anguish being a little abated, I || After a little rest, proceeded to the river, and baptized Ann Judson; and afterwards, our little band joined in the celebration of the Savour's dying love. E. JONES. KENNEBEC MISSIONARY SOCIETY, Resolved, That an Abstract of the Treasurer's Report be printed in the American Baptist Magazine. Rev. Dr. Chaplin was appointedto preach the next annual sermon; and in case of failure, Rev. J. Torrey. Rev. D. Chessman, J. Hovey, and T. D. Scudder, Esqrs. were appointed a Committee, and authorized to alter the time of the annual meeting, if in their opinion expedient. This Committee have decided that it is expedient to have the next annual meeting on the 2d Wednesday in February, 1829. Resolved, That the next annual meeting be held in Hallowell, in AUXILIARY ΤΟ THE BAPTIST the Baptist Meeting-house; and BOARD OF FOREIGN MISSIONS. The second Annual Meeting of this Society was held in Readfield, in the Baptist Meeting-house, on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 1828. At eleven o'clock, Rev. John Butler of Winthrop, delivered the annual sermon, from 1 Cor. ix. 19, in which he considered what Chris tians might do in extending the kingdom of the Redeemer; and the powerful motives which should excite them to make every exertion. After the sermon a collection was made to aid the cause of missions, amounting to $7,42. Rev. Dr. Chaplin, President of the Society, took the chair; Rev. Jesse Martin of Vassalboro', addressed the throne of grace for a blessing on the meeting. The Report of the Secretary was read and accepted. The Report of the Treasurer was read and accepted. The following officers were elected for the year ensuing; viz. that the publick services commence at 10 o'clock. Resolved, That an Agent be appointed to visit each of the Auxiliaries connected with the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions, and report at the next annual meeting of this Society, their state and prospects; that our hands may be strengthened and our hearts encouraged. The meeting was closed with prayer. The season was remarkably pleasant and interesting; for it was evident that the Missionary spirit was increasing; and that the Society felt the importance in some degree of attempting great things, as well as expecting great things in promoting the kingdom of the Redeemer. Rev. Dr. Chaplin, of Waterville, Pres. Fairfield P. S. Monville, Miss Lucy Fry Livermore, friend for educating Waterville, Dr. Chaplin Indian Children, Rev. A. Briggs, 1,00 Friend to miss. 1,10 Vassalboro, Reuben Priest, ,25-12,85 ,50 ,50 John vi. 14. "This is of a truth that Prophet that should come into the world." John i. 17. "For the law came by Moses; but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.' "He that is born Matt. ii. 2. King of the Jews." Heb. vii. 26. 66 For such an high Priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens." Luke xvi. 16. Rev. xvii. 14. "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings." "The law and the prophets were until John; since that time, the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it." A prophet is a person who foretells future events; it is particularly applied to such inspired persons among the Jews, as were commissioned by God to declare his will and purposes to that people. Jesus Christ executes the office of a Prophet, by the instruction he affords to mankind through the medium of his word, and by the agency of his spirit; a little of the divine nature was known by the work of creation; a little more by Mosaic dispensation; but the full manifestation of God, his nature, and attributes, came only through the revelation of Jesus Christ. A priest, under the law, was a person set apart to perform the offices and ceremonies of religion, and offer sacrifices; he was but a figure. Under the gospel dispensation, there is but one Priest, which is Jesus Christ, and no sacrifice, 35 but that of his cross. A king, is King Eternal, Invisible, Immortal, the only wise God, to whom be honour and glory forever and ever? Amen. ADDRESS OF THE GENERAL UNION ON THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH. THE exertions which Christians in general are now making to impress on the publick mind, the importance of keeping holy the Sabbath, inspire peculiar joy in The every pious and benevolent breast. zeal which is manifested in this sacred enterprize, promises a success to those engaged in it; for they act upon the principle, that the fruition of hope in the accomplishment of a good cause, depends upon a vigorous and pious perseverance. We were led to these remarks in reading the Address of the General Union for promoting the observance of the Christian Sabbath, to the people of the United States. It was delivered at a General Convention of different Religious Denominations held in New-York, May 1, 1828, for the purpose of adopting measures to promote the better observance of the Christian Sabbath. At this meeting a Constitution was formed, by the Delegates from several States in the Union. We should be glad to insert the Ad This omnipresent influence the Sabbath exerts, however, by no secret charm or compendious process upon masses of ignorant and unthinking men; but by calling up the voluntary attention of each individual to those truths by which his knowledge is augmented, and motives are pressed upon his heart, and habits of conscientious actions are formed. The Sabbath exerts no more moral power upon those who withdraw themselves from the duties of it, than schools and seminaries exert of intellectual power upon the vagrant population who never attend them. The folly of expecting to maintain the religious and moral character of the nation without the Sabbath, would not be surpassed by the attempt to disseminate learning over the nation by empty school-houses and colleges. In proportion, then, as the inhabitants of our nation are withdrawn by business or pleasure from the instructions of the Sabbath, to the same extent will its moral power be impaired, and the temptations of our abounding prosperity prevail, to corrupt our virtue, and to undermine our republican institutions, After some general and pertinent reand hasten us onward to that fearmarks, on this divine institution, they sayful state of guilt, which will render "It is the Government of God made effectual by his Spirit, which produces that righteousness which From statements made to this exalteth a nation; and the Sabbath Convention, as well as from what is the chief organ of its administra- was before notorious, it appeared tion-the mainspring of all moral that the respect of former generamovements the great centre of at- tions for the Sabbath was in many traction and fountain of illumina-places gone, and in all places fast tion to the moral world. failing before the inundation of dress entire in this number of the Magazine; but our limits forbid, and we must content ourselves with giving an extract from it, presuming that our readers will not only respond to the tenor of its spirit, but lend themselves as auxiliaries, in giving virtue to the operations of this invaluable Society. self-government impossible, and despotism itself the lesser evil. business and pleasure; that commerce, on our sea-board, and rivers, and canals and turnpikes, is putting in motion a secular enterprise, which is fast and fearfully annihilating the national conscience in respect to the Sabbath, and rolling the wave of oblivion over that sacred day. It was the opinion of this Convention that the time had come in which the moral energies of the Sabbath must be preserved or abandoned, and that God had devolved upon them the responsibility of acting upon a question whose decision will affect deeply and permanently the destiny of this nation and the world. If we yielded to fear, and sent out through the land the appalling declaration, that nothing can be done, we read in the laws of the human mind and the immutable analogy of moral causes, the certain downfall of our republick, the abolition of the world's last hope of civil liberty, and the perpetuity of those fearful despotisms, under whose pressure "the whole creation has groaned and travailed together in pain until now." This alternative, while a ray of hope beamed on our path, we did not dare to encounter; the cries of our distant posterity assailed our ears; their cruel bondage rose up before us and broke our hearts; we could not endure, without an effort to avert it, the ruin of our beloved country and her bloodbought blessings. And when we perceived the sensation which recent efforts in behalf of the Sabbath have sent through the land, we seemed to hear the voice of our country and our God saying unto us, Be not afraid, but go forward. We were cheered by the hope that He, in whose hand are the hearts of all men, was raising up, in behalf of the Sabbath, a publick sentiment, whose decisions would be at once law and its execution. We borrowed hope, too, from the promises of God, that a day of civil and religious emancipation shall yet arise upon the earth; and from the signs of the times, which seem to announce its rapid advent in the approximation of the distant parts of the earth by the facilities of intercourse, and the intercommunion of knowledge, and the formation of a universal publick sentiment, which, under the guidance of science and the Bible, shall disenthral the world. Thus alarmed, and thus cheered and animated with hope, what, fellow-citizens, could we do, but relying on the favour of Heaven, and presuming on your approbation, to resolve, that we will make the attempt to preserve to the nation the. invaluable blessings of the Sabbathday? It is not the object of this Union to enforce the laws of the several states in favour of the Sabbath. We have not the madness to think of coercion merely. We know that our countrymen can violate the Sabbath if they will; and our only hope is, that, by the blessing of God, we shall be able to persuade them not to do it. It is by the calling up of a general attention to the subject-by the extension of information-by the power of example-by renovated vigilance in families and among the ministers of Christ and the professors of his religion-and by withdrawing our capital and patronage, as fast as may be, from all participation in the violation of the Sabbath-that we hope to convince the understandings of our countrymen, and awaken their consciences, and gain their hearts to abstain voluntarily and entirely from the violation of that day which God has given to us as the token of his love, and upon which he has suspended all our hopes for time and eternity. We do not flatter ourselves that no false alarm will be sounded, and no temporary misapprehension of our motives prevail; but we do most confidently expect to be guid "see to it that the commonwealth receive no detriment," while they guide the destinies of this great nation, will not stop their ears against the supplication, nor disappoint the hopes of millions. To the entire class of our fellowcitizens who inconsiderately, for amusement or gain, violate the Sabbath, we would say, Alas, brethren! why do you this evil thing? Do not imagine that we shall engage with you in angry controversy of words or deeds, or that we are insensible to the difficulties which by some of you must be encountered, to retrace steps which should never have been taken, and to withdraw yourselves from alliances that ought never to have been formed. But the emerThe liber ed by a wisdom from above, which || to shall enable us to convince you, at once, of the purity of our motives, and the correctness of our counsels, and the benevolence of our exertions; and to unite our fellow-citizens in one glorious co-operation for the preservation of that day, by whose influence alone is guaranteed the perpetuity of our civil|| and religious institutions. We are cheered in these anticipations by a fact, well known, that many lament the seeming necessity which drives their secular enterprise over the Sabbath, against their consciences, and with deep regret and much remorse, while a thoughtless publick sentiment is urging them on. For the emancipation of all such, this Union arises, and expects to be hailed by them as a benefactor ingency is tremendous. the formation of a publick senti-ties of your country, the welfare of ment, which shall release them and the world, are at stake. If this their families, and the stranger nation fails in her vast experiment, within their gates,' from a bondage the world's last hope expires; so severe and distressing. We are and without the moral energies of the more confirmed in these ex- the Sabbath it will fail You pectations from the well known and might as well put out the sun, and often admitted fact, that Sabbath- think to enlighten the world with day earnings are pecuniary losses, tapers-destroy the attraction of besides the appalling array of gen- gravity and think to wield the eral evils to families and nations, universe by human powers-as to which attend the violation of that extinguish the moral illumination sacred day." of the Sabbath, and break this glorious mainspring of the moral And when government of God. shall we stop, if not now? and how shall we arrest the evil, but by voluntary association and voluntary reformation? Will you then, be The following appeals to the different classes of society, are written in a strain of eloquence, seldom equalled, and must make a deep impression on a moral and religious community. "And now we look for co-opera-loved countrymen, for the pitiful tion to the government of this nation, the representatives of freemen, to aid us by their conspicuous and powerful example, by their cogent arguments in the cabinet and halls of legislation, and by their manifestation of a sacred regard for the Sabbath in all the arrangements of business at the seat of government, in the army and navy, and upon the highways of our land. gain of Sabbath-day earnings, rob the animal creation of that rest which their Creator gave to them, when he gave dominion over them? Will you forego the means of grace, purchased for you by the blood of Christ; stop in your families the wells of salvation, and put out the light of life, and teach your children to work out their destruction, We instead of their salvation upon the Sabbath-day? Will you besiege the citadel of civil liberty, and un trust that those whom we have clothed with power by our suffrage |