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THE CHURCH MISSIONARY GLEANER.

MISSIONARY ALMANACK.

2.14 p.m.

F. Q. 9th.... 6.38 p.m.

September.

SEPTEMBER, 1883.

F. M. 16th.... 9.41 p.m. L. Q. 23rd....12.51 p.m.

THE FAITHFULNESS AND TRUTH OF GOD. 1S A God of truth, Deu. 32. 4. The faithful God, Deu. 7. 9.

[Is. 25. 1. 2S 15th aft. Trin. Thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth, M. 2 Ki. 18. 1 Cor. 12. 1-28. E. 2 Ki. 19, or 23. 1-31. Mk. 6. 1-14.

3 M Bp. Bowen con., '57. O send out Thy light and Thy truth, Ps. 43.3. 4 T 1st freed slaves rec. Frere Town, 1875. That they might know 5 WI am the Truth, Jo. 14. 6. [Thee the only true God, Jo. 17. 3. 6 The only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, Jo. 1. 14. 7 F Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness. Rev. 1, 5. When the Spirit of Truth is come, He will guide you into all [truth, Jo. 16. 13. 16th aft. Trin. This is the true God, and eternal life, 1 Jo. 5. 20. M. 2 Chr. 36. 2 Cor. 1. 1-23. E. Neh. 1 & 2. 1-9, or 8. Mk. 9. 30.

8 S

9 S

10 M A good thing...to show forth Thy faithfulness every night, Ps.92.1. 11T French and Stuart sailed for India, 1850. Lead me in Thy truth, 12 W Mercy and truth shall go before thy face, Ps. 89. 14. [Ps. 25. 5. 13 T All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, Ps. 25.10. [5.20. 14 F 1st bapt. in N. Z., 25, and on Niger, 62. In Him that is true, 1 Jo. 15 S God is faithful, by whom ye were called to the fellowship of [His Son, 1 Co. 1. 9. 16 S 17th aft. Trin. Ember Wk. I will walk in Thy truth, Ps. 86. 11.

M. Jer. 5. 2 Cor. 8. E. Jer. 22 or 35. Mk. 13. 14.

17 M The King of heaven, all whose works are truth, Dan. 4. 37. 18 T In Thy faithfulness answer me, Ps. 143. 1.

19 W Bp. Crowther captured at Idda, 1867. Let Thy truth continually 20 T His truth shall be thy shield, Ps. 91. 4. [preserve me, Ps. 40. 11. 21 F St. Matthew. Faithful is He that calleth you, 1 Th. 5. 24. 22 S Bps. Stuart and Sargent's 1st ord., 1878. I have not hid Thy [truth from the great congregation, Ps. 40. 10. 23 S 18th aft. Trin. I will not suffer My faithfulness to fail, Ps. 89. 33. M. Jer. 36. Gal. 2. E. Ez. 2, or 13. 1–17. Lu. 1. 26-57.

24 M J. T. Tucker d., 1866. I have declared Thy faithfulness, Ps. 40. 10. 25 T Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me, Ps. 119. 75.

26 W Bp. Wm. Williams ord, 1824. With my mouth will I make known 27 T Thy word is truth, Jo, 17. 7. [Thy faithfulness, Ps. 89. 1. 28 F 1st C.M.S. bapt. in China, 1851. Sanctify them thro' Thy truth, [Jo. 17. 17. 29 S St. Mich. and all Angels. (The angel) saith unto me, These are [the true sayings of God, Rev. 19. 9. 30 S 19th aft. Trin. There hath not failed one word of all His good [promise, 1 K. 8. 56. M. Ez. 14. Eph. 1. E. Ez. 18, or 24. 15. Lu. 4. 16.

MORE JERSEY BREEZES.

VIII. Our Daily Difficulties.

"Touched with the feeling of our infirmities."-Heb. iv. 15. ELIGION does not alter temperament. The grave will not grow gay, nor the gay grave, because of the new-felt influence. And yet to awake to the truth and beauty of life is to experience a change as great and striking as that between new and old, between light and darkness, or even between life and death. Allowing this, how is it that times pass over us when our day grows dark and dreary? Why do causes so trivial trouble the spirit's peace and mar the health of the countenance? Let us search out some of the reasons for our nameless depression. It should be discouraged. It clogs the soul and belies our best resolutions. To discover the extent of an evil is also to define its limits.

To many, the weather is a spell more powerful than they care to allow. Pitiless rain, impenetrable fog, drifting snow, make their heart weary and their hands hang down. They then take refuge in any excuse for petulance or moody listlessness. Yet our command is-Rejoice in the Lord alway. It may help us to remember how the rain is rejoiced over in the Bible, as one of the Lord's choicest blessings. Without it, where would be the merry streams, the freshing fountains, and the glassy lakes? Is it not pleasant to reflect that all things wherein is life may drink of the crystal drops of the River of God, which is full of

water? In the arid desert or the parched pasture-land, traveller and shepherd would give much for the good gift which is making us querulous and sad. Again, our "rainy day" in the physical or the moral world is, to multitudes, a day of sunshine. While we sit brooding within, children are chasing gay butterflies among sweet flowers, and happy birds sing as they soar through the cloudless ether. Let us look more on "the things of others." A light of duty shines on every day for all. Let us look up for guidance; back to count our Ebenezers; around to see into whose life we can pour salve, or send a ray of help and comfort; let us, especially, look forward, for to us the end of all things is at hand, and in the grave there is no more work for head or heart. A cheerful temper is a constant hymn to God, and "He meeteth him that rejoiceth" amid circumstances the reverse of enlivening. Once we believe our Heavenly Father to "know best," our daily difficulties will vanish as dew. If things went smoothly, where would be life's discipline?

For some of us it may be found in the trying tastes and tempers of those who dwell with us and whom we dearly love. When no tender cause draws out our real feeling, how apt we are to forget that a soft answer turneth away wrath, and that grievous words stir up anger. There is a Divine Peacemaker

who loves to make men to be of one mind in a house. To Him let us open our grief. Is one of our senses impaired—one of our limbs fractured? Has some keen personal affliction brought us very low? The "all things" which work together for our good are of many a shape and hue. Let us contrast the trials of others with our own. "How much worse it might have been" is true philosophy. And we shall find "cheerfulness and gratitude to God unfailing averters of mischiefs." We shall wish by-and-by that we had trusted Him more and grieved His Spirit less. How easy to preach, how hard to practise!

The difficulties of the Gospel missionary must be legion, his trials well-nigh overwhelming. Yet there is always help in looking up. Those who are strong in the Lord and in the power of His might shall overcome. Every formidable stone of hindrance shall be "rolled away just at the right moment. Who could enumerate life's difficulties, or number the ways and means by which they are conquered? Enough has been said to enable us who sympathise to grasp the right hand of fellowship, and cheer each other as we breast the rugged hill. It is "to him that overcometh" that every grand gift is promised. Let us take courage; let us lessen our troubles by sweet humility. And hereafter, we, who understand the loving kindness of the Lord, shall have learnt how to praise Him even for our difficulties. A. M. V.

THE BISHOP OF LAHORE IN PERSIA.

N the GLEANER of July last year there was a deeply interesting narrative, by Dr. Bruce, of the C.M.S. Mission in Persia. We should like our readers to look back to that number and refresh their memories; and then we are sure they will rejoice to read the letter we now print from Bishop French, of Lahore, describing his recent visit to that country.

Members of the Church of England in foreign countries where there is no Anglican Bishop are regarded as under the episcopal care of the Bishop of London. It is he, for instance, who licences English chaplains at Paris and other places on the Continent. The Church Missionary Society, therefore, being aware that the Bishop of Lahore was about to come to England, and having ascertained that he would be willing to pay a visit to

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Persia on the way; applied to the Bishop of London to give him a commission to perform episcopal duties while there for the C.M.S. Mission; and as the Diocese of Lahore is the nearest Anglican diocese to Persia, its Bishop seemed the most suitable man for the purpose. The Bishop of London readily concurred, and Dr. French accordingly went from Karachi, at the mouth of the Indus, to Bushire on the Persian Gulf, and thence by Shiraz and over the mountains to Ispahan. Dr. Bruce and Dr. Hoernle, our two missionaries, are at Julfa, the Armenian suburb of that city. Bishop French writes as follows:

I spent full sixteen days in Ispahan. The visit to our beloved friends and brethren has been most refreshing and cheering to myself, though it coincided with an outbreak of rather unusual opposition on the part of the great Sheikh, who has naturally been alarmed and aggravated by finding that the disposition grows to hear and receive the Word of Godespecially in the way of purchasing books-and he has tried to presume on his importance and ecclesiastical rank by attempting to forbid the sale of Bibles, as well as that of Dr. Pfander's books. He has, however, acted beyond his power in this matter; moreover, Islam itself is not united in the opposition to the Bible, and even in Ispahan city, men of not less rank and influence than the Sheikh will take no part in stopping Bible sales, as likely to tend rather to bring Mohammedanism to disgrace and discomfiture.

The work among the Persians at Ispahan in the way of conversation and discussion was not so interesting as at Shiraz, perhaps. Mullahs and inquirers came; in twos and threes sometimes; but not, as is sometimes the case, in swarms. There were Jews, Babis, Mohammedans, whether Soofies or others.

Dr. Bruce is, for the present, declining to receive inquirers to baptism till he has fullest proof of them that they will not deny Christ, if crossquestioned. The whole history of the Babi sect, as well as that of the

early Persian Church, shows that perhaps no people is better able to add to the martyr-rolls, if conviction be deep and strong enough, and one feels assured that time, and God's grace, and the tendency of the Governknotty question by degrees, and we must wait on in faith and patience, ment to yield to the growing cry for religious liberty, will solve this in prayer and steady labour.

Meantime, inquiry appears to me almost more genuinely alive than in India. More mullahs and moojtahids seem nearer to yielding their longer space of time, in India. The sale of Bibles I have seen, and fearhearts to the Saviour than I have seen in the same space, and much less, open acceptance of them, by mullahs especially, has astonished me.

Dr. Bruce thinks that my visit to Ispahan has made, for the present at least, a marked difference in the relations of the Armenian bishop and priests to our Church Missions. The Bishop and some of his brethren were most courteous and civil. We dined at the Bishop's, and he dined with us; and many interesting questions were started as subjects of conversation. I tried, in preaching and otherwise, to explain the position which, in the main, your Society and our Church at large (the late Archbishop, among others) have desired to see maintained among these Churches and people.

The confirmation of sixty-seven persons was held on Friday, May 18th, before a large congregation; and the ordination of Minas to the diaconate on Trinity Sunday, before a crowded church. The interest felt was clearly great. I preached on both occasions at length in Persian; and I can only praise God that my long and never-discontinued studies of Persian, from my first entrance on the missionary work in India, have qualified me, beyond my expectation, to preach and converse in that language. I owe yourselves and the Committee, under God, more thanks than I can express, for furnishing me with this privileged opportunity of being the Church's representative and yours,-my Master's, I trust, most of all. All along the road from Bushire to this place God has been pleased to meet me, and put a word in my mouth to speak for Him.

I have a very excellent catechist with me, in the Bible Society's employ,

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OVER THE WATER.

BY EVELYN R. GARRATT.

CHAPTER IX.-THE "SHADOW OF DEATH." ASIE took some time in making up her mind as to whether she was willing to give up her Sunday afternoons to teach the infant-class, about which Mr. Bennett had spoken.

In order to help her to come to some definite conclusion, she argued over the subject several times with Netta. "It must be such a tie," she said one Sunday as Netta stood for a moment by the fire, putting on her gloves, before venturing out into the cold.

"Of course it is, but so is everything that you undertake to do regularly and conscientiously."

"I believe you really enjoy your class, Netta, and never wish to stay at home when the time comes."

Netta turned her eyes from the bright fire by which Sasie was kneeling, and looked out at the cold wintry sky with a smile.

"On snowy and rainy days I must confess often to have looked somewhat longingly at the fire, and have sometimes felt utterly disinclined to turn out. But I would not give up my class for anything; you have no idea, Sasie, what an interest and pleasure it is. And I expect everything that is worth doing costs one a little trouble."

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Well, anyhow, I am glad I'm not in your shoes to-day," remarked Sasie, as she poked the fire into a pleasant blaze. "It would take a great deal to make me turn out on a day like this; and yet it is no use undertaking to do any work unless you mean to persevere in it through thick and thin. I should despise myself if I were to stay away from a class just because it was wet or cold."

"It is not much to do or to give up for such a Master," said Netta, thoughtfully. "I am ashamed to think that I ever feel disinclined to do His work."

"And yet how astonishingly difficult even small acts of self-denial are -at least they are to me," said Sasie. "Even being asked in the middle of one of Beethoven's sonatas to look for aunt's spectacles last night irritated me. In fact anything that is not exactly according to my taste at the moment I find a real effort to do."

"I know how difficult it is myself." "Well, if you do, you manage at all events to hide it; perhaps I shall find it easier by-and-by. But-—”

"Well?"

"I was going to say that I don't believe I am good enough to undertake any special work, or have the right to think of doing it; it is not as if I were good or consistent in my home life."

"As for not being good, why none of us are, and the person who considered herself so would, I should think, be the last one fitted to teach. I think we teach because we have learnt something of the sinfulness of our own hearts, and something of the Love of God that cleanseth us from our sin, and alone can give us strength to resist it, and want others to know it too. The knowledge of sin in ourselves makes us long to tell others in Whom we have found help and forgiveness."

"But would it not be setting myself up as better than other people? It would be almost saying, 'I am better and wiser than you, and I feel myself fitted to teach you.''

"No, Sasie, it is as much as saying, 'I am weak and sinful like you, and have found out how impossible it is to fight against sin and Satan in my own strength; but God, Who has helped me, will help you.”” "I see; but, unfortunately, the world in general does not look at it in that light."

"I don't think that matters, so long as God sees our motives and approves of them."

"But then, Netta, as I said before, I am not consistent in my home life, and it seems so hypocritical to preach what you do not practise."

"Yes, but you will not lead your class to think you are perfect. I think it helps them to know that you have the same temptations as they have, and that you are fighting in the same battle side by side with them, instead of merely standing by and looking on. And I expect you will find that teaching will help you to live a more consistent life. The thought of my Sunday-class has often helped me to resist sin. Mrs. Lancaster would be pleased to think of you teaching, Sasie," added Netta after a pause.

"Oh, don't talk of Nona," said Sasie, giving the fire a vigorous poke; "I want to get the thought of her out of my head, so that I may teach from a right motive, and for God alone. But," added Sasie, with a sigh, "it seems as if it would be such a dreadful responsibility, and, as you know, I can't bear responsibility of any kind."

"Yes, the thought of that weighs upon me sometimes very heavily. But then you know, Sasie, the mere fact of living is a responsibility, and whether we care to look it in the face or not, we cannot get rid of the fact. I think we often forget this; we turn away from work which God would have us do, because we dread the responsibility of undertaking it, when probably the responsibility is increased tenfold by refusing it. I think what we need to remember is that we are not working alone, but that the Lord Jesus shares the care with us."

"I don't believe that I ever realised till this moment that life itself is a responsibility," said Sasie, thoughtfully. "It seems to me that I have been living in a dream all these twenty-one years."

"It was just the same with me," said Netta. "I had imagined the world to be a kiud of fairyland, where we might spend our days in as much pleasure as we could manage to secure, and I fancied that every one lived as happily and comfortably as I did myself in our dear little village. I awoke to find it was anything but the fairyland I had imagined, and that all around there were people hungering for human sympathy, while I had been too engrossed in my own dreams to think of them."

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Netta," said Sasie, after a pause, "I am rather ashamed of saying it, for I know how utterly selfish it is, but I almost dread to find my fairyland vanishing, and would much rather shut my eyes to all that is sad and sinful. Now I know that people who try to do a little good in the world see and hear things that I would rather not know or think of."

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Yes, you cannot go about the world blindfold, any more than a doctor can go through the wards of a hospital without seeing the suffering of the patients. Those who want to do God's work must, I think, be prepared for that, and willing to suffer. What would have become of the sick in body and soul in our Lord's time if He had refused to attend to their cry for healing, because of their pain and misery making Him sad? And yet being holy, what agony He must have endured at the sight of them! But I must be going, or I shall be late."

That afternoon Sasie came to a decision, and determined to see Mr. Bennett the following day to tell him that she would gladly take the class of infants he had spoken of. And from that day Sasie became willing to let her day-dreams vanish, and prayed that God would give her the love and sympathy with others, that would enable her, at whatever cost, to "Stretch out a loving hand

To wrestlers with the troubled sea."

Sasie learnt afterwards that the joy of helping one such wrestler was worth all her happy day-dreams put together.

She felt far happier when she had come to the above decision, and after seeing the rector, made her way to Mr. North at a brisk pace.

On entering the baker's shop she saw at a glance that something had gone wrong. Two or three neighbours, with Mrs. Caston, were standing round Jessie, who was sobbing with her apron up to her eyes.

"Is any one hurt, or ill ?" asked Sasie, anxiously.

Why yes, miss; I'm sorry to say that Miss Venning has had a dreadful accident. Thrown out of the carriage, Jessie tells me, and taken up for dead."

"Dead!" exclaimed Sasie, turning pale.

"Speak up, Jessie, and tell Miss Ogilvie about it. She saw it happen you see, miss, and it has unnerved her. We could hardly get a word out of her at first, she was all of a tremble, that she was. But you look bad yourself, miss; take a chair, won't you? Sasie, to whom the shock had been great, was only too thankful to avail herself of the offer.

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"Tell me which Miss Venning it is ?" she asked of Jessie, whose sobs were growing less.

"Miss Ella, miss. I was in High Street when I saw Dr. Venning's phaeton coming down the hill and Miss Ella in it, looking as pale as death. The horse looked just mad, and as it passed the chemist's the wheel caught in a lamp-post and Miss Venning was thrown out."

Sasie covered her eyes with her hand and inwardly groaned. The

thought of Ella Venning being called away to meet her God so suddenly without the slightest preparation was an awful one.

"And they say she was picked up for dead," added Jessie with a sob. "I must go down at once to the house to hear if it is all really true," said Sasie, rising quickly as a faint hope crossed her mind that the report was exaggerated.

The door was opened by the young housemaid, who looked scared and fale. "Come in, miss. Oh, yes, it's all true. It's been an awful accident, and Miss Ella is lying between life and death."

"Still alive? Thank God," murmured Sasie. "How did it happen ?" "Miss Venning drove with the master this morning to Little Oaks, and as they were coming home he went in for a moment to see old Mr. Minton, who is taken bad again. And Jacobs the butcher boy, who saw it all, says that one of them steam-roller things was coming slowly up the lane behind. They did not see that master's carriage was so near, or that the noise was exciting the horse, but he got restive, and though Miss Ella tried to hold him in, off it bolted all the way home, and Miss Ella was thrown out just across the road. Poor dear mistress seems as if it had downright stunned her."

The servant said truly; Mrs. Venning not only looked stunned, but felt it, and no one knew what she suffered during the next few days while her pretty Ella lay between life and death. She wandered up and down the house with pale lips, and with a look almost of agony in her eyes, for her child's broken sentences, which reached her distinctly in the little dressingroom which opened out of Ella's bedroom, almost broke her heart.

Mrs. Venning was more often in the dressing-room than with Ella, for in her times of consciousness the girl seemed to cling to her sister rather than to her mother.

"Wasted, wasted," she would hear her murmur. "Oh, Bea, if I die, mind you live; don't have the agony of a wasted life to think of. How can I meet God ?"

Beatrice, hoping to comfort her, reminded her of her Sunday-school class. "You were much better than I," she said with a sob, “for you yielded at once to mother's wish about it, while I rebelled, and the Bible says, 'God is not unrighteous that He will forget your work, and labour that proceedeth of love." "

"Ah! but that is just it. There was no love in the work; I simply undertook it to avoid an argument on the subject, and I imagined all the while that I was very good and unselfish. I ought never to have undertaken the work. Mother should not have asked me; I wasn't fit." "Dear Ella, don't talk like that."

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Oh, but I must. When one is near eternity everything looks so different.

I see now what a hypocrite I have been. I wish I had been told"Told what, dear?"

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'Why, that of all things it is important to be true, and that God's work cannot be done by just any one. How could I teach when I had not learnt? But mother-oh, poor mother! she little knows what harm she has done me, and she must never know.”

But she did know, for sitting in the dressing-room every word had reached her, and pierced her heart like an arrow. She saw now how she had begun at the wrong end-expecting the fruit before the plant had even taken root. She felt another word would break her heart, and so was rising to go when once more she heard Ella's restless voice.

"I think, Bea, we should have been taught to love before we were expected to work; but I don't remember mother ever telling us of God's love, only of our duty to Him."

Mrs. Venning covered her face in her hands and groaned. A moment's pause and the faint voice began again.

"What have I done with my life? I can think of nothing but hours spent in mere selfish pleasure. I have not been living, but dreaming. Oh, Bea dear, don't dream your life away too. Pray God to teach you to live and love."

The following day Beatrice wrote to Mr. Bennett, saying she intended to give up her class. "I feel," she wrote, "that I must learn myself

before I can teach others."

WILD FLOWERS FOR C.M.S.-At a recent meeting for C.M.S. at Stanton Drew, near Bristol, a poor woman handed in 17s. 8d., the proceeds of one month's sale of wild flowers.

SOMETHING ABOUT KRISHNAGAR. RISHNAGAR is a town and district in Bengal, sixty miles north of Calcutta. There are two remark. able places in the district: Plassey, where Clive won the famous battle from which dates the British supremacy in India, on June 23rd, 1757; and Nuddea, an old seat of Hindu learning, sometimes called the Oxford of Bengal. But its missionary history is more interesting to the readers of the GLEANER. The C.M.S. planted a Mission there in 1831, and, two years after, thirty persons were baptized. Although they were much persecuted, many others joined them; and in 1838 the benevolence of Christian people to the sufferers from a famine led to an extensive movement in favour of Christianity. Some 3,000 persons placed themselves under instruction, and when Bishop Daniel Wilson of Calcutta visited the district in 1839, no less than 900 converts were baptized on one occasion. But these people were mostly poor labourers, and with but little knowledge; and as that generation passed away it was followed by another consisting largely of people who had been baptized in infancy, and were only Christians in name, just like so many thousands in England. In after years many excellent missionaries laboured among them, such as the late Rev. C. H. Blumhardt, and the Rev. A. P. Neele (now of Liverpool); but there was little true spiritual life to be seen. When the late Rev. J. Vaughan took charge in 1877 he found much to sadden him, but he threw himself into the work of revival with prayerful energy, and God blessed his efforts. The Christian community, which numbers 6,128 souls, has distinctly improved in the last three or four years.

Among other difficulties in Mr. Vaughan's path was a sudden aggression by a Roman Catholic Mission, whose agents, instead of going to the heathen, tried to draw away the Christians. Romish chapels and schools sprang up as if by magic close to those of the C.M.S.; little brass crucifixes were distributed widely among the Christian women to wear as charms, and one of the priests openly said, "In six months not a vestige of the Protestant Mission will remain." Another, being asked by a Native why he did not seek the perishing heathen, replied, "Because we think they may possibly be saved by the light of reason; but we are sure that you Protestants must perish soon, so we try and save you." Their success was alarming for a time, but the people they drew away soon found out their misThis year the take, and have almost all come back again. report is, "In several places the priests have shut up their schools, and withdrawn in despair."

Since Mr. Vaughan's lamented death, the Rev. A. Clifford has had the principal charge of Krishnagar; the Rev. H. Williams is an evangelistic missionary, and itinerates from village to village all through the cold season; and the Rev. J. W. Hall has the Training Institution for Native teachers.

Mr. Williams' itinerating work is very interesting and hopeful. The district specially allotted to him has an area of 627 square miles, and contains 620 villages, with a population of 335,000, which gives the very high figure of 534 souls per square mile. For five months last winter he was out in camp, preaching from village to village, and in that time visited 122 villages. Three months also, in the rainy season, he spent in travelling by boat. In the winter tour, Mrs. Williams accompanied her husband :She was able to do much for the women. It was her practice to go each evening, with a Bible-woman, into the village near the tent. An invitation to sit down at one of the houses was, with hardly an exception, quickly offered, and soon a large congregation of women assembled. Indeed, the difficulty she had was the great number of listeners. The women must bring their children with them, and such an audience is difficult to manage. She was much encouraged by their reception of the truth.

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A mission to the women is as necessary as to the men. An auecdote will illustrate this. A boy in one of our schools was explaining the

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