half from our final home.

Our house there was an old deserted building, which had formerly been used as a cotton store. It was in this house that dear Ragland breathed his last, and dear David Fenn, alone, watched his corpse all night. (See the picture.) In our itinerating days we rented it for the purpose of stowing away our boxes and clothes. It was an upstairs house, with a ladder for stairs; and so narrow was this ladder that our piano had to be hauled up through a kind of barn door, which opened at the end of the house.

Two of the rooms underneath were of use to us, but the middle one was filled with the remains of the machinery formerly in use for cleaning the cotton. There were no attractions in that room. There were some horrors, for in it was a pit for a wheel and spindle, which now served as a nest for cobras.

the first occasion given

one shilling, and on

the last £2. Os. 6d.

It became necesto sary, however, build a house and schools, for the permanent residence of the missionary, and for the boys and girls to be properly housed and cared for. I had had no experience in building, and we were forty or fifty miles from persons capable of giving advice. If, therefore, I have built a house and schools which an architect would condemn, I must not be too severely criticised. The thatched schoolrooms have since been replaced by tiled ones, and we have added a substantial church besides.

One of the

LETTERS TO MY PARISH FROM SANTALIA. BY THE REV. W. T. STORES.

VI.-On an Elephant to Chuchi.

CHUCHI, August 17th, 1878.

AST evening at six o'clock I mounted my elephant, having first put upon her my Horton canteen and a box of clothes, and started off to come to Chuchi. The clouds looked heavy, and there had been several showers during the day, but the weather had so often kept me back from this expedition, and I felt it was such a necessary one, that I determined I would not look at the clouds any more.

For the first three miles I had a fair road and daylight, and the wild clouds came about the setting sun, and the grand lights over the hills

It was interesting to us to watch the first buds of the first trees we planted in a place when there were but two within a space of ten acres. We often longed for the appearance of spiritual buds. In the course of this narrative, however, we shall have to describe many a fair tree of the Lord's planting, which budded and blossomed and brought forth fruit. An abundant supply of water from the three wells we have since sunk has made those saplings large spreading trees. Those which flourished best were the Brahma Agatthi (Coronilla grandiflora), the cork tree, and the ragei. The first grows to no great height, but it is a good substitute for the laurel, and bears clusters of yellow flowers. The cork tree with us grows more than twenty feet high; its foliage is a dark rich green and very abundant; its flower is a snow-white, bell-shaped cluster, emitting a most delicious perfume. I am not aware that its bark has ever been used. Perhaps it is not thick enough to cut corks from. The vagei flings its long arms on all sides, something like the elm. The peculiarity of this tree is that it sheds its leaves, leaving its large seed-pods to rustle wildly and with a melancholy sound in the breeze. There were also the margosa,

were very beautiful. As soon as it was dark one of my boxes got loose, and threatened to fall off, so I had to get off while the mahout (the driver who sits on the elephant's neck) fastened it securely. There were heavy showers falling both in front and behind, and the tops of the hills over which we had to pass were covered with dense clouds. It was so dark that often the mahout could scarcely see the way, and indeed it seemed to me there was no way, but we made one for ourselves, through ponds, down muddy water-courses, through forest and over fields. Just as we reached the foot of the hills, six miles from Taljhari, the moon broke out and the stars appeared, and I had a glorious ride over the hills-all looking SO weird, and solemn, and grand in the moonlight. We were obliged to go

slowly, for the road was very stony, and the elephant felt it very much. About eleven o'clock we had got over the hills, and again the clouds gathered and we had a shower, which wetted us enough to make us very glad that it only lasted a quarter of an hour. On and on through the long night, several good-sized rivers to cross, which were very difficult, owing to the steep muddy sides, where the elephant several times sunk up to her belly in mud, and would, I thought, never get her legs out again until she was dug out; however, poor old lady, she triumphed over all difficulties, though in her wild efforts to get out of the mud she pitched about so, that it was all I could do to keep on her. Just recollect all this was in the dark, or with only just a peep of the moon now and then, with every few minutes a little sprinkling of rain as if to tell us what we might expect. Then trudging on through slush, slush, slush, past one village, then another, and another, and another, not a soul to be seen; even the dogs not coming out to bark at us, the weather looked so bad; the elephant leaving great holes behind her at every step, very often of more than a foot or a foot and a half deep. I had much difficulty to keep awake, for I soon exhausted all my subjects of conversation with my mahout, and then every five minutes I gave a start at finding myself actually nodding and in danger of breaking my neck. But at last I was so tired that no sense of danger even could keep me awake, and every two minutes I found myself all but falling. Then came another shower kindly to wake me up; and at last came daylight so welcome, and at ten minutes past six I reached my destination; and having been rather more than twelve hours on the elephant, was feeling sore all over from continual jolting, and about as tired as any poor fellow could be.

The elephant sat down at the house of our native clergyman, Ram Charan, and very glad I was to slip off her, and go in, lay my air-mattress on the floor, and have a good sleep of nearly two hours. Well, now, what has brought me here? This is my largest out-station; there are several hundred native Christians in the neighbourhood, and as the native clergyman in charge of them is only in deacon's orders, they can only have the Lord's Supper when I come. He too, now and then, needs a visit of comfort and encouragement. Who does not ? So to-day I have been having a little talk with him and with a few people who have come to see me, and I have had prayers with them in their little church this evening; and I feel to-night full of thankfulness to God for His goodness to me. It has rained almost all day since I arrived; if it had rained in the same way during the night, I should have been soaked through and through, and very likely had fever.

Sunday Night, August 18th. I have had a very happy Sunday. It has rained so often and so heavily that my congregations have not been large. Yet I had fifty-two at Holy Communion this morning. Some of the men had come fully six miles, and some of the women more than four, facing all the rain. Some of the women must have had great difficulty in getting here, for the water they had to pass through was nearly a yard deep. Yet they did not seem to think they had done anything very great in coming, though in their own sort of way they praised me for having come so far in such weather to visit them. I had the afternoon service only about an hour and a half after the morning service was finished, that those who had come from a distance might remain for it. Then when both services were over, some who were sick or had sick friends came to me for medicine, and I had to do my best for a very great variety of ills, from sore eyes to consumption. When it was dark I sat down to my simple dinner at about seven o'clock, quite ready for it, for I had my breakfast at nine o'clock, and two services and a great deal of talk had sharpened my appetite. It has been a delightful day. My kind hosts, the native clergyman and his wife, were so considerate, and kept their children so quiet in the early morning, that I might not have my time for prayer and reading disturbed. Just now I have had an admiring crowd in my room, watching the blowing up of my air-mattress, for I carry one about with me, and it serves me for bed and bedding, and is so very portable, that it has been an immense comfort to me.

TALJHARI, August 19th, Evening.

I am at home again. I left Chuchi at about half-past six this morning, and rode on the elephant or walked until about two o'clock in the afternoon, and then after the rest of an hour, took the train at a place called Bahawa and reached home at five, having had nothing to eat all day but a little rice and pulse in the morning and a drink in the afternoon. It has been a day of sunshine and showers, and I have had one or two good wettings, and in the interval had the skin nearly scorched off my hands by the blazing sun. Twice I had to pass over a river about as broad as the Ouse at York, and in one place the elephant had to swim while I went over in a boat. I am very glad to be at home again, very thankful to have reached this place once more safe and sound: thankful to have done something to cheer up a few of God's people: humbled because all my work seems so very poor for one who ought to be filled with the Spirit. It seems very delightful to be writing once more at my own table, and to have the prospect of a night in bed, instead of one on the floor with an air-mattress which is scarcely broad enough to turn over on. But I ought not to write in this way as if I had anything to grumble about, when the only thing I can possibly have to complain about is my own evil heart; and I daresay some of you feel that trouble nearly as much as I do.

EYLON. It is not usual in the GLEANER to discuss the various perplexities which necessarily arise in the conduct of the Society's Missions in different parts of the world, and which often cause the Committee much anxiety, and lead them continually to seek Divine guidance. But we must not conceal from our readers the fact that serious difficulties just now again beset the Ceylon Mission. It is well known that differences have existed between the Society and the Bishop of Colombo; but, a few months ago, there seemed good hope that these would at all events not obstruct the quiet continuance of the Mission as in past years under former Bishops. This, we deeply regret to say, is not the case.

The questions at issue are too complicated to be explained here; but full particulars are given in this month's C.M. Intelligencer. We can but commit the matter to Him who liveth, and reigneth, and knoweth. Let us not doubt that He will maintain His own truth, and suffer nothing to hinder the extension of His spiritual kingdom.

EPITOME OF MISSIONARY NEWS.

The following official announcement appeared in the newspapers of May 6th, the day of the Society's Anniversary Meetings:

The Bishop of London has appointed the Rev. Henry Wright, the Honorary Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, to the Prebendal Stall of Oxgate, in St. Paul's Cathedral, in recognition of the services he has rendered to the cause of Missions.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has conferred the degree of B.D. upon the Rev. W. T. Storrs, of the C.M.S. Santal Mission, in recognition of his eminent missionary services.

At the Annual Meeting of the C.M.S. the following nominations were made to the office of Vice-President :-Dr. Maclagan, Bishop of Lichfield; Dr. Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham; Dr. Sandford, Bishop of Gibraltar; Dr. Gregg, Bishop of Cork; Dr. Hellmuth, Bishop of Huron; Dr. Stanton, Bishop of North Queensland; Bishop Oxenden, late Metropolitan of Canada; and General Alexander, for many years a member of the Committee.

The Rev. A. R. Macduff, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, Vicar of St. John the Baptist, Leeds, has been accepted by the Society for missionary work on the frontier of British India.

We much regret to say that the Rev. R. Clark has been compelled by the dangerous illness of Mrs. Clark to return to England. His presence in the Punjab just now seemed to human eyes almost indispensable, yet it pleases Him who seeth not as man seeth to remove him-we trust only for a time. His various important duties are being discharged by the Revs. J. Welland, W. Keene, F. H. Baring, and H. U. Weitbrecht. The Rev. L. Nicholson, of Sierra Leone; the Rev. A. B. Hutchinson, of Hong Kong; the Rev. W. Hooper, of the Lahore Divinity College; and the Rev. T. J. Lee Mayer, of Bannu on the Indian frontier, have arrived in England. The Rev. A. E. Moule, of Hang-chow, and the Rev. C. E. Vines, of Agra, are on their way home.

The Rev. A. Menzies, formerly of the West Africa Mission, who was appointed to Frere Town last year, but was detained in England by medical orders, sailed for East Africa on April 23rd.

The Bishop-Designate of Caledonia, the Rev. W. Ridley, is appealing for a steamer. No Bishop can need one more. The communication between all the mission stations on the North Pacific coast, and in the islands, is by sea.

Admiral Prevost is about to visit Metlakahtla again, and hopes to be there to introduce Bishop Ridley to his new diocese.

Mr. V. C. Sim, appointed to the Athabasca Mission, was ordained on May 1st, at St. Matthew's, Bayswater (Archdeacon Hunter's church), by the Bishop of Rupert's Land. The Bishop of Saskatchewan preached the sermon. Mr. Sim has already sailed, with Mr. Spendlove, a lay agent.

Besides the degrees already mentioned as being conferred by the University of Durham upon African students at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, B.A. degrees have also been conferred upon Mr. Obadiah Johnson and Mr. Isaac Oluwole, who passed a later examination. Mr. Oluwole is now on a visit to this country, but will shortly proceed to Lagos to take charge of the Grammar School there.

Bishop Burdon and the Rev. D. T. Barry have visited the Fuh-kien Mission. The Revs. R. W. Stewart and Ll. Lloyd were admitted to priest's orders at Fuh-chow on February 23rd.

The Rev. G. M. Gordon has returned from Kandahar. He found the New Testament there before him, and a Mohammedan Moulvie studying it. Gospels in the Arabic, Persian, and Pushtu languages were thankfully received by learned and influential men.

The Nineteenth (printed) Report of the Umritsur Mission gives a very encouraging account of its work. Mr. R. Clark, Mr. Keene, Mr. Bateman, Mr. Beutel, and the Native clergy, all write thankfully and hopefully. Last year there were 94 baptisms against 33 the year before. The Native Christians have increased from 345 to 432. The Native contributions to religious objects have risen from Rs. 645 to Rs. 1,582.

On March 9th, at an ordination held at Edyengudi, Tinnevelly, by Bishop Caldwell, in addition to twelve S.P.G. candidates, two C.M.S. preached the sermon. Native agents were ordained, one deacon and one priest. Bishop Sargent On the same day Mr. E. Varkki John, a native of Travancore, was admitted to deacon's orders by the Bishop of Madras. The Gospel continues to spread among the Hindu coolies in the island of Mauritius. Although many who have embraced it return to the land of their birth every year, the number of Christians attached to the C.M.S. Mission continues to increase. There were 190 baptisms last year; and the returns now show 1,096 in the congregations of North India coolies, and 397 in those of Madras coolies. Among the former class are labouring the Revs. P. Ansorgé and F. Schurr, both formerly of Bengal; among the latter, the Revs. H. D. Buswell and N. Honiss, both formerly of the Tamil Missions in Tinnevelly and Ceylon. There are also three Native pastors, one a Bengali, the Řev. C. Kushalli, and two Tamils, the Revs. John Gabb and T. Ephraim.

Just as we go to press we hear, with deep regret, that Bishop Gobat of Jerusalem died on May 11th.

1

MARCHING ORDERS.

VI.

"Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers into His harvest."-St. Luke x. 2.

OST likely we never went to a Missionary meeting in our lives without being told to pray for the work. We are quite used to it; we take it as a matter of course, and as the right and proper thing to be said. Nobody disputes for an instant that it is a Christian duty. But are we doing it?

As it is an acknowledged obligation upon all who profess to love the Lord Jesus Christ that they should obey His commandments, it is clearly a real obligation upon us, upon you and me, to obey this commandment. And if we are not obeying, it is equally clear that we are directly disobeying our dear Master, and failing in the one test He gave us of personal love to Himself.

Yes, are we doing it? Did you pray this morning what He bid you pray? Did you yesterday? Or last week? Surely it is no light thing to go on from day to day, leaving undone a thing which we ought to have done, and about which His own lips gave the most explicit direction.

How often we have sorrowfully felt that "we know not what we should pray for as we ought! Now here is something that we know we are to pray for. We know that it is according to His will, or He would not have bid us ask it. And "If we ask And if we know anything according to His will, He heareth us. that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him." See what a splendid conclusion we reach. Oh, "Pray ye therefore! And if we thus pray, like little children, exactly what Jesus bids us pray, see if we do not find a real, and probably conscious and immediate blessing in the very act-the flood-gates opened, the spirit of grace and of supplication poured out, and the parched tongue filled with prayer and praise.

It is an immense help to be systematic in prayer. Many are finding it useful to take one of the seven petitions of the Lord's prayer as the key-note of their own each morning. This brings "Thy kingdom come" to Monday morning. What if all the readers of the GLEANER would accept this as a continual reminder, and at least once in each week join in fervent pleading of this Christ-taught petition, including in it the special one that the Lord would send forth labourers? Let us agree as touching this that we shall ask, in the obedience of faith, and in the name of Jesus! FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL.

[Since the above was in type, "marching orders" of still more solemn sound have come to the accomplished writer. Frances Ridley Havergal received a sudden summons to the presence of the Great Captain on June 3rd. The death of this sweet singer of Israel is a real loss to the Church militant; but in her delightful books and hymns "she, being dead, yet speaketh." One of her best poems was written for the first number of the GLEANER, January, 1874. We are glad to say that the whole MS. of "Marching Orders" is in our hands, so that the series will, D.V., be continued to the end.-ED.]

REFUSED FOR LACK OF FUNDS.

IF the readers of the GLEANER could come to the Society's House in Salisbury Square Tuesday after Tuesday, and hear the appeals from missionaries in different parts of the world for fresh grants which have to be refused for lack of funds, we are sure that every one of them would make up his mind, prayerfully and earnestly, that no such responsibility should lie at his door, and that in his circle at all events more money should be raised.

Let us give, just as a specimen, one of the appeals to which the Committee have lately been compelled to turn a deaf ear.

One of our stations in Palestine is Jaffa, the Joppa of the Bible, where Hiram's timber was landed for Solomon's templewhere Jonah took ship to flee from the presence of the Lordwhere Dorcas lived and died and was raised up where Peter was taught by the strange vision that the Gentiles were to be admitted to the Church. Here, for the past three years, the Rev. J. R. Longley Hall has been faithfully preaching Christ both to the Mohammedans and to the ignorant and superstitious adherents of the corrupt Eastern Churches. He has teachers also at Lydd ("Lydda was nigh to Joppa," Acts ix. 38)—and at Ramleh, on the road to Jerusalem; and his congregations at the three places number 150 souls. There is much opposition, and still more deadness, as is the case everywhere in the East; yet there is an increasing readiness to listen to the Gospel message. Mr. Hall has now asked for £60 a year to maintain a school and a catechist at the village of Abûd; and this is the grant which the Committee are unable to allow him. Why does he ask it? Let us read his own words :

A young man came to me from Abood about opening a school in that town. I therefore lost no time in going to arrange the matter.

This visit was the most interesting and enjoyable which I have paid to the town. We soon had fifty or sixty men round us, and they at once began to ask us the most important questions: "Who said, Come unto Me all ye that labour, &c., &c., and to whom was it spoken? Who are the weary and heavy laden ? " These were questions started by these poor ignorant men themselves, and afforded us subjects from which to preach the Gospel to them from 6.30 P.M. till midnight. They were all in rapt attention, eagerly listening, and asking questions.

My catechist and I felt, as, I think, we had seldom felt before, the presence of Christ, and I am quite sure that there will be rich results from this visit. The Spirit was undoubtedly working in the hearts of the people, and creating within them a lingering and thirsting after spiritual knowledge. When we prayed all knelt most devoutly, and not a whisper was breathed by any one of them.

The next morning the men came trooping into our room at about 6.30, and amongst them several Moslems. Several of these I knew to be Moslems from their dress, but one old man who seated himself immediately opposite to me I mistook to be a Greek. After a few puffs from his long pipe, this old man most deliberately asked me, Are you an idolater?" Not seeing the point of the question, and yet anxious to turn it to some profit, I first stated very emphatically that I was not an idolater, and then proceeded to explain to him what an idolater was that whosoever loves oxen, lands, houses, &c., more than God, makes idols of them. The old man, however, was not satisfied, and after a moment's pause said, "But is it not idolatry to make wooden figures of Christ and to worship them?" "Most certainly," I replied, "But this is what and my catechist read and explained to him Isa. xliv. you do," he replied. I then discovered that the man was a Moslem, and that he thought we were Greeks. I lost no time in informing him that we were Protestants, and that the one question which we asked with regard to doctrine was, "What saith the Scriptures ?" and that we believed nothing which is condemned by the Word of God. He then asked, "Can the prophets intercede for us ?" and "Can the Virgin Mary intercede?" which opened the way for me to tell him that "we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins."

The people begged and entreated for a teacher. "It is not merely some one to teach our children to read," they said, "but we need a teacher who can make plain to us, the adults, the way of salvation. We are lost in these out-of-the-way villages, and no one takes the trouble to come and tell us the blessed truths which are proclaimed in the larger towns." They seized hold of my catechist and said they should detain him by force that he might always teach them. I told them this could not be, but that I would write at once and ask permission to send an evangelist to Abood immediately and to open a school.

But let it not be forgotten that there are other calls from other Missions, just as inviting as this one, which cannot be responded to. Will not God hold us here at home accountable for the souls thus left to perish?