The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1854-05-07
The Religious Anniversaries-Th Business
of BeRevolence.

of BeRevOlence.
The yearly anniversaries of the various reli-
sious and benevolent institutions in this city
and vicinity will commence to-day, and con-
tinue during this week. The season is a most
interesting one, and such series of movements
by very large class of citizens and strangers
deserves and receives particular attention at
the hands of the secular press. The HERALD
reports will be as full and particular as usual,
and our files for the last ten years give COM
plete daguerreotype of all the scenes of the
holy week.
Outside Of the circle Of managers Of the vari-
GUS aosooiatinns Init little is publicly known Of
the extent of their operations, the amount of
money received and Of capital Invested, ana
of the results of the labors of the mission
aries at home and abroad. Setting aside
the fact that these associations are working
in obedience to the divine command, and that
by their instrumentality the gospel is preached
unto all nations, the foreign missionary system
has been of great value both to us and to the
nations for whose benefit it was established.
Young men, the flower Of our colleges, the
hope and pride Of their several birth-places,
the representatives of American piety, Ameri-
can enterprise and American scholarship, have
voluntarily gone forth and preached peace on
earth and good viii to all men, from the ice
fields Of the Arctic ocean 10 the farthest point
illumined by the southern cross. These men
have carried with them the arts and sciences of
the civilized world; under their supervision
agriculture and manufactures have ilourished
in localities where nothing but the art of war
had previously been practised. The savage
has drawn from the Sermon on the Mount
a new rule and guide for his hitherto
wild and irresponsible existence. The mis-
sionaries have also made valuable contri-
buttons to our literature: and soma of the
best narratives of voyages and travels are from
the pens of these men. They have been accom-
panied by women no less noble and devoted.
who, with the characteristic energy of the sex,
have civilized humanized, refined, and ele-
waited their barbarian sisters. The soldier of
the cross deserves certainly as much conside
ration among his fellow men as the soldier of
the republics but yet the reward of the former
is but too often strangers grave, with the
wall of the ocean as his requiem, and the
memory of his services for his epitaph. The
motives which actuate him must be entirely
unselish, as no worldly gain can possibly ac-
crue to him: he must always be prepared for
death, and it continually surrounds him in
thousand forms. His crown of martyrdom is
more glorious to him than the laurel wreaths
Of the worlds great captains.
We now come to the sore practical part of
the subject, and endeay.ras ascertain how the
missionary is surported-now printing presses.
schools and chapels are set up in wildernesses,
and how the Word of God is placed in the
hands of every people into whose territory our
flag has been carried The annexed tabular
statement gives the comparative receipts Of
portion of the societies during the past two
wears -