ANOTHER LETTER FROM JUBBULPORE.

(See GLEANER, May and November, 1881.)

N October 20th, the Dedication Stone of the C.M.S. Church
of St. Luke the Evangelist was laid by G. E. Knox, Esq.,
C.S., Honorary Treasurer of the North India Native Church
Council, then holding its annual session in Jabalpur.

The picturesque town of Jabalpur, inclined on the whole to take the erection of a handsome little church in its very centre as a compliment to itself, but somewhat at a loss to understand the proceedings of the day, wondered at this unusual stir among the Christians, always active and aggressive, but to-day unusually conspicuous and jubilant. Strangers, grave and sedate, the old familiar faces, neatly clad women and children, quite a host of Christians, march through the streets and assemble themselves in and around the rising walls of the church, from which presently swell the strains of a well-known hymn-"Kalisiya ki gairfani Bunyad Masih Maslub"-familiar to English Church people as 66 The Church's one Foundation." Three white-robed figures stand aloft on the eastern wall of the church, and a fourth in ordinary English costume, whose particular duty is not yet apparent. The Rev. B. Davis, the Chairman of the Council, in a sonorous voice commences the Special Service, and is followed by the Rev. Madho Ram, who solemnly and impressively prays the appointed prayers. After the hymn, "This stone to Thee in faith we lay," rendered into Hindustani, Mr. Knox, mallet in hand, "in the true faith of Jesus Christ-in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost," lays the stone which is to mark the setting apart of a house for the worship and service of God in Jabalpur. The silence is once more broken. "Her foundations are upon the holy hills," is read by the Rev. T. R. Hodgson, and the assembly takes up the answer, "The Lord loveth the gates of Sion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." More prayers and hymns follow, and the Rev. Mr. Lamert, chaplain of the station, eloquently and earnestly speaks of encouragement and effort, and fitly draws the lesson, for all present, of the living stones which are built up into God's spiritual temple. The Rev. B. Davis dismisses the assembly with the Benediction, the " Salam- Ullah": Mussulmans and Hindus to ponder and talk over this unwonted testimony to the power and vitality of Christianity, and the Christians with their guests of the Council to a brotherly feast, which ends this auspicious day in the annals of the Jabalpur Church. Not the least interesting feature of the day was the unanimous vote of the Council giving from the funds at its command the sum of Rs. 100 towards the building of the church.

The site of the church is close to the heart of the city, on a piece of open ground adjoining the Mission High School. Mission churches are no longer built in shady mission compounds," but stand with open doors, inviting passers-by in busy thoroughfares to enter in and hear the joyful sound. So far, the greater part of the fund tor the building was raised in years gone by, by the labours of the Rev. E. Champion, now in Tasmania. A considerable sum is still needed to complete the edifice and furnish it in a fitting manner for the service of God. It is hoped also that further contributions will enable a parsonage for the Native Pastor to be built adjoining the church, and that, eventually, with other Christian households assembled round, the place may become a centre of life and light to those who sit in darkness, a city set on a hill which cannot be hid.

H.

A VALEDICTORY DISMISSAL IN AUSTRALIA. [We take the following from The Missionary, an interesting magazine published at Melbourne, and edited by the Rev. H. B. Macartney. Mr. and Mrs. Cain, of the C.M.S. Koi Mission, South India, are well known to many of our friends; as also is Mr. Macartney himself.]

T was on Monday afternoon, August 14th. There was a large attendance of relations, friends, and parishioners. The clergy present were the Very Rev. the Dean of Melbourne, Ven. Archdeacon Stretch, Rev. Canon Goodman, Revs. H. A. Langley, B. Rodda, C. Greville, T. H. Armstrong, and the Editor. Rev. John Cain sat immediately in front of the platform, together with Mrs. Cain and her elder sister (Miss Davies), Mrs. Digby and Miss Elizabeth Digby, Miss Seymour and her sister (Miss Mary Seymour). After singing a hymn, prayer was offered by Rev. B. Rodda,

and then the Dean spoke on "The Missionary Character of the Church at Large." The salient points in an address, where deep feeling ran side by side with marvellous historic knowledge, were these:-That the Jewish Church was conservative, the Christian Church diffusive; that the Church must spread itself or die; that mission work brings a reflex benefit; and that the lack of it is fatal to a Church's growth. He gave, as instances, the two facts that Jerusalem, which had sent the Gospel to Great Britain in the first century, was receiving the Gospel from Great Britain in the nineteenth; and that many Churches of the Reformation, not caring to spread the light, lost the light they had.

The Rev. Canon Goodman spoke next, on "The Missionary Character of Individual Congregations." He said that few men in the world had had such opportunities of tasting ordinary missionary pleasures as he, for he had been curate at St. Bride's Church, and had lived for years in Salisbury Square. He had heard the first men preach, and had attended enthusiastic meetings, but he had now tasted a joy that threw all the others into the shade, the joy of sending out a missionary like Miss Digby from the midst of his own flock. He said that he had also an intimate connection with Miss Seymour's determination to go to India, for it was from a member of his congregation at Christ Church, Geelong, that she first caught the spark of missionary zeal.

The Rev. John Cain then addressed the meeting, and reviewing the year that he and his devoted wife had spent in Australia, he thanked God and took courage. He maintained that prayer was the special province of those who remained at home.

Intercession was next offered by Mr. J. H. Davies, head-master of the Caulfield Grammar School, and Mrs. Cain's brother, who had himself spent a year in India, and only came away from a stern necessity; and when he had concluded, the Rev. H. A. Langley rese, and, addressing himself especially to Miss E. Digby and Miss Mary Seymour, the new Zenana missionaries, he gave a most solemn and weighty charge to their understanding, to their heart, and to their conscience.

The Editor (Rev. H. B. Macartney), who occupied the chair, closed the meeting. He exhorted the candidates to three things-(1) To be sure to grow in grace; (2) to teach holiness a full salvation from the dominion of sin-as the crown of Gospel blessings; and (3) to make it known wherever they went that Jesus was coming again.

Commendatory prayer was then offered. The Dean urged that the mission should be remembered in our family prayer at least once a week, and then pronounced the Benediction.

They sailed on August 15th in the Ravenna, and Captain Pasco, who accompanied them to the Heads, reported all well and in good spirits. Lord Jesus, they are Thine! Bring them to the haven where they would be.

EPISCOPAL TRAVELLING IN NEW ZEALAND. [In a private letter, Bishop Stuart, of Waiapu, gives a graphic account of his journey on horseback, with his daughter, across his diocese, from Napier to Tauranga :

E set out from Napier on Thursday, May 4th. Nan on her mare "Florrie," I on "Zoe" (a new acquisition which promises to be a very serviceable nag), and Edward, my Maori henchman, on my old mare "Fan." We were all well mounted on these sister steeds, and our first day's "dak" of twenty-five miles to Pohui was done within five hours, albeit we had to cross and recross a river fifty-two times! A ride next day in perfect weather over two grand mountain ranges brought us to Terawera. My advent had been duly heralded, and the score of inhabitants, adult and juvenile, came together for evening service. It blew half a gale that night, and the rain came down in torrents. But after breakfast it cleared a bit, and we made a start for our ride of forty miles to Opepe. For the first twelve miles, through magnificent forest and hill scenery, it was fair, but when we got out on the great Kaingaroa Plain it blew and it snew, and it hailed and it thew, most uncommon! We were fain to shelter ourselves and horses in a tumble-down stable and shed, which used to be a "kai-shop," but is now abandoned and dismantled. Here we munched our bread and cheese, and recovered breathing, again to face the fury of the elements. We were decidedly moist when we reached Opepe, the old constabulary station, where there is now an inn with a Maori hostess. But the barbarians showed us no little kindness, and made us a fire because of the cold and the rain, and laded us with such things as we had need of, even to the producing for me from the store a new pair of moleskins, in which to endue my episcopal legs, my ain riding breeks being sair drookit with the run off my mackintosh. After a comfortable tea I had the few men of the force together for a service in the " public," and then we slept the sleep of the weary, if not of the just, till the Sabbath morn. We made an early start so as to ride the ten miles to Taupo before church time. I had all the inhabitants there to morning and evening service with chants and hymns all correct, led by the hotel-keeper's daughter, with harmonium accompaniment in a very good public hall, with a grotesque "drop

scene "behind me on the platform or stage. Alas! the envious clouds gave us not a glimpse of Tongariro, or its snow-clad companion Ruapehu, and so it continued for the three days of our sojourn at Taupo.

On Wednesday morning it cleared a little, and we ventured to set out on our sixty-mile ride through to Rotorua. We started after an early breakfast at eight o'clock; stopped at three Maori kaingas; had service at one of them, and baptized a baby; fed our horses at another, and in spite of some heavy showers, arrived fairly dry at 6.30—not bad going in such weather, and roads.

Here my time has been divided between multitudinous services with the Maoris and baths in the hot springs. All the natives of the district are gathered here just now for Land Court business, so it is a grand opportunity of seeing them instead of having to hunt them up in their scattered kaingas.

Yesterday we had a charming ride to the Tiketere, which was new to us both. Most curious cauldrous of boiling mud splashing over the stone basins, and shooting up columns of bell-broth: mud, petroleum, and sulphur, all mixed! In a bath fed from one of these inviting springs I had a scalding hot bath, out of which I leapt into a deep basin of crystal clear cold water, and ka uni te pai, "great was the good," in Maori phrase. Tauranga, May 17th.-We have emerged out of the wilds into the comparative civilisation of this thriving little town, with its beautiful harbour, over which we swam our horses on arriving at half-tide yesterday

from Maketu.

DEATH OF A BRAHMIN CHRISTIAN IN A CALCUTTA HOSPITAL.

(From the Calcutta Localised Edition of the GLEANER.) OME five years ago a Brahmin named Bamacharan Bandyapadhaya had a paralytic stroke, and about two years since he entered the Campbell Hospital, Calcutta. At that time he knew nothing of the Gospel of Christ. It was while lying in the Hospital that he first heard of the Great Physician from the lips of Dr. Baumann and his agents, who regularly visit the Hospital; and there, in due course, he was admitted into the Church by baptism. After his baptism Bamacharan entered into the enjoyment of deep and lasting peace. Although utterly unable to raise or turn himself, and though reduced by disease to a mere skeleton, his hard couch seeming to his emaciated body like a bed of thorns, yet he was never known to murmur, and many bear witness to the steadfast faith and devotedness of our brother. His face wes illuminated with the peace of his heart, and his one constantly expressed desire was, that his dear Lord would come and take him to be with Him for ever. He would sometimes speak of the hard rules he had submitted to as a Brahmin, and how ineffectual all his efforts had been to give his guilty conscience peace, and he would contrast such efforts with the deep joy and peace which Jesus had graciously given to him. When he knew that the time of his going to his beloved Saviour was now near at hand, he greatly desired that he might join once with other brethren in partaking of the Supper of the Lord.

On the 12th of September Dr. Baumann administered to him that holy Sacrament. It was a most solemn occasion, and one that will leave an abiding impression on all present. In the middle of that large Hospital, surrounded by hundreds of the sick and dying heathen, we knelt, a little band, around our Master's Table, and with deep joy and thankful gratitude we partook of the emblems of His dying love. But first we sang a hymn. A few short months ago those walls had never echoed with the sound of the songs of Zion, but now such strains are not unfamiliar to the inmates. As we sang, many sick and halt and maimed gathered round us, and I doubt not that angels from Heaven were likewise looking on, and rejoicing with us. One of Dr. Baumann's catechists gave an address on the meaning of the Sacrament, especially dwelling on the fact that we are all one in Christ. In Him the distinctions of caste and social position are all lost sight of; we were uniting together in that holy service, outwardly as Europeans and Natives of India-the Brahmin and the Sudra, the Hindu and the Mussalman, but spiritually all one in Christ,-members of the one body,-part of the great family of the one Father. The service over, our brother's heart was filled with joy, and he expressed himself as fully satisfied: "Now is the object of my birth fully realised," he said; "now, if my Lord in mercy take me, then my all would be accomplished." We said good-bye (God be with you), and presently the angels came, and took him home to God. Now he is resting on his beloved Saviour's bosom.

Among those present was one who has long laboured in the cause of Christ. He came, he said, to pay his last respects to his departed brother, because, as he said, he had derived much benefit from visiting his sick bed, and in all his thirty years of Christian experience and work, he had never met one so advanced, so ripe in the Christian Life. This friend offered to pay half the expenses of the funeral, and other native brethren paid the rest. C. M. C.

LISTEN!

True Stories from Fuh-Chow.

BY A LADY MISSIONARY.

I.

SHORT time ago I was staying at Dover, and my friends took me to see the Castle. When we reached the top of the stone steps one of them said, pointing to a building near, "That used to be called The Debtors' Prison,' and the prisoners had a box fastened to a pole near this path, and a bell attached, so that when visitors passed they could attract attention by ringing this bell. Over the box was written, Remember the poor debtors.' Scarcely anybody would pass that box unheeded." When I heard this it seemed to me that the debtors were very much like our shut up Chinese sisters, and then I thought how very little England's daughters are doing for China. We send opium, and it destroys the happiness of many a home, but it is the shut up females who feel it most, and we might do so much to mitigate their sufferings if we would. Having spent some years among them I thought it would be a good plan for me to be the bell, and tell you some of the things I have heard and seen. About three years ago I was taken to visit a Chinese lady in great distress of mind; her husband had married a second wife, and When we entered the house, had now entirely left his first one. which was very large, she invited us to be seated," "smoke a pipe," and "drink tea." I said, "What a nice house you have!" "Oh! don't speak of it," she said. "For thirty years I have lived happily here with my husband, but recently my husband has taken another wife. Those rooms opposite mine were fitted up for her, now all the presents are sent in there, and when my husband comes home he always goes in there, he never comes to see me now. Oh dear! sometimes I think my heart will break. We were so happy, now it is misery. I must smoke opium, it is the only thing that drowns my sorrow; I cannot sleep without it." We told her the "old, old story of Jesus and His love," and produced a hymn-book, and tried to teach her to read one verse. Ah," she said, this is very good; if I only had you to teach me every day I should not need the opium.”

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Now, dear readers, don't you fancy we embraced the opportunity and said, "We will teach you"? I am sure you will answer Yes"; but we did not. We had as much and really more than we could do three miles nearer the Mission-house, and although I tried, I was never able to visit her again. I could only pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust out more labourers, and incline the hearts of the people at home to give of their abundance to send them out when found ready to obey the call.

Who

Another house I was specially invited to visit had eighty people living together, and five generations were represented. I stayed for three hours, trying to teach them a text written on one of Mrs. Grimke's cards, and they begged me to go again. I never was able to do so. Those people are still waiting. will go and teach them? Let me show you the interior of some of these homes. I must ask you to enter with me a large iron gate, through several others, past three reception halls into a very pretty semiChinese furnished room. No idols are to be seen. We go further in, and we pass suites of rooms on either side occupied by different married members of the family. Straight on we come to the ancestral hall and kitchen, but turning to the right we pass a small garden, and enter a good-sized English house adjoining, and belonging to the head, who ranks as a Mandarin, a government official, or petty governor; and the position exempts the possessor from corporal punishment. This gentleman is very wealthy, and is now a baptized Christian. We gained an entrance for teaching purposes in the following manner: the wife called on me and asked me to teach her English; I refused, on the

ground that I did not go to China to teach English. However, in talking the matter over with the other members of the Mission in Fuh-Chow, they thought it a great pity to let any opportunity slip of getting into this family, as the gentleman seemed on the most friendly terms with the missionaries, and at times attended the American Church. The lady called again, and I said if she would come to me three afternoons a week, from three to six, I would teach her the Scriptures for an hour and a half, and English for the rest of the time. She came, and her mother thought it very wrong of her to go out every day; notwithstanding she came in a shut up chair. But her husband wished her to come, so she broke through the custom of not going out, and began to study the hated foreigners' doctrine.

When the school closed for the summer holidays, she asked and obtained permission to live with me, "Because," she said, "I want to see how Christians live." She joined me in prayer night and morning, and one night I went to bed with a bad headache, and could not have family worship. In the middle of the night she heard me awake, and said, "Are you awake? Is your head better?" "No," I answered. "Then I don't believe in your God, for you worship Him, and I asked Him to make you better." This led to an interesting conversation about asking in accordance to God's will.

After a few days she heard her little nephew was sick, and went away to see what she could do. She had been married about twelve years and had not had any children, so she adopted a little baby-boy, and the next day she sent word to say her nephew seemed worse, and her own little boy was also ill. I went in the evening and found the nephew very ill, and suggested a European doctor should be called in; but they thought they would try a native doctor that night, then if the child did not improve, they would call in a foreign doctor. I left the house about 10.30, and the next morning early a servant ran in saying the nephew

when a relapse took place, and the anxious nursing again took up all my time and attention; the doctor was in the house three times a day, and at last the little one was pronounced out of danger, but required great care and watching. I never left the child's side until he was quite recovered, for when I left I took him with me for ten days' rest and change up the mountains. One day as I was sitting by the sick child, the grandmother, a bitter opponent of Christianity, eame in and asked what I found so satisfying in the Bible; and from one subject to another I told her about God's protecting care over those who trust Him in sincerity and truth, and sent for a Bible and gave her the stories of Daniel in the lion's den, the three friends in the furnace, &c., &c. She sat over the book all day, and refused to go downstairs for the midday meal, so intent was she over these wonderful stories, she being one of the very few ladies who could read. And on Sunday morning after the little service I held with the

household, she knelt down saying, "Yes, I will pray to your God too."

A poor old woman living near often came in to listen, and at the weekly Bible-reading I established she frequently came to learn; and on the morning previous to my leaving Fuh-Chow she sent her idol to me-so dirty, it had been worshipped for years. I look upon it now sometimes, and pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust out more labourers into His vineyard, and hasten the time when all these idols of wood and stone shall be thrown to the moles and the bats.

When my school reopened, this lady came again for lessons. One day she seemed very sorrowful. We had read over the story of Samuel and his mother. She said that it was a great reproach to her not having any children, and asked me to join her in praying for a child. Every day we did so, and about the same time in the following year the prayer was answered. God gave her a son, and very great were the rejoicings of the whole family. All idols had been previously taken away from the house, and from the first day of his birth he was called "Hung-kau nié-kiang" (the "Christian's doctrine child"). Since then the father and three other members of the family have received baptism, and when I left the daughter-in-law was a candidate for baptism, and the lady is, I believe, earnest, and will eventually become an out-and-out Christian. Miss Gordon Cumming and other English visitors were delighted with them.

was dead, the adopted child worse, and would I go immediately; they had sent a sedan-chair for me. I first wrote to the foreign doctor, and promised to be at the house ready to translate for him. We arrived at the house together, but he refused to undertake the case unless I would remain as nurse, as the Chinese have a curious way of accepting foreign medicine-smell it, and throw it away; if tasted and the patient dies, the blame is invariably attached to the medical man. So I translated the doctor's message, and they with one voice said, "Do stay." My school would not reassemble for another three weeks, so I took up my abode in the house and nursed the child. For three days it was anxious work. Then the child began to improve, and I commenced family worship in the house; only a few of the slaves and one or two members of the family came; they would not kneel; it was more out of curiosity to see what I would do that they came. The child gradually began to move about again,

The portraits are those of my friend and her husband, HokLee Sing-sang, Hok-Lee Sing-sang-mong (Mr. and Mrs. Ahok). M. F.

Pictures from Egypt-Mosque at Cairo.

WE continue our pictures of Egypt. They are German engravings, from the great work of Dr. Ebers, and are in the highest style of illustration. The mosque on the opposite page presents a striking contrast to a heathen temple with its hideous idols, or even to a Roman Catholic church with its images. Mohammedans abhor idolatry. Their religious services consist only of the prayers and the reading of the Koran. But they are without Christ.

THE MONTH.

HE Archbishop-designate of Canterbury, Dr. Benson, has with much cordiality intimated his readiness to accept the office of Vice-Patron of the Society, which is, by the Fundamental Laws, reserved for the Primate of All England, all other Bishops being Vice-Presidents. (The office of Patron is reserved for a member of the Royal Family.) He has also expressed "the privilege he will feel at being present, if nothing unforeseen occurs, at the Anniversary Meeting, which takes place on May 1st." His chaplain writes to the Hon. Clerical Secretary:-" Among the new labours which are devolving on him, he will gladly recognise the need of giving all possible aid and encouragement to the great Society which you represent."

WE have great pleasure in stating that the Rev. Ernest Graham Ingham, M.A., of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, Vicar of St. Matthew's, Leeds, has been appointed to the Bishopric of Sierra Leone. Mr. Ingham, who is a son of the Speaker of the House of Assembly at Bermuda, was Association Secretary of the C.M.S. in Yorkshire in 1879-80, and worked in that office very energetically. His parish in Leeds was given to him by the Bishop of Ripon, and by his judicious labours he has made his mark in that great town. Our readers are aware that the Rev. W. Walsh was at first nominated to the vacant see; and afterwards it was hoped that the Rev. J. B. Whiting would be appointed; but medical opinion was adverse in both cases. Mr. Ingham is a younger man, and we earnestly trust that it may please God to give him health and strength, bodily, mental, and spiritual, for the responsible duties of the Sierra Leone Bishopric.

THE Rev. Canon Tristram, LL.D., F.R.S., has been appointed to preach the Annual Sermon before the Society, on Monday evening, April 30th.

JUST after we went to press last month, the announcement reached us of the death of the venerable Francis Close, formerly Dean of Carlisle, one of the staunchest and most devoted friends and advocates the Society ever had. He immediately followed Dr. Tait in the Deanery of Carlisle; and now, with only a fortnight's interval, he has followed him into the presence of their common Lord and Master.

THE Society has lost two other respected Vice-Presidents by the deaths of the Earls of Harrowby and the Bishop of Llandaff. Both of them were firm friends of the cause; and the former spoke at the Annual Meeting on two or three occasions in past years.

As announced in our last number, December 6th was observed by many of the Society's friends as a day of prayer specially for men to fill the posts we then referred to. Are they now combining effort with prayer ? Are they suggesting to sons and brothers and friends that God is calling them to this service? Are they asking their own selves, "Why should not I go?"

SINCE that day of prayer, the Committee have accepted two Cambridge men for missionary work, viz., the Rev. James H. Horsburgh, M.A., of Trinity College, Curate of Portman Chapel; and the Rev. Vincent Young, B.A., of Corpus Christi College, Curate of St. James's, Bath. We trust that these are the precursors of a succession of young clergymen for the foreign field.

A SPECIAL notice has been issued to Treasurers and Secretaries of Associations, asking that the accounts from the various Associations and parishes which will now be rapidly coming in may be accompanied in each case by a memorandum explaining what part of the sums contributed may be regarded as a response to the Appeal for "Half as Much Again." The result of that Appeal, which every one will be eager to know next May, cannot even be roughly estimated without this assist

On the occasion of the marriage, at Norwich, a few weeks ago, of the Rev. J. C. Hoare, son of Canon Hoare and Principal of the C.M.S. College at Ningpo, with Miss A. J. Patteson, daughter of Canon Patteson, Rector of Thorpe, it was proposed, after the breakfast, to make a special collection for the China Mission; and no less than £150 was subscribed in the room. Is not this a happy thought for a Christian wedding party?

THE service at Westminster Abbey, on the 2nd Sunday in Advent, when Bishop Burdon preached for the C.M.S., was much interfered with by the dense fog that enveloped London that day. The congregation was better than had been thought possible, though of course comparatively small. The service consisted of the Litany, a special Lesson (from St. John iv.) read by the Dean, and an anthem and two hymns. The Bishop preached from the words, " And He must needs pass through Samaria," arguing with great force that a similar "needs be now presented itself for Missions to the heathen.

ON Tuesday, Jan. 2nd, a Special Communion Service for the Committee and friends of the Society, on the commencement of a new year, was held at St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street. The address was given by the Rev. Prebendary Daniel Wilson.

THE Statistical Tables of Protestant Missions in India, just received, show a far larger increase in the last ten years than was expected. The Native Christian adherents in India proper have risen from 224,258 to 417,372; or, including Ceylon and Burmah, from 318,363 to 528,590. The increase in India proper is 86 per cent. We shall give further details hereafter.

ON Nov. 12th, Bishop Crowther, while at Sierra Leone, on his way back to the Niger, admitted three Africans to deacon's orders, one for the Sierra Leone Native Church (Rev. H. P. Thompson), and two for the S.P.G. Mission on the Rio Pongas. The service was held in St. George's Cathedral. Governor Havelock and other Europeans were present, and more than 1,800 Native Christians. Bishop Crowther officiated in consequence of the Bishopric of Sierra Leone being still vacant; and the commission enabling him to do so was one of the last papers signed by the late Archbishop of Canterbury.

ON Dec. 13th, the Bishop of Calcutta held an ordination at Allahabad. Two C.M.S. Native catechists, Mark Drummond, of Lucknow, and Benjamin Tobit, of Gorakpur, were admitted to deacon's orders; the former to be stationed at Aligarh, and the latter at the Christian village of Basharatpur. The Bishop was much pleased with both of them. At the same time the Rev. G. Parsons, one of our missionaries in Krishnagar, was admitted to priest's orders.

THE University of Durham has conferred the honorary degree of M.A. on the Rev. George Nicol, the well-known Native African clergyman who is Government Chaplain at the Gambia, and who was formerly Tutor at Fourah Bay College.

A "C.M.S. Lay Workers' Union for London" has been formed, with the sauction of the Committee, for the purpose of associating together the lay friends of the Society in the metropolis, especially young men, and of furnishing them systematically with missionary information. Monthly meetings are held at the Church Missionary House, for conference, and for hearing accounts from missionaries and others of the progress of the various Missions. In this way it is hoped that many may be stimulated to give addresses in Sunday-schools, at Juvenile Meetings, &c., and otherwise to promote the cause, being supplied at these gatherings with the material for doing so. Members have the use of a Lending and Reference Library, and are provided with maps, diagrams, lantern slides, and curiosities, for use at meetings. The subscription is 1s. a year. Earl Cairns has accepted the office of President of the Union; Mr. Henry Morris is Chairman of the Committee; Mr. Eugene Stock, Treasurer; and Captain Seton Churchill and Mr. E. Mantle, Secretaries. All laymen ready to help the Society are invited to join the Union.

RECEIVED: A Reader of the GLEANER, "Fruit of Having Spare Moments," £1; Daisy, "to be used to tell the heathen of the Saviour's love," 10s. 6d.; A Friend, for Egypt Fund, 3s. ; "From the household of two brothers in China," for the China Mission, £1 103. Also, E. L. S., for the Church of England Zenana Society, 2s. 6d., which has been paid over to that Society.