missionary in China, the Rev. I. J. Roberts, has acceded thereto.

It

is mutually understood that the agency of this Society will be confined to Kentucky, and that its operations shall be subsidiary to the Board in the same manner as those of other auxiliaries, reserving to itself the right belonging to all contributors, to designate the objects to which its donations shall be applied.

We are reluctant to close this notice of our relations to kindred institutions without adverting to the Christian courtesy and friendliness which with scarcely an exception the Board and its missionaries have gratefully experienced at the hands of co-ordinate missionary associations at home and in foreign lands, and which it has been their habitual aim to reciprocate. To the sentiments avowed by an honored Missionary Board of this country, that "assiduously to cultivate a mutual respect and courtesy; to avoid all unpleasant interference with each other's plans and proceedings; and to cultivate good feeling and coöperation among all the missionaries in the foreign field," is "the solemn duty of the different Protestant missionary societies," we give our hearty concurrence. To these societies is committed in a peculiar measure the ministration of the truth in love, to a misbelieving and contentious world. They are to be the eye of the world, which is now sitting in darkness: and "if the eye be evil, how great that darkness."

TRANSACTIONS OF THE BOARD.

DOMESTIC OPERATIONS.

The domestic operations of the Board, designed, as the preamble to the constitution expresses it, for the "eliciting and combining of the energies of the whole denomination in one sacred effort,"-embrace the collection and disbursement of funds, the procurement and sending forth of missionaries, the promotion of prayer for success, and, as subsidiary to these, the cultivation of an enlightened and fervid interest in the Foreign Mission cause. For the successful prosecution of these objects the Board relies on various instrumentalities, some of them created by itself and others spontaneous, but all working harmoniously to the same ends. The first of these instrumentalities is the Press.

Publications.

The Baptist Missionary Magazine has been the official publication of the Board since the transfer of its seat of operations to Boston in 1826. Since the beginning of 1836 the work has been exclusively missionary in its design and character, relating chiefly to the proceedings of the Board, but embracing also notices more or less extended of missionary operations at large. As an agency of the Board for communication with the societies and churches on whose behalf it acts, the publication is indispensable. Its usefulness is also believed to have been not inconsiderable, in the diffusion of just missionary principles and intelligence, and the enforcement of missionary obligations on the conscience and the heart. It is a matter of serious regret that the work continues to have so limited circulation. Notwithstanding the subscription price is only $1 per annum, and a copy is sent gratuitously to the secretary of every auxiliary society, and to, the pastor of every church that regularly con

tributes at the monthly concert, to the funds of the Board, when application is made for the work, yet the number of copies circulated hardly averages one to a church throughout the country.

This deficiency of circulation is supplied in part by the numerous local periodicals, which more or less copiously spread the contents of the Magazine before their numerous readers. And the Board takes pleasure in acknowledging its obligations to the conductors of these journals for the alacrity with which they have contributed to give publicity to its communications and doings in their respective vicinities. It should be borne in mind nevertheless, that the objects of these journals and the Magazine are not the same, and that no appropriate agency of the former can supersede the importance of securing to the official publication of the Board the widest possible circulation. In proportion as the patronage of the work is extended, it should also be noted, the ability will be increased of enhancing the value of its contents, and at the same time enlarging the list of gratuitous distribution.

Beside the monthly Magazine, the Board has issued occasional statements and circulars, in the form of quarterlies or otherwise, as circumstances required or favored; and a method has been projected, but not fully matured, by which new facilities would be supplied to give additional interest to the monthly missionary prayer meeting.

Much good, it is believed, could be effected by the periodical publication of missionary tracts, embodying the worthiest conceptions of our best and ablest men. Information needs to be continually and largely and in every way spread abroad, concerning the condition of the heathen world, the means of access to those miserable domains of idolatry and superstition, the efforts already made to introduce among them the knowledge of the true God and our Savior, and the alternate successes and reverses and gradual advancement of the gospel, in its enlightening and life-giving circuit round the globe. And, inasmuch as in the conduct of every great enterprize the wisest measures are liable, through ignorance or prejudice, to be assailed and the purest motives to be suspected, there should ever be at hand the means of a corrective, remedial influence, which by the simplicity of truth and the meekness of wisdom should at once disarm and win. Still greater demand is there for appeals of love and power, to arouse the conscience of the church and kindle up its affections to a zeal and activity commensurate with the grandeur of the work which it has begun. The love of Christ, his example and last command, the worth of the soul, the unnumbered blessings of Christianity in the present life and its priceless heritage in the world to come, these and a thousand other themes of exhaustless interest, touching the missionary enterprize, should be perpetually presented to the heart in ever-varied aspects.

But the silent pleadings of the press will fail of their rightful efficiency, if they are not sustained and enforced by living

Agencies.

With all the objections that are urged against the employment of domestic agents, from prejudice, from erroneous ideas of economy, or from cases of official mismanagement, it is a clearly demonstrated truth that their services cannot be dispensed with by this Board without great detriment. As stated in a report on the subject of finance and agencies,

adopted at our last annual meeting, "In the present condition of our churches, living agencies are necessary. Circulars may be of use, as subsidiary and auxiliary to such agencies, but cannot alone accomplish the great object of providing an unfailing supply to our funds."

In its efforts to procure an adequate number of domestic agents, the Board has encountered serious difficulty. This has been owing in part to the high order of qualifications which, in the judgment of the Board, enter into the constitution of an efficient agent. He must be a man of great simplicity of aim, whose entirely transparent motives shall subject him to no just reproach; yet so humble and quiet in spirit as to be ruffled by no slanderous accusation. Minutely acquainted with the condition and claims of the cause to which he is devoted, he should have a largeness of views to comprehend the relations of others, a quick discernment in the observation of character, and a well-moderated sensitiveness to the proprieties of time, place, and cirumstance. He should be capable alike of profound argument, apt illustration, and impassioned appeal; able to speak in the crowded assembly as one having authority, and with boldness, as he ought to speak; yet ready, at all times and to every man, to give place and precedence as the occasion and the interests of the cause which he has espoused may require. He should be a man endued in an eminent degree with the spirit of his Master; a true yoke-fellow with his brethren in the foreign field, compared with whose sufferings and toils his own need not shrink from the parallel, though commanding less sympathy; an impersonation of the charity which he endeavors to promote in others, that seeketh not its own, but is full of mercy and good fruits. To these qualifications of mind and heart must be added a physical constitution capable of strong endurance, not easily tired, and quick to restore itself.

In this estimate of the elements of character in an accomplished agent, we have been confirmed by a consideration of the power for good or for evil, which an associated body confers on any individual whom it commissions to go abroad in its name among the people; by a humiliating remembrance of the lamentable perversion or waste of that power in sundry instances; and from having noted the too common undervaluing of some agents, who were "worthy of double honor.”

A complete organization of domestic agencies, so as to cover the entire ground of our home operations and ensure the due canvassing of every part, until at least the resources of our denomination shall have become more generally developed and made more available to the Foreign Missionary cause, would require the appointment of an agent for Maine and New Hampshire, and a second for the remainder of New England, one for the interior of New York, another for the residue of New York and the Middle States, two at least for the southern portion of our confederacy, and two or more for the valley of the Mississippi : these to constitute a class of permanent general agents, who should be empowered to call to their occasional aid the services of temporary local collectors. Agencies of various duration have been performed in all these divisions of country since the meeting of the Convention, and with manifest good effect. And proposals have been urged during the last year upon several approved individuals, members of the Board and others, for their renewal; we regret to add, without success. With others still, negociations are yet in progress, which may issue more favorably.

The only general agents now in connexion with the Board, and who have labored throughout the year, are the Rev. A. Bennett and the Rev. J. D. Cole. The former has devoted most of his agency to the interior of New York, but has also spent some time in parts of Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. "In labors abundant," as for a long series of years, and his "natural force unabated," any diminution, if diminution there has been, in the pecuniary results of his labors, is attributable to extrinsic and unwonted embarrassments in part, and in part to the extensiveness of the field which his destitution of co-workers has naturally led him to traverse. The agency of Mr. Cole has been principally directed to Indiana, Illinois and Missouri, where, not overlooking the present collection of funds, his chief object has been to give missionary intelligence and foster a missionary spirit with reference to future benevolent action in those States. For a statement of other financial operations within the last three years, we beg leave to refer the Convention to the accompanying reports for 1839, and 1840, and to other divisions of this Report.

Having alluded to two of the prominent objects sought in the appointment of agents, the diffusion of missionary intelligence and the collection of funds,—it is important to remark a third of at least equal moment, and which, in proportion as it is attained, will also promote the two former; the intelligent, hearty and steadfast

Co-operation of Pastors and Churches.

In the language of the Report on Agencies, before quoted, "One of the grand objects contemplated in a system of agencies, should be the preparation of the pastors of the churches to become ultimately their own agents. Every agent should enter upon his field of labor with this aim distinctly in view." Of the nature of the relations between a pastor and his people, involving his obligation to instruct them in all righteousness and both by precept and example to train them to diligence in every good work, it would be superfluous here to remark. We will advert simply to the importance of the coöperation of pastors in the support of Foreign Missions, and its effectiveness whenever it is cordially rendered.

Their coöperation is important, to give scope to the faithful exertions of visiting agents. Common courtesy and common discretion alike require an agent to begin his canvassing among a people, with him whom they have chosen for their teacher and leader in things pertaining to godliness. It is important also, in order to secure to the labors of agents a proper measure and permanency of effect. The return of an agent to a given point in his circuit, will be necessarily distant; and might be indefinitely postponed except for the recurrence of such an occasion, in the state of missionary feeling or effort, as first led him thither. But missionary feeling and effort among a Christian people should be subject to no waning. The cause is unchanging the demand for sympathy and effort never ceases-the work gains upon our hands, and will gain, however helpers may multiply. To enable a people to come up once a year, only, to the full measure of the riches of their liberality," requires judicious training. Their minds must not be permitted to lose sight of that great commission of Christ to the church, "Preach my gospel to every creature ;" they must be led to note with intelligent interest the progress of its fulfilment; they must be habituated to labor,

to give, and to pray. Prayer, above all things else, should not be intermittent, prayer for the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit on all the earth; without whose agency all other agencies are unavailing, and which can be had only through fervent, united and unceasing prayer.

The monthly prayer-meeting is preeminently an occasion of delightful, hallowed interest to the missionary, and to missionary institutions. Its perpetuity and general observance are among the surest tokens of their eventual success. It is a principal channel through which comes the present grace of God. But the regularity with which the monthly concert is maintained by any people, the fulness of its attendance, the interest that is imparted to its exercises, even the appropriateness, fervor and prevalency of the prayers which are offered there, depend in an eminent degree upon the faithfulness and skill of the pastor in conducting it.

In regard to the effectiveness of pastoral agencies, in the promotion either of prayer or offerings, it is enough to refer to the origin of our missionary organization and the almost entire history of our home operations. It was the pastors of our churches, the watchmen upon the walls of our Zion, who first descried the desolations of heathen lands and summoned the people to their succor. It is the spontaneous, unrequited, and often unnoticed instrumentality of pastors and teachers, that has quickened to life ten thousand benevolent desires, and given them form and substance. It is to the prompt sympathy, with which as members of one body they have transmitted to the people whatever was adapted to stimulate them to nobler exertions, that we are specially indebted for the quick returns that have been made to our occasional appeals for aid. It would be a pleasure to rehearse, in this connexion, the names of a numerous portion of the honored pastors of the churches, whose devotedness to the cause of missions and sense of personal responsibility have allowed them to employ no foreign helper in the collection of funds; but who have either persuaded the churches to appoint their own agents to "make up beforehand their bounty," or of themselves, book in hand, have presented to every church-member the opportunity of imparting to the mission treasury according to that which he had. On the coöperation of such pastors and brethren we are constrained to rely still. May their spirit and their example be speedily characteristic of all.

We have dwelt the more largely on the desirableness of pastoral coöperation, in view of the imperative necessity for an immediate and decided improvement in the state of our

Finances.

This branch of our domestic operations includes the collection of funds, and their disbursement. The former of these has been comparatively a subject of solicitude, only within the last few years. In 1825-6, when the Board was removed to its present location, the treasury had been overdrawn and was involved in embarrassment. But the measures employed to relieve the Board were shortly effectual, and for several succeeding years the spontaneous contributions of the churches were in advance of its exigencies. Hence those measures, becoming unnecessa ry, were suffered very generally to fall into disuse.

Of late, the necessity recurring, the system has been resuscitated; and where it had not been wholly laid aside, has been plied with new fidelity,