OREGON. Seven missionaries have labored in this State during the past year under commission from this Society; and the churches have contributed to its Treasury $305.60. Although this portion of the missionary field has risen, since the last Report, from a position of Territorial dependence to the dignity of a State, the real change in the number and condition of its people and of its churches has not been great. The immigra tion has been very small, and the financial embarrassment which has visited the East has made itself felt on the banks of the Columbia and in the valley of the Willamette. The excitement occasioned by the discovery of gold upon Frazer's river, aggravated rather than relieved existing evils. When good men had begun to hope that society was about to become settled on a firmer basis, and to advance thenceforward in regular steps of improvement, this sudden furor came over the community and foiled their expectations. Multitudes were hurried away in eager pursuit of gain; fields and workshops were deserted; and churches felt the loss of some of their most enterprising members. In the midst of such excitements, the whispers of conscience lose their power, and hearts become hardened against the truth. Although, taking the year together, some increase of religious interest is perceivable, yet the progress in spiritual things has not been great. Few have been added to the churches by immigratian, and the wave of Divine mercy which has been flowing over the churches of the Atlantic shore has not reached Oregon. The sparseness of the population interferes with the growth of churches and the development of their power, and frequent changes and removals tend to diminish their strength and to repress their spirit of enterprise. Preachers, indeed, are numerous; and in a certain district, where an estimate was made, there was found to be one for every two hundred and eighty five souls. Most of these, however, were uneducated men, mainly devoted to secular employments, and rarely spending much labor upon any one field. None but a permanent and an educated ministry can do the work which needs to be done in Oregon. The progress of the missionary work in this State has, it must be owned, been slower than was at one time anticipated; but it nevertheless affords grounds for encouragement. Churches have been organized, and their membership has increased; a female seminary has been established-in part by the labors of the missionaries of the Society-which has effectually dislodged a Papal seminary from its position of influence. A college has been founded, which, if it can but secure the funds that it is now seeking at the East, promises to be an institution of great and permanent value; the common school system has been fostered; intemperance, and all immorality has been checked; the observance of the Sabbath has been promoted-in one word, an indispensable founda tion work has been accomplished, the results of which must become more and more evident as years advance. "It was a great thing," observes a missionary, "to settle this territory with an American population. It was a grand passage in God's Providence, to give us a share in the wealth of California, while compelling us to cultivate our own soil and establish homes in Oregon. It was an overruling and gracious power, which held back the hand of the combined savage foe, two years since; for it is now well known that they were enlisted to exterminate the whites. Another great step ordered for us, evidently to a higher end, was the securing our Territory forever for freedom-and that, so decidedly, that we are admitted easily as one of the sovereign States of the Union. These steps have succeeded each other rapidly, as if, not far in the future, some still greater developments were yet to be made." And may we not now be witnessing the dawn of these events? Gold mines have been opened but just across the boundary upon the north; the valley of the Salt Lake has come under the control of the national government; the slopes of the Rocky Mountains are invaded by eager crowds; the highway across the continent is becoming more frequented and more safe; can it be long before a steady tide of emigration will be pouring down the Columbia to the valleys of Oregon and Washington? The indications of Providence are sufficiently distinct, to justify us in cherishing high anticipations and to oblige us to wait, with feet shod and loins girded, in readiness to enter into all this land and take possession in the name of the Lord. CONCLUSION. In looking back upon the year now ended, we are impressed with the fact that it has been, to the missionaries and their churches, a year of many trials. In poverty, and often amid sore hardships, have these faithful laborers persevered in their divine task-ministers and private Christians alike approving themselves, in patience and self-denial, good soldiers of the cross. In like manner, have those to whom the Society looks for the means of carrying on its work, demonstrated their firm and reliable attachment to the cause-manifesting a prompt and just apprehension of its exigencies, and a depth and truth of devotion most encouraging. But if in temporal things the past year has been a season of trial, in spiritual things it has been a season of ingathering. Churches have chanted with joy their harvest-home, as they have brought together into the Lord's house the fruits of his abounding grace. While, therefore, owing to financial troubles and the consequent check upon emigration, missionary congregations may not have increased in numbers and in moneyed resources as in some years, they have manifestly advanced in spiritual strength, and so have laid a sound basis for an accelerated growth hereafter. Thus has the season of man's weakness proved the hour of God's triumph; and while temporal riches have been taking to themselves wings, eternal treasures have been laid up where they shall never be moved. More than ever before, have the churches learned to put their trust immediately in God-looking not upon eloquent preachers and evangelists as mediators to bring down the presence of the Spirit, but going themselves to the Father, believing that to them that ask, the infinite blessing is given. Surely, this renewed communion with God has not come too soon. When we consider the depth of the corruption which has laid hold upon the popular heart, and the fearful tendency to public and private demoralization, when we bring to view the enormous prevalence of intemperance, the profligacy of politics, the spirit of scorn against Christianity that, subtly or openly, qualifies so much of our literature, the facility with which shallow novelties in religion are caught up, the obstinacy with which old errors and sins are defended, when we remember how large a proportion of the people come under no regular Sabbath instruction, and what multitudes of children are growing up without christian nurture, and how few professing Christians are actively engaged in their Master's work, and what broad wastes throughout the West and South lie desolate-in a word, when the reality comes before us, then, in proportion to the clearness with which the reality is seen, we feel that, in very truth, the blessing from on high has come to meet a dreadful want! It matters little what temporal reverses come upon the nation, provided they are such as to bring the people nearer to God. The vain confidence too often born of success may easily prove our ruin. In nothing does it become us to glory-neither in riches nor in strength, in the growth of population, in the subjection of nature, in the occupation of the continent, in the commercial conquest of seas, in development of political power, or in any triumphs or any renown, but only in the Cross of Christ and the indwelling of his Spirit. In this we may glory; for here is the crown of all hope, the consummation of all rational desire, the fulfillment of the highest aspiration. It is in the light of such considerations alone, that we adequately apprehend the important work of the Society. Whether it shall ever be given unto it or not, to realize the noble aim of its founders and hold various households of the Lord in permanent brotherly coöperation, the privilege is manifestly granted it, of spreading the conquests of his kingdom in this land and bringing penitent hearts into loving union with his Spirit. Churches are founded by its instrumentality; communities are taught to revere God's law and to own his love; and souls receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost. God is laying across this continent the foundations of a temple, for his indwelling to the end of time; and it is right for us to feel that we are laboring on these foundations, for we see them yearly growing under our hand. This is the Lord's work, and glorious in our eyes. On the shores of the Atlantic, the gates of the Lord's house stand open to the strangers that flock hitherward for refuge from poverty or oppression; throughout the great valley, her numerous altars already invite the too unwilling worshipers, with their promise of consolation and forgiveness; while upon the sierras of the uttermost West, a sacred fire has been kindled, whose light shall overlook the Pacific, and rise, a day-star, to the farthest Orient. Soon, the glens of the Rocky Mountains shall echo to the sound of Sabbath bells, and the frightful wastes of Utah shall begin to be watered with streams out of Zion. Already, the Lord has caused a banner to be lifted among the hills, and hosts of the just and the unjust are flocking to greet it. It is the day of his power, when he is doing great things among many peoples. "Wherefore, awake! put on thy strength, O Zion!" "Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way for the people." "THEY SHALL YET CALL THEM THE HOLY PEOPLE, THE REDEEMED OF THE LORD." In behalf of the Executive Committee, MILTON BADGER, DAVID B. COE, DANIEL P. NOYES, Secretaries for Correspondence. TREASURER'S REPORT. Receipts during the year ending April 1, 1859. From Auxiliaries, Agencies, and Congregations, From Legacies, For Home Missionary, exclusive of copies furnished to Auxiliaries Total amount of Receipts, Balance from last year's account, $188,139 29 6,488 07 $194,627 36 Expenditures during the year ending April 1, 1859. Paid on commissions of Missionaries,* exclusive of payments from Expended by Auxiliariest within their respective limits, Proportion of General Agency in Massachusetts, as by arrangement Salaries of Secretaries, Assistant Treasurer, and Clerks, $106,573 03 47,050 98 12,769 64 1,600 00 10,049 02 3,938 29 *For the amount pledged in support of each missionary, and other particulars, see the tabular statement commencing on page 13, column 5. The principal Auxiliaries are those of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Philadelphia. For a summary of their expenditures, see the notices of these Societies, as referred to in the Table of Contents; for the amount appropriated in support of each missionary, see the tabular statement commencing on page 13; for further particulars, reference will be had to the published reports of these Societies. For the character of these Agencies, see page 107. |