quite unconsciously helping her to think more of others, and to be ready and willing to go out of her way to help them. He was, in fact, giving Sasie her first taste of the great joy of doing kindnesses.

It was pleasant to see the old worn face light up at the sight of her, and to find that after all she was of some use in the world. And though sometimes she felt more inclined to go for a walk with Mildred, or to run in for a chat with Nona, than to spend an hour with the old man, she found it easier day by day to give up her own will and pleasure for his sake.

There was one thing, however, which she could not make up her mind to do, even though she knew how much pleasure it would give him. When Mrs. Venning had broached the subject of the missionary meeting to her, on the afternoon of the day on which Mr. North was taken ill, Sasie had shaken her head playfully, declaring that nothing in the world would induce her to try another. She had been once and did not like it, why should she go again? But here was old Mr. North taking for granted that she was going, and quite looking forward to the day, feeling sure Sasie would be able to tell him all about it.

"Sasie," he said one afternoon, just as she was preparing to leave him, "will you run in after the meeting to tell me about it ? "

"It is to-morrow afternoon, is it not?" asked Sasie, in order to avoid answering.

"Yes, at three o'clock. I hope we shall hear that God's work has been prospering."

Sasie was busy buttoning her gloves, and remained silent, hoping that in some way or other she would be able to escape the meeting without disappointing Mr. North.

"You will bring me news how much there is in my missionary box, won't you? Jessie tells me that all the boxes are to be sent into the Rectory to-day. Good-bye, my dear, you will come again soon ? "

As Sasie wended her way homewards the missionary meeting engaged her thoughts. Could she possibly get out of going without telling her old friend? But no-he was certain to ask her about it, and she could not tell him anything but the truth. And, after all, was there anything so very dreadful about a missionary meeting that she should not go? It was true that she had felt very sleepy the only time she had been to one, and tired of sitting still for so long, but surely she could bear with that for a short time, if by so doing she would be giving pleasure.

But then how surprised people would be to see her at a missionary meeting. She could imagine the Vennings raising their eyebrows when they heard of it. "Sasie Ogilvie at the missionary meeting!"

But what did it matter if they did?

So reasoned Sasie with herself, and finally decided that she would go, despite her friends' remarks and the probable dulness of the meeting. Sasie was not sorry when the following day, just as she was about to get ready for the meeting, callers were announced; she did not care about being early, as she wanted to be able to slip in and out as she felt inclined without being noticed, but the visitors having gone, she hurried on her hat and jacket, and set out.

She found that the chairman's address and the reading of the report were over, but that the first speaker had only just commenced.

It must be confessed that for the first few minutes Sasie did not attend to what he was saying, being engaged in looking round the room to see which of her friends were there, and catching sight of Nona's bonnet a few rows in front of her, a great many pleasant thoughts and fancies flitted across her mind. But the missionary, warming with his subject, at last caught her attention. There was something in his words and way of speaking that interested her-something in the history of his zealous and persevering labours under the countless discouragements he had had to undergo that sent a thrill of admiration through her, and convinced her that this brave soldier in God's army believed in and loved his Captain with his whole heart. His post was no easy one to fill, and seeing so little apparent result of his labours would have disheartened many a weaker man; but his faith in God and his intense love for souls supported him, and he spoke with an enthusiasm that found its echo in Sasie's heart.

The close of this speech was unheard by Sasie. Her heart was filled with a great longing to know and love this brave servant's Master. How could she find Him? who would tell her about Him? Before the second

address commenced Sasie slipped out, and slowly wended her way homewards. How she longed for help! Should she go round by Nona's house, wait there till she returned, and ask her advice?

But no, her very love for Nona made her feel a little shy of her. Then the thought of old Mr. North crossed her mind. Could he help her? Sasie felt intuitively that he would at least understand and sympathise with her, so she turned in the direction of Mrs. Caston's house.

CONVERSIONS IN CEYLON.

T has pleased God during the past year to call out to His faith and service no less than eight young students in Trinity College, Kandy, Ceylon. Of five of these, who came out nearly together just at the close of the year, the Principal, the Rev. J. G. Garrett, writes:

The whole five boys are the ones I would have pointed out as the least likely to be influenced of all our flock. The wildest of all was made a chief instrument in leading two of the others to confess the name of Jesus; after first being seized by the hair, and getting twelve black weals from his father's stick on the back, for "disgracing him and his people and his nation by forsaking Buddhism." And strange to say the father's anger was in the first instance roused and kindled against him by these very two of his class-fellows who afterwards were won by his holy conversation. The other two, making up the five, were the very head boys in our College class. Their conversion has caused a good deal of surprise among their friends, their fathers being in each case most determined Buddhists in their own districts, very distant parts of the island from here. Of one of them, I read in a local paper a few days ago, that in a large meeting near his father's village, where he had gone for the holidays, "he boldly confessed and declared to his kith and kin what the Lord had done for his soul. The thrilling account of his conversion, and his earnest appeal to the audience, were listened to with rapt attention. The young man is subject at present to his father's frown, which means to him heavy worldly loss; but he has learned to deny the world for Christ's sake."

The Rev. E. M. Griffiths, of Jaffna, in the extreme north of the island, writes of the conversion of two Tamil gentlemen of good position, one of them being an official in the local court, and the other having been the hereditary manager of a famous Hindu temple. Both have had to Of the latter undergo severe domestic persecution for Christ's sake. he writes:

He attributes his conversion to early impressions of the truth, received in the Mission School some thirty years ago, and to these impressions being revived by the persevering and prayerful efforts of the catechist. He had the opposition of his wife and a large circle of heathen friends to withstand. The catechist visited him frequently during this struggle, and he often found him quietly reading his Bible in solitude. A public ceremony was performed in the temple over which he was manager only a few days after his conversion. On missing him from the temple for the first time his relatives were very angry. The wife kept at home, and wept as one who had lost her husband. Devil-dancers, on the other hand, uttered curses, and predicted an ill-fate to him within a certain time. But, thanks be to God, no attempts of whatever kind on the part of the great adversary moved him from the faith. He was enabled with great fortitude and patience to endure the trial. All this has had a good effect upon the wife. She acknowledges the wonderful power of the Word of God, and though a bitter enemy a few months ago, she will now calmly listen to the Scriptures being read by her husband; and a short time ago, when the colporteur was passing with books, she bought a copy of St. John's Gospel for her servant, that by reading it he might become, she said, "as good as her husband."

"Gospel Trophies."

To the Editor.

EAR SIR,-In the interesting account, under the above heading, of "Old Asirvatham, of Surandei," in the May number of the GLEANER, there is one slight inaccuracy, which you wil, perhaps, kindly allow me to rectify. It is qui e correct that he was prepared for baptism by the late Rev. David Fenn, but he was actually baptized by myself, shortly after I had assumed temporary charge of the mission district of Surandei, in the year 1861. I always regarded him as a sincere and humble-minded Christian; and I need hardly add that I rejoice to hear, on the testimony of the Rev. uviseshamuttu Swamidasen, that the end of this good man's life was so thoroughly in accordance with the beginning of his Christian career.

H. DIXON,

Assistant Chaplain, Lock Hospital,

and former Missionar zin Tinnevelly.

CANON TRISTRAM.

UR readers will be glad to have a portrait of the wellknown and much-respected clergyman who preached the Church Missionary Sermon at St. Bride's this year. The roll of preachers of that Annual Sermon for the last eighty-three years contains some of the noblest names in the modern history of the Church of England -T. Scott, Simeon, Cecil, Venn, Legh Richmond, Cunningham, Bickersteth, Professor Scholefield, Close, Stowell, McNeile, C. Bridges, Champneys, Miller; Bishops Corrie, D. Wilson, Sumner, Blomfield, Pelham, Villiers, Tait, Longley, Waldegrave, Baring, and many others still living; and the present Bishop of Rochester, three or four years ago, said that to occupy St. Bride's pulpit on that occasion was "one of the greatest honours that can be put on a clergyman." But perhaps not one of that long succession of good men (unless we except E. Bickersteth) has done more hard personal and practical work for the Society than the preacher of this year. For seventeen years Canon Tristram has held the office of Association Secretary for the counties of Durham and Northumberland; and in that time the annual contributions from those two counties have risen from about £2,400 to about £4,400. Notwithstanding the many calls upon the time of a man holding so leading a position both in Church movements of all kinds in the North of England, and in scientific and literary circles-notwithstanding his occupations as a Canon of Durham, as a member of Convocation, as a popular scientific lecturer, as a voluminous author, and upon scores of Committees -Dr. Tristram has contrived year by year to preach almost as many sermons and attend almost as many meetings on be

great results might have been hoped for from his energetic labours; but the Society would have lost one of its most untiring workers at home.

Dr. Tristram's C.M.S. sermon on April 30th was one of rare power and eloquence. The text was 2 Kings iii. 16, 17-" Thus saith the Lord, Make this valley full of ditches. For thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not see wind, neither shall ye see rain; yet that valley shall be filled with water." He pictured the dry valleys of Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Brahmanism, &c., with no water in them-no living water for the soul's thirst. Yet there we are to "dig ditches," to prepare the way of the Lord; and although we may see no signs of the "wind" and "rain" that shall fill them, they surely shall, in God's own time, overflow with the water of life. We give one passage from the

sermon below; but we hope our readers will all read it in the Annual Report.

The portrait we give was an admirable one when it was engraved three years ago. It now hardly does justice to the "hoary head' that appeared at St. Bride's; but in other respects it is excellent.

ISLAM AND THE C.M.S.

SLAM is the religion of the

Mohammedans. The Church Mis

sionary Society comes in contact with it in its six African Mission fields, Sierra Leone, Yoruba, Niger, East Africa, Nyanza, Egypt; in Palestine and Persia; in its four great Indian fields, North, South, West, and the Punjab; and even in Ceylon and Mauritius. On the opposite page we see one of the most familiar sights in Mohammedan cities, the muezzin's call to prayer at the regular "prayerhours." It is a call to worship Allah. The missionary also calls the Moslem to worship; but it is to worship God in ChristFather, Son, and Spirit-Three Persons in One God. "No man cometh unto the Father but by Me." "Through Him we have access by one Spirit unto the Father."

half of the C.M.S. as might have been expected from him it all his time had been engaged for it; while his hospitable house under the shadow of the great cathedral has been the headquarters whence missionaries and deputations innumerable have gone forth day after day to advocate the missionary cause in the towns and villages of the County of Durham.

In one respect Canon Tristram has done unique service. His intimate knowledge of the Holy Land has made him the chief authority in England upon Missions there and in the East generally; and his influence has done much to help forward the large extension of the C.M.S. Palestine Mission in recent years. If he had seen his way to accept the Anglican Bishopric of Jerusalem, offered him by Lord Beaconsfield four years ago,

We would call attention to the following passages from the Annual Sermon and Annual Report, about Islam and the C.M.S.:The Dry Valleys or Mohammedanism.

(From Canon Tristram's Sermon at St. Bride's, April 30th, 1883. See above.)

We go to the Mohammedan world, to those mighty valleys with which the old Eastern world is scored and seamed-valleys where overflowed the stream of the water of life, but now only furrowed by the ancient water

courses of a degenerate and then desiccated Christianity. . . . . It is the fashion among some of the wise of this world to prophesy the regeneration of Islam. We cannot descry the signs of that coming dawn. The system appeals to nothing spiritual in man's nature. There is not a word of God's holiness, or of His hatred of sin. There is no idea of man's sinful state by nature, nor of the guilt of sin, per se. It has no quarrel with human nature as it is, and it makes no demand for an inward regeneration. It prescribes a very lenient morality; its ritual exercises the body rather than the mind, the memory rather than the soul. The rewards of its paradise are of the earth, earthy, sensuous and sensual. There is nothing here to reform. There is no sign of a hidden life in these desiccated wadies; there is not even a straggling pa'm-tree here and there, which bas struck its roots deep enough to find a hidden moisture, enabling it to retain life in the midst of the wilderness of death. There is no hope of success in striking an arte-ian well, which shall reach some hidden source of spiritual Moslem life, and regenerate the surface. There is no recuperative power in a decaying creed which touches neither heart nor conscience, which awakes no sense of sin or yearning after holiness, which does not even touch the intellect, for its devotion is simply mechanical. If it had, however obscured or hidden by vain traditions, like the old Churches of the East, a Saviour and a Redeemer, whose promises and words might be exhumed from amidst a mass of corruption, there might be regeneration. But it has nothing to offer the awakened or anxious soul. The mystic Sufi seeks rest in vain, for out of Christ he cannot find it. The valley is dry-nor well nor stream is there. "Make this valley full of ditches"-"prepare ye the way of the Lord "-" and in the morning it shall be filled with water."

But it is not yet morning. For twelve hundred years Christendom never touched the Moslem. No trench was ever dug in that dry valley. The crusader met him with his own weapons, and he failed. And yet we in this century have hardly scratched the surface. Still some big drops have fallen, presage of the coming waters. From Abdul Masih-te fruit of Henry Martyn's labours, the first Moslem convert, ordained fifty years ago, and our first native Missionary-to the Imad-ud-Din and Ahmed Tewfik of to-day, Christ has given to His Church souls for her hire, snatched from the death of Islam.

And to the lands of the Crescent, though late in the world's history, though the shades of evening be coming on, the Church Missionary Society now goes, not like some guerilla band, to devastate a country she has no intention of occupying, but, like Isaac and Israel, to sink the wells of permanent settlement.

In no less than five of these dry lands has she begun to dig-in Palestine, in India, in Africa, at last in Persia, and now once more in Egypt. Has not the Lord summoned us? In Palestine we have to win back the very earliest of the conquests of Islam, and we have to dig in the face of enemies with our sword girded on our side. Yet even here the water begins to flow. The first difficulties have been overcome. Prejudice has so far yielded that the Word is listened to, the scriptural school is no longer under a ban; and when an attentive ear has been gained, the ground is ready for the reception of the seed. Still we labour under a hostile rule. Egypt calls us once more. In its present circumstances, and with the flag of England unfurled there, where rings out more clearly the command to occupy, emphasized by the pledge that "Princes shall come out of Egypt; Ethiopia shall soon stretch out her hands unto God"? May the veteran and the neophyte who have just entered on the pioneer work be but the first in a long and rapidly expanding list of the toilers who shall make the highway to the Eastern world an highway for our God!

Work in the Mohammedan Lands.

(From the Society's Annual Report.)

The Committee feel that a peculiar responsibility rests upon the Church Missionary Society to care for the Mohammedan population of the globe. That section of the human race answers in a special sense to the phrase "the East," which forms part of the Society's full title. And while it is painfully true that the Church of Christ has done little indeed for the evangelization of the Moslem world, it is not less true that the C.M.S. is at the present time more largely engaged in that work than any other society-probably more than all other societies together. It is a work of exceptional difficulty, a work calling for very special faith and patience. Even in India, where religious liberty is secured by British rule, the Moslem population have proved the hardest to reach, although it has plea-ed G d to gather from among them many eminent converts, and in the past year to vouchsafe conspicuous blessing to the efforts put forth for their salvation, as will appear presently. But in countries where Islam is the state religion, as in the Turkish Empire and Persia, the profession of Christianity by a Mohammedan involves him in peril of his life, and conversions have been few and far between. Neverti eless, the Committee feel it to be their solemn duty to hold up the banner of Christ even in land like these. In this conviction they have much developed the Society's Palestine Mission in recent years; they have supported Dr. Bruce in his courageous enterprise in Persia; and they have in the past year essayed, in dependence on the guidance and protection of the Most High

the occupation of Bagdad and of Egypt. They accept it as a token for good that Mr. Klein has been joined, since his arrival at Cairo, by that remarkable Turkish convert whom God graciously gave to the Society's Constantinople Mission even after it was formally closed, the distinguished Ulema, John Ahmed Tew fik; and they earnestly pray that the Lord will give him favour in the eyes of his former co-religionists.

Some Mohammedan Converts in India.
(From the Society's Annual Report.)

In the past year there have been signal instances of the power of truth upon Mohammedans. In Krishnagar a profound sensation has been created by the baptism of four Moslems, who have had to undergo much suffering, the house of one being set on fire, and the wife of another carried off. At Bombay, Mr. Deimler has twelve under instruction for baptism, and he has besides baptized one young man from Aurangabad, sent to him by the Rev. Ruttonji Nowroji. This convert's father and uncle are maulvis in the Goveroment service, and he has forsaken home and family and friends to follow Christ. A learned Persian munshi, at Allahabad, after repeatedly rejecting the approaches of a Christian maulvi there, was found by him one day weeping, and on being asked why, replied, "For my sins," and pointed to a Persian New Testament which had been left with him as the source of his knowledge of his sins. He was baptized on Christmas Day.

THE MISSIONARY'S MOTTO.

An ox standing between a plough and an altar, with the words underneath," Ready for either!"

EADY to fight for Jesus,

Rb

If the trumpet call resounds, And the rallying hosts of evil Fill earth's great battle grounds. Ready to raise His banner

'Mid the foeman's fiercest din, Or ready to die in His service If Death win the day for Him! Ready to speak for Jesus,

If He needs a human tongue To tell out the wondrous story

That from age to age has rung: With never a thought of laurel,

And never a hope of gain; Content to be just an echo

Of His matchless love to men.
Ready to work for Jesus,

If work be His will for me,
By swift and loving service
Proving my loyalty;
Stooping to lift a burden,
Or offering sympathy,
Thankful to share with angels
Earth's happy ministry.

And ready to sit down silent,

To lie at His wounded feet, If service and speech be denied me By His will supremely sweet: Ready to suffer for Jesus,

If suffering bring Him praise, If He may but win fresh glory, Thro' my weary, weary days. Ready to give to Jesus

My life, my love, my all! If my heart, alert and eager, Hear His sweet constraining call; Never a thing withholding

That He stoops to ask of me, Giving my choicest treasures With a glad heart, willingly. Ready to wait for Jesus,

If He wills to tarry long, Whiling away the watch-night

With soft and heaven-born song; Watching each pale star waning

Ere the golden glory-dawn [ness, Floods earth and sky with brightAnd crowns Christ's coming morn. EVA TRAVERS EVERED POOLE.

LISTEN!

True Stories from Fuh-Chow. BY A LADY MISSIONARY.

IV.

ROM that courtyard we went into another even smaller and more dismal, until the shades of evening told us it was time to return to the house and prepare for our evening classes. As we were passing a few houses, an old woman ran out and begged us to go in and see her daughter-in-law very ill. We told her we knew nothing of medicine, and therefore it was no use for us to go. "Oh! do come," she pleaded, and we went. We passed a mere passage of a room, evidently the living room, into the tiniest bedroom I was ever in. There was hardly standing-room for four people, yet the inmates crowded in, and we were packed together, inhaling each other's breath, and getting any amount of vermin on us. This we accepted as inevitable, and inquired into the nature of the young woman's sickness. Poor frail thing, she had only been married about six months, and lay dying of con

sumption, we thought. As we could do nothing but recommend a foreign doctor, we left after a few words with the sick one, promising to send for a doctor at once. We returned home and wrote for a physician; it was rather late when the doctor came, and we went together. The people had given up watching for our return, and when we got into this room there were six men and women sleeping there! and the atmosphere perfectly dense with poisoned air. The doctor said at once the invalid must be removed early next day to the hospital, and privately informed me that the case was a very doubtful one. Early next morning, before commencing school duties, I ran over to the house to make the necessary arrangements; and in the afternoon, when school was finished, I went to the hospital and found the woman very exhausted. She remained there for about ten days; and the husband, on learning that his wife could not get better, wished her to return home with him. Poor woman, she wanted to get well; she seemed to cling tenaciously to this life, and eagerly listened when I told her of an everlasting life she might enjoy by trusting Jesus. She was taken back to the tiny bedroom and died in a few days.

It is in such wretched hovels as these that infanticide is kept up so extensively. It has been quite a common answer, when I have asked a mother how many children she has destroyed, "No children" (meaning boys), "but three girls," or "four," as the case has been. The Chinese are very much interested in the fact that girls are valued in England quite as much and, by some parents, even more than boys. My teacher was one day reading the book of Exodus with me, and while reading the first chapter said the translators had made a great mistake. I compared my English version with the Chinese, but failed to detect the mistake. Why, do you not hear," he said, "they ordered the boys to be drowned?" "Yes," I answered. "It could not have been boys, they must have meant girls," he continued. "Oh no," I said, "it is correct according to this book." But he would not be convinced-either the translators were wrong, or the people in those days very idiotic. I saw some little bones lying on the billside bleaching in the sun one day; some women were near, and I began conversing with them about the cruelty of the act. They could not see it as I did. If the girls were allowed to live they had not food enough for them. "But," I argued, "if they had been boys food would have been forthcoming." "Oh yes," they admitted that, "because boys would always have to provide for their mothers, while girls would be betrothed into another family and never repay the money spent on their food and clothing." There is filial piety taught to children, and they are bound by law to practise it, but I saw very little natural affection among the heathen. When the people become converted they are entirely changed in this respect; not only do they save the lives of all their little ones, no matter how poor they may be, but they love them and cherish them. I have known rich Chinese drown their little ones, and educated people care as little for their offspring as the poor. Yes, Christianity is the one thing needful" for China.

This has been rather a dark and gloomy picture, yet even it has its encouraging aspects. Take the Light of Life into these darkened cells day after day. Some will be taught of the Holy Spirit to accept God's gracious invitation. And then the change. Poor in this world they may be, but rich in faith, sorely tried faith, and therefore all the more precious. Now will not some of the readers of the GLEANER answer the Master's "Who will go ?" with "Send me"? And you who abide by the stuff at home, surrounded with cleanliness and friends, if not ease and comfort, will you not give of your substance? Give your all to Jesus. Let Him be the Master, and use these worldly possessions, which He has placed at your disposal, as He pleases. Jesus is coming very soon, and these vessels of "gold, silver, and copper" will be of no use then! M. FAGG.

SIX SHILLINGS TURNED INTO SIX POUNDS. IN the month of November of last year an Annual Meeting was held in the Central Schoolroom of a mother parish in Yorkshire. After the opening hymn and prayer, the local Secretary was called upon to read the report for the past year. Among the sums contributed was an item of six shillings from a poor village, a detached district of the mother parish over which a curate had recently been appointed to labour. Towards the close of the meeting this said curate was called upon to speak, and in doing so took occasion to allude to the small sum of six shillings contributed by his district; and remarked that although the people were poor and he had laboured but a short time amongst them, yet he was so sanguine of their self-denying generosity and zeal in the cause, that if a deputation could be sent to their mission room to preach sermons, and hold a meeting, and thus awaken an interest in the Society's work, the six shillings would be turned into six ponnds for the ensuing year. This was done accordingly. Sermons were preached, collections made, missionary boxes sent out, and subscriptions sought for; and the result has been six pounds and a little over.

It is worthy of notice that these hard-working people have been struggling with a debt upon their mission rooms for the past eighteen months, and have made many praiseworthy efforts to remove it, yet notwithstanding their debt they willingly denied themselves for the Church Missionary Society the moment their interest was awakened; and they are resolved to do even still more in the future. Does not this show that where zeal and enthusiasm is put into the work how much can be accomE. G. F. plished even in places comparatively insignificant ?

GLIMPSES OF MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE. LETTERS FROM THE REV. W. ALLAN.

[The Rev. W. Allan, Vicar of St. James's, Bermondsey, is an active member of the C.M.S. Committee. He has been visiting Palestine, and the following extracts from his letters to the Society are wonderfully interesting and encouraging.] JAFFA, March 15th, 1883. HAVE inspected the work at Jaffa, Ramleh, Lydd, and Abud, and I cannot tell you how pleased and surprised, how delighted, I am with almost all that I have seen. I am perfectly amazed at the amount of scriptural knowledge, both on the text and doctrines of the Bible, which the children possess, and which far surpasses anything that I have ever met with in any school in England. In spite of the excellent reports which the children of my own national schools at Bermondsey obtain year by year from the Inspector, they would be nowhere in a competition with the boys of Ramleh and Lydd. I imagine that the Committee have as little idea as I had of the intimate acquaintance which the children have already acquired of the Bible, Catechism, Articles, &c., and of the extent to which they are committing them to memory. At Ramleh, a Mohammedan boy gave a most graphic description of the history of Sisera, Deborah, and Barak; and another, also a Mohammedan, of the history of Samson; sometimes quoting the very words of Scripture, and at others using their own, accompanied by natural gestures, indicating how fully they were entering into the subject, and drawing forth by their animated style occasional smiles from their teacher and school-fellows.

In every school they seemed to understand the way of salvation clearly, and only to need the Spirit's quickening grace to make the Word effectual. It seemed to me as if, so far, the Native teachers had done their part of the work, and as if what remained to be accomplished depended almost as much upon us at home as upon those in the field, I mean fervent intercession for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost.

Another feature which has struck me powerfully, is the close attention with which all, children and adults, listen to the religious instruction given them. In all the schools, but more especially in Abud, which has been less favoured than the others, inasmuch as there had been no school of any kind in the place until three years ago, the zest with which they lis'ened to what was said, and answered the questions put, and the sparkling eyes and animated countenances with which they drank it all in, were most touching, and almost made me weep with joy. No fewer than seven of the fathers of the children came into the Abud school, and squatted in a row against the wall listening with interest to the proceedings.

GAZA, March 17th.

Speaking generally, about one-fourth of those who attend the schools, services, and mothers' meeting are Moslems. To these Gaza is a notable exception, for there all the sixty who attend the mothers' meeting, on Monday for Bible reading, and on Wednesday for sewing, are Moslems. I was present at this meeting. A panic had arisen, as it often does