Southern Christian Advocate

From the Christian Advocate and Journal.

LIBERIA MISSION.

To the Corresponding Secretary of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

Rev. and Dear Sir.--The period having arrived when it becomes my duty to furnish the Board of Managers of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church with an account of their mission on the western coast of Africa, I avail myself of an opportunity, via Liverpool, there being none direct to the United States, to forward to you my annual report, a duty I undertake under a deep and abiding sense of the great goodness of Almighty God, in sparing us to see the close of another year.

The year 1840 has been one of severe trial to the interests and prosperity of your mission in Liberia; and if there remained any doubt on the minds of the Christian denomination in the United States who patronize and support that mission, and pray for its success, whether it was owned, and sanctioned, and blessed of heaven or not, the wonderful deliverances, and providential interferences, which have been wrought during the past year in its behalf, would have an overwhelming tendency to banish every such doubt, and increase the zeal and love of every well-wisher of the Liberia Mission of the Methodist-Episcopal Church.

In alluding to the trials and conflicts with which this mission has had to contend, I cannot be otherwise than deeply sensible, that no human skill, forethought, or wisdom of man, could have saved us from the ruin which the combined efforts of devils, savages, and ungodly men, were secretly plotting to involve us in, but that the Christian's God, and he alone, the God of missions, has been our protector and defender.

The attack of four hundred savages on the station at Heddington was a serious blow to our prospects there; especially as, very frequently during the year, rumors of another and more vigorous effort to take that place, and murder the missionary, kept us in continual excitement; and an almost incredible expense has been unavoidably incurred to keep up a barricade, and pay a guard of colonists and friendly natives, from time to time, to defend the place. But the wrath of man has been made to praise the Lord: and the very dispersion of many of the native converts, occasioned by the war, has tended to scatter the rays of divine light further into the interior; so that the station has been preserved, and the work of grace is still progressing.

I will now very respectfully call the attention of the Board to an account of each separate station.

Monrovia.--A very extensive revival of religion during the year, has added a great many members to the Church in this place, though it is to be feared that some of them will only run well for a season. The Conference seminary is flourishing, and nowhere else is the benevolence of the Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church more truly depicted, inasmuch as, in this very seminary, tuition is bestowed, books furnished, and a useful education about to be given gratuitously.

The expenses of the mission press will soon be much lessened. Brother Jayne, the printer, notified me, long since, that he would return to America this spring. There will be no necessity to send out another printer, at least for the present, as our apprentice boys, with the help of Dr. Goheen and myself, will get out the Luminary without much trouble. We moved into our own office, a comfortable stone building, in August last, and, besides the mission paper, are now publishing, for the use of our own day schools, and to save the expense of importing, a little spelling book, compiled from Angell's, Cobb's, and others.

We have lately had erected on one of our mission lots, of cheap materials, a native chapel, in which divine service is held every Sabbath, for the natives who are scattered about Monrovia.

New-Georgia.--No material change has occurred in the society here. The employment of brother Gripon as our school teacher, and the having all the children in the place in our own school, are circumstances which serve much to assist us in the spread of virtue and religion. The society generally seem to fear God and work righteousness.

Caldwell.--Our societies in Lower and Upper Caldwell have been thinned by death: but those members who live seem pressing onward in their heavenly race. The situation of the people generally, in a temporal point of view, is greatly to be pitied. Many of the men get their livelihood by sawing lumber; and as this is not a healthy employment in the rainy seasons, but has actually been the death of many valuable citizens, they have been congratulating themselves, that when the mission saw-mill shall be completed, the furnishing of logs will afford them a steady, and less dangerous mode of getting an honest living.

Edina and Bassa Cove.--These societies have increased in number, and, we have reason to believe, have grown in grace, and in the knowledge of their Saviour. The church at Edina, which is a wooden building, has become entirely unfit for use, and must be taken down, and a new one built. I have given the members to understand, however, that they must now help themselves to the utmost of their ability in building a new church, and having done all, then, if they cannot finish, we will help them.

The attempt at Bob Gray's Town has almost proved a total failure. Brother Roberts' faithful trial of the natives here for a year ended in the conviction that the field was one scarcely worth any more attempts to cultivate. We will continue, however, to try again during the present year, glad that no expense of any consequence was incurred for buildings, where the prospect was so poor.

Millsburgh and White Plains.--Our society lately added, at the urgent solicitations of the people of Millsburgh, another day school taught by Mrs. Eunice Moore. This is also doing well; and through the liberality of the ladies and other friends of Rhinebeck, N. Y., Middletown, Conn., and Summerville, Penn., we were enabled to clothe some poor children, who otherwise would not have been able to go to school. The school at White Plains, under the indefatigable and untiring care of Mrs. Wilkins, is also improving much. Brother Wilson makes the boys perform a great deal of manual labor, which saves the mission a vast amount of expense.

Cape Palmas.--Great prosperity has attended our Church here during the last year, and if it were a more central part of the Conference, it would much subserve the interests of the mission, under existing circumstances, if the superintendent were to remove his residence from Monrovia to that place. The appointment of brother A. D. Williams to Palmas has been rendered a great blessing. We are finishing another meeting-house; one at Tubmantown, where divine service has been also established; and as every possible facility is rendered our missionary there, by the authorities, and he is enabled to prosecute his holy calling without molestation, Palmas may be said to be the most flourishing station in our borders. The day school taught by brother Payne and Mrs. Stocker is doing well.

Marshall.--The society in this little place has more than doubled during the past year.--We have erected a comfortable church, and a small mission house is also partly finished.--The school contains but few children, and has been much neglected the past year, but will be better attended to in future.

Sinoe.--The little society here has also increased in numbers. A small mission house has been erected, a school established, and the prospect good. The natives around are very anxious to have a school in their town exclusively, but we have no teacher to send them.

Bushrod Island.--This place we have given up. The poor who were sent to the alms-house are all dead excepting one or two, and the prospect of good does not warrant the expense of keeping up stated preaching.

Heddington.--Our hopes of great and lasting good being done to thousands of souls, by means of this place, are yet strong and well grounded. The labor and expense hitherto incurred have been like bread cast upon the waters. They will be seen after many days--many years. A more interesting class of boys I have nowhere beheld in Africa. Already taught to read God's word, and to believe it, they search the Scriptures daily, pore over its contents, and seem burning with holy zeal to become missionaries to their more distant brethren. I am persuaded that could the board of managers, or yourself, sir, enjoy the privilege of hearing these young disciples express themselves in love-feast, tell of their love to the Saviour, their gratitude to God and to American Christians for sending them the Gospel, your hearts would swell with praise to God for inclining you to send missionaries to Africa.--There is little doubt, in my mind, but that the Lord will raise up from among these very pious lads, missionaries of the cross of Christ, and, by their means, spread his holy Gospel over the idolatrous tribes of this unhappy country.

Robertsville.--This station flourished through out the year, until the serious illness of their preacher, and his removal. In the death of our beloved brother Taylor this place and society have suffered a great loss. They have now a young man, a probationer in the Annual Conference, and we trust the flock will be kept together until the arrival of missionaries from America. The members are generally faithful, so far as we know. It is true that some have backslidden at other places, but yet many are ornaments to their profession of Christianity, and exert on the throngs of strangers who pass through their town an influence the most salutary.

I beg leave to present a few general remarks, and will then close.

With the utmost deference I would again intrude on the board of managers the fact of the want of ordained men among us, and consequently, crave their efforts to procure a visit from one of our respected fathers in the Church, the venerable bishops. The location of brother Brown, one of our four elders, will make this appear still more necessary. To remedy this in some measure, the Conference, at the nomination of the superintendent, elected brother J. W. Roberts, who will soon visit the United States, and we hope will be ordained. But this will only be a partial remedy. There are places in our Conference where the superintendent of the Mission, who is also Presiding Elder, cannot get but rarely, if at all, in the course of the year. In these places, for months and months together, they never have the sacrament administered, cannot get their children baptized, nor enjoy any of these peculiar privileges which the presence of an ordained minister only can afford. The sending one occasionally to the United States for ordination, it will be perceived, after all, will occasion much loss of time, expenditure of money, and will not entirely supply the lack of service. We most earnestly beseech the board, therefore, to make application to our bishops for a visit of one of them to the Liberia Mission Annual Conference, at its session in January, 1842. And if I may take the liberty of barely hinting at its practicability, I would suggest that the venerable Bishop Soule, with his companion in travel, the Rev. Mr. Sarjeant, be entreated to return from England to the United States by the way of Liberia. There are frequent opportunities. British armed vessels, as well as merchantmen, sail from London and Liverpool direct to Liberia.

The necessity of a reinforcement of missionaries appears every day more evident. Our work is enlarging. The numerous tribe of the Goulahs beg for a missionary to teach them to fear and love the great God. An effectual door has been opened to us by the scattering of native converts all through that country; but we have no man to send them. We must be content to keep up Heddington and Robertsville, and go no further--because, though "the harvest is plenteous the laborers are few." At Grand Cape Mount I am invited by the natives to go and establish a mission. This place was in the mind of the lamented Cox, and noticed in his journal as a spot where he intended to carry the Gospel. But, though they ask, I have no man to send. O, brethren in America, help us--come over and help us--do not suffer it to be said, that to South-America, to Oregon, to the ends of the earth, Methodist ministers are willing to go; but for Africa, poor, neglected Africa, they have no compassion. I pray you, sir, hasten the two additional missionaries of whom you wrote to me in your last letter.

I have done. As it regards my own labors and sufferings in Africa--that rending asunder and scattering of my own little once collected and happy domestic circle, which my connection with this mission has measurably caused--"reaved of my children I am bereaved" I count it as naught

"If such a worm as I can spread
The common Saviour's name."

To the God of missions I still present myself as a sacrifice laid on the altar for the good he

souls of the poor heathen. To the board of managers I look for the spot whereon to labor. If they continue to point to Africa--for Africa will I cheerfully continue to spend and be spent; if they point elsewhere, as cheerfully will I retire elsewhere, anywhere, so I may but

"age--Glorify my God on earth,
And find my way to heaven."

I am, Reverend and Dear Sir, very respectfully yours, &c.

John Seys.

Monrovia, Liberia, Feb. 23, 1841.