These multiplied Auxiliaries became the strength of the Parent Society, by raising funds and distributing the Scriptures; so that the number of Bibles and Testaments issued this year was nearly 100,000 copies. Confident, therefore, that their work enjoyed the approbation of heaven, the Committee with joyfulness celebrated their seventh anniversary in an enlarged assembly of friends. On that day the Philadelphia Bible Society held its general meeting, and in their Report the Committee state:-"The annual meeting of the Parent Society is held on this day, and it is a pleasing and animating consideration that our exertions are united with theirs to extend the empire of the Redeemer, till it embrace in its peaceful bosom all the empires of the world, and Jesus Christ become King of nations, as he is King of saints."

THE EIGHTH YEAR OF THE SOCIETY, 1811-1812.

EVERY friend of the Bible Society appeared astonished at the admirable facts reported to the seventh anniversary assembly. "There was everything in the retrospect to satisfy, and in the prospect to encourage." The Committee stated, that "they could contemplate with heartfelt satisfaction what the Institution had already accomplished, and look forward with cheering hope to its future more enlarged employments."

The Berlin Society having finished their edition of the Polish Bible and Testament, the demand for them was great in Warsaw and several provinces ;

but the war rendering money scarce, the British Society directed 1,000 to be distributed gratuitously by the Berlin, and 500 Bibles with 1,000 Testaments by the Königsberg, Committee; the proceeds of those that were sold to go in aid of a new edition of the Lithuanian Bible.

Another edition of the Bohemian Bible being called for, the Committee granted £300 in aid of this; and £200 also were voted to the Stockholm Society, in aid of a new edition of the Swedish Bible, and a fifth of the New Testament; 5,000 of the former having been distributed, and 16,000 of the latter, to the astonishment of many in Sweden. "The work, said the Swedish Advocate, "was planned in England; the English voted the principal means by which it was executed. In London were the springs which moved the greatest part of the machine in Stockholm." In the summer of 1811, Bishop Norden having completed the edition of 5,000 Japanese Testaments, at the expense of the British Society, 2,500 were sent to the Swedish Laplanders, and 2,500 to Laplanders of Norway and Russia.

Attention having been called to the 1,300,000 Finlanders, the Committee instructed the Rev. J. Paterson, to offer £500, in the way most acceptable, to aid in the printing of the Finnish Scriptures, by a Society in that province. The matter was referred to the Court of St. Petersburgh, and the Emperor approved of the project, which he signified by donation of 5,000 roubles for the same object. A letter to the Governor of Finland, directs that certain corn tithes, originally designed for this object,

a

shall be so applied; signed by Alexander, May 13, 1813. Thus the grand object of the Bible Society was brought to the notice of the Emperor of Russia, who promoted, to the end of his life, the labours of that great Institution.

Hungary was favoured with aid in forming a Hungarian Bible Society, at Presburg-which was done in prospect of a grant of £500 from the Parent Committee-1,800 copies of a Bohemian Slavonic Bible were put into circulation; and the Emperor of Austria granted the privilege, never before enjoyed by the Protestants, of a printing-press for the Bible at Presburg.

While these institutions were progressing among the Protestants in Europe, the British Society found zealous coadjutors in the Catholics in Bavaria, Malta, Sicily, and the Greek Isles, for Testaments in the Italian and Modern Greek. The spirit of the Bible seemed to animate many; so that a Romanist priest in Bavaria, in his address to the British Society, declared, "United to Christ, we are united to each other neither sentiments nor seas, neither various forms of government nor different outward confessions of religion, can separate us-all these pass away, BUT LOVE ABIDETH."

India had engaged special attention during the past year. The Committee printed and circulated throughout its provinces 1,000 of the first five Annual Reports, so that, in 1810, contributions to the amount of 73,499 rupees were made. The Rev. H. Martyn appealed " on behalf of 900,000 Christians in India, who were in want of the Bible." This discourse

from the pulpit he afterwards published as a pamphlet, describing the plan of the Bible Society, enumerating the four classes of Portuguese, Tamul, Malayalim, and Cingalese Christians; and urged the duty of supplying them with the Holy Scriptures. This, with other means, led to the formation of the Bible Society at Calcutta, February 21, 1811. The Parent Committee, on receiving this intelligence, made a grant of £1,000 in aid of the Calcutta Bible Society, and raised their annual contribution to the Corresponding Committee from £2,000 to £4,000 for the current year, to further the Bible cause in the East.

In the United States of America, the good work proceeded with zeal and success in an increased distribution of the Scriptures, in cordial co-operation with the Society in England.

In our own country, the spirit which had gone forth in the preceding year, influenced many in different parts of the United Kingdom; so that in Britain alone, fifty-three new Societies, with their several branches, were added to the number of its auxiliaries. Of these, fourteen comprehended twelve entire counties; and among them were the bishopric of Norwich and the University of Cambridge. Many of the nobility also became patrons of the Bible Society, including the Dukes of Bedford, Buccleuch, Grafton, and Manchester, with their Royal Highnesses the Duke of Gloucester and the Princess of Wales.

Auxiliaries formed in so many places, under such patronage, might be expected to call forth the

approving sentiments of the best men in the kingdom; but still there were opponents. The most formidable of whom was Dr. Marsh, Margaret Professor of Divinity, who was answered by the Right Hon. N. Vansittart, Chancellor of his Majesty's Exchequer, afterwards, Lord Bexley, in a " Letter," full of noble sentiment; and as to his uniting with Dissenters in the great work, he says, "So far from repenting of what I have done, I feel convinced I shall, least of all repent of it as I approach that state in which the distinction of Churchman and Dissenter will be no more!"

So extensive were the operations of the Bible Society this year, that it is impossible, in this place, to specify the several grants of the Holy Scriptures in Europe, America, Africa, and Asia. The eighth anniversary of the Society was celebrated in Freemasons' Hall, May 6, 1812: but so vast was the crowd, and so great the pressure on the occasion, that many persons of distinction were unable to gain admittance, among whom was the Earl of Hardwicke. Several bishops publicly testified their attachment to the Society: so that it seemed" as if there was but one opinion and one feeling throughout the British empire and the Christian world."

THE NINTH YEAR OF THE SOCIETY, 1812-1813. SUCCESS in promoting the spirit of unfeigned Christian love, continued manifestly to attend the unexampled labours of the Bible Society. And this endeared it to the hearts of many of the most excellent