ADDRESS.

THE Baptist Board of Foreign Missions for the United States have the pleasure of presenting to the Associations of their order, to the several Missionary Societies, and to the public, their FIRST ANNUAL REPORT. They feel grateful to the Supreme Head of the church for the success which has thus far attended the zeal and piety of thousands for the extension of the Mediator's empire, and ardently hope that each successive year will be distinguished by renewed exertions.

Of the business which has called for the attention of the Board at their respective meetings, and of the manner in which they have endeavoured to execute it, a judgment will be formed from extracts, here presented, which contain the substance of their proceedings.

The detailed account of the labours of brother Rice will be read with interest. Devoted to the service of God in the cause of Missions, and acting as agent of the Board, his endeavours to excite and direct the godly zeal of associations, to originate missionary institutions, and to contribute to the efficiency of the Convention and its Board, have been active and incessant. Impressed with the importance of his past services, and believing, that there are sections of our country in which his future labours may prove eminently useful, how desirable soever, on some accounts, his early removal to a missionary station may appear, the latter are of opinion that it is the real interest of the body to continue him some time longer in his present engagements. Conformably to this conviction

they have resolved on his remaining awhile their agent in the United States. The Board most affectionately commend him to the favour and kind offices of their christian brethren. The fraternal manner in which his past efforts have been welcomed, combined with the high importance of the work in which he is engaged, create an assurance that he will continue to be received as a "brother beloved." Brethren whose information, wealth or influence can assist him in accomplishing the end of his appointment, it is hoped, will promptly come forward and seize the honour of becoming auxiliaries in a cause, conducive to the glory of God and the salvation of benighted millions.

Into the service of the mission the Board have lately received Mr. George H. Hough, a young brother who has been deeply concerned for the salvation of the heathen, and made willing to become a missionary of the cross. He has a wife and two small children. The Board possess an entire satisfaction as to his character, talents and piety. He has acquired under the instruction of his father a competent knowledge of the art of printing. In case of the publishing of the Scriptures in the Burman language, his assistance may prove in a high degree useful. A farther account of the exercises of his mind and of his setting apart to the office of a missionary, will be found in the subsequent pages. He is waiting an opportunity to sail to Rangoon, to unite with brother Judson in the work of the Lord.

The Board are sensible that no communications exceed in interest, those which are obtained from the immediate seat of a mission in heathen regions. Owing to the interruptions which commerce recently sustained, and the remoteness of the empire of Burmah, they have, as yet, received no letter from brother Judson, since his adoption as their missionary. They are daily expecting the

pleasure, and hope to be able in future reports to present intelligence that may inform the inquisitive and encourage and gratify the pious mind. In the mean time they are happy it is in their power to present extracts from private letters, which announce the safe arrival of brother Judson and wife at Rangoon, and the prospect of usefulness which is opening upon them. The communications of sister Judson, although designed merely as effusions of filial and social affection, breathe so much of the spirit of the saint and the missionary, as to convince the Board that they will be perused with peculiar pleasure. Mr. Felix Carey, a worthy son of the excellent Dr. Carey, may be viewed as an associate of brother Judson. For, though in consequence of his high medical information, at the direction of the Emperor of the Burmans, his residence has been removed to Ava, in the north of the empire, his heart is intent on the introduction of the gospel into those habitations of ignorance, cruelty and wretchedness, which the empire every where exhibits. The Board have heard with pleasure that his influence has procured permission for a printing-press, sacred to missionary endeavours, to be set up and put into motion at Ava. Intercourse between Rangoon and Ava, it is believed is easy and direct. Some information respecting the country into which their missionary brother has, by the hand of Providence, been introduced, the Board offer to the reader in the present number.

Among the numerous and increasing establishments for the spread of evangelical truth, which have engaged the attention of the observant christian, none perhaps has presented a less ostentatious origin, none been marked with a more laborious, self-denying and judicious advance, none crowned with more favoured and extensive successes than the mission at Serampore. A brief statement of the progress of their translations of the Bible, and of

the blessing which the God of mercy has poured on their holy enterprises, lately received from England, will awaken love for the instruments and praise to the power that employs them. Among the chief agents in the origination and promotion of that mission, are the names of Carey, Marshman and Ward, now in India, and Fuller, Ryland and Sutcliff of England. The last, one of the most excellent of men, has lately finished his course. He died, beloved and lamented by many. The consolation is precious, that the residue of the spirit is with the Lord. He can supply the deficiencies which death, or any other occurrence, can occasion.

It is a truth which experience has amply confirmed that a spirit for foreign missions has an excellent influence on those which are, as to the extent of their design, domestic. Nor is this surprising. When the human mind proposes to itself measures on a narrowed scale, it is content with a few feeble efforts to attain them; but enlarged designs naturally awaken enlarged exertions. When the people of Israel saw their monarch preparing near his own habitation, a place for the tabernacle, it is probable they left the work almost entirely to himself; but when he conceived and announced his purpose to erect a magnificent temple to the Lord, the chief of the fathers, the princes of the tribes and all the people poured into the treasury, in vast abundance, their brass, and their silver, their precious stones and their gold. With equal ease the sun throws his beams on the remotest planets, and on those that are near him. Real christians are the light of the world. It is as impossible in the regions of grace as in nature, that light can stream to objects far removed without irradiating such as intevene. The spirit of the gospel resembles its source. It embraces peace to them that are afar off, and to them that are nigh. Foreign missions are in reality only domestic missions extended,-the sound which has

been uttered on the frontiers of a country, going out into all lands. The Board will take pleasure in announcing the existence and prosperity of home missions, in proportion as they succeed in obtaining intelligence.

The present are eventful times. Occurrences which the world has lately witnessed, have appeared more like visions than facts. If the shaking of the nations be one of the signs of the coming of the Lord, what hopes may not the friends of the gospel cherish! The church of Christ has herself assumed an attitude peculiarly interesting. She is looking forth as the morning on the people that are sitting in darkness, and thousands are rejoicing at the brightness of her rising. She is gratuitously offering the volume of inspiration, in almost every language, to thankful multitudes. She is asking her sons and her daughters to share in the glorious attempt. To every covetous, supine or unfriendly professor, her voice is, "if thou altogether holdest thy peace, at this time, then shall enlargement and deliverance arise to the Jews from another place" and to the Gentiles also.

In the heart of every real christian exists the germ of holy benevolence. It requires only to become evolved by events, to render it productive of abundant fruit. Through almost all the Baptist Associations in the United States, with an influence gentle and bounteous as the spring, the mission spirit has diffused itself. A whole and large denomination of christians, animated with zeal for the salvation. of millions, systematizing plans for wide and permanent usefulness, and imploring the blessing of the Lord on their endeavours to spread the glory of his name, presents a scene as encouraging as it is novel. Christians of almost every name are imbibing the spirit of apostles; a spirit not of a capricious description, like the fashion of a day, but originated by principles wise and holy, active and im

mortal.