Every friend of religion must earnestly pray that a hope so humbly and devoutly expressed may be fulfilled, and that the Lord may bless and prosper these Societies, in sowing the good seed of the word, in a field of immense extent, and, in many parts, of the most unpromising barrenness. For they embrace—to particularize only the most important missions—the widely dispersed population of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the Canadas; the numerous islands of the West Indies; the great Peninsula of India; and the various settlements in Australia. And it is gratifying and highly satisfactory to be able to quote the impartial testimony of a distinguished individual, the late Governor of Nova Scotia, to their efficiency and value: “In countries in which I have resided, and which I have visited—in remote and almost desert places, I have witnessed the blessings and comforts of our holy religion, dispensed, by your servants, to persons who otherwise might pass from the cradle to the grave, without the blessings or benefits, the comforts or the consolations of any appropriate holy office, to sanctify their entrance into life, to receive them into the Christian family, to solemnize those connexions, on the proper observance of which the moral constitution of society essentially depends, and finally to perform the last sad offices over departed humanity. In my own person—in my own family—in visitations the most awful—in severe domestic affliction, I have partaken of those blessings and consolations, administered by your servants.” Let, therefore, the parliament and people of the United Kingdom contribute liberally, not merely towards the continuance, but the extension, of the important labours of a Society, whose only fault has been,—if it be a fault,—that it has so shrunk from any appearance of obtruding its wants, that it has not sufficiently made known its claims upon the friends of religion; who must be at once desirous that our countrymen in our distant dependencies should not be debarred from the exercise of religious worship; and that the light of the Gospel may be shed upon those, who, though living under the government of Great Britain, are lying in darkness and the shadow of death. And if there be any whose hearts expand not with that diffusive spirit of Christian philanthropy, which ardently desires to promote the spiritual welfare of the whole human race; let them at least be sensible to the religious wants, and alive to the religious improvement of their countrymen, who are established in some of the numerous colonies of this vast empire. In this great commercial country, in which the spirit of enterprise or the calls of duty lead so many forth often at an early age into distant lands, there must be an immense number of influential persons, who have a direct interest in this provision for the religious instruction of the residents in our several dependencies. And oh! how consolatory must it