had received, and to unite in promoting what is good. After the meeting all adjourned to the green in front of the church, and joined in singing "God save the Queen," in English, before dispersing to their homes. The rest of the day was spent in New Year's greetings. Wednesday evening was occupied by the usual week-day service, and Thursday and Friday evenings were devoted to the exhibition in the school-room, first to the women and then to the men, of a large magic lantern, with oxygen light, and also a microscope, showing living insects and sea-water animalcules, as well as various slides. The above is but an imperfect sketch of the efforts made by Mr. Duncan for the welfare and happiness of his village. A GROUP AT TALJHARI, NOVEMBER, 1878. AST year, no contributions to the GLEANER were more attractive to its readers than the "Letters to my Parish from Santalia," written by the Rev. W. T. Storrs during his late visit to the Santâl Mission; and the group we now present will interest very many. For the benefit of those who are only beginning to read the GLEANER with this number, we may just say that the Santâls are a tribe in Bengal, not Hindus in either race or religion, among whom the Society began a Mission just twenty years ago. (See GLEANER, January, 1875; April, 1877; October, 1878.) Nearly two thousand of this simple-hearted people have embraced the Gospel, and on St. Andrew's Day, 1878, the Bishop of Calcutta ordained the first three Santal clergymen, all of whom, with their families, appear in the picture. Mr. Storrs writes as follows: I send you the photograph. To my right hand is Tunbridge; beyond him Sham's wife and two of her children, with Sham himself standing behind her with an umbrella in his hand. Between Tunbridge and myself, a little to the back, stands Kadru, my Santal chaprasi or messenger, a capital energetic fellow; on a line with him, exactly behind me, is Joseph, my cook, a Pahari, and a very decent little fellow. To my left is Bhim, the first Santâl baptized; then his wife Lucy, with her hands spread out on her knees, their eldest boy standing behind her, and the second sitting at her feet. Then comes Jauna, Sido's wife, with one child on her knee and another at her feet; and last of all Sido himself, the second Santâl who was baptized in our Mission. of things. But there is the further remarkable fact: Buddhism-presents the spectacle of a religion living and flourishing without a head! Its own sacred books declare that there is now no Buddha ! Gautama Buddha came to an end two thousand years ago. He died, and, not only so, in death his being, whether in this or any other world, absolutely terminated. He who is stated to have passed through countless transmigrations, whose history during part of the almost end DEVIL-DANCER'S MASK, CEYLON. (Drawn from a Mask now in the Church Missionary House.) less period so occupied is recorded in the famous book entitled Pansiya panas játaké, i.e., the five hundred and fifty births, when he ended his life as Buddha, ceased to be. himself as ready to supply their wants. In an almost universal devil worship are seen the terrible result. Devil worship in all its ramifications it would be wellnigh impossible to describe, but from one specimen its general character may be learned. The hideous mask, an engraving of which is here given, is supposed to represent one whose history in very minute particulars agrees with that of Amnon, the wicked son of David. This, too, was a king's son, and for a similar awful crime he suffered the punishment of being, in his next transmigration, born as a demon. In case of serious illness among their females, this is the devil whom the Singhalese invoke. The Edurá, or devil-priest, is summoned, and fixes the day on which the ceremony is to take place. Offerings are prepared of cocoa-nuts, rice, eggs, flowers, arrack, opium, and flesh, and hideous images are prepared and The devil-priest wears the mask which is here depicted, and through the ceremonies of a whole night personates the demon, reciting verses containing disgusting details of the history, and sometimes shouting and yelling as he dances and gyrates. He had foreseen and foretold this. On the day of his birth he had walked seven paces, and proclaimed this desired consummation with a voice which shook the universe. His words were, Aggó hamasmi lokassa-jettho hamasmi lokassa setthó hamasmi lokassa-ayamanti má jati natthi dáni punabbhawóti-placed before the patient. "I am the supreme-I shall have no further transmigration; this is my final existence." Buddhists express their belief that this prediction has met its fulfilment, and that Buddha has thus attained to "nirwana," or extinction, by a saying which in English may be versified as follows: "When camphor burns, the fragrant gum perfumes the balmy air, Yet of its substance nought is left: nor dross nor ash is there. Thus in Nirwana, of the sage nought that was man remains, But dharma lives, and thro' its power his ancient creed sustains." It follows, then, that in Buddhism there is no Creator, no Saviour, no friend: none to punish, none to reward, and, strictly speaking, no object of worship. It cannot be matter for surprise that of the millions who call themselves by its name, comparatively few appear to place their full trust in it. Such an empty shell is not likely to satisfy the craving of hungry souls. In Ceylon, at least, men find in themselves needs which Buddhism does not meet, and, as they look around for help, Satan presents *Doctrine. DEVIL-DANCERS, CEYLON. At daybreak the priest announces that the demon is satisfied, and that the disease will depart. He then casts the images into some waste place, and takes the offerings as the reward for his labour. Over much that is said and done on such occasions one must draw a veil. Such deeds hate the light, and are themselves darker than the night with which it is generally sought to shroud them. They give terrible meaning to the words of the Risen Saviour to Saul: "The Gentiles to whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, to turn them from darkness unto light, and from the power of Satan unto God." They may help some to realise, as they have not done before, what the true state is of those whom that same Paul himself afterwards described as "having no hope, and without God in the world." J. IRELAND JONES. COLOMBO, July, 1879. 1T Circum. Show me now Thy way. Ex. 33. 13. 4 S 5 M M. Is. 42. Matt. 3. E. Is. 43 or 44. Acts 2. 22. 6 T 2 FI will show thee great and mighty things. Jer. 33. 3. [Gen. 12. 1. 8 T 9 F 10 S 11 S 12 M 13 T 17 S [Ex. 14. 13. 14 W Study to show thyself approved unto God. 2 Tim. 2. 15. 15 T 1st Arrian baptisms, 1852. Grace hath been showed from the Lord. 16 F He will show them His covenant. Ps. 25. 14. [Ezra 9. 8. Open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. [Ps. 51. 15. 18 S 2nd aft. Epiphany. Show the Lord's death till He come. I Cor.11.26. 19 M This people have I formed for Myself: they shall show forth My 20 T Thou showest loving-kindness. Jer. 32. 18. 21 WA good man showeth favour. Ps. 112. 5. 6 M. Is. 55. Matt. 10. 24. E. Is, 57 or 61. Acts 10. 24. [praise. Is. 43. 21 [Acts 16. 17. 22 T 1st C.M.S. Miss. landed, Japan, 1869. Show the way of salvation. 23 F Henry Venn' launched, 1878. Sent to show glad tidings. Lu. 1. 19. 24 S He hath showed His people the power of His works. Ps. 111. 6. [things he must suffer for My name's sake. Acts 9. 16. 25 S Septuagesima. Conversion of St. Paul. I will show him how great M. Gen. 1 & 2 to 4. Rev. 21. 1-9. E. Gen. 2. 4, or Job. 33. Rev. 21. 9 to 22. 6. 26 M To him that ordereth his conversation aright will I show the salvation 27 T In all things showing thyself a pattern. Tit. 2. 7. [of God. Ps. 50.23. 28 W Show us Thy mercy. Ps. 85.7. [what way ye should go. Deut. 1.33. 29 T Nyanza reached, 1877. Who went in the way before you, to show by 30 F J. Devasagayam d., 1864. Show me Thy glory. Ex. 33. 18. 31 S Islington Coll. op., 1825. We desire that every one of you do show [the same diligence. Heb. 6. 11. NOTES. In the Church Missionary Almanack for this year, the daily texts are selected on the following plan. For each month a word is chosen; and all the texts in that month contain that word. The twelve words this year are all verbs, viz., Show, Bear, See, Remember, Give, Call, Gather, Go, Keep, Bring, Cast, Come. This month the word is SHOW, and we begin the year by asking God to "Show us His way." That is what we all want, month by month, and day by day, and hour by hour. And then we find how good a word it is for the Epiphany season-the "Manifestation" or showing of Christ to the Gentiles. This is what all true missionary work is, to show Christ to all nations, Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ enthroned, Christ the Redeemer, Christ the Lord. In the texts of this month there are two kinds of showing. There is what God shows to us, and there is what we are to show to God or to others. God promises to show us "great and mighty things," "the path of life," things to come," "the salvation of the Lord," mercy unto thousands," His covenant," "loving-kindness," "the power of His works"; we pray Him to show us His glory"; and we have Jesus "showing Himself." And then we are to show forth "His praise," to show ourselves "a pattern" and "approved unto God," to show" the glad tidings of the kingdom," and "how great things God have done for us and in the sacrament of His love to "show the Lord's death till He come.' Among the events of January we notice three arrivals of missionaries in new fields. In 1844, Krapf in East Africa, "a land God showed him." In 1869, Ensor in Japan, where religion is called a "way" (michi), and where he "showed the way of salvation." In 1877, O'Neill and Wilson at the Victoria Nyanza, God having shown them the road thither. In January, too, we have the memorable sailing of French and Knott in 1869 to establish the Lahore College; the first baptisms of the Hill Arrians by Henry Baker in 1852; the opening of Islington College in 1825; the death of old John Devasagayam (the first Native clergyman in South India) in 1864; and, just two years ago, the launch of the steamer Henry Venn for the Niger Mission-" sent to show glad tidings.” THE "LITTLE GREEN BOOK." ITH this month begins a new series of the CHURCH MISSIONARY JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR, the old and familiar "little green book" which so many of us who are now grown up remember reading with delight years and years before the children who now read it ¦ were born or thought of. It is now to be all printed on green paper inside and out, and to be of a larger and squarer shape, so as to make room for good-sized pictures. All the children who help the Church Missionary Society all over the country ought to pay their halfpenny a month (over and above their missionary subscriptions) to buy the JUVENILE INSTRUCTOR; and the Editor of the GLEANER knows that the more they read the "Green Book," the more they will learn to value the GLEANER in its turn when they are old enough to take it in too. EPITOME OF MISSIONARY NEWS. The Bishop of Mauritius, Dr. Royston, is in England. He was formerly C.M S. Secretary at Madras, and was consecrated in 1872, together with Bishop Horden and the late Bishop Russell. The Bishop of Travancore and Cochin, Dr. Speechly, bid farewell to the C.M.S. Committee on Nov. 25th, and started on Dec. 1st for India. On Nov. 2nd, at Allahabad, the Bishop of Calcutta ordained three laymissionaries of the C.M.S., viz., Mr. G. H. Weber, of that station, Mr. R. J. Bell, of the Cathedral Mission College, Calcutta, and Mr. J. Tunbridge, of the Santál Mission. At the same time, the Revs. A. W. Baumann, R. Elliott, and H. D. Williamson received priests' orders. Bishop Sargent is hoping to admit several Tamil deacons in Tinnevelly to priest's orders on Jan. 11th. We regret to announce the death, on Oct. 24th, at Jaffna, in Ceylon, of the Rev. Edwin Blackmore, who went out in 1874 to Tinnevelly as a C.M.S. missionary, and was transferred to Ceylon a year ago. His last words were, "Jesus has come! Good-bye!" The distress caused by the disa-trous floods in Krishnagar, referred to in our November number, still continues. Mr. Vaughan writes that many of the people were living on "the little drowned rice they could grub out of the water." The Henry Venn has returned safely after a very successful voyage up the Binue, the eastern branch of the Niger. It ascended some 200 miles beyond any spot previously reached, and 900 miles from the sea, into a wholly unknown country. Mr. Ashcroft penetrated still further by land. He found large populations, both heathen and Mohammedan, and many of the kings and chiefs asked for Christian teachers to be sent among them. The Jesuit priests are distributing money freely among the recent adherents of both the C.M.S. and S.P.G. Missions in Tinuevelly, to induce them to join the Church of Rome, and have succeeded in a few cases. Gbegbe, a town on the Niger 230 miles from its mouths, which was one of the first two stations opened in the mission in 1857, but was afterwards destroyed in a civil war (see GLEANER, Nov., 1878), has been re-occupied by one of Bishop Crowther's Native agents at the invitation of the king. It was at Gbegbe that the first baptisms of converts on the Niger took place, on Sept. 14th, 1862. The Rev. A. Schapira reports encouragingly of his new work at Gaza. His Arabic services, Sunday schools, &c., are well attended; in his dayschools there are 150 children, half of them Moslems; his small dispensary has been visited by a thousand people in a few months; large numbers of tracts have been distributed; and interesting conversations have been held with Mussulman shiekhs. TOPICS FOR THANKSGIVING AND PRAYER. THANKSGIVING that we have been brought in mercy "safely through another year." Prayer that the year 1880 may be a blessed year for the Church Missionary Society, for all its Missionaries, for the Native Christian Churches, and for the souls of the perishing heathen. THANKSGIVING for the preservation so far of the Nyanza Missionaries. PRAYER for them all, wherever they may now be, and for the success of their great enterprise. PRAYER for Japan (see p. 5); for Metlakahtla (see p. 9); for the Santal clergy (see p. 10); for the devil-worshippers of Ceylon (see p. 11). THE CHURCH MISSIONARY GLEANER. FEBRUARY, 1880. BIBLE THOUGHTS ABOUT MISSIONARY WORK. BY THE BISHOP OF SODOR AND MAN. II. "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen."-St. Matt. vi. 13. N seeking to arouse amongst Christian people a greater interest in the work of Missions to the heathen, in asking for their prayers, their sympathy, their contributions, we cannot urge a stronger plea, we cannot advance a better ground of encouragement, than part of the prayer most familiar to us all, "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever." So many of us forget that day by day we pray for the extension of missionary work, and that Christ himself has asked us thus to make supplication. For what does it mean, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven"? Is it not that the kingdoms of this world may become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ? And who asked us to make this our prayer? Was it not our Blessed Lord Himself? He knew the value of prayer in the furtherance of missionary work. For before He came into the world the Father had said, "Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession." Now the plea which is advanced here should set at rest all doubts as to success. The work is God's, not man's. It is true that we shall not find these words in the Lord's Prayer as given by St. Luke, and indeed they are wanting in some MSS. of St. Matthew. But still we should be slow to give them up. They form such a grand ascription of praise, wherewith to close the prayer, to Son and Spirit and Father. They form also the mightiest plea wherewith to urge petitions. The work is all of God and not of man, and in this threefold ascription we have a certain pledge and assurance of success. The Kingdom is God's. He has given it to the Son of His love. "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou at My right hand until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool." The Divine purpose is that Christ shall reign. And all that we read in Ancient History about the rise and fall of empires, all that we see going on around us now in the opening up of kingdoms and the disturbance of nationalities, all that we are doing in the way of Missions to the heathen, all is tending to the accomplishment of what we read, "In the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed." This is our first encouragement. The kingdom is God's. But, the Power is God's. In vain would be the missionary's labour if he depended only upon human resources, upon national influence, and the effects of civilisation. These may be all helpful. But when the earliest missionaries went forth, their strength was in the power given them from heaven. "Ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you." And the same Holy Ghost is vouchsafed to us. This, too, is a grand encouragement in missionary effort. The power is God's. And, further, the Glory is God's. As we recognise that our work is the establishment of Christ's kingdom, and as we believe that the power of the Holy Ghost is that alone by which success will be ensured, so we ascribe the glory entirely to the Father. This is our great end and aim, just as it was with our Blessed Lord. "I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Once more we have the greatest encouragement. God will be glorified. The glory is His. Remember this each time you pray the Lord's Prayer. You have a mighty plea with God for the Church Missionary Society. A VISIT TO JAPAN. BY THE REV. A. B. HUTCHINSON, C.M.S. Missionary at Hong Kong. II. In the Inland Sea-From Kobe by Rail-The Jin-riki-sha-Osaka-C.M S. Mission-A Sunday with Japanese Christians-Osaka Shops, Temples, Castle. UNSHINE and rain alternated as we resumed our voyage. Some of the loveliest views in the "Inland Sea" were lost to us in the mist or were passed at night. We had anchored off Shimonoseki, one bright afternoon, to be tantalised by a glimpse of Japanese life from the deck, for the order was peremptory: "No one allowed to land." Boats came off with vegetables, the young boatmen looking like classic bronzes as they stood propelling and guiding their frail unpainted craft by means of a long sweep at the stern. A pleasure-boat full of merry faces, round as the moon, enamelled and painted, rowed round our ship, and black eyes from under its awning gazed curiously at the foreigner, whilst melancholy notes came from the sansien, or three-stringed guitar. On shore a flight of stone steps, flanked by two lions, seemed to invite approach to the town, whose neatly tiled houses peeped out from the foliage, but in vain. The despatches were soon on board, and we were again threading our way amid the green islands of glittering seas, where fragrant forests perfume the breeze," islands which make this voyage a series of delightful scenes in fine weather, and form a fertile source of peril when mists hide them from view. At last, on a bright summer day, we anchor in the port of Kobe. [See pictures on next page.] Landing, we make for the railway station, and can almost imagine that we are dreaming; so strangely do the old and new, the products of Eastern and Western civilisation, jostle against and mingle with each other. Station, rails, train, telegraph wires, all are European; passengers, costumes, packages, manners, are Japanese. We glide along across a wellcultivated plain; on our left lofty well-wooded mountains, on our right the sea. We pass many neat villages, whose thatched roofs have a pleasant home-like look; and we note the busy blue-clad workers in the rice fields-when all too soon we find ourselves at our destination. We alight at a large brick-built station, hand our tickets to a native in an inspector's garb, and imagine for a moment, as we pass by spacious booking-offices and well-appointed waiting-rooms, that we have been set down at some Midland stopping-place at home. Outside, however, instead of omnibuses and cabs, stand rows of jin-riki-shas, a kind of hooded Bath chair, with handsome wheels, and a man between the shafts, ready to run us along at the rate of five miles an hour for a shilling. [See the picture in the GLEANER of March, 1877.] "San ban Kawaguchi" (No. 3, River's mouth), we exclaim three or four times with varying emphasis, and it is evidently intelligible, for we are quickly traversing a long street of diminutive houses, of which but few have an upper story. Our road runs parallel to a river; ever and anon we cross or pass the end of a bridge, or have peeps of water and boats between the houses. At last we emerge upon a strand, turn to the left, and crossing a handsome iron swing bridge of European construction, find ourselves in the foreign settlement at OSAKA. Old friends once associated with Hong Kong work, the Rev. C. F. and Mrs. Warren, give us a warm welcome to their neat cottage-like bungalow, and we are soon deep in the contrasts and experiences of Mission work in China and Japan. Stepping across a narrow passage in rear of the house we enter a commodious vestry, or inquirer's room, doors from which open into the church. Everything looks bright and light. We cross a wide street and find the former church nicely adapted for a school, in the courtyard of Miss Oxlad's house. It was wheeled bodily "over the way,' a few trifling cracks being the only memorial of the journey. [See pictures in GLEANER of August, 1878.] In an adjoining compound is Mr. Evington's bungalow, and thus we have practical head-quarters for the C.M.S. Mission. Very pleasant was it to assemble on Sunday morning with the Native Christian congregation-albeit the service was in, to us, an unknown tongue; very suggestive the gathering around the Table of our Lord, with some twenty Native communicants, and to remember that but four years had elapsed since Mr. Warren arrived, and that then there was not one convert. |