bout five hundred) have been baptised,
after a proper time for instruction, and having given credible
evidences, not only of their acquaintance with the important doctrines
of the Christian religion, but also a deep sense of them upon their
minds, attested by a life of strict piety and holiness. As they are not
sufficiently polished to dissemble with a good grace, they express the
sentiments of their souls so much in the language of simple nature, and
with such genuine indications of sincerity, that it is impossible to
suspect their professions, especially when attended with a truly
Christian life and exemplary conduct. My worthy friend, Mr. Tod,
minister of the next congregation, has near the same number under his
instructions, who, he tells me, discover the same serious turn of mind.
In short, sir, there are multitudes of them in different places, who are
willing and eagerly desirous to be instructed, and embrace every
opportunity of acquainting themselves with the doctrines of the gospel,
and though they have generally very little help to learn them to read,
yet to my agreeable surprise many of them, by dint of application at
their leisure hours, have made such progress that they can read a plain
author intelligibly, and especially their Bibles, and pity it is that
any of them should be without them. Some of them have the misfortune to
have irreligious masters, and hardly any of them are so happy as to be
furnished with these assistances for their improvement. Before I had the
pleasure of being admitted a member of your society, they were wont
frequently to come to me with such moving accounts of their necessities
in this respect, that I could not help supplying them with books, to the
utmost of my small abilities; and when I distributed those among them
which my friends, with you, sent over, I had reason to think that I
never did an action in all my life that met with so much gratitude from
the receivers. I have already distributed all the books that I brought
over, which were proper for them. Yet still on Saturday evenings, the
only time they can spare, my house is crowded with numbers of them,
whose very countenances still carry the air of importunate petitioners
for the same favours with those who came before them. But, alas! my
stock is exhausted, and I must send them away grieved and disappointed.
Permit me, sir, to be an advocate with you, and by your means, with your
generous friends in their behalf. The books