in Class I. of Standard A have been in previous lists; but their relative positions are considerably changed. No. 3 was the winner of the 1st prize two years ago. Nos. 5 and 6 were last year in Class II., and No. 10 has leaped from honourable mention last year without stopping in Class II. by the way. No. 1 in Class II. was No. 2 in Class I. of Standard B last year.

Many of the papers are of real excellence. Some of the sketches of the Society's early history are admirable; and so are several of the answers to Question 7. One or two candidates occupied too much time on Palestine and Persia; and as more marks than the fair maximum caunot be allowed, they lost by doing so. Notwithstanding a caution appended to the Question Paper, two or three lost time by describing two or more of the stations named in Question 3, instead of one only; and no extra marks have been given in these cases. Nor are any marks given for some excellent accounts, in answer to Question 5, of converts belonging to other countries than those named; for instance, Ganga Bai and Guru Churun Bose, neither of whom belong to South India.

There are unusually few actual mistakes in the papers, and scarcely any of the odd blunders which we have recorded in previous years. One candidate, however, is determined that we shall not lose the chance of a pleasant laugh somewhere, and tells us that it was Professor Jowett who went to Egypt for the Society in 1815! We have succeeded, however, in giving our friends two puzzles. Out of the whole number, only five know that Otaki is in New Zealand (see GLEANER, Dec., p. 142). The majority place it in Japan, and two in West Africa. One actually wrote "In the south of New Zealand," and then scratched the words out, and substituted "In Japan"! The other puzzle was the Waziris. Only three rightly described them as the Afghan hill-tribe near Tank. The majority place them in East Africa; one, in New Zealand; and one calls them " a sect of the Bheels."

We have been particularly pleased with the answers to Question 10, which of course required a really greater effort of memory than any other question. Between thirty and forty distinct facts and testimonies are adduced. Among them are the following:-Mr. Darwin's testimony, Bishop Wilberforce's Jubilee Speech, the charge of the Bishop of Madras, the large numbers confirmed in Tinnevelly, the sending of two agents by the Tinnevelly Church to the Koi Mission, the Punjab Native Church Council supporting a mission of its own, Bishop Crowther ordaining a white man, the Marquis of Lorne at Battleford, the Sultan of Zanzibar's reception of Mr. Price, the contrast in East Africa between Krapt's time and now, Sir Bartle Frere's speech at Exeter Hall, the interest taken in Dr. Krapf by Prince Albert and the King of Prussia, the appointment of a C.M.S. missionary on the Indian Education Commission, Sir R. Temple's figures, the testimonies of Bishop Steere, Archdeacon Matthew, Mr. Odell, Col. Stewart, &c., &c. There could not be a more s' riking illustration of the abundance of the material supplied by a single volume of the GLEANER for speeches at missionary meetings!

A MISSION TO THE SIOUX INDIANS.

HE Sioux nation, we need not say, is one of the most important of the Red Indian tribes. No name is more familiar in connection with prairie life, whether described in traveller's story or in fiction. The old Sioux territories, however, lay south of the border line between British America and the United States, so that the C.M.S. has not had this historic name in its reports hitherto. But a band of Sioux came over into Manitoba some years ago; and at the earnest request of the Bishop of Rupert's Land, the Committee have in the last four or five years made an annual grant of £100 towards the support of a Mission among them. The Very Rev. J. Grisdale, Dean of Rupert's Land, has given us an interesting account of the work, which appeared in the C.M. Intelligencer last month. The settlement is on a piece of land given to the tribe by the Canadian Government, 125 miles west of Winnipeg, and near the new Canadian Pacific Railway, which is rapidly advancing across the continent. The chief of the band is called White Eagle. A young clergyman, the Rev. W. A. Burman, is labouring earnestly.

The faces on this page show the Sioux type of countenance; and the large portrait opposite is that of the famous chief Sitting Bull, who was at the head of another band that took refuge within the Canadian frontier some years back. The correspondent of a Toronto newspaper went to see him in 1877, and wrote as follows:

A fierce snow-storm had set in, and the soughing wind outside was bitterly cold, but the chief's lodge is well skinned, and with a hissing fire of poplar-sticks very comfortable. Two squaws-one a handsome maiden of twenty-sat huddled up in a corner, laughing and chatting with one of the young men. Poplar makes a smoky fire, and as the wind tore down the centre hole in big gusts, it was at times difficult for one to see his neighbour's face. The Marmot, a young Sioux of great renown, lay like a sleeping dog inside the door. Sitting Bull, gazing into the fire and speaking as though in a reverie, then slowly began. "The Great Spirit has made the red man and the white man brothers, and they ought to take each other by the hand. The Great Spirit loves all His children. He esteems the white man and the red man alike. The wicked white man and the wicked red man are the only ones He does not love. It was the Great Spirit, not the white man, who gave us these lands. I do not think that the Great Spirit sent the white man across the waters to rob us." I then asked Sitting Bull what he thought of his prospects for the future. He said, "I cannot say. I trust the Great Mother (the Queen). What am I? I am a poor Indian. I have no friend but the Queen and the Great Spirit." To people like these the good Bishop of Rupert's Land is trying to make known the real Gospel of the Indian's "Great Spirit"; and the C.M.S. is thankful to be able to take a small share in the work.

THE MONTH.

HE C.M.S. Committee has lost one of its most valued members by the death, on January 28th, of Mr. Arthur Lang, of Harrow. When a Government civil servant in India, first in Lower Bengal, and afterwards at Allahabad (where he was judge for thirteen years), he was a hearty friend of the missionary cause; and from 1858 to within a week or two of his death he was a constant attendant at the C.M. House, serving on almost every sub-committee, and sometimes spending the greater part of the week in Salisbury Square. He was a whole-hearted, loving, and thoroughly happy Christian man, and devoted to the interests of the C.M.S. and the Bible Society. One of his sons is a Clerical Secretary of the C.M.S., and another, the Vicar of St. Benedict's, Cambridge, and Assistant Tutor at Corpus, is one of the Secretaries of the Cambridge C.M. Association.

Two venerable clerical friends of the Society have also been called away, viz., the Rev. Prebendary Charles Marshall, Rector of St. Bride's,

whose face and voice were familiar to all who have attended the C.M.S. Annual Sermon at that church; and the Rev. Josiah Pratt, formerly Vicar of St. Stephen's, Coleman Street, and son of the Josiah Pratt who was one of the founders of the Society and Secretary for twenty-two years. Mr. Marshall was Tutor in the Church Missionary College under its first Principal, Mr. Pearson, half a century ago. Mr. Pratt's church, St. Stephen's, under his son and successor, the Rev. J. H. Pratt, stands first of all the City churches in its contributions to the C.M.S.

WE regret also to have to report the death, on January 20th, of the venerable Rev. C. L. Reichardt, Tutor at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone, and latterly Acting Principal. He was a student of the Basle Seminary, and afterwards of the C.M. College, and having been ordained in 1849-50 by Bishop Blomfield, he went out to Fourah Bay; and there, with intervals in England, he laboured for thirty years. He was a faithful and laborious missionary, and rendered essential service by his linguistic researches, especially by preparing a grammar and other works in the Foulah language.

ONE of the oldest C.M.S. Native clergy in India, the Rev. Daud Singh, has gone to his rest. He was the first Sikh ever received into the Church of Christ. He was baptized about 35 years ago by the Rev. W. H. Perkins, then S.P.G. missionary at Cawnpore. When the C.M.S. Punjab Mission was begun in 1851, he joined it as a lay agent. In 1854, he was ordained by Bishop Wilson. He was for many years pastor of the Native congregation at Amritsar, and latterly of the Christian village of Clarkabad, where he died on January 6th.

THE new Bishop of Sierra Leone will (D.V.) have been consecrated before this number appears, the day fixed being St. Matthias' Day, February 24th. We bespeak on his behalf the special intercessions of all our readers.

TAE late Mrs. Stanton, of Halesworth, was a warm friend of the C.M.S., and an untiring worker in its cause. Her annual missionary sale was begun when the Rev. V. J. Stanton first went to that town in 1863, when it produced £7. In October last it produced £144, and the total amount thus raised for the Society by her personal efforts during the twenty years was £2,108 10s. 11d. Her husband has himself given much larger sums than that; but valuable as these gifts have been, there is always a peculiar blessing attaching to an aggregate of smail contributions collected by the influence of an earnest and loving heart. Friends like these, "whose hearts God has touched," are the strength of the Church Missionary Society.

EARL CAIRNS presided at the annual meeting of the Bournemouth C.M.S. Association on January 15th. He said that some people attended a meeting like that, and gave in their guinea or half-guinea subscription, just as if they were paying a Christmas bill, doing something that had to be done once a year, and need not trouble them at any other time. With this he contrasted three objects which subscribers ought to have in view in attending. (1) To show that they considered Christ's last command, to make Him known to the heathen as a personal Saviour, just as binding

on us as any other commandment. (2) To hear what was being done with the money subscribed. (3) To testify their heart-felt sympathy with the missionaries in the field. His lordship concluded by appealing for "Half as much again." The report of the Association, read by Canon P. F. Eliot, showed a total sum for the year of just over £500, an increase on the preceding year, and twice as much as it was three years ago.

THE Earl of Northbrook took the chair at the annual C.M.S. meeting at Micheldever on Sunday evening, January 21st. His lordship spoke of the good work done by the Society in India generally, and in the Punjab in particular. He said, "We are old friends and admirers of this Society. We have great confidence in it, and believe its work to be for the advantage of the world and for the real spread of Christianity through the world."

ON December 24th, at Christ Church, Faji, Lagos, Bishop Crowther admitted to deacon's orders two African lay agents of the C.M.S., Mr. Samuel Doherty, of Abeokuta, and Mr. Edward Buko, of Otta. At the same time the Rev. E. S. Willoughby (also an African), Curate of Breadfruit, received priest's orders. The Rev. James Johnson presented the candidates, and the Bishop preached on Acts xiii. 1-3.

WE are glad to say that the new Nyanza party, the Revs. J. Hannington, R. P. Ashe, and C. E. Gordon, and Mr. C. Wise, with Mr. Stokes as conductor of the caravan, reached the south end of the Victoria Nyanza in October. Mr. Hannington's health had somewhat improved, though he was still very weak. They went by a new route through Mirambo's country, and reached the Lake at a point some distance west of Kagei and Jordan's Nullah. Mr. Stokes has since returned to Zanzibar, accompanied by Mr. Copplestone, of Uyui, the latter being now relieved by the Revs. W. J. Edmonds and J. Blackbura.

THE Rev. F. A. Klein arrived at Cairo on December 16th. He was very kindly received by Miss Whately and her helpers, and has also been welcomed by Dean Butcher, the English chaplain, by the American Presbyterian missionaries, and by natives of Syria and Egypt whom he had formerly met in Palestine. He held his first Arabic services on January 14th and 21st in the hall of Miss Whately's school; and there was a large attendance. "I am sure," he writes, "that the fact that there is here an open door for preaching the Gospel will be considered cheerful news by our friends at home."

THE Decennial General Conference of Protestant Missionaries in India was held at Calcutta from December 28th to January 3rd. The first of the kind was held at Allahabad at the end of 1872, and was attended by 136 missionaries, representing 19 societies. Its proceedings excited much attention, and the volume in which they were recorded has been a standard book of reference ever since. The Calcutta Conference just held was attended by nearly 500 missionaries, and the debate, condensed reports of which have now reached this country, seem to have been very important. The subjects discussed were, Preaching to the Heathen, Sunday-schools, Native Agency, Promotion of Spiritual Life, Higher and Elementary Education, Work amongst English-speaking Hindus, Work amongst Mohammedans, Woman's Work in India, Self-support and Selfpropagation of Native Churches, Work amongst Aboriginal Tribes, the Press as a Mission Agency, and Medical Missions. The C.M.S. men who contributed papers were the Revs. W. Hooper, A. Clifford, M. G. Goldsmith, T. P. Hughes, J. Caley, J. Cain, W. T. Satthianadhan, and Dr. E. Downes, but several others took an active share in the debates, including the Revs. Dr. Weitbrecht, W. R. Blackett, H. C. Squires, H. Stern, T. R. Wade, A. Stark, W. A. Roberts, Piari Mohan Rudra, &c. The Hon. Sir H. Ramsay, K.C.S.I., C.B., acted as chairman. The full Report, when it appears, will be a volume of great value.

THE accounts of the Eastbourne Juvenile C.M.S. Association show a total for the year of £193, a considerable increase on the preceding year. In the printed report, the good plan has been adopted of putting an asterisk against every missionary-box which has collected "half as much again." We are glad to see several of these marks, and one in particular against the sum raised in the Boys' Sunday-school.

RECEIVED.-A Constant Reader, £10, "left behind by a beloved son lately deceased, which his mother wishes applied to the Egypt Mission Fund." For Persia, "Half as much again," 15s. Also, for General Fund, E. H., 2s. 6d.

MISSIONARY ALMANACK.

April.

F. M. 22nd.. 11.27 a.m. L. Qr. Soth.... 7.3 a.m.

1 S

THE OMNISCIENCE OF GOD. 1st. aft. Easter. Thou God seest me, Gen. 16. 13.

2 M

M. Nu. 16. 1-36. 1 Cor. 15. 1-29. E. Nu, 16. 36, or 17. 1-12. John 20. 24-30.

He knoweth the secrets of the heart, Ps. 44. 21.

3 T H. Budd d., 1875. Knoweth the way of the righteous, Ps. 1. 6. 4 W Stanley's meeting with Mtesa, 1875. The king's heart is in the 5 TI know thy works, Rev. 2. 2. [hand of the Lord, Pro. 21. 1. 6F He that formed the eye, shall He not see? Ps. 94. 9. 7 S His eyes behold, His eyelids try, the children of men, Ps. 11. 4. [shall be there perpetually, 1 K. 9. 3. 8 S 2nd aft. Easter. Miss. Children's Home opened, 1853. Mine eyes M. Nu. 20. 1-14. Lu. 9. 1-28. E. Nu. 20. 14 to 21. 10, or 21. 10. 2 Cor. 11. [30 to 12. 14.

9 M Bapt. 1st Uganda convert, 1882. I know My sheep, Jo. 10. 14. 10 T His eye seeth every precious thing, Job 28. 10.

11 W He knoweth our frame, Ps. 103. 14. [always upon it, Den. 11. 12. 12 TC.M.S. established, 1799. The eyes of the Lord thy God are 13 F Freed Slaves bapt. E. Africa, 1879. I have seen thy tears, 2 K. 20.5. 14 S 1st Af. bapt. S. Leone, 1816. O Lord, Thou hast seen my wrong, Lam. 3. 59.] [knowest it altogether, P's. 139. 4. 3rd aft. Easter. Not a word in my tongue, but Thou, O Lord,

15 S

M. Nu. 22. Lu. 12. 35. E. Nu. 23 or 24. Gal. 5. 13.

16 M Search me, O God, and know my heart, Ps. 139. 23.

17 T His eyes as a flame of fire, Rev. 1. 14. 18 W Proclam. Sultan Zanzibar agst. slavery, 1876. I have heard their [cry by reason of their taskmasters, Ex. 3. 7. 19 T For I know their sorrows, Ex. 3. 7. [Is. 57. 18. 20 F 1st bapt. Ningpo, 1851. I have seen his ways, and will heal him, 21 S Waganda Envoys arr., 1880. Thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men, 1 K. 8. 39.] [15. 3. 22 S 4th aft. Easter. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, Pro. M. Deu. 4. 1-23. Lu. 17. 1-20. E. Deu. 4.23-41, or 5. Eph. 5. 22 to 6. 10. 23 M The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, 24 T The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, 1 Pe. 3. 12. [2 Ch.16.9. 25 W St. Mark. He knoweth the way that I take, Job 23. 10. 26 T1st bapt. Kagoshima, 1879. The Lord knoweth them that are 27 F Knoweth them that trust in Him. Nab. 1. 7. [His, 2 Tim. 2. 19. 28 S Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee, Jo. 21. 17.] [Ps. 38. 9. 29 S 5th aft. Easter. Rogation Sun. Lord, all my desire is before Thee, M. Deu. 6. Lu. 20. 27 to 21. 5. E. Deu. 9 or 10. Col. 1. 21 to 2. 8. 20 M C.MS. Ann. Serm. Your Father knoweth what things ye have [need of before ye ask Him, Matt. 6. 8.

MORE JERSEY BREEZES.

IV. Our Habitation.

"Hath determined . . . the bounds of their habitation."-Acts xvii. 26.

S we journey on safely, step by step, despite manifold chances and changes, it is well to mount some mental eminence from time to time, and cast a lingering look along the sacred way of God's providential guidance. Is not each stage marked by a different habitation? Very likely the first lesson that impressed us with the transitory nature of all things earthly was conveyed by the sudden breaking up of our earliest homestead. Death, sickness, losses, and crosses, all seem to cut away the foundations of our faith in human foresight. It is well when the heads of a stricken family can look up and cheer their anxious dependents. No strange thing has happened. "He" marketh all our paths. Wherever He bids us pitch anew our moving tent, He will again meet with us as in past days. He is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever. To many the first rude wrench from scenes familiar comes when school-days must begin. The loving mother well knows her brave boy will only return to her as a visitor, and things can never be the same again. But to him novelty is charming, and it is only when lying quietly in his school-bed, or praying the prayer his mother taught him, that the dawning truth fills his young heart with loneliness hitherto unknown. Happy the child who has learnt, beneath the wing of fostering parents, to cling to his father's God, his mother's strong Consolation. But youth flies, and a career must be

selected. Anew the young man or maiden goes forth to an untried dwelling-place. In such a crisis, let us ask the wanderers' As time after Guide to make His way plain before our face. time we have to pass on further, let us look into His countenance; let us listen for His voice. He can lead us into those scenes and societies which shall mould our character by subduing our self-will. He is too pitiful to leave us in perplexity. What the unthinking might call "a fortuitous conjunction" of circumstances will so re-assure us, that we shall go boldly forward in humble dependence on His evident indications.

It seems as if the missionary could especially enter into these thoughts. Beneath what a variety of sheltering roofs has he laid his weary head, before reaching the scene of his temporary service. He, of all men, must feel a stranger and a sojourner. And this sense of instability may well quicken his energies. Far from the haunts and homes of the fatherland, he must doubly need the sweet sureness of the Home above. This leads us to the bright comforting thought, that when opprest with earth's continual changes, we possess, even here, a lasting Habitation, an abiding Home, a most quiet Resting-place. We shall find it if we cry with one of old, "Be Thou my strong Habitation, whereunto I may continually resort."

Will not this suffice for all our longing? Accessible in every time and place, our God vouchsafes to be to us, in very deed, a Home. Surely in the remembrance of such a Traveller's Rest there is calmness and assured confidence. Instead of repining over all the way whereby we have been led, let us resolve to know no fixed Habitation save only the Lord, the Creator. Within His compassionate heart there is room for the sorrows and joys of a myriad of worlds: Let us turn to Him just where we are. And if in simplicity we thus turn, we may appropriate this blessed promise, "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy Habitation, there shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.' Because we make Him our sunshine, He will also be our shadow; and as we sit within in peace, let us not only enjoy, but also impart. For to teach a human soul the secret of true rest is better than to conquer worlds. The wise Solomon was called a Man of Rest. Let us try, God helping us, to educate such men. But we shall try in vain, unless we abide ourselves within the safe shelter of the Father's love. His Spirit will guide us thither, for the sake of that dear Saviour who said, Abide in Me.

Shall we speak of the last earthly habitation of our frail bodies -the narrow home appointed for all living? The fleshly tabernacle will rest well there, until it is called to rise and put on immortality. In that day we shall sing with the confidence of the redeemed, "Lord, I have loved the Habitation of Thy House, and the place where Thine honour dwelleth." A. M. V.

THE NEW EGYPT MISSION.

T is with much thankfulness that we report the receipt of encouraging letters from the Rev. F. A. Klein, who reached Cairo with his family on December 16th. The readers of the GLEANER will be glad to have some extracts from them.

Let us explain that of the population of Egypt about nineteenAbout onetwentieths, or 95 per cent., are Mohammedans. twentieth are Copts. These Copts are the descendants of those Egyptians who became Christians in the early days of the Church, and they are believed to be the purest representatives of the ancient Egyptian nation, with little of the Arab admixture which is largely found among the Moslems. The Coptic

Church has come down from the days of Origen and Athanasius, but it has not kept its purity. Like all the Eastern Churches, it is sadly corrupted in doctrine and degraded in practice, and it does nothing whatever to make known the Gospel to the Mohammedans. Missionary work ought not to be necessary where a Christian Church exists; but in this case it is necessary, if the light of the Gospel is to be spread at all. Sixty years ago the Church Missionary Society tried to wake up the Copts to fresh life (see GLEANER, September, 1882); now we hope Mr. Klein will be able to devote himself to the Mohammedans. writes as follows::

He

On our arrival we were very glad to be welcomed at the station by Miss Whately and the doctor of her dispensary. We have only had time hastily to look into part of Miss Whately's schools; but even this was quite sufficient to convince us that she is doing a good work here, and that her efforts are blessed by the Lord, and appreciated by the people. Most of my time is now constantly taken up by going about and looking at houses, and discussing this great question of the day; and here I again painfully feel that I am in the East and require a tenfold measure of patience; after half an hour here may mean after three or four hours; the morning extends to the evening; el yom (to-day) often means to-morrow; and bokra (to-morrow) in Arab parlance may mean any time in the future.

January 22nd, 1883.-We are now, thanks be to God, in our own home, camping somewhat like Bedouins till we get from Alexandria or procure from here the necessary furniture; but still we feel at home.

Very soon after my arrival here I received various letters from Native friends at Alexandria and other places, expressing their pleasure on the circumstance of our Society being about to begin a Mission in Egypt, and congratulating me on having come to this country in order to labour in this new field. Some of my former friends of Palestine, Arabs and proselytes, also an English soldier, who had been educated at the Jerusalem school, I occasionally met in the street; they all seem to do well and to remember their benefactors with gratitude. Some Syrian friends also called on me, and I trust I may be able to look after our Protestants of Palestine, who have come or may yet come to Egypt, in order to find their livelihood here, and make them feel that here also they have friends who take an interest in their welfare, and are ready to advise and assist them.

THE REV. VIRAVAGU VEDHANAYAGAM. MONG the now numerous Native clergy of South India (the Clergy List gives 127, viz., 88 C.M.S., and 39 S.P.G.), no one is more respected than the Rev. Viravagu Vedhanayagam, pastor of Vageikulam, Tinnevelly, and Chairman of the North Tinnevelly Native Church Council. Many of the present pastors are the children of Native Christian parents, but Mr. Vedhanayagam was born a heathen. He belonged to the high Vellala caste, which has, through the enlightening power of Divine grace, given many members to the Church of Christ. His conversion was indirectly a fruit of the work of a mission school. His brother (also now a clergyman) went as a heathen boy to a C.M.S. school, and there embraced the faith of Christ, but at first concealed the fact. After the parents were dead, this young man told his wife, two brothers, and sister; and through his influence they all became Christians. The little family circle has since increased to more than fifty souls, all members of the Church. The other brother is a merchant at Palamcotta. The sister, after most faithful service to the Mission, died in 1873.

Vedhanayagam was afterwards at Bishop Corrie's Grammar School at Madras, and was subsequently employed as a schoolmaster and catechist in the North Tinnevelly Mission, under Ragland, D. Fenn, Meadows, and W. Gray. On Dec. 21st, 1859, he and twelve other Tamil candidates (one of them being W. T. Satthianadhan) were admitted to holy orders together by Bishop Dealtry of Madras, who wrote at the time, "Never since the time of the Apostles has a Christian Bishop been privileged to take part in so solemn and interesting a service." Native ordinations were not so common then as they have become since. On the roll of C.M.S. Native clergy from the beginning Mr. Vedhanayagam stands No. 60; and the number is up to 310 now. The ceremony took place in the Rev. J. T. Tucker's large mission church at Paneivilei, and the sermon was preached by the veteran Rev. John Thomas, from the words, "It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful." And faithful have those Tamil clergymen proved-not the least of them Viravagu Vedhanayagam. For twenty-three years he has laboured zealously and with manifest blessing in the same field of North Tinnevelly; and now there is no English missionary there at all, but Mr. Vedhanayagam, as Chairman of the Church Council, superintends seven other Native clergymen and 94 lay agents, who minister to more than 5,000 Tamil Christians scattered among 195 villages.

On Sunday, the 14th, I held my first Arabic service in the large hall of Miss Whately's school-house, where I addressed the little audience on Rom. i. 16, on the Gospel of Christ, as being not a mere code of doctrines, but a power, the power of God, alone able to renew and sanctify the hearts and lives of individuals, and to regenerate nations. Last Sunday (21st) I had a large congregation of adults and children, most attentively listening to my address on the Parable of the Grain of Mustard Seed. The hall was full, and behind the curtain, which divides it into two parts, there were a number of Native ladies and girls.

Miss Whately and the medical missionary, a Syrian gentleman who accompanied her, are quite delighted with the opportunities they have found in some larger places up the Nile, of distributing copies of the Scriptures and tracts, and of preaching the Word of God to Copts and Moslems, and greatly encouraged me occasionally to go and see these people, who are most anxious to have schools opened for their children, and be themselves instructed in the Word of God. For the present, however, I think it will be better for me to become more acquainted with

Cairo and its population, and the opportunities offered here for preaching the Gospel, and to improve the opportunities for doing so in my immediate neighbourhood.

When the appeal for funds for our Egyptian Mission meets with due response, which I have no doubt will be the case now there is such a general interest taken in Egypt by our Christian friends in England, I daresay the Committee will be ready to extend the cords of the tent, and open schools in some of the larger neighbouring villages, as centres of evangelisation among the fellah population.

The Rev. R. R. Meadows, who has known Mr. Vedhanayagam for thirty years, writes of him :

Though born a heathen, he has been for many years a tried servant of Christ. His consistency of conduct and zeal for the Gospel are beyond all praise. His powers of organisation and ruling are considerable. His manner towards both heathens and Christians is loving and judicious. Born of high caste parents, he endeavours to be an impartial overseer over agents of other and lower parentage. He speaks and writes

English with a creditable degree of fluency and correctness.

A Servant's Offering.

IR,-I enclose four shillings worth of stamps for the Church Missionary Society; I am sorry I cannot send more, but I am only a servant. I hope to send some more when I take my next quarter's money; hope you will accept this small sum. I am almost ashamed to say this is the first time I have tried to help to send the Gospel to those who have never heard of a Loving Saviour; as I have, I want to try and do all that I can for them. My wages is only seven pound a year. L. D.