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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.

İn 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 God 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. Nevertheless, 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 Government 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,

RE

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,

It 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 exhausted. She remained there for about ten days; and the very 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

SIX SHILLINGS TURNED INTO SIX POUNDS. N 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 ponuds 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 accomplished even in places comparatively insignificant ? E. G. F.

the fact that girls are valued in England quite as much and, by GLIMPSES OF MISSIONARY WORK IN PALESTINE.

66

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 hillside 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.

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. Í 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 listened 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

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among them, owing to a report having been spread that a person (myself) had come to take them to England, where they would be killed, so that the attendance was less than usual; still there were over thirty, and they entered with lively interest into the animated and fluent explanation of Scripture given by Mrs. Schapira's admirable, amiable, and lady-like worker, Mrs. Jokander. I visited also each of the four schools, finding altogether 137 actually present, sixty-three of whom were Moslems. The scholars repeated in English the hymn, "Pass me not, O gentle Saviour," and sang in Arabic, "How sweet the name of Jesus sounds," &c.

JERUSALEM, March 28th. On Easter-day there was an excellent congregation and thirty-eight communicants. I have inspected the Orphanage and Præparandi Institution, and catechised the scholars and young men. I could find little or nothing to criticise, and much to admire-I mean in the arrangements for the two institutions, and in the wonderful acquirements of the pupils.

More than half the children in the Orphanage seemed not only able to speak and read, but to think in English, and poured forth with almost too great volubility the most copious stores of knowledge, on all portions of Scripture and all the doctrines of Christianity, even when I catechised on the Epistle to the Galatians. I never beard in any school in my life, or in any examination, such an amount of head-knowledge exhibited. Still there were traces of their answers having been all learned by rote, so I proceeded to question and cross-question them, and the result showed that they had a considerable amount of intelligent acquaintance with the meaning of what they had been saying, though not so much as appeared on the surface. I am speaking, it must be remembered, of their examination in English; when they were questioned in Arabic, they appeared to answer in a different style altogether, I mean with a perfect comprehension of what they were talking about.

In the Præparandi the instruction is chiefly conducted in Arabic, but as most of the students know English, I was able to examine them also, and the result was most satisfactory.

THE VIA DOLOROSA, JERUSALEM.

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THE HENRY WRIGHT" STEAMER.

E are now able to give a sketch, as promised, of the Mission Steamer Henry Wright, the launch of which, on March 10th, has been already mentioned in the GLEANER, and which sailed for East Africa on May 5th. On the day before she started, a small party of friends, including Mrs. Wright and some of her family, assembled on board, in the East India Docks, and held a little prayer-meeting to dedicate the ship to the service of God, and to pray for His gracious care of her on the voyage out, and in years to come upon the African coast. One interesting circumstance was that all the C.M.S. African Missions were represented in the little gathering:-Sierra Leone by the Rev. J. Hamilton, Yoruba and Niger by the Rev. J. B. Wood, Frere Town by Mr. Handford, the Nyanza Mission by Mr. Copplestone and Mrs. Hannington; while Mauritius and the former C.M.S. Mission in Madagascar had their representative also in the Rev. T. Campbell.

The following is a technical description of the steamer :Dimensions: length between perpendiculars, 80 feet; breadth, extreme, 16 feet; depth in

hold, 8 feet 6 inches; draft of water, 7 feet 3 inches. The vessel is composite-built, having iron frames and wood planking, principally of teak, the whole being secured with gunmetal bolts. The bottom is sheathed with pure copper. She has a teak deck, and all the woodwork above water is of that material, to stand the heat of a tropical climate. She is divided into four watertight compartments-the foremost one in case of collision, the next for accommodation of crew (consisting of seven natives and two Europeans); abaft this the machinery and coal; the after compartment being fitted for the accommodation of two ladies

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some degree appreciate. What he was in that true simplicity and gentleness of character which he combined with faithful adherence to the truth, and with a power of saying the right thing and doing it, which, as has been remarked before, amounted almost to genius, I shall not here attempt to portray. It must be our care, each of us, to keep alive those sacred memories as an example and an encouragement, to ourselves and to those who shall come after us, to walk as he walked, to work as he worked, and to follow him even as he followed Christ.

It was said on one of the greatest occasions of antiquity, "The illustrious dead have the whole world for their resting-place," and certainly, wherever the Gospel is preached by the agency of the Church Missionary Society throughout the whole world, there the memory of Henry Wright will be always honoured and beloved; but his friends could hardly be satisfied without giving practical expression to their sense of the loss they had sustained, by some tribute of remembrance and affection which should have for its object the active promotion of missionary work. What form their offering should take, and what should be the sphere of its operation, were felt to be questions to be decided by what might be judged to have been his desire. Queen Mary it was who said that when she died "Calais" would be found engraved on her heart; and so we might say it was with Henry Wright in regard to Africa. Africa had been the first object of Church Missionary effort, and to Africa attention was again chiefly directed during the time of his secretariat. In old days it was the West Coast where the work was carried on. Now the discoveries of Livingstone and Stanley, and the increased activity of our cruisers, had turned men's

THE HENRY WRIGHT MEMORIAL STEAMER, FOR THE C.M.S. EAST AFRICAN MISSIONS.

in a cabin, also a captain's cabin and a saloon. She will be rigged as a schooner.

We think the readers of the GLEANER will like to have Sir John Kennaway's speech at the launch on March 10, which we were unable to give in our April number. He said

I have been requested to give an address on this occasion, but my words must necessarily be few. First because, as you know, tide waits for no man, and next because it would be cruel to detain you under these snowy skies, exposed to blasts that certainly seem to come straight "from Greenland's icy mountains." And indeed it would seem almost unnecessary that anything should be said to-day, when the memories of him whose name that vessel is to bear are so tender and so deep in our hearts, and when we see everywhere in the Missions the fruits of his labours and the evidences of his thoughtful care. But along with all this, the tide of human life runs so fast, and the press of daily work is so absorbing, that it may be well but for a few moments to carry our thoughts back to that sad August day when the Form of the Master came walking over the waters of Coniston Lake, to call to Himself the servant who was spending and being spent in His blessed service. What Henry Wright was to those who knew and loved Him-to the Church Missionary Society-to the cause of Christ and His Church throughout the world-we can in

thoughts to the East Coast. There was the call to Uganda, and the opportunities offered by the settlement of liberated slaves at Frere Town. We all know what has been done there; at what a cost of life the seed has been sown; how in spite of this-yea, rather, how in consequence of it-the fruit is beginning to show; and here then seemed to be the fittest sphere for the memorial of him to whose inception and to whose liberality the work was SO largely due. But what as to the form to be taken? There was this to guide us. It was known that he would not have wished an accumulation of hoarded treasure, but something

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which in its entirety should be giving effect and impetus to the carrying on of the work to which he gave his life. The Highland Lassie which Shergold Smith took out to the East Coast in 1876 was the gilt of Henry Wright and his family, but the Highland Lassie is no longer sufficient for the work, and so the idea was taken up and began to grow which has found expression in that form of beauty about to spring into life which we see before us to-day, and which we hope would best have satisfied his wishes and his prayers as a means to the great end that " Africa may be

won to Christ."

The steamer has cost £5,550, which has all been raised by special gifts, but the Society will have to expend £1,250 in placing her, fully fitted up, at Zanzibar. Of the £5,550 a large part has come in small sums from all parts of the country, and indeed of the world. Sunday-school children, widows, domestic servants, and persons entirely anonymous, have poured in their willing and loving contributions. Will they now pray for the vessel they have helped to provide, that she may be "sanctified,

and meet for the Master's use"?

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