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kindness and that of his wife. He is indeed the Gaius of 3.30, and had the kindest welcome from the Rev. W. A. and the Church here.

BOMBAY, Tuesday, November 23, 1880. We had a most happy Sunday. I went to the early vernacular service, where the Rev. Appaji Bapuji was preaching to about seventy-five earnest Christian converts. At breakfast the vestibule was occupied by a class of twenty Christian children, who sang sweetly. The first was a hymn on Peace, to a lovely native tune. At 11 we had morning service, and Edward* preached an excellent sermon on "By grace are ye saved through faith." In the afternoon I addressed the English-speaking children (some eighty) of well-to-do residents and others in a Sunday-school held in Major Oldham's house, and in the evening preached to a very full church on "Love is strong as death," and helped to administer the Lord's Supper afterwards to seventy-five communicants.

On Monday morning we went and saw the Robert Money School of 250 pupils, and I addressed some sixty of them on Christian ambition. We then went to the Scotch Presbyterian College, where Edward wanted to see their plans. It is a most active, energetic work which is being carried on there.

Mrs. Roberts. Mr. Roberts drove me and Edward into Nasik. It is a most picturesque native town, somewhat dirty after the heavy rain. We were taken to several of their temples, where we saw them offering their rice and flowers. To watch them made one long more than ever for the time when all shall know the only Name. We came back to dinner, prayers, and bed. Such a refreshing night !-no mosquitoes, no noise-far the best night we have had since we left England, though we were told to be very careful of scorpions and snakes, which abound here. However, thank God, none troubled us.

This morning I rose at 6, and Mr. Roberts took me and Edward all over the Mission farm, which is entirely worked by the Christians of the village. It costs the Society nothing, as it more than pays its way, and it affords work for the converts and inquirers. He took us to the corn-fields and millet-fields, and sugar-cane bamboo grove, and vineyards and orange yards, and mango orchard, with its grand old well (to obtain which they at first rented the land, though they have digged three more since), and other grain fields and pepper (Chili) ground. We then saw the ingenious process of drawing water by four oxen from the last noble well. I suppose the shaft was 20 or 24 feet across. Two large water buckets, made of leather, were let down into the and then the oxen, by stepping down an incline, dragged them up full, and as they reached the brim of the well, by touching a circular roller it opened a neck at the bottom of the buckets, and the water was emptied into a trough and conveyed in small courses to the field. By watering and working they have made a most fruitful out of a barren ground-which thing is a parable. We then saw the Christian girls, thirty in number, make and have their breakfast--a flat millet cake and curry soup. They were happy, but very quiet. Altogether this is a most delightful Mission station, and seems a centre of labour for which we cannot be sufficiently thankful. We are here 1,900 feet above the sea level, and with a west wind they get the full benefit of the sea breezes, though the sea is 60 miles distant.

This morning we started before 7, and hoped to get off before the heat of the day in kind Captain Verrell's steam launch to the Elephanta Caves. But we were delayed till 10-very hot-well, when the captain took us off. But when we had steamed about six out of the eight miles, part of the machinery broke. We had no sail, no oar, and drifted helplessly with the tide for more than an hour, when the captain happily was able to patch up the breakage, and we soon landed and climbed to those remarkable Brahmin caves, situate in that beautiful wooded island, the grand relics of ancient idol-worship. We got home by 2.30, and found the Bishop of Bombay awaiting us at lunch. We visited the girls' school with him, and then called on a wealthy and learned Hindu, Sir Mungeldas Nathabhoy, to whom Professor Monier Williams had given me a letter. Though ill, he was so kind-would insist on receiving us on his swinging sofa, sent his son with us over his magnificent house, and then for a drive round Malabar Hill. We were just admitted within the gates of the enclosure of the Towers of Silence, where the Parsees bury, or rather expose their dead, and then visited the approaches to several Hindu temples, and back in our friend's magnificent carriage (which he told me cost Rs. 5,000) to Mr. Squires'. I told our friend's son how, as a Christian, I longed for the time when we should all worship in one Christian temple, but that I was sure it was good for us to get to know one another, as we should respect each other more. I gave him a copy of my poem, which he graciously accepted.

NASIK, Thursday, November 25. We started at 6.15 yesterday morning, and came 117 miles over the Ghauts (some 2,000 feet high) hither. As we neared Nasik Road Station a heavy rain came on, and we got from the train through drenching rain into the queerest little carriages, called tongas, drawn by two ponies, one for our luggage, two for ourselves-i.e., M— and myself, Edward, and a Christian manservant, whom we have engaged for two months.

A would have liked these tongas amazingly-two ponies with a pole and cross-yoke over their neck, no traces, driven at full canter for five and a-half miles to the Christian station of

In the afternoon Mr. Roberts drove Edward and me some six miles along the old Bombay road, down which our armies, before the railroad days, had so often marched to battle and to victory, to the foot of the hill on which the celebrated Nasik caves are situate. They are Buddhist caves, with many inscriptions, and several were probably excavated some centuries before the Christian era. tian era. They command a magnificent view of the country, and as we drove rapidly back heavy storms of rain were falling to the right and left, but none fell on us, and the strange fantastic hills -evidently of volcanic origin-were lighted up with lurid sunset flames. Mr. Roberts asked me to preach to his Christian converts at his evening service, saying he would interpret for me. It was a sudden invitation, but I could not refuse, so took Jude 20, 21. It was such a hearty service; they sang sweetly, and I got on better than I expected, if I may judge from the eager

faces of the Native Christians.

CORRESPONDENCE.

Missionary Boxes.

Sharanpur, which is a village a mile and a-half off the town DEAR SIR,-I have been Hon. Sec. to C.M.S. Associations for many years

of Nasik, a large town of nearly 30,000 people, on the banks of the Godavery, which rises 17 miles from here.§ We got in at *The Rev. E. Bickersteth, of the Cambridge Delhi Mission, son of the writer.-ED.

The Church Missionary Society's principal educational institution in Bombay. See GLEANER of July, 1876.-ED.

Yesterday, To-day, and For Ever. (London: Rivingtons.)-ED. See a picture of Nasik in the GLEANER of January, 1876; also pictures and accounts of Sharanpur in that and succeeding numbers.-ED.

in different parishes, and have found missionary boxes, judiciously given out, and well looked after, the most fruitful source of income, particularly in poor parishes.

In giving out I am always careful to enter in my book the name and address of the box-receiver, also to write his or her name and mine in the proper places at the bottom of the box. I keep quarterly accounts, and the boxes are collected and opened quarterly, half-yearly, or annually, as is most agreeable to the holders. But I see that each box is regular as to its time of opening, and I never allow a box to be kept back at the end of the year when our annual accounts for printing are made up. I am most careful that every box-holder should have regularly the publications of the Society to which he is entitled. Our Sunday-school box is opened quarterly, and the amount

BY LOUISA H. H. TRISTRAM.

collected in each class as kept by the teachers (the money is deposited every SKETCHES OF MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE. Sunday in the box) is read out by the superintendent when the box is returned to the school at the beginning of the new quarter. The amount that each box has collected since its beginning to work is always written on a new C.M. box paper at the bottom of the box on its return to its owner.

The box-holders are kept carefully informed of all interesting missionary information to be given at meetings or otherwise in the parish; and at the principal annual parochial meeting the names and lists of contributions as they will be printed are read out by the vicar.

I do not know by what means our collectors fill their boxes; their own interest and ingenuity suggest that. Our own box is handed round for contributions to every one present after dinner on Sundays. Next to a hearty Christian interest in any work for God, and the good of others, method and punctuality in carrying out all the details are the best means to ensure success. This is a truism, but is not always acted out.

A LOVER OF THE C.M.S.

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The result has been an increase in the contents from about £10 to nearly £24; as well as an increased interest in the work of the Society, as detailed in its publications. In these days of agricultural depression and trying times for farmers, it is interesting to find one of them collecting in his box 152 farthings -equal to 3s. 2d.-and sending in that, along with a subscription of 5s. We all feel very thankful, and greatly encouraged by the progress of our boxes; and most of the holders seem surprised to find how much they have E. D. S.

thus been able to collect.

DEAR

EAR SIR,-As you have invited your readers to send you their experience as to missionary boxes, I venture to give you mine. The box I wish particularly to notice is what we call the Iron Room Sunday School Box. This school is attended by about fifty boys. Our late dear and respected vicar, or some other friend, on the first Sunday in the month, used to give the boys a brief address, bearing on missionary matters and God's love for all souls, and on more than one occasion he has repeated to them those excellent verses, "The Missionary Penny," and alluded to the great fact that God can save a black man's soul by means of a halfpenny tract. After the address the box, or rather I should say the negro boy, is taken round class after class, and the proceeds of our box last year amounted to over £2-we had no brass buttons nor bad coins. In conclusion I find that if this or any cause is to prosper, two or three golden rules are necessary :

FOR

1. Prayer in the school for Mission work.

2. The box should be used regularly, not spasmodically.

3. Keep up interest in work by addresses, and distribution of missionary magazines. A WEAK MEMBER,

The Cycle of Prayer.

OR several years I have placed in the Bible which we use at family prayer the "Cycle of Prayer for Missions," cut out from the Church Missionary Almanack; and every day in our family petitions we add some for the special mission which comes before us that day; varying the petitions, of course, according to the needs of the mission, so far as I can learn them from the Society's publications. It has been a great joy to us, and perhaps might be to many others; and seems a very simple and easy way to ensure daily prayer for some part of the mission field.

Sandown Vicarage, Isle of Wight.

W. T. STORRS.

Intercession in Church for Missionaries and Converts. IR,-I have been reading the account in your August number of the poor Chinese convert, Li-Min, at the Great Valley, near Hang-Chow, and of the dreadful persecution she has had to undergo at the hands of her fatherin-law, and of the torture inflicted with the "thorny tree" by her brother-inlaw, torture which compelled her to flee to Hang-Chow to the missionaries for protection. May I suggest to those of your supporters who are clergymen the great desirability, in such a case, of giving their congregations some account of the sufferings endured, and of thereupon asking the prayers of the congregation for the person or persons enduring persecution for Christ's sake? This might be done before the service commenced; the clergyman addressing the congregation either from the reading-desk or else from the chancel steps. He might also announce that silence would be kept in the church for a few minutes before the beginning of service to give the congregation an opportunity of uniting in prayer and intercession on behalf of those prayed for. Then in the prayer for all conditions of men and in the Litany these confessors in China for Christ's sake and the Gospel's might be remembered.

Such a course as I have suggested would help to make missionary work a much more real thing in the minds of our own people, as well as being a means of blessing on those who have to suffer perhaps the loss of all things for Christ's sake. Then, again, in the case of such a peculiarly perilous mission as that to Uganda, might not the prayers of the people be specially asked for it? H. C. RICHMOND,

A Lost Day.

THE day on which a Christian has done nothing specially for Christ may as in my life, when no opportunity occurs for personal work for our Master, I make an extra offering, according to my means, to the missionary box. It is pleasant to have some act of service to present to Him each evening before we lie down to rest. If all your readers would adopt this plan we should have no barren tree" among us, and the fruits of Christian love would multiply to the glory of God. C.

I.

CAN imagine nothing more calculated to stir up any flagging interest in missionary work than to see the work itself, if only for one day, with our own eyes. It has recently been my great pleasure and privilege to visit many of our C.M.S. stations in the Holy Land, and to see a little more in detail the agencies at work there. I should like to tell the readers of the GLEANER of what is going on now on the plain of Sharon, but before describing the work, it may be as well to tell of a few of the difficulties in the way, and the kind of soil God's husbandmen in Palestine have to till.

In the first place, the government is Mohammedan, and in consequence the work among the Moslems differs widely from that among the followers of the false prophet in India, where a professedly Christian government offers protection to the life, if not the property of converts. The proportion of Moslems in the different towns and villages in Palestine varies much-some places being much more fanatical than others, and thus offering fewer inducements to Christians to live there. The Moslem inquirer has to be very guarded and careful in his manner of obtaining instruction, and were he to come forward in his native town and ask to be baptized, his dead body would be all that could be found of him the next day. There are not infrequent cases of converts being sent from one end of the country to the other, that they may make an outward profession of their Christian faith unmolested.

The so-called Christian Syrians are a mixture of Latins or Roman Catholics, and Greeks, with some few Copts and Abyssinians in the south, and Maronites in the north. I could not but think how little there was to distinguish between Moslem and Christian in their outer life and manner of acting, beyond the exposed faces of the Christian women. Indeed, the ignorance among all classes of the inhabitants is wofully dense, and all have a deep claim upon us to restore to them in that Holy Land the blessings that the Apostolic missionaries brought to us from thence.

The bitterness of the Latins against our missionary efforts is keen. But not so with the Greeks. These do not seem to object to their children coming to our schools in many places; and there has been more than one instance of the Greek schoolmaster in a village becoming, when enlightened, our C.M.S. schoolmaster, and bringing his little flock over to better and holier teaching.

Jaffa, or Joppa, as we always preferred to call it, is the chief port of the Holy Land, and the plain of Sharon spreads beyond it to the foot of the Judæan Hills. Here is one of our most important Mission stations, and as it was the first holy ground we stood on, I will take it first. Our visit was short and hurried, so we did not see all we could have wished of the work there; and to gather any fair idea of what is doing, one should spend a Sunday in each Mission station, and see the adults as well as the children. We have, in Jaffa, a good boys' school with two masters, under our missionary, the Rev. J. R. L. Hall. The schools were always a cheerful and pleasant feature, and if the blossom be any earnest of the fruit, we may hope for great things, when the bright intelligent Syrian boy in our Mission school becomes the head of a household appreciating the blessings of Christianity and education. Our Society is relieved of the care of the girls' education by Miss Arnott's Schools, but Mr. Hall's work, besides the oversight of the boys, is evangelistic, and there are well attended Arabic services on Sunday, as well as a service for the English speaking community.

As yet there is no church built, but we saw the admirable

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JAFFA THE GERMAN COLONY, WITH THE PLAIN OF SHARON AND THE HILLS OF JUDAH.

piece of ground which has been bought and walled. in for the Church Missionary premises. There is to be a church, schools, and Mission-house within the enclosure, and, when built, they will form a very handsome feature. The place chosen is to the south of the town, well away from the unwholesome streets, and with a fine view to the west of the blue Mediterranean. The Society has, I am glad to say, been able recently to make an additional grant for the building of the church and schools, which we hope will soon be accomplished. Mr. Hall's house at pre

sent is very inconvenient, and the situation unhealthy,

and as the climate during the summer

is trying under any circumstances, it is

most desirable that he should soon be able, with his wife and family, to move

to the Mission buildings.

The day after our arrival at Jaffa we had to leave early in the morning, and after a lovely ride through lanes hedged with prickly pear, guarding fields of the famous Jaffa oranges, now fully ripe, we entered the plain of Sharon. It is now well cultivated, and the young green corn was be

ginning to appear. The road-sides were bordered with flowers, scarlet anemone and asphodel being the most common.

After a rest in an

olive grove which

shaded us from the

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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.

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