State of Christianity in Egypt.-Attendance on Divine Worship.

In one of the latest communications from this Christian traveller, he thus expresses himself:

"On my journey, I was solicited everywhere for Bibles; and when I arrived at Caïro, I had nothing left but a few copies of the Scriptures, and the Ethiopic Psalters. This grieved me the more, as I was under the necessity of sending the applicants away empty; and my regret would have been still greater, had I not, in full reliance on the continued assistance of the Bible Society, been able to assure them, that I had the prospect of soon getting a fresh supply of copies. I ardently wish that the impatience of the poorer Copts, who are extremely desirous of possessing an Arabic Bible, might soon be removed."-Fifteenth Report: Appendix, No. XVIII.

In the summer of 1819, the Rev. William Jowett, one of the Secretaries of the Malta Bible Society, followed the track marked out by his self-devoted friend :

"It was on my arrival at Esne," he observes, "that I first opened my small, but invaluable treasure. This is the last bishopric southward in Egypt. I waited on the bishop, and, having presented my letter from the patriarch, was very kindly received. I gave him a copy of the Arabic Bible, and begged him to recommend the sale of it among his people: the price I fixed was twenty piastres, equal to ten shillings English: it is quite necessary to reduce the price, the people are so poor, and the value of money so great in this country. But I soon found there was no need of soliciting this recommendation: the people, having seen the book, and witnessed the pleasure with which their bishop received his present, came immediately to buy, and I have no doubt that I could have soon disposed of my whole stock. A prudent consideration of the wants of the towns I meant to visit in my return, rendered it necessary that I should husband my poor resources. Besides the one which I had given, I could only spare three: it was really painful to see the eagerness with which one after another came to my boat, to ask whether I could not let them have one copy more; they came with various reasons or pretences, and were with difficulty persuaded that the number I had could only furnish a small supply at best to the other churches."

Proceeding further up the Nile, he stopped at Edfu, the last town where Christians were to be found. After describing their extreme misery and poverty, he justly remarks :—

"It is wonderful how, in such circumstances, even the profession of Christianity is kept up. These poor people, however, shew their attachment to their religion, by going some of them every week to Esne to attend their church. They set off on the Thursday night, and arrive there in time for vespers on Saturday evening, returning back on the Monday.-What a reproach to many in Christian countries, who live within a few minutes' walk from a place of worship and yet seldom attend!"

After remaining a few days at Thebes; passing the "mountains in which are excavated the tombs of the kings; and numerous relics of churches and convents, which prove how far Christianity once extended in these countries;" he observes:

"I found it difficult to determine how to dispose of the one Arabic Bible which I had allotted to Luxor. It was not the best plan to give it to the

State of Christianity in Egypt.-Abyssinia, &c.

priest, for the priests in these parts are not the best informed part of the community; and besides, the book would in that case have been shut up in the church. Upon inquiry, I selected mâllem Jacob as the intended purchaser. These mâllems are in fact a kind of clerks to government, in all the principal cities and towns throughout Egypt. They receive the orders of the various governors, and collect the tribute, &c. from the Copts; consequently they are expert in reading and writing, and know every thing about their countrymen. I had sent word two days before to mâllem Jacob that I should sell him the book: when, therefore, I had crossed over to the east side of the river, I called upon him. Besides his own little child, he has two young nephews, whom he has adopted; their father being dead. He had announced the book beforehand to these lads. The younger, about twelve years of age, kept him continually in mind, with Father, the book is not come yet.' I heard both these boys read: the younger read me half a chapter very well; and the priest told me that at church he had chosen a particular seat, where he was used to sit and read by himself: I think the Bible, therefore, very fitly bestowed."

·

Of Kennee, a very considerable town, and the thoroughfare of perhaps ten thousand pilgrims a year to Mecca, he writes:

"The Christians here are pretty numerous, and, comparatively speaking, in good circumstances; but they have neither church nor resident priest in the town: some neighbouring villages are their resort on Sundays for religious purposes. Here I found a very intelligent Copt, mâllem Bottros (Peter): he was surrounded by many of his nation, very respectable and well-behaved men. When he saw my Arabic Bible, he recognised the work, saying, that about two years ago he had bought a copy of a Jew in Caïro. Instead of twenty, with a promptitude very rare in these parts, he wished to give me fifty piastres for it; but this I refused. Young men who were about him began to draw out their money, begging that they might have a copy. On returning to my boat, I sent him two more copies: he sent me word back, that the people snatched them up so quick that he had not one left for himself, and begged me to spare him another. I was so much gratified by this ready disposition, and had observed in the very countenances of the bye-standers so much superior intelligence and good training, that early next morning I called upon him with two more copies; adding as a reason, that as this town was a grand thoroughfare of Mahomedan pilgrims, it was peculiarly desirable that the Christians should be confirmed in their faith by reading the Scripture abundantly.”—Sixteenth Report: Appendix, p. 170 et seq.

ABYSSINIA, &c.-In reference to this country, M. Asselin de Cherville, French Chargé d'Affaires at Cairo, thus writes in November, 1814:

"It is beyond a doubt, that an impression of the Scriptures in the Ethiopic, in a convenient form, must be very advantageous to so numerous and devout a people as the Abyssinians. Though several very different dialects are spoken in the countries subject to the dominion of the great Negus (or king), yet the learned, or Ethiopic, is the only one universally taught in his vast estates; since it is in this language that all the books employed for public instruction are composed: but these books, being in manuscript, are scarce, and consequently very dear: and, I repeat, if there exists a people on the earth to whom the object proposed by the Bible

Isle of France.-Manuscript of the Amharic Version of the Bible obtained.

Society can be eminently useful, it is, without doubt, the Abyssinians: for their first study is that of the Bible; their first spiritual want is the Gospel, which they read again and again constantly every day."

Twelfth Report: Appendix, No. XLVIII. This opinion is confirmed by Henry Salt, Esq. British Consul-General in Egypt, who observes:

"The Abyssinians, in general, are exceedingly attached to their religion, and to the Scriptures; but the unfortunate circumstances under which they have so long suffered, have led them astray into error."

Fourteenth Report: Appendix, No. LI.

The Rev. W. Jowett had rested but a little while from the fatigues of his first voyage to Egypt, when he felt it to be his duty to visit that country a second time; in order to resume, and, if practicable, to bring to a successful issue, the negociation for the purchase of the Amharic version of the Scriptures. In this great object he happily succeeded, and has ascertained, satisfactorily, that the manuscript answers the description of it-as a version, complete in all its parts, of the Scriptures into the Amharic, one of the two vulgar dialects of Abyssinia. This translation had been executed under the particular care of M. Asselin, the French Consul at Caïro, and it occupied him for ten years. It was rendered into Amharic by a native, under the assiduous examination of M. Asselin.*

Thus this ancient people will become possessed of the Scriptures in a dialect with which they are familiar, and in which no portion of the word of God has hitherto been printed. It is impossible to trace the progress of this transaction, without recollecting the prediction of the Royal Psalmist, "Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God;" and rejoicing in the conviction, that she shall no longer be "sent empty away." +

ISLE OF FRANCE, &c.-In November 1812, a Bible Society was formed for the islands of Mauritius, Bourbon, and dependencies :

"In what degree the Scriptures may be supposed to have been wanted in the Mauritius itself, the seat of this institution, may be readily inferred from the account of the Secretary, that many persons were living in the island, at

The manuscript has already reached London; and the Committee have. adopted measures for its being immediately printed.

While the present work was in the press, the Committee of the CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY, with a degree of Christian and fraternal liberality which enhances the value of the gift, presented to the Library of the British and Foreign Bible Society a beautiful Manuscript copy of the eight first books of the Old Testament in Ethiopic, together with a translation of the Gospels in the Coptic and Arabic, and other valuable Eastern Biblical Manuscripts, which must materially facilitate the pending arrangements for supplying the inhabitants of those extensive regions with the Holy Scriptures.

AMERICA.-Labrador-Nova Scotia-Cape Breton.

the advanced age of sixty and seventy years, who never saw a Bible: and the reception which the Scriptures furnished by your society met with in the same island, may be sufficiently judged of by the further assurance of the Secretary, that the avidity with which the Bibles and Testaments are purchased is beyond all description; that 100 copies were sold in one day, and twice as many more could, he believes, have been disposed of with the greatest facility;' and, finally, that he receives daily messages of gratitude and thanks from the inhabitants, for the more than kind attention of the British and Foreign Bible Society to their eternal welfare, in supplying them with the means of Scriptural knowledge.”—Tenth Report, p. 24.

AMERICA.

LABRADOR." Thanksgivings continue to be presented from the Christian congregations under the care of the Moravian brethren in Labrador. They represent the copies of the Scriptures which they have received in the Esquimaux language, as 'an invaluable gift,' and as having tended to promote a great eagerness to learn to read, both in children and adults; and they unite, throughout all their settlements, in praying to the LORD, 'to bless that venerable society, which exerts itself with so much zeal and charity to publish the word of God in all languages, and send it forth into all parts of the earth.”—Tenth Report, p. 28.

"In Labrador, we observe the simple and patient missionaries, from the Church of the United Brethren, proceeding with their usual assiduity in the translation of the whole New Testament into the Esquimaux language, and pouring forth the warmest strains of gratitude to those benefactors by whose aid the portion already translated had been printed and brought into circulation. Of this, it appears, the most diligent use was made by the members of the Esquimaux congregations. They read it, during their leisure hours, in their houses and their tents; and their whole conduct and conversation were a striking evidence of its power."

Owen's History, Vol. III. p. 483. NOVA SCOTIA.-In reference to the Bible Society established in this province, it is stated::

"How much such an Institution was wanted, may be learnt from the assertion in the Third Report, that persons who had kept houses, with smaller or larger families, for five, ten, or more than twenty years, had not been able, till then, to obtain a Bible: and the further assertion, that' in every instance the Scriptures seemed to have been thankfully received,' gives reason to hope that the society will not have been instituted in vain."-Ibid. Vol. III. p. 485.

CAPE BRETON.-The Governor of this colony, in a letter to Lord Teignmouth, dated May 20, 1818, after acknowledging the receipt of a liberal supply of Bibles and Testaments, in the Gaelic, English, and French languages, voted by the Parent Committee, observes :

"With respect to the great mass of our population, the Highlanders, they received the beneficence of the society with the utmost gratitude. Persons have been hired, and sent from distances of eighty to one hundred miles to intreat for the sacred volume; and instances are not wanting of others sending their children five and six miles, over frozen lakes, to be instructed by poor old widows, for the avowed purpose of reading the Bible

Canada. United States.-Scarcity of the Holy Scriptures.

to their parents, who were themselves, from ignorance, unable to do so. To those places of instruction, as I discover them, I send a few of the least, expensive editions of Testaments, as school-books, of which they were nearly destitute; and I consider myself acting in conformity to the wishes of the society, in agreeing to the petitions of families, who, totally ignorant of etters themselves, would occasionally have an opportunity of hearing the Scriptures read by travellers, to whom, with patriarchal hospitality, they give refuge for the night. These people are very poor; and to expect any pecuniary return at present is in vain, and perhaps impolitic: they are, however, temperate in their habits, frugal, and laborious; and I have no doubt, that the views of the society will be better fulfilled by penny-a-week associations, when they are in better circumstances in two or three years hence."

CANADA.-A minister in this extensive colony thus writes, when acknowledging a supply of Bibles and Testaments, sent from the Parent Society in August 1819:

"Every one, Sir, who knows the moral state of the Canadians, must concur with me in saying, that they could not come to a better place, nor in a better time. These provinces have long been neglected, and their true state but partially known. In Lower Canada the population is estimated at seven or eight hundred thousand souls, many of whom have never seen a Bible. It is certain that a strong desire exists among them to read the Scriptures." Sixteenth Report: Appendix, p. 202.

UNITED STATES.-Reference has already been made, in the Ninth Section, to the wants of the extensive regions of the American continent which are included by this designation. But the following extracts will place the subject in a more clear point of view :

"There has been no edition of the Bible printed west of the mountains, and the inducement to merchants to take out many very small, as will appear from the following anecdote. A merchant in Tennessee observed, during the earthquakes in 1811 and 1812, that before these took place he used to sell ten packs of cards where he sold one Bible; now he sold ten Bibles where he sold one pack of cards."-Tenth Report: Appendix, No. XXXVIII.

"It was very unusual to find any portion of the sacred volume among our soldiers; and in many instances there were found a hundred sick assembled in a hospital, without having among them one Bible or New Testament.

"Some of the Tennessee Militia, when passing through Nashville, on their way to New Orleans, had inquired in vain for a Bible; not one was to be found for sale: and in the month of December last, a similar inquiry was fruitlessly made in this city, by a gentleman from the Amite; nor is there at this moment a Bible to be purchased in any book-store in the city of New Orleans.

"As there were not Bibles sufficient to supply even the sick in hospitals who were anxious to receive them, it was not uncommon to see one reading aloud to several around: and at other times, two or three, lying on the floor together, would be attempting to read in the same book at the same time. Some of those who had received Bibles, declared a determination to carry them home with them on foot, 800 or 1000 miles; and rather than not carry them, they would throw away part of their baggage.

G