OVER THE WATER.

BY EVELYN R. GARRATT.

CHAPTER XI.-CALLED.

UT Leith Lancaster was not at ease.

He returned to London the day after he had proposed to Sasie, and though he left a diamond ring on her finger as a token that she belonged to him, and began to draw pictures in his mind of the home he would prepare for

her, he was not happy.

Before many days were over his face wore an anxious, perplexed expression, and loss of appetite and sleepless nights began to tell their tale.

He wrote to Sasie every day, and received letters in return; but after reading them he would sit with his arms on the table, and his hands thrust through his hair, and then would suddenly push back his chair, and pace the room with knitted brows and compressed lips, looking as though he were going through some great mental struggle; it generally ended with his falling on his knees and praying.

"I can keep it to myself no longer," he exclaimed one day aloud, "Sasie must be told." And then he packed his portmanteau, and started for Inglesby by the afternoon train.

"This is the second time within the last month that you've taken me by surprise," exclaimed his mother, with a kiss of welcome, "but I suppose I must expect these erratic movements on your part in future;" but a keener look at Leith checked the smile on his mother's face, and she added quickly, "You are not well, Leith."

"I have something to tell Sasie," he said, earnestly, " and I want you to pray for her."

"Come into the drawing-room; you must have some tea before you tell me."

"No, nothing for me till I've made a clean breast of it," said Leith, following his mother mechanically. "I have been a sinner, mother." Mrs. Lancaster turned round startled.

"The fact is," explained Leith, sitting down, "I have been turning away from my duty, and have tried hard not to listen to God's voice. He has been calling me, I believe, for months."

Calling you, Leith ?"

"Yes; I think I am not mistaken in thinking that my life work is to be abroad."

Mrs. Lancaster's heart sank.

"But," continued Leith, "a doubt as to whether Sasie would agree to it has made a coward of me, and when her father talked of our settling in London and being comparatively near, I felt it would be nearly hopeless to ask for Sasie if I told him that I meant to live and work as a missionary. I dared not tell either of them, and hoped that the fact of Sasie's love would so fill my thoughts as to make me forget my call." "And you feel certain that it will be right for you to give up all your former plans and hopes, Leith?"

"Don't tempt me, little mother. I dare not think of what my duty will be if Sasie or her father object. You must pray for us, mother." "For us!' Do not I need praying for as much if not more than either of them?" thought Mrs. Lancaster, with an inward groan. Leith rose. "I can't rest till the matter is settled. I will be back soon." And without another word he was gone, leaving his mother staring blankly after him. That evening Nona Lancaster prayed from her heart for strength to say, "Thy will be done."

Leith need not have feared what Sasie's answer would be. Her love for him was far too strong to allow of there being a single question as to whether she would go to the world's end with him or not. So long as she was with him, working by his side, what did it matter as to place and country? indeed, she could only rejoice when she heard he was thinking of going out as a missionary.

And as they sat talking in the twilight by the schoolroom fire, they drew bright pictures of a future home in India or Africa, and forgot all for the moment, save their happy day dream.

"But," said Sasie, suddenly, "I wonder what my father will say ?" "Yes, there's your father," said Leith, gravely.

66

Well, the sooner he is told the better. Had you not better have a

talk with him at once, Leith? You will find him in the study, and I will wait here for you."

Sasie had to wait longer than she anticipated. At last, at the sound of Leith's footsteps in the hall, she sprang up and met him at the door. One look at his face was sufficient to tell her the consequence of his talk.

"It is just as I feared; he won't hear of it, and says I must choose between you and what he calls this absurd notion of mine." Sasie stood as if rooted to the spot.

"He says you are far too young, and that if I insist upon going, I must go alone."

"You can't go alone," murmured Sasie.

"If," continued Leith, "in five years' time you are still of the same mind he may possibly allow it, but that is all the comfort he gives us." Suddenly clasping her hands over his arm, Sasie looked up anxiously into his face, with the words, "Then you 'll be content to work in England, won't you, Leith dear? There are a great many heathen in London, who need missionaries just as much as those in India and Africa. You won't go away without me?"

"How can I?" he said slowly, looking down at her upturned face. "We will work together in London," continued Sasie, eagerly, "and will think no more of India or Africa."

"Work together in London." Ah! how sweet it sounded! Would not his mother be pleased? Leith was silent for a moment, only the workings of his face showed the struggle which was going on within. His voice was unnaturally quiet when he spoke. "Would you marry a coward, Sasie ? "

"But," cried Sasie, covering her face in her hands, "how can I help you to be brave when I am a coward myself? How can I say go, when my whole heart says stay ?"

"I'm expecting too much from you, Sasie. You are right; the only thing we can do is to pray for strength."

“Yes, pray, Leith; but do not ask me to be brave.”

It was a silent good-bye, and Leith went out into the darkness, hardly knowing what he was doing, and all the way home he kept thinking of the words,." He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me." He paced up and down the garden for a long time before going in to see his mother.

Meanwhile Mrs. Lancaster sat watching and waiting for him; it was a relief at last to hear a door open and Leith's footstep in the hall. She went to meet him, but reading all in his face, she was not surprised at his hurried kiss, after which he ran upstairs, shutting the door after him.

Sasie stood where Leith had left her for some moments without moving, and then suddenly a thought struck her. Leith bad failed with her father, but why should she? He was very fond of her, and many a time a little coaxing on her part had made him alter a decision on less important subjects. She would go and pray him to change his mind. Hope rose in her heart as she made her way to his study, and knocking at the door, found him standing with his back to the fire meditating.

"Well, Sasie, my dear, whatever has put this new idea into Leith's head? Wants to go out to the blacks he tells me, and take you with him. I've never heard of such an idea, and the sooner he changes his mind the better, or he must put off all thoughts of marrying you for the next five years at least."

"Don't you think you could change your mind, father, for once?" said Sasie, coaxingly.

"Eh! what? Change my mind," said Mr. Ogilvie, playfully pinching Sasie's cheek; "why, what do these red eyes mean, little puss?"

But Sasie only grew more earnest. "Five years is such a long time to wait," she said, tremblingly.

"Nonsense, my dear, if a man can't wait five years for his bride he isn't worth much. Think of Jacob-seven years, wasn't it, in that case ? → "Oh, it isn't that," said Sasie, eagerly, “he would wait any number of years for me, I know, only

"Only what?"

"Why we may be dead in five years' time," said Sasie, with a sob, "or anything might happen."

*

"Tut and nonsense," said Mr. Ogilvie, a vexed look crossing his goodhumoured face, for if one thing vexed him it was to see tears. "Five years will be over before you know, and if your love can't bear the test, I can't say much for it."

"It would bear any test."

66

'Very well then, if that's the case you need not worry; and all the tears in the world wouldn't alter my decision. I'm not going to let you go out to the heathen before you've seen a little more of your fellowcountrymen, and take my word for it that Leith Lancaster isn't the only nice young man in England. You ought to see others before you decide. 'Marry in haste,' and what's the end of the proverb? And if all goes well in five years' time, you'll be sailing away to those blacks you're so fond of with my blessing; till then you must wait patiently. Don't you think I love you enough to know what is best for you, or do you think your father is a dreadful old tyrant ?

"No," said Sasie, "I would never think that; " but as she left the room the faint smile which had risen at his words faded from her face.

Ella Venning did not die. As the days passed she slowly recovered her strength, though the doctors had not been mistaken in saying she would be a cripple for life.

For life! The words had fallen upon Ella's ears like a death knell. To know that though winter would change to summer, weeks into months, months into years, she would still remain a cripple, and would never be like other girls again.

"I would rather die,” she moaned at first, when the truth was broken to her; but after the first day or two a torpor seemed to creep over her, and she did not mention the subject again for weeks. She would lie for hours with closed eyes, unwilling to be roused.

It was a terrible grief to Beatrice, but this sorrow brought out all her good points. Her mother was surprised to see how much tenderness and thoughtfulness there was in her character. Ella indeed was her first thought, and she would not, if she could help it, leave her even for an hour, though to sit by her and see her utter indifference to even life itself was sometimes almost too much for her. For hours she puzzled over what she could do to bring a look of even the faintest interest into Ella's worn face, but everything she tried failed.

One day a thought struck her. If there was one person in Inglesby whom Ella admired as well as respected it was Mrs. Lancaster, and knowing she was good as well as beautiful, Beatrice determined to ask her to come and see her sister. It happened to be the morning following the day on which Leith had taken his mother by surprise, and he had gone round tɔ see Sasie after breakfast. Mrs. Lancaster was feeling utterly downhearted and sad, and by no means inclined to see Beatrice or any one; but when she heard the reason of her visit, she gladly promised to do what she asked. When that afternoon she entered Ella's room, the girl did not look pleased to see her, but by degrees her soft voice and self-forgetting sympathy found their way into her heart, and Ella began to look on her with interest. She was well aware that Mrs. Lancaster's own life had not been all sunshine, and just now there were lines of pain on her white forehead, which Ella, who was learning her first lessons in the school of suffering, was quick to perceive. Beside which, there was an atmosphere surrounding her which did not fail to influence those who came near her, and Ella felt instinctively that she was good.

In her old days Ella had had many a laugh over what she called the goody goody" people in Inglesby, but she never thought for a moment of including Mrs. Lancaster in this category, or of applying the words to her. She was good, Ella felt it-felt that she recommended the religion she professed, and looking at her, wished she were like her.

Quite unconscious of Ella's thoughts about her, Mrs. Lancaster set herself studiously to interest the girl and win her affection, not that she ever had much difficulty in this way, for a few minutes' talk was generally enough to make people discover that her friendship would be worth having. Ella became interested in her, and as she rose to leave, asked her to come again, and before many visits were over Mrs. Lancaster had won her way into the girl's heart, and it was from her lips that Ella heard that life, even such a life as she expected hers to be, was worth living if given to God; but in order to be able to give, she must first receive.

SEQUEL TO BAIJNATH'S STORY.

(See GLEANER of last month.)

BY THE REV. F. T. COLE.

|PON my arrival in the Santâl country Baijnath was made over to me for a teacher. He has remained with me during the nine years I have been in the Santâl district, and now I have only parted from him upon my leaving India. During these nine years he has been with me every day, and nearly the whole of each day. I have made use of him constantly as a preacher, and he has accompanied me in all my cold weather itinerations, so I can speak of him confidently as one whom I know thoroughly.

Baijnath is rather short and boy ish-looking, having no hair on his face; this makes him look much younger than he really is. He is dark, with rather thick lips, and has a very flat nose. He is about thirty-three years old. (His portrait appeared in the GLEANER of March last.)

As a Christian he has much influence with the people, but what surprises us most is the boldness with which he rebukes sin, no matter who the culprit is; be he rich or poor he has to hear Baijnath's opinion upon the subject. He has a remarkably nice way of speaking and preaching, and is always practical in his remarks. The events of the week, the joys or sorrows of some member of the congregation, are descanted upon in his sermon. He generally assists me by preaching on Sunday afternoons at Dharampur, and when I am absent in the district he takes the whole of the services.

Baijnath has the good fortune to possess a truly good wife. She was brought up by Mrs. Storrs in her girls' school, and has shown by her life the vast difference between an educated and an uneducated Santâl woman. Such women have immense influence upon their husbands; and it is very pleasing to see how much respected they are by the rest of the people. They have three children now, one having died when a baby. When Baijnath was once out with me in the district preaching, he dreamt one night that God appeared to him, saying, "Give me your babe." Not long after this a special messenger arrived, and told Baijnath that his child was dangerously ill. He set off immediately, but did not reach his home in time to see his child alive. This loss produced a great effect on him; he seemed to think more of heaven, his own spiritual life appeared to be deepened.

In all the translational work in which I have been engaged, Baijnath has been my right hand. The Santâli idiom and diction of the four Gospels have been his, and I think he has in this way laid the foundations of Santali literature and fixed the lines on which the language will run in the future. Before his time there was very little Santâli literature, and consequently its style and grammar had not been fixed. Baijnath's Santâli is considered by the other missionaries to be very good; he is a fluent writer, also an eloquent speaker, and has a keen sense of the ridiculous.

I once took him to Calcutta for a treat. His eyes and mouth were wide open all the time. The gas and ships struck him as very

wonderful. He mistook a marble monument in a church for a live figure. One day he went to the bazaar to look about. A big fat Babu standing at his shop door invited Baijnath to come in, and politely asked him to be seated; this he was ashamed to do, as he had not been accustomed to sit in the presence of such great men. After a great deal of pressing he did at last sit down, and the shopkeeper showed him all the articles in his shop. After spending nearly an hour at this work the Babu asked him how many things he was going to buy. Baijnath in astonishment said he did not want to buy anything, and thought that it was from kindness he was showing him all these things; so he got up and walked away amid a shower of abuse. Baijnath when he returned home gave two lectures to the schoolboys and Christians on what he had seen in Calcutta, and the humour with which he told the tale of the fat Babu is beyond my powers of description.

Baijnath has been the greatest comfort to me at times when I have been cast down; not so much by his words as by his happy, cheerful, Christian life; he has made me feel that after all Christianity is not powerless to raise and beautify the lives of such degraded creatures as the Santâls. I have never had to rebuke him for any serious

fault, nor do I remember even a trivial one; certain it is I have never had any occasion to complain of his laziness. He studies by himself in his spare hours, and during the three years that the agents and catechists have had their halfyearly Scripture examinations he has always come out first, and this is the result of private study.

I must mention a dream which Baijnath described to me. "About two months ago," he said, "I dreamed one night that I saw a road leading to heaven with a

gentle slope; presently a man came down from heaven

along that road clothed in bright raiment. He stopped in front of me and said, 'Shout to all the passers-by that the kingdom of heaven is at hand, change your minds.' I said, 'I cannot; I am afraid they won't believe me if I do.' The shining person again said, 'Shout, and take this sword, wave it over your head and run up the hill.' So I took the sword and did as he told me. To my surprise I found the men rushing madly after me, and we went up the road in crowds. I was in ecstasy. The road was of a peculiar colour, yellowish red in appearance, and ran from east to west. It was not exactly straight,

but up and down, as over hill and dale." About a month after this dream Baijnath and I were walking home irom preaching one day when I said to him, "Baijnath, suppose you were asked to go over the Ganges to look up the scattered Christians and to preach to the heathen there." He said, "Sahib, I will go anywhere I am sent except there." (I ought to say that it is a very jungly and thinly populated place, and that cholera rages violently there at times.) I said, "If God sent you would you not go? Perhaps if you did not you would be acting like Jonah." After a time he said, "Yes, I would go, but my wife would not consent; we were talking about it together some time ago when teachers were wanted for that place." We said no more at that time, but Baijnath told me afterwards that he had again spoken to his wife, and that at first she had steadily refused to go, saying, "You may go if you like, but I won't go with you, neither shall you take the children." We had a long talk about it, and at last she gave in, saying, " If God sends us we will go. We have to die, and to pass through troubles, and we had better bear them in the path of duty."

Not long after that we had a conference, and Baijnath was proposed for ordination with another young man of the same class and age. I mentioned this to him afterwards, and then he told me of his dream and conversation he had with his wife. He knew nothing about it beforehand, so the idea of being ordained had never entered his mind. He is now to undergo a two years' course of training, and I trust he will indeed wave high above his head the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, and that thousands may follow him up the hill of Zion with everlasting joy on their heads. Pray for him that he may be kept humble.

THE GOSPEL IN
CALCUTTA.

DEEPLY interesting Report on the evangelistic work carried on by the C.M.S. agents in Calcutta has been received from the Rev. Dr. C. Baumann. It is work among all classes of society. Many educated inquirers have appeared, Native lawyers, learned pundits, and rich landholders, several of whom are stated to be "not far from the Kingdom of God." There is "chapel, street, and river-side preaching; visiting respectable Natives at their houses; work among the Mohammedans, Kols, Santâls, Chamars, and Ooriyas, instruction of domestics; hospital ministrations, visiting the Lepers' Asylum." The Native evangelists are zealous and self-denying. One Bible colporteur gave up using umbrella and shoes, and put the money saved into the missionary fund. Our readers will remember a touching account of the death of a Christian Brahmin in a Calcutta hospital, in the GLEANER of February last. His meekness in suffering and joyful death-bed so touched the heart of another patient in the hospital, that the latter, a young Hindu, has since embraced the Gospel. His heathen name, Jagadbandhu (the world's friend), was changed at his baptism to Christabandhu (Christ's friend). Three other converts have also been gathered from that hospital.

A YOUNG WORKER.

UST about two years ago a bright young life, full of sunshine and blessing for those around, was suddenly cut off, seemingly in its prime.

It is pleasant to gaze upon a broad river, flowing majestically and irresistibly onward to the sea. And scarcely less pleasure is there in tracing the course of one of the tiny brooks that has helped to feed it, bringing day by day its little supply of fresh running water to swell the volume and the power of the great whole. Such a river, fed by thousands and thousands of hidden brooks and fountains, is the Church Missionary Society, and such a tiny, but busily flowing stream was the life and work of Edith Bellingham Cheales, of Brockham, in Surrey, called home to be with the Lord on October 9th, 1881, at the age of twenty-two.

Nurtured amidst the happy home influences of a country vicarage, her life was a quiet and uneventful one, and, like many such lives, given to steady, unostentatious, earnest work. Sunday-school teaching, district visiting, and the many daily calls of parish work, were not suffered to exhaust her energies, and she set a happy example of the way in which home and foreign claims may, and should be, alike remembered. From her early years she was a missionary collector. But she was not satisfied without working with her own hands, and one of

IN MEMORIAM: JAMES ABNER LAMB.

TH

Died at Lagos, July 1st, 1883.

THOU would'st obey thy blessed Lord, Would'st bear His sword and shield,

Unfurl the banner of His love

On Afric's distant field;

Would'st kindle 'mid the shades of night A shining beacon-fire,-

But ere thy work was well begun

He whispered, "Come up higher." Long years ago thou first didst leave Thine all to serve thy Lord, Raising a temple whence His Name Should be proclaimed abroad.

Long years have passed, and once again Thou traversed'st the deep,

And 'neath the shadow of its walls

They laid thee down to sleep.

Was it a lamp of light put out,

Extinguished in the tomb,

That might have led our doubting steps But for untimely doom?

Nay, for a crown of glory wreathes

His honoured servant's head, Another star is lit in heaven

To cheer the path we tread.

The sun of truth shall rise and shine
Amid the realms of night,

Till all the earth at last shall own

Her Lord, her life, her light.

We stand and watch with swelling hearts
The beams of morn increase;
But while the blessed day rolls on,
He bids thee sleep in peace.

Yea, thou hast borne His words of truth
Amid the weary fight,

her " gala days" was the C.M.S. annual fancy sale held at Brockham. On one of these occasions she remarked to her mother, "We must do more than ever next year, or the people (naming a rich parish in the neighbourhood) will beat us. Together with her sister she had commenced painting on china, and, although they had no instruction in the art, the sale of their combined work produced in four years the sum of £59 16s.

And whence came this steady, persevering labour? Its moving spring was simple, fervent love to her Lord and Saviour. "If Jesus is to us the 'chiefest among ten thousand, and altogether lovely,' she writes, "if we can say, 'My Beloved is mine, and I am His,' then surely our first thought is to make Him known to others." And this was so truly her heart's desire that she was eager to seize opportunities for carrying it out. The last evangelistic meeting she ever attended was one planned specially by herself, before the regular time for the first of the autumn meetings had arrived. In her class and in her district she spoke of the Saviour whom she knew and loved. One of the boys of her class wrote, on hearing of her death, to his mother, expressing the earnest wish that he "might always remember things she had told them at school, of the love of Jesus." Another said: " "Mother, I shall keep my Bible Miss Edith gave me as long as I live." One who had been a servant in her home wrote: "I know how dear Miss Edith would like that verse she quoted (Cant. vi. 2, 3) inscribed on her tomb, because of her love for the Song of Solomon. . . . She has told me how she liked it; in fact, she was enraptured with it." Yet she was keenly alive to her own deficiencies in testifying for her Lord. "I feel," she said, "I have been so wicked, not like the woman of Samaria, who went about and told every one directly what Jesus had done for her," adding: "You know I can't talk as

and

can."

But it was not her lips only; it was her life that spoke.

THE LATE REV. J. A. LAMB.

M

ANY friends will be glad to see in our

pages a portrait of our much-lamented brother, the Rev. James A. Lamb; and though we cannot pretend that it does him justice, it will serve to recall his features to those who knew and loved him, both in England and in Africa. In the GLEANER of September we briefly noted the facts of his career, and they need not be repeated. But the remarkable outburst of feeling at Lagos when it pleased God to remove him was a significant evidence of the affection and respect with which he was regarded there, and also of the reality of our work on the coast. Think of Lagos as it was twenty-five years ago, a notorious slave mart, governed by a heathen usurper; and think of Lagos as it appeared four months ago at Mr. Lamb's funeral -an immense concourse of Native Christians, the representatives of several congregations, weeping at a missionary's grave, with the British Governor of their prosperous colony at their head. These Christians are not perfect-far from it; but we need a scene like that to bring home to us the wonderful change that by God's blessing has taken place.

We give also a picture (kindly lent by the publishers of Payne's Lagos Almanack) of the Society's principal church at Lagos, which was built by the personal efforts of Mr. Lamb himself.

Affectionate, dutiful, humble, unselfish, her religion shone out in her daily walk. "What a beautiful example," writes a young friend, "her life will be to us all!" And another, "Her life was truly lovely. She was indeed in the world, but not of the world, and she is now reaping her reward."

And her life and her love rested on this foundation, the perfect, finished atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was (as she writes)

"The story of God's love,

Of Jesus coming from His home on high
To take the sinner's place; for mau to die,"

that had won her heart, inspired her work, and filled her with such solid peace, that she could thus express herself, while yet apparently in the bloom of health, "It does not matter what becomes of us here, so that we are safe in Jesus." She had had her difficulties and doubts as to whether she were really right in the sight of God, and she never rested until she had found "perfect peace and complete assurance of pardon through the blood of Jesus."

And so, when the summons came to leave her happy home, her beloved work, her family and friends, she was ready. Her illness lasted but a month, and she was quite unaware how it would end, until two days before her death. The thought of the "dark valley" caused her a momentary disquietude, though she said, "I am not the least afraid of the other side"; but it was quickly removed. Calmly she expressed her last wishes and bade farewell to those she loved. And then she breathed out her soul in perfect peace, like a weary child falling asleep in its Father's arms. The cause for which she had so long laboured had not been forgotten during those last hours. "My money in the Bank give to the Church Missionary Society," was one of her last directions. S. G. S.

[The above particulars are taken from a brief biographical sketch lately printed for private circulation, and are published here by permission.]

THE MONTH.

WING to the illness of the Rev. A. W. Poole, his consecration to the English Bishopric in Japan could not take place on September 29th as announced. The ceremony was performed, however, on October 18th, St. Luke's Day, at Lambeth Palace Chapel, by the Archbishop of Canterbury. The sermon was preached by the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth. The early date of our going to press prevents our giving further particulars in this number. It is a matter for much thankfulness that Mr. Poole's health, which had suffered under the heavy mental and physical strain of the last three or four months, has enabled him to be consecrated after so short a delay. The medical opinion is decidedly favourable as to the prospects of his health in Japan.

THE Valedictory Dismissal on October 1st was held in the spacious Vestry Hall at Kensington, which was crowded, numbers of friends barely getting standing room. Sir W. Hill presided; the Hon. Clerical Secretary delivered the Instructions of the Committee; the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth gave the address to the missionaries; and the Hon. and Rev. E. Carr Glyn, Vicar of Kensington, offered the special intercessory prayer on their behalf.

THE missionaries taken leave of on this occasion may be grouped under three heads :-(1) Those returning to the fields in which they had previously laboured, viz., the Rev. J. B. Wood, to Lagos; the Rev. J. W. and Mrs. Handford to Frere Town; Mr. C. Stokes, with Mrs. Stokes, to the Nyanza Mission; the Rev. F. T. and Mrs. Cole, to the Santâl Mission; the Rev. F. A. P. and Mrs. Shirreff, to the Lahore Divinity School; the Rev. M. G. Goldsmith, to the Mohammedan Mission, Madras; the Rev. W. J. and Mrs. Richards, to Travancore; the Rev. D. and Mrs. Wood, to Ceylon; and the Rev. J. D. and Mrs. Valentine to Shaouhing, Mid China. (2) Those returning to missionary work, but to different fields, viz., the Rev. C. T. Wilson, with Mrs. Wilson, to Jerusalem; the Rev. T. R. Hodgson, to Baghdad; the Rev. G. Litchfield, with Mrs. Litchfield, to the Bheel Mission; the Rev. A. R. and Mrs. Cavalier, to Tinnevelly. (3) Those going out for the first time, viz., the Rev. T. Harding, to Lagos; the Rev. G. E. A. and Mrs. Pargiter, to Agra; the Rev. T. Holden, to the Punjab; the Rev. A. W. Cotton, to Sindh; the Rev. E. W. Elliott, to the Noble High School, Masulipatam ; the Rev. J. B. Panes, to the Telugu Mission; the Rev. M. N. S. Atkinson, to the Koi Mission; the Rev. J. II. and Mrs. Horsburgh, to Mid China; and Dr. E. G. Horder, to Hainan, South China.

ONE interesting feature of the Dismissal was the presence of no less than seven Nyanza missionaries. It was especially encouraging to see Mr. Wilson and Mr. Litchfield, forbidden to face again the climate and privations of Central Africa, buckling on their armour once more for new campaigns. The former is to engage in the important work of training Native agents for the Palestine Mission; the latter, to join the Rev. C. $. Thompson in the new Mission to the aboriginal Bheels in Rajputana, Central India-the Mission started at the expense of the Rev. E. H. Bickersteth. Then, besides Mr. Stokes (who has since sailed for Zanzibar), there were present Dr. E. J. Baxter, Mr. A. J. Copplestone, the Rev. J. Hannington, and the Rev. W. J. Edmonds. The two former will be returning to their posts shortly, and if the two latter are permitted also to work again in the mission field, none will rejoice more than themselves.

To make the foregoing list of men complete, we should add that the following had previously sailed, and had received their instructions at ordinary meetings of the Commit'ee :-belonging to the first group, the Rev. J. and Mrs. Hines, returning to Saskatchewan; the Rev. R. T. and Mrs. Dowbiggin, to Ceylon; and the Rev. J. P. and Mrs. Ellwood, to North India; in the second group, the Rev. J. Hamilton, for the Niger, and Dr. E. A. Praeger (formerly of East Africa), with Mrs. Praeger, for the North Pacific Mission; in the third group, Dr. Percy Brown, for the Niger; the Rev. J. W. Tims, for Saskatchewan; and Mr. and Mrs. J. B. McCullagh, for the North Pacific. With these last should also be reckoned the Rev. C. Blackburn, for Mauritius.

ON another page we have mentioned the fresh bereavement which, in the mysterious providence of God, has fallen upon our Missions in East

[Nov., 1883.

Central Africa, by the death of Mrs. Cole. The China Mission has also suffered a loss by the death of Mr. J. W. Strickson, Assistant Master in the C.M.S. School at Shanghai. At home we have lost the Very Rev. J. Mee, formerly Dean of Grahamstown, who was Secretary of the Society from 1866 to 1869; and the Rev. A. Matchett, Rector of Trimingham, formerly missionary in Sindh.

THE Secretary of State for the Colonies (Lord Derby) having requested the C.M.S. Committee to nominate a clergyman to be appointed to the Government chaplaincy at Sierra Leone, the Rev. E. P. Sparks, Curate of Boston, was selected, and he has accepted the post thus offered to him by Lord Derby. A Principal for Fourah Bay College is still urgently needed.

THE Travancore Provincial Native Church Council held its annual meeting at Pallam on May 9-11, under the presidency of Bishop Speechly. The opening sermon was preached by the Rev. Koshi Koshi, from 1 Cor. xii. 22: "Much more those members of the body which seem to be more feeble are necessary." Reports were presented by the various Native pastors, particularly of the work aided by the William Charles Jones Fund and the Henry Venn Fund.

THE late Rev. J. A. Lamb, being invited to preach the Annual Sermon of the Native Pastorate Auxiliary Association at Lagos, wrote his sermon, but was on his dying bed when it should have been preached. It is printed in the C.M. Intelligencer, and gives most striking testimony to the blessing vouchsafed to missionary work in Lagos. Mr. Lamb writes:When I arrived here in January, 1862, the work was, as it were, in a nutshell. Faji was the mother church. Breadfuit was what we might call a chapel-ofease in connection with it. Ebute Ero was in charge of its present pastor, then a deacon. There was only one day-school, which was at Faji, and the whole of the Church's staff consisted of one European missionary, two Native deacons, two Native Scripture-readers, and two Native schoolmasters. Badagry, supplied with a catechist and schoolmaster, was the only out-station. This was the "little one." Now, as we see, it has become "a thousand." There are seven churches on Lagos Island supplied with regular means of grace. There are seven Native clergy working on the island, three of them being in charge of churches under the Native Pastorate Establishment. There are at least six day-schools supplied with eleven masters, and over 1,000 children are taught in the schools. Ebute Meta and Badagry are each supplied with a Native clergyA church has been erected on, and an agent supplied for, Iddo Island, and missionary work has been begun at Ondo with an ordained Native missionary in charge, and at Leke and other places.

man.

THE Frances Ridley Havergal Fund now maintains seven Native Biblewomen in India, viz., one near Calcutta, one at Lucknow, one at Amritsar, one at Jhandiala (under Miss Clay), one at Bombay, one at Jabalpur, and one at Masulipatam. Of "Jane," at Jabalpur, the Rev. T. R. Hodgson writes that" she has carried the message of God's love to many a toiling and weary, maybe hopeless sister, in many a dark home." The Fund has also made grants for the translation of one or more of F. R. Havergal's books into the Hindustani, Bengali, Telugu, and Malayalam languages.

ONE of the most useful of auxiliary missionary societies is the Christian Vernacular Education Society for India. Founded just twenty-five years ago, after the great Mutiny, it justly claims that it has helped all the missionary societies and interfered with neither. During that time, three Training Colleges have been founded; 750 Native teachers have been trained in them; and about 100,000 pupils have been under instruction. Ten millions of publications, in eighteen languages, have been issued. The Society has just issued a tiny book about its work, called The Star in the Eust, which we hope will come into the hands of many of our readers.

THE C.M.S. Lay Workers' Union for London held its first annual meeting at the C.M. House on October 15th. The report showed that 152 members had already been enrolled, most of whom are actively at work in behalf of the Society in their respective districts, chiefly in organising Juvenile and Sunday-school Associations, giving missionary addresses to children, &c. A pleasant evening was spent, in the course of which a service of song was given, consisting of selections from Mendelssohn's St. Paul, with missionary readings by the Rev. Gordon Calthrop.

RECEIVED:" Thanksgiving, D. g. O. a.," £10; from "A small birch basket," "towards the spread of the Gospel in heathen lands," £1 1s.; "Please use this for the Lord's work abroad," 28.; L. D., 58.