The shaking was terrible. However, after about an hour or so they remembered it, stopped the train, and had one put in; but our night was very broken. Still we got on very well to Bandikui, where we had tiffin, and then got into another train for Delhi, where we arrived at 9 A.M.

We have had two or three days full of interest. On Monday we went over the Fort, which was the palace of the old Kings of Delhi and the

centre of the great Mogul Empire. The marble hall of audience richly gilded and inlaid, with its Zenana Palace on one side and its magnificent baths on the other, scented with countless roses, was magnificent; and then we went over the Jumma Musjid, the largest Mohammedan mosque in India, and Edward and I climbed the minaret, from which we had a wonderfully view of this great thriving city. That night I went out with them to their bazaar preaching.* Such & unique scene-nearly one hundred clustered round the two catechists who spoke, A, Edward, and I standing behind them, eager faces looking up into ours. Yesterday was their Council day, so I had ride on

fine

church on 2 Cor. ix. 15-" Thanks be to God for His unspeakable gift"-to a full church, many officers and soldiers being present; and in the afternoon, after attending a feast given to the Christian converts (130 in number) by the excellent commissioner, Mr. Young, in W's compound, M, R, Edward and I drove off to the Fort, Jumma Musjid, and other parts of the town. Home at 7.80 for our Christmas dinner, a

December 26, 1880.

We had a delightful Christmas Day yesterday. I walked with up to the Ridge before breakfast, preached in the English Delhi is occupied by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. Mr. Bickersteth's son belongs to the Cambridge Mission," which is associated with that Society.-ED.

name their church bears.

bright fire of wood logs, and we as snug as possible, all the missionary brothers expressing their joy in having such а Christmas party. We began the day with singing "Christians,awake, salute the happy morn," in their little chapel at 8, and closed with prayers and the hymn "Songs of praise the angels sang." Altogether our Christmas Day was just brim-full of mercy and overflowing. I forgot to say while I was preaching at St. James' (the English Church) the brothers were all at St. Stephen's, where they had 170 communicants. This morning I have been preaching by interpretation in St. Stephen's. I stood on the chancel steps, and Tara Chand, the Native pastor, stood by my side, and interpreted my address sentence by sentence. I took as my text "So great salvation," Heb. ii. 3, alluding to Christmas and the last Sunday in the year, and also to St. Stephen, whose day it is and whose January 4, 1881.

We left Delhi on Monday morning, Dec. 27, with hearts full of gratitude and love. We had a noble view of the city as we crossed the vast railway bridge over the Jumna. We passed through the immense military cantonment at Meerut, where the Mutiny first broke out. At 8 o'clock we settled ourselves to sleep for the night, and M-- and I got up at 2.30, for we were to leave the train at Amritsar at 3.

THE GLEANER COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION.

N January 10th the Second GLEANER Examination was held. We are again somewhat disappointed with the small number of competitors, which is certainly difficult to account for after the active preparations made in several places. Thus, in Hampshire, in the early part of the year, test questions were put forth month by month to accustom the intending candidates to the work of ready answer-writing. Yet not one has come forward from that county. So many friends have expressed approval of the scheme, that we cannot but think there must be some cause, in the time or method of the Examination, for the unexpected absence of so many who certainly proposed to sit. We shall be glad to receive any communications on the subject.

Encouraged by the excellent papers sent in last year, and by the prospect of a large body of competitors, we arranged a much more difficult set of questions, at least for Standard A. All competitors who attempted Questions 1, 5, 6, or 9, were to be regarded as ranging themselves in this higher Standard; and they might answer all the twelve if they liked. Those who confined themselves to the other eight Questions would be counted in the lower Standard B.

Questions.

1. State what you know of the Dioceses of Moosonee, Mid-China, and Caledonia. Also of the Society's work in each.

2. Write a short history of the Victoria Nyanza Mission. In particular, be careful to notice (a) What led to its being undertaken; (b) the two routes to Uganda, and under what circumstances each was taken; (c) what Missionaries have died, and how; (d) the obstacles that have been encountered; (e) the tokens of God's blessing that have been vouchsafed; (f) the intermediate Stations.

3. Mention some of the Society's Stations in Ceylon, and the work done at them.

4. Give a short account of any two Native Clergymen mentioned in this year's GLEANER; but the two must not be from the same part of the world. 5. Give some account of the Languages used in the Church Missionary Society's Missions. In particular, notice the following:-Cree, Kinika, Nupe, Pushtu, Tamil, Tukudh, Urdu.

6. Explain the following words :-Aino, dhow, egugu, guru, juju, kayak, Mala, Mzungu, oolikan, puja, Quoquolt, shamba, Shango.

7. Where are the following places? In answering, distinguish between those that are coupled :

1. Freetown and Frere Town. 2. Mpwapwa and Mamboia. 3. Jaffa and
Jaffna. 4. Ellore and Nellore. 5. Fuh-Chow, Hang-Chow, and Ku-
Chow. 6. The two Fort Simpsons. 7. The River Kworra and the
River Binue.

8. Write a brief explanation of any one of the following pictures
Abeokuta: Sacrificial Worship of Ancestors. Arab Dhow on East African
Coast. Daily Evening Preaching in St. Stephen's, Hong Kong.
Sunday Morning at Metlakahtla. The Diagram of the Population of
the World according to Religions.

9. Give illustrations of the following from this year's GLEANER :

1. Heathen Superstition. 2. The enlightening power of the Word of God. 3. Progress of Native Churches. 4. Good work of Native Christian Teachers.

10. Mention any favourable testimonies borne to the work of the Society by independent observers quoted in this year's GLEANER.

11. Several letters have appeared in the GLEANER under the heads of "What can we do for Missions?" and "Missionary Boxes." State what, in your opinion, are the best suggestions offered.

12. What examples may we draw for ourselves out of the GLEANER of 1881 in respect of (a) Faith in God's promises; (b) Cheerfulness in trial; (c) Selfdenial in giving to God's work; (d) Peace and hope in prospect of death?

Forty-six candidates presented themselves, viz., thirty-two in Standard A, and fourteen in Standard B. It was intended to give ten prizes in each; but it would obviously be absurd to award so many among so few persons. Prizes have, however, been given to all who have obtained a 1st Class in either Standard.

List of Successful Candidates.

STANDARD A.

FIRST CLASS. (In order of merit.)

1. Emily Beatrice Green, Friezland Vicarage, Yorkshire,

2. Alice M. Harding, Eagle House, Hornsey.

3. Frances McArthur, Burlingham, Norfolk.

4. Maria Slater, 10, Milton Street, Halifax.

5. Charlotte E. Lloyd, Wrekin Cottage, Bellevue, Shrewsbury.

6. Charlotte M. Davidson, 4, Upper Camden Place, Bath.

7. Julia E. Brackenbury, Birch Rectory, Colchester.

8. Emily Susan Blenkin, Vicarage, Boston.

9. Charlotte A. Langley, 3, Mount Beacon, Bath.

Honourably mentioned :-George Parsons, Oliver P. Heywood. (Another competitor, whose initials are "M. D.," would also have been honourably mentioned for her excellent answers to Questions 8, 11, 12, but for her serious mistakes in answering 1, 4, 7.)

Of course it will be understood that some who are only honourably mentioned in Standard A might have taken a 1st or 2nd class had they competed in Standard B. On the other hand, No. 1 in the 1st class of B would have almost been in the 2nd class of A had he gone in for the higher standard, even with his answers to the eight questions only; and no doubt he could have given good answers to the other questions had he tried.

Eleven of the whole forty-six competitors competed last year, including the three highest, who, curiously enough, then stood in the same relative order, viz., 3, 6, 7, in the 1st class, all the others in that class being now absent. Of those in last year's 2nd class, one is now No. 5 in the 1st class; two are again in the 2nd class; one only gets honourable mention; and one has chosen Standard B, and stands there No. 2.

We now proceed to note some points of interest in the papers. Some of them are very good; but as a whole they are less strikingly so than last year. No competitor obtained three-fourths of the maximum marks. For this, however, we must take the blame to ourselves. The Questions, undoubtedly, are very hard to answer well in two hours. Several candidates who began by doing Questions 1 and 2 thoroughly well evidently found themselves crippled for time to do the rest. Standard A should have been restricted to eight or ten Questions, considering that each Question contains several within itself. Allowing for this, the fulness of knowledge and readiness of expression manifested are very remarkable.

We are not a little disappointed with the answers to Question 5. Only five or six can be said to grapple with it at all. We thought, after the complete and interesting set of specimens of languages given in the June number, that many candidates would have got up the subject thoroughly. But it is fair to say that most of the answers, though meagre, are correct as far as they go. There are but few blunders, such as that Tukudh is the language of the Afghan frontier, and Kinika that of the Diocese of Caledonia.

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Question 7 proved that the places coupled in it are more generally distinguished than we expected. About Ellore and Nellore, for instance, there is scarcely a single mistake. One writer puts the river Binue in N.W. America; another puts Freetown in N.W. America, and Jaffna in Japan; a third calls Mpwapwa a dialect of the N. Pacific Mission," Mamboia" a district near Lake Winnipeg," and Hang-Chow "a district on the river Che-Kiang, the principal station of Mr. Dening." Curiously enough this last candidate is the only one out of the whole number who rightly describes one Fort Simpson as on the Mackenzie River. The great majority know the Fort Simpson in British Columbia well, but are completely at sea about the other; and not one appears to know it as the chief station in the Diocese of Athabasca. We have been so much struck by this unexpected flaw in our friends' knowledge of a Mission generally so familiar as that in N.W. America, that we have reproduced in this present GLEANER a picture of the Fort Simpson in question (p. 35), and hope it will never be forgotten again. There is also a good deal of confusion about the three Chinese cities. Several imagine Fuh-Chow to be in Mid-China, and very few know Ku-Chow.

Question 6 is well answered on the whole; but almost everybody was puzzled with "Mala," the name of the low-caste people in the Telugu

country, mentioned both by Mr. Padfield in the September number, and by Mr. Cain in the August number, the latter in the very same article which tells the story of the Rev. I. V. Razu-which, to judge by these papers, was by far the most popular thing in the GLEANER of 1881. Only two give the correct explanation. One says, "a people in Ceylon"; another, "low-caste Japanese"; a third, "a language"; and several confuse the word with mela," and explain it as a Hindu festival. Among other odd mistakes in the answers to this Question are-oolikan, a vessel of the Esquimaux"; guru, another name for juju"; egugu, name of a tribe in Afghanistan"; "Shango, a house in China"; Mzungu, Satan or the god of money worshipped by Egbas."

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In answering Question 4, the Rev. I. V. Razu has been chosen by eighteen writers, Archdeacon Johnson by eleven, Archdeacon Crowther and the Rev. H. Gunasekara by nine each, the Rev. O Kwong-Yiao by six, the Rev. J. Quaker by two, and Bishop Crowther, the Rev. Madho Ram, and the Rev. S. Vores, by one each. One selects Bao, the Chinese catechist, who was not ordained. All these brethren, however, turn up many times in the answers to Questions 9 and 12-Razu especially, whose story is told in some form in almost every paper. One curious statement about Archdeacon Crowther is that he "had the living of Bonny presented to him."

Of the five pictures named in Question 8, that of the church at HongKong is described in twelve papers, the Diagram in eleven, Abeokuta in seven, and the Dhow and Metlakahtla in six each. In answering this Question several candidates threw away precious time. Not noticing the words "any one of," they described four or five. Of course no extra marks could be allowed them. The winners of the first and fourth prizes in Standard A, and of the first in Standard B, were among those who fell into this mistake. It is much to their credit that the time spent on their superfluous answers did not injure their position.

The answers to Question 10 adduce more testimonies than we had thought of when we framed the Question. Those of the following are mentioned:-Captain Brownrigg (named by almost all), Lord and Lady Ripon, Lord Dufferin, Miss Clay, Colonel Stewart, the Maharajah of Travancore, Miss Bird, Admiral Prevost, the Duke of Buckingham, the Governor of Lagos, the Chaplain to the Bishop of Madras, General Haig, Dr. Kirk, Lieutenant Cutfield, Bishop Sargent, and the Parliamentary Committee on West Africa in 1842. Almost the only mistakes in the references are a confusion in one or two cases between Miss Bird and Miss Clay.

On Question 9, the following instances are given of the enlightening power of the Word of God:-The "Two Converts through a Bible Society's Gift," the Chiefs of Okrika, D'Alrew, Abe Ngoa, Abe Gonja, Legaic, Quthray, Razu, Nunda Sirdar, Ngoi Kaik-Ki, Naomi Sukhli, Li-Min, Ahmed Tewfik, Bao, B. Cameron, Cow-hoe, Bishop Sargent's Bible Class, the Giriama Christians, the Metlakahtla Christiaus, Brass and Bonny.

On Question 12, the following instances are given of cheerfulness in trial-Li-Min, the Maoris of Ngawhakarana, Naomi Sukhli, O Kwong Yiao, Ahmed Tewfik, Bishops Horden and Ridley, and Messrs. Mackay, Pearson, and Lichfield. And the following instances of peace and hope in prospect of death:-Ram Ruttan, Legaic, Quthray, B. Cameron, Bao, Ting Ing-Soi, Ko (Ito's grandmother), D'Alrew, A. Gunasekara, Abe Gonja, Nunda Sirdar, Tang Tang-Pieng. Li-Min's touching story is noticed by twenty-one competitors. We trust they all pray for her, and for the other Christians of Great Valley. Indeed, one result of the study which has produced these excellent papers should be to deepen the interest of our friends in particular Missions and individual souls, and to give them many topics for thanksgiving and prayer. If this is so, even so humble an effort as the GLEANER Examination may be blessed of God beyond our utmost thought.

ANOTHER CANDIDATE'S EXPERIENCES. DEAR MR. EDitor,

Having seen in last year's GLEANER a candidate's experience of the Competitive Examination, I thought you might like to hear another candidate's experience of the Examination that has just taken place this year. And first let me say that whatever may be the result, the benefit to the candidates themselves is incalculable, as it increases their knowledge of the world they are living in to a remarkable extent, and gives them an intelligent interest in God's work in the world. Before I had thought of entering my name as a candidate, I had read the GLEANER monthly, but in a very different way from what I have read it since I made up my mind to go in for the Examination; for previously I read it for recreation, but now I read it with a real desire to know what is going on in the various parts of the world, and how Christ's kingdom is really progressing, through the efforts of the Church Missionary Society, and the result has been that my own stock of information has largely increased, not only as regards Mission work, but also in geography and the domestic economy of the nations of the world, many of which I only knew by name before-just that such people did exist, and nothing more. But above all, my faith has been strengthened in God's promises and in the

truth of His Word, which shall not return to Him void, by the wonderful tokens of His presence, and His blessing which He is vouchsafing to bestow on His own work in so many parts of the world.

And now for a few words as to the Examination itself. We were kindly invited by our local secretary to a social cup of tea previous to the Examination, which took place at his house from seven to nine on the evening of the 10th. We were very kindly received by himself and his wife, and after a pleasant half hour, chatting of Missions and Mission work, and the work of the evening in particular, we were conducted to the dining-room, where everything was in readiness, and business began. I heard a sigh or two as the question papers were given out, and those ladies who had previously competed afterwards agreed that the questions were far more difficult than last time. However, we set to work, and for some time nothing was heard but the scratching of pens on paper. Never, surely, did two hours pass so quickly, and when I had still five or six questions to answer, I was horrified to hear our secretary say, "Now, ladies, you have just a quarter of an hour more." My wits fled, and how I answered the remaining questions I know not; I fear I made many. mistakes. However, I did succeed in answering all the questions somehow, but may I make a suggestion, and that is, that on future occasions a little longer period may be allowed to those who answer all the questions, as I feel sure a little time for thinking would prevent many mistakes.

I hope that all the candidates may have derived as much benefit and blessing as I have done from this Examination, and that it will stir up the hearts of God's people to more warmth and zeal in fulfilling His last command. A. O.

IBADAN: THE REV. DANIEL OLUBI'S REPORT. BADAN is the great heathen town in the Yoruba country, where Mr. and Mrs. Hinderer laboured so long. For some years no English missionary has been able to visit it, owing to the country being closed by war. But the Native Pastor, the Rev. Daniel Olubi, faithfully works on in the midst of his flock of some 540 African Christians. In times of peace, letters ought to reach us from Ibadan in about a month; but Mr. Olubi's last report, dated March 18th, only arrived at the end of September:

OKE KUDETI, IBADAN, March 18th, 1881.

We are still amid the war difficulties, disappointments, and discouragements. Things are growing worse and worse through the continuation of it. It brings daily its diverse evils, and cannot be averted; and there is no prophet nowadays to predict the period of its termination. It is a great comfort to believe that our Jesus still reigns, that He is the Governor of the whole universe; directs and controls all events to serve his own blessed purpose. Although the Mission cannot extend or lengthen its cords as it was expected, yet it is preserved and protected in the midst of this trying time. Christians are not forced to go to war, or take any unlawful steps; but they are graciously kept within the blessed fold.

The

The pecuniary difficulty is still great. But I am truly happy to report that the converts generally have done what they can in the way of subscription for religious purposes.

On the 30th of April last year the church of the Oke Ogunpa station was blown down by the usual tornado. It was to be got up again by the end of the year. On the 21st ultimo, my fellow-workers and myself set to work at the repairs of that church. On the 26th we had completed the roofing or fixing up the materials. On the 28th the three congregations came, as they were told, with their subscriptions in food of all descriptions, cowries, and their own personal labour. On the 4th inst. the whole work was completed, to the cost of about £40, when carefully clculated. But, alas! that very day at evening, a heavy rain came with tornado which blew down the Aremo church. It is a trial sent in love from our kind Father to try the faith of the Ibadan Christians. We hope by His great goodness to raise it up again.

On the 5th November last year I visited our stations in the interior, Oyo, Ogbomoso, and Iseyin, and on December 8th returned home in safety. I am happy to report that the agents at each locality, to the best of their abilities, were doing well. I had eight children baptized at Ogbomoso. One of the most hard-hearted mothers was present, and gave remarkable attention throughout the service. She seemed convinced. We pray that it may please God to open her heart to receive the good message.

The next was Iseyin. I baptized two men and two infants. A backslider was reclaimed through the long patience of the catechist in charge, Mr. A. F. Foster. I was glad to see him kneel before the holy table to partake of the emblems of the dying love of Christ. He was one of the teachers in Abeokuta before my conversion in 1847, and taught me the alphabet. His father was a native of Iseyin, but he was born in Sierra Leone.

In the royal city (Oyo) I baptized a man of about thirty years, who was long tried and prepared for the same rite.

The Kudeti church is composed of old people, chiefly women, and is thinner and thinner by marriages, removals to other churches, and by deaths. Happily, we have not been visited by the latter as in others of our churches; but as a mother church she continually cherishes her sons with brides, which reduced the number in statistics to 126 for 1880. The Aremo congregation is 208, and at Oke Ogunpa the congregation is 110. The number at Oyo is 40; at Ogbomoso, 19; and at Iseyin, 43. The whole amount of money raised is DANIEL OLUBI. £22 178, 5d.