from that sacred Mount, came the blessed gift to the waiting disciples, the Holy Ghost, the Comforter, and the gift of tongues. St. Luke, the medical missionary, tells us that their labours were to begin at Jerusalem (Luke xxiv. 47).

We approached Jerusalem, not by the road usually taken by travellers from Jaffa, but from the south from Bethlehem, along the same road by which Joseph and Mary took the infant Saviour to present Him in the Temple. We had stayed to rest under some olive-trees on the summit of the hill, Mar Elias, where we had our first sight of the Holy City, when our old friends Mr. Zeller and Mr. Wolters rode up to welcome us to the scene of their labours. It was a day of brilliant sunshine, and the brightly coloured domes of church and mosque glittered before us as we approached. Truly "beautiful for situation, and the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion, the city of the Great King." It is rather difficult to refrain from a more full description of Jerusalem than it is the purpose of these lines to give; from other sources you must look for that. I want now to tell you a ltttle of what our Church Missionary Society is doing there.

The girls' school is in the very heart of the city, and is held in a part of the Native pastor's house We had to pick our way through many narrow dirty streets before we reached it, and the brightness and cleanliness of all within was as usual in striking contrast to the outer surroundings. The children looked happy, and are well taught. There are a good many Moslems and Greeks in attendance, as well as the children of the adult converts. The difference in creed does not cause so much fighting among the children in Jerusalem as in other more remote places, and therefore they can be taught together. The teachers, like most of our schoolmistresses in Syria, have been trained in the British Syrian schools at Beyrout.

Most of the converts live outside the city, in what is called the Protestant quarter, where the nice clean houses and neat gardens tell their own tale. The Mission church (St. Paul's) is here also; a handsome building, though the style is rather more suited to England than Palestine. The congregations are good and regular. All the services are in Arabic, as the English community go to Christ Church (within the city), where the service is English in the morning and evening, and German in the afternoon. The German deaconesses have a delightful girls' orphanage in the Protestant quarter, and all these girls come to the Mission church. Besides the usual services, there are prayer meetings every week in the house of one or other of the Native converts. Close to the church is a printing press, which is doing valuable work, and all over the country we met with the results of this institution, which supplies the needs of the scattered schools. Mr. Zeller manages this branch of the work entirely, and it is quite wonderful how little it costs.

The last day of our stay in Jerusalem arrived, and there was still very much to be seen and done. It was a hot, tiring day, but we must have one more walk through the ancient streets before saying good-bye. Every one seemed excited, and the story-loving natives were gathered in groups in the streets discussing the latest news, which told of the assassination of the Czar. So many Russians live in and around Jerusalem, that it was a matter of deeper personal interest there than might have been supposed. Russian pilgrims were flocking to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with little wax tapers in their hands, as we passed for the last time down the Via Dolorosa.

We had yet to see the most important part of our Society's work-the Diocesan boys' school. This is situated on Mount Zion, outside the city, and thither we were to go under Mr. Zeller's kind escort. Very thankful were we that donkeys had been provided for us after our long walk through the town, and thus mounted, we wound round the brow of the Mount till we reached the schools, which are near the Protestant burying

ground. Here, under Mr. Zeller's able guidance, promising young men are trained to be pastors, catechists, and schoolmasters for their countrymen. They live together in a simple family way, a Native teacher, Mr. Ibraham Baz, being in charge of the students when the English missionaries are not there. It is hoped that soon there may be a resident English tutor, as the work grows too much for the present staff to manage as well as they wish. It is so very much better that the natives should always be trained and educated in their own country than be sent to England, where the living and climate are so different, and sometimes seriously impair their usefulness when they return to work in their own land. Sierra Leone has its own Native College at Fourah Bay, with an English Principal, and the degrees conferred are given by the same rules and scholarship as in England. Why should not the Jerusalem Preparandi Class become in time a sister college?

In the Diocesan school sixty-four boys are boarded and taught. Many of them are orphans, and destitute but for the home provided for them here. The boys are taught trades, and we saw some at work in the shoemaking department. In every way they are taught to be vigorous and useful: indeed all the work required on the premises is done by these lads. The only pity is, that lack of funds keeps it on so small a scale. The comparative expense would be lessened, and the usefulness infinitely widened, were there one hundred instead of little more than half that number there. I ought to say that this school is also a nursery for the Preparandi College, and the education given is of a higher class than that in the ordinary day-schools, so the boys who are fitted for it easily pass from the one to the other.

Among the villages within easy distance of Jerusalem are many mission schools under the care of the missionaries at headquarters. Ramallah is one of the most interesting of these mission stations. Here a little church has just been built at the very moderate cost of £180, and Mr. Nyland, a catechist, labours most devotedly and successfully. There is a good boys' and girls' school, with master and mistress, and the average congregation is one hundred. Taiyibeh, the ancient Ophrah, is another of these outposts where a good work is going on through the medium of schools. From many other villages come appeals for help, for teachers and schools, and it is to be ardently hoped that soon we may be able to respond to the call.

Some may think that the agencies at work in Jerusalem itself are few and small, but it must be remembered that others are working in this field and thus relieving our hands. The Jews' Society, the German Deaconesses, and others, strengthen and help in the work, though not officially connected with us in any way. And the medical work is not by any means the least important.

Jerusalem, now trodden under foot of the Gentiles, degraded, and practically heathen, is a depressing and saddening sight. But what was it in our Lord's day? Though with much outward prosperity and magnificence, the Temple still standing, was it not then the scene of the bitterest and cruelest persecution? Treachery, false witness, baseness unparalleled were rife, and the blackest crime the world ever saw found its completion here. Yet for this place a time of glory is promised, far surpassing that of the days of David or Solomon, when the despised Nazarene shall return as its King, and reign for ever and ever. "Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

NOTE. I should like to take this opportunity, if I may, of alluding to a work which was undertaken in Gaza nearly ten years ago by Mr. D. D. Pritchett. He, as a volunteer missionary, travelled in various parts of the Holy Land, and was the first to open the schools and dispensary in Gaza. These were supported by Mr. Pritchett and his friends until the C.M.S. felt able to extend its work so far. We must all gladly acknowledge the debt we owe to Mr. Pritchett's pioneer work; for though not directly under the auspices of the C.M.S., it was strengthening our hands in a weak spot, and preparing the way for us. L. H. H. T.

THE STORY OF THE LIFE OF DR. KRAPF, The Pioneer-Missionary of East Africa.

TOLD BY HIMSELF.

II.-LIFE IN ABYSSINIA.

Y ultimate destination was Adowa, the capital of Tigre, and seat of the Abyssinian Mission conducted by my friends Isenberg and Blumhardt. Reaching Malta from Marseilles I embarked in an Austrian sailing vessel for Alexandria, and when off Candia a storm arose of greater violence than our captain declared he had experienced for forty years. Unaccustomed as I was to the sea I consoled myself with the thought that the greatest of all missionaries, the apostle Paul, had been exposed to similar peril in those waters and had been preserved by the mercy of God. I cast myself on His protecting power with child-like and trusting prayer, which so strengthened me that I was enabled to sustain my terrified fellow-voyagers, among whom was a French actress, greatly, by reading aloud the narrative of the prophet Jonah, and of the disciples of our Lord when they were in danger on the Sea of Galilee. The impression produced by the Word of God in the hour of need on one of my fellow-voyagers was first made known to me thirteen years afterwards. When I was residing in London in 1850 after my first return from Africa, a gentleman one day entered my room and, addressing me, said: "Do you remember that storm on our way to Alexandria, and your reading out of the Word of God to your fellow-voyagers?" I answered in the affirmative, and the stranger, who had been a doctor of laws at Malta, then told me that after his return from Egypt he had procured a Bible, and feeling the power of the gospel on his heart, he had been impelled to hold prayer-meetings in Malta, which had brought upon him persecution at the hands of the Romish priests, and forced him to leave that island, from whence he had come to England.

Proceeding from Alexandria to Cairo I was hospitably received at the latter place by the missionaries Kruse and Lieder, with whom I remained until September, preparing for my Abyssinian journey chiefly by the study of colloquial Arabic, in which I made such progress during those few months that in the autumn I was able to continue my journey without an interpreter. From Cairo to Suez there was in those days neither road, public conveyance, nor railway, and I travelled Arab fashion on a camel.

From Suez I sailed in an Arabian vessel to Jidda, one of the most flourishing ports of the Red Sea, with large, lofty, and solid houses, and many rich inhabitants, which, since the English occupation of Aden, has thriven by the Arabian and Indian trade, while Mokha has declined. I was at first much struck by the Arabian practice of halting on the voyage during the night, and lying-to in some haven or anchoring-place; but was soon convinced of the necessity of the step, which is caused partly by the many rocks in the Red Sea, partly and chiefly by the unskilfulness of the Arab sailors, which is, indeed, so great, that it is always hazardous to trust one's self in an Arabian vessel. I have had good reason to note that fact in my many voyages during eighteen years on both shores of the Red Sea, as well as on the south coast of Arabia, and on the east shores of Africa, as far as the tenth degree of southern latitude, for often have I been in danger of shipwreck and destruction.* Reaching Jidda in twenty-two days, I embarked thence for Massowa, an island and chief seaport of the Abyssinian coast, where I arrived in December, 1837, and I received an escort to conduct me to the Abyssinian frontier. The entry into Abyssinia had a singular effect on me; the bracing air which I was breathing on a height 6,000 feet above the sea, the noble prospect eastward and westward, the consciousness of being again in a country, Christian, it may be only in name, the thought that I should soon be at the end of my long and toilsome journey, and reach the place in which I was to labour for the kingdom of God, all combined to raise my spirits in an extraordinary degree.

Soon after my arrival in Adowa I accompanied my friends Isenberg and Blumhardt to pay a visit to Ubie, the Prince of Tigre, who received me very kindly, and gave me promises of protection, which were not kept. The priests and chief men of Tigre disliked the Protestant mission, partly from bigotry, partly from unsatisfied greed. Before my arrival Isenberg,

* During the eighteen years Dr. Krapf made no less than fifty distinct voyages in vessels of various kinds.

the senior of the mission, had begun to build a new house which he thought necessary. In digging for the foundation and for building materials a deep excavation was made, and the enemies of the Mission asserted that we were making a subterranean passage, through which English soldiers and guns were to be brought for the conquest of Abyssinia. But the ultimate cause of our expulsion was the arrival of two Frenchmen, the brothers D’Abbadie, accompanied by two Roman Catholic priests. The hostility of the latter strengthened the hands of the chief priest of Adowa, who requested from Ubie the expulsion of the Protestant missionaries, and the retention of the Roman Catholics, these having asserted that they were of the same family of Christians as the Abyssinians themselves. We might have remained had we chosen to offer the priest a present greater than that which he had received from the Roman Catholics; but such a course we deemed an unworthy one, and after a residence of scarcely two months, I had to quit the land in which I would so willingly have striven to spread the Gospel.

It was in the March of 1838 that we quitted Adowa, reaching Massowa in safety. There we took counsel as to our future movements, and Isenberg and Blumhardt resolved on returning to Cairo to await the decision of the Committee in London. I determined on penetrating to the Christian kingdom of Shoa, whose friendly ruler, Sahela Selassie, had formerly sent a messenger to Isenberg inviting him to visit his dominions. Proceeding with my friends to Jidda, I sailed thence in a Persian ship to Mokha. Severe illness, however, compelled my return to Cairo, and it was not until the early spring of 1839 that I reached, in the company of my fellow-labourer, Isenberg, my new starting-point, Tajurra, which lies in a great plain on the shore of a beautiful bay stretching inward from the village itself, and separating the countries of the Somali and the Adal.

I was detained nearly four weeks at Tajurra, negotiating the cost of transport with the natives. At last on the 27th of April, 1839, we set forth, and I was about to become personally acquainted with the country which I had found so barren and empty in the map in my boyhood. As we penetrated the Adal desert we suffered much from heat and want of water, and saw few human beings or habitations. Besides gazelles and ostriches there were few wild animals; yet once we were disturbed by elephants, of which camels are dreadfully afraid. On the 29th of May we crossed the river Hawash and bivouacked in the open air on its woody bank, where there are many wild beasts. While we were all asleep, even the watchers, a hyæna glided so near our resting-places that we might have grasped it with our hands. No foreigner is allowed either to enter or quit Shoa without the permission of the king. When the requisite permission had arrived we began to traverse the hill-region of Shoa on the 2nd of June, and on the 3rd we ascended the lofty mountain on which lies the capital, Ankober.

On the 7th of June we had an audience of the king, Sahela Selassie, who gave us a very friendly reception, and to whom we explained the purely religious purpose of our mission. He promised to give us in accordance with our request six boys to educate; but afterwards retracted his word, on the pretext that he did not need spiritual teachers so much as doctors, masons, smiths, &c. On the 12th of November Isenberg left us with the intention of returning to Cairo and Europe, to prepare Amharic works for the press, and to superintend the printing of them in London. His departure made a very sad impression on me, then the only surviving missionary in Shoa. I then began to learn the Galla language, in the hope of visiting as soon as possible a people so widely spread in Africa, and of founding a Mission among them. As the Romanist missionary said, "Give us China, and Asia is ours;" so may we say, "Give us the Gallas, and Central Africa is ours." From the commencement of my residence in Shoa I made particular inquiries respecting everything connected with the Gallas, their religious notions, manners, and customs, their geographical extension, &c., and I accompanied the king on several military expeditions against the tribes in the South. During these expeditions I became acquainted with high and low in Shoa and Efat, and often addressed large numbers of men touching the Word of God and other edifying matters, besides obtaining great practice in the Amharic language, and being able to observe closely the ways of the Shoan population. Of course, my connection with the king's expeditions did not arise out of a hostile or martial spirit, but simply from a wish to

become acquainted with regions partly unknown, and mainly to promulgate the Gospel among the thousands of soldiers whom the king takes with him in these expeditions, which he is in the habit of undertaking in January, June, and October, to levy the tribute due by the Gallas, and to make further conquests.

The mass of the population of Shoa is Christian after the form of the Coptic Church in Egypt, on which, as is well known, the Abyssinian Church is dependent. In the east, however, there are many Mohammedans, and in the south, tribes of heathen Gallas, subject to the ruler of Shoa. The Coptic patriarch

in Egypt has been since about A.D. 1280 in the habit of nominating the chief bishop of Abyssinia, who is styled Abuna, "Our father." This prelate ordains all priests and deacons; he also consecrates the king and governs the church by the aid of the Echege, the supreme head of the monks, who are very numerous and influential. Those who wished to be ordained must be able to read and to repeat the Nicene Creed, whereupon the Abuna breathes on the candidate, laying on hands, blesses him, and bestows on him the sign of the cross, receiving then two pieces of salt as ordination fees. duties of the priest are to baptize, to adminster the Eucharist, and on Sundays to read and sing the long litanies for three or four hours. They must also know by rote all the psalms and the book of hymns-a task which occupies many years. Preaching is not commanded and is seldom heard in Abyssinia.

The

The Abyssinians possess the Old and New Testament in the old Ethiopic, and in the Amharic or popular idiom as well; the former version being ascribed to Frumentius, who was ordained Bishop of Ethiopia by St. Athanasius in 331, and is said to have first preached the Gospel in the city of Axum. In a general way, they are acquainted with the chief truths of the Bible, with the Trinity, and the nature and the attri

it is maintained by many that she died for the sins of the world and saved 144,000 souls! In the Abyssinian point of view the means to expiate sin are almsgiving, fasting, monastic vows, and reading, or rather gabbling, the Psalms, &c.

No Christian people upon earth are so rigid in their fasting as the Abyssinians. They fast, in all, nine months out of the twelve; every Friday and Wednesday throughout the year, then again forty days before Easter, twenty-five days after Trinity, fourteen days in August, twenty-five days before Advent, and on other occasions. Yet, in spite of

butes of God; with the creation, the fall of man and his redemption by Christ; with the Holy Ghost, the angels, the Church, the sacraments, the resurrection and the last judgment; with rewards and punishments, and everlasting life and torment; but all these articles are so blended with, and obscured by merely human notions that they exert little influence on the heart and life. The mediatorial function of Christ, for instance, is darkened and limited by a belief in the many saints who, as in the Romish and Greek churches, must mediate between the Mediator and man. Especially a great office is assigned to the Virgin Mary, of whom

this, and of a close conformity to the outward observances of a severe ritual, the woeful departure from the pure teaching of the Gospel and a complete absence of culture and knowledge have produced, generally and individually, a sad social condition in Abyssinia. Immorality is the order of the day, the king and his five hundred wives leading the way with a bad example. He actually wished for an English princess to consolidate his alliance with Great Britain! Slavery, too, has done much to demoralise the Christians of Shoa. Christians, indeed, are not allowed to export slaves, but they may import them for their own use.

By the beginning of 1842 I found that my missionary residence in Ankober had been far from unfruitful; for I had distributed 1,000 copies of the Scriptures, and many of the priests of Shoa had been awakened to a knowledge of the truth, and to a consciousness of the corrupt state of their church. My little school of ten boys, whom I fed, clothed, and educated at home, was prospering. The king had bestowed on me a silver sword, which gave me the rank of a governor. At the period mentioned I had thoughts of no longer confining my activity to the Christians of Shoa, but of establishing several missions among the heathen Gallas, but the receipt of intelligence that my new fellow-labourers, Mühleisen-Arnold and Müller,

had arrived at Tajurra, and found great difficulties thrown by the Adals in the way of their further progress to Shoa, induced me to proceed to the coast rather than to the interior, in order to facilitate the journey of my friends. I had besides a personal interest which impelled me to this journey, the intention of marrying Rosine Dietrich, a maiden lady of Basel, who had been betrothed to missionary Kühnlein, who died. In leaving Europe I had no idea of marriage, but experience in Abyssinia convinced me that an unmarried missionary could not eventually prosper.

(To be continued.)