blessed us, an economy, which, however wise and proper when rightly practised, becomes miserable and wicked when allowed to operate to the hinderance of the Gospel. An appeal is never made in vain to the good feelings of the people of England, and the present is an occasion, on which all who value not merely the cause of religion, but of humanity, should make a declaration of their opinions; and come forward liberally to the support of Societies whose object is so important and praiseworthy, and whose means are so inadequate to several claims upon them. The reports of the Societies for Promoting Christian Knowledge, and for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for the year 1831, cannot be too strongly recommended to the attention of the public. The comparatively small support which the latter receives from annual subscription must be mainly ascribed to the nature and extent of its labours being so little known; for it is not the character of the English people to allow a valuable Society to languish from want of funds. And yet, during the past year, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts must have suspended in some places the great work it is carrying on, if it had not allowed its expenditure to exceed greatly its receipts. Such is the sad truth we learn from the report now before the public, which pleads the cause of Christianity in distant lands, so powerfully, and yet so meekly, that it cannot fail to awaken sympathy in every religious breast, and call forth assistance from every liberal hand. “According to its power, yea, and beyond its power,” it has opened the hand of Christian bounty in answer to the numerous and pressing calls that have been made upon it: and the consequence has been that the means of meeting such calls have become every year more insufficient. Even on the supposition (a supposition, however, which benevolence will not allow to be entertained for a moment), that all new applications for its assistance are to be disregarded, the Society will require an addition of at least 10,000_l._ to its yearly income for the fulfilment of engagements into which it has entered. Its deficiencies for many years have been supplied by large reductions of its capital. The single fact that it has been compelled to sell nearly 70,000_l._ stock must fill its friends with serious uneasiness. For unless its funds are very largely increased, it is manifest that they must soon be exhausted. But, surely, so sad a result can never be allowed! There is too much benevolence in the Christian public of this favoured nation, to permit the abandonment of so great a work as that by which the light of the Gospel, in its purity, is communicated to the benighted nations of the East. Who among us will be wanting, in most earnest efforts, to save our brethren in the colonies from so sad an injury as the loss of that religious instruction, and those means of grace which are to be regarded as their birthright?