whether any new proverb was ever coined in Europe. "Carrying coals to Newcastle," and "taking the breeks off a Highlander," are merely a reminting with a new impression of the old metal. The East had the start of us, and fairly exhausted that branch of knowledge. Mr. Long has in this volume carefully collected, collated, and classified the treasures of wisdom floating on the lips of mankind from one generation of old women to another. Some of them are exquisite specimens of compressed thought. In the Mission School, or from the lips of the itinerant Missionary to the assembled rustics, or as a clenching retort from a Catechist hard pressed in an argument by a scoffer, how good and profitable would be the use of such proverbs! They must of course be brought forward in wisdom and love; for the use of proverbs is that of a two-edged sword, and the swordsman must know both the cut and the guard, and the object must be to convince and lead, not to exasperate or humiliate the opponent. Those who have lived long in the East know how often a reply to a question is given in a proverb; how the coldness of an interview is warmed by a timely quotation of a truth acknowledged, though not practised, by all; how an old white-beard with joined hands will suggest to the ruler in the most respectful manner some cutting remark of a general proverbial character, but bearing unmistakably on his case-which creates a laugh, and helps a settlement of the matter. The Christian Missionary may find many a weapon of offence or defence in such an arsenal. He must disabuse himself of the idea that there is no goodness or wisdom in the sayings of uninspired men. Heavenly Wisdom and the perfection of Wisdom are indeed to be found in one Volume only, but God's blessed rain has fallen at all times on the hearts of His creatures, and out of their thoughts and words have been distilled sweetness and light, and it is owing to the blessed influence of this Common Law of Morality, handed down in the form of Proverbs, that the unconverted heathen have been kept as good as they are. ROBERT CUST. [It may be added that Mr. Long has arranged his immense collection in two hundred and twenty sections and groups. One set may be quoted as an example. At page 23 is a section headed, "Worldly Joy is the Crackling of Thorns, Eccl. vii. 6," and the following proverbs are cited :— Syrian.-Girl, do not exult in thy wedding dress: see how much trouble lurks behind it. China.-Look not at the thieves eating flesh, but look at them suffering punishment. Cingalese. Like getting on the shoulder of a man sinking in the mud. - Talmud. The world is like a wheel with buckets attached-the empty become full, the full become empty. Bengal. The actor's promotion is nothing, only lasting two hours. Arab.-The worst day for a cock is when his feet are washed-i. e., previous to being killed. Persian. No honey without a sting, no rose without a thorn. Badaga. For the nourishment of a day he sacrificed the food of a year. Badaga. In trying to save a drop of ghi (butter) he upset the ghi-pot. China.-To gain a cat but lose a cow. Telugu.-Like going to Benares and bringing back dog's hair. Telugu.-Like a bag of money in a looking-glass. China.-To fell a tree to catch a blackbird. Talmud.-The thorns make a loud noise in burning; not so wood. THE MONTH. N June 7th Major-General George Hutchinson, C.B., C.S.L, was appointed Lay Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, in the room of Mr. Edward Hutchinson. (We are desired to add that, although of the same name, the two gentlemen are not related.) IN consequence of the large number of accepted candidates for the Bishop of London's ordination on Trinity Sunday, the Bishop has arranged to ordain the C.M.S. Islington students separately, at St. Paul's Cathedral, on St. Peter's Day, June 29th-that is, about the time that this number of the Intelligencer appears. The Rev. E. H. Bickersteth has been appointed to preach the sermon. The candidates for deacons' orders are Messrs. J. W. Balding, W. H. Ball, J. S. Bradshaw, W. G. Falconer, E. Guilford, H. Lewis, J. Martin, A. D. Shaw, and W. Windsor; and for priests' orders, the Revs. T. H. Canham and A. J. A. Gollmer. THE Archbishop of Canterbury has conferred the degree of B.D. on the Rev. E. Sell, of the C.M.S. Mission to Mohammedans in Madras, Principal of the Harris School. At the Annual Meeting and Prize Distribution of this School in February last, the Right Hon. W. P. Adam, the Governor of Madras, who has since died, was in the chair. THE Bishop of Worcester has, spontaneously, appointed the Rev. E. R. Mason, M.A., C.M.S. Association Secretary in the Midland Counties, to the Vicarage of Christ Church, Birmingham, to which is attached the office of a Prebendary in Worcester Cathedral. THE Metropolitan of India, Bishop Johnson, of Calcutta, has been visiting the Tinnevelly and Travancore Missions. In Passion and Easter weeks he gave addresses daily in the chapel of the C.M.S. College at Cottayam. THE Bishop of Madras, in the course of a recent visitation tour through the C.M.S. Telugu Mission, confirmed 259 Native candidates at Ellore, Raghapur, and Masulipatam ; besides a number (not stated) at Bezwâda. A NEW church at the Christian village of Clarkabad, in the Punjab, was dedicated by the Bishop of Lahore on March 11th. THE REV. J. Vaughan writes that a destructive fire broke out at Krishnagar on April 9th, by which thirteen houses belonging to the poor Christians were destroyed. INTERESTING letters have been received from Bishop Ridley of Caledonia, describing his work at the Skeena Forks, in the heart of the country, last winter. He has, by the blessing of God, gained much influence over the Kitikshean Indians of that neighbourhood, and has already baptized a few. A most graphic letter of his is printed in the C.M. Gleaner of this month. THE Rev. J. Sheldon has been obliged by weakened health to come home from Sindh, where he has laboured nearly twenty-seven years most devotedly. Just before his departure from Karachi, testimonials were presented to him and Mrs. Sheldon by the English residents, the teachers in the Mission school, and the Native Christians. The address from the English congregation was read, at a special meeting called for the purpose, by Major D. V. Shortland, R.A. Most of our readers will have noticed references in the newspapers to what has appeared to be a high-handed proceeding on the part of the municipal authorities of Calcutta, in putting a sudden stop to street preaching in that city, and arresting certain missionaries who felt it right to test the legality of the prohibition by disregarding it. We refrain from comment at the present moment, our own special information on the subject being but slight, and that in the public papers not very clear; and more especially because, whoever may be really responsible for so extraordinary an act, and whatever may have been the motives that led to it, no doubt can be entertained that all such prohibition will speedily have to be withdrawn under the pressure of public opinion. It is much too late in the day to put obstacles of this kind in the way of missionary effort in India! * IMPORTANT ecclesiastical changes are taking place in Ceylon, as most of our readers will be aware from the notices in the newspapers. The Govern ment have given notice to withdraw the State subsidies from the Bishop and the aided chaplains, and to make no further appointments. In order however that there may be proper trustees to receive the grants during the period of grace allowed (five years), and to take over ecclesiastical property in churches, &c., the Government require that a Representative Church Body be constituted, as has been done in some other colonies under similar circumstances. Bishop Copleston is accordingly taking steps to form a Synod for the Diocese; and the new arrangements consequent on this disendowment and quasi disestablishment can hardly fail to affect in some way the Society's position and work in the island. The missionaries have asked for directions, which the Committee have given, though, in the uncertainty what the exact nature of the changes may be, with some difficulty. Since then, a letter has been received from the Bishop which is of a very courteous and conciliatory, not to say cordial, character, on the proposals he will submit to a preliminary representative Conference, to be held this month. When fuller information has been received, the matter will receive further attention in our pages. We cannot doubt that the good hand of God, which guided the Society through a long period of anxious controversy, will still order all things for the furtherance of His own work. THE REV. T. S. Grace, son of the veteran New Zealand missionary, the late Rev. T. S. Grace, has joined the C.M.S. Mission in that country. He has been labouring as a colonial clergyman in the diocese of Nelson; but his intimate knowledge, from his childhood, of the Maori people and their language, has marked him out for the work to which he has now devoted his life. He has taken charge of the extensive districts on the Wanganui River, in the diocese of Wellington. THE Rev. C. T. Hoernle has retired to his native country, Germany, after *As we go to press, we observe with pleasure a telegram stating that the case against the missionaries had been dismissed, the Court ruling that the authorities had acted ultra vires. a service in the Mission-field extending altogether to no less than fifty-six years, first in Persia under the Basle Society, and for forty-three years in India under the C.M.S. Four sons of his, and two daughters, have been in the Society's service as missionaries. One, the Rev. Immanuel G. Hermann Hoernle, is now in charge of the station at Meerut, in North India; and another, the Rev. E. F. Hoernle, M.B., is a medical missionary in Persia. One daughter is working at the Benares C.M.S. Mission under the Indian Female Instruction Society. THE Rev. J. Vaughan's Report on Krishnagar describes his efforts to quicken the dulness and enlighten the ignorance of the 6070 adherents of the Mission, whose hereditary Christianity-almost all being Christians of the second or third generation-is of a low type. The staff of Native helpers has been weeded during the year of several agents who did their regular round of duty in a perfunctory spirit, and exercised little active influence for good. This step, however necessary, adds much to the work of the missionaries in visiting congregations scattered in some fifty villages over a large tract of country; but it may be hoped that the arrangements now on foot for the training of both catechists and schoolmasters will ere long supply them with godly and efficient helpers. Some there are now who give them much comfort. Mr. Vaughan mentions three or four whom he hopes to see ordained, who "know what it is to have sleepless nights and burdened spirits in their yearnings after the spiritual life of their people." The victory gained by Mr. Vaughan in his arduous struggle with caste prejudices in the Christian community appears, we rejoice to say, to be an enduring one. Anxiety in that respect seems now quite at an end; and some remarkable cases are reported of bitter caste feeling in individuals having been succeeded by manifest tokens of the faith which worketh by love. The not less signal victory won in resisting the efforts of Romish intruders to entrap the more ignorant of the people on the other hand, will have, by the help of God, to be repeated, a fresh assault having been made upon the district within the last few months. The priests and nuns distribute brass crucifixes to the Christian women to wear round their necks, and brand the little churches and chapels as devil's temples. We would earnestly ask that prayer may be offered to the Good Shepherd in behalf of His frail and trembling sheep, and also of the faithful under-shepherd who is wearing out body and mind in their defence. "On the whole," Mr. Vaughan writes, "nevertheless I think light is spreading; I humbly trust also that here and there throbbings of spiritual vitality are being felt in hearts once utterly dead and cold. I hope God intends to raise this Mission from its low estate. We must go on working in faith." Three encouraging tokens for good may be noted. One is the gathering of ten converts from heathenism, most of them of higher social standing than the generality of the Khrishnagar Christians, several of whom have verified their sincerity by the endurance of persecution, and three have passed through the Divinity School and are now at work among their countrymen. The second is the hopeful commencement of systematic itinerant preaching to the heathen by the Rev. H. Williams. He will, I hope, writes Mr. Vaughan, "be enabled to carry on his operations the whole year round. In the dry season he will have his tent, and in the rains we hope to get a boat in which he may sail along the rivers and preach in the villages on their banks. Thus far his experience is most encouraging. Hundreds are listening to his message with apparent eagerness and interest; and not a few seem to feel the power of the truth." The third is the hearty way in which the leading congregations have joined in the Church Council movement. THE REV. A. W. Schapira is carrying on at Gaza an interesting work among the Mohammedans. In his school for Moslem girls he has fortyfive in regular attendance, and in that for Moslem boys a varying number (from 40 to 5) who come only irregularly, besides 48 girls and 42 boys in the Greek schools. There is also a Sunday-school, attended by fifty boys and girls, Greeks and Moslems mixed. On Christmas Eve there was a Christmas-tree for the children, who sang hymns on the occasion in English and Arabic, and recited about the birth of Christ in English, Arabic, Turkish, and Greek, all in the presence of the leading Moslems and Greeks of the town, including the Governor, who addressed the meeting, and encouraged the children to attend, and the parents to send them. This governor, Mr. Schapira says, is the M.P. for Syria in the Turkish "Parliament" mentioned last year by Dr. Koelle (see Intelligencer, Feb. 1880, p. 89). The Greeks and the Jesuits have opened opposition schools, but have entirely failed to draw the children away. Mr. Schapira has a reading-room, and a dispensary, both which have proved very useful, but the latter is somewhat crippled by lack of funds. An earnest appeal on its behalf has been issued by the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society. He has also visited, twice each, twenty-four Moslem towns and villages. Surely this is a Mission which should be very specially borne upon our hearts before God. THE REV. H. K. Binns writes from In this station the people are enjoying a state of peace and plenty, the very late rains of last year having provided them with an abundant supply of Indian corn, &c. I am glad to say they are giving very little trouble, and many of them show unmistakeable evidence of a renewed heart. I can now without any diffidence leave the place in the charge of Isaac. He is assisted in the administration of justice by four elders whom I appointed at the beginning of last year, and the plan works exceedingly well. All minor cases are brought before them, and only serious ones are brought to me. Every case is reported to me individually by Isaac. The four elders whom I appointed are one from each division of the people. For the Kisulutini, East Africa : Nasik boys, Carus Farrar, a servant of Dr. Livingstone's. For the runaways from Giriama, Moses Ndamungu, formerly a medicine man, a dealer in charms and oracles, but now I firmly believe a humble follower of Jesus. For the people from Makongeni, Enoch Tosiri, a very steady and quiet young man, for some time my own house servant. And for the Wanika, James Mwachingo, a convert of Mr. Reb mann's, a very sensible fellow, who has been brought to see very plainly the errors and follies of his brethren. Having these elders, and Isaac at their head to guide them in their deliberations, I more at liberty to translate or travel, as opportunity occurs. am THE Rev. E. N. Hodges, Principal of the Noble High School, begs that the school may be especially prayed for by friends at home. There has been no convert from among the students in the past year, but God has given him "manifest tokens for good, and cause for good hope that some who are convinced may be converted." "Some are not far from the kingdom of God." "Every day," he writes, "sees all the Christian masters kneeling together in my private room at school, during the recess in the heat of the |