We have had help from a new source this year. Our young men, stirred up by activity of them that use the needle, said one to another, " And what shall we do?" So they practised for many weeks the singing of several hymns and anthems, and, on the morning of Christmas-day, they woke us with their sacred harmony. And the many gifts which they received were cast into our Missionary treasury. This last mentioned department is most encouraging. Might we but hope to have the young men of England with us, what might we not look for? And why should it not be so? And the Lord's work would repay with interest all that they might be enabled to do to help it on, by the good it would reflect back on their own hearts and characters.. The Collections. The efforts we have made in other ways has not caused our Collections in the church, after the annual sermons, to be any less than before. The amount is more this year than in the previous year. I am thankful for this, for it is a healthy sign when our other givings do not diminish our church collections. It is the sustained work of this Association that we admire. The same steady pressure is kept up throughout the year, and so the machinery works on. It is not a spasmodic effort at the time of the anniversary, and then a lapse into forgetfulness and heaviness for several months. Hybernating Associations, which have their periodical sleep, do not progress. One more fragment must conclude our Home notices for this month. Collections for the Church Missionary Society in St. Nicholas Church, Durham, 26th January 1868, after two sermons by the Bishop of Ripon. 4885 s. d. 30 0 23 0 0 10 0 6 17 4 4 0 7 7 5 17 1 2 4 1 10 6 1 1 8 67 Fourpences 122 Threepences 1068 pieces. The congregation of St. Nicholas to the Church Missionary Society. steadily increased to 861. 78. ld. £86 10 0 has contributed, in ten years, 5871. Beginning with 317. 10s. Sd., it has ABYSSINIA. THE Church Missionary Society not many years ago, had a Mission in Abyssinia. In the year 1815 their attention had been much directed to the countries of the Mediterranean, and the idea was entertained that by suitable measures a revival might be brought about of the old Christian churches in those regions, which had sunk into decay. The Abyssinian church, notwithstanding its remoteness, was brought into special notice, and this in consequence of it being known that a native had been for some time engaged at Cairo in translating the Scriptures into Amharic, the principal vernacular of Abysinnia. This version was purchased by the Rev. W. Jowett, on account of the British and Foreign Bible Society, in 1820. In 1826 two Missionaries were appointed to commence the Abyssinian Mission, the Rev. Samuel Gobat, now Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, and the Rev. Christian Kugler. After a protracted stay in Egypt, they reached Massowah on December 28th, 1829, and then learned that the country was distracted by civil war. But they also learned that there were places of refuge to which they might retreat, and which were considered so sacred that they never were molested. The names of these places are Axum, Waldeba, Gundigundi, Debra Damot, and Debra Abäe. In these asylums, property and persons are secure. Debra Damot is a natural fortress, situated on the top of a mountain. After a short stay at Gondar, they proceeded to Adowah, where a heavy affliction befell Mr. Gobat in the loss of his beloved brother Kugler. The accident which caused his death is thus related by Mr. Gobat. On the 10th of December, as we were passing by the side of a river before sun-rise, we saw at a distance a great beast in the water, which we took for a crocodile. I said to Kugler, "Which of us shall go and shoot this animal?" He replied immediately, with a tone of apprehension, "I will go." On approaching, he thought it was a hippopotamus, and fired upon it; but his gun burst, and made several wounds in his left arm, which are not yet cured. Dec. 23, 1830-To-day Kugler has had an accident. Believing himself entirely restored, he laid himself down on his left side, and leaned his head on his wounded hand, to read. While reading, he made an involuntary start; and all on a sudden the blood began to flow from his wound, which had appeared as good as healed. I was not with him; but he told me that he had lost at least two pounds of blood. Repeated hemorrhages followed, with other unfavourable symp toms. Yesterday evening, a little after sunset, while we were conversing together on the advancement of the kingdom of God, Kugler said to me, in a mild but urgent manner : "Gobat! come quickly! my blood is flowing in great drops." I immediately seized the linen that we had prepared; but so large a quantity of blood had already escaped, that, when I raised his arm, he fainted away, and the blood stopped. Aichinger, weak and suffering, sprang out of his bed to come and help me. I almost lost my senses on seeing him, from the idea that I might possibly lose the only two brethren that I have in this country. Kugler soon came to himself; but his first words were, "I am going to die. I could have wished to live longer, that I might proclaim the salvation which is in Jesus to this poor people: but the will of the Lord be done!" After that, he several times repeated, in the Tigré dialect: "I do not at all fear! Weep not for me. It is far better for me to die than to remain here." He then began to pray, in Tigré: "Lord Jesus, bless me !Show mercy on me!-Receive me to Thyself! Thou art my Saviourmy Father! I have no Father but Thee!-I come to Thee! Receive my Spirit! Prepare me a place near Thyself!" He then began to pray in German, saying the same words. He added: "I give thanks to Thee, O Lord, for all the mercy which Thou hast manifested toward me! Thou hast been favourable to me to this very hour." He then said to me: "Gobat, salute all my brethren. Salute- : I have no commands for her." He again several times called upon the name of Jesus; and from time to time said: "Receive me!" When his voice began to fail, he said to me: "I can speak no more. Tell these people" (a great number around him) "that Jesus is my portion; and that they must, on no account, weep as they are accustomed to do. Perform no Tescar*." After having again several times called upon the name of Jesus, he said to me: 66 Speak to me of the Saviour: I can speak no more." I could not yet bring myself to believe that he was on the point of leaving me; my heart was full, at seeing him and Aichinger in such a state: so that, when I attempted to speak, my voice failed me. But I had the consolation to see his soul entirely occupied with the thought of Jesus, in a full assurance of faith. "Be of good courage!" I said to him: "the Lord will not forsake you, in life or in death. He never forsakes those who put their trust in Him." "I know it well!" he replied, with a tone of confidence: "He has never forsaken me." Having said these words, he again cast a look all round him; and then fell asleep so gently, that for two hours none of the attendants could believe that he was really dead. It was about nine o'clock in the evening (Dec. 29) when he resigned his soul into the hands of his Creator and Saviour. His calm and trustful death surprised the natives much, so much so, that a Mussulman who was present said, "I have seen many persons at the moment of their death; four have died in my arms; but I never saw faith triumph over death till this day." These early facts are almost forgotten. We would revive their memory, and revisit the grave of Kugler. Our Missionary efforts in Abyssinia, like Kugler, have lived a little while and then died. Let us pray that there may be a resurrection of this buried truth. *In this country, the relations and friends of a deceased person invite, at different times, many priests and poor people, to whom they give something to eat and drink, to engage them to pray for the soul of the deceased: this they call Tescar, i. e. "remembrance.' The late startling events in Abysinnia may produce remarkable changes, and a voice be heard crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God." The perseverance of Britons has overcome great obstacles. Valleys have been exalted, and the mountain and hill have been made low; the crooked has been made straight, and the rough places plain. Let us take courage. He who has commanded His Gospel to be preached to all nations will open a way into the very heart of inaccessible Abyssinia. The startling events which have just taken place may be made to work for the furtherance of this end, and the truth advance by a sure progress, until the stronghold of Abyssinia's idolatry has fallen. ВНІМА. WE like very much to know of individual cases of conversion amongst the heathen or Mohammedans, or the poor ignorant socalled Christians of the corrupt churches of the East and West. They are specially suitable for the "Gleaner." He who reaps the corn reaps down an armful at a time; but the humble gleaner follows behind, and picks up ear by ear. The following case comes from the field of Western India, and yet we do not see precisely what a gleaner has to do in this field, for a gleaner is always to be found in fields which have yielded a harvest, and from whence it has been reaped; and the field of Western India has not yielded its harvest. It will do so, we doubt not; but as yet we gather there not so much the gleanings after the harvest, but the first-fruits before the harvest. The Missionary who writes to us is the Rev. C. F. Schwarz, and the place where he is labouring is a large town called Junir. The classes of people to be won over there are Hindus and Mohammedans; and these must be taught in different languages, the Hindus in Marathi, and the Mohammedans in Hindustanee. Mr. Schwarz speaks and teaches in Marathi; another Missionary, Mr. Deimler, in the Hindustanee. What languages our Missionaries have to learn, and that so as to speak them intelligibly! These introductory remarks will prepare the way for Mr. Schwarz's account of Bhima. It is as follows: I cannot withhold a most interesting case showing how God leads the simple and sincere by the hand, and provides for their souls. It is fresh to my mind, as it has happened only during the last week of the year. It is also the more striking, and at the same time instructive, because the kind providence of God, displayed in His dealing with the subject of the following account, is so clearly illustrated thereby. On the 20th of December we came to a new camp near Naragaugaum, |