V THE MONTH. E regret to say that the Rev. C. C. Fenn has been kept from attendance at the Church Missionary House through illness since Christmas, and that his medical advisers enjoin upon him the necessity of refraining from active work for a month or two longer. Many heavy duties fell upon him in the autumn in consequence of Mr. Wright's death; and the burden proved too much for his never very robust strength. He is, however, able to engage at home in the preparation of the Annual Report, a task which has for many years fallen to his share. All our readers will join us in the earnest hope and prayer that it may please God speedily to restore him to the work in which his services have long been so highly valued. Ir was a relief, in the midst of the heavy gales that came upon us across the Atlantic after the sailing of Mr. Hutchinson and Mr. Whiting for Madeira, to hear that the steamer conveying them, the Dunrobin Castle, reached that island safely on the evening of Feb. 8th after a fine and rapid passage. They are expected back in this country by the middle of March. THE Bishop of Victoria, Dr. J. S. Burdon, is about to visit England, and may be expected in a few weeks. He first went out to China as a C.M.S. Missionary in 1853, and returned thither after his consecration in 1874. THE Bishop of Sierra Leone has been visiting Lagos, and by the last accounts had gone up to Abeokuta with the Rev. J. B. Wood. Many matters of importance to the Native Church there have been awaiting settlement, and the C.M.S. Committee had requested the Bishop kindly to give the Mission the benefit of his counsel and experience. THE Society is again indebted, under God, to the liberality of individual friends for the means of extending its work, and of adding to the number of its missionaries. Four more of the men kept back last autumn will, we rejoice to say, be able to go out to the Mission-field forthwith. One friend has undertaken to provide for three years for the maintenance of two additional Missionaries on the Afghan frontier; a second offered to pay 4001. a year if Allahabad (whence the European missionary had been withdrawn) might still be supplied with a man suitable for so important a centre; and a third promised to support for the present another messenger of the Gospel in China. The Revs. J. H. Knowles and H. Rountree have accordingly been appointed to the Punjab Mission, the Rev. F. E. Walton to the N.-W. Provinces, and the Rev. C. B. Nash to the Che-Kiang Mission. will still leave eight Islington men, ordained, and ready to go out, but detained at home for lack of funds. But only a few months ago there were eighteen. Let us thank God that the number is so far reduced. This FURTHER letters are to hand from Central Africa. Mr. Mackay writes from Kagei on Nov. 1st. Canoes had just arrived from Uganda to fetch the reinforcements for the French R. C. Mission, and he had persuaded the captain of the boats to take him also. These canoes had been three months on the voyage, and when they left Uganda Mtesa was not aware of Mackay being at Kagei, which would account for his not being also expressly sent for. They brought a letter from Mr. Pearson, dated Rubaga, July 29th. Affairs there were no better, and he had much difficulty in obtaining food. Mtesa was contemplating a war with Mirambo-which would be a very serious matter, and which we fervently trust may be averted-and as he was being impelled to this by the Arabs, Mr. Pearson was of opinion that his recent profession of Mohammedanism was part of the same general policy. His army had returned from a war against Usoga, and Mr. Pearson saw the king's share of the captives, three hundred women, "wretched creatures in a half dying state," being marched to the palace. It was stated that a thousand captives had died on the march homeward. Mr. Mackay had completed his translation of St. Matthew's Gospel into the language of Uganda. He was preparing a simple catechism. Our friends will hear with much pleasure that the Waganda Envoys, with Mr. O'Flaherty and Mr. Stokes, reached Uyui safely on Nov. 23rd, and started for the Lake on Dec. 1st, all well. Mr. Litchfield was accompanying them, being anxious to try once more whether his health would stand the climate of Uganda. WE are glad to say that all is now quiet at Mombasa. The Sultan of Zanzibar has put in irons three slave-owners prominent in the late disturbances. It is satisfactory also to find that the fugitive slaves who were sent away in October under the orders of Dr. Kirk and Judge Foster did not include those from Giriama and elsewhere. The missionaries were expressly permitted by Dr. Kirk to retain these (about 150), though they had to turn off the runaways belonging to the Arabs and Suahilis of Mombasa. These two classes were carefully distinguished in our article in the January Intelligencer. MR. E. B. THOMAS, a respected member of the C.M.S. Committee, who thirty years ago was Collector of Tinnevelly, has been revisiting India, and on Nov. 2nd the following address was presented to him by the Native Christians of Palamcotta : : VENERABLE AND RESPECTED SIR,-It is with feelings of inexpressible joy and gratitude that we, the Native Christians of Palamcottah, approach your honour to welcome your honour's return to this district on a short visit. We know of no instance where a retired Civil Officer of Government in India has done what your honour is at present doing, and this one fact alone proves (if proof be needed) the deep interest your honour still continues to feel for the prosperity of our district, which your honour so ably administered for a long period, thirty years ago. Your memory, venerable Sir, has been endeared to us, and your name has become a household word in Tinnevelly. The network of roads you constructed, the wells and tanks you dug, the topes and avenues you planted, the large bridge spanning the Tambrapurni, the weekly fairs you opened, the measures you initiated for the suppression of lawlessness and oppression-these and many more, while on the one hand they proclaim you as the father and benefactor of our district, on the other hand inspire us with a sense of the deepest gratitude for the benefits which we and our children have derived through your instrumentality. The shield you held over the infant Church of Tinnevelly at a critical period, when a bold attempt was made to nip it in the bud, and the efforts you took to impress on the minds of Brahminical Hindus that Christian Hindus have the same right to expect the protection of Government as any other section of Her Majesty's subjects, will form no unimportant chapter in the history of the Tamil Church. We beg your honour will be pleased to accept this token of our respect and gratitude, and trust it may serve as a small memento of your happy visit to our district. With our fervent prayers that the Father Almighty may graciously continue to you the blessings of health and strength, carry you in safety to your Native land, and pour his choicest gifts on you and your family in a shower of plenty, We beg to remain, venerable and respected Sir, Your honour's most obedient servants, THE NATIVE CHRISTIANS OF PALAMCOTTAH. WE ought before to have noticed the death, in December last, of the revered former Chief Justice of New Zealand, Sir William Martin. Mrs. Grace, the widow of our late excellent missionary, writes to us :— Having known him, amid all the joys and sorrows of missionary life in New Zealand, extending over thirty years, during which time my departed husband and myself at all times experienced his open-hearted sympathy, and benefited from his sage and trustful advice, I may, perhaps, be able to state a few facts. Sir William went out to New Zealand in 1841, and was the first Chief Justice of that country. From the time of his first landing he took a deep and abiding interest in Mission work, and used his great knowledge of the Maori language, not only that he might do justice, but that he might teach any boys or men who came under his influence the Gospel story. His loving and sympathizing heart drew all towards it, and his home was open to all who were working for Christ in New Zealand, and in the Islands of the Sea. After an accident in 1855 he was very ill, and it was found expedient that he should go to England for medical advice, and at length, in 1859, was obliged to resign his office as Chief Justice. Nevertheless, for sixteen years more he spent a large portion of his time and strength in more direct missionary work. Almost every young man at St. Stephen's who was ordained within the years 1860 and 1874, was trained mainly by him, and four more who were ordained a year or two later, after Sir William finally came to England, had been for a long time under instruction from him. He took charge of St. Stephen's for three or four months when Archdeacon Kissling was ill. He compiled a simple Maori and English grammar for the use of the Native schools. He translated, by the aid of Native teachers, Robertson's First Five Centuries of Church History; and printed notes in Maori on the four Gospels, which was a summary of his work with the men, as a parting legacy to them, his old pupils, who all loved and revered him as a father. But his was a hidden life, full of deep love and sympathy; all who knew him felt it. After he returned to England in 1874, up to the time of his decease at the end of 1880, he continued to take deep interest in the Native people, and corresponded regularly with the Maori clergy; and when he heard from Bishop Hadfield of the appointment of my son to the Whanganui and Patea districts, he expressed intense delight. If ever a heart burned with true desire to see the spread of Christ's kingdom, his did. MOST of our friends are aware that Canon Tristram is at the present time in Palestine, and that the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth is to join him there on his way back from India. The Committee have requested these two brethren to report to them on the position and prospects of the Society's work in the Holy Land, and some of the new arrangements made last summer, and then detailed in our pages (in the Selections from the Minutes), have been suspended until their report has been received. In the meanwhile the Annual Letters just to hand from our missionaries show that notwithstanding many peculiar difficulties-especially the risk to life or liberty that would attend the baptism of a Mohammedan, and the deadening influence of the corrupt Christian Churches of the East-good work is going on, and openings for making known the Gospel are multiplying. Schools, and the printing-press, are two important evangelistic agencies in a country so peculiarly situated as Palestine. Many Moslem children, both boys and girls, are taught the word of God in the Society's schools at the various stations; and we observe with especial pleasure the success of the new schools at the village of Abûd, in the Plain of Sharon, opened in consequence of a special offer of 60l. a year by Miss Peache in response to an appeal in the Gleaner two years ago. The printing-press started some time back, in pursuance of the recommendations of General Lake's Mohammedan Conference in 1875, is reported by Mr. Zeller to be doing a good work. In the past year it has issued the following books in Arabic: Life of Bishop Gobat, The Sinner's Friend, Lessons on the Liturgy for Bible Classes, Church Catechism, and Spelling Books. Mr. Klein's revised Arabic Prayer Book is now in course of correction. In the face of the heavy and increasing claims of India and China and Africa upon the Society's funds. the Committee feel that reduction rather than extension must be their policy in Palestine; and yet there never was a time when current events seemed to point more plainly to the strong occupation of "Immanuel's Land" in Immanuel's name. We are doing little but sow the seed, it is true, at present; but the harvest may ripen at any moment. All friends of the Society would rejoice if a large increase in its resources warranted the Committee in at least maintaining in full strength their hold upon the country. THE Ceylon Localized Edition of the C.M. Gleaner reports the opening, on Dec. 8th, of the new church at Kurunegala, which, it will be remembered, has been erected by the Singhalese Christians to obviate the necessity of their attending a church to which they objected (see Intelligencer of Dec. 1880). There were four services during the day, two in Singhalese, one in Tamil, and one in English; the Revs. J. Ireland Jones, S. Coles, and H. Gunasekara, officiating in the first-named language, the Revs. W. E. Rowlands and D. Wood in the second, and the Revs. H. Newton and J. G. Garrett in the third. Mr. Coles preached on 1 Tim. i. 15, Mr. Rowlands on 1 Chron. xxix. 1, and Mr. Garrett on Eph. iii. 8. The Singhalese services were attended by 119 and 154 Christians, the Tamil by 67, and the English by 128. The collections during the day amounted to above 90 Rupees. At the commencement of the first service, "Emmanuel Church" was declared by Mr. Jones to be open "for Divine service in accordance with the rites, doctrine and discipline of the Church of England.” THE Diocesan Gazette of Travancore and Cochin contains an account of a recent visit of Bishop Speechly to the Hill Arrians, so well known in connexion with the work carried on among them by the late Rev. Henry Baker : The Bishop, accompanied by Rev. W. J. Richards, left Cottayam on a visitation tour to the Mundakayam District on Wednesday, 1st December. The first part of the journey as far as Kanjerapalli, twenty-four miles, was done in bullock carts. Thence to Mundakayam, nine miles, in manchil and on horseback. The whole road from Cottayam is through a very picturesque country, a paradise in the first meaning of the word. Outside Kanjerapalli the Bishop was met by a party of the Mundakayam people, with the usual accompaniment of silk umbrellas, banners, guns, and native music, who preceded us all the way. Mundakayam, the head station, is separated from the main road by a broad and rapid stream, which lower down is called the Malapalli river; and as it must be forded in a boat whenever a visit is paid to the outer world, the people find it an inconvenience, though at one time it may have been a protection from wild beasts. Α pandal was erected in honour of his Lordship's visit on the other bank of the river where we crossed. The rain, which had been unseasonably heavy all through November, especially in the evenings, having caused a freshet in the Kuttikal part of the river, a young man aged eighteen, a candidate for confirmation, was drowned while bathing on Thursday the 2nd. He had been among those who met the Bishop. On Friday, 3rd, there was a confirmation for the stations of Mundakayam, Assapian, Kuttikal, and Edakunnam in the Mundakayam church. The Rev. P. M. Kuryan, Native pastor in charge, read morning prayers, the Bishop's chaplain gave an address to the congregation on the duty of praying for, advising, and setting a good example to the new soldiers of Christ about to be confirmed. After the conclusion of the shortened prayers the Confirmation Service was proceeded with. The Bishop gave a most earnest and solemn address to the candidates, alluding to the death by drowning of one who hoped to have been among them that day, and urging them to be truthful and prayerful, and to make diligent use of the means of grace. There were 138 of both sexes. Saturday, 4th. This day was spent partly in preparation for the Sunday, and partly by the Bishop in receiving, hearing, and settling the complaints. and petitions of the congregation. 5th December, Second Sunday in Advent. Morning prayers by Pastor ; lessons, epistle, and sermon on "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord," by Bishop's chaplain (Mr. Richards). Communion Service by the Bishop, his Lordship administering the bread to all the communicants, of whom there were about two hundred. The Bishop attended afternoon service at 4 p.m., when Rev. Mr. Kuryan delivered an address. Monday, 6th. We started at 8 a.m., for Kuttikal by a regular jungle-track, the people escorting us. On our way we passed the small Christian village of Puwa-thileppu. At Kuttikal there is a small Native house belonging to the Mission, in which the Bishop rested when not in the church. The people complain much of the need of a bridge of some sort over the river, a matter sadly emphasized by the death above alluded to. The church is built of laterite, on the site of what was an idol temple on the Rev. Henry Baker's first going to work among the hillmen, and occupies a very pretty site. At a meeting in the church, four young men were appointed to assist the leaders of the congregation, who are becoming infirm through increasing years. To finish the church the Bishop promised them a sum equal to whatever they collect among themselves. Rs. 200 more is required for the purpose, in addition to Rs. 400 already spent. The Lord Bishop of Madras has been the foremost of their kind helpers so far. There are 280 people in this congregation. The Bishop gave them an address on their duty to spread the Gospel amongst their Arrian neighbours, and to urge forward the finishing of their church. Tuesday, 7th. We set out for Edakunnam. There is a mosque in the valley near the station. The only edifice for public worship in this congregation of twenty-four years' standing was a shed with wattled sides. The people both here and at Kuttikal had erected neat pandals in honour of the Bishop's visit. Some interesting but apparently fruitless conversation was held with three unbaptized Arrians. The congregation, men, women, and children, about eighty persons, assembled in the prayer-house to meet the Bishop. After prayer, singing of a Christian lyric, and attending to their petitions, Mr. Richards by the Bishop's desire gave an address to the assembly. Before leaving, we went and saw the houses of the people, and how they live. It was ten years since the Rev. Henry Baker was able to visit this station, and the last time the people asked him to |