"And they spread their garments in the way, crying, Hosanna to the Son of David." COME to the table Christ prepares, If christian zeal, and trust are yours, O come, and spread your garments here; The King of grace draws nigh: And let hosanna's, loud and clear, Again ascend the sky. Jesus, the Son of David, reigns! Let every heart rejoice, And strive in elevated strains, To join the angelic voice. By the Rev. Dr. Byles, St. John, New Brunswick, Jan. 18, 1814. died suddenly, March 12, 1814, aged 79 years and 2 months. He RELIGIOUS INTELLIGENCE. Annual Report of the Rev. Peter Nurse, to the Evangelical Missionary Society in Massachusetts. Ellsworth, May 17, 1814. To the Rev. Nathaniel Thayer, Secretary of the Evangelical Missionary Society, DEAR SIR. se YOUR Society, I think, hold their annual meeting in October. Previous to that time you may expect as faithful a report of the state of things in this place as I am able to make. In the mean time I send you a copy of a report, of the state of my school, which I have just closed, to the Society for propagating the gospel among the Indians and others in North America., I would inform your Society that I have not bestowed less attention and labor on the school the last year, than any year since I first came here. The pressure of the measures of our gov. ernment was so sensibly and verely felt in this part of the country the last year, that the inhabitants of this town, did not feel able to pay any money for the support of women schools. I wish your Society to understand, that the central school un. der my care is not designed ultimately for children, who are just entering upon study. It has been open hitherto however to children of every age and every condition. But the design of the people is, whenever they feel able to do it, to have schools in the summer in all parts of the town for small children, taught by well educated young women, and to have the scholars, when in the judgment of a school committee they are qualified in age and learning, to pass up to the central school, to attend to higher branches of education. In these hard and trying times I have felt disposed to take as much of the burden on my. self as I had strength to sustain. I have encouraged the school's being opened freely to all of every age. My school has under these circum. stances been large. The number has varied from about forty to eighty and upwards. The method, which I have adopted, in order to get along comfortably with such a number of scholars, and to be useful to them all, has been to class my scholars, and to employ such as are best informed to teach the younger classes; hav. ing an eye however to the whole my. self. In this way my older scholars are trained up to the business of instruction, while they are learning. It is represented and considered as an honorable distinction to be thus em. ployed. By this method I am able to encourage industry and to reward merit. In the past year I have kept the school ten months. The government of the school I endeavor to render paternal; to mingle mildness with authority, and to chastise in mildness and mercy. I have nothing in par ticular to add to what I have already said to the Society on the means employed to impart to the school reli. gious instructions and impressions. It is my custom to pray with my schol. ars at the opening and close of the school; and before prayer to read a portion of the scriptures myself, or to hear my first class read one. I frequently, perhaps generally, call on my scholars to give some account of the facts related, or of the duties incul cated in what has been read. I often make some observations on the por tion read, with a view to make it bet ter understood by my little folks; to make them see the reasonableness of the duties enjoined; the happy effects which will attend a sincere and faithful discharge of them and the dreadful consequences which must follow the neglect of them. In this way their knowledge of the interesting facts and momentous doctrines of the Bible is constantly increasing. I hope and pray, that the good seed thus sown in the spring season of life will be made by the gracious influence of God's holy Spirit, to take deep root, and to yield a rich harvest of the most precious fruits. I have lately introduced into the school, Porteus Evidences of the truth of the christian religion. My first class, consisting of about twenty, have read it repeatedly, with attention and reflection. They have committed to memory all the propositions. A number of them I think understand the reasoning, and feel the conclusive force of the arguments. They seem to relish the book. It will not be in my power to give your Society clear and just ideas of the progress of my scholars in learning. If they could have visited the school from time to time, they would have discovered, I think, a gradual, regular, and pleasing improvement. A considerable number of my scholars may be called permanent. They are regularly at school from the beginning of the year to the end of it. These with few exceptions are fine scholars. To teach these is a pleasure. There is another class, which may be called transient. It consists of young men and women, who have enjoyed no means of improvement; whose parents are poor, and who have to provide for themselves. They are sensible of their deficiency, and wish to acquire some degree of knowledge. They attend the school a few months; then they are obliged to leave it to earn something, and then return to it for another short period. Some of this description have become decent scholars. These require much attention, and some patience. There is a pleasure however in instructing them. Sometimes I think my success in my school is moderate, then again I think it very encouraging. When I look back to the time when I first came here, and compare what the young people then were with what they are at this time, I feel that I have not labored in vain; that the money expended here has not been thrown away. The mother of the Gracchi considered her well informed sons her greatest treasure. If we estimate things by her standard, several families in this new, small, and poor town are rich. The studies attended to in school are Reading, Spelling, English Grammar, Writing, Arithmetic, Geography, History, Trigonometry, Navigation, French, Latin, Greek, and Rhetoric. Handsome progress has been made in most of these branches of learning and science. My scholars in general read well. I have about fifty who are able to parse the Engligh language with a good degree of promptness and accuracy. Most of the same scholars have a considerable acquaintance, and a goodly number of them a pret ty accurate acquaintance with the most important parts of geography. Ten or twelve have read with attention Goldsmith's abridgment of the histories of Greece, Rome, and England. About twenty, (I speak of scholars now belonging to the school,) have been through, or nearly through, Temple's Arithmetic. Six have paid considerable attention to the French Grammar, and have made some proficiency in construing the language. Two about seven years old have advanced half through Adam's Latin Grammar. Two others eight or nine years old, have been through it twice, and are beginning to construe and parse. I have one class, consisting of fourteen, construing in Bigelow's Latin Primer. have another class, consisting of eight, at the head is a young man about twenty two years old, and the last in the class is a little girl of about seven, which has been nearly through the Primer, and had advanced about forty lines in Virgil. I have three others, one about fifteen, the second about twelve, and the third about ten, who are nearly fitted for college. One class of eight or ten has read with attention the abridgment of Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric, and committed thoroughly to memory the greater part of what is usually committed at Cambridge. Six young women, members of my school, will probably be employed this summer in teaching schools in this town; and five are engaged to teach in the neighboring towns and plantations. These five schools are likely to be put into operation by means of fifty dollars placed in my your Society for their kindness and liberality to me, and to the people, in whose prosperity and happiness I am so deeply interested, and with ardent wishes for their extensive and lasting usefulness, I am, dear sir, your sincere friend, PETER NURSE.* hands by your Society, and ten dollars Communication from the Select. THE subscribers, Selectmen and School Committee of the town of Ellsworth, in behalf of the inhabitants of said town, beg leave through you to tender to the Society their most grateful acknowledgments, for its gener ous and benevolent aid and assistance, in enabling them to support the school in said town, under the direction of the Rev. Peter Nurse; than which they believe there is none more use I stated to your Society, I believe, in my last report, that one young man and one young women, natives of this town, and educated principally in my school, were employed as instructors in Castine. It gives me great pleasure to be able to say, that as far as I have learnt, their conduct and success in teaching have been such, as to give high satisfaction to their employers in that highly respectable town, and to do honor to themselves and to us. With sentiments of gratitude to The school was kept the last year for ten months, and was attended by young persons from four to twenty three years of age. The number was from forty to eighty, and would per haps average at between fifty and sixty. The studies have been English Grammar, Writing, Arithmetic, Surveying, Navigation, Geography, Science of the Globes, French, Latin and Greek. In most of these branches many studen's have made much greater progress than could be expected, and we believe more than students in any school in the District of Maine. Mr. Nurse keeps in view at all times the great object of the ministry; the promotion of religion and morality. Among the books used in school is the Bible, which is read with great attention, and particular passages of the sacred volume are explained by dences of christianity is also used; his Bishop Porteus' Evi propositions are committed to memory, and recited as part of the exercises. Mr. Nurse. We cannot but express to you our gratification to find at the last exami nation, that there were a number of young persons suitably qualified to become teachers, who have been almost wholly instructed by Mr. Nurse. These young persons will be employed the ensuing summer in this and the neighboring towns; which in this way, (if in no other,) are benefitted by the institution, through the bounty of the Society. We are sensible of the superior advantages which we enjoy, and hope we shall be made duly to appreciate and improve them. The Society is no doubt acquainted with the situation of our town, and our inability to pay our worthy pastor and teacher for his laborious services. The town has this year at the annual meeting voted unanimously to raise the sum of $400, for the payment of Mr Nurse; and $200, for the support of women's schools in the most remote parts of our town; which to gether with other sums, which must necessarily be raised, are as much as we can pay; but at the same time we are sensible that the sum appropriated for the use of Mr. Nurse is by no means an adequate compensation for his services. We do therefore request the Society to take into consideration the situation of our town and the infant institution which has been hitherto supported in part by its bounty, and if consistent with their views and the claims of others, that they will in their goodness make a further appropriation of the funds of the Society for the benefit of Mr. Nurse. It is with great pleasure that we feel able to inform the Society of the benefit which has resulted, from the judi cious appropriation of the sum of fifty dollars deposited with Mr. Nurse for the support and encouragement of wo⚫ men's schools. With the influence of Mr. Nurse and the aid of this sum, he has now in operation six schools in the neighboring towns, and expects to have four more. Having had personal knowledge of the benefits result ing from such schools, we have no hesitation in recommending to the Society, to appropriate such a sum as they shall see fit, exclusively for the support of women's schools. We consider ourselves under many obligations to the Society for propagating the gospel among the Indians and others in North America, and shall make a similar statement to that Society. We are very respectfully your most obedient and very humble servants, JOHN BLACK, Selectmen. School Commit tee. Ellsworth, 17 May, 1814. Constitution of the Bowdoin College Benevolent Society. In a recent number of the Christian Disciple you observed that you would with pleasure publish notices of societies formed for benevolent purposes. Upon the strength of this, I have taken the liberty to forward the following constitution of one formed in Bowdoin College. If you should think proper to publish it, you will gratify many of your readers. Sect. 1. THE Society shall be called the Benevolent Society of Bowdoin College. Its object shall be to assist indigent young men of promising talents and of good moral character, in proouring an education at this College. No person shall receive pecuniary assistance from this Society, until he shall have been a member of College at least one term. Sect. 2. Any person may become a member of this Society, by paying one dollar; and may continue a member, by paying the same sum annually. Any person may become a member for life, by paying $20 at one time, or $30 in four years. Sect 3. The officers shall be a President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, and Committee, to be chos. en by ballot, at each annual meeting |