Oral instruction has, from the beginning, been the principal, and most efficient means, which God has employed in propagating the gospel; but the written word has been always necessary for establishing and building up the churches in their most holy faith.  Never did Satan employ a more effectual method for covering the earth with thick darkness, than by instigating his servants, under pretence of a high reverence for the holy word, to shut it up from the people; and when God wills mercy to a nation, he removes all the hindrances which obstruct its diffusion.  As the Esquimaux advanced in their course, they were furnished, by means of the press, with portions of the Scriptures as they could be got translated.  The brethren, however, wisely prepared the way for this important work, by translating hymns and tracts, and a harmony of the Gospels, where any deficiency in the language could be more easily rectified than in a book, destined to be left as a permanent legacy to future generations.  The joy of the Esquimaux on receiving the hymn books in 1809, was inexpressibly great.  “We wish,” the missionaries write, “our dear brethren had been present at the distribution, to see the fervent gratitude with which they were received.  They entreated us, with tears, to express their thankfulness to their fathers and brethren in the east, for this present.”  In 1810, they received the Harmony of the Gospels, also printed by the Brethren’s Society in London for the furtherance of the Gospel, and the Gospel of John and part of Luke, printed at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society, who undertook to print the other parts as they could be got ready.  Meanwhile the superintendant, Burghardt, finished the translation of the Acts, and the epistles to the Romans and Ephesians, which were read from the MS to the Esquimaux congregation, who were highly delighted to hear the words and exhortations of our Saviour’s apostles, and particularly struck with the character and writings of the apostle Paul.  Along with their activity in the Christian life, the activity of the converted Esquimaux, in their temporal concerns, increased.  The missionaries in the different settlements had erected saw mills; the Esquimaux, under their direction, kept them frequently in employment, and built substantial store-houses for themselves, for preserving their winter’s stores; and when the scarcity of food in their own neighbourhood obliged them to go to a distance in search of seals or whales, or to the cod-fishing, their anxiety to return, to enjoy the benefits of instruction from their teachers, and of communion with their fellow-Christians, quickened their diligence in their necessary avocations.  At the close of 1810, the number of the inhabitants at the three settlements amounted to 457, of whom 265 belonged to the different classes of communicants, baptized and candidates for baptism.