burning rays of the sun, we walked into Lod, the ancient Lydda, and having first wandered through a perfect labyrinth of filthy narrow streets, we reached the Church Missionary School. Here a Native convert, combining the offices of catechist and schoolmaster, met us and took us into his school. Such bright, happy faces looked up at us, and a perfect firmament of eyes beamed their delight at our visit. Lydda, being a little out of the direct route to Jerusalem from Jaffa, is rarely visited by travellers. We listened to some nice singing, and then several of the elder scholars read to us, fluently and distinctly, from their Arabic Bibles, and their answers to questions put to them were very intelligent and showed careful teaching. It was a pleasure to see the cleanliness of the scholars. It was in striking contrast to the unwashed, uncared-for appearance of the children in the streets outside.

How different Lydda is now from what it was in the days of Peter, when all who dwelt there "turned to the Lord"! But brighter days are again in store, and the same Jesus whom St. Peter preached there in his early missionary labours is once more being offered to the people of Lydda as their Saviour and

King. These schools, hidden away in the heart of many a Syrian village, are doing a most valuable work, though an unseen, and therefore sometimes unappreciated one. But we must wait patiently, and I can have no doubt that in days to come there will be a rich and bountiful harvest. "The husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain (Jas.

v. 7). There are about 100 boys and the same number of girls under instruction in Lydda, the school for the latter being as satisfactory as the boys, under a trained mistress from the Lebanon, educated in the Training Institution of the British Syrian Schools. There are also boys' and girls' schools at Ramleh, near Lydda, and, in spite of keen opposition from the Latins both here and at Lydda, they are well attended and prospering. If there were no opposition, we should indeed have cause to fear that the work was at a standstill. Mr. Hall often goes over from Jaffa to visit these out-stations, and thus the lonely workers are cheered and encouraged, and can feel they have a friend to come to for help and advice in difficulties.

-1 S Circum. The Lord will give grace and glory, Ps. 84. 11. M. Is. 35., or Ge. 17. 9. Ro. 2. 17. E. Is. 88 or 40., or De. 10.12. Col. 2.8-18. 2 M Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 Tim. 2. 1. 3T Krapf's 1st visit Mombasa, 1844. Strong in faith, giving glory to 4 W He giveth grace unto the lowly, Pro. 8. 34. [God, Ro. 4. 20. 5 T Declare His glory among the heathen, Ps. 96. 3. [Tit. 2. 11. Epiph. Grace that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,' M. Is. 60. Lu. 3. 15-23. E. Is. 49. 13-24. Jo. 2. 1-12. Let the whole earth be filled with His glory, Ps. 72. 19.

6 F

7 S

[Him, Lu. 2. 40. 8 S 1st aft. Epiph. The Child grew, and the grace of God was upon M. Is. 51. Mat. 5. 13-33. E. Is. 52. 13, & 53, or 54. Ac. 4. 32 to 5. 17. 9 M French and Knott sailed for India, 1869. Unto me is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles, Eph. 3. 8. Let your speech be alway with grace, Col. 4. 6.

10 T

12 T

13 F

14 S

11 W 1st Miss. Sermon at Lagos, 1852. They shall speak of the glory of Show me Thy glory, Ex. 33. 18. [Thy kingdom, Ps. 145, 11. H. Venn died, 1873. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and Grow in grace, 2 Pet. 3. 18. [aft. receive me to glory, Ps. 73. 24. [manifested forth His glory, John 2. 11. 15 S 2nd aft. Epiph. 1st Arrian baptisms, 1852. This did Jesus, and

M. Is. 55. Mat. 9. 1-18. E. Is. 57 or 61. Ac. 9. 1-23.

16 M We beheld His glory...full of grace and truth, John 1. 14. 17 T Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 Cor. 8. 9.

20 F

18 W That He by the grace of God should taste death for every man, 19 T That they may behold My glory, John 17. 24. [Heb. 2. 9. Tinnevelly Centenary, 1880. To the praise of the glory of His 21 S My grace is sufficient for thee, 2 Cor. 12. 9. [grace, Eph. 1. 6. [of the Lord is risen upon thee, Is. 60. 1. 3rd aft. Epiph. 1st C.M.S. Missionary in Japan, 1869. The glory

22 S

เ

M. Is. 62. Mat. 13. 1-24. E. Is. 65 or 66. Ac. 13. 26.

25 M Henry Venn' launched, 1878. Recommended to the grace of God, [Acts 14. 26. 24 T Conv. St. Paul. By the grace of God I am what I am, 1 Cor. 15. 10. 25 W The God of all grace hath called us unto His eternal glory, 26 T Rejoice in hope of the glory of God, Ro. 5. 2. [1 Pet. 5. 10. 27 F Bp. Speechly arr. Cottayam, 1880. Ye are our glory and joy, 1 Th. 28 S Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord, Col. 3. 16. [2. 20. [so might grace reign, Ro. 5. 21. 29 S 4th aft. Epiph. Nyanza reached, 1877. As sin hath reigned, even M. Job 27. Mat. 16. 1-24. E. Job 28 or 29. Ac. 17. 16.

30 M J. Devasagayam d., 1864. Ye shall rec. a crown of glory, 1 Pet. 5.4. 31 T Islington Coll. op., 1825. Grace be with you all, Amen, Heb. 13.25.

IR RICHARD TEMPLE stated lately at a C.M.S. meeting at Sheffield

Sthat there were 400,000 Native Christians in and 200,000 heathen scholars in Mission schools; while the expenditure on Missions in India was £400,000 a year, or only sixteen shillings per head per annum. "I ask you confidently," he said; "do these figures show a small result?"

THE Dutch settlers of South Africa regarded the Bushmen and Hottentots as scarcely human, and never attempted to Christianise them. On the contrary, they used to exclude them from their churches, by a notice over their church doors, that "Dogs and Hottentots" were not admitted.

The Cambridge C.M.S. Association proposes to hold, in March next, a Missionary Exhibition of Articles of Foreign Manufacture, Samples of Food and Clothing, Models of Native Dwellings, and other objects of interest illustrative of Native life, habits, and religions in the various fields of labour occupied by the C.M.S. The loan of any such articles will be welcome. Articles specially imported from India, China, Africa, Palestine, and N.W. America, will also be offered for sale, for the benefit of the Society. Information can be obtained from the Rev. J. Barton, Trinity Vicarage, Cambridge.

A new and cheaper edition of the Memoir of the Rev. Henry Venn, by the Rev. W. Knight, has just been published by Messrs. Seeley & Co. It contains much new and valuable matter. Price 68.

Received with thanks :-" M. S. I.," £1 for the Society.

THE GLEANER COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION. LERGYMEN and other friends willing to arrange for the reception of candidates for the approaching GLEANER Competitive Examination to be held on the 10th of January, 1882, are requested to send in their names without delay to the Editorial Secretary, Church Missionary Society, Salisbury Square, E.C. Names will be received up to January 6th, 1882: that is to say, not the names of candidates-these are not required beforehand-but of those clerical or other friends who will conduct the local arrangements. The duties of these friends will be (1) To receive the names of competitors in their town or district; (2) To provide a room for them to be examined in on the afternoon or evening of January 10th, 1882, and also pens, ink, paper, &c.; (3) To remit the amount of entrance fees to the Parent Society, receive the Question Papers, and send up the Answers; (4) To make proper arrangements for the due observance of the conditions of the Examination. Further instructions will be sent on application.

Each candidate is to pay an entrance fee of one shilling to the conductor of the Examination in his or her district, and these fees should be remitted to the Society by the conductors not later than the 6th of January, when the Editorial Secretary will forward the Question Papers needed for the competitors: that is to say, Question Papers corresponding in number to the shillings remitted.

EPITOME OF MISSIONARY NEWS.

The Church Missionary Society has lost some valued friends by death in the past month. The Hon. A. Leslie Melville, of Branston Hall, Lincoln, was a Vice-President, and the father-in-law of the late Rev. Henry Wright. Mr. Henry Sykes Thornton was the senior partner in the firm of Williams, Deacon & Co., the Society's bankers. For many years he took an active part in the management of the Society's finances, and a valuable report issued in 1842 bears his signature. The Rev. Canon Bingham was for thirty-three years Honorary Association Secretary for West Dorset, and a staunch supporter of the Society's principles and work in that county. Dr. Krapf, the veteran pioneer-missionary of East Africa, is referred to on another page.

The news of the death of Captain Brownrigg, R.N., of H.M.S. London, in a fight with a slave dhow on the East African coast, has also been received with great regret, both on his own account and for the evidence it affords that the slave trade is not at an end yet. He gave remarkable testimony to the good work done at Frere Town in a letter printed in the GLEANER of July last. He also showed much kindness to the Waganda envoys on their way out.

The Rev. William Latham, M.A., of Trinity College, Dublin, Vicar of Thornton Curtis, Lincolnshire, has offered himself to the Society, and been accepted, for missionary work.

The Hereford Church Missionary Association has undertaken to found two scholarships in the C.M.S. Female Institution at Lagos for young Native women preparing to be Christian teachers, at a cost of £500, in memory of the late Miss Emelia Venn.

The Rev. J. Ireland Jones writes hopefully of the proceedings of the Special Committee now sitting under the presidency of Bishop Copleston to prepare a scheme for the future organisation of the Church in Ceylon.

The Rev. G. Litchfield and Mr. C. W. Pearson, of the Nyanza Mission, had arrived in England before our last number appeared, which announced their coming. Both have suffered much in health. They give a very unfavourable account of King Mtesa, but state that the people of Uganda are accessible and ready for instruction, and that the country betweeen the Lake and the East Coast is ripe for missionary enterprise.

The census of the British colony of Sierra Leone, including the peninsula of that name and some outlying districts belonging to Great Britain, was taken in April last. The population is 60,546. Only 271 are white men, and of these only 163 are residents, of whom 113 are British. The "liberated Africans and their descendants," i.e., the population resulting from the settlement there of rescued slaves in the first half of the century, number 35,430. The remainder would be mainly the native inhabitants of the outlying districts. There are 39,600 Christians, of whom 18,860 belong to the Church of England, and 17,098 to the Wesleyans; 5,000 Mohammedans, and 16,000 pagans, the latter mostly in the outlying districts.

The annual Days of Intercession for Sunday Schools were heartily observed throughout the Diocese of Travancore and Cochin. The Diocesan Gazette gives an account of an interesting gathering of Native teachers at the C.M.S. Cambridge Nicholson Institution, Bishop Speechly presiding, when papers were read by the Revs. Koshi Koshi and E. Varkki John, Mr. T. Korala, and Mr. M. C. Thomma, interspersed with the singing of lyrics, and followed by dinner and a magic-lantern exhibition.

The Tinnevelly Provincial Native Church Council has resolved to send two experienced Tamil catechists to labour under General Haig in the Mission to the Kois of the Upper Godavery (see GLEANER of August), and to bear the cost of their support; and 600 rupees a year has been voted for that purpose. The C.M.S. Palaveram Mission, in the environs of Madras, has been transferred to the Madras Native Church Council, of which the Rev. W. T. Satthianadhan is Chairman, thus relieving the Society of a work hitherto carried on by an English missionary. It was originally started by the late David Fenn and G. M. Gordon.

Bishop Crowther reports that the average Sunday congregations at the stations on the Niger now amount together to 3,472 souls, of whom he reckons 1,599 as Native Christians and 451 as communicants.

THE WORKING TOGETHER

EXTENSION OF CHRIST'S KINGDOM.

BY THE REV. J. B. WHITING, M.A., Vicar of St. Luke's, Ramsgate. II.

EADER, you have been studying Acts viii. 26-40. It is a sample story. This beautiful anecdote is but one incident among many millions of similar events. In the most natural way, as if it were the common and universal method, this anecdote tells how the Holy Spirit works with and by the missionary of Jesus Christ, and by angels of heaven also, to bring an inquirer to salvation. First observe an angel is sent-not direct to the eunuchbut "an angel spake to Philip." I do not know whether Philip saw the angel. Angels can whisper to our wills. "They are ministering spirits sent forth to minister to them who are heirs of salvation." This heir of salvation must have the services of a living man. Philip the Evangelist must meet the man and explain the Word. What care for a single soul! Philip is commanded to leave his work in the villages of Samaria, where multitudes are attending his ministry, and where his preaching is wonderfully blessed, for the sake of an Ethiopian who has come 2,000 miles to Jerusalem, and is going back, and has not found the Saviour. For the sake of one Ethiopian an angel is sent from heaven, and Philip is taken away from the crowds who listened to him, that he may run after the chariot

and minister the word of life to an anxious heart that seems to

have missed its opportunity. God works wisely. In the streets of Jerusalem the man's attention would not be so well gained as in the desert of Gaza.

And now as the work grows more critical, and the moment of conversion approaches, even the angel must stand aside. God the Holy Spirit Himself intervenes. The Spirit directs Philip, "Go near and join thyself to this chariot." The Spirit brings the messenger and the hearer together at the very moment when a certain passage of Scripture is being read. The Spirit gives the text to the preacher. The Spirit disposes the hearer to listen. The Spirit gives the hearing ear and the understanding heart. The Spirit gives faith to the astonished Ethiopian, brings conviction to his mind, touches his heart, and heals his soul.

The Spirit, moreover, disposes the man to take the decided step of being baptized in the sight of his wondering servants. And when the work is done, when conviction has been wrought in the conscience, and faith has accepted the finished work of salvation, and Jesus Christ the Son of God has become all in all, and the whole has been signed and sealed in the Sacrament of Baptism, then the Spirit removes the human agent to follow his Master's service, and preach His name in another sphere. "I believe in the Holy Ghost!"

change already worked in the minds of the inhabitants tells the tale of the earnest, loving, self-denying labours of our devoted missionaries, Mr. and Mrs. Schapira. Here, in this lonely outlying station, have they bravely held the fort, and slowly, but surely, the opposition is decreasing, and the interest in Christianity and education deepening.

Like most

Four years ago, when a European rode through the streets of Gaza, he was pelted with stones, cursed by the smallest children in the streets, and his life was, if not in absolute peril, certainly made as uncomfortable as possible. Now, what a contrast! We rode through the streets, uncovered English women among the party, and though not always exactly smiled upon, not a rude act or gesture met us, and when Mr. Schapira was with us, it was plainly to be seen that he was looked on as a friend by all. We had had a lovely morning's ride from Ascalon, first over the plains, now barren and covered with the encroaching sand from the seashore, and for the last two or three miles through the lovely glades of the olive groves of Gaza. Oriental towns, the view from a distance is most picturesque, the tall minarets and graceful palm-trees rising from the mass of little white domes that form the roofs of the houses, and the Inside, how picture set in a frame of bluish-green olive-trees. different all appears!-narrow streets, chiefly occupied by a broad gutter, the depository of all the sewage of the town, and through which the horses have to wade. A very narrow ledge at each side is given up to foot passengers, and is very nearly as filthy as the gutter. No wonder that the population are never free from fever and ophthalmia. It was a saddening sight to see scarcely a third of the people whom we met had more than one eye, so terrible a scourge is blindness in Gaza.

The Mission-house is just on the confines of the town, between the Moslem and Christian quarters, and though many an artisan in England would turn up his nose at it, yet here is a happy English home where we received the welcome as of old friends, and where we spent three very pleasant days. Our tents were set up in the garden, I am afraid to the sad destruction of some melon and cucumber plants; and here we passed our first Sunday in the Holy Land.

It

We went to the Arabic service at nine in the morning. was quite easy for us to follow it with our Prayer-books, and the children responded well in Arabic. Those who could read had Prayer-books. The congregation consisted of about fifty boys and girls, five teachers, a very few natives, and our party. The singing was hearty, if not very melodious, for the Arabs are eminently not a musical race; but they got through some native hymns with familiar tunes very creditably. During the service there was a slight disturbance, as the father of one of the children came to carry him off. He was a Greek, and though the child comes to the day-school for the sake of the education, he was not allowed to attend the Sunday-school and service. Instead of a sermon,

BY LOUISA H. H. TRISTRAM. II.-GAZA.

AZA is the one spot in Philistia where the C.M.S. is at work, and after three years of laborious and uphill toil, the door seems now to be opening wider and wider for every sort of mission agency. I do not mean to say that the reaping time has yet come, but the ground seems hungry for the good seed.

The population of Gaza is about 20,000, and the town is one of the bitterest strongholds of Moslem fanaticism: so much so,

the promises made to him, and also on the work of Christ. The answers were very bright and intelligent, especially from one little Moslem boy. Truly there seems no want of mental power in the young, though hard usage seems to drive it all out of the girls before they reach woman's estate.

There are four schools under the C.M.S. in Gaza, a boys' and girls' in both Christian and Moslem quarters, as it would be impossible to mix them in the present bitter state of mutual hatred. Altogether there are more than 200 children under instruction. It is quite marvellous how the objection to the children's coming to school is gradually dying away, even when

the parents know quite well that all the teaching begins and ends with Christian instruction. I believe that the pivot on which all the success turns is the dispensary, where Mr. Schapira, aided by a Native doctor, daily prescribes, free of all cost, what medical aid he can; and never does a patient go away without a loving word of counsel and aid for his soul, and if he can read, or has children at home taught in the Mission schools, a little tract or leaflet in Arabic. Close to the dispensary is a reading-room, where many of the Arab gentlemen, and occasionally Turkish officers, come, and where they can see the newspapers of the country as well as Bibles and books of all kinds supplied by Mr. Schapira. Every one is given a little tract or book to take away, and they seem to take the greatest interest in talking with Mr. Schapira and discussing the doctrines of Christianity. This reading-room is an effort in quite a new direction, and seems so far to have been remarkably useful.

The work among the women promises very well. Mrs. Schapira is about to open a sort of "mothers' meeting," where the poor women will be taught useful sewing, while from their Christian sister's lips they may listen to those words of guidance and help, and be pointed to that Saviour of whom they cannot hear in any other way. Christian friends in England are helping in this work, which cannot be self-supporting till the women's work is suitable for sale among the rich Moslem ladies of Gaza.

As yet there are no outlying schools in the many villages of Philistia, but as we passed through one and another of them on our way south, the appeal for a teacher met us constantly. Mejdel, a large village close to the ruins of Ascalon, is especially anxious

and blessed just such babes as these. At Hamameh, a village between Ashdod and Ascalon, the mothers brought their babies, and were most anxious that we should take them in our arms, and lifted them up to us on horseback. One little one, rather cleaner than the rest, was caressed, to the mother's unbounded delight. I believe these people had never seen European women before, and therefore all the female population gathered round

for a school, and it is to be hoped that the readers of the GLEANER, and others interested in the work of the C.M.S., will make it possible for the Society to respond to such an appeal. Among the unsophisticated villagers there is far less of the bitter feeling of enmity to Christianity than in the towns, and the sight of the sweet black eyes beaming through the unwashed faces made one long that these little ones might be gathered into a mission school and be led to the Saviour, who took in His arms

THE EPIDEMIC AT
AMRITSAR.

MRITSAR has been visited by a terrible epidemic. The Rev. R. Clark writes:

Between the 15th August and the 15th October 10,000 people have died in the city alone, ie, out of 150,000 inhabitants. 30,000 have left the city, many of whom will, we hope, returr. God's goodness to our Christians

has been wonderful. Though they are scattered up and down the city, and though four or five children have died, yet, as yet, not one adult Christian has died. About eleven girls in the Alexandra School are well; and Miss Smith, the matron, who has been with them during the whole year, is well also. The forty or fifty girls in the adjoining Orphanage School are well. Miss Margaret Smith and Miss Hewlett, who returned from the hills in the The Orphanage boys have a few cases of ordinary fever, but are fairly well. midst of the crisis, and who have gone about in the city heroically succouring both Christians and Hindus and Mohammedans, have both of them been ill, but are better. Miss Clay, who has been itinerating in the villages during some of the worst part of the epidemic, is fairly well.