material, as well as spiritual progress. Three have undertaken the support of their pastors; one has completed a church edifice; and several others, by relieving themselves of pecuniary burdens, or providing themselves with improved accommodations, have conquered obstacles which have hitherto retarded their growth and prosperity. Upon several missionary fields, copious showers of grace have fallen, and on others rich harvests have been gathered, which were the result of seasons of refresh

ing enjoyed during the previous year. Two new fields have been occupied, within the period now under review, and the number of those still uncultivated is smaller than formerly. Three missionaries, however, have, since the last Report, been called to their rest and reward on high. Who will enter into their labors?

The Executive Committee, in their last Report, present the following cheering summary of the results which have been achieved, through the agency of this Auxiliary, since its organization: "This Society was organized, July 1, 1840. It existed a few years prior to this, as an Agency of the Parent Society at New York. Through the instrumentality of this organization, many a wilderness has been made fruitful, and many a languishing church revived, and thousands of souls converted to God. Its missionaries have regularly preached the Gospel at from 75 to 125 missionary districts; 45 churches have been organized, and 50 Sabbath schools; 47 churches, under its fostering care, have been raised to a position of self-support, several of which are now large and efficient organizations-radiating centers of moral and religious influence; 66 church edifices have been erected by the congregations, during their partial dependence on the Society; and these buildings, with few exceptions, are free from debt. Over 5,000 souls have been hopefully couverted, and 10,000 persons supplied with the means of grace on the Sabbath. The churches have contritributed, during this period, over $33,000 to the various objects of christian benevolence. Several young men, trained in them, are now preaching the Gospel, either at home or in the foreign field. These churches, in various ways, have been sending forth. a healthful moral influence, not only where they are located, but by the removal of active members to other parts of the Lord's vineyard. Many larger churches, at the East, have received valuable accessions from these feeble churches, and their influence has been felt in the far West. A Society that can produce such credentials, surely ought to enjoy the cordial sympathy, and generous patronage, of our ministers and churches."

CENTRAL AGENCY, NEW YORK.

Rev. THEODORE SPENCER, Secretary; J. E. WARNER, Esq., Treasurer. Office at Utica. The receipts into the Treasury of this Agency, during the year ending March 1st, were $3,201.55. Contributions have also been sent from this field to the Treasury of the Society in New York, to the amount of $2,183.63, making the aggregate for the year $5,385.18, which is less than the amount raised in the previous year by $1,160.17. The disbursements of the Agency for missionary operations on this field have been $3,585.73.

Twenty eight missionaries have labored within the bounds of this Agency during the period covered by this Report. They have ministered statedly to thirty seven churches, and have

reached not far from four thousand and five hundred souls with the word of life. "Their labors," says the Secretary, "have been arduous, abundant and effective; and their zeal in every good work is worthy of high commendation. The work of collecting the children and youth into Sabbath schools and Bible classes has been prosecuted with much success. The cause of Temperance has been kept before the people; and though the public mind is less impressible on this subject than formerly, it is believed that no ground has been lost. In many communities the traffic in intoxicating drinks has entirely ceased. Several of the missionaries report special visitations of the Holy Spirit, by which the graces of Christians have been revived, and, in some instances, large numbers have been hopefully converted to Christ." The net increase in the membership of the churches, however, is but small, in comparison with the accessions made to them; and in some the losses have exceeded the gains.

The trees which were the first planting of the Lord on this field, are falling with age; and those of a later growth have been transplanted to bloom and bear fruit on the prairies of the West. This process still continues, and nothing but the earnest toil of the husbandman, sustained by the sympathy and aid of Christians in more favored regions, can save these nurseries from running to For the sake of the fruit that may ripen on the soil, as well as of that which will be borne away, to be gathered from distant fields, this work must not be neglected.

waste.

In former Reports mention has been made of the vast physical and moral wilderness of Northern New York, which forms a part of the field now under review. The Agency, and the ecclesiastical bodies covering this territory, have done what they could to ascertain its condition and supply its necessities; and many of the scattered sheep have been visited and gathered into churches. But though the laborers in the field have extended their ministrations over wider regions than they could adequately cultivate, yet multitudes remain as sheep having no shepherd. A missionary who has eight stations in Franklin and Clinton counties, mentions as many other points in those counties where ministers are needed, and adds: "If these places were all supplied, there would still remain, in the southern part of these counties, a district more than forty miles by seventy, as destitute and needy, if not as promising, as any portion of the West." This section of the State is rapidly increasing in population, and in all the elements of importance. Its adaptation to grazing, and its exhaustless treasures of lumber and iron, are attracting enterprise and multiplying facilities of communication with the markets of the seaboard. Along its northern and western border railroads are already in operation, and another, in process of construction, across the great plateau between the head waters of the Hudson and Black rivers, and passing through the heart of this vast wilderness, will accelerate immigration, which will soon transform these now dreary solitudes

into fruitful fields. The Committee would unite with the local Agency in inviting attention to this portion of the State, and will cheerfully coöperate with their brethren there in sowing, over all those hills and valleys, the good seed of the kingdom.

WESTERN AGENCY, NEW YORK.

Rev. JOHN A. MURRAY, Secretary; W. T. SCOTT, Esq., Treasurer. Office at Geneva. The amount paid into the Treasury of this Agency, within the year ending March 1st, is $6,944.90; and the amount sent by the donors from this field to the office of the Society in New York, is $11,402.07, making the aggregate of contributions to the cause $18,347.07, or $588.40 more than those of the previous year. Of this sum, $9,800 were the avails, in part, of the noble legacy of the late Deacon Jabez Goodell, of Buffalo. The disbursements of the Agency have amounted to $7,798.78, of which $7,298.78 were expended for missionary purposes on this field, and $500 were remitted to the Treasury of the Society. It appears, therefore, that of the amount contributed the past year to Home Missions from this section of the State, $11,048.29 have gone to supply the wants of other portions of the missionary field. The whole sum raised in Western New York for this Society, since its organization, is $358,667, of which $167,488 have been expended in building up its own institutions, and $191,179 have been applied to the support of the general cause.

In

During the year just closed, sixty one missionaries have held commissions to labor within the bounds of this Agency, and have supplied sixty nine churches with the stated means of grace. respect to the material interests of the feeble congregations, the past year has been one of severe trial. Much labor has been expended to prevent churches that had declared their independence, from falling back upon the hands of the Society, and to induce others still dependent, to apply for a less instead of a greater amount of aid. These efforts have been attended with gratifying success; and one evidence of the Society's efficiency is to be found in the fact that no larger outlay is reported. Its success is to be measured, not merely by the number of churches it counts on the list of its beneficiaries, but also by the number it takes, and keeps Notwithstanding the circumstances referred to, several church edifices have been erected, others have been repaired, debts have been canceled, and it is confidently expected that a few of the churches assisted will not renew their requests for aid. But the most cheering result of the year's labors is seen in the spiritual fruits that have been gathered. Nearly every church has received important accessions from the world, and full one fourth of them report revivals of religion, several of which have been of remarkable interest and power. Forty, fifty, and even sixty have been added to a single church, and the previous membership of several has been more than doubled. Thus, while the

off.