affections and your care. your hopes and efforts.

To those realities direct

Do any hear me, who have lived to advanced age without a saving acquaintance with the Gospel? Respected friends, permit me by the solemn anticipations of this moment to beseech you, while the last sands are running, and even the eleventh hour spends rapidly, to seize the moment and secure salvation.

The Lord bless and keep you all; the Lord be gra cious to you and cause his face to shine upon you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace. AMEN.

INSTRUCTIONS

From the Prudential Commitice of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, to the Rev. LEVI PARSONS and the Rev. PLINY FISK, Missionaries designated for Palestine.

Delivered in the Old South Church Boston, Sabbath Evening, Oct. 31, 1819.

BELOVED BRETHREN,

AGREEABLY we trust, to the good pleasure, and to the recorded directions of HIM who reigns upon the Holy Hill Zion, you have been solemnly consecrated to his service in the Gospel, by prayer and the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery; and have received the Right Hand of Fellowship, that you should go to the Mingled People, now sitting in darkness, in that once favoured Land, where the LIGHT of the world first shone, and thence blessed the Nations with healing radiance. The great principles and rules essential to every Christian Mission, have' been inculcated and impressed upon your minds in the Charges, delivered to you respectively when you were ordained, and in the Instructions more recently delivered in your hearing to other Missionaries, your beloved Brethren, sent forth to the Isles afar off. These you will have in your hands, and, we trust

also, in your hearts-and will ever sacredly regard as constituting the leading and main part of the Instructions for your Mission.

What we have now to deliver are Directions of a more particular kind.

In pursuance of arrangements made for the purpose, you will embark on board the ship Sally Anne, Capt. Robert B. Edes, master, now ready to leave this port for Smyrna. We are happy in the persuasion that you will find your accommodations for the passage good, and your situation not unpleasant; and in the confidence that you will commend to all who are with you the Missionary Character, by an example which cannot but be seen and felt, of its purity and devotedness, its meekness and benignity; and that it will be your joint endeavour to make the best use of your opportunities and means for your own improvement, and for the benefit of others.

If according to expectation the ship touch at Malta, the few days of your stay there will be of great importance. The Rev. Mr. Jowett, the Rev. Mr. Conner, and Dr. Naudi, whose names, and whose zeal for enlightening the shores of the Mediterranean in their whole ample circuit, are known and honoured in all the Christian World, will have it in their power, and, not less we are persuaded in their hearts, to render you very essential aid. To them you will have letters; with them it will be your care to cultivate acquaintance, and to establish a friendly understanding and correspondence; and from them you will obtain, we doubt not, much important information, many useful notices, and such letters as will contribute to procure for you a favourable reception in Asia.

At Smyrna the Rev. Charles Williamson, the British ChapJain, has displayed an active and excellent spirit in plans and exertions for promoting designs of Christian benevolence. The British, Russian and Dutch Consuls there are liberal subscribers to the Smyrna Bible Society, and the Greek Bishop of Smyrna himself has shown a disposition favourable to the

Society and its objects. To them it is to be hoped, you will be so commended, and will so commend yourselves, as to secure their Christian confidence, kind attention and friendly aid. And in that great Mart, and place of resort from different nations, where greater freedom is enjoyed than in almost any other place within the Ottoman Dominions, you may find not a few, and some of our own Countrymen, with whom it will be pleasant and useful to cultivate acquaintance. There also, you will be in a situation affording many advantages for furnishing yourselves in various respects for your great work.

For the effective prosecution of the work, a knowledge of several languages will be of material importance: as particularly the Hebrew and Ancient Greek, with which, though already not slightly acquainted, you will wish to become more intimately familiar; the Modern Greek which, though not of the first necessity in Judea, yet will be worth your attention, especially as it will not be of difficult acquisition; the Arabic both ancient and modern, which you will have occasion to use every day, and with which your acquaintance must be thorough; the French and Italian of which, though you have now some knowledge, it will be desirable to acquire more; and the Turkish, which will be constantly in your hearing, and to which you will give more or less attention as circumstances shall direct. All these languages, excepting perhaps the Ancient Greek are spoken at Smyrna; and during your residence in that place, the acquisition of them, or of some of them, and most especially of the Arabic, will be a business to which, with the best helps you can obtain, you will give diligent attention.

You will be warranted in continuing at Smyrna as long as, from the best advices, it shall appear that you are losing no time in regard to the proper and principal objects of your Mission. And thence you will proceed to Palestine, either by water or by land as shall be deemed most eligible; due regard being had to the probable advantages for becoming acquainted with places, people, customs and manners, in travelling by