soms. Remember Him who washed the feet of His disciples, and imitate His example. 10. Finally, my beloved Brethren, I PRAY that you may be delivered from the Fear of Death, and from all inordinate Love of Life; and that you may have continually in view what God hath laid up for them who love Him. This is the privilege of a Christian, in whatever situation he may be placed; but it seems essentially necessary for a Christian Missionary. The risk of life, if a Christian may speak of risk, believing as he does that his God ordereth all things both in heaven and in earth, and knowing that his times are in the hands of Godthe risk of life, according to human probabilities, may be various in the different Stations assigned to you. The climate of one Missionary Post may be more destructive than that of another. But, by one, to whom it is Christ to live, and gain to die, and who has surrendered up himself to God in the Ministry of His Gospel, the inquiry about comparative degrees of risk will not be anxiously made. In all situations, Our Heavenly Father is the same the value of souls is equally great-the state of a Christian equally secure and the hope of glory equally bright. If fever endanger the life of a Missionary in the Torrid Zone, consumption endangers ours who remain in the uncertain temperature of the British Isles; and, whether we ascend to our Father's House from one part of the globe or another, at one period of life or another, from the bosom of our friends or in the land of strangers, is a matter of little moment. To be able to say with the great Apostle, I have fought a good fight: I have finished my course: I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day-this is the one thing needful for a dying hour, whenever and wherever that may occur. Fear not to proceed to your several destinations-your God will be with you there; and, should it be determined that you see the land of your natural nativity no more, remember that you are born from above, and are certain of seeing, and of dwelling for ever in the land of your spiritual nativity. Finally, Brethren, farewel! Should you return to the country from which you go out, it is not probable that I shall ever see you again on this side of Jordan. The days of my pilgrimage are drawing near to their termination. The day of my departure must be at hand. And, in reviewing a period of four-and-thirty years spent in the work of the Ministry, while shame and confusion cover me in the remembrance of my own unfaithfulness and unprofitableness, I am bound, by every tie of truth and gratitude, to bear witness that I have served a good Master," whose service is perfect freedom," and whose wages, even here, are rich and sure. Trust Him implicitly, for He is worthy. Serve Him zealously, for He claims your utmost exertions. Count nothing dear, so that you may finish your course with joy, and the ministry which you have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. I humbly trust, that we shall meet at the right hand of our adorable Lord in the great day; and oh! what will be the feelings of the Society under whose wing you go out, and what those of your own bosoms, should you then have to present to the Saviour of the World converts from Africa, and India, and New Zealand; and be able to adopt concerning them the Redeemer's own words, Lo, here am 1: and the children whom Thou hast given me! God Almighty grant this consummation to our prayers, our hopes, and our efforts, for His dear Son, Jesus Christ's sake. Amen, and Amen. APPENDIX II. (See Page 68.) ACCOUNT OF THE MISSIONARY INSTITUTION AT BASLE. In the year 1815, some Christians of Bâsle, struck with the immense disproportion between the number of the people yet walking in darkness, and that of the Missionaries sent to them by Christian Churches, resolved to establish a Seminary, for the purpose of training Young Evangelists; and of thus furnishing to the different Missionary Societies, subjects qualified to undertake the office of Ministers to the Heathen. The new establishment was placed under the direc. tion of a Committee, consisting of respectable Pastors and Professors; and Mr. Blumhardt, who was eminently fitted for this difficult post, was appointed Inspector. The Seminary, thus constituted, opened in the summer of 1816 with ten pupils, from eighteen to twenty-eight years of age; who possessed indeed but little learning, but appeared to be animated with a truly Christian spirit, and a disposition to surrender themselves without reserve to their arduous calling. The Committee consisted of the Pastors Von Brunn, La Roche, and Stockmeyer; Professor Laschenal; Messrs. Merian Conder and Socin Hausler, Merchants; M. Spittler, Secretary of the German Society; and M. Blumhardt, Inspector of the In stitution. In the daily instruction which these pupils received, their attention was particularly directed to such objects as might establish them in the Faith, at the same time that they were initiated in the knowledge of the languages and sciences indispensable in the vocation which they had embraced. Their rapid progress and their happy dispo. sitions manifested that the blessing of God rested on the Seminary, and filled its founders with joy and courage. Their zeal increased with their thankfulness, when they perceived in how remarkable a manner Divine Providence preserved and protected the Seminary during the scarcity of 1816 and 1817; while the faith and piety displayed by the pupils, under circumstances which had well nigh caused the ruin of the Establishment, furnished them with fresh cause to praise the Lord for his goodness. It was at first intended that the Students should remain three years at Bâsle; but their devotedness to the cause in which they had engaged, and the necessities of the various Missions, caused their stay in the Institution to be shortened. The number of ten had, indeed, been soon reduced to seven; one having been compelled on account of ill health to relinquish a career of which he would not have been able to undergo the fatigue, and two having entered the service of the Netherlands Missionary Society before they could finish a regular course of study at Bâsle. In the autumn of 1818, the remaining seven departed for their several destinations. Five of them joined their companions in the Netherlands, and two were engaged by the Church Missionary Society. The Students in Holland are at the Seminary at Berkel, near Rotterdam. They are Messrs. Daniel Müller, Jacob Baer, and Peter Knecht, Swiss; Ferdinand Bormeister, from Courland: John Kindlinger, a Bavarian; and Louis Irion and Christian Winckler, Wirtembergers. They are pursuing such studies as may best qualify them for their Ministry. Messrs. Andrew Jetter and William Deerr, both Wirtembergers, after spending some time in the Church Missionary House in London, proceeded to India, in the month of April, 1819. In the spring of 1818, the Directors of the Institution had entered into correspondence with the Church Missionary Society, for the purpose of offering the services of such of their pupils, as might be qualified by their preparatory studies to act as Missionaries in British India. This Letter contained the most encouraging view of the interest excited in Germany and Switzerland in favour of Missions. It stated that there appeared, in those countries, an encreasing readiness to take an active part in diffusing the knowledge of Jesus Christ among the Heathen; but that their geographical and political situation precluding any direct co-operation in the cause, no other way seemed at present open to their exertions, than that of preparing pious and able Missionaries for the service of the Gospel, and of thus strengthening the hands of the Missionary Societies already established in other countries. With respect to the future prospects of the Institution, it was intimated that Twenty pious and hopeful Young Men had already solicited to be received as Students, whenever a new course of instruction should be entered on; and the Directors, after expressing a hope that the contributions of their German and Swiss Brethren would enable them to maintain eight of these at their own expense, proposed to the Church Missionary Society to authorize them to receive eight more; for each of whom the expenses of board, apparel, and instruction could be defrayed at the moderate rate of 251. per annum. These proposals were accepted on the part of the Church Missionary Society. So propitious a commencement indicated the Divine protection, and subsequent events justified all the hopes which had been conceived. The relations established by the Institution with Missionary Societies, the increasing opportunities of affording instruction to Pupils, and the earnestness with which Missionaries were called for among the Heathen, were so many favourable circumstances which concurred to animate the founders of the Seminary to follow up their pious undertakingwith redoubled vigour. A Second Course of Instruc tion, of three years, accordingly commenced, under the superintendence of Mr. Blumhardt, assisted by Mr. Schlatter of St. Gall, and by some Pastors and Ministers of Basle. The number of pupils was limited to twenty, of whom sixteen were admitted in the first instance, and three more have been subsequently added. Shortly after the opening of this Second Course, the Directors had fresh grounds of satisfaction in the evident blessing which attended their labours. The ardour with which the new Pupils pursued their studies, manifested that their hearts were engaged in their work. "The love of God," Mr. Blumhardt writes to the Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, "shed abroad in the hearts of our Brethren, their eagerness to learn and advance in usefulness, the harmony and brotherly love which unite them to one another-seem so many indications of the favour of the Lord toward us. We trust we shall be enabled, after the lapse of three years, to furnish you with a little phalanx of warriors for the battles of Jehovah; and to reinforce the lines of the worthy Brethren, whose names are engraven on our hearts, and who afford us the most abundant matter of praise and supplication before the Throne of Grace." The number of Students being doubled, the Directors were soon ware that the house which they had hitherto occupied would no longer uffice for the encreased wants of he Establishment. They resolved herefore to build another, which hould afford the requisite space for fty or sixty Pupils in case their num. per should be still further augmented, of which there was every prospect. The reiterated and urgent cries of so nany Labourers in the Heathen Vineyard for help, made them feel it heir duty to use every means of exending their operations. The Students were accommodated in a large uilding, assigned for their use by the Council of Bâsle until a new edifice could be erected; and the difficulties which might have arisen from the want of adequate funds, were most opportunely removed by the contribu. ions of many, whose deep poverty bounded unto the riches of their liberality. "Considering the impoverished circumstances of so many inhabitants of our country," writes Mr. Blumhardt to the Secretary, "the greatest part of our friends have surpassed, by their gifts of love, not only our most sanguine expectations, but even their own fortunes; and it would steal away tears of joy from your eyes, to see the mites of widows and day-labourers committed with the greatest willingness to this holy cause." Thus it pleased God to provide for the exigencies of the Institution, at a moment when its expenses had greatly increased; and, with the exception of a donation of 1007. received from the Church Missionary Society, the Directors were enabled to maintain the principle upon which they had set out, of confining themselves to the resources of their own country without becoming burdensome to their bre. thren in England. In the choice of Students to be admitted into the Institution, regard is constantly had to the particular nature of their future calling, which demands that habits of self-denial should be formed, and that a decided disposition should exist to count all things but loss to win Christ. Every individual, therefore, offering himself as a candidate for the Missionary Service, is closely examined by the Committee, who meet for that purpose; and, after calling in prayer for Divine direction, proceed to put questions to him, the tendency of which is to ascertain the reality of a work of grace on his heart. The Directors have hitherto the strongest reason to believe, that this method has been successful; and that they have not mistaken, in the judg ment formed of the candidates admitted by them. The Laws and Regulations by which this little commonwealth is governed, relate chiefly to Domestic Arrangements, and to the distribution of the time set apart for Meals, Instruction, and Recreation. While exact order and discipline are maintained in these things, particular Rules for the guidance of the temper and conduct of the Students have been thought inexpedient, in a Seminary wherein all profess to wear the easy yoke of Christ, and where it is desirable that the character of each person should be left` to develope itself. "From the readiness," observes the Report of last year, "which it might naturally be expected that each individual would manifest on his entrance into our Seminary to conform to every external regulation, it would have been no difficult task, by the restraints of injunctions and prohibitions rigidly enforced, to maintain a mechanical regularity among the Members of our Society, to which, in the eye of a superficial observer, nothing should have appeared to be wanting. But how could we be assured, in that case, that our dear Pupils not only APPEAR to be Christians, but ARE so indeed? Whence should we be able to arrive at the cheering conclusion drawn, not from solitary instances, but from the whole tenor of their external demeanor, that the Holy Law of that God to whom they have vowed allegiance, really lives in their inward man; and that they draw daily out of this source of all moral order, the rules whereby their conduct is governed? It was, therefore, most desirable, that they should be left to make for themselves a particular application of the general and practical principles of Christianity to each event of their daily lives, and to every circumstance of social and relative obligation-that they should seek, in a spirit of meekness and brotherly love, to help one another forward in the pursuit of all that is true and honest and of good report; while the observant eye of a Christian Inspector watches over them, and in the sight of their Divine Master assists their judgment, whenever the Sacred Law seems to bear but indirectly on their case and circumstances." A principal point yet remaining to be noticed, is the Nature of the Instruction which the Pupils receive. This consists of the Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Languages-the doctrinal and practical study of the Scriptures sacred and profane History-Geography- Drawing-Logic-Arithmetic-and Singing; besides various mechanical arts. According to the latest accounts, one of the pupils, Mr. Dittrich, is now at Paris; where he is engaged in the study of the Arabic, Persian, and Syriac Languages, under Professors De Sacy and Kieffer. He is expected to return to Bâsle in the ensuing autumn, and, in the course of next year, to enter on the instruction of his fellow-students in Arabic and the first elements of Persian. In addition to the studies pursued in the Institution, some of the Pupils attend the Lectures of the University, for the purpose of being admitted to Ordination by the Clergy of Bâsle. All these occupations are interspersed with private and social exercises of devotion and edifying conversations; and thus is stamped on their way of life a character of piety and seriousness, analogous to their future destination. The zeal with which these Young Men follow up the labours by Mr. Blumhardt conducts a Periodical Work, the German Missionary Magazine, which is the great medium of communicating to the Contineut information respecting Missionary Proceedings throughout the world; and has been chiefly instrumental in exciting amongChristians in Switzerland, Germany, and France, a spirit of zealous concern for the extension of the Kingdom of God. This Work is compiled chiefly from the Monthly Publications and Annual Reports of the different Societies in this country. One Number, of about 150 pages, is published every Quarter; and treats a particular subject, such as West Africa, South Africa, the Mediterranean, &c., and gives a detailed account of all the principal transactions in that district of the Missionary Field since the former mention of it; and, in this manner, a report is completed, in the course of every two years, of these transactions throughout the world. Many Auxiliary Societies have been in consequence formed, in aid of the Institution at Bâsle, the principal of which are those of Wirtemberg, Berlin, Dresden, Leipsic, Bremen, Francfort on the Mayn, Nurenberg, Stutgard, Tubingen, Schaffhausen, St. Gall, Berne, Geneva, &c. Each Society undertakes the annual maintenance (estimated at 25 Louis) of one or more Students, according to its means. Wirtemberg set the example of forming these Auxiliary Associations; and the flame, once lighted, diffused itself among all classes, with almost incredi th I |