mmmmmimm ^^^^^^^^^g^^^^^^^g yi \sf \ «1» '^B^^^il^ nb Jin Jl:p:pcaC. (50rtt5ll llltttaer0ity ffitbrarg 3tl)aca. SJeni ^nrk CHARLES WILLIAM WASON COLLECTION CHINA AND THE CHINESE THE GIFT OF CHARLES WILLIAM WASON CLASS OF 1876 1918 Cornell University Library BV 2060.B86 A Missionary band :a record and an appea 3 1924 023 021 110 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023021110 A MISSIONARY BAND .J,vM V:- I; .11 Y u §omc ^acmder^ of f ^c g^^ina ^nZanb ^ai^^ion." i^rtf;;^ T ^^ GRAP HI C. sionaries in establishing HIS Mission owes its origin to the zeal and enterprise of the Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, who first went to China as a Medical Mis- sionary in 1853. Being deeply concerned at the small number of Protestant Mis- that vast empire, he organised a plan for a new mission on a comprehensive scale, and with some peculiar features. The Mission is called the China Inland Mission. It accepts duly qualified men or women as missionaries without restriction as to denomination ; it makes no collections, but depends for its income on contributions sent to the office of the Mission without personal solici- tation ; it guarantees no income to its missionaries, pro- viding them only with such assistance as its means will allow. The present staff [June, 1885] of the Mission consists of 36 married men, 53 unmarried men, and 45 unmarried ladies, in all 134 missionaries, or nearly half the total number of British missionaries in China. The money needful to maintain the work has also been forthcoming. Nearly twenty of the missionaries, having private property, have gone entirely at their own charges, the others have been supplied from the Mission funds, which last year amounted to nearly ^18,000. The members of the Mission have traversed each of the eleven provinces of China [which when the Mission was formed had not in any one of them a Protestant Missionary], preaching and distributing portions of Scrip- ture. Some of them, if only regarded as travellers, have achieved no small distinction. They have also greatly helped to remove the obstacles which hinder intercourse between the natives and Europeans. That not only men, but women, both married and single, have been able to live year after year hundreds, nay, thousands of miles away from foreign centres, without appeals for consular intervention, affords satisfactory evidence of their pru- dence and good conduct. Should any of our readers wish to know more about the Mission, we recommend them to apply to the Secretary, 2, Pyrland Road, Mildmay, N. Mr. C. T. Studd, B.A. Turning now to our portraits, Mr. C. T. Studd is a member of the well-known cricketing family. He and his brothers were educated at Eton, and were much affected by the example of their father, a country gentle- man (now deceased), who, after attending the services of Messrs. Moody and Sankey, sold his dogs and hunters, and devoted himself to Christian work. In 1879, Mr. Studd was captain of the Eton Eleven, and in 1883 of the Cambridge University Eleven. [He was also a prominent member of the All England Eleven.] The recent visits of Messrs. Moody and Sankey to London brought Mr. Studd prominently forward as a worker for CHRIST, and lately he resolved to devote himself to missionary work in Central China, in connection with the China Inland Mission. Mr. Stanley P. Smith, B.A. Mr. Stanley P. Smith, B.A., of Trinity College, Cam- bridge, is the youngest son of Mr. T. H. Smith, John Street, Mayfair. He was a first-rate oarsman, and was stroke of the Cambridge Eight in 1882. Rev. W. W. Cassels, B.A. The Rev. W. W. Cassels, B.A., of St. John's, Cambridge, and late Curate of All Saints, South Lambeth, is the sixth son of the late John Cassels, of Oporto. Mr. Cassels was at Repton School from 1873 to 1877, and two others of the "seven," Mr. Stanley Smith and Mr. Montagu Beauchamp, were also at the same school about that time. Mr. D. E. Hoste. Mr. D. E. Hoste served four years in the Royal Artil- lery, and resigned his commission in April, 1884. He was converted at Mr. Moody's Mission, held at Brighton in December, 1882, and at once felt our Lord's command to His disciples — to preach the Gospel to every creature — laid upon him. He is second son of Major-General Hoste, of Brighton. Mr. Montagu Beauchamp, B.A. Mr. Montagu Beauchamp, B.A., is also of Trinity. He is the son of Lady Beauchamp, the sister of Lord Rad- stock, so well known in connection with Evangelistic work. He is the brother of Sir Reginald Beauchamp, of Langley Park, Norfolk. [Mr. Beauchamp was stroke-oar of one of the University Trial Eights, and regularly rowed in the First Trinity Eight.] Cecil Henry Polhill-Turner AND Arthur Twisleton Polhill-Turner, B.A. Cecil Henry Polhill-Turner and Arthur Twisleton Polhill-Turner, B.A., are two sons of the late Captain Frederick Charles Polhill, formerly of the 6tli Dragoon Guards, and for some time M.P. for Bedford. Cecil and Arthur were educated at Eton. Both were in the School Eleven, and afterwards at Cambridge were also prominent members of their College Eleven. Cecil entered the 2nd Dragoon Guards, or Queen's Bays, in 1881; and Arthur, after graduating at Trinity Hall, studied for Holy Orders at Ridley Hall, and would have been ordained this year, but both brothers gave up their respective positions to go out as missionaries. l?lr. @. % ^iubb a^ a §xxc^cicx. Frofn THE TIMES. The match that has engaged universal attention during the week is the encounter between the Austrahans and Cambridge University. Remembering the great strength of our visitors, both in batting and bowling, few prophets would have cared to predict the success of the Cambridge team, and yet that is what came about yesterday. A victory by six wickets is a substantial victory. The Cantabs may well be proud of having been the first to lower the colours of the present Colonial eleven, when we know that the Australians have played six matches in this country and have only once been in real danger of losing. Oxford University, Sussex, and Surrey succumbed, not without a determined struggle in one or two cases, but without much real prospect of successful resistance. In the Orleans Club match everybody at one time thought the Colonial eleven were beaten. But we have found out, to our cost, that it is never safe to call the Australians beaten until their last man is out or the winning hit is made. By the stand they made in the second innings they so prolonged the contest that the crack English eleven had not time to wipe off the balance, as it can hardly be doubted that they would have done. The same thing happened at the Oval last year. The Cambridge men, when Mr. Giffen, Mr. Horan, and Mr. Boyle were defying the bowling of Mr. C. T. Studd and Mr. Ramsay, were doubtless apprehensive that in a similar way a draviTi game would snatch victory from their grasp. Fortune had decreed otherwise, and Cambridge were yesterday left 165 runs to win. These they obtained at the cost of only four wickets. It is only fau- to say that as far as batting and bowling went the chief credit of the Cambridge success is due to five or six men. The three brothers Studd, who obtained 297 runs between them — Mr. C. T. Studd making 118 in his first innings — together with Mr. Bather, left the rest of the eleven far in the background. Not for the first time the Cambridge play exemplifies how cricket "runs in families." The Studds, it may be averred, have established a family reputation nearly as great as that of the Graces, the Lytteltons, or the Lucases. Nor was Mr. C. T. Studd content with making 135 runs out of the total, for he divided with Mr. Ramsay the bowHng honours. Not a wicket was taken by any other Cambridge bowler than they. — From Leading Article. From Cricketing Column. The interest in the match at Cambridge between the Univer- sity and the Australians was sustained yesterday at a very high point, and in the end Cambridge gained a bnlliant victoiy by six wickets, being thus the first team to inflict defeat upon the Colonists. When play began on Monday even the most hope- ful of Cambridge's partisans could scarcely have looked forward to such a triumph. The result shows what can be done at cricket by resolution, against even the most formidable opponents. The brothers Studd deserve and will certainly receive most hearty congratulations. Between them they made no fewer than 297 runs out of a total of 403 fi-om the bat, distributed m the follow- ing proportions :— Mr. C. T. Studd, 135 ; Mr. G. B. Studd, 90 ; and Mr. J. E. K. Studd— the eldest member of this cncket-play- ing family— 72. In addition to his achievements with the bat, Mr C. T. Studd took eight wickets; but a greater bowlmg success than his was that of Mr. R. C. Ramsay, who took five wickets in one innings and seven in the other. It was, indeed, a curious and noteworthy fact that all the Austrahans' wickets m each innings should have been divided between two bowlers. The position of the game when stumps were drawn on Tues- day evening will be remembered. The Australians had scored xxa and 212 for six wickets, while Cambridge had played a first innings of 266. Thus with tour wickets to go down, the Austra- lians were 85 runs to the good. Play began yesterday soon after 12 o'clock. Neither of the overnight not-outs— Messrs. Gifien and Palmer— offered any long resistance ; but Mr. Boyle, as m many other matches, both here and in Australia, proved himself invaluable at a critical stage of the game. He hit with greaL vieour, and chiefly owing to his exertions the total amounted to 2QI. Five bowlers were tried :— Mr. Ramsay claimed seveii wkets, in 71 overs (23 maidens), for n8 runs ; and Mr. C. T. Studd three wickets, in 6g overs (30 maidens), for ifo runs- Cambridge had 165 to get to secure victory, and though the wicket was still in fine order for batting, the task was considered a heavy one against the strong bovyhng of the Colonists. Hardly any one could have anticipated the exceptional displayof batting riven Messrs T E. K. and G. B. Studd opened the inmng--, Ind though Messrs. Spofforth, Palmer, and Garrett did their best to part tfem, the score at the luncheon interval was 49 with no wicket down: On the game being resumed, M-r. Garrett was 00 unwell to go out into the field, and the loss of his fast bowling was of coiSse a disadvantage, Frequent changes were resorted U. without the least efi-ect, and the 100 went up without the loss of Twicket. This feat, it may be mentioned,, has never pre- viously been accomphshed against Australian cricketers m Eng- land The cheering and excitement may be imagined. Scarcely had be applau'TJged away, before Mr. G. B. Studd's brilian inninES of 4S was closed by a catch in the long field. One wicket f^E T^riong stand Was, of course, the tummg point of the gamf ■ Aftemards the task of Cambridge was easy, only 59 runs being wanted with nine wickets to fall. Before the number could be obtained, however, Mr. Maynard was caught at for- ward cover-point, and Mr. Henery and Mr. J. E. K. Studd were bowled. The last-named gentleman, hke his brother, had played most brilhantly. Messrs. C. T. Studd and Bather were to- gether at the finish. Just before making the winning hit, the former was missed being stumped. The mistake, it need hardly be said, came too late to have any bearing on the result. Mr. G. B. Studd's 48 included five fours, two threes, and five twos, and Mr. J. E. K. Studd's 66, seven fours, three tlirees, and seven twos. Complete score : — AUSTRALIANS. First Innings. A. C. Bannerman. b. Ramsay ... Mr. H. H. Massie, c. de Paravi- cini, b. C. T. Studd Mr. W. L. Murdoch, c. Wright, b. Ramsay Mr. T. Horan, c. Wright, b. Ram- say Mr. P. S. M'Donnell, c. Watson, b. Ramsay Mr. G. Giffen, c. J. E. K. Studd, b. C.T. Studd Mr. S. P. Jones, c. Spencer, b. C. T. Studd Mr. T. W. Garrett, c. Wright, b. C.T. Studd Mr. G. E. Palmer, not out Mr, F. R. Spofforth, c. de Paravi- cini, b. Ramsay Mr. H. F. Boyle, c. Maynard, b. C. T. Studd B., i; l.-b., i; n.-b., i Second Innings. 50 c. Bather, b. Ramsay 37 b. C. X. Studd I b. Ramsay 8 b, Ramsay 4 b. C. T. Studd 3 c. and b. C. T. Studd 7 l.-b.-w., b. Ramsay o c. Bather, b. Ramsay 12 c. C. T. Studd, b. Ramsay o St. Wright, b. Ramsay Second Innings. 6 b. Giffen 42 c. Jones, b. Giffen ... 6 c. Spofforth, b. Palmer Total 139 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY First Innings. Mr. J. E. K. Studd, b. Garrett ... Mr. G. B. Studd, b. Spofforth ... Mr. E. A. J. Maynard, c. Massie, b. Palmer Mr. C. W. Wright, l.-b.-w., b. Pal- mer a Mr. C. T. Studd, c. Murdoch, b. Palmer 118 not out ... Mr. W. H. Bather, b. Spofforth... 24 not out ... Mr. R. Spencer, b. Palmer ... o Mr. P. J. T. Henery, b. Boyle ... 21 b. Giffen Mr. P. J . de Paravicini, b. Palmer o Mr. R. C. Ramsay, not out ... 9 Mr. J. R. Watson, b. Palmer Byes, 26; l.-b., s ... Total I.-b., 3. Total . 66 48 Byes, 7 ; l.-b., 3 Total §peec^ of ^ax£ gairn^, A/ the Meeting of the Church Missionary Society in Exeter Hall, March 24///, 1885. "Little did those who heard him then, pleading that the people who walk in darkness might see a great Light, think that they were listening for the last time to the deep^ earnest tones of that melodious voice, or that the concluding thought in that noble speech would, within eight days, be repeated by his dying lips: 'It is our great work here to follow in the steps of our great Master.'" — {From " Brief Memoirs of Hugh McCatmont, first Earl Cairns" hy Miss Marshi) JiHIS hall to-night presents a grand and encouraging sight. We are met here to speak of what has been done, of what can be done, and what ought to be done for the purpose of carrying the great message of salva- tion to those who have not received it, and who, if we do not bring it to them, will perish without hearing it. We stand here at a great, and I will also add, a most inspiriting, crisis in the history of missions. We are approaching the end of the ninteenth century, and I am bound to say that great as has been our progress in arts, in science, in manufacture, in the diffusion of knowledge, and of intercourse during this century, the progress of missions and of missionary enterprise in the century has not been less. At the close of the last century what was the case } Why, you could not have laid your finger upon a spot in the heathen world andhavesaid, " On this spot, at least, the pure light of the Gospel has shone down." And now what do we see around us .' Look at India, look at Japan, look even at China, look at Africa — AV'est Africa, East Africa, South Africa, Central Africa ; look at the great districts of the Hudson's Bay; look at Fiji, look at Polynesia, look at iVIelanesia, and what do you find } No doubt your maps of heathendom are covered with large surfaces of blackness and darkness; but yet what gleams, what patches — yes, and what whole districts of light and brightness have become interspersed ? And what an honour has been conferred upon England and upon the Anglo-Saxon race in being privileged to do God's missionary work. We boast and pride ourselves on this, that we have been throughout the world the pioneers of commerce and of civilisation. Yes ; that is quite true. But it has pleased God to confer upon the Anglo-Saxon race, and mainly upon England, a higher, because a purer, and a more holy honour, in that it has been given to the Anglo-Saxon race, and mainly to England, pre eminently and almost exclusively of all the countries in the world, to be the bearers to the heathen of the wondrous revelation of God's mercy and love. And in that great day when He comes to make up His jewels, I wonder if any brighter name will shine forth in the galaxy of heaven than the names of those great British missionaries whom this century has produced — Henry Martyn, William Carey, Judson, Morrison, Marsden, AVilliams, Johnson, Hunt, Gardner, Duff, Livingstone, Moffat, Bishop Patteson, the martj'r of Melanesia ; yes, and I must add to this glorious catalogue yet another name — a name of one who has also been a martyr. It is true that he was not a missionary in name ; but if a holy and self-sacrificing spirit of devotion, if a Christ-like love for the bodies and the souls of heathens, if a pure and spotless and true and saint-like example of hfe carried regardless of danger and privation to spend and be spent among the heathen that he loved — if these things are the type, if these things constitute (and who will say that they do not constitute ?) the true type of a Christian missionary, and if a violent death cheerfully met and welcomed in the midst of and on account of that life constitute a martyr's death, then beyond all doubt that great and noble hero whose loss England and the world are now joined in deploring — I mean General Gordon — was conspicuously both a missionary and a martyr. And I thank God that the great spirit of this great and holy man has not passed away. WTiat have we seen within the last few weeks upon this platform .' A band of young Englishmen, high bred, high spirited, highly cultivated — men who had before them at home everything that social position and personal capability could ensure — standing on this platform to say farewell and take leave of their families and their friends in order to go out and carry their Saviour's banner into the midst of the benighted millions of China. And I trust that we shall hear to-night from Mr. Moule, the Principal, and from Mr. Ireland Jones, the Vice- Principal, of Ridley Hall, Cambridge, something of the spirit that has been infused into our Uni\'ersities for missionary work, and of the number of young men at Cambridge who are eager to qualify themselves in order to follow in the steps of Stanley Smith, and of Studd, and of Beauchamp, and of Hoste, and of the Polhill-Turners. And I trust that this spirit will be quick- ened and extended, both inside and outside of the Universities, by the meeting here to-night, and by what we shall listen to from the speakers who are to follow me ; and in saying this, I do not wish to refer mainly to that spirit which animates those who leave our shores to go as missionaries to the heathen. They, no doubt, are the heralds and standard-bearers of the Cross, but it is not given to many to have the training, the capabihty, and the free- dom to go as a missionary ; but there is a great and holy work to be done by all of us who tarry at home. We can follow those who go abroad in our spirits and with our prayers ; we can help them and add to their comforts ; we can go with them in our thoughts, and we can watch over the countries where they are and the work in which they are engaged ; we can take up a par- ticular mission, even, and make it our study and our care. You kno \v what happens when we are engaged in war. When ou troops go to a foreign country to attack an enemy, how our hearts go to them ! how we watch over them ! how we search the news- papers for tidings about them ! how we study the geography i f the lands in which they are, and endeavour to learn everything that can be learned about them ! how we long for and glory in their triumphs, and how we sympathise with them in their reverses and their disappointments I And if this is so in (he wars, in which, unfortunately, we are engaged, what shall I say of that great war in which we who are anxious about missions are en- gaged } We are engaged in a war -with the hosts of darkness, in the darkest parts of the earth. Our soldiers — the bravest and best of our soldiers — have gone out. Ourreser^'es are coming up and going to follow. Our recruits are ready to join, and shall our hearts go less with those who are abroad, who are fighting our battles against the hosts of darkness } AUowme to tellyouashort and simple story ;— I had the honour of representing for a great number of years the town of Belfast, the commercial capital of Ireland, in Parliament. In Belfast there was a little boy, a chimney-sweep. He happened to be attracted by missions, and he contributed to amission box a sum which was not inconsiderable for a chimney-sweep — the sum of twopence. One afternoon a friend of this boy's met him going along the street in an unusual condition, for his hands and his face were washed, and he was dressed in very good clothes. And the boy who was his friend said to him, " Halloa ! where are you going ? " " Oh ! " he said, " I am going to a mission meeting." "What!" he said, "going to a missionary meeting? What are you going to a missionary meeting for.'" "Well," the sweep said, " you see I have become a sort of partner in the concern, and I am going to see how the business is getting on." Well, now that is what I want. Let us be partners in the concern. And let us see how the business is getting on. Do not let us drop our sovereign or our shilling on the plate, and then wash our hands of it, till some subsequent occasion when we will repeat that process. Do not let us take leave of the missionary and never think more about him. Let us, indeed, be partners in the great work in which we are engaged, and let us know and remember that to us is given that marvellous honour, not merely of being partners and fellow-workers one with another, but being in this great concern fellow-workers with our great Master who wills that all men should be saved and should come to the knowledge of the truth. — The Record. " ^0 ^e info Jifr i^e Wov£b ! " Dedicated to the Missionary Band, Messrs. Stanley Smith, Studd, Q^ssels, Hoste, Beauchamp, Cecil and Arthur Polhill-Turner. G. M. J. By James McGranahan. n tr It 1 . ^ 1 ^ ' **jt -1 J ^ iS ■ ■ 1 ft 1 i ' i 11 H- a ^ ' k. S ," • J J ,, ^ J . J 1 \ * T ~ ^ • l^ m Tf* ■ t — *-^ lions diers will - ry *^ • • of souls of Christ, ye die?" to God" for a - re - tri - 1. Far, 2. See 3. " Why 4. God far o'er will speed 9 -t : a - way the world ye die?" the day :«: in wide the when hea - then dark - - pen doors voice of God those of ev - ^ 1^ J* ness in is 'ry ^ dwell - vi - call - na - ting : ing ; tion, Mil Sol - "Why "Glo ■>•+*' It i r * P P • ' ^ # M m . ^^ m • « ~ '"—'ST ' ■ 1j l^ i^ r ' '■ '' '■ '■' * 4 » — ^ — ^ ^ • r L_k*! >! ?: 1 ^ , —J — \li '9~A -M ^ t tt ^ 1 1 ffir S J '^ Is H 5 t> ^ 1 • J ' «i --J J m . S s «J S> • 9 1 9 f : -S: > U > > I. ev - er may be lost: Who, who will go Sal - va - tion's sto - ry tell - ing— 2. - rise and en - ter in! Chris - tians. a - wake ! your for - ces all u ni - ting, 3- - ech - m His Name ! |e - sus hath died to save from death ap - pal - ling ; 4. - umph -ant - ly shall sing ; Ran- som'd. re- deem'd, re JOl - cing in sal - va - tion. -f- ^ • J f« f» > _P ^ q»- :p- {m\*- ^Jl. -^ — 1 .. f -8 — f— *! • — m — m (c^ T~ — P=^ — ' — i » — i- 1 — 1 — ta — — t^ — —P- — i* fi 1 'ft X U '■ U U> ^ » ? ' -S^ i£ ^3£ -^- Chorus (Matt. x.wiU. 18-20; Markxvi. 15). El- =?=g= Look Send Life Shout - ing to forth the and sal " Hal - le SI Je - sus, count- ing not the cost? ■ gos - pel, break the chains of sin ! - va - tion there -fore go pro - claim. - lu - jah, for the Lord is King ! " -"All power IS giv - en un - to Me 1 4= — T- • r ^^ A- :^=*=^- =e=P=s=f=^ =P2= -^— 1»^- -f^—J- — 1 — H \ — 1 F=^~ — ^- — >. — fe- — v- =^:=i*i= f^— =r-^ — ^-, All « .-. ^ power • is giv - 1 P • * • en un - * • * • =«— gj to Me ! -ft ==— 1 Go f^ — 1 • ye ^^ — w — — * — in — ^ — • — — 1 — to N — * P ■ all the world ft h — • m -f— and ^-^ — p — • l=ta= =iS= > ^ V L-^^ k— — >— t? — ^ P * -^- ^- -^ ^m ^ 3i: al way.' preach the gos pel; and lo, with you ^ ^= :t =1: -t- I ^ I w w • Copyright. Entered at Stationers' Hall. J'ublitked separately by Messrs. M0RG.\N & SCOTT, 12, Paternoster Buildings, E,C., by whose kind termisdon it is given here. I. C.T STUDD. B.A. 2. D. E. HOSTE. 3. W. W. CASSELS. B. A. 4. STANLEY P SMITH BA, 5 CECIL H POLHILL-TURNER 6. ARTHUR T POLH I LL-TURNER B A 7. MONTAGU BEAUCHAMP B.A A MISSIONARY BAND. .rjiidon "'fjr ,,.T-)pi'., & Photjiqrdphd. CoL''(P'Trn nifii! Photo) A Missionary Band: Ji ^ccoxb anb JVn 3Vp:pcat By B. BROOMHALL, Secretary of the China Inland Missioti. LONDON: MORGAN AND SCOTT, 12, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS, E.G. Wv ;*V/ i PRINTED EY JIAZELL, WATSON, AND VINEY, LD., LONDON AND AYLKSBURY. 1)t^ ^00^5 (Designed to show that — "In the ivhole compass of human benevolence, there is nothing so grand, so noble, so Christian, so trnly God=like as the ivork of evangelising the heathen," is, with respect and affection, (bEmCATED TO " The Missionary appears to me to be the highest type oj hitman excellence in the Nineteenth Century, and his profession to be the noblest. He has the enterprise of the Merchant, without the narrow desire of gain; the dauntlessness of the Soldier, without the necessity of shedding blood; the zeal of the Geographical Explorer, but for a higher motive than Science." R. N. CusT, Esq. §nfro6ucfton. The following pages need but little by way of prefaee. They form a record, fuller and more consecu- tive than has yet appeared, concerning the missionary band of seven who last year left England for missionary work in China. A recent writer has truly said : — " When, a few months ago, five Cambridge graduates, including the stroke of the Cambridge Eight, and one of the most famous cricketers of the day, with two officers (one of the Royal Artillery, and one of the Dragoon Guards), gave themselves thankfully to the work of the China Inland Mission, the heart of the country, and of the Churches, was deeply stirred, and we began to understand how much more noble a sphere of service was offered by Christ to young men with great possessions and good abilities, than the cricket-field or the river, the army or the bar could afford." This testimony is true, and, throughout the world, wherever the English language is spoken, much interest was awakened. The event was regarded as unique in the history of Missions, and the extraordinary demand for such particulars as have from time to time been published, has led to the preparation of this fuller account, which, it is believed, will be eagerly welcomed by many in all parts of the world. But let no one mistake the object of its publication — that object is not to extol the beloved brethren of whom it speaks, as though they had done some work of supererogation. The service of Christ in the foreign mission field confers a far higher honour on the man who devotes himself to it, than the man, be he who he may, can confer upon the work. Our brethren know this full well, and inspired by true loyalty to Christ, and an enlightened regard to the interests of His cause on earth, they have counted it their high privilege to give themselves to missionary work in a distant land ; and we believe that the days are not distant when hundreds and thousands of young men of equal position and fitness will do as they have done. Towards the hastening of this time their example is of unspeakable value, and cannot be too widely known, with all of detail that may render it influential. No one, it is hoped, will lose sight of the fact that the chief qualification for missionary work is something immeasurably higher than anything social position or University training can give, and it is the possession of this qualification which affords such deep satisfaction concerning these brethren. Considering all the circumstances, the young men of this generation have had no more impres- sive testimony to the blessedness of decision for Christ, and the joy of a whole-hearted surrender to His service, than that given by this Missionary Band. That testimony may, through these pages, reach the heart of many a young man, and be to him memorable for ever as the means whereby he was led to decide for Christ, and to know by happy experience the joy of His salvation ; while others, who are already the Lord's, may, as they read, be enabled to say with a depth of feeling unknown before, and never again to be forgotten — " Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee." The interest awakened by their departure for the mission field still lives, and many eyes are upon their course. Dr. Wilder, of Princeton, the able editor of The Missionary Review, has put into words a thought, which, though it may have been unexpressed, has, doubtless, been in the minds of many ; he says : — Thoughtful minds will be waiting to see how the glow of their piety endures the tug and toil of learning the Chinese language, and their close contact daily with the masses of ignorant and superstitious idolaters with no bracing influences around them from cultured Christian society. In the case of every young missionary there is more ground for such concern than minds not thoughtful can understand. The sudden transition from helpful surroundings at home, to the deadening influences of a heathen land ; the active service, which has been their delight, exchanged for the toil- some study of a difficult language ; the flesh weak, and an unwearying adversary to contend with ; what wonder if the fine gold should become dim, and love grow cold ! It might have been so with our brethren, but through the abounding goodness of God, it appears from letters recently received that their testimony has lost none of its joyfulness. How much need there is that missionaries abroad should be upheld by the prayer of friends at home, is forcibly shown by Mr. Cassels, in a letter to a friend, which has come to hand just as this Introduction has to be written. Letters from the others have also com^ roost opportunely, and we are enabled to give an extract from each. ViU INTROD UCTION. Mr. STANLEY SMITH writes:— That he and Mr. Studd are having good times of quickening from the Lord. He says : " I was struck with the Lord's first command to Elijah— i Kings xvii. 3—' Hide thyself ! ' Wonderful that our hidmg-place is not ' by the brook Cherith,' as his ; but ' with Christ IN GOD." " " I'm satisfied with Jesus, He's everything to me ; His dying love has won my heart, And now He sets me free." Mr. STUDD writes:— ' Beauchamp and Cassels have been up at Sih-chau for some time now, and Beauchamp says they have had much blessing in their souls ; he even compares the 'hitherto' to husks, and rejoices in the land of corn and wine. Hoste came up from Kuh-wu to join us in the week of prayer ; he also arrived full of blessing, and brimming over with the glories of sanctification by faith, which the Lord had taught him through reading ' Luther on Galatians.' Stanley and I have also had some glorious times together, especially on ' freedom and trust.' How true that where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Mr. HOSTE writes ;— " Kuh-wu-hsien. " I have been here without any European companion for now over a month, and, praise God, it has been a happy time and one ot blessing to my own soul, and I trust in the Lord, will prove to be not unfruitful in blessing for the dear men here in this city. " Chang the Evangelist is a bright Christian, and we have happy times together over the Word and in prayer." After telling how he has seen more of the simplicity and fulness of the blessings of the Gospel, he writes : " Dear me ! what a glorious Gospel for poor helpless ones ! I never was naturally much of a man for shouting, as a way of expressing my feelings, but when this wonderful love of GOD in Christ comes before me, I feel one must shout Hallelujah for the cross ! salvation to GOD and the Lamb." Mt. MONTAGU BEAUCHAMP Tells of " a delightful expedition " with Stanley Smith to some towns. They were away three or four days quite alone, selling books and scattering tracts. He adds, " You will join with us in asking God's blessing on this our first purely independent efifort to spread the glad tidings in China." x^fr. CECIL POLHILL-TURNER writes:— We do value all our dear brethren's prayers at home, and pray that God may answer far above all that we can ask or think, and visit their own souls with refreshing streams from His own presence. I often think when a wave of blessing comes to one, praise the Lord ! dear brothers' prayers at home are being answered, God bless them. Is it not glorious, this pulling down the blessing, as it were, upon each other ? May God take hold of all His workers — natives and foreigners ; and make all men with one purpose to know Jesus Christ, and to make Him known, to magnify Him in our bodies, or rather, let Him be magnified, whether by our life or death. Amen. Mr. ARTHUR POLHILL-TURNER writes from Sliih-pa-li-pu. You will be encouraged to hear that the Lord is work- ing here, and souls are being saved. Praise the Lord ! Our progress in the language is encouraging, and we io find the Lord helps us ; also to learn the character of the people, which is most necessary, for however much advice you may receive it is nothing compared with prac- tical experience, and finding out for myself the best way — in the Lord's hands — of reaching the dying masses of China. I feel the need of having the heart in close sym- pathy with them ; like Ezekiel, " I sat down among them and wept," so thus their hearts will respond. Mr. CASSELS writes :— Sih-chau., Shansi. The daily study of Chinese is still our chief work. Then, under the surface, visible, perhaps, to no eye but His, are those temptations which, in this land especially, the devil seems to be permitted to hurl at one. I think that from beginning to end the words of the hymn which says :— " How oft in the conflict, when pressed by the foe, I have fled to my refuge and breathed out my woe ! How often when trials, like sea-billows roll, I have hidden in Thee, O Thou Rock of my soul ; "— very correctly express my experience. If He lead us through fire and water, it is to bring us out into a wealthy place, we are sure of that. These words may suggest to you that we missionaries are in need of your prayers ; and such, indeed, is the case. Our Father has made us dependent upon one another as well as upon Him, and if the Church at home ceases to pray for us, we are certain to suffer loss. It is easy to imagine that those who have taken the step of leaving home to become missionaries have got on a platform INTROD UCTION. where they are safe from the ordinary trials and tempta- tions of other people. But there is no mistake greater. The Church's duty does not end when she has sent some of her children out to attack the devil in his stronghold. No, it just about begins there. Then is Jhe time for her to fall upon her knees and cry to God to sustain and strengthen her emissary in the awful spiritual dangers he has gone to face. The Church is waking up to her duty to send men forth. Does it also realise its equally im- portaiit duty of sustaining them by constant, earnest, and believing prayer when sent forth ? Thank God; we know our hiding-place and our Blessed Keeper. Praise be to His name. But we can't shut our eyes to the fact that missionaries, not loo miles from China, have lost all their rest, and all power, not to speak of sadder things, and owing to what ? I will give you some of my late experience in the words of the Book. 1. " But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped." Ps. Ixxiii. 2. 2. " Unless the Lord had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence." 3. " When I said my foot slippeth, Thy mercy, O Lord, held me up." Ps. xciv. 17, 18. 4. " Keep sound wisdom, i.e. Jesus " {cf. Prov. viii. 22). " Then shalt thou walk in thy way safely, and thy foot shall not stumble. For the Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken." Prov. iii. 23 and 26. Yes, Master, beloved Master, not only can we look up into Thy face and say: Thou " wilt keep the feet of Thy Saints " and not " suffer their feet to be moved," but also we may say with boldness, our " feet shall tread upon the lion and adder, the young lion and dragon shall v/e trample under foot." The Evil One has been round about us as a roaring lion trying, oh, so hard, to draw us from Thy hands, but " through Thee we shall do valiantly," through Thee we shall tread down — nay, better still, it is Thou that shall tread down our enemies. Sunday, January \oth. — I wrote the foregoing at a time when, as you would gather, I had been going through fire and water, and though His presence was still very real (praise be to His holy name !), the temptations of the devil were very fierce, but now He has indeed once again brought me out into a wealthy place. I don't think I ever had such visions of His love and His glory. I don't know exactly in what words to express my expe- rience, but I have been finding it impossible to keep from shouts of adoration and praise even with the sobering influence of a more sedate companion in the house. Words utterly fail me to-night ; but oh, it has been Royal company all day. Divine company. I have just been gazing upon the Master, talking with Him. If I asked for your prayers, shall I not also ask for your praises ? Let us not rob Him of His rights and withhold the offer- ing of thankful hearts. " God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to every good work." There is absolutely no loophole there through which any fearful or unbelieving soul may slip; is there ? Let none who read the foregoing fail to ask that our dear friends may be sustained and strengthened in their work, that their path, bright in its beginning, may become brigliter and brighter unto the perfect day. The latter portion of the book contains much bearing upon the Evangelisation of the World. The testimonies of many distinguished men on various aspects of the work, have been brought together. Combined, they form a very powerful appeal on behalf of Foreign Missions. Though numerous, they are not a miscellaneous collection gathered indiscriminately ; a definite plan runs throughout the whole, and there is no page without a purpose. Having regard to the chief aim of the book, it has been thought worth while to devote some pages to the mention of books on Missions and Missionaries. It would be a mistake to look upon these as merely advertisements, put in for so much money. The desire has been to use the space for such books as would enlarge the knowledge of Mission Fields, and strengthen interest in Missionary Work ; but there has been no attempt at completeness ; only a few of the many that deserve attention could be given. Missionary literature is gloriously rich with some of the noblest and most inspiring records that were ever issued from the press. If better known, it would be more highly prized. Between the solemn urgency of the last great command of the risen Saviour to His disciples to preach the Gospel to every creature, and the practice of many who call Him Lord, there is a dis- crepancy which may well provoke thought. With Him it was the one great work above all others, and that its difficulties might not dismay those to whom it was committed, He assured them of His power, and for their comfort, promised His own presence. Did He make too much of the work, or do His people make too little ? One of the two it must be ; which is it ? The one aim in the preparation of this book has been to put the cause of Christian Missions in its true light. If it has been made clear that the claims of this work are supreme — that no one can touch the work, to help it, without personal blessing — that none may neglect it without serious spiritual loss, let there be corresponding action. The time is short, the need is urgent; "A world of sinning and suffering men, each one of them my own brother, calls on me for work, work, work ! " B. B. 2, Pyrland Road, London, May, 1886. @onfcni^. 3V ^$tT;S:sionan? ^anb. Notices of Meetings. page Edinburgh — Cambridge^Oxford i Farewell Meeting, Exeter Hall. Addresses of Messrs. Stanley P. Smith, B.A., Montagu Beauchamp, B.A., D. E. Iloste, W. W. Cassels, B. A., Cecil Polhill-Turner, Arthur Polhill-Turner, B.A., C. T. Studd, B.A., and others 5 En Route for China. Extracts from Letters 13 The Voyage ; described in Seven Letters. (i) London to Suez, by Mr. D. E. Hoste ; (2) Suez to Colombo, by Mr. C. T. Studd ; {3) At Colombo, by Mr. A, T. Polhill-Turner; (4) Penang and Singapore, by Mr. C. PL Polhill-Turner ; (5) Hong- Kong, by Mr. M. Beauchamp ; (6) Shanghai, by Rev. W. W. Cassels ; (7) The Voyage as a whole, by Mr. Stanley P. Smith 14 At Shanghai. Mr. Stanley P. Smith 20 En Route Inland. Visit to Gan-k'ing and Hankow. Letter from Mr. Beauchamp 22 On the River Han. Letter from Mr. Arthur Polhill-Turner ; Mr. Cecil Polhill-Turner Arrival at Han-chung. Letter from Mr. C. T. Polhill-Turner Tientsin and Peking. Letters from Rev. W. W. Cassels and Mr. Stanley P. Smith Letter from Studd ; Letter from Mr. A. 24 29 32 Such Meetings I have never known in China. Letter from Rev. Joseph Edkins, D.D. ... ... 36 Appeal for Special and United Prayer. From Missionaries at Peking ... ... ... ... 37 "The Promise of the Spirit." By Miss Haven ... ... ... ... ... ... 38 T'ai-yuen Fu. Letters from Mr. Stanley P. Smith, Rev. W. W. Cassels, and Mr. D. E. Hoste 41 Hoh-chau. Letter from Rev. W. W. Cassels 43 Ping-yang Fu. Letters from Mr. Stanley P. Smith, Rev. W. W. Cassels, Mr. M. Beauchamp, Mr. D. E. Hoste, and Mr. C. T. Studd 44 Sih-chau. From Mr. M. Beauchamp 48 Letter from Rev. W. W. Cassels 51 "Trumpet Calls to Britain's Sons." Letters to Friends in Edinburgh from Messrs. Smith and Studd 52 Warnings and Hints for Intending Mis- sionaries. Letters from Messrs. Smith and Studd ... 53 Letters from Rev. W. W. Cassels, Mr. Stanley P. Smith, and Mr. D. E. Hoste 54 ^c§oes. From Edinburgh: "A Work of Grace among Students." By Rev. Prof. A. H. Charteris, D.D 57 "The Work of God in the University of Edinburgh." By Mr. John C. Thomson, M.A 58 "Visits of Edinburgh Students to other Universities." By Mr. J. C. Thomson, M.A 60 From Cambridge: "The Spirit of God unfettered." By Rev. C. E. Searle, D.D.j Master of Pembroke College ... 62 From Leicester: ' ' Touched with a new Fire." By Rev. F. B. Meyer, B.A. From India: "The Revival of Missionary Enthusiasm." By J. L. Phillips, M.D From Ceylon : " Soldiers of the Cross." From the Ceylon Observer. From China: "A New Campaign in China.' Blodget, D.D. By the Rev. Henry 63 63 64 64 CONTENTS. ^e §i:>angeft:eafTon of f^e ^orf6. The Voice of Scripture on I^issionary Work 65 Foreign Missions : the Great Primary Worlc of the Church. By Eugene Stock, Esq. 67 The Imperative Claims of the Heathen World on the Church and People of God. By Rev. J. H.Wilson, M. A 68 A Diagram showing the Population of the World 69 The Condition of the World after eighteen centuries of Saving Knowledge. By the Right Hon. the Earl of Shaftesbury, K.G. .,. 70 Our Position before God. By Major-Gencral F. T. Haig, R.E The Evangelisation of the World. An Appeal from ISIr. Moody's Convention, Northfield The Age of Opportunity. By Rev. William Arthur, M. A The World open to the Gospel. By Reginald Radcliffe, Esq. Possibilities in this Generation. By Rev, Richard Montague, and Rev. Dr. Alden Our Right Attitude in Regard to the Past, the Present, and the Future. By Rev. William Arthur, M. A 70 71 72 73 73 74 The Moral Condition of India. By Rev. William Arthur, M. A The Claims of India. By Major-General Haig, R.E gnbta. The Importance of India. 76 By Bishop Lightfoot, and Canon Westcott Appeal to English Women. 76 By a Brahmin Lady 76 77 The Need and Claims of China. By Rev. J. Hudson Taylor 78 Proportion of Missionaries to Population in the Provinces of China Proper 80 Ought we not to make an effort to save China in this Generation? From the Records of the Shanghai Missionary Con- ference The Need and Claims of Africa. By Mrs. Grattan Guinness Jlfrica. I Who will go? , 81 I By Reginald Radcliffe, Esq. e^tefifs io f^e ^^urc^ ai ^oxviQ from ^Ttesions JlBroab. The Reflex Benefit of the Missionary Enterprise. By Rev. Baptist W. Noel, M. A. ^3 The Missionary's Example Contagious and Quickening, By Rev. Dr. Herdman The Best Thing for the Churches. By Reginald Radcliffe, Esq Its Faith is Strengthened— Its Obedience is Rewarded— Its Disunion is Re- buked—Its Zeal is Stimulated. By Rev. C. T. Vaughan, D.D., Dean of Llandaff ... "Nothing so Stirs the Heart for Home Work." By the Bishop of Exeter "Nothing so Expands the Heart." By Rev. W. A. Bathurst, M.A "The Prosperity of the Church is in the line of Missionary Operation." By Professor Stowell 84 85 85 Individual Piety is Promoted. By Rev. Daniel Wilson Our Faith and Experience Strengthened, By Rev. W. M. Punshon, LL.D. 82 86 86 86 CONTENTS. gitjurj? fo f6e gBttrcB ai ^oxatffs. Examples of Cheerful Giving. .. 105 g>on\e 'g5or5s on '^vav^ev. The Mighty Power of Prayer. By Major Malan The Special Need of the Age. By Rev. Wm. Crosbie, M.A., LL.B. .. The First and Greatest Need. By Major-Gen. F. T. Haig, R.E. 107 107 ... loS Prayer, the Root and Strength of all Work. By Rev. A. Murray Oh! for More Prayer! By Rev. C. H, Spurgeon Missionary Prayer Meetings. By Rev. W. Swan ... 108 108 109 31 ^en? (BxaxxxpZez of '^exsonai ^err>tcc. Rev. Samuel Dyer— Rev. John Hunt- Dr. Livingstone — Dr. Schofield and Bishop Hannington 109 A Tamil Christian. By Major-Gen. F. T. Haig, R.E. Personal Experience. By Rev. A. W. Douthwaite, M.D. §l>irtfuaC '^ovoex for '§4Tisstonar^ ^orfi. Our Pressing Need is a Baptism of Divine Power. By Rev. Griffith John Our Strength: Living Union with Jesus Christ. By Rev. H. C. G. Moule, M.A. "3 Our Safety: Intimate, Close, Faithful Union with Christ. By Rev. W. M. Punshon, LL.D 114 Dangers Incidental Work. By an Old Missionary to Missionary 114 CONTENTS. Facts for the Thoughtful- Annual Expenditure ; Something wrong Somewhere ; Twenty Millions to One ; A View of Things which would i Work Wonders | n6 Our Omnipotent Leader— A Missionary Sermon Preached by Rev. C. II. Spurgeon ,2, List of British Missionary Societies ,2s Books on Missions, Missionaries, and Mission Fields 131 China Inland Mission ■■■ •■• M7 §CCxtGfi-ctftonG. Temple in Ta-li Fu Hongkong Wheelbarrows at Shanghai The Port of Shanghai The Missionary Band in Chinese Costume A Street in Shanghai Lao-ho-k'eo, on the Han River Map of China Fishers on the Upper Han Vie\v on the Upper Han River Entrance to the City of Han-chung Fu The South-east Cape of the Shan-tung Promontory The Two Confluents, Tientsin Peking Great Gateway of the Temple of Confucius, Peking A Chinese Family Group Articles Used In Opium Smoking A Chinese Cart Photograph of Messrs. Studd and Smith A Diagram showing the Population of the World ... Portrait of Rev. J. Hudson Taylor A Street in the Native Quarter, Shanghai Portrait of Rev. R. Moffat, D.D A Chinese Scroll Portrait of Dr. Harold Schofield rAOB 1 17 . IS 20 21 23 24 25 28 29 31 32 33 35 41 42 49 50 56 69 78 79 94 99 134 Photographic Group of the Missionary Band. " The best gifts that Christ ever gives to His Church on earth are men. (Eph. iv. II.) " We therefore pray for men — men whose hearts have been stirred up to come otit singularly for God — who do not wish to be so much of a piece with the common thread of life, as of the purple which is embroidered on it — men who have been specially prepared by God for that work which God has prepared for them ; who will devote the pectdiarities of their nature, whatever they may be, to the Redeemer's service." The Rev. Robert Clark, M.A. A Missionary Band. TEMPLE IN TA.-LI FU, WESTERN YUN-NAN. The members of the Missionary Band, of whose farewell .words the following pages contain some record, were : — Rev. W. W. Cassels, b.a., St. John's College, Cambridge. Mr. Stanley P. Smith, b.a.. Trinity College, Cambridge. Mr. C. T. Studd, b.a., Trinity College, Cambridge. Mr. D. E. HosTE (late of the Royal Artillery). Mr. Montagu Beauchamp, b.a.. Trinity College, Cambridge^ Mr. Cecil Polhill-Turner (of the 2nd Dragoon Guards). Mr. Arthur T. Polhill-Turner, b.a.. Trinity Hall and Ridley Hall, Cambridge." All these left London on 5 th February for Brindisi, en route for China. During the few weeks immediately preceding their departure, Mr. Stanley Smith and Mr. Studd, in company with Mr. Reginald Radcliffe, took an evangelistic tour, and visited, besides other towns, the following : — Liverpool, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Greenock, Newcastle, Leeds, Rochdale, Manchester, and Bristol. These meetings were of remarkable interest. At one we learn that sixty persons professed con- version. At Edinburgh the interest manifested was extraordinary. Dr. Moxey, writing of a wonderful work of grace going on in the University of Edinburgh, in The Christian of February 19th, says : — " The event that has precipitated the shower of blessing that has fallen in our midst, is the recent visit of the two young Christian athletes from Cambridge, who are now on their way to preach Christ to the Chinese. Students, like other young men, are apt to regard pro- fessedly religious men of their own age as wanting in manliness, unfit for the river or cricket-field, and only good for psalm-singing and pulling a long face. But the big, muscular hands and long arms of the ex-captain of the Cambridge eight, stretched out in entreaty, while he eloquently told out the old story of redeeming love, cap- In other places also the distinctions which our friends had achieved in the athletic world induced young men to assemble in large numbers to see and hear them, and to not a few of these, according to abundant testimony, the word came with convincing and saving power. These meetings, it should be remarked, were evangelistic in character, and nearly all were kindly arranged for, and all printing sized their theory ; and when Mr. C. T. Studd, whose name is to them familiar as a household word as perhaps the greatest gentleman bowler in England, supplemented his brother athlete's words by quiet but intense and burning utterances of personal testimony to the love and power of a personal Saviour, opposition and criticism were alike disarmed, and Professors and students together were seen in tears, to be followed in the after-meeting by the glorious sight of Professors dealing with students, and students with one another." A JIISSiONARY BAND. and other expenses met, independently of the China Inland Mission ; the same may also be said of a former series of meetings held in Scotland, in some of which Mr. Radcliffe, Mr. James E. Mathieson, Major-General Haig, and Mr. Landale took part. Three farewell meetings were arranged for by the China Inland Mission, as under : — The Conference Hall, Eccleston Street on January 30th. The Guildhall, Cambridge ... ... ... ... ... on February 2nd. The Corn Exchange, Oxford ... ... ... ... on February 3rd. And almost at the last moment, in consequence of a request from the Young Men's Christian Associa- tion, it was decided to delay the departure of our friends for one day, in order that a great final meeting might be held in Exeter Hall, London, on February 4th. No description can convey to those not present an adequate idea of the extraordinary character of these meetings, more especially the three latter. At the one at Eccleston Street, Mr. J. E. Mathieson presided, and the Hall was filled to overflowing, so that some were unable to gain admission. At Cambridge the meeting was one which, it is not too much to say, will be memorable in the history of the University. The following extracts from the letter of the Cambridge Correspondent of The Record give the testimony of an impartial witness : — "By far the most remarkable event of this week in our religious world has been the meeting of ' farewell ' to the China Inland missionaries, in the large room at the Guildhall. Very soon after 7.30 the great hall was crowded in every corner — floor, orchestra, gallery. Quite 1,200 persons must have been present, including a very large number of gownsmen. Professor Babington took the chair, and his presence there was a valuable testi- monial of confidence in a devoted spiritual enterprise, on the part of a leading representative of science. Personal testimony to the blessedness of missionary labour was long at work in China ; and then, one ofter another, the new missionary volunteers spoke, with very different degrees of eloquence, but with beautifully uniform simph- city in stating their motive and hope, and confessing their Lord's name and claims It was, we can hardly doubt, the most remarkable missionary meeting held within living memory at Cambridge, and it has stirred hearts deeply far and wide. " It was impossible for earnest and thoughtful Church- men present to withhold loving sympathy, and to pray for blessing both on the speakers, and on themselves as hearers." borne by Messrs. Stevenson and Landale, who have been The generous sympathy of this writer deserves grateful acknowledgment. The same number of The Record which contains the above from its " own correspondent," contains another letter, the following quotation from which cannot be read without interest : — " As I sat, last Monday evening, among the audience at the great 'China Inland' meeting in our Guildhall, a meeting of surpassing interest, and not least to an earnest Evangelical Churchman, I could not but ponder what the main reasons were for the might of a movement which has drawn to it man after man of a very noble type, and of just the qualities most influential in the young Cam- bridge world. My main reasons, after all, reduced them- selves to one, the uncompromising spirituality and unworldliness of the programme of the MISSION, responded to by hearts which have truly laid all at the Lord's feet, name and its power upon themselves. I venture to pro- nounce it inconceivable, impossible, that such a meeting should have been held in connection with any missionary enterprise of mixed aims, or in which such great truths as personal conversion, present peace and joy in believing, the present sanctifying power of the Spirit, the absolute necessity among the heathen of faith in CHRIST for salva- tion, and the loss of the soul as the alternative, were ignored, or treated with hesitation. Nor could such a profound interest possibly be called out did the work not demand of the workers very real and manifest self-sacrifice and acts of faith." and whose delight is the most open confession of His At Oxford, the vast area of the Corn Exchange, the largest building in the possession of the city, was filled to overflowing. Mr. Theodore Howard, Chairman of the Council of the China Inland Mission, presided at this meeting, which was described as one of almost unparalleled interest. Such meetings in Cambridge and Oxford, with so many undergraduates present, call for the deepest gratitude to God. The fruit of them will appear, we cannot doubt, in many an earnest, devoted worker being found in days to come in the various mission fields of the world. The Exeter Hall meeting was an occasion never to be forgotten by those who were privileged to be present. Long before the time for beginning, says The Family Churchman, " the hall was so densely packed that it appeared to be a living mass of human beings. When Mr. George Williams came forward to occupy the chair the sight was such as even Exeter Hall, with its long roll of religious gatherings, could hardly have before paralleled." An overflow meeting was held in the Lower Hall, and even then many were turned away at the doors. The distinguishing feature of the meeting was, however, not the great concourse, but the spiritual power which pervaded it from the beginning to its close. " As each speaker related how he was led to accept Christ as a personal Saviour, and that through faith in the Lord Jesus religion had become to him a bright and hving reality, the vast audience was deeply moved. Beautiful testimony was borne to the love of Christ, and the honour and joy of being engaged in His service, but not a word about any sacrifice they were about to make. The fact that some of them had independent means was THE EXETER HALL MEETING. alluded to as a reason why they should yi^//f/ the Master's command, ' Go ' — not send others — ' to teach all nations.' If the example set by the University trained men and others in connection with the China Inland Mission should fire the churches with missionary enthu- siasm, and lead the Christian youth of our land to devote themselves to missions in far larger numbers, this will be the most blessed result which could follow from this remarkable modern missionary movement." The above quotation from Th9 Methodist Recorder is one of many appreciative notices which appeared in the London daily and weekly papers. One of the fullest descriptions of the occasion was given by The Nonconformist, from which we take the following, and also several of the speeches : — " Never before, probably, in the history of missions has so unique a band set out to labour in the foreign field as the one which stood last night on the platform of Exeter Hall ; and rarely has more enthusiasm been evoked than was aroused by their appearance and their stirring words. Students who have just completed their course at College, and have decided to devote themselves to foreign mis- sionary work ; veterans who have been home on furlough, and are returning with recruited health to resume their toil ; ladies who have consecrated themselves to a life which involves the renunciation of all that they may be supposed especially to prize — these we are accustomed to see on such occasions more than once in a year. But when before, were the stroke of a University eight, the captain of a University eleven, an officer of the Royal Artillery, and an officer of the Dragoon Guards seen standing side by side renouncing the careers in which they had already gained no small distinction, putting aside the splendid prizes of earthly ambition which they might reasonably have expected to gain, taking leave of the social circles in which they shone with no mean brilliance, and plunging into that warfare whose splendours are seen only by faith and whose rewards seem so shadowy to the unopened vision of ordinary men ? It was a sight to stir the blood, and a striking testimony to the power of the uplifted Christ to draw to Himself not the weak, the emotional, and the illiterate only, but all that is noblest in strength and finest in culture. One could not help wondering what had been the stages of that inner life of these devoted young men through which the past few months had brought them to the point at which they stood looking their last — for a long time, at least — upon all they loved, and all that had fascinated them during the early years of their preparation for the future. Some hint of these things, indeed, th ey gave us in the addresses which are reported below; but that which was deepest, and which would have been most interesting, was too sacred for revelation at such a time, and must be left to conjecture. We gathered, however, much to increase our faith in the Gospel, and to make us hopeful. Amidst all that has been recently said of University life and its influence upon our rising youth, there was much in the incident of this farewell meeting to convince us that in these seats of learning the Divine attraction of the Son of Man has not lost its power, and that in these Uni- I versities are being trained and qualified some who will be 1 ready at His call to fill any post of Christian service, and to lay upon His altar all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, of strength and enthusiasm, with which the highest manhood can be endowed Certainly the meeting gave ground for the highest hopes. Even in Exeter Hall it is seldom that so large and enthusiastic an assembly has been seen. Down came the rain in sheets of water up to the time for commencing ; but this had no deterrent effect — platform, area, galleries, every nook and corner where a human being could sit or stand, was crowded. Of young men there were, of course, plenty, but not of young men only, or perhaps chiefly, was the vast audience composed. There were young women, too, in hundreds, and for that matter, old men and women who might well have been supposed unlikely to face the tem- pestuous weather, the crowding, and the excitement." Many applications have reached us for an account of the proceedings, and if a somewhat unusual space is given to the report, it is that our friends all over the country may have some record of a meeting not only memorable in the history of the China Inland Mission, but one which gives abundant promise of powerfully affecting the Missionary enterprise of this generation.' In closing these preliminary remarks, it may be well to refer to some considerations which these meetings suggest. By them, in one short week, the China Inland Mission has been suddenly lifted into unusual and unexpected prominence, and even popularity. It concerns us to remember that the hour of success is often the time of danger, and if this time of encouragement lead to a less humble and trustful dependence on God, then will it be a snare, and not a blessing. Never before in the whole history of the Mission has there been a time when earnest and continual prayer has been more needed. Let all, then, who have upheld the work by their prayers in the past, and who have had so much cause for thanksgiving in the answers to their prayers, regard recent experiences as an urgent call to renewed and increasing prayer. Then, as concerns others, there are the groundless fears which some true friends of missionary work may have, that the growth of the work of the China Inland Mission may involve interference with other missionary agencies by diverting either men or money. Possibly some isolated cases of this kind may be found, but a broad and enlightened view will, we are confident, lead to an exactly opposite conclusion. The course pursued by the members of the China Inland Mission in pleading for the evangelisation of the Chinese, in spreading information as to the spiritual need and claims of China, cannot but have aided every English Mission at work in that land. We emphatically disclaim either desire or design to divert men or money from other organisations. The supposition that the China A MISSIONARY BAND. Inland Mission cannot have an enlarged income without a portion of that income being necessarily diverted from some older agency, is pitiably superficial. The entire sum raised for Foreign Missions in Great Britain is stated to be about ^1,250,000. This is only a little more than one halfpenny in the pound income-tax would produce. There are not a few who cheerfully exercise self-denial that they may give, but can anj one doubt that if British Christians generally had a httle more of the spirit of Him who, " though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor," they could give another million without the neglect of any other rightful claim ? How many who give the stereotyped guinea, could single-handed support a missionary, and by so doing bring a rich return of blessing to themselves and their families. While as to the workers, there are thousands of men and women qualified for useful service now remaining at home who might accomplish untold good in the dark places of heathenism. Then the possible difficulties of the Mission, from a denominational point of view, are a matter of concern to others. On this point we need, by line upon line, to guard against misapprehension. The Mission is catholic and unsectarian, but it does not require the surrender of denominational preferences on the part of those v/ho work in connection with it ; if it did, the writer of these lines would not be found in his present position. It really respects the denominational preferences of its missionaries ; and in its " Principles and Practice," which every candidate is required to sign before being accepted as a missionary, it is distinctly stated that " When a missionary is located, and in charge of a station, and, by the blessing of God, converts are gathered, he may adopt that form of Church government which he believes to be most suitable. Those placed in charge of stations previously occupied by other missionaries are expected to continue that form of organisation instituted by their predecessors." In the selection of a successor one is chosen whose views are known to corre- spond with those of the previous worker. What the Mission does teach is this — that where men and women are living without the knowledge of the Gospel, it is better that they should have it at the hands of Churchman, Presbyterian, Baptist, or Methodist, or from any one who loves the Saviour than not at all. Let a few facts speak. The Province of Kan-suh, with an estimated population of three millions, has three missionaries ; Shen-si, with ten millions, has ten missionaries ; Kwei-chau, with three millions, has three missionaries ; Yun-nan, with six millions, has four missionaries. Here are four provinces, which together are nearly four times larger in area than Great Britain and Ireland, with twenty-two millions of people, and only twenty Protestant missionaries. These are all members of the China Inland Mission. Where is the Christian who has anything of his Master's Spirit who will not rejoice that his Master's message of love and mercy has been carried to these provinces, whether the messengers are connected with his own section of the Church or not? But what are these twenty missionaries among twenty-two millions ? To take another view. Mr. Stevenson, of the China Inland Mission, in 1881 travelled through China from west to east. The first Protestant mission station he reached after leaving Bhamo, in Upper Burmah, was Chung-king; the distance was 1,078 miles — the journey occupied 61 days, constant travelling, and the only Mission-station within 500 miles to the right or left of his journey was Kwei-yang. If he went over the same ground now, what would he find ? Two new stations of the China Inland Mission, and the distance and time between each would be as follows : — From Bhamo to Ta-li Fu, the first station, 296 miles, or as far as from London to Carlisle ; 20 days' journey. From Ta-li Fu to Yun-nan Fu, the second station, 200 miles, as far as from London to Liverpool ; time, 1 3 days' journey. From Yun-nan to Chung-king, the next station, 582 miles, or as far as from London to Aberdeen; time, 28 days' journey. It is to meet such a need that the China Inland Mission welcomes duly qualified workers without respect to denomination. It is to help to meet such a need that our beloved brethren, whose farewell words ^ we now give, have gone to China. Shall they not have our sympathy and our loving remembrance before God ? And in view of the world's sin and sorrow, the lack of labourers, and the supreme need for the Divine blessing, should not all, of whatever name, who desire the extension of the kingdom of Christ on earth, unite in the Psalmist's prayer : — " God be merciful unto us and bless us, and cause His face to shine upon us ; that Thy way may be known upon earth, Thy saving health among all nations." B. B. THE EVE OF DEPARTURE. THE EXETER HALL MEETING. GEORO-B WILLIAMS, ESQ- (Treasurer of the Young Men's Christian Association) in the Chair. The meeting was opened with prayer by the Rev. Canon Stevenson, and the fine missionary hymn, "Tell it out among the heathen that the Lord is King," was sung with great spirit The Chairman then said ; Our beloved Queen many years ago said that the secret of England's greatness and glory was the Bible — the blessed Word of God. This blessed treasure, which made the homes of England and the English people so happy, their beloved friends there to- night were going to take to China, there to teach the unspeakable riches of Christ to the Chinese people, that they might have some of the comfort and joy which belonged to them in happy England. He was charged by the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society, as one of their number, on that most interesting occasion, to ask those seven beloved brethren — sons of England, and most of them from their Universities — to accept from the Committee of the British and Foreign Bible Society a copy of the New Testament in Chinese, as a memento of this great occasion. Mr. Williams then handed the volumes to the seven friends. The British and Foreign Bible Society were sending the Bible from one end of China to the other as fast as they could, and now they here were sending out the brains and the muscle of England to China to do them good. He could not say how gratified and pleased they were that God had put it into the hearts of their friends to go to China. The China Inland Mission (he said) was the only foreign missionary society carrying on work in foreign lands on an undenominational basis. They had their City Missions, their Evangelical Alliance, and their Young Men's Christian Association carrying on work on an undenominational basis at home ; but the CHINA INLAND Mission was doing that in the missionary field which called for the sympathies, prayers, and co-operation of all denominations. In conclusion, he expressed the hope that, as the result of that gathering, the INLAND MISSION would get some substantial help, Mr. B. BROOMHALL (The Secretary of the China Inland Mission), Although unwilling to take up any of the time, thought it would be desirable to give some particulars as to the Mission in connection with which these five University men and two officers in the army were going out to China. The China Inland Mission, he said, was founded nearly twenty years ago by an earnest missionary. Rev. J. Hudson Taylor, who was distressed because there were so many millions in China without the Gospel. At that time there were only one hundred Protestant missionaries in that great country, and these almost exclusively on the sea- coast, and it was laid upon his heart to do something to increase the number. A few points were laid down by him for the guidance of the work. One was that they were to avoid interference with any other mission. Then there was to be no personal solicitation for money ; but it was determined that that which was sent in freely and voluntarily should be used faithfully and economically. Again, there was to be no guarantee of income to any one who went out. They were to go trusting that He in whose name they went would take care of them. And, fourthly, there was to be no restriction in the denomination of those who might be sent out. In the presence of the sad and solemn fact that hundreds of millions were without the teaching of the Gospel, they thought it better that the work should be in the hands of Churchmen, or Methodists, or Baptists, or Congregationalists, than that it should not be done at all. Therefore, any who came forward with the necessary qualifications were accepted gladly without regard to the denomination to which they belonged, and without surrendering their denominational preferences. These principles had been faithfully carried out. There was not a missionary society in China that would not confess that the China Inland Mission had been a help to them by its maps, publications, and meetings. Money had come in without people being asked for it, and without collections. During the first two or three years only ^2,000 or ^3,000 came in ; but during the last year they had received nearly ^18,000. They began this year with a larger demand upon their funds than ever, so greatly had their work been enlarged. The month of January, however, brought them more than ;^3,ooo, and this they took as a pledge that, as they went forward, the Lord would not fail to supply the needful in- come. They had also carefully observed their rule as to undenominationalism. There had been in this matter the most scrupulous impartiality. THE DEPUTATION OF CAMBRIDGE UNDERGRADUATES. Mr. Broomhall rejoiced to say that there were upon the platform this evening forty undergraduates from Cambridge, who had come up especially to show their warm sympathy with the meeting. On Monday night they had a grand meeting at Cambridge, and one last night at Oxford. Hundreds of undergraduates were at these meetings. There were present also a large company of students from the Wesleyan College, Rich- mond, in whose presence they rejoiced all the more, because these were under training for missionary work. Mr. B. J. LANDALE, M.A. {From China),) Next spoke briefly. Many, he said, would be inclined to think that these friends who were going out might, at present, feel very enthusiastic and very warm on the sub- ject of foreign missions, but that after a few years had passed they would cool down somewhat. He therefore wished to give his personal experience on the subject, as perhaps one man's experience might be of use to another. It was now nine years since he himself was an under- graduate at Oxford, and while there it pleased GOD to re- veal to his soul the LORD Jesus CHRIST, who then became to him the Chiefest among Ten Thousand, the Altogether Lovely One. He happened at that time to be studying fot A MJSSIOA^ARY BAND. the law, but when the mighty Lord had taken possession of him, he resolved to devote his hfe to missionary work, and he was led to go to China in connection with the society under whose auspices they had met this evening. He had greatly enjoyed the seven years he had spent in China, although he might say it was no light thing to leave home and friends, and to go out to lead a solitary life among a people who were continually misunderstand- ing or misinteipreting one's motives. If any one had no higher inspiration than that drawn from human enthu- siasm, he would not recommend such to enter upon the toils of missionary service ; but if their hearts were full of love to God and to perishing souls, he would with all his heart say, Go ! and the Lord will be with you 1 Mr. STANLEY P. SMITH, B.A. There is a Proverb which occurs in the eleventh chap- ter of the Book, which reads thus : " There is that scatter- eth, and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." I suppose we all allow that we are under obligation to spread the knowledge of a good thing. It is this simple fact, coupled with our having heard the clear note of the Master's call, which is sending us out from England's shores. We do not go to that far-distant field to speak of doctrine or theory, but of a living, bright, present, reigning Saviour. This was the exact Gospel which made that Thessalonian church of old such an evange- listic church. We read, in the space of one year after receiving it, they had made the glad tidings sound throughout the whole regions of Macedonia and Achaia, so that the Apostle hardly needed to speak anything. We find the secret of this spread of the Gospel was this : Paul had passed through Amphipolis and ApoUonia, and came to Thessalonica, and the burden of his mes- sage was such that there is another King, one Jesus. And tnese Thessalonians, who were not going to believe in any half-way religion, had gladly received the mighty Monarch as King and Lord of their whole being, and had given themselves right up to the Master. They were not going to propagate what was the milk-and-water of religion, but the cream of the Gospel, and to tell what a blessed thing it was to have the love of the Lord Jesus Christ reigning in their hearts. This, dear friends, is the Gospel we want to recommend. We want to go out to the Chinaman, buried in theories and prejudices, and bound by the chains of lust, and say, " My brother, I bring to you an Almighty Saviour." We want to point them to Him whose blood has atoned for sin, and made peace for the whole world, if only the whole world knew it. And it is our earnest hope and desire that the out- come of this meeting will be that scores and scores of those whom we now see before us will before long go out, not only to China, but to every part of the world, to spread the glorious Gospel. For years in this England, we have been debtors. We have had every conceivable privilege, and every con- ceivable means of getting hold of the truth, and bathing ourselves in Gospel light. If we are groping in heathen darkness it is our own fault. But the Gospel is rejected by multitudes of people in this country, and it seems to me the cry might go from many throats, " Seeing ye put it from you and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles." Let us try and take a bird's-eye view of this world. And oh, that GOD may expand our hearts that we may think of the sympathy of that God who unbosomed Himself that He might bring the world back to Himself, and has committed to us the glorious privilege of making known the only way by which men may come to the Father ! If we take such a view of the world we shall not keep our hearts long upon Eng- land. We shall remember " there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty." It is my earnest prayer that there may be such an outlet of men and women from this country as shall lead to an inlet of blessing from heaven, so that there will not be room enough to re- ceive it. THE FIRST PROTESTANT MISSIONARY. The blessed Master has Himself given, and has taught us to give ; pledging His royal word that it shall be "given to us, good measure, shaken together, pressed down, and running over." Yet only within the last cen- tury have we begun to think at all of the great need of the heathen world. The Pope of Rome, as soon as he lost England and other countries at the Reformation, was ready enough to send his missionaries far abroad, but this nation, with the Bible open, in the written and spoken dialect of the people, read unheeding for three centuries the words, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature ; " and it is only within the last century that we have attempted to obey it. The first man who did seek to obey was not a learned man ; he could not claim any university education ; he was only a cobbler. Yes, a cobbler, from one of the obscure towns of England was the first to send the Gospel to the heathen. This man, in conjunction with about eleven others, had been meeting together. The needs of the world had been laid upon his heart, and for eight years he had been praying to the living God that He would pro- vide the men and send out the Gospel, but for eight years his prayer had not been answered, and he and his friends met to renew their appeal. As he was coming out from this meeting he put his hand on the shoulder of Andrew Fuller, and said, " Are we going to separate again, and is nothing to be done ? " These friends conferred together, and decided to make a practical beginning ; and William Carey went to India. FEEDING EIGHTY OF THE FIVE THOUSAND. Now, my friends, the living Lord is here amongst us, and oh ! how He yearns that multitudes out of this great number should go forth to the perishing world! He has given us the Gospel that we may proclaim it to others, and not that we may keep it ourselves. You re- member once when the five thousand were before Him, and the disciples wished Him to send them away that they might buy themselves food. He gave His disciples bread and fish, and said, " They need not depart, give ye them to eat." He was there to multiply the food and to make it sufficient. And what did the disciples do ? Let us make a parable out of this story for ourselves. Imagine the apostles are here distributing the food, and that this great assembly is the hungry multitude that is waiting to be fed. They go to the first row of benches distributing the food, and to the second and the third and the fourth, and so on to the eighth row. But at the end of the eighth row they stop and turn back to the first, and feed these eight rows again, pouring bread and fish into their laps and piling it about them, leaving the starving multi- tudes behind uncared for. What do you suppose our Lord would say if he were here ? He would say, " What are you i doing? Here, Andrew, Peter, John, what are you doing? Don't you see the starving multitudes behind ? " Let ADDRESS BY AIR. STANLEY SMITH. us take the parable to ourselves, for this is what we have been doing. We have been feeding these nearest to us over and over again with the bread which our Lord has given to us, and have neglected the multitudes beyorid. What should we answer ? Should we say that charity begins at home ? And, alas ! charity stope at home, and has been stopping at home for centuries. God grant that we may have the charity that increaseth, for " there is that which scattereth, and yet increaseth." I would just call your attention to this fact — and it is a fact, and a fact that we ought to take deeply to ourselves — that the knowledge of this precious Jesus, who, I hope to most of us, is everything in the world, is absolutely wanting to thousands and millions of our brethren and sisters in the present day. What are we going to do? What is the use of calling big meetings like this if the outcome is not to be something worthy of the name of Jesus ? He wants us to take up our cross and follow Him. To leave fathers and mothers and brethren and sisters and friends and property and everything we love, and carry the Gospel to the perishing ones. We are not to labour, said He, for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life. You remember when that poor Syro-Phoenician mother was pleading be- fore Him she said that even the dogs were permitted to eat of the crumbs which fell from the master's table. Call the heathen dogs if you like, but we have been keep- ing back the crumbs from them. LIVING EPISTLES. Our Lord wants us to go and take the Gospel to the perishing world, and by our lives amongst the people to commend the Gospel. Unfortunately, many Englishmen who go out to these lands do not commend the Gospel. The Chinaman, observing their conduct, turns away from the message, believing his own religion to be better, and saying : " I have got my little stone idol. My father worshipped it, my grandfather and my great-grandfather worshipped it ; and at any rate there is the honour of antiquity about it. But if you ask me to take these Chris- tians' God, I think I would rather have my little stone idol. It does not teach me to be drunken and to be im- pure as I see these foreigners are." And to think that we send out from this land of light hundreds and thousands who might in a short time, if they had only first sought the kingdom of God, have evangelised the world. SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD. We want to cry to God that those who go from England will seek first the kingdom of God, that the cobblers will resemble William Carey, that the wheelwrights and car- penters will make that the main object of their life, and that the governors and the consuls will make it the main object of their life, to spread the Gospel. This is what we need, and this is that for which we pray. We look at Africa, and see there, but a few years ago, one brave young Scotchman, Frederick Stanley Arnott. He starts from the south of that continent, and from thence walks right up into the heart of Africa. And through what does he pass ? Anon he is sleeping under a cart, with four degrees of frost on the ground, and then he is in a burning fever on the desert plain, with the fierce hot sun on his uncovered head. Now he is living in the swamps, finding every day that his garments are completely wetted with the mists and dews. And there, all alone, he toils. A little farther north we see, a few years ago, that great man Livingstone kneeling in his tent. He is breathing his last prayers for Africa, and dies praying for Africa. Soon his body is brought to England, and crowds follow it to Westminster Abbey, and speak well of the dead man's deeds. If Livingstone could leap to life, what would he say? "Do not follow my body home to this cathedral, but follow where my heart lies, out yonder in Africa. Obey your Lord's command — ' Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.' " Oh, to think that Gordon has but to speak a word from Khartoum, and millions of money go from England. Forth go our gallant soldiers, and in Egypt our noblest and bravest spill their blood. And it is right, I suppose, that Gordon should be rescued. But a greater than Gordon cries from Khartoum. Whose is that voice ? It is the voice of Christ from the cross of Calvary, and He cries in tones of love, " I thirst." And ah, that Divine thirst has not yet been quenched. It has hardly begun to be quenched. He thirsts for the Chinese, for the Africans, for the Asiatics, and for the South Americans. And are there none here who would quench His thirst? Would you pass by that Christ ? See His agony ! You would not do so had you seen Him in the flesh. But, my brethren and sisters, He thirsts with a deeper than bodily thirst. With His great soul He thirsts for the millions of this earth. David once thirsted for the waters of Bethlehem, and said : " Oh, would God that one would give me to drink of the water." And three of his fol- lowers, at the risk of their lives, broke through the ranks of the enemy and got him the water ; but when he received it he could not drink it, but poured it upon the ground. Yes, David's thirst was bodily thirst. But shall not this mightier than David have His thirst quenched to-night ? Shall not the Divine Lord have His thirst quenched ? Shall not the Man of Sorrows have His heart rejoiced by men and women, young and old, offering themselves to the cause of spreading the glorious Gospel ? Christ yearns over this earth. What are we going to do ? Many here cannot leave their native land ; but others who are free to go may ask, " What is sending you out ? " I cannot tell you of any vision or dream, but I can point the hand and show you the needs abroad that prevent us stopping in England. You cannot want to remain in England when once you know of the thousands that are preaching the Gospel here, and of the twos and threes that are preaching it abroad. God will have this work done. I don't know that He will raise up Englishmen or Scotchmen to do it, but the work shall be done, and the Gospel shall be spread : even if the stones of our streets have to be raised up to cry out, GOD will see that His Son shall have His right. Oh, may we therefore be wise, and while there is yet opportunity be amongst the workers. Do you ask why London is growing up in the state it is? Do you ask why our land is full of infidelity ? why our cities are festering in wickedness ? You have the answer. We are in distress, and there is sin in the camp. Yes, " there is that scattereth, and yet increaseth ; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty." It is the poverty of withholding that is upon us. The mighty, loving Lord constrains us by His love to scatter. And God will indeed scatter us. Our prayer should be, " If it be persecution, scatter ; or if it be war, yet scatter : or if it be pestilence, yet scatter ; or if it be intolerance that arises up and drives us from the land, yet scatter." Oh may we in England know the blessedness of this simple privilege — " There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth." This is my desire and prayer. IF YE love me, keep MY COMMANDMENTS. And now the last word. How can one leave such an audience as this ? It seems to me as if Christ has come A MISSIONARY BAND. right into your midst, and has looked into the face of you men and women, young, old, and middle-aged. He would take hold with loving hands of each one, and look- ing into your eyes, point to the wounds in His pierced side, and ask, •' Lovest thou Me ? " And you would say, " Yea, Lord, Thou knowest that I love Thee." And what is the test of love ? " If ye love Me, keep My command- ments." What is the test of friendship ? " Slake my thirst." " Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I com- mand thee." And what, Master, do you command ? " Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." Mr. MONTAGU BEAUOHAMP, B.A., Said that to judge from the reception that had been given to the speakers, the hearts of the Christian friends were with those who were going out to China. But he could not help thinking that there were a great many present who might carry out their hearts' wishes, and go forth in the name of the Lord beyond the scope of their present work ; and if it were only known what a privilege it was to be called upon to go, their number would be greatly increased. He thanked God that He had considered him worthy of going to a foreign country with His message. The more they knew of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more theywould realise the truth of that text to which their attention had just been called : " There is that scattereth and yet in- creaseth." He wanted to bear witness to those who did not know the Lord Jesus, that Christ was a faithful Friend, that when they knew God as their Father they Mr. D. E. (Zafe Royal Said he stood there for the first time in his life, and, he supposed, for the last time, to address an audience of that size, and he felt thankful for the opportunity which GOD had given him of just asking for the prayers of so many. He would tell them, in a few short sentences, why he was going out to China. Some years ago he felt that life was not a very satisfying thing, and that, after all, the Bible was true, and " the way of transgressors was hard." Although one might argue as to what sin was, yet there was something in it which prevented one from having happiness, rest, and satisfaction ; and he was brought to understand that the GOD of heaven loved him, and was willing to undertake his cause. The fact was, that He so loved them that He had given up the Lord Jesus Christ to die on the Cross for their sins. After a long time he came to the Lord Jesus Christ, and he were relieved from all trial and trouble in this world. They who were going forth wanted to be remembered in the prayers of all Christian friends. It was a blessed thought that, though far away from England, they would be near Jesus. There were many, perhaps, who had already said to themselves, " Though we are not able to go with you in body, we will go with you in spirit." There was a verse which said, " Where your treasure is, there your heart will be " ; and the converse was equally true : where one's heart was, there would be his treasure. There were doubtless many before him who had consecrated themselves to God's service, who had often asked GOD to take them, and do with them as He pleased. He entreated them to put themselves completely in GoD's hands that night, asking that His will might be done by them and through Him. HOSTS Artillerji) rejoiced to say he found Him. He was able to say that from that time he received new hopes, new prospects, and new peace ; and it was really a case of one who was blind being now able to see. He recommended all young men to try what the LORD jESUS Christ might do for them. He neglected the Bible very much indeed ; but when he came to the Lord he began reading it. He found that the last words of the Lord Jesus Christ were, "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature." At that time he was in the Army, and there were difficulties in the way of his leaving ; but they had been removed, and now he was ready, GOD willing, to go to China. He thanked GOD for the prayers which had gone up in their behalf, and he would ask them to still pray that GOD might keep them faithful. Rev. 'W. "W. (Late Curate of All Said he was talking the other day to a man in a railway- train who had travelled in China. He was one of those people who considered that every religion was of about the same value, and when he heard he (the speaker) was going to China to preach the Gospel there he thought it was a most presumptuous thing to do. He proceeded to say how wise and clever the Chinese were, and he told him that all his arguments would be defeated. He felt at the time that, from his point of view, this man was dis- tinctly right ; but there was one consideration which he did not bring to bear when he was speaking, and it was that which made all the difference. They were going to China because they knew that the Gospel was the power of God unto salvation. Thank God, they knew that was not merely theory or speculation. They were going be- cause they knew it was so by experience. They had not only themselves tried that Gospel, but they had seen its power in others. They had seen the sinner turned from his evil ways. They had seen a drunkard turned from his evil course, and they had also seen a strong man bowed in tears under the conviction of the truth. They had likewise seen weak women strengthened, and go out to do heroic deeds, because they believed in the Lord. They therefore knew the power of God ; and He had no OASSELS, B.A. Saints, South LanibetK), less power in China than He had in England. Their ex- pectations were very great, and they knew they would not be disappointed. They felt certain that they would see the Chinese turn to God just as the sinner did in England when the Gospel was applied to their hearts. What an unmeasurable power of good there would be if all those present were to rise as one man and speak the Word of God ! But if they believed in GOD, why should they not do His work ? fight the good fight of faith. They wanted more heroism in their religion. They wanted to be inspired with the idea that the religion of Jesus Christ was a battle, and they must join in the warfare and go forward. But, alas 1 how few there were who joined in the warfare ! They read in the Bible of Reuben, who preferred attending to his sheep and his country village, to the danger of war ; of Gilead, who would not risk the passage of the Jordan ; and also of Dan, who was engaged in his commerce. All those things were being enacted now. There were to be found many who preferred their own affairs to encountering the diffi- culties of preaching the Gospel in heathen lands. The battle was going on, and still the Lord was crying for ADDRESS BY MR. FARTHING. helpers to go to the help of the LORD against the mighty. Thank GOD some came. But, alas ! how many there were who still held aloof. There were still Reubens in that very gathering, who preferred their ease and comfort to the work of God. There were Gileads and Dans, who preferred attending to their own affairs rathar than serve the Lord. Oh, for shame, that He who gave His own life on the cross should still be crying for helpers. God had said again and again, "Be strong and of good courage," so why should they shelter themselves under their own fears and weaknesses. He had no pity for the man who starved himself when there was food to eat, and no pity for the woman who talked about her weaknesses when God had placed power at her disposal. He had no sympathy with the invalid Christians, because God had placed power at their disposal. If there were any present who were in a state of inactivity the Lord was speaking to them, and saying, arise from that inactivity, as He was calling for helpers. Mr. CECIL POLHILL-TURNBR (Of the 2nd Dragoon Guards) Said it was only ten months since the Lord called him out of the world to serve Him, and he assured them that he had not had an unhappy day since. GOD grant that every soul in that room would enjoy the same experience and the same happiness. He intended to follow his profession of the army ; but the LORD decided differently. He was at a China missionary meeting, and from that time he had made up his mind to engage in the Lord's work in China. He had found the greatest peace and happiness by resting his soul on the LORD, and he recommended all present to do the same. Mr. ARTHUR T. POLHILL-TURNER, B.A., In speaking of what the LORD in His love had done for him, said it was now several years since he found out how hollow and unreal were the pleasures of the world. He felt that he must not stand still and look at the fight that was going on around. There were many others whom the Lord wanted for His work. His leading to- wards the foreign mission-field had been very gradual. Some might think that it was very hard to leave all at home and go out ; but he found the experience very glorious. It was like that of a bird when let out of a cage. He felt that God wanted many of those present to follow them to China, or to go to India, or to Africa ; but His message to all was to be faithful to Him, to hear His voice, and not to listen to what man said. Mr. J. O. FARTHING, I appear on behalf of a deputation that the Christian men of Cambridge have sent up to this meeting to-night. We come to wish these dear friends, whom we have known and respected for years past, every blessing in their glorious privilege of going out so soon to preach the Gospel of Christ to the heathen. As we were coming along in the train one of our party said, "Don't you envy these men who are going out to-morrow ?" and I am sure we do envy them this great privilege. Since I have been in this hall a friend has said, " I think it is a pity that such men should be going abroad ; we want them at home. Those who have distinguished themselves in athletics could win the souls of young men at home for Christ, and do what others not so well known could not do." He went on to say " I hope that it will be for the best." Now, sir, I do not hope for it at all. I thank GoD that I know it is for the best. I know what their going out has done for me ; I know what it has done for Cambridge. For years past Cambridge has not been behind other universities in missionary interest ; perhaps it has been in front of them. We have had missionaiy meetings, and we have been hearing missionaries talk to us from time to time. But when men whom everybody had heard of, and many had known personally, came up and said, " I am going out myself," we were brought in- dividually face to face with the heathen abroad. We were taught that the Church of Christ is the Church of the world, and not 'of England alone ; we were taught that Christ died for the world, and not merely our native land. At Cambridge we had meetings in room after room, night after night, and at one over forty men stood up, and gave themselves to missionary work. The sug- gestion was made that we should start meetings among ourselves (those of us who are going out) for prayer and praise to God. These meetings have been going on Caius College, Cambridge. regularly, and there are, I believe, over forty names on the roll. Last night we had such a glorious meeting ! It was a grand time. wholly the lord's. But not only has their going out stirred up missionary interest ; it has also taught us what it is to give ourselves wholly up to Christ. On Monday night, after the meet- ing in the Guildhall at Cambridge, I went back to my rooms, and thought of the words I had heard. I saw this : that we were to take up our cross and follow Christ ; that there was to be no compromise, however small ; that there was to be nothing between us and our Master ; that we were to be wholly for CHRIST. And that is the ex- perience of many others besides myself Now could these men do a greater work by stopping at home? While they were here we loved and respected them, but they were never used of GOD as they are now. I do thank God that they have given themselves up to this work ; and speaking on behalf of those who have come here this evening from Cambridge, I say we all thank and praise the God of Israel that our friends have offered themselves so willingly. May I be allowed to say that though, for the most part, we are losing friends, particular, personal friends — I certainly am — we feel we shall not be separated from them. On behalf of my fellows who are here to- night I give our friends a verse to help them go forward : " Have not I commanded thee ? Be strong, and of a good courage ; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest." May I ask one thing further, and that is, that you will all — the Christian people in this place — pray that the work that our friends have been privileged, under GOD, to begin in Cambridge may be deepened and increased, and that A MISSIONARY BAND. we may be enabled to stand firm. We want your prayers to-night for Cambridge and for Oxford— your prayers that we may follow CHRIST more heartily than we have ever done before, and that difficulties may be removed in the case of those of us who wish to follow the example of our friends. It is true that, though we are parted from our friends, " There is a spot where spirits blend, And friend holds fellowship with friend ; Though sundered far, by faith they meet Around one common mercy-seat." Mr. O. T. STUDD, B.A. ; I want to recommend you to-night to my Master. I have tried many ways of pleasure in my time ; I have been running after the best Master, and, thank God, by His grace I have found Him. I wish to tell you how the Lord has sought and found me, and how He has led me back to Himself. It was seven years ago when I was converted — saved — when I knew the LORD jESUS CHRIST as my Saviour, and felt that He had forgiven me my sins. I knew ever since I was a little child — for I had always been so taught — that Christ was the Saviour of the whole world ; but I had never known that He was my Saviour until then. When I did know it I was happy, and loved Jesus Christ with all my heart. But instead of going and telling others of the love of Christ, I was selfish and kept the knowledge all to myself. The result was that gradually my love began to grow cold, and as it began to grow cold, the love of the world began to come in. I spent six years in that unhappy backsliding state. GOD brought me back at the beginning of last year, and I then saw what the world was worth. It was due to what was thought to be the deathbed of my brother. As night after night I watched by his bedside as he was hovering between life and death, God showed me what the honour, what the pleasure, what the riches of this world were worth. All these things had become as nothing to my brother. He only cared about the Bible and the LORD Jesus Christ, and God taught me the same lesson. In His love and goodness He restored my brother to health, and as soon as I could get away I went to hear Mr. Moody. There the LORD met me again and restored to me the joy of His salvation. Still further, and what was better than all, He set me to work for Him, and I began to try and persuade my friends to read the Gospel, and to speak to them individually about their souls. The Lord was very loving, and He soon gave me the consola- tion of saving one of my nearest and dearest friends. THE JOY OF winning A SOUL. I cannot tell you what joy it gave me to bring the first soul to the Lord Jesus Christ. I have tasted of most of the pleasures that this world can give. I do not suppose there was one that I had not experienced ; but I can tell you that those pleasures were as nothing compared to the joy that the saving of that one soul gave me. I went on working for some time, and then the cricket season came round, and I thought I must go into the cricket-field and get the men there to know the LORD Jesus. A cricket match, you know, takes three days. I had formerly as much love for cricket as any man could have, but when the Lord Jesus Christ came into my heart I found that I had something infinitely better than cricket. My heart was no longer in the game ; I wanted to win souls for the Lord. I knew that cricket would not last, and honour would not last, and nothing in this world would last ; but it was worth while living for the world to come. One of my sincere friends was brought to know that his sins were forgiven during those meetings. Presently the mission came to an end. Mr. Moody left for America, and I then wanted to know what my life's work was to be for the LORD Jesus Christ. I wanted only to serve Him ; ?.nd I prayed GOD to show me what my life's occupation was to be. But here I made another mistake ; for instead of trusting entirely to GOD to show me what I was to do, I went to my friends to know what was the will of GOD concerning myself Thus I tried to find out by common sense what was the Lord's guidance ; and instead of getting into the light I got into darkness. I became very restless and anxious, my health gave way, and I had to go into the country to recruit. Having spent three months in reading my Bible and praying to GoD that He might lead me, I came back much better, but still not knowing what I was to do. I decided to read for the bar until the LORD jESUS should show me what my life's work was to be for Him. I found, however, when I got back to town that it was absolu- tely impossible for me conscientiously to go into any busi- ness or any profession. It seemed so thoroughly incon- sistent. GOD had given me far more than was sufficient to keep my body and soul together, and I thought, how could I spend the best hours of my life in working for myself and for the honour and pleasures of this world, while thousands and thousands of souls are perishing every day without having heard of the LORD jESUS Christ, going down to Christless and hopeless graves? I met with a tract about this time, written by an atheist. It read somewhat as follows : — " If I were a thoroughly consistent Christian man, my whole life should be given up to going about the world preaching the Gospel. I should consider the pleasures, the honours, and the riches of this world as dross. I should count the sorrows and pains of this world as nothing. My whole life should be spent in pleading with men to be reconciled to GOD through the Lord Jesus Christ, and warning them what they must suffer if they still persisted in rejecting Him. I would be restless in season and out of season. I would not care what the world thought or did. As I went about ray text should be, ' What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? '" I at once saw that this was the truly consistent Christian life. When I looked back on my own life I saw how incon- sistent it was ; how much I had worked for myself and the pleasures of this world. I therefore determined that from that time forth my life should be a consistent one ; and I set myself to know what was God's will for me. I then began to read the Bible more earnestly, and to ask God what I was to do. But this time I determined not to consult with flesh and blood, but just wait until GoD should show me. It was not long before He did so. About three days afterwards a great friend of mine came back to town, and asked me to go to a Bible meeting with him. I went ; and after we had read the Bible for some time and spoken about it among ourselves he said, " Have you heard of the extraordinary blessing that has received ? " I said, "No, I had not." He then said, "Well, you know she has been an earnest Christian worker for nearly her whole life, and she has had a good deal of sorrow and trouble in this world, which has naturally influenced and weighed upon her. But somehow lately GOD has given her such a blessing that although she has had so much trial, it does not affect her at all now. Nothing, in fact, seems to trouble her. She lives a life of perfect peace. Her life is like one of heaven upon earth." We began looking at once into the Bible to see if GOD had promised such a blessing ABBRESS BY MR. C. T. STUDD. as this, and it was not long before he found God had pro- mised it to believers ; a peace that passeth all under- standing, and a joy that was unspeakable. We then began to examine ourselves earnestly, and we found that we had not got peace that passeth understanding, or joy that was unspeakable. But we wanted th# best thing ttat God could give us, so we knelt down and asked Him to give us this blessing. Then we separated. MY PEACE I GIVE UNTO YOU. I was very much in earnest about it, and when I went up to my own room I again asked GOD to give me this peace and joy. That very day I met with a book en- titled, " The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life." In this book it was stated that this blessing was nothing more nor less than God gave to every one of those who were ready and willing to receive it. I found that the reason why I had not received it was just this, that I had not made room for it. It was such a great blessing that you wanted room for it. And I found as I sat there alone thinking, that I had been keeping back from God what belonged to Him. I found that I had been bought with the price of the precious blood of the LoRD jESUS ; but that I had kept back myself from Him, and had not wholly yielded. As soon as I found this out I went down on my knees and gave myself up to GOD, in the words of Frances Ridley Havergal's consecration hymn — " Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee ; Take my moments and my days, Let them flow in ceaseless praise. I found the next step was to have simple, childlike faith; to believe that what I had committed to GOD, He was also willing to take and to keep. I knew I had committed my soul to His keeping, and He was able to keep that ; and how much more was He able to keep me and what belonged to me in this world ? I realised that my life was to be one of simple, childlike faith, and that my part was to trust, not to do. 1 was to trust in Him that He would work in me to do His good pleasure. I saw that He was my loving Father, and that He would guide me, and keep me, and moreover that He was well able to do it. From the time I thus trusted Him with all my heart my life has been different, and He has given me that peace that passeth understanding and that joy which is unspeakable. From that time there has been no more sorrow, or trouble, or care in my life. I had many joys before I gave myself fully to GOD, but since that time has been the happiest part of my life by far. It was not very long before God led me to go to China. I had never thought of going out of the country before. I felt that England was big enough for me, but now my mind seemed constantly to run in the direction of the Lord's work abroad. I went one day with my friend Mr. Stanley Smith to Mr. McCarthy's farewell, and I never shall forget the earnest and solemn way in which he told us of how the Lord had led him to go out to China, and the need there was there for earnest workers to preach the Gospel — how thousands of souls were perishing every day and night without even the knowledge of the Lord Jesus. Then we sung — " He leadeth me, He leadeth me, By His own hand He leadeth me ; His faithful follower I would be, For by His hand He leadeth me." And I felt He was indeed leading me to go to China. I thought, however, I would not decide at once, because people would say I was led by impulse. I therefore re- solved I would go after the meeting and ask God. I prayed to GOD to guide me by His Word. I felt that there was one thing alone that could keep me from going, and that was the love of my mother ; but I read that passage, " He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me," after which I knew it was GoD's wish, and I decided to go. My brother and I had earnest prayer over the matter ; and GOD brought home to my mind in a very remarkable manner this text : " Ask of Me, and I will give thee the heathen for thy inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession ; " and it was not long before I was off to Mr. Hudson Taylor, to tell him, if he was ready to take me, I was willing to go From that hour to this the LORD has convinced me more and more that it is His will that I should go to China. I cannot tell you how much He has blessed me, and filled me with happiness. "following fully." I should not like in the future to look back and say that long, long ago GOD told me to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, and I did not go. It comes so easy when we yield ourselves to God. I would like to put to you this question, How long are you going to halt between two opinions ? If God be God, follow Him fully ; but if the pleasures of this world, riches and honour, be your god, you had better follow them. Choose who is to be your God ! Is God Almighty to be your Sovereign LoRD or is He not ? Are you going to follow Him? If so, yield to Him, and let Him direct you. Or are you going to be bound by this world, by the opinion of men, and by the pleasures of this life ? I wonder what you would say of me if, now that I am going out to China, I bought a large outfit of things abso- lutely useless out there. You would say I had gone mad. But what are you doing ? You are only going to be on this earth for a short time, and there is eternity to come. And which are you really living for ? Are you living for the day, or are you living for the life eternal ? Are you going to care for the opinion of men here, or for the opinion of God ? The opinion of men won't avail us much when we get before the judgment throne. But the opinion of GOD will. Had we not, then, better take His Word, and implicitly obey it ? Rev. HUGH PRICE HUGHE 3, M.A. I have suggested to Mr. Williams that at this late hour I really ought not to speak at all, but it has been thought desirable that on so remarkable an occasion, before we finally separate, some voice which is not to be heard in China should give expression to the feelings and convic- tions of this vast assembly. As we have heard our dear brethren our hearts have leapt within us. Mr. Chairman, you and I have attended a great many meetings in this building, but I believe we never attended a meeting so significant or so hopeful as this. There are brighter days in store for the Gospel of jESUS CHRIST than we or our fathers have seen. This great assembly affirms and approves the method adopted by the China Inland Mission. There are other methods that other missionary societies have to follow, though all, I think, would do well to take note of this one. I think we may illustrate the method of our brethren by what is taking place in Egypt. It is neces- sary that some part of the army should toil for months together along the banks of the Nile, but it was though A MISSIONARY BAND. desirable that General Stewart with his detachment should make a dash across the desert as soon as possible. While the other missionary societies in China are doing good work in their schools and elsewhere, these brave soldiers from the Dragoon Guards, the Royal Artillery, and Cambridge, along with the other members of the China Inland Mission, are making a dash straight across the desert, right into the heart of China, to pro- claim to the people there the Gospel which they have proclaimed to us, and in the same way to declare that they are not going to propound an opinion, but a glorious reality which they have experienced in their own hearts. This is the argument of arguments in favour of Christianity. As I heard these young men speak I thought of what the early Christian martyr said. Spake the Roman consul, " If I put you to death, do you expect to go to Paradise ? " " No," said the brave young man, " I don't expect — I kiiow I shall go there." Thank God, there has been no uncertain sound from this platform to-night. These young men know — as by God's great mercy you and I know, and hundreds of us know — that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins, because they and we have experienced it in our own hearts. May God bless them as they teach our fellow- men in China this glorious Gospel, which they need as much as we do. READY TO GO ANYWHERE FOR CHRIST. It is a glorious fact that the University of Cambridge has done so much for this work. We have had an Oxford movement in our time, but I love this Cambridge move- ment, and it may yet do untold good to our country at home. Thank God for men picked up by the Salvation Army — from the gutter too, some of them — who are setting an example of bravery, which may God help us to follow ; but when you have this grand enthusiasm combined with culture and social position, how much more glorious it is. May God raise up in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Manchester, and London, and in every seat of learning, young men who, like our friends, are ready to go anywhere, do anything for Christ. The world will never get the full enjoyment of salvation until men are prepared to follow Christ. I confess that years ago I used to think of "following Christ" as following Christ to heaven, but now I understand that following Christ means following Him from heaven to Calvary, and to be willing, if necessary, even to die for the salvation of our fellow-men. May God help us so to follow Christ, and to banish from our hearts all selfish ideas of getting to heaven. There is another point that strikes me, and it is full of courage and hope. The men going out are young men. We have been reminded just now that my friend. Bishop Taylor, of America, is over fifty, and that he is going out for the fifth or sixth time on a most perilous tour. But it is a glorious thing to begin as he did when he was a young man. I shall never forget the impression made on me nine months ago, when I realised for the first time that Jesus Christ called twelve men to be His D.T, Rev. Jf6r Waller having engaged in prayer, and Miss Havergal's Consecration Hymn having been sung, the interesting farewell meeting was brought to a close. apostles, and to the greatest work, and that these men were every one of them younger than I am. Young men with physical courage should devote themselves to useful work for GOD. We need venerable men like the Chairman, but thank GoD when young men in the ruddy prime of youth put themselves on the altar of consecration and are ready to go forth to the ends of the earth for the love of Jesus Christ. We know the work of God cannot fail, and His is the one work that has never failed, and never can fail. If Christianity has been a failure at home, it is because we have been so respectable and so lazy. May we get rid of this. Let every Christian give himself wholly to God. THY WILL BE DONE. I can give my testimony that I was a minister of Christ for some years, and not without success, before I could say fully, " Thy will be done." There were contemptible objects of human ambition that I had set before myself to be put away when I realised that it was not merely my duty, but the highest of privileges, to say, " Thy will be done." May GOD give to every one of us this unspeak- able joy of being able to say, " Thy will be done." Let me say in one word, I am glad my friend is a cricketer, and I am glad that the stroke of the Cambridge eight is with us. I am quite convinced myself that, to a certain extent, athletics are of benefit to Christians, for a man will be all the better missionary if he has a good digestion and a good physical frame. We are very glad to come here and show our hearty sympathy. We rejoice in the bright prospects of the cause of Christ. As for the atheists, I should like to see seven of them who would go to China for the sake of their religion. I have no fear of the future of Christianity, if we who trust in CHRIST are only faithful. We are about to be in- vited to sing the hymn of consecration by Frances Havergal, which has been an unspeakable blessing to our churches. Oh, if every man and woman here present would only come now and offer themselves to God a living sacrifice, what an enormous power of good they would effect. There is enough power in this meeting to stir, not only London and England, but the whole world. God does not so much complain of having too few servants, but He more than once complained that there were too many, and those not in earnest. He would have the half-hearted servants go about their business, and let those men and women go forward who are ready to serve Him with all their heart. There must be some unconverted young men and women present now. In the name and in the presence of Jesus Christ, of whose presence we are so conscious, I implore you to submit to Christ now. How dare any of you go away from a meeting like this unsaved? If you will only come to jESUS CHRIST as you are, you may share a joy which we all feel. Most assuredly we shall never forget our brothers. Our hearts will go with them, our prayers will go with them. We hope they will revisit this country some day to tell us of their joy, but in any case we look hopefully to the time when we shall all meet in heaven. EN ROUTE FOR CHINA. 13 (^w Jlcrule im C^ma. [HE morning after this never-to-be-forgotten meeting in Exeter Hall, the Missionary Band started for China, leaving Victoria Station at ten o'clock. Seldom, if ever, have men gone forth whose departure has excited a more general interest, or called forth more earnest prayer. Their last days in England had been days of wondrous blessing, and especially the last meeting of all. In the circular letter to the friends of the Mission announcing the meeting, and asking their personal effort and unceasing prayer that it might be successful in the highest degree, it was said : — " It may be one which our beloved friends who are leaving shall long remember with gratitude to God, as they toil on in the comparative loneliness of labour in a distant land ; it may be one which shall be memorable for ever in the experience of many a young man as the time when he was led to decide for CHRIST, and to know, by happy experience, the joy of His salvation ; while others, who are already the Lord's, may be enabled to say, with a depth of feeling unknown before, and never again to be forgotten : — ' Take my life, and let it be Consecrated, Lord, to Thee.' " All that these words foreshadowed of possibility, the meeting really was; no adequate idea of it can be conveyed by any report ; probably in its results of blessing to the world, immediate and remote, a meeting more memorable was never held. With such memories of the unspeakable loving-kindness of the Lord, these messengers of His salvation went forth, not long to wait before out of full hearts they had again to tell of fresh proofs of the goodness of God. From the Red Sea, Mr. Studd wrote : — " I cannot tell you how good God has been ; we know His goodness and love are always passing knowledge, how much more passing words ! " Our journey to Brindisi only served to refresh us; then we had a bright Sunday there before starting for Alexan- Nearing Aden, Mr. Stanley Smith wrote : — " You will be expecting to hear of ' the good hand of the Lord upon us.' I hardly know where to begin. He has been — what shall I say ? — so like Himself. We had a delightful journey to Brindisi ; and then we got on board the Lombardy ; we were only on her three days, but we managed to get many talks. I met a Christian friend, and we were enabled to hold a service among the first-class passengers. He told us after, that a profound impression had been made. ", However, we came on board the Kaisar-i-Hind with great hopes and earnest prayer, not that we might do great things so much as that we might not hinder GOD. I can only say that He has answered exceedingly abun- dantly above all we asked or thought. " A friend of mine I met quite unexpectedly — rather a fast fellow. He was travelling first-class, but the Lord gave me opportunities for two straight talks. Two days ago he came down to my cabin and asked me to read the Bible to him, and, finally, on his knees, was restored to God. The Lord gave me two nice cases yesterday, second-class passengers. One a backslider, who said he ' wanted to come back to GOD ' ; the other unconverted, who 'was quite willing to receive Christ' — both brought in. To-night, too, the joiner of the ship said he would The following is remarkable testimony from an " I venture briefly to sketch a few days on board the Kaisar-i-Hind ixom Suez to Colombo, memorable to me and others, since it brought us in contact with the laSt outward-bound company of the China Inland Mission. Seldom is such a proof of disinterested and earnest devotion to GOD'S holy work brought immediately into our midst ; these seven young, earnest lives now speeding along, spreading as they go, and bearing with them, the glorious message of peace and goodwill to all men, leaving old England, and all a young man's endless pleasures— friends, and all that life holds dear— to give dria. We had some singing each day, and the last night the captain very kindly allowed us to have a service on the quarterdeck. They rigged the place up beautifully for us, and we had nearly the whole of the passengers, first and second-class, as a congregation." come down to our cabin, and there he received Christ. I am expecting very shortly the fourth engineer. "Another interesting case dear Mr. Studd is speaking to at this moment. He travelled also on the Lombardy from Brindisi to Suez. The first day I asked him, ' Have you peace with GoD ? ' ' No,' he replied, ' I am afraid I have not.' The next day he was open to conversation ; but the third day he took the turn that ' he did not want to have anything to do with religion.' However, he is now in dead earnest. He leaves us at Aden, but I am sure if he isnot brought in already, he will be before he leaves the ship. "We remember you in prayer, as we know you do us. Oh, how blessed it is just to get out of the way and see God work. I expect we shall have greater things to tell you of from Colombo. We are expecting a general break- down. We have generally been able to get one hour or more of prayer in the afternoon, and the Lord constrains us to expect great things. " He makes us obey the command, ' Open thy mouth wide,' and of course He will perform the promise, ' I will fill it.' " I am quite sure that the greatest joy God has is to bless ; we feel we are just poor pensioners on His grace and goodness." independent source : — to inland China's teeming millions a knowledge of that great salvation and inimitable love which Christ in His glorious atonement, so freely offers to all. " No cowards these ; calmly smiling at scornful looks, boldly they stand forth, ever ready to fight in the cause of their heavenly Master. Here for them no earthly laurels or loud applause ; at best, uncertain perils, a hard life amid sneering crowds, branded as fanatics by some, only God to witness their patient struggles. Yet on they go, trusting in God's gracious promise of life everlasting, being sure in the world to come of that reward which u A MISSIONARY BAND. they can never hope to meet in this. 'Twas grand to hear their earnest voices swelling on the breeze and bearing to heaven the praises of their GoD, to see their happy faces beaming with peace and love, and watch them en- dearing themselves to all, by their kindly quiet ways, and cheerful words of hope and comfort, as they read or told the loving words of Christ their Master, words which needs must and did carry conviction to not a few whose future life, instead of adding to the pages of guilt, with God's blessing will now be spent in working for His honour and glory. " On their arrival at Suez many wondered what they would be like ; that surely there must be something wrong, a screw loose somewhere, that seven young men of position should leave home and all the pleasures of fashionable life, for, as they said, something less than a myth, a wild-goose chase, to convert Chinamen ! Why, these people's records are more authentic than our own, and suffered less from erroneous translation. Teach them ! Why, they'll laugh at them. So thought I, and with me many others. In fact, we expected no end of fun in quizzing them, intending to patronise their singing as a polite concession to mistaken enthusiasm. So with that view, when the first evening came, we gathered j round, but when we heard the deep swelling notes in which \ ihey so earnestly sang | ' Christ receiveth sinful men,' and after a few stirring words of earnest appeal, went on, in a gentle solo, with those simple words, ' Let the dear Master come in,' it seemed to touch even the most callous. Tears would come into the eyes of many, and as Mr. Beauchamp or Stanley Smith would speak of the endless blessing of the Saviour's love, eighteen hundred years seemed but a day, so vividly did they paint that great event. A bleed- ing Saviour hung before us, and with a dying look of love exclaimed, ' It is finished ! ' Then many a trembling sinner longed to get that peace — a peace which faith and trust can only give. And later on they would join in pi .'.yer, leading with them some nervous, repentant brother, and pleading for the SAVIOUR'S loving help to strengthen him, and make him bold to own and serve his new Master, asking GoD to fill his heart so full of peace and love that there might be no room for evil in it. So were the evenings spent, singing ending about lo p.m., but not their work. One or the other might be seen earnestly whispering words of hope, or upsetting some stubborn theoiy of unbelief; always gentle, always patient, and not to be offended. I and many others look back to these evenings with pleasurable regret, and earnestly .pray that GOD will guard them and bless their work." — From " The Indian Witness^' March i/^th. The following seven papers describe different stages of the journey from London to Shanghai. I.-IiONDON TO SUEZ. From Mr. D. E. HOSTE. |N the morning of February 5th we left Victoria Station at 10 a.m., to go by Calais and the St. Gothard tunnel to Brindisi. The journey across the Continent calls for no special comment ; suffice it to say, that we were very comfortable, and had most happy and profitable times of praise and prayer as we went along in the train. We arrived at Brindisi shortly before midnight on Saturday the 7th, and went at once on board the Lombardy, which was to take us across to Alexandria. On the Sunday morning we all felt well and refreshed, and were glad to get a walk in the country ; and in the evening two of our party had the refreshment of joining in the evening worship of a small gathering of Waldenses, whose pastor had kindly called on us in the afternoon. The steamer left Brindisi at 6 a.m. on Monday morning. We were favoured with fine weather all the way across, and found the accommodation and fare pro- vided very good. Some of our party, who had been en- gaged in a succession of meetings and railway journeys for two or three months before leaving England, appreciated the quiet rest we were able to have. We had opportunities of conversation with some of our fellow-travellers, though the first-class passengers were as a rule out of reach. On the last evening on board we held a service on the deck, amidships, to which most of the first-class passengers came. Mr. Studd gave an account of how the LORD had sent him out to China, and Messrs. Smith and Cassels also spoke. There appeared to be considerable impres- sion produced on the hearers, but we did not know of any case of actual conversion. We were cheered and helped by meeting some of the LORD'S people among the first- class passengers, especially the Rev. J. and Mrs. Nichol- son, who were on their return to Ceylon, where they have been labouring for the Master for many years, and with whom we were privileged to have very happy and helpful fellowship during the voyage. ALEXANDRIA. We reached Alexandria early on the 12th ; it was a bright lovely morning, and we were glad to get ashore for three or four hours and see the city. We were able to give some tracts at the barracks for our men, and returned at about 1.30, leaving in the train at 2.30 to cross the desert to .Suez. Whilst in the train we had a time of waiting on the Lord. One of our party was given words of exhortation for us to greater watchfulness and zeal in the Master's service, and to a fuller understanding of our responsibility as men sent by GOD on His service ; and when at about 3 a.m. we got on board the Kaisar-i-Hind at Suez, we all felt quickened and strengthened for bearing witness for the Lord Jesus day by day, and most grateful to our loving Father for His tender mercies to us in having brought us thus far in safety, and with such comfort. The following, among others, is an instance of the Lord's working. It was in the case of a young fellow, a Dane, going out as a planter to India. One of our party had been led to have two talks with him on the subject of his soul's salvation, whilst on board the Lombardy, and then for several days scarcely any other opportunity ofifered for further conversation. As he could only speak a little broken English and did not understand it well, it was difificult to know how far the words had affected him. However, one night he came up to one of us at about 10 p.m., and said he wished to come to Jesus, and soon found peace and joy in believing. Some of us had been watching in prayer for him, and had observed that for two or three days previous he had been very quiet and silent, so we were not surprised, but filled with praise at this fresh answer of our Father to the prayers of His people for blessing on us during the journey. THE VOYAGE. II.— SUEZ TO COLOMBO. From Mr. C. T. STUDD. pFTER a pleasant journey across the desert, we got on board the Kaisar-i-Hind about three o'clock in the morning, and found everything very snug and ready for our arrival. Our hearts were indeed full of praise to our Father for all His love and tender care for us. The Lord soon began to work among the passengers. We were able to have a Bible- reading at twelve o'clock every day, in which we were joined by three or four first-class passengers, among whom were Rev. J. and Mrs. Nicholson, who had been missionaries for some years in Ceylon, and who were re- turning there. Then in the evening we sing on deck, in the dark, with short addresses to fill up the intervals. Many of the stewards, etc., used to gather round and listen attentively, and later on some of the first-class pas- sengers. We were often enabled to get talks with in- dividuals when all was over. The Lord soon gave us reason to praise Him, and no mistake ; for that He did A GREAT AND NOTABLE MIRACLE was manifest to all them that were in the ship. Among our second-class passengers was the captain of an Indian steamer ; he had come home on board the Kaisar-i-Hind only a few weeks before, and had made himself a name throughout the ship for swearing, drunkenness, blas- phemy, and everything that was evil ; he used to openly mock and ridicule GOD and the Bible. In this way he became quite a notable man on board, so that men could not easily forget him. On arriving in England he suc- ceeded in quarrelling with all his family and friends in three short weeks, and went on board the Kaisar to go out again to Calcutta without even bidding his mother and brother good-bye. On board his conduct became even worse than it had been on the home voyage ; and he nearly succeeded in driving mad by his behaviour and language a very godly corporal who was going to Malta; and then he looked forward with great glee to Suez, when he knew that more game was coming on board for him in the shape of us seven missionaries. However, man pro- poses, but God disposes ; and GOD in His wonderful love had in store for him better things and greater happiness than the baiting of seven live missionaries. When we got on board we were quite unconscious of the life and character of this captain ; in fact, we did not know his history till he told it to us himself after his conversion. The first day Hoste got into conversation with him, and spoke to him about his soul, and asked him to read the Bible with him, he said he had no objection to read the Bible, but he considered it " all rot," and did not believe a word of it. However, they read through the whole of St. John and a good part of Romans, with many talks in between, in which the captain gave his opinions and re- counted his experiences, which were of a widely varied and exciting character. He seemed a great deal softened and anxious, but said he "could not beheve"; he had tried several times in his life, and had at different periods of his life spent whole nights in prayer, but it had been no good ; he knew only too well that it was impossible for him to live a good life. Three or four days thus passed Hoste being the only one to speak to him. One afternoon another of our number was led to ask him about his soul. He at once commenced with a volley of freethinking and atheistical arguments. First, there was no God ; he argued it out by himself, and presently got to the end of that. Next he reasoned away all possible chance of the Bible being God's Word, and reached his tether in that direction ; and finally proved most conclusively that every religion in the world, first, was right, and, secondly, was all sham and hum- bug ; and that the Christian religion was the most ridicu- lous of all. Then he allowed a few facts to be given by his hearer, who told of the real peace and joy the Lord Jesus had given to him, and exhorted him to put his trust in the Saviour. The captain's manner seemed all of a sudden to change. He said that his hearer must be a very lucky man and should be very thankful, for he knew many who had sought diligently for this through many years, but had not found it ; as for himself, he " could not believe," it was no good for him to try. He then opened out his heart and told the history of his life, and the many times he had been at death's door, and yet miraculously preserved. He seemed a good deal softened ; but though he was earnestly pleaded with to come to Jesus at once and trust Him, that jESUS said, " Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out," and that it was nothing more than trusting Him ; still he said he would not do so then, that he felt it would only be saying it with his tongue and not with his heart. They then separated, and the captain afterwards told the sequel as follows : — He went below in the evening, and somehow when he was in his cabin he seemed absolutely compelled to take paper and ink and write home to ask forgiveness of his mother and brother. He seemed, he said, as it were, constrained by a power greater than him- self; accordingly he wrote the letter. The letter finished, he felt a load had rolled off him. He went into his cabin, and there by himself he kneeled down and asked the Lord to receive him. He said, "O Lord, you came to save sinners ; I am a sinner. You came to seek and to save that which was lost ; I am lost, I cannot save myself You said, ' Him that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.' Well, Lord, I come to Thee ; I have got nothing but myself to bring ; I cannot make any pro- mises or resolutions, for I have made so very many in my life, and never kept one ; but I come as I am, and I will trust Thee^'' And is it a wonderful thing that the Lord Jesus did not cast him out, but did receive him just as he was ? Praise the Lord ! Next day Hoste spoke to him, and was overjoyed to find him rejoicing in the knowledge of his salvation, and they had prayer together. I can tell you it was a treat to hear him in our after- noon prayer meeting, the way he just poured out his heart to God in thanksgiving for His wonderful love, and pleaded for the salvation of those on board the ship ; he seemed to be a full-grown Christian at once, and boldly testified almost every night before the ship's company of what the Lord Jesus had done for him, and the peace and joy he was experiencing. It was delightful to hear him say, " You know it's so simple ; it's only trusting, just simply trusting." You can well imagine that there was no small stir in the ship. Previous to our coming on board, the refrigerator-man had said, " Well, if the captain is con- verted, then I will begin to think seriously of religion." There was increasing interest in the meetings ; several of the stewards and of the crew were converted ; two back- sliders were restored, and all the second-class passengers were converted. One of these, a Scotchman, calls for comment. He said he had never known a day of happiness, having passed through great trials, and having borne them all himself ; but when he gave his heart to Jesus he said he had found the secret. He gave every evidence of being truly one of God's children, and was full of plans how he might work for Him when he got on shore. Every morning we all met together before breakfast for family prayers ; we also had a common grace before breakfast. Oh, they were grand times ! Yes — i6 A MISSIONARY BAND. " Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing ; Then said they among the heathen, ' The Lord hath done great things for them.' The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad." There was a good deal of curiosity among the first- class passengers ; but they were sceptical or timid for the most part, though, like Nicodemus, they came to hear the Word in the dark. They said we were too anxious to save souls ! ! ! A blue-jacket going out to join the Agamenmon left us at Aden, but not before he had given his heart to the Lord., we trust. The last night before leaving, we had our final meeting. Just towards the close, some of those who were unfriendly got up an opposition meeting to disturb us, but it only had the effect of drawing into the Gospel net those who were " almost persuaded." We had a glorious praise meeting to wind up our voyage in the Kaisar, for which we feel we cannot thank our Heavenly Father enough. We know that He is able to keep those we have committed unto Him. "Let all that love Thy salvation, say continually, 'Let GoD be magnified ! ' " III.-AT COLOMBO. From Mr. ARTHUR T. POLHILL-TURNER. |N Wednesday, February 25th, we reached Colombo, after a most perfect passage ; and had our first sight of the tropics, with their rich vegetation and beautiful palms. On our arrival Mr. Pickford, of the C. M. S., came on board to greet us, and informed us that Christian friends there had arranged meetings for us, and also to put us all up for the two nights we were to be in port. We were just in time to hold one meeting the first night, February 25th, at the Baptist Chapel, and a good congregation assembled in spite of short notice. Some of us met friends there whom we had long lost sight of. Our first night on fixed beds for three weeks much refreshed us. On waking the next morning in a Singalese bungalow things felt very strange, yet very charming, the whole air being laden with sweet, balmy perfumes. According to the custom of the place we sat down at 6.30 a.m. to alight meal to start the day. After this we visited Miss Young's native school, and were much interested by hearing chil- dren sing a hymn in Singalese to an English tune. A heavy day's work was mapped out — two midday meet- ings, an afternoon meeting, and another at eight in the evening. At 1.30 Stanley Smith, Beauchamp, and my- self were at the Wesleyan College, holding a very inte- resting meeting for the students. They were boys of all ages, colours, and creeds, some Christians, some Bud- dhists, and some Mohammedans. About 200 were present and listened with attentive ears, as the Old Old Story was unfolded by simple illustrations ; and as we told them of One who came to deliver us from sin, they drank in the words, and we felt assured that the Lord of the Vineyard was Himself present and working in our midst, and seed was sown of which we shall know nothing here. A crowded meeting assembled at Mr. Higgins' Mission- room, of the C. M. S. ; and all the chief people of the place came, including ministers of all denominations. It was a powerful meeting, lasting an hour and a half ; all seven of us spoke, as also we did in the evening meeting at the Wesleyan Chapel at eight. Here about 400, mostly young people, came to hear us. Mr. Nicholson, who had travelled with us from Brindisi, made the arrangements ; and the meeting took rather the form of a testimony meeting, and the LORD blessed us all. An enthusiastic party came down to see us at eight a.m. on Friday morning, as we embarked on board the Verona. I must not omit to mention the kindness shown us by Mr. Ferguson. With happy recollections of Colombo, we sailed on east- ward, our hearts joyful in the King's service. We advise our friends, if they want to have quite the happiest time possible, to make up a similar party, start at once, and we shall be happy to see them. IV.-PENANG AND SINGAPORE. From Mr. CECIL H. POLHILL-TURNER. IFTER about a week without sighting land, we were very glad to feel our legs in a walk ashore at Penang, which we reached about 4 o'clock on Wednesday, March 4th. Here Mr. Hocquard, a mis- sionary brother staying at the Mission House, met us. On landing we found the weather very hot. After a prayer meeting, leaving the remainder to take part in a small meeting at the Mission House, Hoste and I, with Dr. Macklin, a brother en route to Japan as Medical Mis- sionary, went up to the barracks, where.were two companies of27thRegt., made the acquaintance ofan earnest Christian, Corporal W , who showed us the way back to town, the barracks being some distance off. After giving away some books and having some personal conversations, we walked quickly back to the landing-stage, meeting the rest of the party there, as the boat was leaving about eight. Our brothers had met a charming young Chinaman, who with Mr. Hocquard came on board with us, to bid adieu. We had a delightful talk. It was so good of the Lord to let us meet such a man as our first China ac- quaintance ; and we all fell in love with the Chinese. This feeling was ripened as the journey progressed, as we saw more of the deck-passengers, a great many Chinese coming on board at Penang for Hong-Kong. The first mentioned young Chinaman talked of going to Edinburgh very shortly to study medicine. He was full of the Word and so bright. The following Friday morning about 9.30, we made Singapore. Several friends met us on board, and after . ascertaining our departure was not till the following morn- ing ; we went ashore in batches, being well looked after by kind friends ; my brother and I by Mr. McPhie, the Presbyterian minister ; Studd and Stanley by Mr. Cooke, and the remainder by other friends. A prayer meeting had been arranged for the morning, at which Messrs. Studd and Stanley Smith and my brother spoke : subject, " Union with Christ.'' The Lord gave us a blessed time at the Town Hall in the evening, the large room being very well filled ; and the word was given in power. Praise GoD. Among the listeners were several soldiers of the 27th Regt. froin the barracks we had visited in after- noon. It was very nice to hear of the good work going on amongst them. Miss Cooke, whom we had the plea- sure of meeting, takes a great interest in them. A bit of an address was given in their Hospital by one of us, which was very eagerly listened to. Stanley Smith and Beau- champ paid a visit to H.M.S. Cura^oa lying near. We left next morning about eight, a good many of our friends assembling to say a parting word. The young Chinaman, by the way, was the son of heathen parents, who were bitterly opposed to Chris- tianity, It appears, and were sending him to Britain, with the idea of improving him, saying, in a country like England he would soon get such ideas as he had knocked out of his head, when he saw the way the English lived I HONGKONG. 17 HONGKONG. V.-HONGKONG. From Mr. MONTAGU BEAUCHAMP. AM sure some of our friends at home will be interested to have news of our journey out here. It is no easy matter to arrange one's thoughts in looking back over the past two months ; I can perhaps best express what our thankfulness is in the words of the hymn (how often we have sung them on the way !) : — " To God be the glory, great things He hatli done." But I want especially to tell you of God's goodness to us at Hongkong. During the last part of our voyage we had had more opportunities of going amongst the pas- sengers, and speaking with them personally, and we could see that there was a very marked difference in their feeling towards us. Many who before had been somewhat unplea- sant and opposed to anything like " a meeting," had now become quite friendly, and even disposed to join in personal conversation on spiritual subjects. All seemed to have ar- rived at much the same conclusion — namely, that we were good enough sort of fellows, and to be admired for our self- sacrifice and pluck, " but we don't believe in your sort of conversion ; however, we hope you may do some good in China." May GOD set His seal to the word spoken. At Hongkong, we parted with almost all our travelling companions. We landed early in the afternoon, and were drafted off to our various hosts. After " tififin," we were glad to get a little quiet, before the meeting in the City Hall Theatre at five p.m. It had been feared that, owing to the shortness of the notice, we should not have a very good audience. In this respect, however, we were most agreeably surprised. Not only was there a very good attendance, in point of numbers, but they seemed to be just the right sort of people ; young men who, as we were told afterwards, never attended any place of worship. But what is of more importance than this, the power of God seemed to be wonderfully felt. On Friday and Saturday evenings we held meetings in the Temperance Hall, where we got hold of quite a different class of people, chiefly soldiers and sailors. At both meetings there were definite conversions. Perhaps the best meeting was early on Sunday morning before em- barking. It was just a small gathering of Christians, but a most refreshing time, abounding in blessing. Our party of seven had quartered in three different parts of the town, and consequently we spent our spare time in various ways. For my own part, I can speak of most interesting visits to several of the residents at Hongkong. We all met for luncheon at Bishop Burdon's, who was most kind and sympathetic. In the afternoon some of us went on board H.M.S. Audacious., as I had had an inte- resting talk with three of her men on the previous night. Unfortunately, however, owing to the recent news from home, all were so busy on board preparing for action that it was impossible to see any one for even a moment's conversation. But God has His faithful witnesses on board that ship, both among the oflScers and men. There are at Hong- A MISSIONARY BAND. kong just now quite a number of ships-of-war, and on board them some bright Christians. We longed to accept a most pressing invitation from several of these friends to stay a few days there. Nor is the army at Hongkong without a witness ; for it is to Captain Stiling, R.A., that we are indebted for much hospitality, and also for taking the chair at our meetings. We are thankful to be able to say that amongst those who received blessing was a brother officer of his, and also a fellow-passenger with us from the Verona. There are many others whom we should like to thank for their kindness, but we know that the Lord will reward them, "inasmuch as they did it unto one of the least of His servants." We left Hongkong at noon on Sunday. The three remaining days of our voyage to Shanghai were just the best God could give us for the quiet that we needed before beginning our life-work in China. AN APPE.4L. One thing I cannot help remarking, which struck me especially at this last of the English colonies which we have visited on the voyage. What a grand work might be done if some leading Christians would come out from England to visit these colonies. Why should not some of our well-known clergy come out ? The voyage would be as beneficial to their over-worked bodies as the service would be to their souls. The same might be done by some of the prominent laymen. There is no doubt they would get large audi- ences, and a most hearty welcome from the Chris- tians. Howwelcome,too, such a visitor would be to some of the mission- aries who might be within reach. Doubtless, as a journey of this sort has been recently made in India with such blessed results, it will lead to similar ones elsewhere. VI.— SHANGHAI. From Rev. W. W. CASSELS. ilE have been brought thus far on our jovirney by the good hand of our GOD, and there is now a little pause before we go forward again and com- mence a still longer stage into the interior of China. Goodness and mercy have followed us through- out the whole voyage, and again and again we have been constrained to cry, " He daily loadeth us with benefits." WHEELB \RRO\\S AT SHANGHAI Not only has our Heavenly FATHER showered temporal mercies upon us, but we have ox'erflowing spiritual mercies to praise Him for. He has given us precious times of communion with Himself in prayer and praise and Bible readings ; and we have been enabled very clearly to mark the fulfilment of the promise, " All thy children shall be taught of God," and to realise by blessed experience that we have a FATHER who does Himself undertake the educa- tion of His children. At Shanghai, dear Mr. Hudson Taylor came down to the river to meet us, but dressed as he was in native costume, it was a little time before some of us recognised him. Reaching the Mis- sion premises, we were very kindly welcomed by Mrs. Cheney and the other missionaries who are here just now. FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF A HEATHEN LAND. It may well be imag- ined that it was with very full hearts that we set foot for the first time upon the soil of this dear country to which the Lord has called us. And what, it may be asked, was the first thought that entered our minds as we walked through these streets and gazed upon the num- ber of Chinamen that met us at every turn ? I answer at once. It was an almost over- whelming thought of the enormous work which has to be done out here. Even in a place like Shanghai, which I sup- pose is a centre of Mis- sionary activity, how many thousands there are entirely untouched by the efforts at present being put forth ! How many thousands utterly ignorant of a Heavenly Father's love, of a Saviour's wondrous sacrifice ! And if this is so in Shanghai, what shall we say of the rest of the vast country ! We felt more than ever that nothing but a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God can be of any use. We entreat you, therefore, to labour fervently in prayer with us, that an altogether unprecedented wave of spiritual blessing may pour over and flood this thirsty land, for the glory of our God and the extension of our Blessed Saviour's king- dom. How one longs to be able to speak the language and talk to all these dear people 1 the special meetings. We have begun to hold a series of meetings for the SHANGHAI. 19 English residents in Shanghai, and though it is too soon to give a full account of the work, or to anticipate the results which the Lord may give to this effort, yet we have already abundant cause for overflowing gratitude. The interest shown in the meetings has been in«easing daily, and the remarkable conversion of the British Chap- lain, Rev. Fred. Smith, who has charge of the Cathedral here, is an event which must have very vast influence for good upon this place. The enemy has been coming in like a flood upon Shanghai during the last few weeks, in the shape of an unblushing manifestation of atheism, which began in a debate which was held here on the subject of miracles. But praise be to God, the Spirit of the Lord has lifted up a standard against him. Rev. F. Smith, to whom I have referred, had attended some of the meetings, and yesterday morning he called and told us the joyful news. It would be interesting per- haps to record his story as he told it himself at the close of the meeting in the Temperance Hall last night (March 23). The meeting was the largest we have yet held, and when Mr. Studd had done speaking, the Chaplain stepped forward on to the platform and said he wished boldly to confess CHRIST before all the people there. He began by saying that if he had been called away the night before, he would have been a lost soul, but that night he stood there saved by the grace of God. He then went on to say that he had been brought up by pious parents and well instructed in the Bible. At the time of his con- firmation, when he was between 16 and 17, he was very much impressed and resolved to do what was right, but that was soon brushed aside. Later on, he went to Cam- bridge, and at that time made a new resolve, which, however, was not much more lasting. His ordination in Rochester Cathedral was a most solemn time for him, and so deeply did he feel the occa sion, that he fainted away during the service, and had to be carried out. Some two years ago, he came out here as Chaplain, and he could honestly say that he had striven as hard as a man could do to do his duty, but in his own strength; he had, he believed, preached the truth ; and he knew he had been of use to some of his people. But, alas ! all this time he had never been able to venture to commit his own soul to the Saviour's care. He hoped none of them would ever spend such a night as he did last night. He was utterly wretched and unable to rest at all. In the morning, he went over to see a dear brother clergyman, a missionary (Rev. J. H. Horsburgh), who was then in the room. They walked together to the cemetery, and there in the little chapel, and also by the side of his own little one's grave, he committed himself into the safe keeping of Him who (in the words on which Mr. Stanley Smith founded one of his addresses) is able to keep that which we commit to Him. Now he was God's, and God was his. That day was his birthday. It was true he had none of the emotion he had so often experienced when he had made his vain efforts to serve God. But he had a calm certainty that Jesus had re- ceived him. He must either receive or reject those who come to Him, and he knew He had not rejected him, for the Lord had said, " Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out." The devil had tried very hard to prevent him from coming there to make that open confession, but he had done it, thank God, and the victory had been won. He knew there were many there who would rejoice to hear what he had said that evening ; there were others just in his own position, and he exhorted them to do as he had done. He knew that many would ridicule and scoff at him, but he did not care a bit for that now, for he was God's, and God was his. These words, which came like a thunderbolt upon the meeting, may be allowed to speak for themselves. VIL-THE VOYAGE AS A "WHOLE. From Mr. STANLEY P. SMITH. |S the other brethren have written, detailing portions of the journey, and I have been asked to write a resum^ of the whole, I should best be serving the purpose by giving what might be of spiritual in- terest in our experience, and thus avoid repetition of the facts that are stated above. We started full of thanksgiving for God's goodness in the past, and full of hope for the future. But owing to the fact that most of us had been engaged in prolonged work in England, exhausting both to mind and soul, we felt that the great need was to get alone with God. To humble ourselves before Him and be renewed in the spirit of our minds, and to get definite guidance from Him who promised : " I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go ; " I will guide thee with mine eye." And, by the way, is not this glorious, that, " How many soever be the promises of GOD, IN HIM is the Yea"? For all the promises in the Bible are given to Christ, and all the blessings of the Bible are given to Christ ; as we are in Him, the promises and the blessings are ours. The Lord, as you will see from the above accounts, gave us some blessed active service. But more specially did He lead us to wait on Him. And the spirit of prayer was very largely poured out. Especially was this the case towards the end of the voyage — when the weather was cooler (for the devil tried to use the heat as a powerful lever to get us from our knees). About a week from China we all experienced a very definite blessing from the hand of GOD. And this was the blessing : — a time of emptying and humbling. The HoLY Spirit convicted all of us of short- coming, and after a period of confession extending over two or three days, the good hand of the LORD was upon us in fining the emptied vessels and raising up the humbled ones. He refreshed us all with glorious opportunities of Bible study, and the Bible readings, to- gether and individual, were most blessed seasons. Some of us took up topical subjects. One that was much blessed to us then and continues still to be food for us was the study of " IN CHRIST." Might we ask our beloved brothers and sisters in CHRIST in England to get Revised Versions of the New Testament (where there are many brought out that are not in the Authorised Version), and write out every passage where the phrase or its equivalent occurs ? Should they do this, we can prophesy two things : — 1. They will get a lasting feast to their souls, which shall not only bless them but make them a blessing. 2. Many will get such a view of the glorious Gospel of the blessed GOD that they will come out in love and pity to the millions of China who are not " in Christ," but " in the Evil one." Everything, therefore, was ordered by our gracious God to bring us to the shores of China in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ, just seeing that now all we had to do was to recognise that we were nothing, Christ was all, and trusting in Him, to enter into the rest that remaineth for the people of GOD — the rest of trust. For surely God is strong enough to fight our battles. And surely God is rich enough to supply our needs. And surely GOD is wise enough to teach us and direct our paths. A MISSIONARY BAND. %i Sl^ang^al THE PORT OF SHANGHAI. SHANGHAI. From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. WE arrived at Shanghai, March i8th. It was very solemn, landing on the shores of this vast em- pire, and feeling the need in a deepening sense, as our eyes so palpably saw it. But His gracious pro- mises covered our fears ; and we felt sure, from first to last, if we would but trust in the Lord and acknowledge Him, He would direct our paths. It is a blessing indeed from God's hand when we have seen just enough of self to distrust it, and enough of Him to trust Him. " Distrust thyself, but trust alone In Him for all, for ever ; And, joyously, thy heart shall own That Jesus faileth never." So " F. R. H." wrote, and how blessedly true it is, for "none ever trusted in the Lord and was confounded." At Shanghai we had interesting meetings. The mes- sage the Lord seemed to give all of us seven was just what He was to us and what He had done in us and for us. Instead of theories and doctrines we spoke of facts, and God was pleased to convert some of the principal opposers and to quicken many Christians. At Shanghai we split up into two parties — three, in fact — Mr. Studd and the two Polhill-Turners starting for Han-chung by the Yangtse and Han rivers, Mr. Cassels, Mr. Hoste, and myself leaving for the same place, but by a very different route, via Tientsin, Peking, Pao-ting, T'ai-yuen, P'ing- yang, and Si-gan ; whilst Mr. Beauchamp stayed behind, expecting to come on alone with Mr. Hudson Taylor by our northern route (leaving out Peking). The convenience of Before leavmg Shanghai, each member of the band put on the Chinese dress, i ne convenience oi this to those who travel in the interior was incidentally, and somewhat amusingly, shown in the personal experience of Mr. Hillier, of the Consular Service, when engaged in the distribution of relief funds at Shanghai. 21 the time of the great famine. In his report, Mr. Hillier, who was accompanied by Mr. Dralce, of the Chma Inland Mission, says : — Upon reaching Hwai-ch'ing Fu, the frontier city of I strative welcome from the inhabitants, who tried to south-western Ho-nan, we met with a mos* demon- | pull down the doors of the inn in which we lodged, and C. T. Studd. M. Beauchamp. S. P. Smith. A. T, POLHILL-TURNER. D. E. HoSTE. C. H. PoLHlLL-TuRNER. ReV. W. W. CaSSELS. From a Photograph taken in Shanghai. were only quieted by my appearance at the entrance (Mr. room, they burst headlong into the place, overturning inn- Drake being in Chinese dress, passed unnoticed), where keepers, soldiers, and police, till they had me once more I displayed myself for their benefit for at least two hours. in view ; so that, tired as I was, I had again to make a The temper of these people was curious, and would have show of myself, until dusk put an end to the exhibition, been interesting had it not been the cause of so much Nothing but a small regiment of soldiers would have kept personal inconvenience. They did not attempt to molest back the mob ; even the magistrate himself, who called to me in any way, and simply gazed on me with gaping see me, being utterly powerless to eject them, curiosity; but as soon as I attempted to retire to my From this it is easy to see that travelling in European dress in the interior of China would often be very difiScult, if not actually dangerous. But the adoption of the dress by missionaries means some- thing more than the desire to avoid inconvenience : it means that in the spirit of the great Apostle, who to the Jews became as a Jew, that he might save the Jews, they are willing " for the Gospel's sake," to be to the Chinese as Chinese, that they may " by all means save some." Our illustration represents them thus attired, and ready for their journey inland. A -MISSIONARY BAND. (Irit ^m\k Inlantr* On the 4th of April, Messrs. Studd, and Cecil and Arthur Polhill-Turner, left Shanghai for Han- chung. Mr. Beauchamp, who accompanied them as far as Hankow, upon returning to Shanghai wrote as follows : — From Mr. MONTAGU BEAUCHAMr. Sliaiighai, April 2^i/t, 1885. DEAR Mr. Hudson Taylor,— I have just come back from my trip up the river, and I should like to give you a short account of it, as it may be of interest to the readers of China's Millions. C. T. Studd, Cecil and Arthur Polhill-Turner, and myself left Shanghai on the night of April 4th. We went up the Yangtse in the Vnen- Wo with Dr. and Mrs. Wilson, who accompanied us as far as Gan-k'ing, and from there went to Hankow alone. Late on the evening of April 5th, we reached Chin-kiang, where we spent three hours with Mr. and Mrs, Judd and their party. It was midnight when we left, having had a very happy time of reading and prayer together. Through God's goodness, we did not arrive at Gan-k'ing until after sunrise on Tuesday, April 7th. We were therefore able to go straight into the city. We received a most cordial reception from Mr. Herbert Taylor, who had spent the night outside the city walls waiting for us. He now acted as our guide and interpreter, and took us up to Mr. Tomalin's house, on the north side of the city, where we received every kindness during a happy stay of one week. We had meetings twice, and sometimes three times, a day. The first two days were chiefly occupied in telling of the Lord's work in England and on the voyage out, also of his dealings with us individually. We were quite a large gathering here, no less than sixteen. The remaining available days were spent in most refreshing Bible-readings. We took as our subject, " In Christ." On Sunday evening we had the Lord's Supper, which was a very precious time together. We had all of us been not a little disappointed by your not being with us, but we were abundantly rewarded by a special manifesta- tion of the presence of the Master Himself. At this meeting we may attribute special blessing to the fact that every one present contributed something to the edifying of the Body ; though, in some cases, it was only a single verse of Scripture. We were all very sorry when the time for breaking up our happy party arrived, but we could all rejoice in the fact, "Still, there's more to follow." Before leaving Gan-k'ing, I should mention that we had special cause for praise. Two or three of those who had been gathering with us day by day gave thanks for distinct blessing re- ceived, and I think if you had seen the faces you would not haye required many words to testify to the fact. Also we praise GoD for the conversion of the Chinese servant of the West Gate party. We had prayed earnestly for him at our meetings. We left the city of Gan-k'ing on Monday evening, April 13th. After nearly twenty-four hours of expectation, the steamer came up which was to take us to Hankow. This steamer, the Tai-Ho, had Mr. McCarthy on board, and he took us on up the river, our party now having been augmented by the two (Miss Drake and Miss Marston) who v/ere leaving for Han-chung. We arrived at Hankow on Thursday morning, April 1 6th. We were quartered over at Wu-chang, and again were the recipients of the kind hospitality of Dr. and Mrs. Wilson. We arranged to have meetings in the Masonic Hall at Hankow on Friday and Saturday night, and again on Sunday night. To facilitate this, Mr. Griffith John and other kind missionaries of different societies put us up for those three nights. As the English community only numbers about 100 at this time of the year, we did not expect large meetings. There were, perhaps, from thirty to fifty who attended the meetings. The interest shown greatly astonishedthe resident missionaries, who had been accustomed to see about ten or twelve only attending Gospel meetings. The last meeting on Sunday night was one of unusual power. As at Shanghai, the line at first had been chiefly that of personal testimony, but at this closing meeting the way of salvation and the need of salvation were clearly set forth. And not in vain, too, for we had the joy of seeing one soul distinctly brought to Jesus, and with several others we had personal conversa- tion. Besides these meetings, we had the free use of the church given us on Sunday morning, when I had the opportunity of speaking to the regular church-goers, and, in addition to these, a good number who were very rarely seen inside a place of worship. On Sunday after- noon Dr. Wilson and two of ourselves spoke in Mr. John's Sailors' Rest, quite a recently-built place in one corner of his garden. We cannot be too thankful to God for these different meetings, also for the great kindness shown us by the various missionaries at Hankow. We only spent two nights at Wu-chang, and on both these evenings we had meetings, at Mr. Cooper's house, amongst our own missionaries. The last two days were fully occupied in getting things on to the boat for the party going up the Han. Even as late as Wednesday evening, April 22nd, the two boats were still lying about half a mile up the Han river while the coolies were making their final arrangements. It was then that Mr. McCarthy and myself iad to take leave of the party, for our steamer, the Kiang- Yu, left for Shanghai that night. God provided everything need- ful to make the journey home a very happy one. We reached Shanghai, as you know, Saturday, April 25th. Having been away from Shanghai exactly three weeks, I have, as usual, unbounded cause to praise GOD. Though it is yet not quite six weeks since I landed in China, I have had more opportunity of seeing the country than many who have been here much longer, as I have now been between six and seven hundred miles up the Yangtse, which is the great thoroughfare of the empire. But what is of even greater interest to me, I have already made the acquaint- ance of fifty of the China Inland Missionaries. This, of course, will enable me to take a much deeper interest in the different parts where they are labouring. > 2! o > 24 A MISSIONARY BAND. ON THE RIVER HAN. From Air. ARTHUR POLHILL-TURNER. On the River Han, Central China, en route for Han-chung, ATT-r-C-T^ , r ^^'y 27^^, 1885. iliLKs. week of special services at Shanghai, attended with much b essing, we divided our party, Studd, my brother, and myself going up the river to Han-chung, in , si "r" P"""^'"", in the N.W. of China, a distance of 1,800 miles from Shanghai ; the others travelling north by steamer to Pekmg. We expect the ioumey to take us three months. We are now about half-way, after six vveeks' j ourneying, anchored off Lao-ho-k'eo, a large walled city, where the Gospel has never been preached. Since our work is rather pioneering than otherwise, we only just visit It, and give away tracts and Scriptures on the way. Our text is, " The Gospel must be preached to every creature," so we press forward to obey, into the extreme parts of the land. ON THE HAN RIVER. the^w'^.v^^wT'.i!" """""^ ^'^•^' everything looks like on the way. Well, the country is beautiful, and the fields vest ind?h7' ""' r",' "°" -(^^^y ^7th) ripe f^r har! rrnn. nf . ^ A ^^'^^^^ ''""'"^ "' ^"^ ^^^y have two crops of corn and one of something else every year off lesT b,?,f ■ r""' ^?- '^^""''f"' mountains, and TcToud less blue sky, making everything resplendent with heavenly brightness and beauty. The Han is a splend d Tio^Tl^^^' ^"°'' '^ P'"=^^' '°^'''^ -'* J^ks of terinr Th^ ^'' ^""^iP^ °" commerce with the in- llrl -r ^°"n*'^ " '^^n^e'y populated. Along the nver cities and vil ages are almost continuous all the way and when you only see a few cottages, you will find an ''hr^S^lrs"^^^^^^ '"^^'^''^"^i cL'e'out'to see' the ;.n^ !i !i, !^l "°7'^ '■"""'^ y°u with curious eyes and ask the most absurd and childish questions : " Does the sun shine in your country? " etc. I feel a £rrpat ^m.. t.on towards the dear Chinamen, in ' spitrofMry^J^w faces and pig-tails. Before leaving Shangiiai we donned the native dress and pig-tails. It is a comfortable dress, and wonderfully suited to the climate, which greatly n=!i'f i "? [?• '^old weather you can put on fur coats and padded clothing, thus obviating the necessity for fires, i'or warm weather, as we are now beginning, loose trousers and an upper garment constitute one's dress for travelling in the boat, which is a native one, with three compartments for sleeping, one for meals, etc. Our Chinese servant, En-da-ko, cooks in the bows, and it is like a continuous picnic. Everything is so free, glori- ously free ! Praise the Lord ! Indeed, praisikg our glorious Lord forms no small item of our daily routine, i ravelling is very slow ; thirty miles a day is good travel- ling. It teaches us patience, which we much need in this land, where time is absolutely no object, for a man will wait for a couple of hours in the same way that an linghshman waits five minutes ! ^riiii^ INLAND MISSION, ^ iiw 'P-g-<;Iiaa. Statwns of ih& iJuirch 'MiA^ionaiy Sociery are she»7i thut $ WAj.ES ^ j^ q L A N d) SPG.-5otf. JVop.Go.9p.- N P. ^Frcsbvteri j^ B. 'EiufUsK Baptist I AZ.- AnierumiiJipiscopal W, '^ W &*Zeyti7i_ II A. --AmeruKm (others' ^rForeifpi Protesia/tt , Stanfor<£s. Geog^'Esiaii''Xo'uion, l()''i'' v- — \ ■ N Scal« of E nglisfa. Milea. O GO JOO 150 100 Trmn. the- Of-airchKissiono^ Atltxs. KWANG-TUNG Pop. 17} Millions." Hu-PEH ... Pop. 204 Millions. Sl-CHUEN ... Pop. 20 FUH-KIEN ... Pop. 10 „ KlANG-SI ... Pop. 15 „ YUN-NAN ... Pop. s ChEH'KIANG Pop. 12 „ Gan-hwuy ... Pop. 1 jj KWEI-CHAU ... Pop. 4 KlANG-SU ... Pop. 20 „ Shan-si ... Pop. <) rl KWANG-SI ... Pop. 5 Shan-tung Pop. 19 „ Shen-si ... Pop. 7 Hu~NAN ... Pop. 16 Chih-li Pop. 20 „ Kan-suh ... Pop. 3 HO-NAN ... Pop. 15 * The estimate of population is that given in the last Edition of " China's Spiritual Need and Claims." EN ROUTE FOR HAN-CHUNG. a? At the same time, the Chinaman is far from idle, being energetic and hardworking. The coolies carry loads up to 224 lbs. They have plenty of " go " in them, and patience in labour. They stick at a thing till they do it. • Now, you see, here is a wonderful material to work upon, different from every other heathen country. They have plenty of backbone, and, when converted, make splendid Christians and become missionaries to their neighbours. They endure much hardship, and shine very brightly for Jesus. I do look back to the happy times we spent together, and the blessed communion ; and now, though sundered far, we can yet bear each other's burdens in prayer, and think often of each other. I never felt so much the preciousness of prayer, and the knowledge of so many dear friends also remembering one Truly we are members one of another We do find Jesus precious to our souls in a way unknown to us at home. The devil's power is very great in this land, where he reigns, and we often experience spiritual conflict, and we need all your prayers. We do praise the Lord that His grace is sufficient for all our needs, and He does " satisfy the hungry soul," and " fiUeth our mouth with praise." Like David we praise the Lord seven times a day. We find the most effectual way by far of overcoming the enemy, is to be rejoicing in the Lord with hymns of praise upon our lips. Let us launch out more and more on the glorious promises of God, ever " counting Him faithful who has promised," resting on His faithfulness, not on our poor trembling faith J but it must be done without waver- ing, as St. James tells us (ch. i. 6). Our present time is chiefly spent in searching the Scriptures all through. Now I want to bring before you the tremendous needs of the heathen — China especially. There are only 400 missionaries here to 250 million people, and yet our Master's command stands plainly be- fore us, and the Gospel must be preached to " every creature " and every nation, before the end of this dispen- sation. Oh, cry to God for the poor heathen ! Think of all these millions going to destruction, and yet so many "arm-chair" Christians at home, never raising a finger to help them, but letting the devil have his own way. " Fight the good fight of faith," and " endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ." " This day the noise of battle, The next the victor's song." HING-NGAN. From Mr. ARTHUR POLHILL-TURNER. Hing-ngan, June 2qth, 1885. WE have now reached another stage of our journey — Hing-ngan, or as it is pronounced, Shing-an, which is two-thirds of the way from Hankow to Han-chung — and have changed our boat, as the river is more difficult at the last part, and the other boat was scarcely suited to go on. The new boat we have got resembles a barn inside, but by putting up partitions we have made it quite snug, and in front it has quite a promenade. Much has happened since our last dispatch from Lao-ho-k'eo. One event occurred which cast a gloom over the party. Just a fortnight ago, on Sunday evening, we anchored at a quiet spot all by ourselves, among the mountains, where the river was very swift after some rains. Being a very hot day, some of the boatmen were bathing in the evening about dusk. Dr. Wilson's ser- vant, Liao, a native Christian and great favourite, was swimming with his clothes on, when apparently the stream carried him away. I was standing about fifty yards off, up some rocks, and thought he was only just swimming about, when I saw Cecil, who happened to be on the spot, plunge into the water, with clothes on, after him, also a boatman just after, but from strength of current and weight of clothes it was all in vain. So he, who a few minutes before was full of life and spirits, had passed into the spirit world — far away from the cares and trials of this short life. Within a few short hours of his death he was preaching at our afternoon gathering of the boatmen, and spoke on the Prodigal Son, and said, " You may say I worship the foreigners' religion because I eat foreigners' rice, but that is not the reason. I'm so happy in Jesus that I can't help preaching about Him," and a great impression was produced on all the men, as you may suppose, and we feel sure that it will be to the glory of the Lord, and has all been well arranged by our Master. It seemed to bring us very near eternity, and made one feel how it might have been one of us; and what a privi- lege to be called home when we know that it will be home, a real home, and no more parting ! When you come to think that this in reality is a resting-place on the homeward way, and nothing more, then you get the right perspective to put everything else in its right place. Instead of feeling that the future is dim and uncertain, and the present is the chief thing to be thought of ; then you see any self-sacrifice in the present seems uncompen- sated for, and truly the best thing is to eat, drink, and be merry, if this is the only life, for it is appointed unto man once to die, but — afterward the judgment. You see the world is blind to this fact, and wilfully so. John iii. 19. Mrs. Wilson, a fellow-passenger, gives a further account of this painful incident in a letter from which the following is an extract : — From the window I am looking out upon a rocky hill with trees here and there, and on the top a field of ripe corn ; down by the riverside is also a patch of wheat, and a little to the left on the hill is a picturesque little cottage and the inmates threshing out the freshly-gathered corn with flails ; just below is a man ploughing with a yoke of oxen. Dr. Wilson has just come in to say we may as well go on shore and watch them pull our boat up. How I wish I could describe to you the magnificent scenery through which we are passing ; range after range of hills, some of them richly wooded, with pretty little villages scattered here and there. June 15th. — " What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter." This seems a strange continua- tion of what I wrote above, but it has pleased the Lord to permit a heavy trial to come upon us ; our good and faithful servant, Liao, has entered the presence of his Master and King. He was drowned last night. We an- chored about 7 p.m. in a nice quiet spot, and as we had just finished tea, we went out at once for a little walk as we usually do. We noticed some of our boatmen bathing not far off, and it seems that after we had passed Liao joined them. He had been in very bright spirits all day. When he came out he complained to the teacher of feel- ing cold, and rolled himself on the sand and then plunged 2S .-/ MISSIONARY BAND. again into the water. He was advised to come in, so went to the further side of the boat from the shore and made an attempt to get up, but found it too high, and the next thing we know is that he was drifting down crying for help. Mr. Cecil Polhill-Turner, who was sitting on a rock towards which he was drifting, plunged in and seized him, but sank with him, twice I think. Just then one of the boatmen came swimming up to help, and he gave him to him, but he too sank with him twice, for Liao caught hold of him ; he managed to get away from his grasp and he sank. It must have been all over in less time than it has taken me to write this. Dr. Wilson and I were sitting on a rock in the opposite direction, and knew nothing of it till IVIiss Marston called us. We had heard a shouting, but thought it was perhaps a dispute, which is so often the case. When Dr. Wilson got to the spot all hope was over. Mr. Studd, who is a capital swimmer, was there, but there was no use in risking any one else's life. FISHERS OF THE UPPER HAN. From Mr. CECIL POLHILL-TURNER. En route jor Hi:m-cfiu?ig. MAY the Lop;d raise up bands of men and women to hurry off to all parts of the world, carrying the messageof peace and life to those who are "without Christ — having no hope I " Awful position, is it not, when the veil of unbelief is completely torn from our eyes, and we see the naked truth staring us in the face — life with CHRIST for evermore, or death eternal ? Have not we, God's repre- sentatives now on earth, a solemn responsibility to see to it that we are properly fitted, approved servants of the King of kings ? What would be thought of an Ambassador who, on reaching his destination, found himself uncertain about the message he had to deliver, and uncertain of the power at his disposal to back up his representations ! Now, thank GOD, we have at our disposal an unlimited supply of Divine power according as we are in a position to draw upon it. Does it not require years of patient waiting, study, and diligence to rise to the position of an ambassador in this world ? and is it strange that GOD'S minister should require diligence ? Should we not seek the wisdom of God as hidden treasure — seek His mind, seek to be thoroughly fitted by Him ? Books help, but " who teacheth like Him?" His own word, read in the Holy Ghost and prayed over much, is the essence of truth. From Mr. ARTHUR Hing-ngan,July is/, 1885. I MUST write you a few lines just to let you know how we are getting on, and to tell you something of this truly wonderful country and its wonderful people. They are really a very clever race, and most ingenious. I feel sure that there is a great future for China if the world lasts ; for they are so persevering and industrious, although very POLHILL- TURNER. leisurely, and counting time as nothing. They seem never idle all day. They all rise very early ; every one in this land seems up and about by five a.m., at which time you may see the mandarin and his retinue making a round of the city, headed by a big gong — rather different from our habits and custom. He is carried in a sedan- chair ; about forty form the procession. ON THE HAN RIVER. 29 China is wide open to the Gospel in ahnost every part, and you may go into nearly any heathen temple in the land and preach for as long as you like, and the priest will come and listen as eagerly as the people ; this speaks for itself. I ha\e myself accompaniecyDr. Wilson, who is conducting our party, into several temples, and bear personal testimony to the interest of both priest and people. After preaching we distributed tracts. In some parts temples have been converted into places of Chris- tian vvorship. " How shall they hear without a preacher?" People talk about the Chinese as being hard to reach ; . but what human heart is not hard until softened by the Holy Spirit? and we can testify to the glorious power of the grand old Gospel of Jesus and His love even among our boatmen. Truly, they all seem changed men, and we feel sure a great work of grace has been commenced. It is quite touching the way they come and squat round us in their native fashion in the evening, when we have anchored for the night, and are just like children, so simple-minded, and one feels drawn toward them with a divine love as their dark faces and black eyes look up into ours. One lad specially has learned a number of hymns, and sings them with our Christian servant, and seems never happy out of our presence. You would be so interested to have a peep at us — Studd, Cecil, and myself, in native get-up, and we are taking to native diet, which is very wholesome, and suited to the climate. The only coin in circulation is a brass coin called" cash," [with a square hole] ; twenty-five cash make one penny, so it requires a large number to make up a small sum. We took on board for the journey over half a ton of brass coin, threaded on strings of 1,000 each — about half a million cash altogether. It sounds a great deal, but the whole journey of 1,800 miles won't cost much more than ^10 a head, everything included. ^^''e ha^e been anchored here for the last ten days. The VIEW ON THE UPPER HAN RIVER, SHEN-SI PROVINCE. rain having delayed us a week, and it is still raining. You see the Lord is teaching us a lesson of patience, it makes life so sweet to take e\erything as coming from a loving Father, and is He not the God of circumstances ? So we can trust Him to lead, guide, teach, and keep ; while our part is to lie at His feet and learn of Him. " If our faith were but more simple, AVe should take Him at His word, And cm- life would all be sunsliiue In the presence of the Lord." The country is very beautiful and varied, but wanting in trees on the whole. Eveiy now and then you come to the most lovely little peep among the mountains— a valley between the hills, and a picturesque little cottage and farm embedded in trees of the loveliest hue of light green leaves of early summer. The houses are very veiy picturesque, with their curly roofs, sometimes resembling Swiss chalets on the mountain side. The people are wonderfully patient, and think no more of waiting half-a- day than we do five minutes in England. What China wants is the simple Gospel in power of the Holy Ghost, without which it is indeed in vain. And lady missionaries are equally needed to reach the women of China, who from native etiquette are very difficult of access. It is grand to hear how the Lord is stirring up His people at home to feel the claims of the heathen ; one rejoices to learn of the missionary revival, which is the truest sign of life in a church. Ask the Lord for great things for the poor heatlien. ARRIVAL AT HAN-CHUNQ. From Mr. C. T. STUDD. Han-chui)g, Aug. 22ml PRAI SE God our F.\ther and the Lord jEsus Christ, who have brought us in safety to the end of our lengthy journey ; one in which His hand has been with U3 throughout ; and oh. He has blessed us in soul and body. In old times, all passed through the cloud and through 3° A MISSIONARY BAAD. the sea to dwell in the Land of Promise ; they had the wilderness to pass through, but they murmured and did not enter in through unbelief. So have we on board the boat had our wilderness journey, but our wilderness has blossomed as the rose. The Lord, who is faithful, has kept us from falling into the sin of unbelief by His mighty power to US-ward. Yes, oftentimes has faith nearly failed, but the smoking fiax He never quenches, but fans it into a flame. He has taught me many lessons, especially that of my weakness, how my best powers and attainments can but hinder Him — that if I live, and do, I must be a hindrance to His working through me. Yes, I must be dead; then He can use me for His glory. " It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20, R. V. Mar.). Yes, indeed, dead, dead — dead to everything, to every- body, to the opinions not only of the world, but also of the Christian world. Peter not dead to the opinion of his fellow-Christians fell, and was sharply rebuked by Paul. This latter lesson is the special one that the Lord has been teaching me. Glory to His name for ever and ever. From Mr. ARTHUR POLHILL-TURNER. Han-chung, Nov. i-jth. WE are happy in the Lord, and we truly say, " Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." Blessed prospect ! With regard to our future we feel ready to go just anywhere — anywhere with Jesus. We have had the north of Si-Ch'UEN much laid on our hearts since the return of Mr. Pearse, accompanied by Mr. Thorne of the American Bible Society, from a journey to Pao-ning and Pa-chau, bringing such good reports of the land, and of the readiness of the people to hear the glad tidings. Their sale of books was exceedingly large, and they had grand times, although they met with many perils through their animals stumbling on the bad roads among the mountains ; but " the Lord keepeth the feet of His saints," and they returned indeed in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. We much regret the prospect of losing Mr. and Mrs. Easton, for they have endeared themselves to us all by their Christian love. I am sure it will cheer your heart to hear a little of our church quarterly meetings, which came off last Saturday and Sunday — a time never to be forgotten. Our members numbered over one hundred. The subject for conference was, " Christians as the lights of the world." On Saturday morning, from eleven till two, many of the natives spoke, and great interest was manifested. The words of one, a tailor, are worthy of record — if only you could have seen his beaming face at the time ! He said : " I once had a house and it was most unhealthy ; my wife and child got ill, and everything went wrong ; the reason was, we had not enough of the light of heaven inside " (a remarkable statement for a Chinaman). He went on : " When I was converted, I thought what good news for all my friends and neighbours ; but they only opposed it, and I made very little impression, so I felt that I hadn't enough of the heavenly light within. I prayed to God for more." Ever since his conversion he had been praying for his wife ; every Wednesday night he would pray in public for her at the native prayer-meeting. Well, on Saturday he had the joy of seeing her baptized with fifteen others, a sight which gladdened all our hearts. Each had a separate and most interesting testimony to give, but time and space forbid my giving details. One dear lad, aged eleven, whose face resembles the setting sun, made a Shih-pah-li-pu family complete ; one's heart went out to see them all just filled with joy. A very striking feature was the number of strong- looking young men coming out boldly for the Lord. Old Mr. Wei, the Shih-pah-li-pu leader, was in his usual spirits ; he doesn't know what discouragement means, though he lost his wife a fortnight ago. They all look up to him as a father. One white-bearded man appeared, to Mr. Easton's delight, who had been turned back by his son to the idols. With a hearty salute he told Mr. Easton that, by God's help, he did not mean to be led back again. Another dear old man and his son, a burly- looking fellow of twenty-eight, were baptized, also one of the two leper boys that Miss Wilson was so much in- terested in. One day, a fortnight ago, after a stirring sermon from Mr. Easton on faith and confession, he left, saying he wanted to see his father, and returning, said that he wanted to enter the church, and had his father's consent. " On Saturday evening we had a love-feast, if I may so call it, or a "free-and-easy," with a repast of tea and cakes, wish hymns and speeches. Brother Easton told of his first going up the Han, and commencing his work there six years ago, and pointed to Mr. Ho as the first convert. I looked up about the middle of the address, and to my astonishment a great number of the assembly were quite broken down, and there were stifled sobs from all parts of the room— truly an unusual thing for the Chinese. They presented Mr. Easton with a pair of scrolls; also one worked in silks, representing Christ walking on the water with the disciples in the boat, and the ten virgins— a strange production, being thoroughly native. The chapel was crowded again on Sunday, and an address from Mr. Easton on holding on to the end left a deep impression on all. The attention of the people reminded one of a Mildmay Conference as they drank in his words. In the afternoon they met to repeat Scrip- ture ; about twenty-five said the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed remarkably well. I feel the best way of acquiring the language is to be much among the natives. There is a most interesting work going on here among the patients who come daily. A case of interest occurred yesterday ; an attentive lis- tener said that he had been seeking all his life to prepare for eternity, but in vain. He drank in the words spoken, took away books, and promised to come again. He lives some twenty H off. Men come several hundred // to get medicine. A man came in this morning, a native of T'ai-yuen, who had been to Shanghai and Tien-tsin, and after listening attentively to the Gospel, gladly carried away some tracts and books. My brother and I go to the dispensary every morning and pick up words, while we also gain a little medical knowledge, which may be of use. Dr. Wilson's assistant, who was lately married to the girl from Gan-k'ing, now holds meetings every Sunday night here for outsiders, and preaches the Gospel to the neighbours without any assistance from foreigners. All the natives, I feel, are coming on, and we may expect them to do more aggressive work. The signs of the times are stirring; a marked interest attends the preached word everywhere. The country is so wonder- fully open to missionaries. Mr. Pearse said that during his last journey he never once heard the expression ' foreign devil ! " My heart is very full of the mighty works of the Lord, and I long to be at work preaching ; but this quiet season is also very blessed and needful, and we would not have it otherwise. I find the best remedy for all ills is to keep praising the Lord. A MISSIONARY BAND. %\)m^\wL t0 5i^^ii^0* A few days after Messrs. Studd, and Cecil and Arthur Polhill-Turner, left Shanghai for Han- chung, Messrs. Stanley Smith, Hoste, and Cassels, left for Peking. THE SOUTH-EAST CAPE OF THE SHAN-TUNG PRO-MONTORY. (^Pd^sed on ihp way to TitutsinZ TIENTSIN. From Rev. ]V. W. CASSELS. WE have now at last got over the bar, and are making our way up the river to Tien-tsin, sticking on the banks for a few minutes ever)' now and then. We have had an exceedingly happy and comfortable voyage, and even the waiting on the bar was rather pleasant than otherwise, giving us time as it did for much heart-searching before God. We feel very much we want to know a great deal more of the power of the truths which we believe, and in a much larger measure to be filled with the Holy Spirit, who is promised to all who ask and beheve. And whilst for myself I know that my own heart was never fuller of peace and joy in believing on the precious and all-satis- fying Saviour, yet, I am deeply conscious of my own shortcomings, and of my n^ed to seek for a much larger measure of that grace which is promised to the children of God. We need so much power for this work in China, unless we are to sink down into a low level kind of life, labouring with no particular result. Tien-tsin, like Che-foo and Shanghai, is an English free port, but there are only some two or three hundred people in the English settlement. Here, again, we have met with nothing but kindness and comfort. " Mercies have followed," but better still it is evident " the Lord has gone before us." We despair almost of having any hardships or meeting with any discomforts, for things get brighter and brighter, and at every turn more and more comfortable. How it does make one full of gratitude to our Heavenly Father. Our headquarters here are at Mr. Hobson's. We had intended to put up at a Chinese inn, but the people here would not allow it. We began our first evangelistic meeting this evening in the Tem- perance Hall, and had about fifty there. This is a very fair proportion of the three hundred residents, which include women and children. There is to be a meeting to-tnor- row and on Saturday, and on Sunday morning I preach in the church, the only European place of worship, at which services are conducted by the missionaries in turn ; in the morning according to the forms of the Church of England, in the evening otherwise. Iiliiwii iii?i rtiiiiiii' iiliiiiih'i i if Miiliiliiili A MISSIONARY BAND. The following letters deserve especial attention. The experiences they record call for the deepest gratitude to God. Our beloved brethren, deeply impressed by the extraordinary manifestations of the power of God, seem to have written under a feeling of solemn awe. They had seen great things beforetime, but Mr. Stanley Smith, hardly daring to write of what they had now witnessed, says : " It is certainly the greatest work of God I have ever seen in my short experience " ; and Mr. Cassels was similarly impressed. At Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, Edinburgh, London, Shanghai, and elsewhere, there had been signs and tokens that the Lord was working mightily ; but it appears that in Peking, the famous capital of the great empire of China, the land in which they were henceforth to labour, and for the welfare of whose people they had left friends and country, the seal of the Divine blessing was set upon their work in a very wonderful manner. This the letters which follow abundantly show : — PEKING. From Rev. W. JV. CASSELS. CTo a Fi lend.) May d,th. WE had a very happy and encouraging time at Tien- tsin. There was a spirit of expectation and prayer amongst the dear Christians there which made us antici- pate blessing, and so it was. The Lord's people were stirred up, and others brought to know Him. We left Tien-tsin on Tuesday 2ist, and had our first experience of cart travelhng and of Chinese inns. The shaking up in the former did us a lot of good physically, and made the shaking down in the latter all the more welcome when night came on. As to the inns, I must say we were pleasantly dis- appointed, for we found them exceedingly comfortable. . . But this brings me to Peking, where we arrived the next day. There have been evangelistic meetings each evening, and good work has by the grace of GOD been done. There have been not a few conversions and con- secrations, notwithstanding the very small English com- munity which there is here. But the remarkable work has been at the afternoon gatherings, chiefly of missionaries and their families, for prayer and the deepening of spiritual Ufe. Dear Stanley has conducted these with great power, and with most manifest help from on High. He began to speak about the comparatively small result of missionary work, of the acknowledged failure and want of power of the great mass of missionaries, and he has been going on to show how vast are the promises of God, and that they are almost all conditional upon the outpouring of the Spirit of God, and we have been exhorted to cry to GOD mightily, and to wait upon Him with a persevering faith until the SPIRIT be poured out upon us from on High. As a result we are pressed to delay our departure over this last Sunday, and now the missionaries meet together for two hours every afternoon for prayer, and for further exhortation. Each day GOD has been working. There have been break-downs almost every-day. . . . Besides these there has been a general stir, and a work of God in the hearts of many more. I can write more fully on this work because I have not been a worker in it, but a listener and learner. But, dear brother, there is no doubt that this is one of the most remarkable movements I have ever witnessed. So join with us in praising the Lord with all your heart for His goodness. Let us also thank GOD for using dear Stanley. If this work were not of GOD, would the dear missionaries (many of whom have been out here for years and years) have ever listened to a young fellow only just come out and knowing nothing about the work ? Eveiybody agrees in saying that the devil's power is immense out here, and that nothing short of great dis- plays of the power of God will avail to extend the Lord's kingdom. So, dear brother, keep on crying to our blessed Lord for us, and all the Master's servants out here, that they may be strengthened with might by God's Spirit in the inner man. Praise God for the good time you had with Aitken at Stafford Rooms. We have now to get our food straight from headquarters up above, or not at all. But He has promised we shall never hunger and never thirst, and I believe it — if I believe anything. As for yourself, we look confidently that the Lord will bring you out in His own good time, and that when you come it may be in the fulness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ. Praise God for the good news about the C.M.S. May He stir up all the Missionary Societies to press on, and trust the LORD for great things. The Lord shall guide thee continually. From Mr. STA.XLEY SMITH. I CAN hardly dare speak of the work GOD has done here. I want to be rather under than over the facts. But it is certainly the greatest work of God I have ever seen in my short experience. To Hni be all the glory. Every night we have had evangelistic services, and every afternoon we have had meetings for the missionaries for the deepening of spiritual life. At these afternoon meetings I have had one theme right through — "Be filled with the Spirit," the fact that the Holy Ghost, in the measure He was given at Pentecost, is the privilege of all believers. Oh, the searchings out, the breakings down, the con- fessions ! Oh, magnify the Lord with us ! We have been preaching Thessalonian conversion, " turning to God from idols to serve " ; and nothing short of a complete submission to GOD'S will and an entire consecration to God, has been allowed to be " conver- sion." We can only just praise Him. Oh, when He steps on the scene, how the hills melt before Him ! I am more convinced than ever that a theory I held in England — that on one's knees will the battle be won in China — is true We had the farewell meeting last night. It would have rejoiced your heart to have been there and to have heard some fifteen or more missionaries testifying to blessing received One does more and more realise how entirely the power for spiritual work is GOD the Holy Ghost. 36 A MISSIONARY BAND. 4( %x\t\ sheetings | I^ak trebcr toton m (ffqxwu!' Letter from Rev. JOSEPH EDKINS, D.D. The following letter from Rev. Dr. Edkins will be read with deep interest by all to whom he is known. His position and long experience in China give weight to his words : — victory. The view of obedience presented is ascetically wide, embracing many forms of self-denial which are to be cheerfully practised for Christ's sake — for example, abstinence from intoxicating drinks and smoking. This, however, was only mentioned once. As to the pro- mises, their idea is that it is as certain as that the stars shine that the words of Christ will be fulfilled, and that the Chinese must be renewed and brought to Christ by the same power and in the same way as Europeans and Americans. We have simply to act in the faith of the promises of Scripture, and no power on earth can hinder their fulfilment. The power is promised. Those who have the power — even if originally weak — become strong by this heavenly gift, and so China, it is certain, will, by the labours of the missionaries, become the inheritance of Christ. Our newly-arrived brethren are surely to be regarded as eminently representative of the new missionary spirit pro- duced by the revival of religion since the commencement of the labours of Messrs. Moody and Sankey in our be- loved native land. At present there is no one among us who joins in union services, and holds the basis of the Evangelical Alliance, who is not sensible of the blessing that has come with the meetings we have been having. The young and the middle-aged have alike felt deep im- pressions. Last night we had a baptismal and Communion service. A father and his eldest daughter received bap- tism and partook of the Lord's Supper. The Rev. J. Gilmour administered baptism, and Rev. W. W. Cassels the Communion. About twenty persons belonging to the various missions, and others, in response to Mr. Stanley Smith's appeal for testimonies, expressed gratitude for the benefits they had received from the meetings. In the afternoon drawing-room meeting a father gave thanks for his three boys (the eldest fifteen) for their ac- ceptance of Christ during the meetings, and in the evening these all took the Communion. The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel does not join us, but among the missions who have united in these ten days of prayer and Bible-study, the London Mission of England and the Noiihern Methodists, the Congregationalists and the Presbyterians, all of America, have each shared in the refreshment that we have enjoyed, and all are hearty in expressing thankfulness. We quite expect that this new impulse of spiritual life will be communicated to the Chinese of the native con- gregations. Next Sunday, in not one of the ten or eleven chapels belonging to the four missions just mentioned, will the appeal fail to be made to the native Christians and others to struggle and pray for the higher hfe to which the Gospel will raise all the unhappy sons and daughters of humanity in every land. — Truly yours, Joseph Edkins. Peking., May yd, 1885. Dear Sir, — We have been hearing impressive words in this far-off city from some members of the Cambridge contingent to the missionary band in this country. Messrs. Cassels, Stanley Smith, and Hoste arrived here with Mr. Bailer, a missionary of nine years' stand- ing, last Friday week. The first evening they were with us we had a discussion on miracles as a branch of Christian evidence, at an ordinary meeting of the Peking Missionary Association. Attention was drawn to the history of the controversy on miracles and to the present aspects of this question in relation to evidence. It was pointed out that the miracles in Scripture are not a bar to the acceptance of Christianity by the Chinese, because they have so many professed miracles of their own, both Buddhist and Taoist, besides those mentioned in their histories ; that if they reject Christianity it will not be on the ground that its miracles are incredible. Our brethren newly-arrived did not speak on this sub- ject, but they commenced next day a series of refreshing spiritual meetings, which have done much good. We have had meetings for believers each day from three to five, and preaching services in the evening from half-past eight to ten o'clock. We placed our ordinary Sunday services in the hands of our brethren. The meetings have been greatly blessed. The new religious life of England has come to us as a salutary purifying breeze. We have felt ourselves elevated and revived. Some have undertaken a determined work of heart-searching and prayer for spiritual elevation. Some have felt converted after a previous life of cold religion. Some have accepted Christ as a personal SAVIOUR, after long hesitation extending through years of attendance on Christian worship. How do we know these things ? We know them by the testimonies given at the after- noon meetings in response to Mr. Stanley Smith's earnest and repeated requests to any who had new reli- gious experiences to make them known. The crust of conventional precedent and reluctance has been broken through at our meetings, and the tongues of those who have been blessed have been set free to speak of God's goodness. Such meetings I have never known in China. I take it as a sign that the revival wave is beating on the Chinese shore, and that this country is cer- tainly to share in the blessing that England and America have been of recent years enjoying. The preaching that has produced such effects has been the old Gospel, and the Cambridge missionaries believe in the duty and need of having the fulness of the Spirit. It is necessary to be endued with power from on high. It is necessary to wait till we are so endued. Obedience is the proof of faith, and without it there is no real faith. The Christian ought to have a perpetual consciousness of THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY GHOST. 37 Such testimony as the foregoing calls for profound gratitude to God, but what shall be said of the following appeal from the Missionaries in Peking to other Missionaries in China ? What hope for China it inspires I Who that cares for the extension of the kingdom of Christ in that land, but will join the Missionaries in their daily supplications f9r the abundant baptism of the Holy Ghost ! " Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it." — John xiv. 13, 14. Circular Letter from MISSIONARIES IN PEKING. Peking, fune 22nd, 1885. Dear Brother, — You have perhaps heard of the services held here by Messrs. Smith, Cassels, and Hoste, of the China Inland Mission. Their labours were greatly owned of God. In their after- noon meetings they dwelt largely on the theme that the baptism of the Holy Ghost was promised to all believers. Not only to the Apostles, but, as Peter said to the Jews, the promise is to you and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call, even including us of the present day. They showed that this baptism was given to the early church, to the hundred and twenty, to Stephen, to Barnabas, to Paul, to the Samaritans, to Cornelius and his company, to the disciples at Ephesus and at Antioch in Asia, in short, that when God said " I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh," He meant all believers of every age. One result of their visit was a daily noon prayer-meeting in all our Missions. Our object in these has been, first, the baptism of the Holy Ghost on our own hearts, giving power for our work, and, second, the outpouring of the Spirit on China. It has occurred to us that if all the Missions in China would unite in a daily noon prayer-meeting for these objects, God will hear and pour out such a blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it. We write asking you, if you think best, to consult with your brethren at your mission station in regard to uniting with us in this. If you are so situated that you cannot unite with any one, would you spend some time in prayer at noon every day, thus uniting with us in spirit ? The present revival in Japan began with a daily prayer-meeting. If we would all unite, have we not faith to believe that God would shake China with His power ? Yours in the Gospel, Signed by the following — Rev. J. Edkins, D.D Rev. W. H. Rees London Missionary Society. Mrs. Rees „ ,, „ Rev. Jas. Gilmour, M.A. . . ,, „ „ Rev. W. C. Noble American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, Miss N. Diament ,, „ „ ,, ,, Miss Ada Haven „ „ „ „ ,, Mrs. H. Blodget „ „ „ „ „ Mrs. C. M. Jewell American Methodist Episcopal — North. Miss A. B. Sears ,, „ „ „ Rev. W. F. Walker „ „ „ „ Mrs. Walker ,, „ „ „ Mrs. J. H. Pyke „ „ „ „ Mrs. H. H. Lowry „ „ ,, „ Rev. W. T. Hobart „ „ „ „ Mrs. Hobart „ „ „ „ Rev. D. C. McCoy American Presbyterian Mission — North. Mrs. McCoy „ „ „ „ Rev. John Wherry ,, „ „ „ Mrs. Wherry „ „ „ „ Rev. J. W. Lowrie „ „ „ „ Mrs. Lowrie „ ,, ,, ,, Miss G. Smith Female Education Society, Ningpo. Thos. Child, Esq Inspector-General of I.M. Customs, Peking. Mrs. Child 33 A MISSION/IR V BAND. (lJjc ^rnmisc ai llje Spirit. By Miss A. HA VEN, A.B.C.F.M., PEKING, Corresponding Secretary at Peking of the IVomen's Missionary Association in China. " T BELIEVE in the Holy Ghost;" I always said I did, and in an indefinite kind of way I thought A I did ; that is to say, I believed the Spirit had been promised under the old dispensation, and that it had been sent under the new. Furthermore, I knew that the time in which we now live is called " the dispensation of the Holy Ghost; " but I had never been able to say "I believe in the Holy Ghost" as I now do. Last spring, when one of the newly-arrived China Inland Mission brethren was stopping in our compound, it happened that we fell into conversation one day, and he startled me by asking, " Have you ever been filled with the Holy Ghost ? " I almost felt like replying with those of old, " I have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." When I think of how many in this age of advanced thought (I use the term in its proper sense) are ignorant of the true nature of the Holy Spirit, I call to mind a thought of Thomas a-Kempis : "What will it avail thee to dispute profoundly of the Trinity, if thou be void of humility, and art thereby displeasing to the Trinity? I had rather /e^/ compunction than understand the definition thereof" And we may say the same of the Holy Spirit. If we want to know what He is, we must ask Him to come and teach us, and " when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He will guide us into all truth." It was at that time arranged that meetings be held in Peking for the purpose of asking such a blessing, and at the first gathering the leader spoke somewhat as follows : — The gift which we are seeking is not an original capacity of the mind, nor yet something given in a definite and final way at conversion. In the case of the one hundred and twenty at Pentecost, of apostles and of many others, the Spirit was not given till after conversion. In Paul's case we have first conversion, then baptism with the Holy Ghost (Acts ix. 17), then increasing the more in strength (v. 22). Isaiah began his prophecies in the reign of Uzziah, but it was not till the end of this reign that his lips were touched with the coal from off God's altar, and he was made an instrument meet for the transmission of the Divine message — readytosay — "Here am I, send me." This is the very preparation we need for the mission- ary work, the very thing that will help more than anything else. We, who have such terrible foes to fight, ought we not to consider it of the very first importance that we learn to use the Sword of the Spirit ? It is not the case that one can never lead others to Christ except when filled with the Spirit. Instances are on record of those not even converted being instrumental in the conversion of others. But this much can be said : There is at least one " natural law " which holds good in the " spiritual world," and that is, "Like father, like son." Our spiritual children will be like their fathers. If we ourselves have not the power of the Spirit, can we wonder if those converted under our preaching are but half- hearted Christians ? A lady in England well illustrates the reason of so much barrenness as exists in the work of the Lord, when she says — "We are vessels half full, trying to run over." We see the whole world lieth in darkness, we pray that the Sun of Righteousness may arise. We hear of the " Light of Asia," and what is this light but darkness ? We want to give the people who sit in this darkness the Light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world. To do this we must ourselves be illuminated. I Hstened so far, and then it seemed as if I could bear no more. " Darkness indeed," I thought ; " darkness of which you newly-arrived workers from Christian lands have no conception." I felt like rebelUng, I felt like teUing these newly-arrived brethren that they knew not what was in reserve for them, as they would go to and fro in the streets, or engage in regular work, where they would expect some demonstration of gratitude or heartfelt sympathy. I longed to ask them if they thought our feet were " beautiful upon the mountains " — or if they were prepared to be called by names most demoniacal. Again, I could have asked if they supposed that those around them would be hungering for the " bread of life " when they should give it to them, or would their zeal be lost if they found that this " bread of life " would often be cast away as a stone, or sometimes be used as a ticket wherewith to obtain, if possible, the bread that perisheth. Would they expect their hearers each to tell his neighbour the glad tidings, for very love ? or would they expect to find that, when other employment failed, there would be some to come forward and offer to preach the Gospel for them ? I could have told them that in speaking to women I often thought, " These people are as blind and deaf as their own idols, but that I must speak to them all the same, for that is what I came for." After all these dark thoughts a voice with a vrord for ;we said, " Who is blind but My servant, or deaf as My mes- senger that [ sent ? " THE PROMISE OF THE SPIRIT. 39 But we will go on to another day's meeting, for these gatherings of Christians were held daily from compound to compound. This day the speaker began by saying : — with the Spirit may obtain the millennial promises, and God is honoured in our claiming the promises, as He is dishonoured in our distrustful unbelief that He will fulfil His word." As for prophecies, the Old Testament is full of them.'' Isaiah speaks of pouring out the Spirit (Is. xxxii. 15) like floods upon the dry ground (xxxv. 7, 41, and xliv. 18, 13), or of the Spirit working within us (lix. 21), of the strength of the Lord given to those who seem to have laboured in vain (xlix. 1-5). Read what Joel says of the promises of the latter days (Joel ii. 19 and 23, 29), and Malachi, of the blessing poured out so that there shall not be room to receive it. We dare not bring up every subject for prayer of faith. We must have one of four tokens to give us jhis holy assurance. 1st, Promises. We can bring up some promise of God and plead it with Him. 2nd, Prophecies. Where an event has been definitely foretold, we can wait and pray for its speedy fulfilment. 3rd, Special providences seeming to indicate God's will and favour. 4th, Leadings of the Holy Ghost, as, for instance, when the Spirit leads us to pray for the salvation of a certain soul. We have all four reasons for faith in our uniting to pray for the Holy Ghost ! One who has him- self been richly taught of God has said, " He that is filled Here again my unbelieving soul refused to be convinced, and I said in my heart, those passages in Joel referred to the Pentecostal season after Christ's ascension. How can we have the presumption to think they refer to us? This started a whole train of doubt and difficulties with regard to all New Testament application of Old Testament prophecies, and, strangely enough, all coming down at once, it brought with it the key to the problem. The old difficulty was this : How was it that the apostles dared to see in any event the fulfilment of Old Testament prophecy, when, perhaps, only one verse out of the whole passage would apply, all the context referring to something entirely different ? Ah ! the disciples were led by the Spirit to seize on certain verses which applied to the event in hand whether the context did or not ! The books of prophecy used to seem to me like pressed flowers found between the pages of some old book, interesting from some half-conjectured association with the hands that placed them there. These hands have long since mouldered under the soil, and these embalmed memories are now forgotten by all the living. Nevertheless, the dead flowers possess for us, by association, a human interest. They meant as much to some one. Other parts of prophecy seem clearer — like a herbarium, every specimen named, classified, and dated. But now all this is changed. Flowers spring up for us ; it is a garden of spices fresh with the air of heaven, a garden where we await the coming of the Beloved. " Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south, blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my Beloved come into His garden." To return to the public meeting. The question arises : — How are we to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and what are the signs of His coming ? In our waiting before God for this blessing we shall find that one of the first steps, or we might say one of the first works of the Spirit, will be a heart-searching to cast out all that opposes. The temple must be thoroughly cleansed before it can be a fit abode for the Holy Ghost. If we are still cherishing some sin we can never hope to be filled. Tbe coal th/St touched Isaiah's lips purged iniquity. The work of the Spirit must begin in the heart, cleansing from sin. Then we can speak, or rather God can speak through us. As to the subsequent operations of the Spirit, it would be difficult to lay down any fixed plan, for the Spirit moves in divers ways. In fact, just here many are led into danger, mistaking other influences for the operations of the Spirit. Sometimes the presence of the Spirit is attended by sighs and groans, yet oftentimes sighs and groans come from mere feeling. People fancy- ing themselves led by the Spirit may fall into all kinds of wild vagaries ; " Christ was led of the Spirit into the wilderness," but that was very different from that other whom devils " drave into the wilderness." We must try the spirits, and see if the promptings agree with the dic- tates of the Bible. If not, we may be sure it is mere delusion, fanaticism. For instance, if any state to which we arrive leads us to look down upon others, or to judge them with censoriousness, we may be very sure that we have not yet received the Spirit. Let us not be deceived by false glitter into thinking we have received it. It does not consist in beautiful sentiment, the power of putting thought aptly ; or an ecstatic glow of gratified taste or feeling. But if you ask what, then, may be considered as true evidence, we might use Christ's figure, speaking of the work of the Spirit : The invisible wind in the trees, perceived only by its effects. What are such effects ? Some may ask. Is the coming of the Spirit always at- tended by miraculous power ? Not miraculous, perhaps, but certainly greater than would be possible in any other way. One of these effects will be prophecy, and a power to bring home spiritual truth to the heart of man. Not only shall we be able to speak as the oracles of God, but we have the promise that " I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker-worm, the cater- pillar, and the palmer-worm," and for the past years of our unfruitfulness in the service of the Lord. After the Evangelist Moody was blessed with the Holy Spirit he preached his former fruitless sermons, and always had some souls to come to Christ. An aged pastor used to comfort himself for the deadness of his church with the thought " another will reap," but on being brought to know the Spirit, in the two last years of his earthly life, he was blessed in seeing what an increase God could give. In fact, if we are endued with the power of the Spirit, God will use us in ways only possible for Him to conceive. There is no limit to this power. We may speak of ourselves as being filled at a certain 40 A MISSIONARY BAND. time; but, with growth in grace, our capacity also enlarges, and we are in need of a second outpouring. There may be successive outpourings, as there are successive periods of development. You may call a bud a perfect bud, but a perfect bud is not a perfect ilower. Never shall we be completely satisfied till we awake with His likeness. Unbelief; how great ! how strong ! Again the tempter came. You can never be a Moody or a Finnej', bringing multitudes to Christ. A question put to one of the brethren was met by him with a corresponding question. Do you feel that the Holy Spirit is blessing your work to the souls of others ? If not, then you have not yet been filled. God will not call you to any work which He will not give you power to perform, and the degrees of the Spirit are proportioned to the work He calls each to do. If the work God gives is for the souls of men, for that will power be given. Faith as a means of obtaining the Holy Spirit was the theme of one meeting. God wishes us to exercise an importunate faith, like the poor widow. This desire for the Spirit is the work of God, and cannot come to naught. There is danger of discourage ment if kept waiting long, but the answer will come, it 7iiust come, if you wait long enough ; perhaps we may grow impatient, and ask. Why does God keep us waiting so long ? We cannot tell. The secret of the difficulty may lie in ourselves. There is danger that we may be kept waiting because God sees we have some other end in view than His glory. It will never be given to use for our own glory. Half- heartedness, or fear lest, if in possession of the Spirit, we be called upon to do things distasteful to us, may retard the blessing. It may be the will of God to try us ; as a father, in testing the attainments of his sons, passes lightly over one, weak and feeble-minded, while with another, of a stronger intellect, he will use much deeper reasoning. It may be God has a richer blessing in store for us than we are yet ready to receive, and so we are kept waiting. Of one thing we may be sure, God will never keep us wait- ing as long as He waits for us to ask for His Holy Spirit. In trying to give from memory some account of the meetings held in Peking last spring I am painfully conscious how far my words fall short of what they should express. We wish you could all have joined with us in these meetings ; we hope you will all join us in the daily prayer meetings in which all of God's children in China are asked to join, for the outpouring of God's Spirit on this land. The first of these [daily] meetings, held before the young missionaries left us, was especially-blessed. By request we laid aside as far as possible all other work. The time even was favourable. The Franco-Chinese war, which had given us many an anxious thought, had been succeeded by a truce, so that there was no need to give ourselves any trouble about that. We left newspapers unopened, and spent the time usually given to secular literature in reading our Bibles. We seemed to live beyond time and space. Now and then we stood with the prophets of old ; frequently we were joining that little company at Jerusalem in their earnest pleadings for the descent of the Spirit, and ever and anon a ray of millennial glory shone over us in this darkened land. That little company, to which in thought we often looked, met in the capital of western Asia to implore the same blessing we were seeking. We were in eastern Asia, in the capital of one of its great nations. We were gathered from many lands, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Holland, Germany, and America, and we were all one, for we were children of one Heavenly Father, " met with one accord in one place." There came no sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, no cloven tongues Hke as of fire descended upon our little company — but the Holy Spirit did come in power upon a few. To many of us it seems as if the day of defeat in China is over, that the battle has been won. Accepting the promise—" Ask of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance" — we have come to our Jordan, and are ready to cross over and possess the land, this land that must belong to Christ ; and as we in the North, and you in the South, East, West, and Central China journey on, may we all have the communion and fellowship of the Holy Ghost. — From " Woman's Work in China." THE TEMPLE OF CONFUCIUS, PEKING. The Confucian temple covers a wide area, and like all palaces, shrines, and even houses, is completely walled round. The main gateway, which leads into the sacred enclosure, is presented in the accompanying picture. The gateway is approached, as were the ancient shrines of Greece and Rome, through an avenue of venerable cypress '■^ees ; and the whole establishment forms, perhaps, the 'nost imposing specimen of purely Chinese architecture to be found among the ornaments of the capital. The tnple approach, and the balustrading, are of sculptured marble ; while the pillars and other portions of the gate- way are of more perishable material — wood, glazed earthen- ware, and brick. On either side are groves of marble tablets, bearing the names of the successful Hanlin scholars for many centuries back ; and that one to the left, sup- ported upon the back of a tortoise, was set up here when Marco Polo was in China. The great hall within simply contains the tablet of China's chief sage, and those of twenty-two of his most distinguished followers. The spirits of the departed great are supposed to reside in their tablets, and hence annually, at the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, sheep and oxen fall in sacrifice in front of this honoured shrine of literature. (From Thomson^s : The Straits of Malacca, Indo-China and China. ) T'AI- YUEN. 41 GREAT GATEWAY OF THE TEMPLE OF CONFUCIUS, PEKING. T'AI-YUEN. From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. LEAVING Peking we touched at Pao-ting Fu, where the Americans have a mission; and then came on by carts and mules to T'ai-yuen. We reached T'ai-yuen May 23rd and left June 15th. We had some precious meetings among the missionaries there, and some got to see what it was to believe the fact that " our old man is crucified with HIM." "We are risen with Christ," and "IN HIM blessed with ALL spiritual blessings." From A YOUNG MISSIONARY. T'ai-yuen Fu, June i ith. SINCE I last wrote, Mr. Bailer and Mr. Beauchamp have arrived. We have been so glad to have them here; the meetings we have held for special Bible study since they and Messrs. Stanley Smith, Hoste, and Cassels came have been very helpful. I, for one, am very thankful God sent them here ; they have opened our eyes to see more of what there is for us in Christ. I think that verse in Heb. iv. best expresses my experience, "We who have believed do enter into rest." It is such perfect rest to turn away from one's own doubts and perplexities to Christ, and see it is all in Him. " Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." " Yes, I rest in Thee, Beloved, Know what wealth of grace is Thine, Know Thy certainty of promise, And have made it mine." I know you will join us in praising GOD for what He has done for us, and in praying that we may count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord. "The people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits." 42 A MISSTONARY BAND. From Rev. W. IV. CASSELS. T'ai-yuen Fu, June i \th. MR. BALLER has arranged that Mr. Stanley Smith and myself should start to-morrow morning with Mr. Key for P'ing-yang Fu, and that Messrs. Beauchamp and Hoste should follow on Monday with him. We arrived here on May 23rd, escorted by Mr. Bagnall, of the American Bible Society, to whom we feel much indebted for his kindness. Almost at once we began work, with Dr. Edwards' teacher. We have had some evening meetings together, and have felt refreshed and strengthened by the opportunity of intercourse with our blessed Lord and His people. We were so glad to see Mr, Beauchamp again ; he arrived on the 3rd inst, full of health. Having heard of the good work which has been going on at P'ing-yang Fu, we are looking forward to seeing something of it ourselves. It is so delightful to meet with dear Chinamen who are really brethren in the Lord. We also look forward to the seclusion which we hope to get at P'ing-yang, that we may push on with the lan- guage. What a beautiful place this T'ai-yiien Fu is ! Dr. and Mrs. Edwards are so kind. The Lord reward them tenfold. We are keeping, resting, and rejoicing in Him. May He constantly lead us, and teach us, and constrain us to follow. A CHINESE FAMILY GROUP. The picture is copied from a photograph taken by a Chinese scholar, and represents a family group of men. The gentleman in front, in his winter fur-lined dress, is unrolling a picture. The man in the centre is playing a musical instrument like a cither, and the one next him is writing a poetical motto on the scroll, while the two boys are playing chess ; so that they represent painting, music, poetry, and recreation. From Mr. HOSTE. T'ai-yuen Fu,Juite i6ih. WE mit with the greatest kindness from friends at all the places where we stayed, and I am very thank- ful to have had the opportunity of seeing so many other missionaries before disappearing into the interior. It has been a time in which we have indeed experienced the love and grace of our blessed Lord Jesus in keeping us from troubles, which I, for one, was not looking out for. As far as our little experience goes, I can say truly, " Not one word hath failed of all that He promised." We have had beautiful weather and comfortable inns, with good food and rest. I doubt not the roughing it will come in due season, but hitherto our hardships have been, I may say, Jitl. To-day we had our first experience of Chinese hospi- HOH-CHAU. tality ; the officer commanding a cavalry regiment stationed here, several of whose men have obtained relief from opium-smoking at Mr. Kendall's, asked us over to 43 the camp to see the place at 6 a.m. this morning. We stayed about two hours, and received the greatest kind- ness and courtesy, leaving after breakfast. HOH-OHAU, From Rev. W. W. CASSELS. Hoh-chau, June list, \Z%t,. IF you will look at the China Inland Mission map of China you will see this little place marked on the road between T'ai-yiien and P'ing-yang. We got in late last night, and are resting here for the Sun- day. Our movements have been as follows ; — We (Stanley Smith and I, with Mr. Key) left T'ai-ytien on Monday morning, and very sorry we were to leave our kind and dear friends with whom we had had such a happy sojourn. On Tuesday we were at T'ai-ku, where the American Baptists have a mission station, the work being carried on by men from Oberlin College. I think that a feature of Oberlin College is that plain living is aimed at, and the men have to devote some hours every day to manual labour^ — agricultural, I believe. At T'ai-ku we had some encouraging little meetings, at which we spoke of the secret of a life of victory being a life of faith in the risen and ascended and indwelling Lord. " Through God we shall do valiantly ; yea, it is He that shall tread down our enemies." We left T'ai-ku on Thursday morning early, and have since been jour- neying on, passing through, or spending the night at Ki, P'ing-yao, and Ling-che, which are all marked on my map. The weather has been most favourable for our journey — the dust had been laid by rain, but not enough of it to do much harm to the roads. We have passed through a most interesting country. The early part of the journey the road lay amongst lovely cornfields. The wheat is turning yellow, but the maize is still young and green. Every here and there we came to beds, or small fields, of the opium plant (the poppy). It has a beautiful flower, which adds to the beauty of the landscape ; but, alas ! the moral aspect of this plant is anything but lovely. They are cultivating it more and more, I believe, but even here they speak of it as the " foreign plant." On both sides of us, east and west, there was a fine range of mountains ; they gradually draw nearer and nearer together, until at last their offshoots, or spires, are so close together that there is only room enough for the river to flow between, and the road has to ascend the hills. It is said that this plain (or rather tableland, for it is 3,000 feet above sea-level) was once the bed of a great lake, extending from T'ai-yiien to about Ling-che (see map). At any rate, it is most fertile and well wooded, and beautiful. Before getting to Ling-che, we passed through such a lovely valley. The road ran alongside of the river, and it being early in the morning, the sun was only just beginning to peep down here and there over the hills where they were a little lower than usual. Magpies and pigeons hopped about the road or neighbouring fields without fear ; and the small eagles, which abound in this part of China, hovered about overhead looking after their prey. Birds of all kinds are wonderfully tame. Magpies let one get as near to them as the road sparrows do in Eng- land, and I have heard of more than one case of an eagle swooping down to take a piece of meat even out of a man's hand. There is, however, another side to this question ; and the wolves from the hills sometimes get very bold, and attack travellers and their mules on the roadside. At length we reached the end of the valley, where the road was very bad, and the ruts attained a great depth ; and now, leaving the river-side, we began ascending the hills, and a stiff pull it was for the brave mules that drew our cart, but they were in good condition, and did the climb very well. At length we got to the top (Ling-che), and rested for dinner, and then began the descent again. The road here was very fair, and in many places had evidently been cultivated. We got some very wide views of the neighbouring mountains as we went along. This place was reached after eight p.m., the stage of that day having taken us over fifteen hours, including stoppage for dinner. After a little difficulty, we found an inn that was not full, and got a not very sweet-smelling room. This morn- ing, however, as soon as a mandarin who was occupying it went on his journey, we took possession of the shang- fang (or top room), where we are very comfortable. We sent in a copy of one of the Gospels and a tract to the mandarin, and he came out and thanked Mr. Key, telling him that he had seen it before. Mr. Timothy Richards, a Baptist missionary, now on his way home, who is sta- tioned at T'ai-yiien, had given some Gospels. He has had a good deal to do with the mandarins. He has, I understand, invited some of them to magic-lantern entertainments, with the purpose of getting them favourable to mission- aries and the Gospel. This morning we walked down to the river, and had a nice time of reading and prayer. I am looking forward to a further opportunity of communion with our blessed Master this afternoon. This Sunday rest is indeed pleasant from every point of view. For unless one does short stages, or goes in for very expensive carts, this travel- ling is very hard work. There is a good deal of jolting, which is tiring — not that these journeys are unpleasant — no ; we find the " exceeding abundantly " follows us here too, and we really do enjoy these times. The Chinamen use fans a good deal, and we have now adopted them, and find them useful, if not for the heat, at any rate to keep off the flies, which in some places — as in this inn, for instance — abound. We have hitherto travelled without a servant, except from Shanghai to Tientsin, when Mr. Thompson's ser- vant was with us. But as we shall want one at P'ing-yang, we brought a man with us from T'ai-yiien. It really is a great comfort to have a man to look after things. He looks after Mr. Key's horse, which has to be fed, etc., gets out our bedding from the cart, does our cooking, etc. ; and of course, as Mr. Key does not know much Chinese it is almost essential to have some one to look after us. We hope (D.V.) to reach P'ing-yang by Tuesday morn- ing, and then, as soon as we can get teachers, to settle down to Chinese. Mr. Bailer, with Beauchamp and Hoste, are following us on the round, and expect to arrive before the end of the week. You would be amused to see how our mules are delighted to get a roll in the dust. The first thing they do when they get into the inn-yard in the evening is to lie 44 A MISSIONARY BAND. dDwn and have a good roll ; but very often they take an opportunity of doing this ev'en on the journey when the cart stops for a few moments, and though the consequence is that the traces get all out of order, the carters often look on with the utmost complacency. It is amusing to see how little some of the Chinamen put themselves out, and what a small value they put upon time. If a cart over- turns — a thing which is by no means rare — they will fre- quently sit down and have a smoke before they begin to set it to rights. If two carts meet in a narrow road, the carters will often sit down and smoke their pipes and clean the wheels of their carts before they come to some arrangement as to who shall go back and get out of the road. The day before we reached P'ing-yang, Stanley Smith was on in front, and I a little behind him, riding Mr. Key's horse, when a Chinaman came up to my friend and shook him warmly by the hand. Stanley at once thought the man must be a Christian (for the usual Chinese mode of recognition, or salute, is a deep bow with the two closed hands placed together in front and then brought up to the forehead), and said to him, " Yiae-su mun-t'u ?" — i.e., " A disciple of Jesus?" — a usual form this for Christians out here. The man at once gave signs that it was so, and then came and shook hands with me, and this I suppose was the first time I have shaken hands with a Chinaman. He then made us have some refreshment at a little place by the roadside, where bread and rice-water could be got; and when Mr. Key came up and spoke to him, invited us to take our mid-day meal at his house, which was on our road. We gladly consented ; and as we went along he said he knew we were coming. When Mr. Key asked him how that was, he answered, " Because I have been praying that some missionaries might soon come." He is a member of the church here, and when we met him was on his way to a neighbouring town to sell Bibles. As we drew near to his town, he pointed to a valley, and said, " All the people living here are giving up their idols." You can imagine how much we were cheered by this, and how nice it was to meet with five or six Christ- ians, whom he quickly called into his house, and to join in prayer, reading, and a hymn, even though we could not understand it. He made us take some rest, and then waited on us most diligently, whilst we fed on the good things he had provided for us. PTNG-YANG. From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. {Exiract from letter to George Williams, Esq) P'ing-yang Fu, Shan-si, North China, Juiie iZth, 1885. LEAVING T'ai-yuen we arrived here June 23rd, and have now been here about a week. Mr. Beauchamp joined us at T'ai-yuen and has come on here. _ Mr. Taylor could not accompany him, but we hope is coming on later. There is a most blessed work of GoD going on all round here. This is the district where the terrible famine, some six years back, made such terrible havoc. It had the effect of making the people distrust their idols. One or two leading men have been brought out here on the Lord's side ; and for miles around this city there are villages with little groups of Christians. Is it not precious ? We are hoping to have two or three good months' study at the language here — and then proceed in the autumn to Han-chung. The spoken language is not so difficult as I imagined, the idiom is extremely simple ; but the written character to know perfectly would indeed be hard, as there are thousands upon thousands of possible characters. But for all practical purposes it is quite sufficient to know two or three thousand, and these are based on two hundred and fourteen radicals. I thought I must write to thank you for all your great kindness to me. I esteem it a great privilege to have been permitted to know you. I trust most earnestly GOD is blessing abundantly the Y.M.C.A. You and it (the Association) are down in my little intercessory book for prayer every Saturday. Oh ! what sweet consolation there is in those three little words — especially in such a work as is before us here : "HE IS ABLE." It is a grand thing to change the unbelieving question of the Israelites, " Can God ? " into " GOD CAN." And so really as we take by faith our position in Christ we get hold of His strength ; and when we are Ephes. vi. 10, "Strong in the Lord," it is then we are vi. 11, " able to stand against the wiles of the devil ; „ 13, ABLE to withstand in the evil day; „ 16, ABLE to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." I have got " such a blessing " lately over Rom. vi., and Ephes. ii. How glorious the two "knowings" are in Rom. vi. : " Knowing that CHRIST being raised from the dead, dieth 710 more; death hath no more dominion over Him ; " " Knowing this that our old man is crucified with Him." And just as Christ is freed once for all from the dominion of death, and is alive for ever to GOD, LIKEWISE RECKON that in Christ you are for ever dead to sin, and for ever alive to GOD. " Stand fast, there- fore, in the liberty wherewith CHRIST hath made you free." So the thoughts seemed to come to me ; the " fight of faith " seeming to be this :— whether we will maintain by faith the victorious position Christ hath gained for us. And what is that position ? Ephes. ii. tells, it seems to me, so splendidly : — " Even when we were dead in sins. He hath quickened us together with Christ, and raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ. Oh ! this has come to me with such increasing power and freshness. And to simple faith the theological distinctions of " state and standing " present no difficulty to the glorious FACT — jESUS is present, and Jesus is precious. Oh ! that every young man in England knew personally Emmanuel ; which is, GOD with us ! "Distrust thyself, but trust alone In Him, for all— for ever ; And, joyously, thy heart shall own That Jesus faileth never." Are not these precious words ? F'ING-YANG. 45 I suppose the secret of the restful life is " Irust," and the secret of the restless life is ^^ unbelief." But the blessed fact is that of those who " choose the better part," it is said it "shall not be taken away." He would have us without carefulness. I think one of the most blessed commands in the Bible is, " Be careful for nothing ; " as httle children in the nursery, so utterly without care as to their food and dress— they have a father ; and does He not say " I will be to you a God" ? He says more : " I will be to you a Father," and " You shall be to me a son." I have been prattling like a child : you have been rejoicing in these truths for years, but I expect they do not lose their freshness with age. I am expecting great things from GoD. When He works who shall let it ? Meanwhile, personally I have the language before me to acquire, and must learn day by diy to be "strengthened with might" unto patience. From Rev. IV. W. CASS ELS. F'ing-yang Fu, Shan-si, July (jth, i88;. MR. BALLERhas secured for us one of the Christians of this city as a teacher, and we are now hard at work and delighted at any progress we are enabled to make. I long for the time when I shall be able to begin to do some work, but it is blessed to know that it is impossible to please the Lord better just now than by studying the language. As yet our teacher has only been with us a week, so we have not dived very far into the mysteries of Chinese, with its strange tones and wonderful characters. We are a very happy party, enjoying our work, enjoying our walks on the city walls, with the views of the not dis- tant mountains, so wonderfully lit up as they sometimes are by the setting sun, and enjoying so much our little gatherings for prayer and praise and study of GOD'S Word. How much we have to praise Him for ! We have had to confess ever since we left England, " He dailyLOAD'E.T'H us with benefits." At every turn He has had new mercies in store for us ; and one is now inclined to ask, " Can there still be unrevealed treasures of love and joy laid up ?" And yet it must be so, for we know the river of GoD is full of water, and we rightly call Him " Our never-failing treasury, filled With boundless stores of grace. " Frotn Mr. M. BEAUCHAMP. P'ing-yang, July gth. OUR hearts are full of praise and gratitude to GOD for all that He has done for us. It is a privilege indeed to be allowed to visit so many different parts of the country before settling down, especially to come to a place like this, and I feel sure the experience gained will, with God's blessing, be most valuable in after years. We [Messrs. Bailer, Key, Stanley Smith, Cassels, Hoste, and Beauchamp] are all living together very well and happily here. We are settling down to real study, which I am very glad of ; I find it very interesting. From Mr. D. E. HOSTE. (Kiih-wu ON July 28th, Mr. Key and myself came down here, Mr. I3aller having previously rented a house ; the house is very comfortable and we are, thank God, very happy indeed in soul, though we have not yet had much scope for the happiness of James v. 11, everything has been so wonderfully mapped out for us in all respects. We work now at Chinese about seven hours a day — sometimes more, and to-day have engaged a teacher, a man with a degree, for 5,000 cash (about ^i) a month. I am so thankful to be here ; it is, I feel, a step further into the fight, and being able to distribute books, etc., amongst the people in the city and surrounding villages is indeed a great joy. The people are very friendly, and gladly accept tracts and listen, as far as my inexperience can judge, with intelligence and interest to the Gospel. Some evenings we have quite a levde in our court, of say, fifteen to twenty Chinamen, mostly young fellows from the shops ; the scholars sit in chairs, the others squat about and listen very quietly whilst Mr. Chang, who came with Mr. Bailer from P'ing-yang, preaches to them. There are quite a number of villages round the city with- in three miles from the walls, and we hope to visit them all in time, though as our walk does not begin till about 5.30 p.m., we cannot go far each day. The Bible Society colporteur, who was here last week, sold 100 books in three Hien.) or four days. Some of our visitors and those whom we have met on our walks are asking about breaking off opium. It is, I think, warmer here than at P'ing-yang Fu, but we have not felt it at all distressingly hot, indeed we have both felt better in body since we have been here. Our food is very good ; fruit, the best of its kind, being abundant, and meat tender. It seems to me that now we are out here Satan will do all he can to keep our lives from being really mixed up with the Chinese ; of course I am speaking conscious of my own inexperience, but I cannot help thinking that the Lord would have me, when I get more hold of the lan- guage, spend, say, some months every year just going round and living with the Chinese in the different villages, and as converts are gathered remaining amongst them for a while, so as to be able to teach and build them up. The little I have seen of Chinese inns and houses, leads me to think that they are not bad habitations at all. The country round here bears sad traces of the famine ; the villages are more than half depopulated ; and broken down houses, ruined walls, and neglected roadways and bridges, speak on all hands of a departed prosperity. At the present time, the plain is covered with abundant crops ; chiefly, in this neighbourhood, of tobacco, cotton, and millet. Frotn Mr. M. BEAUCHAMP. (Fing-yang Fu.) MANY people here are seeking rest and peace, but they know not the way, and, indeed, how should they, unless some one tell them ? Their way of seeking peace, too often leads them to the most rigid course of self-denial, and makes them very self-righteous ; but for all that they have to confess that they have not any real peace. We met a man a few weeks ago who assured us that he was most righteous ; " For," said he, " I have not eaten onions, garlic, eggs, or meat of any kind, nor have I taken any tobacco." But of the gift of 46 A MISSIONARY BAND. tJod, or anything about the Lord Jesus, he was of course quite ignorant. VISIT TO MR. HSI. About three weeks ago, we went away for Sunday to stay with a dear fellow named Hsi, a man of small pri- vate means, and a scholar, who, on professing conversion about six years ago, was deprived of his "button" [official rank]. There were four of us who visited him. We got there about eight p.m., and found that he had prepared his chief room for us. « The hospitality he showed us was quite unbounded — in fact, his kindness is known all the country round, and he himself in consequence has scarcely enough to live on. That evening, by starlight, we all joined in family worship in the open courtyard, singing hymns, reading the Word, and praying together. Mr. Hsi lives in quite a small village, and owns a small farm ; but he is known all round the country, as he has several opium refuges. He says that God taught him the secret of making opium pills, which help to alleviate the pain of those who have given up taking opium, and there- fore he keeps the secret to himself ; and by the sale of these pills he earns his livelihood. He has had, too, several remarkable cases of sick people being raised up in answer to prayer. The chief room, where we all slept, was the place of worship for Sunday, and it was well filled three times by about fifteen men and twelve women, besides ourselves. Of course, I only understood little of what he said my- self, but with that little, and what Mr. Bailer afterwards explained to me, it was very evident that he is a man really taught of God. After service was over, it was quite a pleasure to me to be with him, though our conversation was chiefly limited to pointing to verses of Scripture. The brother of this man is also a Christian ; he is a doctor in a small country town. On our way home here on the following morning we passed through and saw him. On entering the town, I offered a tract to a rnan standing at his shop door. He asked me to come inside, which I did, and he soon made me understand that he was a follower of the Lord Jesus, having been baptised about five years ago. This was a delightful surprise, as I did not know then there was a Christian in the place. The doctor seems to be very bright, and had quite a nice little company around him. We do want to ask God to raise up more of such men. Thank God there are quite a number about here now ; but we want more, and we want them in all parts of the land. SELLING SCRIPTURES. It makes a very nice change now to be able to go out in the evenings, after a long day of study, into the streets of this desolate city, and sell portions of the Word of God and other books. During the last fortnight or three weeks. Brother Cassels and I have been doing so ; and Mr. Bailer, who knows the language so well, goes about to the different villages around, and talks to small com- panies of eager listeners. In giving or selling books I can now manage to say a few words, but I fear that at present they are but m- perfectly understood. But it is a great joy when a man is willing to pay a few cash for a portion of Scripture, for then one feels sure he will read it and that the Huly Spirit will have something to work upon. . It makes one realize the privilege and responsibility of working here to remember that one is a channel, and perhaps the only one, by which the Creator of heaven and earth makes known His love to the heathen. But oh ! how one needs to be kept humble in such service, the devil seems to be so fully aware of the good that may be done and so makes special attacks upon the children of God. THREE NEW STATIONS. The possibilities in these parts seem really boundless. Oh, for more labourers, and more fulness of the Holy Ghost for those of us who are here already. It is scarcely six weeks since we opened a new station at Kuh-wu, about forty miles south from here ; but since then two otherstations have been opened under most favourable cir- cumstances : one two days south of Kuh-wu and another three days north-west of this place called Sih-chau, which you will find marked on the China Inland Mission map, not far east of the bank of the Hwang-ho, in the Province of Shansi. We really have not men sufficiently advanced to take possession of these stations; however, the need being so great, Cassels and myself are starting to-morrow morning for this latter place ; we are very fortunate in having an old man as cook, who is a Christian, and he will come with us and will be able to witness for his Master while we are more or less silent. God, in His infinite goodness, too, has raised up another man not unlike Mr. Hsi, whose name is Fan (no relation of the other Mr. Fan) ; he will be there with us as our teacher and at the same time preach ; he is a most devoted Christian but very quiet. Mr. Bailer, of course, comes down for a day or two to start us, and then returns here to be ready for any new arrivals, as we are expecting Messrs. Studd and A. and C. PolhiU-Turner from the west to join us. We have also for a long time been looking for Mr. Hudson Taylor. In about a month they have a great gathering here, a general assembly of all the Christians in these parts for the purpose of exhortation, consultation, aud baptism of new members. This takes place twice every year, and is a very blessed time. Cassels and myself are coming back here then, and we hope at the same time to meet Mr. Taylor and others. This will make our first separation from all senior help, less serious a matter as it is only a sort of " trial trip. " My teacher is very quick and intelligent, so that I can make him understand most things, whereas I can understand little of what any other Chinaman says. Under such circumstances you can imagine what a launch forth this new step seems, but such a promise as "Lo, I am with ycu alway " is sufficient. From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. P'ing-yang. YOU have no idea how fascinating the village work is. You go out to a village and sit down bya group. The people are always keen to hear, and so friendly. Very shortly "the cup that cheers but not inebriates "_ is brought, and you have the fullest opportunity of telling that story which always seems to be better for the telling —the story of the Cross. My prayer is — " Forsake me not till I have shown Thy strength to this generation." GoD grant that every cubic inch of one's being may be used to tell of Jesus and His love, and in warning to flee from the wrath which is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness. The time is short, and we have only one life to lay at the feet of our Master. PING-YANG. 47 From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. PHng-yang Fic, OA. Ztk. THE Lord is graciously helping me in the language. I almost tremble to think of the joy it will be to be able to express myself clearly, and then to be free to love some thousands and tell them of Him. But one must not look ahead. Oh, how these dear people need the Saviour ! I have seen in some of the papers from England lately most dreadful disclosures of the power of darkness. The only way to make a big hole in the devil's kingdom is to abide in Christ. He will bring forth fruit. Verily, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. I am feeling daily the need I have of learning my deep and absolute dependence on Him. Doubtless He has methods of reaching this people, and if one steers clear of one's own projects and ideas and plans — well. His will will be done, and that is, "good, acceptable, perfect." If the devil sees there is zeal in us, his great object is to make it misguided, and " not according to knowledge." I am reading again the life of John Fletcher, of Madeley. The last time I read it was ten years ago ; it was then an immense blessing to my soul. But oh, how ashamed one is to be brought in contact with such lives ! What zeal, what fervour, what faith, what deep humility ! Ah, it was Christ formed within indeed. As Paul testified, " that in me Christ might show forth," etc. (i Tim. i. i6). He just seemed to look upon himself as a most helpless in- strument, but used by that most glorious Workman who. thank GOD, never complains of His tools. Were it not for this fact that Fletcher's excellency was Christ's, it would almost discourage one to read such lives. I feel the thirst coming upon me again for a deeper knowledge of GOD. He has been showing me my need so deeply I must have a corresponding supply. I sup- pose this attitude of stretching forth is what we want de- veloped so much — at least, I do. There is such a frightful tendency in one's slothful, cold heart to be satisfied with present knowledge — in fact, letting things slip ; but these slip-shod shoes are by no means " the preparation of the gospel of peace," and are an example of small things that show much — namely, a soul out of communion. So let us, while the time remains, stir one another up to praise, to prayer, and waiting on God. " As long as he sought he prospered." I believe that is a great secret. God ever keep us from imagining that there is a final stage. I wonder if you are, with the seething wickedness around, going to have persecution ? The line seems clearer between the world and the Church. In China it is only a matter of time — it must come; there have already been the signs in some parts, and, of course, the Son of God has walked in the fire with His children. Why are God's children so blind to the heathen ? Here is China open, a most interesting people, very kind, and living, etc., good and cheap to a degree. From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. P'zng-yang Fu, Oct. nth. HOW I feel one needs to continue in prayer for God's children in China. The devil tries so hard to make divisions and heart-burnings, and to lead astray from the Word of God into all sorts of delusions and snares ; but He says, " With Me thou shalt be in safeguard ; " is not that good ? I feel sure it is so easy to miss the teaching God wants to give in bringing us into strange experiences and surroundings ; it is only as I take His yoke upon me that I find I learn, and how precious it is that the choice of the feet of JesuS as our position is that which shall not be taken away. But how slow and stupid one is, and He so wise and patient ! "The Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth his son.'' From Mr. BEAUCHAMP. I P'ing-yang Fu, Oct. nth. COULD not have believed that God wouldhave allowed me within six months of coming to China to go and occupy a new station without a senior missionary. I need hardly say that Mr, Cassels joins me in a prolonged note of praise. From Mr. CASSELS. I P'ing-yang Fu, Oct. nth. WISH 1 had more time to tell you about our very happy stay at Sih-chau. Oh, how grand one is finding it to leave everything in His loving and all-wise hands ! What a ceaseless cause for thankfulness it is that we are not our own, but that we belong to such a glorious Master ! From Mr. C. T. STUDD. P'ing-yang Fu, Nov. i,th. THE Lord gave Mr. Hogg and myself a quick, fine journey here. I cannot describe my abundant joy in meeting the beloved brothers here again. I felt I could indeed heartily obey the command in my morning Psalm the next day : " O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto the Lord with a voice of triumph." I do praise God for all He has done to and through them. Mr. Stanley Smith took the meeting last Sunday, and spoke with power for half an hour. The others also have done well, and are spreading Mr. Bailer's tracts widely. It seems a real, live work that is going on here. GOD bless dear Mr. Hsi, who came here the other day with six or eight converts ; they seemed full, praise God. 48 A MISSIONARY BAND. SIH-OHAU; From Mr. MONTAGU BEAUCHAMP. AT ■vtjn.t Sih-chati, Shan-si, N. China. LTHOUGH I am not at present at the above address, I have purposely written that because I hope to be there again shortly, and more especially because all my news will be about that place. It is not so easy to write with the same freshness as if I had been on the spot now whilst writing, but I had two very good reasons for not writing then. First, I was too busy ; second, there was no means of sending letters away. I must begin at the beginning, and tell you where the place is and how 1 came to go there. _ About three days' journey from here in a N.W. direc- tion, up in the hills, is a small town called Ta-ning Hien. At this place there has for some time past been a nice little band of Christians. The leader amongst them is a certain Mr. Ch'u, whose history is intensely interesting ; but I cannot now go into that matter. A few months ago there arose a persecution here. When the matter came before the Mandarin, he gave sentence against the Chris- tians. The case was then referred to the higher court of Sih-chau, and there the Mandarin cancelled the sentence of the smaller Mandarin and decided the case in favour of the Christians. To make a long story short, this per- secution was the direct means which led to the opening of a new station at this place, Sih-chau. So the devices of the devil were turned against himself. The Mandarin of Sih-chau is very favourable to Christians, and, besides his own city, he rules over three small ones, called " Hiens." Thus his influence is somewhat widespread ; and, as far as I can gather, he made everything so smooth that it amounted almost to an invitation for us to open a station in his city. A delightful Christian, whose name is Fan {not the one m.entioned in other letters), had gone to Sih-chau to help to settle the trouble which had arisen about the Ta-ning Hien Christians. He was told to see about a house there as soon as possible. About the middle of September we got word from him that he had rented a house, and would be glad for some one to come and take possession at once. About four days after this — i.e., September i6th — we set out for Sih-chau. The party consisted of Mr. Cassels and myself, who, at the time, knew next to nothing of the language ; but Mr. Bailer, who has been in China some twelve years, came with us to give us a start. The journey took three and a-half days, mules being the means 'of conveyance. The road (or rather the way) was uphill all the time. After having been down in a hot plain some three or four months, the change of temperature up in the mountains, with its clear running streams, was most refreshing. After a mcst delightful journey (that is, if I abstain from mentioning any of the resting \i\ places by the way), we reached Sih-chau by noon on Saturday. Mr. Fan met us and took us to the inn where he was staying, as our house was not yet habitable. Of course, we had a constant crowd of eager spectators from the first moment we arrived. After food, we went over to see our house, and then decided to move into it at once. We had not been there very long before we saw that we had abundant cause for thankfulness to GoD for having provided us with a capital house, and although at the time we came in there were no windows and ceilings in the rooms, we soon got one room quite habitable and the window papered up. Although we were not absolutely the first foreigners who had been there, we were the first resident foreigners, and so were the object of considerable interest. Sunday, as you may imagine, was not much of a day of rest for us. We had a constant stream of visitors of all sorts and kinds, from the officials of the Yamen down to the poorest beggar. The house was in a somewhat strange condition for receiving visitors, but this they did not seem to mind. Of course, while Mr. Bailer was with us, he did all the talking, but on Tuesday morning early he left us and started on the home journey. So now we were quite alone. Cassels and myself having been in the country a little over six months, most of which had been spent in holding meetings amongst English resi- dents on the coast and in travelling, we had not much opportunity for getting hold of the language. However, God was very good to us, and helped us wonderfully. We managed to get the mornings comparatively quiet to our- selves, but as the doors were open to the men at work on the place, we got a good number of visitors even then. About the third day after Mr. Bailer had left we started a regular afternoon meeting, always choosing the time when we happened to have most visitors. The attendance averaged about from twelve to twenty, the meeting being conducted by Mr. Fan. Fortunately, I brought with me three large wall-texts, which I got written out at P'ing-yang Fu ; these we put up in our reception-room, a large room occupying the whole north side of the court ; beyond a few chairs and a table these were the only furniture, and were therefore the more conspicuous. The three texts were: Matt. xi. 28 ; Rom. V. 8 ; Heb. vii. 25. These generally formed the subject of conversation — in fact, as our vocabulary was so limited we were glad to be able to point to these words, and occasionally to turn to other passages of the Testa- ment. Some of the questions which were asked were most amusing ; of course most of what they said was unintelligible to us. But after the invariable questions as to " Your honourable name," and " Your exalted age," we were frequently questioned as to our wives, and children, etc., also as to what we eat — " Does the sun shine in your country ? " " How far is it from the coast — from England — from India, and other lands ? " Many other questions as to trade in Shanghai, the French war, etc., etc., we were quite unable to answer. This, no doubt, in one way had great advantages, and as Mr. Cassels said so truly, there was one word we did know, and by the grace of GoD we would make that ring through the town, and that was the name of jESUS ; we kept pounding away with a few texts we knew, varied by an occasional illus- tration. The result naturally was that the inquisitive and sightseers soon dropped off, while only those came who really wanted to know about the truth. Every third day there was a market which increased our visitors by the number of people who came in from the country round ; this gave an opportunity of scattering seed in the form of books and Gospels. Sih-chau is by no means a large city, but it is important as a centre of government. The people are in many respects different from those who live in the plains and busy cities ; the hills cut them off from many of the ordinary surroundings ; they are, therefore, a simple country people, and consequently a large proportion cannot read, which is a considerable handicap while now we know so little of the language. Notwithstanding this, is was not an uncommon occurrence for a man to stay with us an hour, sometimes two or three hours, just read- ing passages from the Word of God and other books ; in fact, some of the same people came day after day for no other purpose. This and many other signs seem to SIH-CHAU. 49 indicate that the Holy Spirit has already been at work there preparing the way for us. It was very encouraging to have a large number of boys coming in ; as a rule, the children are afraid of the foreigner, but here we seem quite to have won their confidence, and we hope, ^en we go back, to arrange for some classes, and offer prizes for learning Scripture. A sum equivalent to fourpence will draw a large number of competitors, and if the Word of God gets an en- trance into their hearts, who can say where it will end? Will you please especially remember this effort in your prayers for us ? Although there was, as I said, an amusing side to the questions we were asked, there were questions on one topic, anything but amusing — that was opium. I could tell you much about this dreadful subject, though I have only been in the land so short a time ; but now I must confine myself to one or two cases which I have myself come across, and you must bear in mind that about eighty per cent, of the people in the neighbourhood smoke opium, in a greater or less de- gree. All the horrors and misery that follow as the natural consequence of opium-smoking it would be quite im- possible to tell now, but if you can ima- gine all the horrors of " drink " doubled, or even trebled, you may be somewhere nearthe mark. Being constantly asked, "Doyougrowopium in England 'i " it is scarcely true to say "No," without the further explanation that it is grown in India; this is known by most people. These few facts were told me by an ARTICLES USED IN OPIUM SMOKING. Given to Mr. NicoU by ayoung man who had discontinued the habit, 1. Pipe. 3. Palette. 5. Palette Knife, etc 2. Lamp. 4. Scraper. opium-smoker — a moderate smoker, I should mention, for otherwise he would not have been there to tell the tale :— " When I began smoking opium, thirty years ago, I paid 5,000 cash per ounce. After the Treaty, it was introduced largely here, where previously its growth was forbidden ; in some parts it being a crime punishable with death. It gradually became cheaper, and now it can be procured for 200 cash per ounce." What has been the result .' Whereas formerly it had only been an indulgence within the reach of the wealthy (to whom it was less harmful, as they have plenty of food at the same time — compare the drink at home), it is now within the reach of all, and, at all events, sufficiently near to them to get it somehow, by hook or by crook, which often means parting with all the neces- saries of life. And so this plague rages, not only in the great towns and centres of industry, like drink in England, but ' everywhere, even here, in a secluded city in the hills, where no beer or rum barrels could ever be brought. The reason is that opium is now grown everywhere and by everybody. You may ask. What has all this to do with the Treaty, and what Treaty ? To put the facts simply : After the Chinese war we forced our Indian opium trade in China against the strongest opposition; how the opium was dreaded by the Chinese, you may know from some of those facts told me by the Chinaman above. Not being a wise people, the Chinese then, not unnaturally, took to growing opium themselves — a sui- cidal policy, it must be confessed, though we can scarcely be surprised at it ; but who is really to blame ? Are you not sur- prised that any Chinaman will listen to the Gospel from an Englishman ? I am sure I am ; and not only do they listen, but every- where treat us with the greatest kindness. It is most pitiable when these poor fellows come bound in their chains to ask for medicine to help them to give up their opium. One man's face I shall never forget. When he asked for medicine, and also asked if we were going to open an Opium Refuge, I was obliged Bowl. 6. Needle. 50 A MISSIONARY BAND. to confess that at present I could do nothing for him ; but I could and did recommend him to the Great Physician ; then, with some difficulty, he made out the text on the wall, Heb. vii. 25 ; after some moments he came back to it again, and asked, "What does that mean ? " pointing to the words " to the uttermost," which, in Chinese, literally means down to the bottom. " Does that mean me in my opium-smoking ? " How gladly I told him it meant all that, but his face seemed almost to say, " That's too good to be true." The poor fellow lived some little way off in the country. I got my teacher to write, in a clear hand, "Jesus is able to save to the uttermost," on a sheet of paper. With this and a simple Gospel tract he went away, followed by our earnest prayers. But it seems almost mockery to send a poor fellow like that away without further help ; surely we must have a care for their poor bodies as well as their souls. If at every missionary station we could open an Opium Refuge, a great work would be done. That this maybe done satisfactorily, a man with some medical know- ledge is most valuable ; for often when a man leaves his opium some pain or trouble turns up which may have been the cause of his starting it. Medicine, then, is some- times needed to save the life ; but in any case it would take away the almost irresistible temptation to return to the opium. I.f''ll ||tiii|iini'iHii\#'l^|l|lfel'lli^ A CHINESE CART. I cannot pretend to any powerful appeal, but I do ask God that these facts, simply stated, may move some of God's children to whom He has already spoken. I am afraid there are some very wrong ideas about the un- pleasantness of the Chinese and the hardships of mis- sionary life in China. I would speak very humbly, as of course my experience is not wide, by any means ; but would merely say that facts are widely different from my preconceived ideas. Doubtless this is largely due to God's special goodness, which has always been lavished in undue measure upon me. I have received nothing but kindness since I have been in the country. As to hard- ships, I scarcely know what the word means. Of course, in travelling we rough it a little ; by walking, however, you can generally avoid the jolt of a cart, in which your baggage must travel (or a mule, if that is the means of conveyance) ; by so doing you reap the further benefit of keeping in excellent health and reaching the various halting-places hungry enough to eat anything, and tired enough to sleep anywhere. If this were one's constant life it might be " enduring hardness," but it is only while travelling. A Chinese house, though by no means the same as an English house, can be made quite comfortable. For my own part, I feel in far greater danger of "dwelling at ease " than any danger of hardships. The fact is, that for Jesus I can't conceive how we are to know that we have given up anything and are suffering anything, for we are with jESUS, and He satisfies, and we all know that enough is as good as a feast. Once more let me remind you of Sih-chau ; it is but a little city, and we are therefore the more sure that GOD has great reasons for opening a station there. Many boys are already getting hold of some of the elementary truths, and, standing by our side, often explain our words to new-comers who can't at first understand without that valuable help. P'lNG-YANG. SI From Rev. W. VV. CASS ELS. Extracts from a Letter to his Sister. P^ing-yang Fu,June 2?>th, 1885. WE have reached a place where not many foreigners besides some eight or ten China Inland Mission missionaries have ever been. A few travellers have passed through, and there have, no doubt, been Roman Catholic missionaries here, though, of course, here as everywhere, people stop their work, or come to their doors to see us, and our Chinese costume does not in any way prevent our being recognised as foreigners, light hair and eyes and fair complexion being as great anomalies as top hats and black coats would be. The absence of other foreigners is not, however, likely to make us desolate, even if we were inclined to be desolate, for now that our friends Beauchamp and Hoste have arrived •with Mr. Bailer we are a party of six. Nor are we cast into uncomfortable quarters. There are two adjoining houses here belonging to the China Inland Mission, in which there is plenty of room for us and our servants, as well as for the native Christian and his family who live on the premises. Neither are we altogether out of reach of English things of various kinds. But we find more and more how easy it is to be in- dependent of foreign things. After our first dinner here, Stanley Smith said, "Well, I think this is the best meal we have had since we have been in China," and, as I have said so often, as for hardships I have quite begun to despair of ever having any. A little acquaintance with flies, mosquitoes, and other animals of worse description in the inns, etc., does one good, and is only what even travellers /ar pleasure always expect in inns. We spent the first part of our time in getting things in order and assisting or superintending at the cleaning out of all the rooms. Stanley Smith seemed Justin his ele- ment and was right in the thick of it all day. When he does take a thing in hand, he seems to forget everything else, and becomes perfectly engrossed in it. There are still workmen in the house, and we expect them to come round and roughly whitewash our rooms before they have done, but, on the whole, we are now getting settled down, and I hope before long we shall be able to get teachers and really set to work at Chinese. It is impossible to do much without a teacher ; one sometimes learns off a vocabulary of words and finds afterwards that the pronunciation one arrived at with the assist- ance of the " Romanised " form given in the book, was in most cases all wrong, and there is all the difficulty of unlearning what one had learned. One can, how- ever, up to a certain extent pursue the study of the Chinese characters alone, without fear of making the same mistake. The four of us — Beauchamp, Hoste, Stanley Smith, and I — occupy three sides of one little courtyard, each of us having a room to ourselves. On the fourth side of the yard is the room which is used as a chapel. In another court Mr. Bailer and Mr. Key put up, and our dining- room and kitchen are there ; and in still another lives the young evangelist, as they called him. The " khangs " (or brick-bed arrangements, under which a fire can be lighted in winter) have been removed from most of these apartments, as they take up a great deal of room, and our bedsteads are therefore of another description. Mine is an unused door, stretched across two short forms, and I assure you it makes a capital bedstead. If you know any one who wants to set up house cheaply, let them try this, and see if it is not an excellent substitute — easily taken to pieces too, and can be put to other purposes in the day. The two forms will do to sit on, and the door can be put up as a screen. This city is not so hot as I expected from what I heard. It is not altogether shut in on the north, for that is the direction from which the river, which flows close to the city, comes down. There are, however, mountains on the east, which pretty v/ell shut us in. Still, when we get outside these courtyards which are apt to be close, and outside or on the high city walls it is nice and cool, and there is a pleasant breeze and a beautiful view. The weather, too, has been most favourable all the time we have been here ; rain every two or three days has kept the air cool. I have written a good deal about things of this sort, but now I think you will be very much interested to know something about the work going on here. The second meeting this morning was conducted by a Mr. Hsi, a man of some position and means, who lives in a town a few miles from here. He is a Chinese doctor of medicine, and supports the Christians in the neighbourhood both by his means and by his own influence. He had a literary degree, which, however, was taken from him because he became a Christian. So that, like many of the Christians of this place, the sincerity of his faith has been tested by persecution. He spoke this morning on the early part of Luke xi., and Mr. Bailer was very pleased with his remarks, and said it was by far the best address he had ever heard a Chinaman give. He reproduced to us in Enghsh some of what Mr. Hsi had said, and one's heart was filled with joy and thankfulness to hear it. There are several remarkable features about the work, and above all, this, that it has been very largely left in the hands of the Chinese themselves ; very little English money has been employed upon it. The work lies largely in the towns and villages around, and not in the city itself ; and in these places the Christians meet in some rooms of their own, which they have themselves provided with hymn-books, etc., and there, led by one of them- selves, they worship God, and meditate upon His Word. Is not this encouraging ? Mr. Drake, with whom I had much conversation at T'ai-yiien, says he has no fear for the work now ; even if missionaries were altogether taken away from it, he believes it would go on quite well alone. I might tell [you other interesting things with regard to the work, but I must forbear. And now, dear B , good-bye. Let us consider one another to pro- voke unto love and unto good works. Whilst you con- tinue to pray for me, do not forget to thank God for all His goodness and mercies since I left England. With much love, Your affectionate brother, Wm. W. Cassels, 52 A MISSIONAR Y BAND. << -t:^ ^mmpxt Calls tn §ntams Snits/ T^HE following letters, recently received by a Christian student at the University of Edinburgh, will -^ tell their own triumphant story ; they ought to be as the beacon fires of the olden time calling the scattered hosts of the Lord's redeemed to rally to the fight. — " The Christian" from which the letters are reprinted. From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. PHng-yang Fii., Shan-si, North China, Nov. yd. MY DEAR Brother,— Here we are, Charley Studd and I, together at last after a long absence, he having arrived here on October 29th from Han-chung Fu. We have from time to time been greatly cheered in hear- ing of the Lord's dealings with you all. How greatly the Lord seems to have blessed Professor Drummond's words. I do so thank God for him. Well, I can testify that Jesus satisfies. " Oh, how He loves." Here is a good, simple problem — an equation : The Father's love to Christ = Christ's love to us. I be- lieve it to be a good receipt for a cold heart. It is, I find, a most precious side of truth to dwell on, the Church's preciousness to Christ ; and of course our individual preciousness as members of that beloved Bride. " Let Me see thy face, let Me hear thy voice," says the Christ in His Song of Songs ; and whereas the Church says, " Thy love is better than wine," the Lord says, " How much better is thy love than wine ! " Do those children of God who walk at a distance from Him realise that they are not only making themselves losers, but Him — for their presence and nearness are precious to Him. Alas ! that we should be so blind to the character of our glorious God and Father and Saviour ! See, for instance, how con- stantly " Thou God seest me " is quoted— utterly in a wrong sense. God only "saw" Hagar to bless her, not to pick faults (Gen. xvi. 13). Now let me exhort you, beloved brother, and let me in fancy (for i?t fact I could not have your answer for nearly six months) hear you in the same way exhorting me, one word — " Abide in Christ." That is the Christian's com- pendium. Such a blessed thought to me, only compara- tively lately brought home with power, is that the Father is the Husbandman. " Of God are ye in Christ Jesus." And He will see to it that we are kept abiding. Indeed, "apart from Him we can do nothing." May the Lord teach me this lesson far more deeply. Oh my soul ! dost thou really assent to these propositions — Apart from Christ thou art nothing, Apart from Christ thou knowest nothing, Apart from Christ thou canst do nothing, except oppose the will of God ? Although I believe the Lord would have us ktiow what we are apart from Christ, I believe He would seldom have us dwell on it. To be occupied with bad self is about as bad as to be occupied with good self. The Lord has led us through strange experiences, and we have had very fierce assaults of the devil. But, blessed be God, He has brought us through, and we are rejoicing in Him. Oh, to have " self" well nailed up on the tree; and when the world, flesh, and devil pass by wagging their heads and bidding it come down, that the Lord in His grace would keep it up there. And then, as our old man is crucified with Him, we abiding in Him can bring forth fruit unto God. I know most Christians assent with the head to the propositions before-named. And yet, practically, how many times we give our opinions, and do things without seeking His guidance. At least, when I say " we," I mean I fear I do. Well, my brother, the time is short. Oh, " tell it out," while you have breath, that the Lord is King ! I exhort you, do not forget to praise. What heaps of reasons there are for it. Let us cultivate a grateful spirit. " Let the people praise Thee, O God ; then shall the earth bring forth her increase, and all the ends of the world fear Him." What shall we render to the Lord for all His benefits ? Shall we sacrifice this or that ? Shall we con- secrate? Shall we give? The Lord does not say so, speaking by His Spirit through the Psalmist. He teaches him to say, " I will take the cup of salvation." The way to return thanks to our God for benefits is to " take " more. He delights to give, and His last action on the earth wis to lift up His hands and bless. Love to all the Christians. It will be good up above. Yours in Him, Stanley P. Smith. From Mr. C. T. STUDD. P'i?tg-ya}ig, Nov. i,th. MY DEAR Brother,— Isn't this simply glorious ? Stanley Smith and I, after six months' separation, are again united, praise God ! It was good of you to send that nice letter, telling of all the good things the Lord has done through you all. I did clap my hands, and shout with triumph. " The Lord reigneth," and no mistake. But that is to be only the thin end of the wedge that is to stir the young men of the world. The Lord can do it easily enough ; nothing is too hard for Him. I am sure we want the young men to be saved ; then how much more does Jesus long for it. Let us just yield to Him and trust in Him, and He will do it sharp enough. I believe the way is to believe. Impossibilities have no real place in the real Christian soldier's vocabulary. No, we only know that " all things are possible." Some of us have only the jawbone of an ass ; but oh, what a mighty weapon that is, when surrendered to the Lord Jesus ! It beats a whole battery of scientific artillery, whose management is kept in human hands. Come along, then ; let us go forward, some of us with asses' jawbones, some with empty pitchers with lights inside, others with better weapons, may be ; but we won't go with anything that is not wholly conse- crated. Just look how some armies of the world have gone forth to battle, how they have longed for the fight, how confident, though they could only hope for victory. We Christians have certain victory before us; yet how many hang back, how many want to be mere camp followers, taking the spoil, but not fighting the Lord's battles. Let us not be camp followers; let us be well girded, and ever ready to wield the sword of the Spirit. It is only a very short cam- paign, too, before the final victory and everlasting reward; then we shall see our great loving; General in all His beauty and splendour, and how we will shout and sing His praises. But had we not better be getting some practice for it down here ? I am more sure than ever since coming to China that the reason why so many get dead and cold tp-ARNINGS AND HINTS FOR INTENDING MISSIONARIES. 53 is that they refuse to obey Paul's command, " Rejoice in the Lord always." I am sure the devil is always trying to keep one from rejoicing in Jesus, and especially out here in China. I now more than ever realise that the joy of the Lord is our strength. Out here one fintj^ the temptations are far stronger and more subtle than at home. You see, this is the devil's stronghold (but, praise God, it won't be for long). Temptations are of a different kind, too, as a rule. You will be glad to hear that Stanley Smith can speak 'Chinese pretty well now; he took the meeting last Sunday, and the Lord spoke through him for half an hour, praise God ! I am sure the Lord is going to do great things for us soon, and He will make the heathen acknowledge it, too. One often feels out here how the devil tries to get one depressed or cold, but the Lord is too strong for him, and so are we if we are abiding in Him, but not otherwise. Remember our temptations, and pray for us, as we do for you all. Your letter reached me when going up the Han. Stanley Smith, Hoste, Cassels, and Beauchamp later on went up to Che-foo, and on here via Tientsin, Peking, T'ai- yiien, whilst the Polhill-Turners and I went up the Yangtze- kiang to Hankow, 700 miles, in four days by steamer, and I went up the Han to Han-chung by river-boat. It was i,ioo miles in four months, and those the hottest of the year ; it was real baking weather, but the Lord kept us in good health. We had grand times together, the three of us, all day long reading the Word, and prayer. Then the last month Mr. Parker came, and took charge of the other boat, and joined heart and soul with us. I feel sure a happier seven never walked ; it was a grand time, and the Lord taught us many things. We waited on the Lord, believing He would teach us, as He taught the 120 at Pentecost, and fulfil in us Mark xvi. 17, 18. He has now, after some time, shown u's that at present He means us to study; they did not understand us at all at first at Han- chung — thought us idle fanatics, I fancy — but the Lord has now removed the misunderstanding, praise God. The Polhill-Turners are still in Han-chung. I came on here to meet Mr. Taylor. After a month's journey over mountain and plain, I arrived here five or six days ago. I can tell you I did praise the Lord for bringing me among these real live boys again : I found them all well, and flooding the town and country round with tracts, etc. We are as happy a party of the Lord's children as you could find anywhere, and we are just longing for the time when He will open all our mouths to tell of Jesus' dying love to these poor Chinese in their own tongue. There are two grand Chinamen working the country round about this place, who are doing real red-hot work. One brought in six or seven young converts the other day, and they obeyed Paul pretty well, for they sang nearly all day and night. This is a real live work. If China is to be turned upside down, the missionaries must be turned inside out first. Pray that the Lord will rouse us all to go forth in His might, conquering and to conquer. Pray that Paul- like men may be raised up, whether among those here or at home. If a man cannot say from his heart and con- science, " This one thing I do, and will do," let him not come out. We want the pick of the Christian army out here, where the devil's headquarters and main army are. We have all been surprised to find that things about Chinese life and hardships had been exaggerated a good deal. We rough it in travelling, but nothing more ; excellent food and a comfortable bed, and with the Lord Jesus as your Friend, what more does a Christian soldier require 1 We could well do without the first two, but not without the Lord ; He satisfies, the others don't. Stanley Smith and Beauchamp are off for three days to-morrow to distribute tracts and sell gospels, etc. We are expect- ing Mr. Hudson Taylor shortly for a conference, and then we hope to know some more concerning future plans. Write again soon if you can spare time, and tell us what the Lord has done more. It will make us shout and sing more and more. Have you sent over to the Ameri- can Universities yet ? And have you roused all the English and Irish Universities as well as Scotch ? Let us be very, very ambitious for the honour and glory of the Lord Jesus. Your loving brother in the Lord Jesus, C. T. Studd. Marnmgs antr Jinls bx inim^m^ '^immum. From Messrs. STANLEY SMITH and C. T. STUDD. To a Cambridge Friend, PHng-yang Fu, Shan-si, Nov. yd, 1885. WE thought we (for Charley Studd is now at P'ing- yang) would send you some warnings and hints for Cambridge and other men who may be thinking of coming out to the foreign field. These are our humble but candid opinions, and are mainly the results of not a little trying experiences. 1. Let Christian men wait on the Lord to know His mind and will as to where He would have them go. It is true the Master says, " Go into all the world," but that is " all the world," and may not mean England or France to some, or Asia or Africa to others. We are not inde- pendent officers, but deeply dependent soldiers. There are some of whom God says : " I sent them not, yet they ran and prophesied." God will guide those who wait on Him. 2. Let them beware of thinking, " Now that I have made up my mind to this ' great sacrifice ' in going out to the heathen, I shall grow in grace very easily, temptations will be almost gone, and worldliness will have no power over me." As a matter of fact, temptations are far stronger and far more subtle. This is our ufiited ex- perience. 3. Let them beware of thinking, when they get out, that " learning the language," or later on, even " preach- ing," is the great thing. The great thing is to maintain a close personal walk with God. 4. Let them beware of thinking that the body is nothing at all and not to be cared for ; while on the other hand, if a man is very particular about his food, the foreign field is not the place for him. 5. Let them not come out unless \!aty 2S& grounded \t\ the conviction that the whole Bible is the revealed Word of God. They will have to face deep mysteries ; if the Bible does not explain them, let them be content to wait for the right time " when we shall know as we are known." At the same time, if they do not believe that men who are not saved are lost, why do they think of becoming mis- sionaries ? 6. Unless in the foreign field they are prepared to find their joy and satisfaction in the Living God, and not in circumstances (neither being discouraged by failure, nor 54 A MISSIONARY BAND. puffed up by success), they will not have with them the weapon which is "their strength," namely, "the joy of the Lord." 7. Let them beware of riding one side of truth to death; take the whole Word. Beware of the Devil, who is strong here ; and beware of fanaticism — by " fanaticism " we mean " unbalanced truths." S. Let them beware of being carried away by the dis- tractions of e%erything new. 9. Lastly, let them seek to be led of God, and not of man. Blessed be God, all these dangers are avoided by being in communion with God — abiding in Christ. And now let us state a few facts as regards possibilities of service here. I. The language. It is not so hard as represented often. After three or four months' ordinary study a man can do most useful work in putting the main facts of the Gospel before the people. 2. As regards travelling and living. Travelling in carts is novel, but you soon get used to it. Donkey, mule, horse, sedan, wheelbarrow, and boat are all used. As regards food, take away beef and butter, and you have as good plain living as you could get in England. 3. Houses are comfortable. 4. Dress. Native dress a matter of taste ; we prefer it to English. In the coast stations they don't wear it. 5. The people, at any rate here in North China, are extremely well-disposed, constantly asking you to drink tea; in two or three provinces, however, it is not so. 6. Lastly, as regards opportunities, they are simply innumerable. Doors open on all hands. In the street you can always get an attentive congregation. Around here, in Shan-si, is a blessed work going on. We want labourers, who know God, and believe in His Holy Spirit. Yours affectionately in Jesus, Stanley P. Smith, C. T. Studd. From Rev. W. IV. CASS ELS. F'ing-yang Fu, China, x^th Nov., 1885. ENCLOSED you will see a copy of one of the sheet- tracts we are now circulating throughout this neighbourhood. It is headed, " Forgiveness of Sin Plan," and just states the main facts of the Gospel in simple terms. It is such a pleasure and privilege to be able to take a packet of these out every afternoon, and distribute them in the streets, or hand them into the shops, stopping now and then to say a few broken words in explanation of them to a little group of listeners. This little work for our blessed Master gets more and more engrossing, so that I never spend a day without being out for the greater part of an hour doing this. The people receive the tracts courteously on the whole, and assent to a good deal of what one says. Oh, that it may be im- pressed upon their hearts ! You must not, however, run away with the idea that I am able to do a lot of speaking. Not so. I can only just repeat a few sentences again and again, with little variation. But it is a great pleasure that one is under- stood, and to know that a good number of people are getting hold of the most important truths of the Gospel. We are, however, praying earnestly for more than this. and I do trust we shall be able to tell of real change of heart and life in some cases before long. Our expectation is from Him. We have also posted a good number of these tracts on the walls and gateways of the city, and notice that they attract attention and are being read. We have circu- lated some Jive thousand already in this neighbourhood. They are printed in the city, and are not very expensive ; but we believe they are worth all we have to give for them, and much more. I think I have already told you that the opium-curing work in connection with this station has re-opened, and there are now generally some six or eight, or more, men in at a time. This has brought me in patients to treat with my medicines, for the men generally suffer in health during the time that they are under treatment for break- ing off the opium-smoking, and need other medicine, besides the pills regularly given to keep up their strength, and when once it gets about that one has medicine, all kinds of people turn up with various aches and ills, hoping to be cured. But my medicine-book often fails to give me the needed direction. From Mr. STANLEY SMITH. F'ing-yang Fu, November 2%th. OH, how glad my soul is to testify that Jesus fully satis- fies, and that if I were asked, " If now you had your choice, where would you like to be in the world ? " I should answer, " In P'ing-yang Fu." We are in this life, it seems, literally beset and besieged with grace ; for the God of all grace is with us and around us, and spies out all our ways — yes, " Thou God seest me," that oft misquoted yet most helpful text. He " sees," not to find fault, but (as in Hagar's case) to comfort and bless. May I give you a text ? " We rest on Thee, and in Thy Name we go." I think the connection between rest in Him and active service for Him is so precious. We are finding out that His rest is glorious. Mr. Bailer has written four such excellent tracts, and we have been circulating them broadly. We use the paste-pot a good deal, and on a small scale these tracts pasted on walls and available places in P'ing-yang remind one of " Colman's Mustard " in England. It is my firm belief that one tract, judiciously pasted, is worth ten given away. Mr. Beauchamp and I had a nice little outing about a fortnight ago. We walked to Hong-tong, about twenty miles off, and next day " attacked " the town ; took a tract to every shop, sold 400 cash worth of books, and had opportunities of speaking to many little groups ; next day, walked to a town ten miles further on and did the same there. I am gathering some lads on a Sunday afternoon to sing to and tell them of jESUS. I trust this will reach the homes of some. From Mr. HOSTE. Kuh'WU Hien, Nov. 2%th. WHAT has struck some of us very much is the wonderful openness of the country in these regions to the Gospel. I can scarcely realise it that here are all these masses just as open to the Gospel as our people at home ; when one remembers the state of things a generation back, one does indeed praise God for the walls He has broken down. May He help us not to be slack in seizing the opportunity whilst everything is so quiet and easy. " The joy of loyal service to the King Shone through them all, and lit up other lives With the new fire of faith, that ever strives. Like a swift-kijidling beacon, far to fling The tidings of His victory, and claim New subjects for His realm, new honour for His Name'' F. R. Havergal. INDIA. CHINA. 56 A MISSIONARY BAXD. C. T. Studd, BA Stanley P. Smith, B.A.. (From a Phofogra/ h by S/uart, of Glasgow.) ECHOES FROM EDINBURGH. 57 gtc^oc^ FROM EDINBURGH. % Mnrk 0! #raa aiMitg ^twknts. 5y /e«/. PROFESSOR A. H. CHARTERIS, D.D., Chaplain to the Queen. DURING the past winter session the University of Edinburgh has had a new experience. If any of our readers had been on the platform in the Oddfellows' Hall on one of the Sundays in March, he would have seen about a thousand young men — all students, listening to a Gospel address ; and have found that some hundreds of them were ready to rise and testify before their class-fellows and all men that they had be- come Christians during the previous three or four months. He would have found that many others had received such a deepening of faith and strengthening of hope as made all things new to them. If he had waited till the close of the meeting he would have seen scores of students re- maining in the benches to have a talk with those who knew more of the Christian life than themselves. He would have found, moreover, that it had been an Academic movement ; that none but students had been admitted to the meetings, and that University men had been the speakers. He would have heard also from occasional in- timations, or from the reports of delegates, that students and professors had visited the other Universities of Scot- land to give a simple statement of the work of grace which God has been pleased to work in Edinburgh ; and that not only had the speakers been welcomed by their fellow-students, but that in those other cities also many were coming forward to declare themselves followers of Jesus Christ. He would probably have been struck by the frequent phrase, " I then resolved to come out for Christ," or by the exhortation, " My fellow-students, let us be out-and-out for Jesus." And all this not only with an utter absence of excitement in word or deed, but with an orderly simple solemnity which was as strange as it was impressive. It was easy from the platform to see by the quickly-changing colour, or the dim eye and quivering lip, how great was the struggle in some young heart ; and sometimes when a student sat still on his bench after others had filed out, the marks of the struggle were still seen on his face, though usually he seemed to be un- conscious of all but his wish and prayer that help would come. Most notable, however, was the fact, that over the meeting, as a whole, there was a sense of happi- ness ; most of the men were glad to be there, they were in the right place, and they knew it ; their presence testi- fied that their aim in life would henceforth be to " seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," and that they knew this to be the divine order of things. No one who has been in sympathy with this movement from the first, and has seen it grow, can doubt that the hand of God is working among us. By no human agency could the results have been brought about. Only eigh- teen months ago it was said by members of the Medical Students' Christian Association that one could scarcely venture to declare himself a Christian because of the over- whelming number of his class-fellows who were mate- rialists, and who, therefore, could find no room for a Saviour In their theory of the universe. Whereas now the Christian students are united, avowed, eager, hopeful, pressing their comrades to share with them the new joy of " shepherded peace." I am inclined to think that the new state of things may be said to have begun with the last day of our Tercen- tenary. In Life a?td Work for June, 1884, Dr. Cameron Lees told how, on that day, men of renown rose one after another to urge on the assembled students to forbid the separation of science from religion, and to hold fast their faith in the living GoD. But the visible beginning came in the addresses of two young missionaries, themselves fresh from College. In the beginning of December, as some senior students were praying for some means of doing good among their comrades, a proposal came to have a meeting of students to hear the late captain of the Cambridge Cricket Eleven, and the stroke oar of the Cambridge Boat, who were about to go as missionaries to China. Many had heard of Stanley Smith ; to every one who knew anything of cricket the name of Studd was familiar. And so the word went round our class-rooms, " Let us go and give a welcome to the athlete mis- sionaries." The men gathered, about a thousand, and the two missionaries spoke, well supported by Mr. Landale, who is home from China, and others. Smith would have made his mark as an orator anywhere ; he has unusual powers of thought, imagination, and utter- ance, and a colder man than he would have been roused by the audience to whom he was invited to tell how the " love of Christ constrained him " to give up all home prospects and go to far-off China to preach the Gospel. Studd has not the gifts of an orator, but he never went more straight at the mark in the cricket-field than he did in his manly narrative of the way God had led him for years, from stage to stage of the Christian life, until he was ready to forsake father and mother and home and friends because of his love for his Redeemer. The stu- dents were spell-bound. Those two speakers were so manly — types indeed of handsome, healthy manhood — were so happy, spoke in such unconventional style, that when they had done, hundreds of students, who had little thought of such a thing when they came into the hall, crowded round them to grasp their hand, followed them to the train by which they were going right off to London, and were on the platform, saying, " God speed you," when the train steamed away. The end of it was that Studd and Smith were persuaded to come back ; once, twice, and thrice they spoke again. The first night after their return — a Sunday evening — brought nearly ss A MISSIONARY BAND. two thousand students round them, and the old spell was felt, and the ever-new blessing was experienced. Before they left Edinburgh for the last time many had told them, and all others who cared to know, that henceforth they would be followers of CHRIST. And the work has gone on e\er since. The meetings on Sunday evening, and the prayer meeting on Wednesday, have never ceased. I began this paper by saying how the hall looked on the last Sundays in March before the classes broke up. For many weeks the meetings have been addressed by Professor Henry Drummond, whose fame as a charming writer predisposed his first audience to hear him gladly, and whose power as a Christian expositor has made him greatly beloved by the increasing crowds that sit at his feet. There are many other things I should have liked to speak about. They crowd upon me as I feel that I must close. The medical students — whose admirable " Christ- ian Association " invited Studd and Smith — have had the greatest blessing. Some may say that they needed it most. I do not think that, but I believe they were most ready for it, and were waiting for it. Every Sunday morning every ward in our great hospital is visited by Christian medical students, who read and pray with the poor sufferers, and in every one those students hold a devotional service. And thereafter those visitors, with their own need freshly felt because they have been trying to help others, have a meeting of their own, to pray for a blessing on themselves and on their work, and on the University. It is no wonder that they have been allowed to lead the University all through the session ; and now the billets for special services in country towns during the recess announce that the meetings are to be addressed " By Medical Students and others." We even had the phenomenon in the Divinity Hall of a deputation of three of those medical students coming up to tell divinity stu- dents of the remarkable work of grace in the University. But it has not been confined to them. Students of every name have shared in the work and in the blessing. All this has gone on so quietly that many, both professors and students, scarcely heard of the meetings, and cer- tainly did not know how wonderful they were, until quite lately. Perhaps, as having gone with students to another uni- versity, I may be allowed to say of the speeches of that deputation, what I believe was true of all the rest as well, that every man simply recounted in his own way the reasons for his being a Christian, and invited his fellow- students to test and try how good GoD is to them that seek Him. A student of science told how much happier he had been since he became " out and out " a Christian, and how much more trouble religion had been to him when he was halting between two opinions ; a divinity student told how much brighter his life had been since he not only prayed in secret, but avowed his faith, and then he urged his hearers to " confess with the mouth the Lord Jesus, as well as to believe in the heart;" two medical students told how they had fallen from Christian life, though they had never quite forgotten the lessons of childhood and home, and how they were now able to speak of peace and power to serve Christ; one who was born among the heathen told how cold he had thought our Christian nation until this awakening brought him Christian friends ; and another, a student of philosophy, told how he had long known what now he felt to be the very truth of the Gospel. Those short addresses, of ten minutes each, had a marked result. They were not like what is usually called preaching the Gospel — they were like short chapters from the Acts, bits of real experience, histories of the actual work of the HoLY Spirit. That was their power ; and one wonders why we so seldom preach or hear sermons of the same kind. Will all this last ? say some. Why should it not ? Those men are studying the Bible as men who hope to find the guidance of their life in it ; they are praying to Christ as those who know that He hears them; they are trusting to a strength greater than their own. Why should all the good pass away ? Rather, how can it pass ? It is surely of GoD. We expect that it will spread and grow ; we pray GOD to make it leaven the whole University. — From " Life and Work." Win oftlDvh 0f 60tr m i\t Unibcrsitir of ^t(iHljiu"0Jj. An Address delivered at the Annual Meeting of the China Inland Mission, by Mr. fOHN C. THOMSON, M.A. {0/ Edinburgh Uiiiversily.) MR. BroomhAll has already referred to the connection between the great work we have had in Edinburgh University and the China Inland Mission, and therefore I shall at once proceed to give a short sketch of that work. The story with which I have to deal is that of a movement perhaps the most wonderful that ever had place in the history of university students, certainly the strangest that ever took place in the history of Scottish Universities. I have to tell you how our great Edinburgh University and the allied medical schools, with between three and four thousand students, have been shaken to their very depths; how the work has spread to all the other Universities of Scotland ; and how, already, as the students of these Universities have spread themselves far and wide, the work is spreading itself in all its depth and reahty throughout the whole country, I might almost say, throughout the whole world. To tell you the story in all its details would take long. I can only briefly sketch a few of the leading points in connection with it ; and I shall confine myself to what I have personally seen. RISE OF the movement. About the beginning of the late winter session there was a feeling among the Christian students that some- thing must be done for our unconverted fellow-students ; and accordingly, earnest prayer began to rise both in the Medical Students' Christian Association and in the University prayer-meeting — with both of which I have a very intimate connection — that GoD would send times of refreshing from His presence. We laid ourselves anew in His hands, consecrated our service to Him, and offered ourselves as willing to do anything, if He would only show us what He would have us do. Things were just in this position, when about the be- ginning of December a letter came from London to say ECHOES FROM EDINBURGH. 59 that several Cambridge students were about to leave for China in connection with the China Inland Mission, and that two of them, Mr. Studd, late captain of the Cam- bridge cricket eleven, and Mr. Stanley Smith, late stroke- oar of the Cambridge eight, were willing to hoj^ a meet- ing with the Edinburgh students, and explain to them the reasons why they had so devoted their lives. This seemed a most direct answer to our prayers, and we most heartily accepted the offer that was made. We arranged to have a meeting in what is called the Free Assembly Hall, in Edinburgh. It is a large hall, and we took it with some degree of fear. There were two fears ; — the first, that there would not be a meeting ; the second, that if there should be, there would be a " row " — a very common thing amongst Scottish students. The evening came. Both our fears proved groundless. The body of the hall was filled; and, instead of the comic songs that usually characterise a week-day meeting of the students in Edinburgh, a perfect stillness filled the hall. We felt from the first that God was there, and that God was working; and before our friends came to the plat- form we felt that there was going to be a great blessing. Mr. Studd told the story which, I suppose, many of those here have heard. He told how graciously God had dealt with him, and how he had been led on step by step, until he felt that he must devote his life to God's work in China; and his simple Anglo-Saxon carried our men with him. A very deep impression was made. The fact that a man with such prospects as he had should thus devote himself and his fortune, gave them an interest in him from the very first. Then Mr. Landale, who is on this platform, told of what he himself had seen in China. He testified to the literary character of the Chinese, and to the fact that in- tellects could be found there to be compared, and favour- ably compared, with perhaps any to be found in that hall. And then Mr. Stanley Smith stood up. He took a text. It was : " They feared the Lord, and served their own gods ; " and he showed in words of burning scorn how Christians now-a-days are doing just what those shameless Samaritans did. . They are fearing the Lord in name, but, in reality, they are serving their own gods. As he spoke, our hearts condemned us. The Christians got a blessing. A still small voice seemed to come to many of us — " Thou art the man " ; and when the Christ- ians get a blessing, it generally flows through them to those who are unsaved. At the end of the meeting, our friends had to leave by an early train for London ; but before it closed, an oppor- tunity was given to any who might feel interested in them, to come and shake hands, and wish them God-speed as they left, perhaps never to be seen again in Edinburgh. We expected that a dozen or two of the more prominent Christians would step forward to shake hands and wish them well. What was our surprise when two or three hundred men crowded round the platform, eager to grasp the hands of the men whom they had learnt in that short while to respect as much as formerly they had admired them for their athletic reputations. We felt that they had got a hold of the Scottish students such as no other man ever had, and we pressed them to come back if they possibly could and give us another word. They said that their time was nearly all taken up with engagements already made, but that they would come back, seeing that it seemed so desirable. ITS ASTONISHING DEVELOPMENT. The 1 8th of January was fixed on as the day for the next meeting. That was a Sabbath, and we found after- wards that they were able to arrange also for the Monday. This time our faith was stronger. We took the largest hall in the city, and waited expectantly. On the Satur- day before those meetings, the members of the University prayer-meeting held a devotional service for the one purpose of praying for blessing to rest on them. There was a large meeting, and the spirit of prayer and of power was amongst us in a most wonderful manner. For over an hour, one after another of our number rose without one single pause, and we felt that GoD was going to give a blessing, such as we had never seen before. The next evening, the body of the large hall was filled. Very nearly two thousand of the students of our University must have been present to hear the simple testimony of these devoted men of GOD. Mr. Studd again recited his simple story. Mr. Stanley Smith again spoke in words of burning eloquence ; and Mr. Radcliffe made a fervent appeal for men to consecrate themselves to the service of God, and lay themselves in His hands that, if He should so require them, they might go abroad and preach the Gospel to the heathen. We had a wonderful time afterwards. I should think that three-fourths of that meeting waited to an after meeting, and the great hall was covered with men anxious about their souls. Christians were stimulated all round, and many I believe that night came to an out-and-out decision for GOD . The following evening, we met again in the Free Assembly Hall, and again we had times of great bless- ing. To the men whom GoD had so signally used we said, " Can you not possibly come back ? " They said, " Well, we are going to the West. We are to pass this way again on Friday, and we shall be glad if you arrange it to meet your students again then." Again we met in the same hall, and I think that I never saw a meeting like that. We got a special lease of the hall. We ought to have left it about half-past ten, but got permission to remain till midnight ; and up to that hour the floor was covered with men anxiously inquiring, " What must I do to be saved ? '' ITS COURSE AND PROGRESS. Well, to cut the story short, we felt that this work must go on among our students ; and every Sabbath evening since then. Professor Henry Drummond has addressed students' meetings in the Oddfellows' Hall in Edinburgh. Sabbath evening after Sabbath evening, up to the close of the session, that hall was filled with men anxiously in- quiring after more light on spiritual things. Professor Drummond is a scientific man, and couched what he had to say in scientific language ; he just carried the students along with him. The students of Edinburgh, as a whole, are perfectly in love with Professor Drummond. There, night after night, souls have been born again. There, night after night. Christians seem to have received greater stimulus and strengthening, and the amount of blessing- it is impossible to estimate, or in any measure to realise. We were told that this was a matter of excitement ; that that great meeting with the Cambridge athletes was all well enough, but that the movement would gradually die away. The very opposite was the fact. The meetings became more and more crowded, until, towards the end of the session, the hall, which is seated to hold about seven hundred and fifty, was estimated to contain about a thousand men, and some evenings even more. On the 2 1st of February a new Principal was installed in the University, Sir WilUam Muir, K.C.S.I. On the following evening he sat on the evangelistic platform to show his sympathy with the work which had been going on in our midst. A week afterwards he again appeared among us ; and this time he spoke. His words were : " Religion, gentlemen, must be everything, or it is nothing;' and as the venerable saint urged these men to 6o A MISSIONAR Y BAND. be out-and-out for God, that great meeting was moved to its very depths. Such was the worlj last winter. At the end of the winter session, not less than fifteen hundred men must have left our University, not to return during the summer months, and yet, in spite of that fact, the hall was crowded again last Sabbath evening. The Right Honourable the Lord High Commissioner to the General Assembly, at present in session in Edinburgh, Lord Aberdeen, occupied the chair, and delivered a short address. Professor Drummond afterwards addressed the students, and there seemed an impression as deep as ever. A most wonderful work seems to be going forward in our University. We seem just at the beginning of it. It appears to be developing every day, and we scarcely know now what to expect. We are past the point of being surprised at anything. ITS GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS AND RESULTS. As to the general character of the work, one or two words. The first thing has been this — the quiet, deeply impressive character of all the meetings. There has been no excitement. I do not deprecate emotion : there ought to be emotion in this matter, surely, if there may be emotion about our ordinary affairs. But emotion has been com- paratively out of sight. There has been always a deep feeling that GOD was there, and that GOD was working. The present work has been carried forward by the very best men in our University. Some of our best-known pro- fessors, and some of our assistant-professors, who have already made names for themselves which will live even though they were now cut off" in their mere youth, have been the men who have been standing prominently forward. And among the students it has not been any one set, but our very best intellects, our medalhsts, our scholars, our bursars, our prize-men — these have been among the most prominent men in carrying forward this work. And then, as to the results of the work, as I said before, we cannot estimate them. I believe that the number of conversions, even in our own University, is to be counted by hundreds and not by scores. And, as one result of the work, scores of men have given themselves up to mission work, and have entered on medical courses preparatory for it. Some while ago, I had occasion to be in the Medical Mission House. Dr. Lowe, the head of the mission, took up a pile of papers, and said to me : " These are all letters from men applying for admission to study in connection with our medical mission. I hold here thirty-five applications." That represents only a very small pro- portion of those who, as the result of this work, have devoted themselves to medical mission work. About the middle of February we felt that this work must not stop within our own university walls. We offered deputations to the other universities, and our offers were cordially accepted. The result was, that we sent three deputations to Aberdeen, three to Glasgow, and two to St. Andrews. In all these universities work as real as in Edinburgh seemed to spring up. At the end of the session we felt that we must go further still, and that now we might spend our holiday in carrying the work to the young men of our countr)'. More than a hundred men offered themselves for this service, and these have been scattered throughout the whole of Scotland, and to several parts of England, in deputations ; and from all quarters, with very few exceptions, there have come reports of most wonderful work. I have to ask you just to praise GOD with me and with Edinburgh University for sending among us those two missionaries-elect of the China Inland Mission, Studd and Stanley Smith. f isils 0f €trxnlj«rg]^ ^litbmls to nl^n" itnikrsxlks. An Address by Mr. JOHN C. THOMSON, M.A. {Of Edinburgh University.') A FTER a brief reference to the address he had given /v at the afternoon meeting on the work of GoD in Edinburgh, Mr. Thomson said : We offered deputations to tell the story of the work to the other Scotch Uni- versities. Our offer was heartily accepted by all, and the result was that we sent three deputations to Aberdeen, three to Gla=:^ow, and two to St. Andrews. VISITS TO THE UNIVERSITIES ; — ABERDEEN. Aberdeen took up the matter most enthusiastically at first, and on the 28th of February our first deputation, consisting of Professor Greenfield, M.D., and seven stu- dents, left Edinburgh ; I myself had the privilege of being a member of that deputation. We spent a great part of our time on the way to Aberdeen, a long while on Satur- day evening, and a good deal of the Sabbath afternoon in waiting on GoD for blessing. We felt very weak. Aber- deen is built, for the most part, of granite, and the hearts of the people, we were told, are as hard as the granite of their own city; but we did not find it so. That God who has promised that they who wait upon Him shall renew their strength gave us wonderful strength. The majority of the deputation consisted of men who went to appear before a public audience for the first time in their lives, and went simply and only to testify to the fact that Shey had received blessing during the past few weeks. One of them, in fact, went to testify that only on the previous Sabbath evening he had been in the bond of iniquity, but that that night he was rejoicing in his newly-found SAVIOUR. We found a meeting of four hundred men waiting for us in the Upper Hall of Marischal College, Aberdeen. One of our number told our story. Another made a short appeal. The second who spoke, by the way, is a Hindu, lately a Brahmin. Then two of the recently con- verted men gave their testimonies. Another made an appeal for immediate decision. Professor Greenfield spoke a few words very earnestly and very much to the point, and then we had our after-meeting. Seventy men waited to the after-meeting ; the two other members of the deputation gave simple testimony, and then we proceeded to our conversation-meeting. Before that, however, an Aberdeen medical professor stood up, and asked to be allowed to say a word. He said : " I, at least, have got a blessing from the visit of the deputation from Edinburgh," and he urged those men to band themselves together, and carry forward the work which was evidently begun among them; and he promised that he, at least, would be at their disposal, whenever they liked to call upon him. The Sabbath evening afterwards he was in the chair. When our second deputation went to Aberdeen, I had the privilege of again being present, and again we had wonderful blessing. The after-meeting was about double the size of the first, and great good was done. Christians ECHOES FROM EDINBURGH. 6i were roused, and many students came to decision for Christ there and then. I should like to tell you some of these cases. They are most interesting ; but time does not allow me. I will just mention one or two. A senior medical stud^it came to decision at our first meeting, and he has since then grad- uated as a medical man in his university. He came to me on the second night in the after-meeting, and shook me by the hand. " I do thank you," he said, " for speaking to me last Sabbath evening. Last week has been a week of such joy as I never knew before. Last Sabbath evening I never slept a wink for very joy." Another senior medical student I addressed in our first after-meeting. I saw him smiling in the meeting, and I was sure that he was a Christian man. I walked up to him, and I said : " You are a Christian, are you not ? " He said: "Yes, I am." "How long have you been so?" He replied : " I just decided to-night while the meeting was going on." I have heard from that man since that he is actively living for GOD. GLASGOW. Professor Grainger Stewart, M.D., one of our other medical professors, led a deputation consisting of thirteen men, among whom were some of our finest intellects, to Glasgow. They found a meeting of seven or eight hundred Glasgow students awaiting them. I had not the privilege of being in Glasgow myself, but I was told that the work there rivalled in depth and reality even the work that was going on in Edinburgh. ST. ANDREWS. The Rev. Professor Charteris, D.D., led some half-a- dozen men to St. Andrews, which is a much smaller univer- sity than the others, and consequently the meetings were much smaller, but the work seemed as real and true as in any of the others. I was a member of the second deputation to St. Andrews, and I saw there what I never saw before. At the end of the first meeting the Christians all retired from the hall — I never understood how they managed to do it. But a great many unconverted men waited to ask : " What must I do to be saved ? " and there they sat, one here, and another there, and another there, patiently waiting until those of us who were conversing with them had time to come to them ; and there they one by one accepted the great salvation which we had to offer. I have heard from several of these men since, and they are actively living for the glory of that SAVIOUR whom they found that night. THE "holiday mission." I should like to say a few words about the deputations which we have been sending out since the session closed. As the end of the session approached we felt that we must, if possible, carry this work still further, and altogether outside university walls. We resolved to try to reach the young men of our country. Over one hundred men at once volunteered for the work, and these men were scattered in deputations of some half-a-dozen over the whole of Scot- land and to one or two towns in England. Just before the meeting, I jotted down the names of some of the towns we visited — Bathgate, Stirling, Perth, Falkirk, Boness, Queens- ferry,Dunfermline,Musselburgh,Wick,Greenock,Jedburgh, Dunbar, Cupar-Fife, Alloa, Kirkcaldy, Broxburn, Duns, Arbroath, Crieff, Brighton, Bradford. We sent our deputa- tions away to the extreme north, to the Pentland Firth ; to the extreme south, to the Channel coast; and to the ex- treme west ; and from all quarters there came tidings of the most marvellous blessing. By the way, we addressed only young men's meetings, or, at least, almost entirely so ; and wherever we went those who were converted game ri^ht out for GOP. interesting cases. In one town my co-secretary happened to be present. He is a lawyer, and he saw, away at the back of the hall, a young lawyer who was formerly in the same classes in the University with himself. Immediately after the meet- ing he made straight for that man, who, after some con- versation, came clearly out for Christ. " I am going to- morrow to the court-house," he said, "to confess Christ"; and he did. In another place there was present a divinity student. Although he had been studying divinity, and preparing for some six or seven years to be a minister of the Gospel, he had never known the Gospel himself. But one night in our meeting he found Christ, and the next night he stood up in our large meeting in Stirling to say, that, although he had preached again and again in that town, he never before had known the Gospel, but now he did, and was rejoicing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That man has since then been working actively on our deputations and has been greatly used of GOD. THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE FREE CHURCH. Had I been speaking two days ago, I should have been prepared to sit down now ; but just one word further. Yesterday I had the privilege of being present with a deputation to the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, at present sitting in Edinburgh. Professor Grainger Stewart introduced the deputation, and another student and myself addressed the assembly, and told our story. After that, the meeting was thrown open, and a great many ministers, and several laymen (members of Assembly), stood up, and testified to blessing having come to their district during the past month. Nearly to a man they had to testify that the blessing had come through our deputations. One minister came from Wick, another from Greenock, another from Crieff, two men from Aber- deen, and so on. I would like just to mention the case of the layman from Aberdeen who stood up. It was Major Ross. With tears in his eyes, he said that he had reason to bless the coming of Studd and Stanley Smith to Aber- deen. "I have been praying for years," he said, "that God would incline the hearts of my boys to become ministers of the Gospel ; and He has given me more than I asked. Two of them have, since their visit, decided to become missionaries. One of them," he said — and many of you know his name — " one of them is already making his way into the interior of Africa, under the African Lakes Company, and the other," he continued, "has just entered on a medical course in Aberdeen, preparatory to going abroad as a medical missionary." The stoiy I had to tell, up to this point, was regarding what we saw from the centre ; but it seems to me that the testimony of these witnesses from without has greater force than anything that I could say. They testified that GOD had worked with our men wherever they had gone, and worked wondrously ; and the secret of their power was this : — Our mission was a 7nission not of advocates, but of wit- nesses. Our men stood up simply and only to testify, " I am a saved man. I am a living witness to the truth of that Gospel which you have heard preached all your lives " ; and before these simple testimonies men could not stand. God worked wondrously through them. There is a lesson here. Many of us feel that we can do nothing for Christ. We can pray — yes ; but we can do nothing further : we are so weak. Can you not say : "I am a saved man ; I am a saved woman ; Christ saved me ; He can save you " ? Surely we can. That is the lesson which I have drawn from our deputation work ; and that is the lesson which I should like to leave with you. 62 A MISSIONARY BAND. FROM CAMBRIDGE. ^'bc Spirit i}f 60tr Enfctteittr. By the Rev. C. E. SEARLE, D.D. (Master of Pemhroke College.) THE view I take, then, of Samson's life is, that it was a witness to God's Spirit from the beginning to the end. We should lose much of the teaching of it if we believed that such a career is altogether out of date. I do not mean, of course, that the same feats of strength will be witnessed again, but I assert that heroic feats of physical courage will be done, greater feats, too, of moral courage, and some such it will be good to put before you for imitation. In every generation, I believe, they are to be found, and in our own not less than others. And for such an illustration in our own day, one naturally turns to our latest modern hero, Gordon, whose life is almost as strange and eventful as that of any of the heroes of Hebrew history, and, I believe, it was none the less in- spired. He himself traced his superhuman faith and energy to this source, to God working in Him, enabling him to attempt any venture in His service and cheerfully to die for Him. But this would be a somewhat stale and hackneyed example, and I am glad to be able to produce another from our own stores, from Cambridge itself. For what a startling spectacle was witnessed here in February, when two of our best-known athletes ventured with some others, two being officers of the army, to stand up on the platform of the Guildhall to make openly a confession of faith, and to say that God had called them to become missionaries of His Gospel, and that they were ready at their own cost to go to China, forsaking everything for Christ's sake. These are reported to be Mr. Studd's words : " I want to recommend to you my Master ; I have tried many ways of pleasure in my time, I have tasted most of the pleasures this world can give. I do not suppose there is one that I have not experienced, but I can tell you that these pleasures are as nothing com- pared to my present joy. I had formerly as much love for cricket as any man could have, but when the Lord Jesus came into my heart, I found that I had something infinitely better. My heart was no longer in the game, I wanted to win souls." What priceless testimony is this to the reahty of the Spirit ! What a victory is scored to faith ! for however eccentric his conduct may be thought, plainly he has demonstrated that there are unseen powers that sway a man's heart much more forcibly than any motives of the world. We who can recollect the strong man, how great he would rise up with his bat, with what force he would hurl his ball, how grand an ovation he would receive as captain of the victorious eleven, after some international contest, who knew how such a man is sought out, caressed, and idolised, can in some measure estimate his sacrifice, or rather the new force that has laid hold of him. For he was not leading a sinful life, but simply says that a stronger fascination than anything in the world has come over him, and he submits like a captive to it, with his eyes open, rationally and willingly,and in the new service finds a satisfaction far excelling the old. But to digress for a moment. My candour shall not yield to my admiration of these men, and I will express what I think not a few of us feel, that we should have been glad if to some other mission they had devoted themselves ; to Delhi, for instance, which has for two years been importunate in her demand for men ; or to Zanzibar, which, like Delhi, has a close connection with the University ; or if they had joined the venerable S.P.G., or the Church Missionary Society, those tried and approved organisations. Then, too, there must be misgivings, where the Apostolic Order is ignored, and Church principles are merely treated as " denominational preferences," and the Historic Church, the living Society which Christ left as His witness on earth, and keeper of His truths, with its creeds and liturgies and traditions, is set aside as if it did not exist. I candidly give utter- ance to my objections so that other ardent young men may ponder over them ; yet I am in no mood to carp and criti- cise and withhold a genuine good-speed to such nobly adventurous men. In its broad features, the picture of that surrender of our manliest youths to God is one of the most pleasing pictures I have seen in my life, and I believe it will tend greatly to strengthen religion here. These sunny youths — for such is said to be the meaning of Samson — with their good temper (such as strong men are credited with), with their training and power of endur- ing hardships, will be good exponents of the Gospel in its unselfish side, and will greatly recommend it in their persons, however deficient the ecclesiastical system may be that they bring with them. To follow out another parallel, our athletes almost equal Samson in the apparent inadequacy of their equip- ment and neglect of means. But no doubt they fortify themselves with the argument that God loves to use trivial means to effect great ends — a small pebble in David's hand to bring down a giant, an ox-goad in Sham- gar's hand to work a national deliverance, a stone, rough from the mountains to overthrow Nebuchadnezzar's Colossus ; and thus encouraged, without scientific weapons, such as our theological armouries supply, they have gone forth strong in faith alone. Nor do I deem any success impossible to them, nor should I be surprised at the paradox of St. Paul once again repeating itself — that God has chosen " the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, and the weak things of the world to confound the mighty; and things which are despised, and things which are not, to bring to nought things which are," that no flesh should glory in His presence. The progress of modern Christian missions for the last hun- dred years is in confirmation of this sentence, for it must be acknowledged that the most remarkable triumphs have fallen to the lot of men who have worked outside the Church of England, and done without her training. The Independents may claim to have given its first Christi- anity to Madagascar, the Wesleyans to Fiji, the Baptists the first to make converts in Northern India, and trans- late the Scriptures. Orthodoxy, putting in its sole claim as a channel of grace, is at first humiliated by these facts, but will afterwards rejoice to find the Spirit of God so unfettered and impartial, and thus taught, a larger tole- ration will extend a wider embrace towards all the non- conforming bodies and irregular missionary agencies, such, at least, as are plainly furthering the Gospel. For the judge, like the prophet, rose up outside the Estab- lished Church, and was not necessarily of the priestly tribe, and so we may expect God sometimes to work out- side of His ordinances. And if out of our body men should arise of an eccentric and unconventional type, ECHOES FROM LEICESTER AND INDIA. 63 the Church of England must not repeat her old mistakes, and through timidity or jealousy refuse their singular gifts— for we acted towards Wesley and Whitefield the same ungenerous part that the men of Judah acted to- wards Samson, when they bound their own deliverer and gave him up who would have helped them mightily. — ■ From the University Sermon preached at St. Mary's Church, Sunday, Oct. l%th, 1885. FROM LEICESTER. (From " Seven Rules for Daily Living" ) By Rev. F. B. MEYER, B.A. THESE brief and simple words are intended for many earnest Christians who are dissatisfied with their present life, and long to enter that more blessed state of rest and peace of which they catch occasional glimpses ; as white-plumaged sea-birds flash for a moment, far away over the breakers, and then are lost to sight. The visit of Messrs. Stanley Smith and Studd to Melbourne Hall will always mark an epoch in my own life. Before then my Christian life had been spasmodic and fitful ; now flaming up with enthusiasm, and then pacing weariedly over leagues of grey ashes and cold cinders. I saw that these young men had something which I had not, but which was within them a constant source of rest and strength and joy. And never shall I forget a scene at 7 a.m., in the grey November morning, as daylight was flickering into the bedroom, paling the guttered candles, which from a very early hour had been lighting up the page of Scripture, and revealing the figures of the devoted Bible-students, who wore the old cricketing or boating costume of earlier days, to render them less sensible of the raw, damp climate. The talk we held then was one of the formative influences of my life. Why could I not do what they had done ? Why should I not yield my whole nature to God, working out day by day that which He would will and work within ? Why should not I be a vessel, though only of earthenware, meet for the Master's use, because purged and sanctified ? There was nothing new in what they told me. They said that " A man must not only believe in Christ for final salvation, but must trust Him for victory over every sin, and for deliverance from every care." They said that " The Lord Jesus was willing to abide in the heart which was wholly yielded up to Him." They said that " If there were some things in our lives that made it difficult for us to surrender our whole nature to Christ, yet if we were wiUing to be made willing to surrender them, He would make us not only willing but glad." They said that " Directly we give or attempt to give ourselves to Him, He takes us." All this was simple enough. I could have said it myself But they urged me to take the definite step ; and I shall be for ever thankful that they did. And if in a distant country they should read this page, let them be encouraged to learn that one heart at least has been touched with a new fire, and that one voice is raised in prayer for their increase in the knowledge and love of Him who has become more real to the suppliant because of their brotherly words. FROM INDIA. V^t llcbiljal 0f Uissvonarg (<5ntljusla^m. By J. L. PHILLIPS, M.D. {Of Midnapore, India.) EMERSON'S profound remark that "every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm " has no finer illus- tration in modem times than that seen in the history of missionary enterprise. Our earliest missionaries to pagan lands — William Carey and his coadjutors in England, and Adoniram Judson and his associates in America — were genuine enthusiasts. # * * # * Carey's " Ask great things of God, and attempt great things for God," will never cease to be the ringing mis- sionary motto of the Church ; for it meant faith and pluck combined. The English mails have brought us no news for many months so cheering as the reports of the Exeter Hall meeting, and the Cambridge and Oxford meetings on behalf of the China Inland Mission. The valedictory services of those young English volunteers for one of the most perilous of foreign fields have stirred up missionary enthusiasm in Great Britain to a pitch hardly ever reached before. And we are beginning to feel it over here in this the greatest and brightest of England's foreign possessions. There is something so unique about that group of young fellows, who so bravely said good-bye the other day to home and friends, and started for their life-work in China. * # * * # The testimony of Dr. Ward, of Tlie Independent, in his communications from Turkey, has, no doubt, set intelligent men to thinking on the wonderful openings for Christian work in Mohammedan and heathen lands as they never thought before. His strong words must make our young men at home feel that far too many are quietly, almost unconsciously, settling down in our home churches, while the vast field to which Christ calls us is left largely destitute. * * • # * # Let our missionary enthusiasm get the better of our denominational preferences, and there will be no more crowding of half-a-dozen sects in little villages, while the wide world waits for the messengers of the Cross. But a few years before his death, Dr. Duff^ in one of his 64 A MISSIONARY BAND. magnetic addresses, spoke of the Christian Church as "play- ing at missions." Thank God, a better day has come ! The companies of earnest men and women eagerly and hope- fully moving into China and Central Africa, carrying the banner of the Cross, are teaching us how to " attempt great things for God." Great Britain — God bless her! — is nobly taking the lead. May America hold not back ! Ameri- can missions in all lands are crying for reinforcements. May the cry be responded to with spirit and alacrity. Bishop Taylor — Heaven help him ! — has taught our young men how cheerfully an old man can carry the war into Africa. Let a full thousand, a royal regiment of young men, from our Atlantic sea-board to the Golden Gate, volunteer as eagerly as the Cambridge athletes did for the front. — From the "New York Independent^' Sept. loth, 1885. FROM CEYLON. (From the Cevloii Observer, March 6th, 1885.J COLOMBO has recently been visited by seven " soldiers of the Cross," young men belonging to good old English families — Eton boys, Cambridge undergraduates, distinguished on the river and in the field above their fellows, who but a short time ago were seeking pleasure with the world at their feet, some of them in the army and all of them ready to do their duty in the ordinary service of their countrj'. But to them came suddenly a higher call than that of " Queen and country," and no one in Colombo who came in contact with these young men during the past week could help feeling deeply impressed and solemnised with the sense of entire devotion and singleness of purpose which is carrying them to the Far Eastern Campaign on which they are about to enter. Who will say that the days of chivalry, Christian chivalry, are over ? Missionaries we have had in the East who had given up much of home ties and comforts for the cause they had at heart ; but seldom has England given seven of her sons, who have apparently thrown aside so much in personal comfort and ties of kindred and friend- ship as those who have just passed on to work in the vast interior of China. They have gone in the very prime of their youth, eager to spend and be spent in the service ot their Master, their Captain and King. They present wonderful examples of unity in diversity and diversity in unity. Diverse in their mental as well as physical gifts, they are as one man in their simple, unwavering conviction of the supreme importance of the service in which they have enlisted. FROM CHINA . % IJtfo Campaign; m Cl^ma. AMONG the seventy and more missionaries who have recently come to China from England, in connection with the China Inland Mission, are five graduates of Cambridge University, and two young officers who have resigned their commission in the British army. After giving some account of them and the good done at their meetings in Shanghai, Dr. Blodget proceeds : — At Tientsin the same blessing followed their labours. Some who had long halted between two opinions were brought to take a decided stand for Christ. At Peking their circular letter, inviting all to attend evangelistic services, brought together many who seldom or never before had been found in such places. Among them were Roman Catholics, a Greek Catholic, and Pro- testants of various denominations. All listened most attentively while Mr. Stanley P. Smith set forth with great eloquence and power the simple truths of the Gospel. The services lasted for ten successive evenings, while meetings were also held each afternoon in difi^erent parts of the city. The simplicity and earnestness of these young missionaries won all hearts, and their preaching of the Gospel was with unusual power. Mr. Stanley P. Smith is only twenty-four years of age, but he has the burning zeal and eloquence of a Xavier. It may have occurred to some of your readers, at one time or another, to ask, why would it not be reasonable for a young man in this age to follow the Lord Jesus wholly ? Why need he bind himself by joining an order, and taking vows with others, or before others ? Why, in By the Rev. HENRY BLODGET, D.D. {0/ Peking.) worship, use crosses and lighted candles in the daytime ? Why worship the Virgin Mary, pervert the Lord's Supper, and in other things follow the errors of the Roman Church ? These brethren have for tbemselves answered these questions. They preach and teach the old Gospel in the spirit and power of such men as Finney and Kirk, Moody and Spurgeon. They have no new notions in regard to eschatology. They give themselves wholly to their work. The most remarkable thing in their preaching is their familiarity with and dependence upon the Bible. Their mouths are full of the most apt quotations from the Old Testament and the New, and they use these with great power. Their lives are marked by self-denial and prayer, with fasting. They visited no remarkable places in Peking, saw no sights, wondered at nothing, but made it their one object, while here, to seek for themselves and for Christians the power of God's Spirit according to His promise. There are now in Cambridge University, forty men or more who are looking toward missionary work in the foreign field ; a large number, also, in Oxford. From these old universities fresh streams are issuing forth to gladden the desert wastes. One can but think in this connection of Yale and Harvard. Is this kind of religion dying out in these universities ? Have the officers and students in these seats of learning nothing to learn from the parent universities in the mother land ? — From " The Independent," New York. e.^ ^;^' 66 A MISSIONAR Y BAND. g6e Woicc of ^cripfure o\\ ^^XiBBtonarp ^or^. J- Tlie Ground of Missionary Work — God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. — John iii. i6. Good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. — Luke ii. lo. Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature. — Mark xvi. 15. 77/1.' Need of Missionary WorJ: — The Lord looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. — Psalm xiv. 2, 3. Without Christ .... having no hope, and without God in the world. — Eph. ii. 12. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed ? and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without a preacher ? and how shall they preach except they be sent ? — Rom. x. 13, 14, 15. Come over and help us. — Acts xvi. 9. 77/d? Purpose of Missionary Work — To seek and to save that which was lost. — Luke xix. 10. To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified. — Acts xxvi. 18. 77/^ Sin of standing aloof from Missionary Work — We do not well ; this day is a day of good tidings, and we hold our peace. — 2 Kings vii. 9. Curse ye Meroz, said the angel of the Lord ; curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof ; because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty. — Judges v. 23. " I was afraid, and hid Thy talent in the earth." " Thou wicked and slothful servant." — Matt. xxv. 25, 26. Tlie Motive of Missionary Work — How much owest thou unto my Lord ?— Luke xvi. 5, The love of Christ constraineth us. — 3 Cor. v. 14. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich. — 2 Cor. viii. 9. What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? — Psalm cxvi. 12. Ways of Helping Missionary Work — I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? Then said I, Here am I ; send me. — Isaiah vi. 8. Ye also helping together by prayer for us. — 2 Cor. i. 11. Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.— Matt. ix. 38. Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him.— I Cor. xvi. 2, The Spirit in which Help should be given to Missionary Work — Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? — Acts ix. 6. Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men. — Col. iii. 23. Xot grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. — 2 Cor. ix. 7. The people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly. — i Chron. xxix. 9. She hath done what she could. — Mark xiv. 8. 77i't' Reward of a Share in Missionary Work — The liberal soul shall be made fat ; and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. — Prov. xi. 25. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me. — Job xxix. 13. Well done, good and faithful ser\ant ; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things ; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. — Matt. x,\v. 23. 77;^ End of Missionary""^ II 'ork — This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end come. — Matt. xxiv. 14. And the idols he shall utterly abolish. — Isaiah ii. 18. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.— Habak. ii. i4- The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever. — Rev, xi. 15. Published as a Leaflet by the Chunk Missionary Society. THE GREAT PRIMARY WORK OF THE CHURCH 67 foreign ^x^^xow^-. i;f?e §reaf ^xmxaxx} ^orR of f^e §^urc^. By EUGENE STOCK, Esq., Ediloiial Secretary of Ike Church Missionary Society. "DUT are Foreign Missions the Church's great primary work? ■ 1 ^1} "^ ^°°^'^ ^^ '■^'^ ground upon which we undertake them at all. Let us go back to that great central event m the history of the world and the Church, the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. His mighty work of atonement IS finished. Sin is put away ; Satan " brought to nought" (Heb. ii. 14, R.v.) ; Death conquered. What IS next to be done ? He appears to His disciples. What command does He give them ? St. Matthew'' s Gospel only tells us of one, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth ; go ye therefore and teach [make disciples of] all nations " (xxviii. iS-20). 67. Mark's Gospel only tells us of ONE, " Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature "—with the results that shall follow obedience (xvi. 15-1S). St. Luke's Gospel only tells us o/ontl, "That repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations" — with the direction that they were to tarry in Jerusalem until the "power from on high" to enable them to do it came upon them (xxiv. 47). St. John's Gospel has more : Ii records personal guards to Mary Magdalene, to Thomas, to Peter; and no doubt some 0/ those words have their application to us all : but still, to the disciples generally, only ONE command is actually given. " As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you" — which is illustrated in the next chapter by the miracle wrought when they responded to the order to "cast the net on the right side of the ship " (xx. 21). Thelirst chapter oj the Acts also records the Lord's last words before His Ascension : %vhal zucre they ? "Ye shall be witnesses unto Me . . . unto the uttermost part of the earth." Not that what we should call Home work was excluded. The apostles themselves were to "begin at Jerusalem." But only to begin (ver. 8). THE OBEDIENCE OF THE APOSTLES. In the Acts we find these commands obeyed ; though sometimes not obeyed fully without fresh revelations from the Ascended Lord, or providential indications of His will. It is " the persecution that arose about Stephen" that scatters the disciples from Jerusalem, and sends them " everywhere preaching the word." It is by a special vision that Saul of Tarsus is (if we may say so) dragged from the home-field he inclined to himself. See xxii. 19-21: "I said, Lord, they know that I imprisoned and beat in every synagogue them that believed on Thee " — that is, " Lord, how suitable a place Jerusalem is for me : they knew me before : they will believe me now " — and, as events afterwards proved, it was a brave re- quest; but — " He said unto me. Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the Gentiles." Then he does go to the Gentiles, at Tarsus, and at Antioch, those great heathen cities ; but even at Antioch he must not stay (xiii. 2), " Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them," — and the struggling infant Church, just getting sufficiently known to have a nick- name given to it (xi. 26), and with the pomp and wealth of the East and West arrayed against it, has to send forth, with fasting and prayer, not its third-rate men scarcely good enough for home work, but its two apostles, the very men who, it might most naturally be thought, could not possibly be spared. In the face of all this, what do we suppose is the Lord Jesus Christ's estimate of Foreign Missions ? THE SUBSEQUENT DISOBEDIENCE OF THE CHURCH. In the great Eternity which is beyond, among the many marvels that will burst upon the soul, this surely will be one of the greatest, that the Son of God came to redeem the world, that certain individuals were chosen out from mankind to be the firstfruits of the new creation, that to them was committed the inconceivable honour of proclaiming the glad tidings of salvation to their fellow- creatures still in darkness, and that they did not do it ! Centuries were allowed to move slowly by, while myriads of the lost race were passing into that mysterious and awful Eternity without the knowledge of Him who died for them. Those chosen ones in each age who did know Him were not without love and loyalty. They did glorify Him in their lives, and sometimes by their deaths. They de- fended His truth ; they cared for His poor ; they gathered for His worship. But — but — the one grand purpose of their existence as the living spiritual Church, that they should be witnesses unto Him " unto the uttermost part of the earth," that they should preach the Gospel to every creature " — this they failed to fulfil ; it scarcely occurred to them that they had to fulfil it. Here and there an individual among them would rise to a conception of his calling ; a Raymond Lull or a John Eliot would spend and be spent for the perishing heathen ; but the Church, the spiritual Church, was asleep. At last some few members of it awoke. They stirred up others. The evangelisation of the world was undertaken. Yet how feebly ! Even by those who did to some extent realise its importance, only as a Tapepybv, a by-work, not as ipyav, the work, of the Church. And all this while, the Lord, whose promised Advent they professed to look and long for, was tarrying because the work was not done that must be done before His return. In Eternity, we repeat, will any feature of the Past be more startling than this ? As the ipy" of the Church, as its first and foremost and central duty, — not as trapepyhv, which may have such fragments of time and attention as are left when other claims are satisfied, — that]is how the EvangeUsation of the World should be regarded. To infuse that conviction into every heart that is loyal to Christ is the work that lies before us. — Church Missionarv Intelligencer. 68 A MISSIOJVJRV BAND. 'gBc §xxxpexaiive gfatm^ of t^e ^dcai^exx ^oxCb oxx i^e gBitvc^ anb ^eopte of ^06. By Rev. J. H. IV/LSOA, M.A., Bardav Church, Edinburgh. I SUPPOSE one may say, ivithout hesitation, that Paul stands at the head of the whole Christian army — that he -was the man and the minister of greatest power, of all whom the Church of Christ has ever had in its ranks. The place to which he was called, and the work which he did, are the vindication of such a statement. He was the Prince of Ministers, taking the word in its largest sense — not of preachers merely, but of Christian workers of all kinds — servants of Christ and of His Church. Such a man .\'Ould, of course, be set apart to the work which the Master regarded as most important. Just as in a great warfare, our best and bravest and most experienced general would be despatched to occupy what was the key to the whole position, the hinge upon which the entire campaign turned, so that we should learn what that all-important point was, by the simple knowledge of where the great leader was to be found ; — so, wherever we find Paul, tliere, we may conclude, the Church's great battle is to be fought, the Church's great work is to be done. Now, to human eye, such a man seemed supremely desirable at Jerusalem — the cradle of the Church, the headquarters of Christianity. Reason would say, " Above everything, make sure that the Church is strong at the centre — at the heart. The best you can do for the extremities, is to do the best that can be done for the heart. Don't, on any account, let Paul go. He is worth all the rest put together. And he will do his best work the?-e. A 7ty thing will do (or the outposts. Anyone will do for a missionary, especially to do evangelistic work among the ruder tribes, and among the ignorant and sunken masses of these heathen cities. At Jerusalem, you need culture, all the accomplishments you can get — a man who knows Jews, and can meet them on their own ground, who has acquaintance with rabbinical literature and will command the respect of the learned. And, having all these things in view, it is just as if Paul had been made for the post, all the more with his clearly- marked conversion, the personal influence which he will carry into the new sphere, and his love for his people, which amounts almost to a passion." Evidently Paul thought so himself. What he says is a most touching plea in favour of his remaining. And yet the authoritative and summary answer which he gets is — " Depart ; for I will send thee away TO the Gentiles ! " There is no reason given. There is no room left for expostulation. But the very form in which the charge is given is enough to show that the Church's greatest and most pressing work, which must take precedence of all else, is the making known of Christ AMONG THE HEATHEN. And so, from that point, all through his three successive mis- sionary journeys, till he finished his work, and ended his days at Rome, his life was unceasingly devoted to this end. That was the great work of the Church then, and it is the Church's great work no less to-day. Evei-y reason might have been urged for keeping Paul in Jerusalem then, that could have been pleaded for retaining him in Christendom now. The Church in Jerusalem and in Judea was far more necessitous then, than the Church in this land is now. It needed training, and organising, and building up. The home-churches, in our case, are far stronger and more independent, and have far larger resources, of every kind, than the home-church had then. It may, indeed, be said that Christianity was then in its infancy, and the circumstances were exceptional, inas- much as the first proclamation of Christianity behoved to be made to the world, otherwise the Gospel would never have been known at all, and it would have been all one as if Christ had never come. But that is just what may be said of the world as it now is. By far the greater part of it — as many as eight hundred millions out of the twelve hundred millions of the world's population — is wholly uninfluenced by the Gospel. Say what you will about the needs of home and the claims of home, the fact is undeniable that there are comparatively few at home who have not the opportunity, in some way, of knowing as much about Christ as may suffice for their salvation; while THREE - FOURTHS OF THE WHOLE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD are as ignorant of Christ and of the one way of life, as they were that day when the Lord declared His mind so commandingly to Paul ! And the inevitable inference is, that the cir- cumstances, in this respect, being the same, the greatness and urgency of the need the same, all the conditions the same, the Lord, to whom the souls of men, wherever they are found, are equally dear, because alike bought with His precious blood — the Lord, who left the sheep that were safe in the fold, and went out after that which was lost — is say- ing to His Church now, as He points to the great moral and spiritual wastes that are lying, and lying open, every- where, " Depart ; for I will send thee far hence unto the /leathen." Has the Church been at, all acting upon that conviction, either as a whole, or in its individual congregations and members ? What of the vast empire of China, which has now been open for more than a generation, with its four hundred millions of people ? What of India ? The Indian Mission of the Presbyterian Church in Scotland is now Jifty years old. This is its Jubilee Year. As com- pared with what it once was, wonderful progress has been made. And yet can the Church be said to be even half- awake ? What has been done for India's two hundred and forty millions ? What number in our congregations have been stirred up to take a deep, living, personal interest in the great enterprise? How much have we given, of thought — or heart — or trouble — ortime— ormeans — or prayer, to the work that lies nearest to the heart of Christ ? What earnest effort are we putting forth — what real sacrifice are we making, for the accomplishment of the great end for which our Divine Master gave Himself? How many of us sympathise with a young Christian lady, connected with one of our families, who, when a friend remarked to her that it was a far way to go to Japan, replied, " Yes, very far, if it was only to make moneys but not too far to tell the heathen about Jesus ! " How far are we in sympathy with the Church's Head, when He said, and with Paul, when he acted on the say- ing, " Depart ; for I will send thee far hence UNTO the heathen"? The moral CONDITiOK OF THE WORLD. 69 31 ^taQraut SHOWING THE POPULATION OF THE WORLD. Each Sfjiiara rcpnsenls One Million of Souls. Protestants, ii6,coo,ooo. Greek Church, 84,000,000. Roman Catholics, 190,000,000. Jews, 8,000,000. Mohammedans, 1 70,000,000. Heathen, 856,000,000. J" — — _ .„ ^Jgl !■■■ ■■■■ HII 18 b: H 8[ B8SI ■i SB! ■■■■■■I ■■■■■■I IB Protestants, 116,000,000. Greek Church, 84,000,000. Roman Catholics, 1 90,000,000. Jews, 8,000,000. Mohammedans, 1 70,000,000. Heathen, 856,000,000. HEATHEN MOHAMME |0plato 0! tlje «0litr, 1,424,000,000. rs !t not a solemn fact that, taking the world at large, of every three persons walking on the vast globe, two ^ have never heard of the Saviour, have never seen a Bible, know nothing of heaven and nothing of hell ?- Rev. Daniel Wilson, Vicar of Islington. 7° A MISSIONARY BAND. '^^e @on6tftou of f^e ^orf6, affcr @igl)fccn gcnfurie^s of ^amncj ^anowfe6gc. By the Right Hon. the EARL OF SHAFTESBURY, K.G. BUT, my good friends, do for one moment consider the present position of the world. Do consider, that at this moment the numbers of those who do not believe in the name of our LORD are ten, twenty, perhaps thirtyfold those to whom the knowledge of salvation has been ad- ministered. Recollect that though the state of things be so, the world has been for eighteen centuries in this con- dition, and during the latter part of these centuries it has been in the power of those who hold the truth, having means enough, having knowledge enough, and having opportunity enough, to evangelise the globe fifty times over. And yet they have done nothing of the kind ; and now, after eighteen centuries of saving^ knowledge, we find there is but a small fraction of God's creatures who have any knowledge of His Word, and a still smaller fraction who have any desire to make it known How can we sit still and not tremble under the weight of responsibility that devolves upon us if we delay for one moment, from the hour at which I am now addressing you, to come forward with tenfold vigour, tenfold resolu- tion, tenfold amount of prayer, praying that GoD would be pleased to put into our hearts these great designs, and enable us by His grace to bring them to good effect ? This responsibility is indeed terrible ; this responsibility is more than fearful. Our neglect of it, therefore, would seem to be unpardonable. Nevertheless, in God's mercy, there are indications of a better spirit ; and if we could from this day go forth, like John the Baptist, and announce that there was a dawn beyond ; that there was something coming that would bring life, and liberty, and shining light to the nations sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, then, indeed, we might have hope ; then, indeed, we might have confidence ; then, indeed, we might retire to our rest this night in the full and assured belief that a great, a long, and a glorious period of usefulness and joy was reserved in the service of Almighty GOD to this great, blessed, and ancient Protestant kingdom of Great Britain. — From Speech at tlie Liverpool Missionary Conference. g)ur ^o^xixon Before g)06. By Major-Gen. F. T. HAIG, R.E. I'^HESE . . . millions, where are they going.' What is to be their future ? what is to be their condition in the world beyond the grave ? Oh, tremendous question ! Did you ever try to answer it ? Did you ever dare to face it .'' My dear friends, we need in this matter to ask God to strengthen us by His spirit in the inner man, lest reason and everything else should reel and go down. And yet we must look at this question, we must get alone with it and our Bible, and we must answer it. I will tell you my answer to it. My feeling is, that where the Word of God is not absolutely and perfectly explicit, it is not for man to dogmatize : but this, at least, is clear to me — that the future of most of these millions is very, very dark. I see no ray of hope. I read St. Paul's Epistles, and I see him preaching to the Heathen that they must be saved. Saved from what ? He speaks of the last crying sin of the Jews, forbidding the Word to be spoken to the Gentiles that they might be saved. Saved from what ? Ah, my dear friends, look at it if you dare, if you can — but there it is. It is an awful thing to contemplate, but they perish. That is what God says. Now, however you and I may feel about this matter, in our poor, narrow, miserable, selfish hearts, the question of questions is. How does the great God feel about it ? As He looks down from His throne, how does He feel about these lost ones ? Does He look down at all upon this little mite of a planet of ours? Does it attract His notice at all in the vast universe ? Surely if He regards it at all, it will only be when empires are crashing, and those vast movements are taking place which alter the whole world's history. What does He say ? " From heaven did the Lord behold the earth ; to hear the groan- ing of the prisoners ; to loose those that are appointed to death." "Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God ? " 1 ask, How does God feel about it ? The answer is, God loves them all. There is not one of them forgotten before God. While you and I cannot look beyond what our news- papers put before us, and while we are taken up with what is going on in England, the eye of the great God is going to and fro amid all those countless miUions, not one of whom is forgotten, each soul of them an object of the tenderest solicitude and of the utmost interest to the great God that made it. And, as they pass on and go down into the darkness, the heart of the great God is wrung for them ; there is not one of them that God has not loved, there is not one of them for whom Christ did not die. There is not one of them but God would have saved — whom the infinite heart of the infinite God is not yearning over with unutterable compassion. There is not one of them that goes down into the darkness but the very tears of Christ are, as it were, falling upon his head. Shame upon us, when we look at the wonderful, incon- ceivable love of God towards those lost ones, and look then at our own hearts ! God has shown that there is nothing that He will not do, or give, or suffer, that men may be saved ; and yet, in spite of the pouring out of all that infinite wealth of love, men are going down to death because you and I will not tell them of the Gospel. That is our position before God in this matter. — From an Address at a recent Missionary Confere7tce at Man- chester. LETTER FROM THE NORTHFIELD CONVENTION. 71 ^c @i:>angcK^atton of f^c ^orf6. AT MR. MOODY'S CONVENTION, NORTHFIELD. From " The Christian" " ' I "O THIS mighty theme Dr. Pieison addressed himself X on Monday afternoon [August loth, 1885, the sixth day of the Convention], in an address marlced by an enthusiastic eloquence that showed the subject to be one ver)' near his heart. He warmly contended that the promise of super- natural power with the preaching of the Gospel, accompanied by supernatural signs, is as binding to-day as when it was made by the departing Saviour. A rapid but comprehensive sketch was given of the extraordinary progress made in the work of foreign missions during the last century, so that now the whole habitable globe, not excepting Corea, the last of the sealed nations, is open to evangelising effort. Some of the more striking examples of this rapid progress were given, as in the case of Madagascar, theTelegu Mission, some of the South Sea Islands, the opening of China, Africa, etc. These remarkable and undeni- able facts were used by the speaker to press home an earnest ap- peal for a final and united effort to carry the message of the Gospel to the parts oi the heathen world as yet unevangelised. This may be done during the remainder of the century. Dr. Pierson believes, if the whole Church of God wiU but brace its energies to the task. In order to its accomplishment, however, there would have to be a laying aside of all denominational jealousies, a sensible shortening of the time demanded for preparing missionary students, and a spirit of prayerful consecration in the Church as a whole. "As a pendant to his very stirring statement and appeal. Dr. Pierson moved a resolution, which was carried by acclamation, that a circular should be prepared in the name of the Convention, ad- dressed to fellow-believers in Jesus Christ the world over, setting forth some of the saHent facts of recent missionai y progi'ess,and the unparalleled increase of missionary opportunity, and asking not only for a baptism of the spirit of prayer, but that a World Con- ference should be convened in some convenient centre and at the earliest period possible, with the view of apportioning and occu- pying all the imevangelised districts of the globe. " To fellow.-believers of every name scattered through the world, greeting : Assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, with one accord in one place, we have continued for ten days in prayer and supplication, communing with OM another about the common salvation, the blessed hope, and the duty of witnessing to a lost world. " TT was near to our place of meeting that in 1747, at Northampton, Mass., Jonathan Edwards sent forth his trumpet peal caUing upon disciples everywhere to unite in prayer for an effusion of the Spirit upon the whole habitable globe. That summons to prayer marked a new epoch in the Church of God. Praying bands began to gather in this and other lands. Mighty revivals of religion followed ; immorality and infidelity were wonderfully checked ; and, after more than 1500 years of apathy and lethargy, the spirit of missions was reawakened. In 1792, the monthly concert was begun, and the first missionary society formed in England. In 1793, William Carey, the pioneer missionary, sailed for India. Since then over lOO missionary boards have been organised, and probably not less than 100,000 missionaries including women, have gone forth into the harvest field. The pillar has moved before these humble followers, and the two-leaved gates have opened before them until the whole world is accessible, The ports and portals of Pagan, Moslem, and even Papal lands are now unsealed, and the last of the hermit nations welcomes the missionary. Results of missionary labour in the Hawaiian and Fiji islands, in Madagascar, in Japan, probably have no parallel even in apostolic days, while even Pentecost is sur- passed by the ingathering of lO,000 converts in-one station in India within sixty days in the year 1868. The missionary bands had scarce compassed the walls and sounded the Gospel trumpet, when these walls fell, and we have but to march straight on and take possession of Satan's strongholds. " God has thus in answer to prayer opened the door of access to the nations. Out of the pillar there came once more a voice : ' Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward.' And yet the Church of Christ is slow to move in response to the providence of God. Nearly 800,000,000 of the human race are yet without the Gospel, vast districts are yet unoccupied. So few are the labourers that if equally dividing the responsibility each must care for at least 100,000 souls. And yet there is an abundance of men and women in the Church to give the Gospel to every living creature before this century closes. If but 10,000,000 out of 400,000,000 of nominal Christians would undertake such •12 A MISSIONAH'i: BAND. systematic labour as that each one of that number should in the course of the next fifteen years reach lOO other souls with the Gospel message, the whole present population of the globe would have heard the glad tidings by the year 1900! Our Lord's own words are, ' Go ye and disciple all nations.' ' This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.' Peter exhorts us both to look for and hasten the coming of the day of God. And what if our inactivity delays His coming ? Christ- is waiting to see of the travail of His soul, and we are impressed that two things are just now of great importance ; first, the immediate occupation and evangelisation of the destitute districts of the world's population, and, second, a new effusion of the Spirit in answer to united prayer. " If at some great centre, like London or New York, a great council of evangelistic believers could meet to consider the wonder-working of God's providence and grace in mission-fields, and how fields that are unoccupied may be insured from any further neglect, and to arrange and adjust the work so as to prevent needless waste and friction among workmen, it might greatly further the glorious object of the world's evangelisation, and we earnestly commend the suggestion to the prayerful consideration of the various bodies of Christian believers and the various missionary organisations. What a spectacle it would present both to angels and to men, could believers of every name, forgetting all things in which they differ, meet by chosen representatives to enter systematically and harmoniously upon the work of sending forth labourers into every part of the world-field ! " But, above all else, our immediate and imperative need is a new spirit of earnest and prevailing prayer. The first Pentecost covered ten days of united, continued supplication. Every subsequent advance may be divinely traced to believing prayer, and upon this must depend a new Pentecost. We therefore earnestly appeal to all disciples to join us in importunate and daily supplication for a new and mighty effusion of the Holy Spirit upon all ministers, missionaries, evangelists, pastors, teachers, and Christian workers, and upon the whole earth, that God would impart to all Christ's witnesses the tongues of fire, and melt hard hearts before the burning message. It is not by might nor by power, but by the Spirit of the Lord that all true success must be secured ; let us call upon God till He answereth by fire ! What we are to do for the salvation of the lost must be done quickly, for the generation is passing away, and we with it. Obedient to our marching orders, let us go to all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, v/hile from our very hearts we pray, ' Thy Kingdom come.' " Grace, mercy, and peace be with you all. "Done in Convention at Northfidd, Mass., August 14//;, 1885." '^de ^ge of 0ppoxtxxnxtv. By Rev. WM. ARTHUR, ALA. TO Christianity this is pre-eminently the age of oppor- ' opened at several points. The whole empire of the tunity. Never before did the world ofter to her any- Mogul is one field where opportunity and protection in- thinglike the same open field as at this moment. Even a vite the evangelist. Turkey itself has been added to the single century from the present time, how much more i spheres wherein he may labour. Around the wild shores limited was her access to the minds of men ! Within our , of Africa, and far into her western, eastern, and southern own favoured counti-y, a zealous preacher would then have ' interior, outposts of Christianity have been established, been driven away from many a sphere where now he would Wide realms beyond invite her onward. In the South be hailed. On the Continent of Europe, the whole of Seas, several regions, which a hundred years ago had not France has been opened to the preaching of the Word, been made known by the voyages of Cook, are now regu- though under some restraints. In Belgium, Sardinia, and larly occupied. Could the Churches of England and other fields, it may now be said that the Word of God is ' America send forth to-morrow a hundred thous and not bound. A centuiy ago, the Chinese Empire, the ■ preachers of the Gospel, each one of them might fin d a Mohammedan world, and Africa, containing between ' sphere, already opened by the strong hand of Provid ence, them such a preponderating majority of the human race, ' where a century ago none of them could have come wiih- were all closed against the Gospel of Christ. China is \ out danger.— /ww " T/ie Tongue of Fire," PRESENT POSSIBILITIES. 'g^e ^orf6 o:pen fo f^c g>ospcf. ^j REGINALD RADCLIFFE, Esq. SOME of us can go back nearly fifty years ; what was the prayer then, and what was the cry ? The heathen countries were then locked up. Africa was no more known in its centre than if it had been a piece of the moon. China was locked. The Eastern countries many of them were locked. Now they are all thrown open and we are altogether in a different position, and especially you yoting people, than when the chairman and I were young men. We were born into a world locked against the Gospel. The people who are now listening to me are living in a world thrown open to the Gospel. The word I would close with is from the Epistle to the Ephesians : " Awake, thou that sleepest," or, as it is, I suppose, literally, " Be up, thou that sleepest." Some of you remember from reading the account of the battle of Waterloo, that, after the English guards had been lying for hours. Lord Wellington's word came," Up, guards, and at them ! " And that is the word for every Christian man and woman now in England, and in America, and in Scotland. Oh, I wish that our young friend, when he goes back to Scotland, would tell them that Scotland is comfortably asleep with regard to the heathen. Here in the centre of England to-night— at least in the centre of London — I tell my fellow-Englishman that England is asleep with regard to the heathen. And if I were in the centre of America in New York, 1 would say there that the Protestant Church of America is asleep with regard to the heathen. We are not half awake. But now this blessed Word says : " Up ! thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." And then in the following verses what is said? We are to redeem the time. We are to appreciate the responsibilities of the day in which we live. The responsibilities of our fathers were not like our responsibilities. They were born, I repeat, into a world locked against the Gospel. Now we are living in a world thrown open to the Gospel, and we are now to redeem the time, and seize our opportunity. It is a solemn thing, and I feel when I speak on this subject as if Gou opens my eyes, and I see a vision that 1 never saw before. I see that we are asleep here, and I see the heathen perishing. Oh, this I believe — I would almost venture to say I know — that the LORD will raise up an army, and they will go amongst these dead Africans, and dead In- dians, and dead Chinamen ; and the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven will accompany the Word, and there will be multitudes of them born again by the mighty power of the Spirit. Oh, friends, one word of prayer as I sit down. Our Father, for Christ's sake, awaken Scotland ; awaken London ; awaken America ! Oh, awaken the Lutheran countries on the continent. Awake, awake, O Arm of the Lord ! Put on Thy strength, and let us see a mighty resurrection, to the glory of CHRIST jESUS. Amen. — From an Address at the Annual Meeting of the C/iina Inland Mission. ^Oj^^iBirtfte^ \\\ f^TJS <^^mxa\\ox\.. "It is my deep conviction, and I say it again and again, that if the Church of Christ avere what she ought to he, twenty years would not pass away till the story of the Cross will be uttered in the ears of every living 7nan."—Tllf, Dying Words of the Missionary Veteran, Simeon H. Calhoun. can boxxbi if? By Rev. RICHARD MONTAGUE. " OEPARATE me Barnabas and Saul for the work O whereunto I have called them." Men are to evan- gelise this world ; men set apart and animated by the Holy Ghost, it is true, but men none the less. The cause of Christ advances just so fast as Christians in word and life scatter abroad its saving truths. Hence the Holy Ghost sends forth men to convert the world. There is a mighty go in the Gospel. Go, preach, and heal ; go into the highways ; go into all the world. Go .' An English preacher asked some British soldiers, " If Queen Victoria were to issue a proclamation, and, placing it in the hands of her army and navy, were to say, ' Go into all the world, and proclaim it to every creature,' how long do you think it would take to do it ? " One of these men, accustomed to obeying orders without delay, and at peril of life, replied, " Well, I think we could manage it in about eighteen months." And who can doubt it ? Who also can question that the Holy Ghost's purpose to send the Gospel to all nations is immeasurably hindered by the partial or entire want of co-operation on the part of Christian people ? Who can doubt that a spirit of devo- tion, promptness, enthusiasm, consecration, like that of these servants of a Christian Queen, if displayed by all the professed servants of King Emmanuel, would incon- ceivably hasten the answer to that prayer we so often offer, " Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven " 1 But, alas ! ho\y far distant that day would seem to be ! Two cut of every three persons who walk this earth have never heard of the Gospel of Christ, or seen a copy of the Bible ; and of this more favoured third, two- thirds are in the almost pagan darkness of an apostate church. And yet many of Christ's disciples think they are called to do little or nothing for Christian missions ! — • Fro!n " The Holy Spirit and Alissiotts." 74 A MISSIONARY BAAD. ii l^e §^mx^ of g»o6 can bo if, if—" By Rev. E. C. ARE we wild in the supposition that there may be a pos- sible rapidity with which the Word of Life shall be carried through the world which shall be far beyond what we have yet achieved? May we not "attempt for God," may we not " expect from God," not only the " great things " of which we often make mention, but the " greater works " of the twelfth verse of the fourteenth chapter of John? .... In the "fervid and earnest appeal" sent forth to the Christian world by one hundred and twenty Protestant missionaries in China, representatives of twenty-one societies assembled in conference a few months ago, the question is asked, " Ought we not to make an effort to save China in this generation ? " And the answer is returned " The Church of God ca/i do it, if she be only faithful to her great commission." And then follows the stirring call, " When will young men press into the mission ALDEN, D.D. field as they struggle for positions of worldly honour and affluence ? When will parents consecrate their sons and daughters to missionary work as they search for rare openings of worldly influence and honour ? When will Christians give for missions as they give for luxury and amusements ? When will they learn to deny themselves for the work of God as they deny themselves for such earthly objects as are dear to their hearts ? Or rather, when will they count it no self-denial, but the highest joy and privilege, to give with the utmost liberality for the spread of the Gospel among the heathen ? " . . . May this spirit be communicated from heart to heart, from church to church, from continent to continent, until the whole Christian world shall be aroused, and every soldier of the Cross shall come to the help of the Lord against the mighty. — From '■^ Shall we have a Missionary Revival?" g)ur "^ig^f Jlffifu6e in regard io f^e Wcxsf, f^e "^re^enf, anb f^e future. By Rev. WM. IT is, on the one hand, as wrong and as dangerous to over- look the success which GoD has given to His Word in the last age, or the unparalleled openings which pro- mise to the Church future conquest, as it is, on the other, to repose on our present possessions as if the conquest was achieved. What has been done is enough to excite our liveliest gratitude ; but if we dwell on it alone we be- come enervated and careless. What remains to be done is enough to excite our deepest solicitude ; but if we look at it alone, we become dispirited and powerless. Even in England everything is stained; our commerce corrupt; our politics earthy ; our social manners chiefly found after the will of " the god of this world " ; our streets cry- ing shame upon us ; our hamlets, many of them dark, ignorant, and immoral ; our towns debauched and drunken. Amid this much good exists, in which we do rejoice ; yea, and will rejoice ; but, oh, the evil ! the evil is day by day breaking thousands of hearts, ruining thousands of characters, destroying thousands of souls. Looking abroad beyond the one little sphere of Britain and America, which we proud boasters of the two nations are prone to look upon as nearly the whole world — though we are not one-twentieth of the human race — how dreary and how lonely does the soul of the Christian feel as it floats in imagination over the rest of the earth. That Europe, so learned, so splendid, so brave, what misery is by its firesides ! what stains upon its conscience ! what superstition, stoicism, or despair around its deathbeds ! And yonder bright, old Asia, where the " tongue of fire " first spoke — how rare and how few are the scenes of moral beauty which there meet the eye ! Instead of the family, the seraglio ; instead of rehgion, superstition ; in- stead of peace, oppression ; instead of enterprise, war ; instead of morals, ceremonies ; instead of a God, idols ; instead of refinement and growth, corruption and col- lapse ; here, there, thinly sown, and scarcely within sight ARTHUR, M.A. the one of the other, a school, a book, a man of God— one star in a sky of darkness. And poor Africa ! what is to become of the present generation of her sons ? Thinly around her coasts are beginnings of good things ; but oh, the blood, and darkness, and woe ! the base supersti- tion, and the miserable cruelties under which the majority of her youth are now trained, amid which her old men are going down to the grave. All this existed a century ago, but was not then known as we know it now. The world is not yet ex- plored by the Church, much less occupied ; but the ex- ploration, at least, is carried so far that we know its plagues as our fathers knew them not ; and if our hearts were rightly affected, we should weep over them as they never wept ; for, although the spread of Christianity has greatly multiplied the number of Christians, the increase of population has been such, that more men are sinning and suffering now than were a hundred years ago. Should we be wrong in oar views ; should it be con- traiy to the design of our Lord to convert all our race by the preaching of His Word and the outpouring of His Spirit ; should it be His purpose to leave the earth, much as it is, until He concludes its mournful story in thunder- claps of judgment? Should that consummation be nigh, and the last trumpet be already beginning to fill with the breath of the Archangel, yet surely if we, under the illusion of our belief, are found panting, praying, labouring, if by any means we might save some, that blast might cause us a pang for the multitudes whom it found unwarned ; but no pang because we had been busy in warning, exhorting, entreating ; no pang because we had done so in faith that our Lord willed all men to come to the knowledge of the truth. Suppose, on the other hand, that there is even a possi- bility of our being right ; that the grace of God which has SAVE THYSELF AND THEM THAT HEAR THEE. 75 appeared to us is really "good tidings" for every creature; that the truth, so precious to our nation and to our own souls, is not decreed away from any part of the human family by the great Saviour above us ; that He does mean that literally every creature should hear it from the lips of His servants ; that literally the whole earth should be filled with the knowledge of the LORD ; that literally " the ages to come " should take the early conversions as the type of their expectations, and should embrace all men in their supplications and their labours. Should all this be true, and we spend our strength in observing the clouds, and the judgments, and the trumpets, telling those who are calling the nations that they may call, but they will accomplish little thereby, as far as in us lies, stealing the nerve from their arm and the fire from their voice. Should we in the midst of this die, and find " ages to come " yet advancing. Then, perhaps, we might feel as if the Scripture had been neglected by us, which says, " He that observeth the wind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap." Futurity, judgments, and providential designs lie within the unshared province of God ; and none need make it his chief concern to settle or ascertain them. A world of sinning and suffering men, each one of them my own brother, calls on me for work, work, work. I may trust the future, and the time of restoring Israel, to better hands than mine. In hope, or without hope, let us be up and doing. En- couragements are on every hand, and so are menaces. The enlightened, the true, the zealous, are many ; the wicked and the slothful are fearfully more. The number of the former has been growing by conversions, the number of the latter growing faster by the natural increase of population. The appliances for Christian propa- gation are vast, the faith of many in their efficacy feeble. The doctrines of Christianity are known and prized by multitudes who never knew them before ; but, on the other hand, there are few of the churches in the very heart of which those doctrines are not betrayed. One would rob us of the incarnation of God, another of the Spirit of God, another of an atonement, another of providence, another of prayer ; some of regenerating grace, some of ministerial unction, some of primitive fer- vour, some of a Lord's day ; some would launch us on a sea of thought without an inspired guide ; others on a moral universe without punishment for wrong ; thus nearly every truth that distinguishes the system of Christianity from earthly inventions is attacked by mining or by bat- tery. We are not sure but truth is sometimes spoken when little good ensues. We are sure that error is never issued into the world without doing harm, and there are strong men doing work over which, unless others, made stronger by the might of GOD, undo it, generations to come will have reason to weep. For all who cannot bear to see the Cross betrayed, the Holy Ghost grieved, the oracles of God degraded, the work of the Spirit in the human soul reduced to a process of motives and emotions, and every Divine tie that connects us, as a redeemed race, with a redeeming Father, skilfully cut asunder ;— for those who are not prepared to see the churches of England and America pass through blights such as have befallen the churches of Switzerland, Germany, and other Protestant regions of the Continent, this is a moment when the air seems full of trumpet-notes, when every step taken on doctrinal ground raises the echo of warning. And, alas ! many who dogmatically repel error evaporate in intel- lectualism ; others decay, under a silvered mildew of re- spectability ; and others, professing to seek the old Christianity, content themselves with garnishing the sepulchre in which the Middle Ages buried her, instead of seeking that her first preachers, in the persons of other men, but in the " spirit and power " of Peters and Pauls, should be raised up once more ! We will bless every labourer for any service done toward the maintenance and advance of the truth, for every good word spoken, every sound argument uttered from the pulpit, every page of evangelical truth written, and every rebuke administered in any way to those who would falsify our faith ; but, let them be assured that, more than all other services, turning many away from iniquity will counterwork and confound attempts to reduce Christianity from a Divine to a human system. This is the practical answer to difficulties and objections. Let us only have multitudes of new-born Christians, fervent in faith and hope, full of love and of good works, and rationalists may account for the phenomenon as they will ; but the common conscience of mankind will feel that God is in it. " Beholding the man that was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it." The one reason for being zealous for Christian doctrine which so far surpasses all others that beside it they become as nothing, is that given by St. Paul to Timothy : " Take heed unto thyself and unto the doctrine ; continue in them : for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." What a motive ! Saving, first ourselves, then those that hear us. The sublime can go no further ! Here we have set before our hearts, soliciting us onwards, motives which we acknowledge have already moved the very heart of the Godhead. To save ! as an instrument it is true, but oh, how infinitely glorious, even as an instrument, to save ! that, not only ourselves, but others ! While, on the one hand, guarding " the doctrine " is the only means of retaining saving power in the Church, on the other, no guard upon the doctrine will ever be effectual unless we can raise up a succession of saved men. Creeds, catechisms, confessions are not to be treated as is now the fashion in many quarters to treat them ; but when kept in their proper place, as human and fallible, and strong only when they accord with God's holy oracles, have a high utility. But the idea of relying upon these for conserving the truth in any church is as well founded as would be the idea of relying on a good military code for defending a nation. An army of cowards would interpret any code down to their own level, and churches of unconverted men will equally lower any confession of faith. For rescuing souls, for rebuking blasphemy, for building up God's holy Church, for glorifying the Saviour's name on earth, for our own joy and crown of rejoicing, for the bliss of covering a multi- tude of sins, for the eternal delight of having saved a soul from death, let us aim at one work — bringing sinners from darkness to light. Of all the records of praise which our merciful LORD will give His servants, who would not most covet that his record should be : " The law of truth was in his mouth, and iniquity was not found in his lips. He walked with Me in peace and equity, AND did turn many AWAY FROM INIQUITY." — The Tongue of Fire. 76 A MISSIONARY BAND. By Rev. WM. OH, that God would give to His Church a heart large enough to feel the sublimity of this call ! Think, Christians, on the state of the world. Dream not of the Gospel as already known everywhere. Feel, oh feel, when you pray, that one-half of your brethren never heard of the Redeemer ! Bone are they of your bone, flesh of your flesh, conflicting, sighing, bending to the grave, like you, but crown for their conflicts, comforter in their sighs, hope in their grave, they see none. Think of every land where Satan has his seat, and give to them all a part in your prayer. But oh, think long on the land where the throne, whose sway you love, has heathen subjects out- numbering sevenfold the Christians of the British Isles ! Think long, long on the fact, " I belong to an empire where seven to one name not the name that is life to ARTHUR, M.A. me ! " I think that yonder, under the rule of your own Queen, a full sixth of Adam's children dwell. Take a little leisure and say, " Of every six infants, one first sees the light there. To what instruction is it born 'i Of every six brides one offers her vows there ; to what affec- tion is she destined .? Of every six families one spreads its table there ; what loves unite their circle ? Of every six widows one is lamenting there ; what consolations will soothe her ? Of every six orphan girls one is wander- ing there ; what charities will protect her.? Of every six wounded consciences one is trembling there ; what balm, what physician does it know ? Of every six men that die, one is departing there ; what is there before his eyes ? — From " A Mission to the Mysore." 'g^e gfaiut^ of ^^a6^a. By Major-Gen. F. WE have in India more than 250 millions of people, 200 millions of whom are our fellow-subjects, for they are really and truly subjects of the Queen. The remaining fifty miUions are the subjects of the feudatory States, in each of which we have a Resident, without whose permission nothing whatever can be done ; and if any one of these feudatory princes misgoverns his State he can be deposed, as was actually the case during the Viceroyalty of Lord Northbrook. For all these millions, who are practically our fellow-subjects, we are doubly responsible before God. In the first place, they are all either Heathen or Mohammedans. About 200 millions of them are Hindus, and the remaining 50 millions are Mohammedans. There are only about one million of Christians, which is an insignificant fraction compared with the figures I have just mentioned. We have sub- dued the country in the most perfect manner, and we are responsible before God for the welfare of its people. What is the spiritual provision that we, as a Christian people, are now making for the people of India ? Let us just for one moment remember the provision that we make for our own spiritual needs at home. In England we have 20,000 clergymen of the Church of England, and at least as many more ministers of the different Non- conformist denominations. Then, for each one of these clergymen and ministers, you must allow several addi- tional classes of Christian workers, like city mission- aries, Sunday-school teachers, visitors, Bible-women, and T. HAIG, R.E. every conceivable form of paid and unpaid Christian labourers. Taking simply the clergymen and ministers who are specially ordained for this work, we have at least 40,000 in this little island, ministering to the religious wants of twenty-six millions of people. Now let us look to British India. What have we got there .? Six hundred and forty ministers. Please note these facts. The very first thing to do in every case in which we wish to get right impressions is to lay hold of the facts. The facts, with regard to the heathen world at large, are very few and very simple, but of enormous power. We send to India, where we have been these 200 years, 640 ministers. Is there not something monstrously wrong there ? " Well," you may say, " surely there are some native ministers ? " Yes, there are about as many more native ministers now as those we have sent, but then the greater part of them are pastors ; very few of them are actually doing missionary work, and you cannot, then, count them as part of your missionary force. All our ideas on this matter are wrong ; our ideas of numbers and magnitudes are all wrong. We must completely rid ourselves of our present notions regarding India, and on this subject our best position would be right down in the dust before God. If our experience in the past has had no other effect but to humble us before God, let us heartily thank Him even for that. — From an Address at a recent Missionary Con- ference at Manchester. ^Be gmporfancc of §;i6ta. By Bishop LIGHTFOOT. IF India should be brought to the foot of the Cross, then Mohammedanism, then all heathenism must follow soon. If India should fall, the gain would not be confined to so many thousands, so many millions of heathen led captive, but the spread of Christian truth throughout the world must follow. If Greece and Rome successively added so much to the influence and the organization of the Church, what must India do ? India, which has exercised an un- APPEAL FOR THE WOMEN OF INDIA. 77 rivalled influence on the religion of the world ; India, the seat of Brahminism ; India, the parent of Buddhism ; India, the stronghold of Mohammedanism. What an acquisition to the glories of the later Temple ! What an enrichment to the treasury of the House*of God ! But in proportion to the importance and magnificence of the work was also its difficulty. Let them never in their im- patience forget that. Once again, as in ApostoHc times, the Church and the Gospel were confronted with honoured and widespread religions, which had struck their roots deep in the civilization, the poetry, the art and literature, and the social life of the people. Once again there would be the same difficulties, the same responsibilities, the same hesitations, the same resuscitations of waning faith, the same halting between two opinions, witnessed during the early centuries, during the transition period from Paganism to Christianity." — From Senno?i at St. Mary's, Cambrids:e. By Rev. Canon WESTCOTT. THE prize is noble and the hope is great, but the time is short and cannot return. Never was there an occa- sion when more seemed to human eyes to be imperilled in the faith, the energy, the devotion of a generation. The conquest of India for Christ is the conquest of Asia for Christ ! And the conquest of Asia seems to offer the near vision of the consummation of the Kingdom of God ! . . . ■' So God calls us, calls us by the circumstances of national development, calls us by the political conditions of our empire, calls us by our position and character as Englishmen. We must be a missionary people ; so far we cannot change our destiny. We cannot abdicate our position or alter our heritage." — From Sermon at West- minster Abbey. ' I "HE following touching appeal to English sisters at home, to come forth and labour for the women of India, is from ■»■ the pen of our much-loved friend and fellow-labourer. Miss E. Lakshmi Goreh, an Indian missionary lady, who has given herself to Christ's work amongst the girls of the Alexandra School, Umritsur.- M. A., in " The Ptmjab and Sindh Missions." -The Rev. Robert Clark, Jlppeaf fo §ngn^^ ^omcn. Listen ! Hsten, English sisters. Hear an Indian sister's plea, Grievous wails, dark ills revealing, Depths of human woe unsealing, Borne across the deep blue sea ! " We are dying day by day, With no bright, no cheering ray. Nought to lighten up our glooiri — Cruel, cruel is our doom." Listen, listen. Christian sisters, Show ye have a Christlike heart ; Hear us sadly, sadly moaning, 'Neath our load of sorrow groaning. Writhing 'neath its bitter smart ; With no hope of rest above, Knowing not a Father's love ; Your true sympathy we crave, You can help us, you can save." Listen, listen, Christian sisters, Hark ! they call, and call again ; Can you pass them by, unheeding All their eager, earnest pleading ? Hear ye not their plaintive strain ? Let your tender hearts be moved. Let your love to Christ be proved ; Not by idle tears alone, But by noble actions shown. This is no romantic story, Not an idle, empty tale ; Not a vain, far-fetched ideal : No, your sister's woes are real. Let their pleading tones prevail. As ye prize a Father's love. As ye hope for rest above, As your sins are all forgiven. As ye have a home in Heaven. Rise and take the Gospel message. Bear its tidings far away. Far away to India's daughters : Tell them of the living waters. Flowing, flowing, day by day. That they too may drink and live. Freely have ye, freely give, Go, disperse the shades of night. With the glorious Gospel light. Many jewels, rare and precious, If ye sought them, ye should find Deep in heathen darkness hidden. Ye are by the Master bidden. If ye know that Master's mind. Bidden, did I say? Ah, no ! Without bidding ye will go Forth to seek the lone and lost ; Rise and go, whate'er it cost ! Would ye miss His welcome greeting. When He comes in glory down .'' Rather would ye hear Him saying, As before Him ye are laying Your bright trophies for His crown, " I accept your gathered spoil, I have seen your earnest toil ; Faithful ones, well done ! well done ! Ye shall shine forth as the sun ! " Taken from " Fro)n India's Coral Strand"— " Hymns of Christian Faith," by Ellen Lakshmi Goreh, a Brahmin Lady. London : Nome Words Publishing Office, Paternoster Buildings, E.G. 7« A MISSIONARY BAND. %^\xxa. ^^c "^1606 an6 ^icdxw^ of g^tna. j^y ^^7/. /. HUDSON TAYLOR, M.R.C.S., F.R.G.S. IX order to enable our readers to realise the vast extent of the outlying districts of the Chinese empire, we would suggest a comparison of them with those countries which are nearer home. We have already referred to France as being nearly four times as large as England ; Spain and Portugal together are considerably larger than France. But for the pur- pose of comparison, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Spain, and Por- tugal taken together do not suffice. The pen- insula of Norway and Sweden is about six times as large as England ; and Denmark, Iceland, and Holland exceed in extent Scotland and Ireland. Add these to the preced- ing, however, and the whole is still too small. Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy may be added ; Germany and Austria, and Turkey and Greece may also be added ; and the sum total of all these countries does not half equal the e.xtent of the outlying regions of the Chinese empire with which we are comparing them. Russia in Europe is about ten times as large as Spain and Portugal, and exceeds in extent the sum of all the other countries in Europe. Add this immense country to all the others we have enumerated, and we gain a more adequate standard of comparison. The whole continent of Europe has an area of 3,797,256 square miles ; Manchuria, western Dependencies, and Thibet, together, have an area of 3,951,130 square miles. These extensive regions contain many millions of our fellow-creatures, but except the four missionaries in Newchwang, they have no JilSSiONARY. They are perishing, and they are left to perish. Among them xo MISSIONARY resides to make known that wisdom, the merchandise of which "is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain there- of than fine gold." Throughout this immense territory, larger than the whole continent of Europe, with the J. Hudson Taylor, Founder of the China Inland Mission Mongolia, the North- exception noted above, there is not a single ambassador for Christ from all the Protestant churches in Europe and America to carry the word of reconciliation, and to pray men in Christ's stead, " Be ye reconciled to God." How long shall this state of things be allowed to continue .? Think of the over eighty millions beyond the reach of the Gospel in the seven provinces where mission- aries have longest labour- ed ; think of the over 100 millions in theother eleven provinces of China Pro- per, beyond the reach of the few missionaries labouring there ; think of the over twenty millions who inhabit the vast regions of Manchuria, Mongolia, Thibet, and the North- Western De- pendencies, which exceed in extent the whole of Europe — an aggregate of over 200 millions beyond the reach of all existing agencies — and say, how shall God's name be hallowed by them. His kingdom come among them, and His will be done by them? His name. His attributes they have never heard. His kingdom is not pro- claimed among them. His will is not made known to them. Do you believe that each unit of these millions has a pre- cious soul ? and that " there is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby they must be saved " than that of Jesus ? Do you believe that He alone is "the Door of the sheepfold"; is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life"?— that "«o man cometh unto the Father but by Him " ? If so, think of the state of these unsaved ones ; and solemnly examine yourself in the sight of GOD, to see whether you are doing yotcr utmost to make Him known to them. — From " China's Spiritual Need and Claims." H a w > < > H W > o 8o A MISSIONARY BAND. ^roporfton of ^^tissionartCB io f^c Wo:pufafion in f^e §ig^fecn Wv*^ot)incesi of g^ina Wro:per. IJ V a/923)- Kan-suh Si chuen Liverpool and Birmingham (953,282). Glasgow, Liverpool, and Dublin (1,336,987)- YUN-NAN Glasgow and Sheffield (795>923)- Manchester and Leeds (649,533). Ireland (no Missionary). HU-XAN HO-X^N Four times Scotland. London. * The estimate of population is that given in the last edition of " China's Spiritual Need and Claims." t The number of Missionaries is according to an account corrected to December, 1884. "©ug^f we woi io ma^e an Effort io ^at)e §^ina in f^iB gjenerafion ? " From AN APPEAL to the HOME CHURCHES from the SHANGHAI MISSIONARY CONFERENCE. After referring to the moral condition of China, the Appeal proceeds :— Under these circumstances millions pass into eternity every year ! What an agonizing thought 1 Souls of men, endowed with the most glorious faculties, perishing for lack of that knowledge which has been entrusted to us for diffusion ! Souls which might be emancipated from sin, transferred into the kingdom of God, and thus estab- lished in a career of ever-widening intelligence and ever- deepening joy, to "shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever." How long shall this fearful ruin of souls continue ? Ought we not to make an effort to save China in this gemration? Is God's power limited ? Is the efficacy of prayer limited ? This grand achievement is in the hands of the Church. If we faithfully bring our tithes into the storehouse, and preach the Gospel everywhere, then the windows of heaven shall be opened, and blessings showered down upon us, till there be not room enough to receive them. AFRICA. Young men, let us freely speak to you. You hold in your hands the incorruptible seed of the Word, fitted to awaken eternal life in dead souls, and transform worms of the dust into heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. Can you hesitate to respond to our call ? Can you prefer to spend your lives in comparatively narrow spheres, when you might exert an influence on vast multitudes ? The fields are white unto the harvest, and everything is in- viting you to noble service. It is a field where the most varied gifts and graces, the loftiest talents, the most ex- tensive and accurate erudition will find abundant room for their highest exercise. It is a service in which an archangel would rejoice. Can you turn a deaf ear to our solemn appeal, to the call of God, and the silent cry of the millions of China ? In the name of Christ arise. Let the dead bury their dead ; go ye, and preach the kingdom of God. We want China emancipated from the thraldom of sin in this getieration. It is possible. Our Lord has said, " According to your faith be it unto you." The Church of God can do it, if she be only faithful to her great com- mission. When will young men press into the mission field as they struggle for positions of worldly honour and affluence ? When will parents consecrate their sons and daughters to missionary work as they search for rare openings of worldly influence and honour ? When will Christians give for missions as they give for luxuries and amusements ? When will they learn to deny themselves for the work of God as they deny themselves for such earthly objects as are dear to their hearts .? Or, rather, when will they count it no self-denial, but the highest joy and privilege, to give with the utmost liberality for the spread of the Gospel among the heathen? Standing on the borders of this vast empire, we, there- fore — one hundred and twenty missionaries, from almost every Evangelical religious denomination in Europe and America, assembled in General Conference at Shanghai, and representing the whole body of Protestant missionaries in China — feeling our utter insufficiency for the great work so rapidly expanding, do most earnestly plead, with one voice, calling upon the whole Church of God for more labourers. And we will as earnestly and unitedly plead at the Throne of Grace that the Spirit of God may move the hearts of all to whom this appeal comes to cry, " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " And may this spirit be communicated from heart to heart, from church to church, from continent to continent, until the whole Christian world shall be aroused, and every soldier of the cross shall come to the help of the Lord against the mighty. — Records of the Shanghai Missionary Con/ei'ence. 'g^c ^cc6 anb %tax\\x^ of Jlfrica. By Mrs. G RATTAN GUINNESS. IN seeking to " look on the fields," we must not omit the largest of them all, " the lost continent " — poor, dark, degraded Africa ! In size, more than double the Chinese Empire ; in population, more than equal to it. Africa contains six great groups of nations distinguished by ethnic and linguistic features. 1. The Semitic — Arabs, Abyssinians, and other Amharic speaking peoples. 2. The Hamitic — Berbers, Egyptians, Libyans, Ethio- pians, and kindred nations. 3. The great group oi Foulah tribes, who dwell on the Senegal, the Niger, the Gambia, and Lake Chad. 4. The Negro races proper, extending from the Atlantic to the Nile in the Sahara and Soudan latitudes. 5. The largest division of all, the widely-extended Bantu group, occupying all Central Africa, from above the Equator down to the Cape Colony and from Atlantic to Pacific, covering thus one-third of the continent, and including the Congo tribes, the Zulus, Kaffirs, and count- less others— forming one-fourth of the population of 6. The Hottentot groM-g in the south-west— including the Bushmen and other extremely degraded and diminutive aboriginal races. The sub-divisions of language under these six principal groups are very numerous. No less than 700 distinct dialectic varieties — each one of which would have to be studied separately— exist and are spoken in the already explored parts of the dark continent, which do not cover a third of its surface. How many missionaries then would be needed to evangelise Africa ? To enable two only, colleagues, to undertake the study of each of these languages, would require 1,400 missionaries, and mis- sionaries to Africa must be men and women who are willing to rislz and if need be to lay down life itself for Christ's sake and the Gospel. How many missionaries are there actually at work in the newly opened and vast interior of Africa ? The Coast has long had missions, but their influence penetrated only a few miles from the ocean. It is but thirty years or so, since Livingstone's journeys opened up the Southern and Eastern portion of Central Africa, and only ten since Stanley's wonderful journey revealed the true character of the Northern and Western part. Seven principal Central African missions are striving in face of tremen- dous difficulties to take the Gospel to the newly dis- covered nations and peoples and kindreds and tribes of the interior. The Church Missionary Society has won already not converts only but native martyrs in Uganda — on the Victoria Nyanza (a lake as large as Scotland) ; the London Missionary Society has a mission steamer and a brave though small staff, on Lake Tanganika (as long as from Aberdeen to Dover) ; and the Free and Established Churches of Scotland are settled and making way on Lake Nyassa (420 miles long). These three lakes together have, however, a shore line of over three thousand miles, dotted with towns and villages, and to evangelize their inhabitants effectually would re- quire a hundred-fold the number of missionaries actually in the field. The French Protestant Mission has sent two or three devoted missionaries to the region of the Upper Zambesi A MISSIONARY BAND. and its tributaries, where also a brave, solitary young Scotch pioneer — ^Ir. F. Stanley Arnot— has for some years been labouring. The Congregationalists of America have established themselves in Bihe and Benguela, some 300 miles from the Atlantic Coast. The Livingstone Inland Mission has been for eight years established on the Congo, and has sent out during that time over fifty missionaries, extended a line of stations 700 miles into the interior, and launched on the Upper Congo the " Henry Reed " Mission-steamer. This mission (which is now conducted by the American Baptists) has, like the sister mission of the English B. M. S., been severely tried by sickness and death ; but has cause, notwithstanding, to rejoice over first fruits — native converts already promising to become native evangelists. But on this Congo river alone, there is room for a thousand missionaries, for it affords ready access to some five or six thousand miles of navigable rivers, whose banks on both sides are populated by men and women for whom Christ died and who have never heard His Then there is Morocco in the North — poor, bleeding, groaning Morocco — a fourth part larger than France, though having only six or seven millions of inhabitants. Moors, Spaniards, Jews, Berbers, and Negro races. Though but four days' sail from England, Morocco is one of the most neglected mission fields — no Gospel efifort having been made there till within the last few years, when the Bible Society has attempted some colportage, and the Berber and Kabyle Mission planted a station at Tangier. The Kabyles of Algiers and Tunis are almost equally neglected ; and Tripolis has yet to receive her first evangelist ! Everywhere North, South, East, and West, and vast interior, Africa is waiting at the end of this nineteenth century for the Gospel of Salvation, and where are men and women who will go and proclaim it ? Where are the means to send and to sustain them .' The Church has both in abundance ; will she lay them on the altar ? Shall a Roman Catholic king freely spend his treasure at the rate of ^50,000 a year, to secure philan- thropic objects, and shall Christians refuse to enter the door so marvellously opened by the providence of God in these last days? ^^o vom g)o? By REGINALD RADCLIFFE, Esq. SOME thirty years ago, as I was alone in a friend's house in a lovely part of Hertfordshire, there walked up to me, calmly and gently, a man dressed in dark blue, carrying his blue cap. This unobtrusive stranger was David Livingstone. Already he had been in the jaws of the lion ; but his heart was absorbed with love for Africa's dark sons. What was the secret of such loving, not in words, but in deeds ? Too much engrossed in my own puny work, at that time confined to Britain, little did I then think of the wonders that unassuming man was to per- form — of his weary wanderings, sometimes under a tropi- cal sun, sometimes wading through swamps, often agonised by the heartrending devastations of the slave-dealer. He mingled his tears with those of the captives, the widows, and children. He writes down his prayer for a blessing on every one — Christian or Turk — "who will help to heal this open sore of the world." And at last, after trailing himself along, he dies of dysentery. But what was the secret of his power ? Africa had been hidden. Our traditions of it, and the knowledge of it possessed by the world's wisest men, were altogether astray, both as to its geography and as to its people. Livingstone flooded the world with light as to both. Now hear his secret in his own words from a touching entry* in his journal, written upon the last birth- day but one of his eventful life. It reveals at once the motive and the earnestness of his whole career : — " My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee." Like Stephen, Livingstone also was a man full of the Holy Ghost. At Stephen's death there sprang forth multitudes who forthwith spread the Gospel, but that was under the stimulus of persecution. Now is it possible, in this day of the love of money, of luxury, and of ease, that the Church can, without persecution, but remembering the life and love Livingstone poured out for Africa, be aroused to rescue her and claim her for Livingstone's Master.? If not, how immensely does it add to our re- sponsibility that we have suffered his shattered remains to be brought from afar and buried in Westminster Abbey ! He craved no following to Westminster, but he did crave and implore Christians to follow him to Africa. Much has been done since, but oh, how little compared with the compassion of Livingstone's Master ! What a feeble response to His command, and what a feeble reply to His challenge, " If ye love Me, keep My command- ments." The slave trade still cruelly burns, starves, chains, and kills its victims ; still the civilised Europeans barter useless gin and brandy for valuable goods ; and even the great International African Treaty of Berlin, though some of the Powers opposed, authorises the introduction of this fire-water, that will destroy such noble fellows as those who faithfully and affectionately bore Livingstone's re- mains from the interior of their bleeding country. Yet, if the Word of Livingstone's great Master were introduced and lived, the slave trade would vanish like smoke. Who will go ? Many are wanted. Yet better far God's three hundred than Gideon's thirty-two thousand. Yea, should any go who cannot from his heart write his name under Livingstone's secret, " My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I now dedicate my whole self to Thee " ? See "Modem Heroes of the Mission Field." Hodder and Stoughton. BENEFIT TO THE CHURCH AT HOME. cncftfe fo f^c @^urc^ af ^ome from By the Very Rev. C. J. VA UGH AN, D.D., Dean of Llandaff, and Master of the Temple. gf3 ^aif^ is ^frcngf^cttc6. ''ART THOU HE THAT SHOULD COME?" WE have felt so often that we would give worlds for a proof, a new proof, a signal and final proof, that Christ is God, and that God is for us, and that we need not faint nor fear for our faith, though it be indeed, in these times, tried to the uttermost ; and lo ! the proof is here, tangible and comforting ! Just in proportion as the Church obeys the precept to "forget her own people," she is doing better for them — better far than if she thought of them only : she is casting their bread upon the waters, only to find it after many days, in new evidences and new convictions, which shall enrich and fertilise her own possession in the very act of lavishing it upon those whom the world calls aliens. And thus, when the voice of doubt and misgiving sounds in some cloudy and dark day from some imprisoned soul's Machsrus, " Art Thou He that should come, or must we look onward, onward, onward still, for Another, mightier in His doings and more authoritative in His evidences ? " there shall come back to us from Madras and Burmah, from China and Melanesia, the report of signs wrought by Christ in the sight and hearing of our messengers — the blind see, and the deaf hear, the lepers are cleansed and the lame walk, to the poor the Gospel is preached, and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in Him. ^fs 0de6Tcncc tb ^en)ar6e6. THE SEED SOWN MULTIPLIED. IT is thus that God ever rewards the graces which He inspires. Scatter liberally the seed of His giving, and He will " multiply your seed sown." It is so in the great matter which is in our hearts to-day. The reaction of the Church Missions upon the Church at home is a subject full of instruction. " Forget thine own people," and God will remember them. " Forget thy father's house," in the largeness, the munificence of thy service abroad, and God will so bless thy faith and obedience, that thou shalt see Jerusalem in prosperity, and peace upon Israel And how shall we speak of the influence upon the heart of Christian England, not of the foreign congregation alone, but of the brother Englishman who has left home and kindred and civilization behind him that he may carry that Gospel which is thus mighty in operation ? Oh ! believe me, those lives are not lost to England. They are vital, they are vivid, they are inspiring in their in- fluence. One quickens another, as the long procession of ages passes by. The biography of one is the summons of another. Carey, heard of in Simeon's rooms at Cambridge, stirs in Martyn the zeal to go and do likewise. Martyn himself — it is the fashion to call his missionary life a failure — it ended, I know, if that is failure, at the age of one-and-thirty ; but I also know it to have been powerful at home, most of all in his own Cambridge, years and tens of years after he was laid in sleep, in the mystery of silence and solitude, no friend knowing of his sepulchre, in the city wilderness of Tocat. No ; it was no failure ! It did the work of a hundred quiet parsonage lives (and let no man despise them, they too have their blessings) in the comfort and tranquillity "of England. Nothing in God's world of spirit, certainly, is wasted or squandered ; all bears fruit — " some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred." So has it been with all those great names which are the heirloom of Christendom. Schwarz and Marshman, and Reginald Heber, and Daniel Wilson, and George Cotton, and Coleridge Patteson, and Armstrong, and Mackenzie, and the martyr missionaries and bishops of Sierra Leone — being dead, they yet speak. And the Church, which nobly " forgot her own people " in giving them, one by one, to God and Christ in far off lands, has been remembered of Him in her turn, in the fruits of their holy lives and of their inspiring memories. §f:s ^i^umovt tJS "^eBuiicd. THE HIGHER UNITY. WHO that has lived where men worship idols can have any sight left for quarrels at home of posture and vestment — I had almost said of Liturgy or Church govern- ment .'' " Sirs, ye are brethren," burst from the astonished lips of the visitant from heathendom ; " ye worship one God, believe in one Saviour, invoke one blessed and eternal Spirit — how can ye strive one with another?" Have ye no sense of marvellous privileges, no discrimina- tion of things that differ, no power to distinguish between the gnat and the camel, no gratitude for a Christendom, 84 A MISSIONARY BAND. no value for a Bible. Learn how in foreign lands sects and forms have almost merged their differences. See the Baptists of Serampore dwelling side by side, in peace and love, with Anglican bishops and High Church pro- fessors. See Bishop Gray, of Capetown, in his apostolical journeyings, the welcome, honoured guest in Moravian, Presbyterian, Wesleyan, and Independent houses. See him followed to his grave by a concourse of all Christian people — sect without and party within the Episcopal communion of South Africa disregarded and forgotten in the one higher unity of a common Christianity. See one Bishop of Calcutta travelling hundreds of miles to rejoice over the work of God in the Lutheran conversions of Nag- pore, and his successor hastening thither, at the call of the foreign pastors themselves, to receive those ten thou- sand converts into the communion of his own Church of England. Mark how all over India one communion has planted and another watered, one has sown and another reaped. Men at home may parade the differences, and make merry with the motley garb in which Christianity dresses itself before heathenism : in the lands themselves these differences are no discords — the end is one, and the faith is one, for all that. §f:6 ^zai tjs ^f^^^^ufafe6. THE AMBITION WHICH THE HOL Y GHOST KINDLES. FINALLY, the Mission Church shall provoke the Home Church to zeal. " Is it so, that there is not one wise man among you ? " — not one that shall spring for^vard to be " baptised for the dead " ? — not one that shall be brave to take up the martyr's shield, and to caiTy it, under Christ's banner, into the hottest fire of gathered nations ? Where is he who possesses, in its modern exemplification, that gift of tongues which once was miraculous ? There are such men — no age is without them — certainly not this age ; men who acquire a language as by intuition, and can communicate, by word or sign, with islanders on whose coasts they are but \isitors of yesterday? Where is he who possesses God's gift of strength — of a vigour indifferent to climate and a frame capable of toil ? Where is he, not least, who possesses God's gift of " un- derstanding " — not in its vulgar use, as an instrument of acquisition or a weapon of controversy, but in its deeper, more beautiful meaning, as that by which we enter into another's thought, trace him graciously through miscon- ception and error, and rejoice to find him not wrong but right ? And where is he, last of all, who possesses God's highest gift of a genuine humility — who will go amongst the races of an inferior civilization, " not to be ministered unto, but to minister" — not as making a sacrifice, but as counting it an honour — not as being the natural " lord," in virtue of his English blood and nurture, of God's heathen " heritage," but as willing to " spend and be spent " to the uttermost in the effort to influence and to elevate .' Ask these questions in our schools and in our universities. Represent to the young man, rejoicing in strength — mental and bodily — the unity of the whole Church and the necessities of the foreign. Bid him count it indiffer- ent whether he follow his Master through the lanes and yards of an English parish, or across the seas and deserts of a land in which he is a stranger. Do not all journeyings end, for the Christian, in one heaven? Is not that our country, our rest, our home ? "I heard the voice of the Lord say. Whom shall I send? and who will go for Us ? Then I said, Here am I ; send me." It is strange — yet not strange — that the voice of voices from the Church afar off, in its influence, in its persuasion, in its attraction, for the highest and noblest spirits at home, is evermore the voice, not of joy, but of sorrow — the news of a death, the tidings of a martyrdom. To fill those gaps — to emulate those self-sacrifices — this, this is the ambition which the Holy Ghost kindles. — From ^'■For- get Thine Own People : An appeal to the Home Church for Foreign Missions. Three lectures delivered in the Temple Church, in the season of Advent 1873." [The cause of Missions would receive most valuable help, if the book from which the foregoing extracts have been taken could be reprinted in a cheap form for the widest possible circulation. — Ed.] ii "gXofdi^tg jso ^ivc^ f^e ^^earf for c^^ome ^or^. ?5 By the BISHOP OF EXETER. I AM quite sure that our greatest hope, as the Bishop of London said this morning, for our work at home lies in our seeking to promote the work of Christ abroad. I have never forgotten a little incident of which I once heard with regard to a Methodist con- gregation — and we may take many a leaf out of the book of the Methodists. A Methodist minister was asked if he would take charge of a certain chapel. He =aid, '■ I will take charge of the chapel, and will undertake that it shall be self-supporting, if you will let me take the mission work with it. I won't undertake the one without the other ; I know that one must fail unless I take the other." I am quite sure that that was a correct view. There is nothing that so stirs the heart for home work as seeking to promote the spread of the everlasting Gospel among those who know it not. — From Speech at the Church Missionary Mcctijig, Exeter Hall. BENEFIT TO THE CHURCH AT HOME. 8S '"^ofl^ing jso §3epau6B f^e <^earf/ B/Rev. W. A. BATHURST, M.A. ANOTHER reflex spiritual blessing of great import- ance, which is consequent upon an awakened in- terest in foreign missions, is the promotion of unselfish- ness. Nothing so expands the heart and enlarges the sympathies, and elicits a generous bounty and a wide, tolerant charity, as the thorough taking up of God's world-wide work for study and prayer. Then we see ourselves as units in a myriad-peopled universe, the vast preponderance of whose inhabitants are " without Christ, having no hope, and without God in the world." Then our hearts bleed with pity for the dwellers in the far-off habitations of cruelty, superstition, and gross darkness. And selfishness evaporates while zeal for God's cause expands. Thus we learn to look upon life, not from the meagre, niggard standpoint of self-interest, self-pleasing, or self- love ; but, constrained by the love of Christ, we rise into the lofty dignity of being fellow-workers with God, while we engage with whole-hearted interest and generosity in the cause for which Jesus died and rose again. — From " The Reflex Be?iejits of Church Missionary Enter- prise!' ii 'g^c ^xo^pexit}^ of fde g^urc^ is in t^e Ji^wc of ^^i^^ionax'ii^ ^pexatxoxx.'' By Professor WERE individual Christians fully to believe their own religion, and faithfully to serve their Saviour in the work for which He lived and died, and reigns, who does not see the ten thousand channels through which the streams of joy and gladness would overflow the general body of the Church — the joy and gladness, we mean, which the Church would feel in the very act of doing that which is at once the evidence and the means of her pros- perity ? It is the ordinance of God, and the promise of God that His Church in watering shall be watered, in STO WELL. blessing shall be blessed, in exercising her gifts shall increase them. And the providence of God has ever acted in accordance with the appointments and predic- tions of His grace. The prosperity of the Church is in the line of missionary operation. Her best days (we must reiterate the statement) were the days of her greatest activity in the spreading of the Gospel, and the return of those days is hastened or deferred according to the measure in which such activity revives. — "'The Rlissionary Work of the Church," "g^e "g^eft'c^ ^enefif of f^e ^^x^^ionaxp <§xxUxpxx^c. By Rev. BAPTIST W. NOEL, M.A. IF it be objected, that the men and the money are wanted to improve our home-population, the advocate of missionary effort may freely surrender to such objectors every contribution which would be as usefully employed at home ; for domestic objects of equal importance have a paramount claim to our regard. But if we demand for Missions the men and the money, which, doing little or nothing here, might be so immensely beneficial elsewhere, no one can justly term us inconsiderate. We want that money to be given which is now spent in useless splendour, or applied to ambitious accumulation. We want young men to go who are about to bury superior capacities, and effective energy of character, in the counting-house. We want those togowho,havingstudied medicine with success, have yet formed no professional connection at home, and would only leave more room for others of equal ability and knowledge. We want him to go who, as a minister of a small country parish, is spending the moral power which he has acquired by a complete education and large in- tellectual resources, not in instructing a city, or itinerating through a province, but in teaching two hundred rustics, who would still, though he embarked to-morrow, have the Gospel faithfully preached to them. We want those to go who, without any important duties to detain them, possessed of health, fortune, and ability, are now doing little or nothing for the world with the five talents which God has entrusted to their charge. Now, should a hundred pious and able men from among these classes, constrained by compassion and animated by hope, embark on this enterprise — as noble a band as ever left the shores of England — would the loss of them, however great, impoverish us ? On the contrary, they would not convey a greater blessing to their adopted country than they would leave to that of their fathers. When the news should pass from house to house throughout our Association, that they had looked their farewell to their country's cliffs, com- mending their cause, at their departure, to our affec- tions and prayers, we could scarcely fail to catch something of their spirit ; and, while detained by para- mount considerations from following them, we should re- solve before God, with more than wonted solemnity, to devote our best energies to advance the cause of Christ at home. I believe that if a hundred devoted men did go, it would infuse an unction into the ministry of thousands in this land, inspire our prayers with fervency, unlock the re- fused treasure, make Christians love each other, and, being equally the effect and the pledge of an enlarged blessing from God, would multiply conversions in our congrega- tions, and, rebuking the worldliness of multitudes, form a new era in the Church, to be marked by a holier ardour, and a more self-denying energy in the whole course of Christian duty. — From Sermon before the Church Mis- sionary Society in 1835. S6 J MISSIOXJRY BAKD. By Rev. Dr. HERDMAm\ . '■"T'HE finest specimens of humble patience and trustful JL perseverance, and indomitable zeal, and the enduring of hardship for Christ's sake have been in the foreign field. Thence we derive fresh evidences of the value of the Scrip- tures and the power of prayer, and the might of faith,and the importance of personal character, and the virtue of charity, and the vitality of that glorious Gospel which meets man's wants the world over, and converts man's ways, and relieves man's weariness, shares man's woes, and brightens man's departure out of this world ! Ah I those lives were not lost to Britain which fell on sleep after service on distant shores. The biography of one is the call to another. Their example is conta- gious and quickening. Did we know of no good effected by missionaries in their adopted sphere, we might yet be sure that they had done better for their own people by forgetting them, and lavishing their talents upon those whom the world calls aliens. So stimulating in the home church self-denial and devotion, widening her sympathies, enlarging her intercessions, and teaching how to appreciate difficulties, and expect delays, and bear with infirmities, and watch for open doors, and labour in hope, and take joyfully divers temptations or the martyr^s crown ! — Conference on Missio7is, Mildmay. '%^^ ^CBf "g^tng for f6e g^urc^e^;. By REGIXALD RADCLIFFE, Esq. THE most healthy thing we can do for the churches and chapels and mission-halls at home is to rouse them to send out from their pews and communion tables thousands to follow Stanley Smith and Charles Studd among the heathen. Then should blessing flow down as a river. See the blessing they have just had in Edinburgh from the visit of these two young men ! ^n6TPi6uaf "^^iefp \^ ^romofe6. By Rev. BAA NO one can touch this sacred cause, much less engage in it with a spirit of prayer, but it will promote his indi- vidual piety. For let us remember that we need ourselves the same salvation which we are sending to others. He who is anxious, says Bishop Hall, to save the souls of the heathen and neglects his own, is like a man who leaves his own house in flames and runs to quench his neigh- bour's I There is, however, no more promising method of reviving religion in our own minds, or of extending it amongst our families and connections, than by persevering exertions to advance the cause of missions. It is in this VEL WILSON. way that the great increase of vital Christianity in our country, has gone hand in hand with the zeal for diffusing it abroad. It is in this way, we may hope, that the harvest in the heathen nations will bear some relation to the har- vest in our own. It is in this way that a revival in the Protestant and other communions in Europe and America may be a consequence of the exertions made to com- municate the Gospel to heathen lands. — From a Sermon preached at the Seventeenth Anniversary of the Church Missionary Society. g)ur §ratf^ a^^6 g^pertence ^frengf^ened. By Rev. IV. M. P I HAVE been very thankful for this Conference on this account, that it shows us that the grand old doctrines of the Reformation, which we believe to be the grand old doc- trines of the Bible, are effectual in all foreign lands, and under the labours of all missionaries, however called, for the con- version and salvation of men. So that when the citadel of our faith is attacked at home we may go to our missions to authenticate our theology ; and in these days of sad latitudinarianism, when spiritual religion is by many UNSHOiX, LL.D. derided as a myth and amockery, we may go to our missions to authenticate our experience. This is the reflex benefit which the missionary enterprise is flinging broadcast upon the churches at home ; and I am very thankful to think that both our faith and our experience can be thus but- tressed by a cause upon which God has, under all circum- stances and in every place, stamped His signal bless- ing, — From a Speech at the Mildmay Missionary Conference. INJURY TO THE CHURCH AT HOME,. 87 Snjttri^ fo f^c @^ttrc^ af ^o^Xi<^ from ^cgCccting ^tTi^^ion^ Jl6roa6. " THERE IS THAT WITHHOLDETH MORE THAN IS MEET, BUT IT TENDETH TO POVERTY: g^nt)crfTiig f^e ^vo\m ^r6cr.' /?/ Dr. AGAIN we say, the field of Divine appointment is not Scotland or 'Engla.nd,hut" f/ie wor/d" — the world of all " nations." The prayer of Divine inspiration is, " God bless and pity us," not that Thy way may be known in all Britain, and Thy saving health among all its desti- tute families, but " that Thy way may be known on all the earth, and Thy saving health among all nations." The command of Divine obligation is not, " Go to the people of Scotland or of England," but " Go into all the •world, and preach the Gospel to every creature" And if we take our counsel from those blind and deluded guides that would, in spite of the Almighty's appoint- ment, and in derision of our own prayers, persuade us alto- gether, or for an indefinite period onwards, to abandon the real proper Bible field, and direct the whole of our time, and strength, and resources, to homej if, at their anti-Scriptural suggestions, we do thus dislocate the Divine order of proportion ; if we do thus invert the Divine order of magnitude ; if we daringly presume to put that last which God hath put first ; to reckon that least which God hath pronounced greatest ; what can we expect but that He shall be provoked, in sore dis- pleasure, to deprive us of the precious deposit of mis- appropriated grace, and inscribe " Ichabod " on all our DUFF. towers, bulwarks, and palaces ? And if He do — then like beings smitten with judicial blindness, we may hold hundreds of meetings, deliver thousands of speeches, and publish tens of thousands of tracts, and pamphlets, and volumes, in defence of our chartered rights and birthright liberties ; and all this we may hail as religious zeal, and applaud as patriotic spirit. But if such prodigious activi- ties be designed solely, or even chiefly, to concentrate all hearts, affections, and energies on the limited interests of our own land ; if such prodigious activities recognise and aim at no higher terminating object than the simple maintenance and extension of our home institutions — and that, too, for the exclusive benefit of our own people — while, in contempt of the counsels of the Eternal, the hundreds of millions of a guilty world are coolly aban- doned to perish, — oh, how can all this appear in the sight of heaven as anything better than a national out- burst of monopolising selfishness ? And how can such criminal disregard of the Divine ordinance, as respects the evangelisation of a lost world, fail, sooner or later, to draw down upon us the most dreadful visitation of retri- butive vengeance ? — " Missions the Chief End of the Christian Church." ^pxxxinat ^eff=gn6urgence. By Rev. E. C. THERE may be a genuine appropriation of the Lord Jesus Christ, which emphasises so disproportionately a part only of His redemptive work, that the Christian character which is nurtured thereby is distorted. The word " salvation " may be used in so narrow a sense that itbe-littles rather than enlarges the soul. There is a type of Christian consecration which is sometimes regarded as pre-eminently "saintly," which, when thoughtfully con- sidered, is perceived to be only a subtle, spiritual self- indulgence. It may be we are "enjoying ourselves," instead of enjoying Christ ; or, if our delight is in Christ, possibly the Christ who is "Master and Lord "may be forgotten. There is an interest in personal sanctification which is mainly the endeavour to come into a condition of abiding peace and joy — the continuous luxury of the hidden life — rather than the separation of the whole ALDEN, D.D. being to vigorous service, following closely the footsteps of Him who came "not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Nothing is a surer corrective of this tendency than the genuine missionary spirit ; a spirit which delights in the Lord who commands, and in obedience to His com- mand looks away from self in an outflowing love to others May it not be that this, after all, is the true "saintli- ness," that which is least conscious of self and most devoted to the salvation of the perishing ? May it not be that the genuine " holiness meeting '' is a meeting of those who are surrendering themselves, utterly self-forget- ful, to the spread of the Gospel in their own times throughout the world ? — " Shall we have a Missionary Revival ? " 5i;sregar6 of f^e ^foreign §tier6 voxtt ^ring iSfig^f at c^ome. By Rev. A. C. THOMPSON, D.D. IT is a shameful church effeminacy that studies only its own needs and convenience ; disregard of the foreign field will surely bring blight at home. The gravitation of true, intelligent Christian love is towards equal distribution. Can you accumulate water in a heap otherwise than by freezing it ? One sure way not to save one's own country would be to withdraw from foreign fields in order to save it. Most missionaries who go abroad, by the stimulating influence of their example, by the wider sympathies which they call forth, do more for their own land than they would by staying at home. — Conference on Missions, Mild- may. 83 A MISSIOA'AR V BAAW. ^n ^nenferpri^sxng gBurc^ a Secfitxing ©ne. i?y A\"'. ^. C THOMPSON, D.D., of Boston. SOMETIMES the being, always the well-being, of a church depends upon it^continuing true to the original design of Christ's Church. Just so far as Christianity becomes really Christian, will her history be that of aggression and triumph. The converse of this holds good. Napoleon laid it down as a military maxim that the army which remains in its intrenchments is beaten. An unenter- prising church is spiritually a declining one. Withholding " more than is meet " never enriched a man, an associa- tion, or a nation ; nor does judicious forth-putting as to men and means result otherwise than in reflex enrichment. — At Conference on Missions, Mildmay. "g^e ^ix^^xonaxx} ^pirtf : ^§af tjs it ? By Rev. ALFRED COOK MAN. WHAT is the missionary spirit ? Is it an ordinary inte- rest in, or a kind of general concern for, the heathen abroad or the heathen at home ? — a cold and calculating love for those millions that have so long, too long, lingered in the shadow of sin and of death ? Nay, sir, such a spirit as that would never convert the world, has never illustrated itself as the secret spring or motive power of self-sacrificing and successful endeavour in this world. There must be love, it is true, but, then, let us remember it must be love on fire ; it must be love in a paroxysm ; it must be love intensified, absorbing, all-controlling. Ob- serve, if you please, the missionary quitting his home, kindred, native lands, and accustomed comforts. He is willing to abide in the ends of the earth, encompassed by heart-sickening idolatrous superstition and crime. Where- fore ? Is it because of a simple concern respecting the temporal, or even spiritual, welfare of those by whom he may be encompassed ? Nay, I insist, it is rather because of the Christ-given and Christ-like love that bums in his heart and literally consumes his life. Oh, sir ! it is the missionary spirit that crosses broad seas, that clambers cloud-crowned mountains, that traverses far-distant regions, that sails around the world if it may save but a single soul. It is the missionary spirit that breathes miasmas, that bears heavy burdens, that challenges ad- versaries, that imperils precious life, that laughs at im- possibilities, and cries, "This must and this shall be done ! " It is the missionary spirit that gives and bears sacrifices, and dies, if it were necessar)', and if it were possible, a hundred thousand deaths if, like its Divine Exemplar, it might be going about doing good. Now, as I have said, there may be liberality, but there cannot be the missionary spirit where there is not a conscientious, Christ-like liberality.— iT.iYrarf from '■'■Life of Alfred CookmanP '^Be %^QOxx^ awb ^xacixcz of l^ts^sion^. By Rev. ALFRED COOKMAN. AGAIN, it might be asked, " Are there not many of our own community who are familiar with temporal and spiritual wretchedness, who are acquainted v.ith the neces- sities of the heathen world, who hear of this subject not only from year to year, but more frequently, and yet they have none of those exercises or experiences of mis- sionary zeal ? " That is true— that is undeniable ; and so we are constrained to the conclusion that something more is indispensable than this simple consideration. What is that something ? I answer that it is a union and a living sympathy with the blessed Lord Jesus Christ. And now, sir, at the close of these anniversary exercises, this thought brings me where I joy to come, and where I should like to lead this little company— that is, to Calvary. I throw the arms of my affection around the consecrated cross of Jesus ; I drink in, in constantly increasing measure. His tender, sympathising, self-sacrificing spirit. Now from this standpoint of the Cross — from the measure of that feeiii g which influences the heart and life of the Divine Redeemer — I look out again upon the world ; but now with what different feelings ! Now I hear with Christ's ears, I feel with Christ's heart, I see with His eyes ; now I am ready to labour with Christ's energies ; now I am disposed to give or go, or do or dare, or sacrifice or die — anything and everything — if I may but help in lifting our sin-cursed world up to God. This experience of which I am speaking is a vitalising principle ; it is a Divine force. It is Jesus reigning, not (as my brother would say) simply in the skies ; there is something better than that. We can have heaven on the way to heaven. _ It is Jesus reigning in personal consciousness in the individual heart; it is Christ living, breathing, dwelling, and triumphing in personal life. Philosophy is contemplative and studious, fond and full of plans and of theories ; infidelity, as we all know, is given to boasting and to detraction ; both of them laying special stress upon the human rather than upon the Divine. But, Mr. President and Christian friends, after all their proud vaunting, pray tell me what heathen shores they have ever visited for purposes of mercy ? What funeral pyre have they ever extinguished ? What dumb idol have they ever cast down from its pedestal ? What THE DIVINE CALL FOR MISSIONARIES. 89 nation have they ever lifted up from its barbarism and degradation ? What profligate have they ever reclaimed ? What sorrowful heart have they ever cheered ? Where to-night are their earnest, self-sacrificing missionaries ? Where are their organisations for the amelioration of human suffering and the extension of wnolesome and blessed truth in the world ? Where are their Pauls, their Barnabases, their Wesleys, Wilberforces, Thomas Cokes, Asburys, Howards, Phebes, Dorcases, Nightingales, and Elizabeth Frys ? I ask it with confidence and with Chris- tian exultation. In vain I wait for an answer — there Cometh none. Sir, we must come to Christ ; we must drink in His spirit, for it is there, and there only, we will find the source and the fountain of this missionary spirit, which is so needful and so indispensable. The theory and practice of missions, as I take it, can be expressed almost in a single sentence. It is love to the blessed Lord Jesus Christ, who has bought us with His blood, drawing forth the streams of human sympathy, human affection, and human endeavour — a stream which, by an invariable law of nature and of God, seeks the lowest place — for, let me say to you, that Christian compassion, like Christ's compassion, always flows downward, and fixes upon those who need it the most. Was it so with Paul t The love of Christ constrained him, and he counted not his life dear unto him so that he might but glorify his Saviour, propagate His Gospel, save immortal souls, and finish his course with joy. — Extract from " Life of Alfred Cnokman." "g^e 5tt:>ine gaff for l^Ti6STonarics. By Rev. C. H. SPURGEOX. " Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for lis ? Then said I, Here ami; sendme."^ Isaiah vi. 8. BRETHREN, the heathen are perishing, and there is but one way of salvation for them, for there is but one name given under heaven among men whereby they must be saved. God in the glorious unity of His divine nature is calling for messengers who shall proclaim to men the way of life. Out of the thick dark- ness my ear can hear that sound mysterious and divine, " Whom shall I send ? " If ye will but listen with the ear of faith ye may hear it in this house to-day — " Whom shall I send ? " While the world lieth under the curse of sin, the living God, who willeth not that any should perish, but that they should come to repentance, is seek- ing for heralds to proclaim His mercy ; He is asking even in pleading terms for some who will go forth to the dying millions and tell the wondrous story ot His love — " Whom shall I send ? " As if to make the voice more powerful by a threefold utterance we hear the sacred Trinity inquire, " Who will go for Us ? " The Father asks, "Who will go for Me and invite My far-off children to return.'"' The Son inquires, " Who will seek for Me My redeemed but wandering sheep .'"' The Holy Spirit demands, " In whom shall I dwell, and through whom shall I speak tfiat I may convey life to the perishing multitudes?" God in the unity of His nature crieth, " Whom shall I send 1 " and in the trinity of His persons He asketh, " Who will go for Us .? " When a man is prepared for sacred work he is not long before he receives a commission. We come then to think of THE Divine Call. I feel in my soul, though I cannot speak it out, an inward grieving sympathy with God, that God Himself should have to cry from His throne, " Whom shall I send ? " Alas, my God, are there no volunteers for Thy service .' What, all these priests and sons of Aaron, will none of these run upon Thine errand ? And all these Levites, will none of them 'offer himself.? No, not one. Ah, it is grievous, grievous beyond all thought, that there should be such multitudes of men and women in the Church of God who neverthe- less seem unfit to be sent upon the Master's work, or at least never offer to go, and He has to cry, " Whom shall I send ? " What, out of these saved ones, no willing messengers to the heathen ! Where are His ministers ? Will none of these cross the seas to heathen lands ? Here are thousands of us working at home. Are none of us called to go abroad ? Will none of us carry the Gospel to regions beyond ? Are none of us bound to go '? Does the Divine voice appeal to our thousands of preachers and find no response, so that again it cries, " Whom shall I send ? " Here are multitudes of professing Christians making money, getting rich, eating the fat, and drinking the sweet, is there not one to go for Christ ? Men travel abroad for trade, will they not go for Jesus ? They even risk hfe, amid eternal snows, are there no heroes for the Cross ? Here and there a young man, per- haps with little qualification and no experience, offers himself, and he may or may not be welcomed, but can it be true that the majority of educated, intelligent. Christian young men are more willing to let the heathen be damned than to let the treasures of the world go into other hands? Alas, for some reason or other (I am not going to question the reasons) God Himself may look over all His Church, and, finding no volunteers, may utter the pathetic cry, " Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" Now, brethren, if at any time the mission field lacks workers (it is a sad thing that it should be so, but yet so it is), should not that fact make each man look to himself and say, " Where am I ? What position do I occupy to- wards this work of God ? May I not be placed just where I am because I can do what others could not ? " Some of you young men especially, without the ties of family to hold you in this country, without a large church around you, or not having yet plunged into the sea of business, you, I say, are standing where in the ardour of your first love you might fitly say, " Here am I." And if God has endowed you with any wealth, given you any talent, and placed you in a favourable position, you are the man who should say, " Perhaps I have come to the kingdom for such a time as this ; I may be placed where I am on purpose that I may render essential help to the cause of God. Here at any rate I am ; I feel the presence of the glorious God ; I see the skirts of His garments as He reveals Himself to me, I almost hear the rush of seraphic wings as I perceive how near heaven is to earth, and I feel in my soul I must give myself up to God. I feel in my own heart my indebtedness to the Christ of God ; I see the need of the heathen, I love them for Jesus' sake ; the fiery coal is touching my lip even now : here am I.' Thou hast put me where I am ; Lord, take me as I am, and use me as Thou wilt." May the Divine Spirit influence 90 A MISSIONARY BAXD. some of you who greatly love my Lord till you feel all this. Then you observe that he makes a full surrender of himself. " Here am I." Lord, I am what I am by Thy grace, but here I am ; if I am a man of one talent, yet here I am ; if I am a man of ten, yet here I am ; if in youthful vigour, here I am ; if of maturer years, here I am. Have I substance? here I am. Do I lack abilities? Yet still I made not my o\vn mouth, nor did I create my infirmities ; here I am. Just as I am, as I gave myself up to Thy dear Son to be redeemed, so give I myself up again to be used for Thy glory, because I am re- deemed, and am not my own, but bought with a price. ' 'Here I am." Then comes Isaiah's PRAYER for authority and unointing. If we read this passage rightly we shall not always throw the emphasis on the last word, " me," but read it also thus, " Here am I, send me." He is willing to go, but he does not want to go without being sent, and so the prayer is, " Lord, se?id me. I beseech Thee of Thine infinite grace qualify me, open the door for me, and direct my way. I do not need to be forced, but I would be commissioned. I do not ask for compulsion, but I do ask for guidance. I would not run of my own head under the notion that I am doing God service. Send me then, O Lord, if I may go ; guide me, instruct me, prepare me, and strengthen me." There is a com- bination of willingness and holy prudence — " Here I am ; send me." I feel certain that some of you are eager to go for my Lord and Master wherever He appoints. Keep not back I pray you. Brother, make no terms with God. Put it, " Here am I send me — where Thou wilt, to the wildest region, or even to the jaws of death. I am Thy soldier ; put me in the front of the battle if Thou wilt, or bid me lie in the trenches ; give me gallantly to charge at the head of my regiment, or give me silently to sap and mine the foundations of the enemy's fortresses. Use me as Thou wilt ; send ine, and I will go. I leave all else to Thee ; only here I am, Thy willing servant, wholly consecrated to Thee." That is the right missionary spirit, and may God be pleased to pour it out upon you all, and upon His people throughout the world. To me it seems that if a hundred were to leap up and each one exclaim, " Here am I ; send me," it would be no wonder. By the love and wounds and death of Christ, by your own salvation, by your indebtedness to Jesus, by the ter- rible condition of the heathen, and by that awful hell whose yawning mouth is before them, ought you not to say, " Here am I ; send me " ? The vessel is wrecked, the sailors are perishing ; they are chnging to the rigging as best they can ; they are being washed off one by one ! Good God, they die before our eyes, and yet there is the lifeboat stanch and trim. We want men ! Men to man the boat ! Here are the oars, but never an arm to use them ! What is to be done ? Here is the gallant boat, able to leap from billow to billow, only men are wanted ! Are there none ? Are we all cravens ? A man is more precious than the gold of Ophir. Now, my brave brethren, who will leap in and take an oar for the love of Jesus, and yon dying men ? And ye brave women, ye who have hearts hke that of Grace Darling, will not ye shame the laggards, and dare the tempest for the love of souls in danger of death and hell ? Weigh my appeal in earnest and at once, for it is the appeal of God. Sit down and listen to that sorrowful yet majestic demand, " Whom shall I send, and who will go for IJs ?" and then respond " Ready, aye ready ; ready for anything to which our Redeemer calls us." Let those who love Him, as they perceive all around them the terrible token of the world's dire need, cry in an agony of Christian love, " Here am I ; send me." — From Sermon No. Passmore and Alabaster. Price id. 1,351, published by "g^e "gtrgenc^ of fBe ^ec6. Bv Major-Geijcral F. T. HAIG, R.E. IX conclusion, let me speak to the young men here. It astonishes me — I do not know how to account for it — not that you do not all go out to the heathen, but that you do not all, at least, try to go, that you do not all joy- fully offer your services to the various Churches to which you belong for work in the foreign field. Instead of this, you are content to remain ingloriously at home, and the missionary societies cannot get men. But, oh I what a glorious life is a missionary's 1 I recollect that great meeting in Exeter Hall, when there was a University man speaking on the platform, and behind him some fifty more University men. He himself had been out in Africa, and knev/ something of the work, and he said to his fellows, " It seems to me that after you have gone through all your training at Cambridge, it must be very slow work for you to settle down in a little English parish of 300 people, to whom the Gospel has been preached for generations, while the whole heathen world lies in darkness." Very slow, indeed, I should say. Ah, friends, there are millions dying with the love of God yearning over them, and they know it not. Won't you go to their help ? Are there not some here to-day who will say, " Lord, here am I ; send me ? " ii tx^Un, f^en, to f^e §alt." cy^ By Rev. DANIEL U'/LSON. SHALL the harvest spoil for want of harvestmen? Shall the world go on in ignorance and darkness, when you might assist in enlightening it ? Listen, then, to the call. Pray for Divine guidance. Think, and think again, on the question. Consult friends who are better capable than yourselves of judging of yourfitness. Do not mistake cowardice and indolence for humility. Consider how brief is the span of life ; how short the moment of sepa- ration from friends ; and how exquisite the joy which is set before you ! — From a Sermon preached at the Seventeenth Anniversary of the Church Missionary Society. THE MEN WANTED. 91 ^c ^?(cn ^anfc6 for ItTi^^ionaric^. £4 ^^en ro^o reaff^? de^sire fo rir>e for ^06." ^j Bishop BUT most of all — for this makes all easy — men are wanted who do really desire in their hearts to live for God and the world to come, and who have really sought to sit very loosely to this world. The enjoyment, and the happi- ness, and peace all come, and that abundantly ; but there is a condition, and the first rub is a hard one, and lasts a good while. Naturally buoyant spirits, the gift of a merry heart, are a great help ; for oftentimes a man may have to spend PA TTESON. months without any white man within hundreds of miles, and it is very depressing to live alone in the midst of heathenism. But there must be many, many fellows pulling up to Surley to-night who may be well able to pull together with one on the Pacific — young fellows whose enthusiasm is not mere excitement of animal spirits, and whose pluck and courage are given them to stand the roughnesses (such as they are) of a missionary life. ii ^axn^^i, iSrig^f, g^ecrfur ^eaow;s." EARNEST, bright, cheerful fellows, without that notion of " making sacrifices," etc., so perpetually occurring to their minds, would be invaluable. You know the kind of men, who have got rid of the conventional notion that more self-denial is needed for a missionary than for a sailor or soldier, who are sent anywhere and leave home and country for years, and think nothing of it because they go " on duty." Alas ! we don't so read our ordination vows. A By Bishop PATTESON. fellow with a healthy, active tone of mind, plenty of enter- prise and some enthusiasm, who makes the best of every- thing, and, above all, does not think himself better than other people because he is engaged in mission work — that is the fellow we want. I assume, of course, the existence of sound religious principle as the greatest qualification of all. ^tf^ouf ^QxiixwxQxdai ^x^vo^. By Bishop PATTESON. I MUST say plainly that I would rather not have a man from England at all, than be bound to accept a man who might not thoroughly and cordially work into the general system that we have adopted. We live together entirely, all meals in common, same cabin, same hut, and the general life and energy of us all would be damaged by the introduction of any one discordant element. You will probably say, " Men won't go out on these terms," and this is indeed probable, yet if they are the right fellows for this work — a work wholly anomalous, unlike all other work that they have thought of, in many respects — they will think that what I say is reasonable, and like the prospect all the better (I think) because they see that it means downright work, in a cheery, happy, hopeful, friendly spirit. A man who takes the sentimental view of coral islands and cocoa-nuts, of course, is worse than use- less. A man possessed with the idea that he is making a sacrifice will never do ; and a man who thinks any kind of work " beneath a gentleman " will simply be in the way, and be rather uncomfortable at seeing the Bishop do what he thinks degrading to do himself I write all this quite freely, wishing to convey, if possible, some idea to you of the kind of men we need. And if the right fellow is moved by God's grace to come out, what a welcome we will give him, and how happy he will soon be in a work the abundant blessings of which none can know as we know them. — From " Life of Bishop Patteson." (^ob'^^xd 5^cn, XiOi latere Jlgenf^. THEY who would be, not the mere agents of a Society, but the messengers of the Lord of Hosts, must first, like Isaiah of old, see the King sitting on His throne, and know that they are of unclean lips and undone. When they hear the voice assuring them that their iniquity is taken away and their sin is purged, and the words of the By Rev. ROBERT CLARK, M.A. Lord then reach their ears, saying, " Whom shall / send, and who will go for us?" they will present themselves, and go forth for Him, without any thought of salaries and worldly positions. They can never "preach except they 6e sent," and it is only God who can send them. — From " Punjab and Sindh Missions." 9- A MISSIONARY BAND. ^$tcn of ^atf^. IF angels were only permitted to engage in this work, there would be abundant volunteers from amongst the holiest and mightiest of spirits : but men have generally but little faith, either to receive grace or to confer it. If men would draw their fellow men to God they must be, like John the Baptist, full of the Holy Ghost. Let Lhristiaii men follow the promptings of their spiritual life, and go forth in faith, with a full conviction of duty and earnest prayer for God's guidance and help. All real missionary work is carried on simply by faith in God. The missionary looks to Him for evcrytliing. It is God who undertakes for him, guides him, does all for him, and helps him in everything. The missionary leaves himself, and all his work, and all he has, entirely in God's hands ; and looks to Him to order everything in what- ever way He sees to be best. And then difficulties vanish, as far as it is good that they should disappear ; and everything is ordered for him in a manner far exceed- ing his highest desires or conceptions. He dwells with the King. In his work He held him up, and he is safe. God is our king. He commands deliverances for Jacob. All true laith has in it an element of venture. In faith in God's promises and commands, Christ's soldiers may venture much, and they will not be disappointed in their expectations (i Sam. xiv. 6). They may go wherever God sends them. They may attempt whatever work God gives them to do. They can even walk on troubled waters, if they have faith. And then He who gives them faith will testify to it as much as He did to those heroes of old to whose deeds of faith the whole Word of God bears testimony. We have never heard of any true man who ever regretted that he became a missionary, or who was disappointed with his work, or found God's By Rev. ROBERT CLARK, MA. promises untrue. We have never heard of the friends of any missionary who regretted that they had sent him ; from the days ot the Apostles up to the present time, the experience of all true missionaries has ever been the same. "Jesus said unto His disciples. When I sent you without purse and scrip and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said Nothing" (Luke xxii. 35). Let us cease for ever to speak of giving up anything. We do not give up anything by becoming missionaries. But we receive much. God gives and not we. Christ gave up much, and we gain much. When we become like Him we can perhaps give something, and give up something, and ourselves receive the promised hundred- fold. The Christian life is one of asking, and receiving, and giving. The same Master who said, " Ask, and it shall be given unto you," said, " Whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance ; " and also said, "Give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and run- ning over." The same word, " shall be given," is used in all cases ; thus showing us that " to ask " is the way "to receive," "to have" is the way to receive "more abundantly," and " to give " is the way to receive " to overflowing." If any doubt whether God has called them to this work the doubts may generally be removed by a candid answer to two easy questions : First, "Ca« I go?" and secondly, " Will I go, if God send me ?" When the heart is filled with faith and love, ten thousand difficulties and objec- tions vanish at once ; and men are willing, and are even desirous, to do anything, whereby the kingdom of the Redeemer may be advanced in the world. — From '■^Punjab and Sindh Missions" ii ^^Tcn of (^bucatxony By Dr. LI VI. THE sort of men who are wanted for missionaries are such as I see before me : men of education, standing, enterprise, zeal, and piety. It is a mistake to suppose that any one, so long as he is pious, will do for this office. Pioneers in everything should be the ablest and best qualified men, not those of small ability and education. This remark especially applies to the first teachers of Christian truth in regions which may never have before been blessed with the name and Gospel of Jesus Christ. In the early ages the monasteries were the schools of Europe, and the monks were not ashamed to hold the plough. The missionaries now take the place of those \GSTONE. noble men, and v/e should not hesitate to give up the small luxuries of life in order to carry knowledge and truth to them that are in darkness. I hope that many of those whom I now address will embrace that honourable career. Education has been given us from above for the purpose of bringing to the benighted the knowledge of a Saviour. If you knew the satisfaction of performing such a duty, as well as the gratitude to God which the missionary must always feel, in being chosen for so noble, so sacred a calling, you would have no hesitation in embracing it. — From Lecture before the University of Cambridire. "ITot tde W^^am^i, Buf fBe ^mg^fie^sf 55 By Rev. C. f. THE Church at home must learn to give up v,ithout a murmur to foreign service, not her meanest, but her mightiest. She must never speak of any man as too learned, or too eloquent, or too useful, or (in any sense) too good to be sent abroad. On the contrary, she must impress early upon the hearts of her children, of those who are to be hereafter her chiefest and her foremost ones, the dignity, the honour, the sanctity, of that most responsible trust, of that indeed highest "preferment." She must take VAUGHAN, D.D. pains to inculcate from the professors' chairs, and from the preachers' pulpits of her universities, the true idea, the just estimate, of her work among her own colonists, and of her work among the heathen populations around or beyond them. She must expand the very notion of the Church into a co-extensiveness with the earth. " The field," even of the Church of one country, " is the world." — " Forget Thine Own People." THE WORK OF THE MISSIONARY. 93 ^zn voW^ vo^oxxx if \^ a Wcisi^ion fo ^at)c ^^n'' By Rev. GRIFFITH JOHN. WE want men of sterling character and ■#brth — men of tact, spirit, and energy— manly men, full of grace and common sense. Give us highly-cultured men, if they can be found. But if not, then give us men possessing a good, sound English education. Such men, if filled with the Spirit of God, and fired with the missionary enthusiasm, will not fail to do a noble work for God in any part of the mission field. The great need of China is men, not mere wise men or learned men, but men of deep convic- tion ; men who feel they have been separated and called for a great work ; men who are conscious of the all-consuming power of the love of God ; men with whom it is a passion to save men, and who are prepared to brave all things and endure all things in order to finish the work which they feel in their inmost soul the Lord has given them to do. The old dread of the man-inspired missionary is still upon me. I have not the least desire to see any of such going forth to the heathen world. But can I be wrong in supposing that there are in our universities, col- leges, and churches many who are called of God to be missionaries? It is to them I appeal. I ask them to consider the claims of China and other parts of the mis- sion field, and to listen for the Divine voice in respect to the course they should adopt. I do not invite them to a life of ease and self-pleasing, but to one of trial and self- abnegation, of hard toil and patient endurance. Still, I am prepared to promise them a joy in this work such as will enable them to understand what the Master meant when he said " My peace I give unto you." The romance of missions is a home dream ; but the blessedness of the missionary life is a reality gloriously verified in the ex- perience of every one baptised to the work. Are there no young men of independent means who will go forth and support themselves on the field ? Are there no fathers and mothers who are prepared not only to offer their sons and daughters on the altar for this high and holy purpose, but also the gold and the silver required to meet their wants 1 "/« the whole compass of human benevoletice there is nothing so grajid, so noble, so Christian, so truly God-like, as the work of evangelising the heathen!' — WILLIAM SwAN. '■''No language can describe the value of the blessings which are C07iveyed to a single idolater who becomes a disciple of Christ J a thousa7id sources of sorrow being instantly dried up, and a thousand streams of happitzess bursti7ig forth at once to gladden him." — Rev. Baptist Noel. "^^e ^or^ of f^e ^Kx^^iowaxx^. By Rev. BAPTIST W. NOEL, M.A. energies, and to chain up their lawless passions. They THE servants of Jesus Christ go forth to subdue every form of evil, and to mitigate every species of suffer- ing on the whole earth. They go to lead sinners to trust in Christ, and to take His yoke ; to substitute the revelation of God for the lies of heathenism, and the moralities of the Gospel for all the evils which reign unchecked throughout the regions of an accursed idolatry. They go to enlighten the ignorant, to civilise the barbarous, to rescue women from a degrading servitude, and children from an early death. They go to educate whole nations, to communicate to them the knowledge of our literature, our laws, our arts, and our institutions. They go to set the slave free, to put an end to all wars of plunder and revenge, to substitute everywhere order for anarchy, law for despotism, benevolence for cruelty, and justice for oppression. They go to let loose men's imprisoned go to make property secure, and industry profitable ; to secure to the rich man his palace, and to the poor man his cabin ; and to spread contentment, domestic affection, and general happiness where penury, vice, and discord make existence a curse. They go to give children the blessing of parental care, and parents the joy of filial gratitude. They go to protect the weak against the strong, to unite in brotherly affection the rich and poor and to make the nations one family. Finally, they go to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God ; to teach them how to live and how to die ; to show them the way to glory ; to make them know their God ; to prepare them for heaven and to guide them safely to its bliss. — From " Cliristian Missions to Hea'Jien Nations" "g^e ^leafxf^ awb ^op of fBe ^or^. Testimony of Bish WHATrealitythereisinsuch aworkasthis! What con- tinual need of guidance and direction ! I see before me now an island stretching away twenty-five miles in length ! Last night I left one sixty miles long. I know that hundreds are living there ignorant of God, wild men, canni- bals addicted to every vice. I know that Christ died for them, and that the message is for them too. How am I to deliver it ? How find an entrance among them ? How, when I have learnt their language, speak to them of reli- ?p PATTESON. gion so as not to introduce unnecessary obstacles to the reception of it, nor compromise any of its commands ? Thank God I can fall back upon many solid points of comfort — chiefest of all. He sees and knows it all per- fectly. He sees the islanders, too, and loves them, how infinitely more than I can ! He desires to save them. He is, I trust, sending me to them. He will bless honest endeavours to do His will among them. And then I think how it must all appear to angels and saints, how 94 ^ MISSlOA'AJiY BAND. differently they see these things. Already, to their eyes, the light is breaking forth in Melanesia ; and I take great comfort from this thought, and remember that it does not matter whether it is in my time, only I must work on. And then I think of the prayers of the Church, ascending continually for the conversion of the heathen ; and I know that many of you are praying especially for the heathen of Melanesia. And so one's thoughts float out to India, and China, and Japan, and Africa, and the islands of the sea, and the very vastness of the work raises one's thoughts to God as the only One by whom it must be done What this is to me you must try and realise that you may be partakers of my joy and thankfulness. To have Christians about me to whom I can speak with a certainty of being understood, to feel that we are all bound together in the blessed Communion of the Body of Christ, to know that angels on high are rejoicing, and evil spirits being chased away, that all the Banks Islands and all Melanesia are experiencing, as it were, the first shock of a mighty earthquake, that God who foresees the end may, in His merciful Providence, be calling even these very children to bear His message to thousands of heathens, is it not too much } One's heart is not large enough for it, and confession of one's own unworthiness breaks off involun- tarily into praise and glory (.1. %^(xi ^fortou^i ^0or^^ for vo^xc^ ^^xx^i pie6. ?? Testimojiy of Rev. Dr. MOFFAT. OH ! how much there is to be done in this wide, wide world ! and what a regret it is that there are so many spending their strength and their talents for nought ! I remember what my feelings were when a young man, and I re- member, too, when I was wavering between one object and ano- ther ; and I look back with trembling, and think that had I chosen what I was sometimes inclined to do, I should never have been a mission- ary. Providentially — I thank God for it, and will thank Him as long as I live — I had a pious mother; I had a mother with a mis- sionary spirit ; and it was the stories that I heard from her lips, when a little boy at her knees, that after- wards revived in my mind, and turned my attention to be a mis- sionary to the perish- ing heathen. Think what is life if not carried out in the service of God. What is life, my dear friends .'' I have been engaged these fifty- seven years as a mis- sionary ; I have been exposed to dangers, I may say to deaths ; I have had narrow es- capes — escapes I had like Job's, sometimes with the skin of my teeth, but it was a glorious work ; it was doing the work of God ; it was doing the will of God ; and had I perished beneath it, I should have lost nothing and gained everything ! Is there anything, my dear friends, beneath the sun of such importance com- pared with that mission for which the Lord of glory de- scended into this world ! Oh ! when we think of the REV. R. MOFFAT, D.D. boundless majesty of that God who reigns supreme ; that glorious Being, who " weighs the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance ; " when we think that He looks down on this world and has given to each his work to do ; when we think of Him who could annihilate the world in a moment, condescending to look to you and to me to help Him to carry on that glorious work for which Christ died on the cross, — oh, my friends, let us remem ber the words of the wise man, "Whatso- ever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might ; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave," whither we are all hastening. A short time and we shall be no more ! This is the time when we can work ! This is the time when we can help our- selves, and help others, and glorify God. This time is passing fast away. Oh ! do it — whatever requires to be done for your own salvation and for the salvation of your fellow men, do it, do it now 1 I have laboured in Africa for fifty-three or fifty-four years, and oh, I would willingly go back. I have toiled there at work by day and by night, under a vertical sun ; I have there been exposed to hunger and thirst ; I have often had to put on what I call the fasting girdle, but I never com- plained. I never felt a murmur. I knew that the work in which I was engaged was the work to which God in His merciful providence had appointed me, and I knew that if I laboured and did not faint I should surely reap ! NO SACRIFICE. 95 ii g)^, if tjs a g>rortou;s ^or^ ! ?? Testimony oj Rev. IT is not my habit to say anything to indifte young men to devote themselves to this work, for I have a whole- some dread of man-inspired missionaries. But I cannot allow this opportunity to pass without telling you young men who are preparing for the ministry that I thank God most sincerely and devoutly that I am a missionary. I have never regretted the step I took many years ago, in opposition to the strongly expressed wish of my best friends ; and if there is a sincere desire burning within my breast, it is that I may live and die in labouring and suffering for Christ among the heathen. Oh, it is a glorious work ! I know no work like it — so real, so un- selfish, so apostolic, so Christ-like. I know no work that brings Christ so near to the soul, that throws a man back so completely upon God, and that makes the grand old Gospel appear so real, so precious, so divine. And then. GRIFFITH JOHN. think of the grandeur of our aim ! Our cry is, China for Christ ! India for Christ ! The world for Christ ! Think of China and her hundreds of milHons becoming our Lord's and His Christ's ! Is there nothing grand in that idea ? Is there nothing soul-stirring in the prospect ? Is that not an achievement worthy of the best efforts of the Church, and of the noblest powers of the most richly-endowed among you ? And then think of the unspeakable privilege and honour of having a share in a work which is destined to have such a glorious issue. Oh, young men, think of it ; dwell upon it ; and if you hear the voice of God bid you go, manfully take up your cross and go, and you will never cease to thank Christ Jesus our Lord for counting you worthy to be missionaries.— /« " Hope for China!' a ^i x^ (^.xnp^a ixcatt v no Sacrifice. Testimony oj Rev. Dr. LIVINGSTONE. 11 FOR my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. Can that be called a sacrifice which is simply paid back as a small part of a great debt owing to our God, which we can never repay ? Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought ! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver and the soul to sink, but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall hereafter be revealed in, and for, us. I never made a sacrifice. Of this we ought not to talk when we remember the great sacrifice which He made who left His Father's throne on high to give Himself for us : "Who being the brightness of that Father's glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Him- self purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." — Cambridge Lectures. Testimony of Rev. Dr. MUIRHEAD. THE more I have been thus engaged in the work, the more delightful has it appeared to be. There have been sore and heavy trials and disappointments connected with it, in the case alike of the heathen and the converts, but these have by no means cooled or weakened_my missionary zeal and consecration to the work. They are, in my view, lighter than the dust of the balance when compared with the grandeur of the cause and the certainty of the issue, and are not to be mentioned as affecting one's engagement in and persevering devotion to it. Suffice it, then, that the many years I have spent in the field, and the intimate acquaintance I have formed with it, have only deepened my appreciation of its great moral and spiritual need, and the suitability of the Gospel alone to meet its requirements. I am the more convinced, on the one hand, of the utter worthlessness of the native philosophy and learning, super- stition and idolatry to satisfy the wants of the overwhelm- ing population of China ; and, on the other, I am equally persuaded as to the perfect adaptation of the Gospel of the grace of God to supply its utmost necessities, and the possibility of its attaining the end in view, so as to raise the people to a higher and holier standard than they have ever dreamt of, and to bring them into the enjoyment of peace and favour and fellowship with God. Such are the impressions that have been made upon me from actual engagement in the missionary work in China ; and the more I have known of it in its various aspects, the more I have been led to acknowledge the grandeur and divinity of the work, and the absolute necessity of carrying it on for the present and everlasting welfare of our fellowmen. At the close of nearly forty years of missionary life, I may be warranted in expressing my opinions of the work and the office I have been called to fill. With a deep impression of its character and importance, I say, un- hesitatingly, with the Apostle : " I magnify my office." Unworthy though I am of being called to and continued in it, I consider it to be the very highest honour to be connected with it. Were it possible to begin life anew, it would be my joy to resume the same line of things, barring the mistakes and follies that have attended my part in the matter. There is no position that I would willingly choose instead of it at home or abroad, and I can only record it as the delighted impression of my whole soul, that I am profoundly thankful for having been a Christian missionary to the heathen, and it is my anxious desire to remain so to the end of my days. 96 A MISSIONAR y BAND. And what are my reasons for this ? I submit the call and command of Christ in the first place. " Whom shall I send, and who will go for us ? " " Go into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." My entire being responds to this in grateful and adoring acknow- ledgment. His supreme authority, His great commission, and His final promise are my first and leading considera- tions in the matter. Then there are the condition and claims of the heathen world. Millions are perishing for lack of knowledge, and it is only by a course of obedience to Christ, in the proclamation of the Gospel, that their case is to be met. There are openings and opportunities of usefulness, too, among these multitudes far surpassing the fields for Christian labour at home. The work, indeed, is peculiar, and requires the energies and activities of men specially adapted to it. It is of a pioneering character, and its object is to emancipate these heathen nations from the thraldom of ignorance and error, degradation and sin, in which they have long been held, and to bring them to the feet of Christ, and thereby extend His Kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy, all over the earth. Can anything be conceived of grander, nobler, more beatific than this, in the aims and anticipations of humanity .? Is it not altogether worthy of God, in the best and highest sense, and of being pursued accordingly ? And it is no mere imaginary affair ; it is of the most practicable kind ; it has been attested by actual experience and success, and needs only to be prosecuted in a manner corresponding to the occasion, in order to secure in the fullest degree the end in view. And what, in conclusion, is our plea in regard to it ? That the Churches everywhere should rise to the emer- gency. A great work is given them to do by the highest authority, and for the attainment of the grandest object in the world. They are called to it in consideration of the noblest motive and the most magnanimous principle that could actuate and constrain them in the work — the love of Him who died to save them, and whose honour and glory are deeply concerned in carrying it forward, as well as the happiness and welfare of mankind at large. — From " The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society." (gnmabte ^or^. By R. N. CUST, Esq. I NEVER see a Missionary but I blame my fate that I am not of them. Are they not to be envied whose duties in this world harmonize with those of the next ; zeal in their earthly vocations promoting, not, as with us, re- tarding, the work of their own salvation .'' They stand among the heathen, as an ensign of what each of us values most. The General represents our victorious arms, the Governor our triumphs of administration ; but the Missionary displays our virtues, our patience, our Christian charity, and shall we not be proud of him ? I asked myself how is it that so few of England's learned and pious sons select this profession. The vision of one man from Macedonia took St. Paul across the Hellespont, and will no one cross the Indian Ocean for the millions, not in vision, but in reality .'' Will no young Augustine spring up to repay the debt of the Occident to the Orient, to bring back the Sun to the East ? Had I life to begin again, this would be my choice : the glories and profits of other professions are but as vanity. We have fought battles : they are scarcely known beyond the narrow limit of the echo of the cannon. We have ruled over provinces : our fame is as soon forgotten as we are gone. But should we have saved souls, a long line of Christians will carry back the legends of their family to our era, and entwine our names with the golden thread of grateful thanksgiv- ing ! Who remembers the Generals, the Proconsuls of the time of the Caesars ? Who remembers not the Apostles ? Who would not then be a Missionary, the Great King's messenger, whose treasure is laid up in heaven ? Those who cannot attain this high office must give of their wealth, must give of their pittance, must pray for them. ^£)e Woxk an ^rc^angef nxax} @^^P^. By Rev. G. S. BARRETT. I SEE numbers of young men present here to-day. Many of you are hoping to become heads of large business establishments in this city ; many of you, I daresay, have the ambition to take your share in the great political agitations of the State. It is an honourable ambition, but a nobler ambition is before you. The love of Christ may constrain you, and, filled with the grandeur and glory of Christ's kingdom— that kingdom which shall have no end — you may to-day, on your knees, say to Him, " Lord, Thou hast said the harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few ; Lord, wilt Thou take me as one of the labourers for Thy harvest?" It may require sacrifices, but you will not speak of sacrifice to Christ in the presence of His Cross. Men may sneer at you or blame you ; even your friends may question your motives ; but that will not move you. You have given up your life to the noblest of all wcrks-the work that an archangel which surrounds the Throne of God may well envy— the work of preaching Christ to the heathen. That is enough. And often and often, when you go to your work in the far-dis- tant land, amidst days of loneliness and toil, away from all the English love and English home which now sur- rounds you, Christ will come, and, oh ! He will come with that look and smile which means, "Well done, good and faithful servant." Talk of sacrifice with Christ's look thus upon you ! You will say — " Happy if with my latest breath I may bat speak His name ; Preach Him to all, and cry in death, Behold, behold, the Lamb." THE HONOUR OF PARENTS. 97 '^Be ^x^^xowaxx}. By HORACE D. WOOLLEY. What time, with girded sword, the warrior brave Goes forth to fight in lands beyond the wave His country's war, exulting clarions swell ; Cheers rend the sky ; a nation speaks : " Farewell ! ' And for the victor, from a glorious field Returned, all gifts that gratitude can yield Profuse are poured : prince, people laud his name, And history confers immortal fame. Y.et have I known depart his native soil A soldier who to peril and to toil Unnoticed went ; who counted all things loss That he might plant the standard of the Cross In distant lands unblest. Unarmed, he wore No blood-bepolished sword, but peaceful bore The words of life ; commissioned not to fight With fellowmen, but, battling for the Right, The lamp of Truth to kindle, and to win Immortal souls from slavery and sin. Soldier of Christ, for him no parting cheer — Alone fell on his breast a mother's tear ; One only lingered on the silent quay. To watch the ship that bore him o'er the sea. O, noble destiny, heroic worth. Of those who speak salvation through the earth I Nor fame nor wealth they seek, but, Christ-like, go Mankind to save from ignorance and woe ; Man to uplift, sin-ruined, fallen far. But born to soar beyond the morning star ; Rousing from sleep of death the soul divine ; Where idols stood, to raise Jehovah's shrine ; And pointing up, to bid the darkness flee, To tell of Bethlehem and Calvary. What though unwrit on history's crumbling page — Their names, effaceless through eternal age, Are chronicled in heaven. Fame holds for them No laurels mete, earth hides no fitting gem ; God strikes the medal : He, when time has run. Before assembled worlds will say : " Well done." Look where the Missionary's feet have trod — Flowers in the desert bloom ; and fields, for God, Are white to harvest. Sceptics may ignore ; Yet on the conquering Word, from shore to shore, Like flaming chariot, rolls. Ask ocean's isles. And plains of Ind, where ceaseless summer smiles ; Speak to far-frozen wastes, where winter's blight Remains ; — they tell the love, attest the might Of Him whose messengers across the wave To them salvation bore, hope, freedom gave. These are Thy first-fruits : Ride, O Christ, afar. Not death, and not the gates of hell can bar Thy way. Ride on till every tribe shall fall Low at Thy feet, and own Thee Lord of All ! '©Be c^onour of ^axcwi^ wBose ^o^^^ an6 SaugBfer^s are caffcd fo Be ^k\^^\o\\ox\z^. By Rci: Dr. WARDLA W. OUR blessed Master, when His heart was melted to tender pity by a survey of the multitudes whom He saw " fainting and scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd," said to His disciples : " The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few ; pray ye there- fore the Lord of the harvest, that He would send forth labourers unto His harvest." Do we, my Christian friends, obey the gracious mandate ? Is it our prayer that He may provide suitable labourers, that He may impart the qualifications, that He may inspire the disposition and desire for the work ? Do we leave Him to select His instruments, according to His pleasure, as His own wis- dom and grace may direct ? And shall we then shrink or murmur if, in answering our prayer and in making the selection, He should be pleased to come within the limit of our own domestic circle .'' Shall we venture to restrict Him, and to say : " Take ,'whom Thou wilt, but take not mine ? " No, blessed Redeemer. Far from every Christian parent's heart be such a thought ! Oh, let us rather esteem it a favour conferred on us and ours, when Thou art thus pleased to employ any of them in a work so full of honour Were we as spiritually-minded as we ought to be, the joy would exceed the sorrow, grace would maintain the ascen- dency over nature, and we should feel it the very highest honour that could be bestowed on any whom we love, to be employed as instruments for promoting the grand purposes of the Godhead in the Redeemer's mediation, in that won- derful scheme which was suggested by infinite love, devised by infinite wisdom, and consummated by infinite power. My brethren, we are too worldly. How many are there, even among professing Christians, who would catch with eagerness for a child, at any situation, however distant the sphere of it, of peculiarly lucrative promise ? How many are there who would be forward to apply for a situation in the retinue of royalty, or the suite of an am- bassador to some earthly court, whose eyes, instead of being dimmed by the tears of sadness, would brighten and beam with joy at the success of their apphcation, and whose hearts, when they saw their child quit the shores of their native land, amidst the eclat of honourable preferment and earthly distinction, would exult in the anticipation of fortune and of fame ? And is it indeed possible that any Christian parent should feel thus, and 98 A MISSIONARY BAND. should yet be disappointed, and mortified, and downcast, were his child to set his heart upon being a missionary ? Shall the blush of shame rise to the cheek of such a parent, on his child announcing his determination ? as if it were rather a disparagement to his family — some- thing to which he secretly attaches associations of meanness — something to which he may submit, but in which he cannot rejoice ! Is this, I say, possible ? Alas ! I fear it is more. But "these things ought not so to be." What; shall more value be set, in a Christian's estimate, on the acquisition of the wealth of this world, than on the distribution of the " unsearchable riches of Christ " ? Shall higher honour be attached to an embassy from an earthly prince, than to an embassy from Him who " hath on his vesture, and on his thigh, a name written. King OF Kings, and Lord of Lords " ? — higher honour to an embassy of which the design is the adjustment of some political difference, the arrangement of some treaty of commercial intercourse, the settlement of the terms of peace or of the limit of empire between rival States, than to an embassy of which the glorious object is to vindicate to mankind the insulted honours of the government of Jehovah ; to proclaim to rebellious fellow- creatures the peace which has been made for them with their offended Maker ; to bring them back to holy and happy allegiance. to publish the reconciliation of earth and heaven ? " The kingdom of Christ is not of this world." How long will it be ere the subjects of this kingdom act up to their principles, and show that they do hold in the highest estimation the honours which are not of this world ? that they do really glory in the cross 1 that they do indeed "seek first the kingdom of God".' that they do reckon a commission under the " Prince of peace " as more truly illustrious than one under the most renowned of earthly sovereigns ? Let Christian parents act on this principle. Let them inculcate it upon the minds and infuse it into the hearts of their children. Letyoung disciples, such as are " strong, and have the Word of God abiding in them, and have overcome the wicked one," avow the principle, and offer themselves to the honourable work. Let the world see that we are in earnest. Let them not have it to say to us : " In profes- sion you glory in the cross ; but in practice you prefer the honours of the world." Let the love of Christ " con- strain us to live, not unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again." Let Christ be our end in life, and Christ will be our hope in death, and our portion through eternity — Quoted by Rev. J. Kingsmill, M.A., in '■ Missions and Missionaries^' By Rev. W. A. BATHURST, M.A. AND there is a reflex blessing and benefit to the family from which son or daughter, responsive to the Divine call, goes forth to the mission-field. Not long ago I was in conversation with one who told me how, when two brothers left the circle of a singularly united family, the blank was great ; but he added that the subsequent in- borne tide of traceable blessing infinitely counterbalanced the pain of separation. Blessed are the parents who willingly give up their best and holiest — their most cul- tured and cherished — in obedience to the Master's last behest. Such unselfish denial shall surely bring ample recompense. — From the '■'• Reflex Benefits of Church Missionary Enterprise." ^exvxce. IVords oj love and tenderness spoken by Bishop SELIVYN, At the Consecration of the Rev. John Coleridge Pattcson as Bishop of Melanesia. MAY every step of thy life, dear brother, be in company with the Lord Jesus. May Christ be with thee, as a light to lighten the Gen- tiles ; may He work out in thee. His spiritual miracles ; may He, through thee, give sight to the blind, to see the glories of the God invisible ; and open the ears of the deaf, to hear and receive the preaching of His Word ; and loose the tongues of the dumb, to sing His praise ; and raise to new life the dead in trespasses and sins. May Christ be with you, when you go forth in His name and for His sake to those poor and needy people ; to those " strangers destitute of help," to those mingled races who still show forth the curse of Babel, and wait for ' the coming of another Pentecost. May Christ be ever with you ; may you feel His pre- sence in the lonely wilderness, on the mountain top, on the troubled sea. May He go before you, with His fan in His hand, to purge His floor. He will not slay His hand till the idols are utterly abolished. May Christ be ever with thee to give thee utterance, to open thy mouth boldly to make known the mysteiy of the Gospel. Dwelling in the midst of a people of un- clean lips, thou wilt feel Him present with thee, to touch thy lips with a live coal from His own altar, that many strangers of every race may hear in their own tongue the wonderful work of God. May Christ .be ever with you ; may you sorrow with Him in His agony, and be crucified with Him in His death, be buried with Him in His grave, rise with Him to newness of life, and ascend with Him in heart to the same place whither He has gone before, and feel that He ever liveth to make intercession for thee, " that thy faith fail not." THE MACEDONIAN CRY. 99 ii §oitte ovQx anb ^erp u:e." -.c-n^e_cu£. <3_(L.e-eC<:J-n,x.,OL,(<^ d-t- •^. cJ-f-n-e- c?_ij_e_ij ccK^i <5> ^^^ "W^£' /'^^F FOt/ HELP US." ii ^cre js;foo6 a xxiaxx of B^ace6o^tia," ^(t/j xvi. g. Through midnight gloom from Macedon The cry of myriads as of one, The voiceful silence of despair, Is eloquent in awful prayer. The soul's exceeding bitter cry, " Come o'er and help us, or we die." How mournfully it echoes on, For half the earth is Macedon ; These brethren to their brethren call, And by the Love which loved them all. And by the whole world's Life they cry, " O ye that live, behold we die ! " By other sounds the world is won Than that which wails from Macedon ; The roar of gain is round it rolled, Or men unto themselves are sold, And cannot list the alien cry, " Oh, hear and help us, lest we die ! " Yet with that cry from Macedon The very car of Christ rolls on ; " I come ; who would abide My day In yonder wilds prepare My way ; My voice is crying in their cry ; Help ye the dying, lest ye die." Jesu, for men of Man the Son, Yea, Thine the cry from Macedon ; Oh, by the kingdom and the power And glory of Thine advent hour. Wake heart and will to hear their cry; Help us to help them, lest we die. ' Rev. S.J. Stone. J/. J. A MISSIONARY BAND. i;^c ^aif of gi\x\\\a\\\ix^ \\\ Jlsia. By Rev. JOSEPH COOK, D.D. AS I coasted along Ceylon, and the Malay peninsula, and vast China, day after day, I seemed to hear across the roar of the waves the turbulent sound of the billows of humanity breaking with a wail on the stern coasts of our yet barbaric days : 300,000,000 billows in China, half of them women ; 250,000,000 such billows breaking on the shores of India; multitudes upon multi- tudes coming out of the unseen, and storming across the ocean of time to break on the shores of eternity. And the sound of that sea was a wail from servile labour, the dwarfing of the loftiest capabilities of the soul, through ignorance and false faiths ; infanticide, polygamy, con- cubinage, enforced widowhood, and many a nameless condition preventing the development of woman into that angelic thing she is by nature, even without education. I heard the wail of these hosts until I found myself resolved, whatever else I might do or might not do, to echo the sound of that ocean in the ears of Christendom, until, if God should permit, some adequate enthusiasm for the reform of woman's condition in Asia is awakened in the Occident. I wish every city of 20,000 inhabitants in America and Europe would send one female missionary into pagan lands. ' « # « » » » # « « We have power to send medical missionaries to these populations ; we have power to send both secular and sacred education to women throughout Asia ; and he who knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is a sin. Let this wail sound in the ears of sensitive women. Let it sound in the ears of strong men. Let it fill the whole atmosphere of Occidental Christendom until we are aroused to make God's opinion our own as to what should be done for women in Asia, Africa, and all the isles of the sea. — " Woman's Work for Woman in Asia" Jl ^erp %icax awb ^zxx^ ^oreinn %o\\^\bzxcd\oxi. By Rev. BENJAMIN HELLIER. LOOKING, then,at our relation to the heathen, the case stands thus. We have what they above all things need. They are sitting in darkness,we have the light of life; they are perishing with hunger, we have in our hands the bread of life ; they are fallen, we can raise them ; they are full of misery, we can bring them satisfying joys ; they are full of despair, we, as workers together with GoD, can give them the hope of everlasting life. Shall we refuse to share our most precious gift with them, when we know that the more abundant the distribution we make, the more we have ourselves ? Another consideration is very clear and very solemn. The great blessings of the religion of CHRIST never reach the heathen except by our means. It were too bold a thing to say that GoD cannot save man without man ; but, as far as we can see. He never does so save. Did you ever hear of any one in a heathen country who up to a given time was a worshipper of idols, and then became a worshipper of the true GOD apart from human agency, direct or indirect ? Did you ever hear of an ungodly man in England who broke off his evil ways and became a true Christian apart from human help ? Are there any such cases recorded ? I know not any. The men now living, without salvation must be saved by some one, or they will never be saved at all ; the sheep that have wandered from Christ's fold must be sought and found and brought back to the fold, or they will never enter \\..—From " The Universal Mission of the Church of Christ!' ^do \X)\ii puf ^\^ S^axKh io fde "g^or^? By Rev. B. HELEIER. WHAT is all gain of wealth, what is worldly honour or selfish pleasure, compared with the blessedness of working for Chrisj' and His kingdom t Who will now put his hand to this work ? Who will now arise and do service in God's great building, the Church, the result of which shall be found in glory given to CHRIST, in the joy of saved souls, and in the perfect bliss of the work- man himself when the heavens and the earth are no more .? — From " The Universal Mission of the Church of Christ." THE APATHY OF THE CHURCH. ^^p tnorc i^ nof 5>o^tc for t^c Q^ f^c ^ufficienf ^ioi\x>Q. By Rev. Dr. HERDMAN. WE want a motive-power sufficient to impel disciples always with uniform force, which will survive romance, which will outlive exxitement, which burns steadily in the absence of outward encouragement and glows in a blast of persecution ; such a motive as, in its intense and imperishable influence on the conscience and heart of a Christian, shall be irrespective at once of his past history, of any peculiarities in his position, and of his interpretation of prophecy. We have it ; we have it in the clear law of Christ and His constant love. — Mildinay Missionary Con- ference. @r)visf:s ^oxb^, t^e ^ufficiewt '^\ounbatxon. By Rev. fOSEPH COOK, D.D. PRECISELY, these four alls are the corner-stones of the historic Church of Christ I venture to affirm that the sublimest and the most eff"ective words known to human history are those in which these four colossal alls were proclaimed as the foundation of the kingdom of the one God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in the Christian Church. Where, in the whole range of recorded thought have you anything possessing such scope and sublimity as these commands ? — "yi// power is given unto Me, in heaven and on earth. "Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptising them into the one name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. "Teaching them to observe all things, whatsoever I have commanded you. "And, lo ! I am with you at all times, even unto the end of the world." — Matt, xxviii. 18-20. So closes the first Gospel, and well it may close here, for the seventh heaven has been reached in the height of outlook: All power. All nations. All commands. All times. These four alls of Christ, from His supreme com- mission to His disciples, are the four corner-stones of the Church of Christ. — From the Boston Lecture, delivered Match 22nd, 1886. §^rtjsf (|nf^ronc6, f^e ^ufftcicnf gn^piraftoit. By Rev. W. M. THE more we connect this missionary work with a per- sonal Christ, a living Jesus, the more thoroughly will it commend itself to our sympathy, and be an inspiration to everything we have to do. Christ is enthroned ; we know He is enthroned ; we do not see yet all things put under Him ; but He sits upon the throne, and the holy hill of Zion upon which God has set His King is a heavenly and not an earthly mountain. From the triumph of the cross and the triumph of the sepulchre He arose to the triumph of the throne. The Ascension is the last royal fact in a magnificent series — prophecy, advent, e.xpiation, resurrec- PUNSHON, LL.D. I tion, empire. There they are, and it is our Emanuel that is thus exalted King of kings and Lord of lords. When the triumphal chariot came to fetch Him from the summit of the Mount of Olives He would not drop the body ; the humanity to which He had stooped, which He had worn, in which He had suffered, in which He had triumphed, shared the exaltation as it had shared the agony and the shame ; and it is our Jesus, ours still, ours always, who sits upon the right hand of Power, and who sways the sceptre of the worlds. We may rest here. Christ crucified, Christ risen, Christ CHEERFUL GIVING. 105 enthroned. We may rest here. Oh ! I want us to do this, and it is this to which our faith legitimately carries us. Bring your oi^erings then, bring your prayers, do not cease your personal service, for you have enlisted on the winning side. I tell you, as a warm friend of missionary operations, cease your efforts, disorganise your societffes, call home your missionaries, despond, hopelessly and for ever despond, if you believe in a dead Christ. If you do not believe in a Christ who, dying once, dieth now no more, who is Christ enthroned, looking for the establishment of His kingdom, and watching over the progress of His chosen Church, your enemies will overthrow you, the fiends will be too many for you, the world's woes will mock you to relieve them if you believe in a dead Christ. But if you have a living faith in a living Jesus, if you know and feel that in this work you are doing, you are working, to lift the world, not so much from sin as for Christ, and to Christ, and with Christ ; if you realise in your heart of hearts the promise whose music is louder than the storm at its wildest — " Lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world " — then you can do everything : you can subdue kingdoms, you can stop the mouths of lions, you can quench the violence of fire, you can turn to flight the armies of the aliens, you can con- front an embattled world, you can dare, if need be, the fiercest demons of the pit and of the flame. — Mildtnay Missionary Conference. "ISriitg t?our g)f|fenngB f^cn, Brxttcj ^our Wrm^er^, bo not cca;se ^our ^er^onar ^eri:)tce." Very earnest sltould be the endeavour of Christian men and women, in days like these, to lay aside the luxury and ease to which the profuse outlay of our modern civilisation tctnpts us all, to reduce all excess in personal and social expenditure , and study that God's gifts shall be employed only for the right uses of life, and under a sacred sense of stewardship to Him. — FROM REPORT OF CONFERENCE ON FOREIGN Missions, Mildmay. §;tatnpreB of g^ecrfuC %\x>\\\a,. "|\/rORE beautiful examples of unselfish giving cannot be found than many which the various Mis- ■^-'-^ sionary Societies could furnish. The following are a few in connection with the China Inland Mission, most of them within the last month or two : — PSALM 11. 8. Father .£1,000 Mother 1,000 Five children (£200 each) ... 1,000 Feb. , 1883. PSALM //. 8. IZfioo Father Mother Si.x children (;{[ioo each) ... .. i;2oo 200 600 ., 1884. £1,000 PSALM IL 8. Father Mother Six children (^100 each) ... £200 200 600 Sept., Nov., 1885. /i,ooo £500 FROM A BIRLE-CLASS. For ten years a Bible-class has contributed £50 yearly towards the support of one of its members, who went out, in 1875, as a missionary to China in connection with the China Inland Mission. WITH A CHEQUE FOR £300- " It is my privilege and joy to be able again to help in the Lord's work in connection with the China Inland Mission. May He accept it as done unto Him and in His name. None can set forth perfectly His worthiness." U'/TH A POSTAL ORDER FOR ss. " Please accept this small widow's mite I herewith for- ward to you. It gives me much pleasure to put by a penny every opportunity, and to remember you in prayer every day. The Lord is faithful ; I love just to trust Him for all my need. He gave Himself for me. Oh, what joy it gives me to know from China's Millions how the work is progressing ! I cannot express on this how I thank and praise Him for it. To His name be all the glory ! I just ask the dear Lord that He will hasten on the Word of Life, that it may bring millions to know Him, and grant His dear servants their hearts' desire for needy China. " ' Make me thereof a little cake first.' — i Kings xvii. 13. ENCLOSING 6s. IN STAMPS. " My first-fruits." — (Anonymous.) ENCLOSLYG is. IV STAMPS. " A poor girl." — (Anonymous.) ENCLOSING IS. 2d LV STAMPS. " A deserted wife sends a mite for China. Having taught her only little one (now in heaven) the way to a precious Saviour, she longs that the little ones of China should be told of Him who said, ' Suffer the little children to come unto Me.' She longs to tell them herself, but illness and want of means prevent her doing so. God bless China." JVITH 8s. " A penny a week saved by four friends for twenty-four weeks." io6 A MISSIONARY BAND. WITH 4 J. IX STAMPS. " Enclosed are a few stamps, a small offering from one who has watched with interest the progress of the Mission from its commencement ; but the past seven years in ill- health, and for a long time now unable to do anything towards my own maintenance. But the LORD provides for my needs, so that I have not wanted any good thing, nor felt the pinch of poverty. " Many thanks for the paper constantly received ; it is a real cheer to me. " May the light of the Lord's countenance rest on every true-hearted labourer in the mission field." i^Dec. 31s/.) WITH \os. " I might say that since sending a similar subscription this time last year, our home income was suddenly greatly reduced — so much so that we could not see how we were all to be clothed and fed — and one of my first thoughts was that I would not get sending you this subscription. But our Father ' hath supplied all our needs,' and not only that, but hath crowned us with mercies which had been the dreams of years gone by. What blessing I have received from reading China's Spiritual Need and Claims, and China's Millions ! That the Almighty God would continue to thrust out labourers into every part of His vineyard, and to send a revival of religion that would extend from pole to pole, is the prayer of one of His saved ones." (Received January isl, 1886.) WITH A DONATION OF 10s. " I am now near eighty-five, so cannot expect to be very much longer here. The Lord is good in giving me so much strength and all my faculties. Now, dear brother, may the Lord v/hom we serve bless you and yours, and be with your precious children in the far-off land. I have read of them with deep interest, and for their future wel- fare I pray, 1 hope night and morning. I fear I shall weary you with this long letter. It is said out of a full heart come many words. May the Lord pour His Spirit more and more on the dear workers, both at home and abroad, of the China Inland ilission." (January is/k.) WITH 3s. FOR ''CHINA'S MILLIONS" FOR SELF AND FRIEND. "The letters [in China's Millions] bring much stimulus and blessing to our own souls. I find it so, and it brings the workers so near to us, keeps them in our remembrance at the ' Throne of Grace,' for often as we read we have to close the book and lift up our hearts in prayer for them and China, and great refreshing comes to us, and it sustains our interest in them as no other missionary magazine ever did ; and as I read of their faith and self-denying love, my own heart is enlarged, and the little magazine is a means of grace." (Jan. ^tIIi.) WITH CHEQUE FOR ;£2oo. " The gracious God is prospering your work. It is His work to bless human means. How condescending to employ those who, throughout their training, are being taught their utter emptiness, complete nothingness, and entire corruption— but alongside of this. His sufficiency, His fulness, and His new creation ! Oh to rise every morning with the heart's desire and prayer to do a day's \iox\ifor Jesus, a day's work by jESUS, and a day's work with Jesus, and to lie down with the consciousness ' that we are a day's march nearer home,' and each day's little service and testimony not in vain in the Lord ! The Lord our Jehovah, Father, Son, and Spirit, bless you and your household, more and more, and all the labourers iJi zxiA-from and to China." (January 2jih.) WITH zd. " I enclose 3d., saved by three little girls, whose mother has but 15s. a week co keep herself and five little ones. I am sure you will feel it a precious mite, for it is their all from what is given to them personally." (February Mh.) WITH iss. " With earnest prayer for the blessing of God on the China Inland Mission from two widows. " We are mother and daughter, so one acknowledgment will do." (February ijlh.) WITH CHEQUE FOR ^500. " It affords me much joy to be able again to remit you my cheque for .^500, for the need of the many workers in connection with the China Inland Mission. The gold and silver are needful, but how much more the anointing with the Holy Spirit and power ; that is, if God's work is to be accomplished ! ' By My Spirit, saith the Lord.' " Of late I have seen very vividly that we do not honour the Spirit nor the Father nor the Son as we ought to do, hence there is far more of the ' Scribe ' than the ' authority' in our words and our Uves. " Jesus could not be hid, nor can any man who is filled with the Spirit, and such cannot but speak the things they have seen and heard. We must taste and handle, look upon and contemplate the Life, the Eternal Life ! the Word ! the Son ! if we would be living witnesses, for our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, and our joy will be full ! ! ! " Why do we limit the Holy One ? Enoch, a man of like passions with us, by faith was translated, and he had before his translation this testimony that he pleased God. Have we this witness ? if not, why ? " (February isi/i.) WITH IS. " It is a sadly small offering, but just now I am un- usually straitened. May I, with you, be able to say from, the heart, ' The Lord will provide.' " (February 19M.) WITH -IS. 6d " Having read China's Millions for some time, with great interest and pleasure, I feel it laid upon my heart to help the Mission, although at present it is but in a small way that I can do so. " I will gladly subscribe 2s. 6d. per month, and enclosed I send you postal order for February's subscription." (February 20th.) WITH IS. " For Gospel work among the women of China." — A Charwoman. (March uh.-y The columns of figures which contain the public acknowledgment of these and similar gifts on the covers of China's Millions, from month to month, may be carelessly passed by and considered as of little interest, but we may repeat here v/hat we on a former occasion said concerning them : PR A YER. 107 " Could we look at them with the eyes of Him who sat over against the Treasury, our hearts would be strangely moved. We should see, not merely columns of figures, but the love, the self-denial, the prayers, which these figures represent. We should see the blessings which these free-will offerings have brought to the^ivers, and we should be constrained to say, ' Verily it is, as the Master said, " more blessed to give than to receive." ' " We should also see the blessings which, through these gifts, others have received^ We should know how sorrow- ing hearts have been comforted by the kind words and loving sympathy of those who, having caught something of the Master's spirit, have learned to weep with those who weep ; and who by these gifts have been enabled to go forth to preach good tidings, to bind up the broken- hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the open- ing of the prison to them that are bound. " How many weary and heavy-laden ones have, through the labours of those whom these gifts have sustained, found the great Rest-Giver ; how many, through their instrumentality, have been brought up out of a horrible pit, and out of the miry clay, and have had their feet set upon a rock, and a new song put into their mouths, we cannot know ; but we do know that this has been the happy experience of not a few ; and we do know that the beloved Baptist Noel spoke the words of truth and sober- ness when he said : 'No language can describe the value of the blessings which are conveyed to a single idolater who becomes a disciple of Christ ; a thousand sources of sorrow being instantly dried up, and a thousand streams of happiness bursting forth at once to gladden him.' If such results, by God's blessing, follow the right use of money, surely those to whom its stewardship is com- mitted have a responsibility and a privilege which is unspeakable." B. B. By Major T'R'R whole power of the Church of Christ lies iit prayer. The promises of God are unlimited to believing prayer. " All things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing,ye shall receive." How thankful I am that Living- • stone was found on his knees ! Does it not tell us whence came the power for his self-denial, his courage, his en- durance ? Oh, the mighty power of prayer ! How it opens the doors of the heart ! how it quickens the ener- gies of the soul ! how it revives hope ! how it strengthens faith ! Only let Christians pray earnestly for the spread MALAN. of the Lord's kingdom throughout the earth, they will find their purse-strings loosed. The LORD will honour them to answer their own prayer. Only let them pray the Lord of the harvest to thrust forth labourers into the harvest, in sincerity and truth ; they will soon find themselves employed in various ways in His service. Has the Church given sufficient value to our Lord's example in prayer? His nights and His early mornings of prayer, have they no voice for the Church in these days ? — South African Missions. ^e ^peciar ^cc6 of f^c ^gc. By Rev. WM. CROSBIE, M.A., LL.B. THE times have changed ; but the need for the Holy Spirit has not passed away. It is the special need of this age. It would not be difficult to find analogies between the beginning of the last century and the close oi the pre- sent century. History repeats itself And just as during the last century salvation was of the Lord, so now salva- tion must be of the Lord. It is the incoming of God's life that raises the level, that freshens and invigorates the springs of progress, that ameliorates society, that elevates and strengthens the moral tone, that gives success to the Gospel, that fits and qualifies the Church for the trium- phant accomplishment of her mission in the world. And the lesson of last century — and it is confirmatory of the lesson of Pentecost and the lesson of all similar seasons of blessing — is that the incoming of God's life is con- ditioned by prayer. The preliminary is prayer. The law is prayer ; and it is not arbitrary, but in the very nature of things necessary, because harmonising the subjective and the objective — the very adaptation of the inward state to the outward blessing that is pressing for reception and welcome. When, therefore, God's people "give" themselves to prayer, compelled by the heart's longings after God and after the salvation of men, genuine revival is near. The first flowers of the nev/ spring-time have already appeared. And in a little while the hill of Zion, and the outlying wilderness, undergo transformations like those which nature undergoes, when the " winter is past, and the time of the singing of birds has come." Shall we not, then, supply the condition ? observe the law? prepare the way? "cast out the stones"? make it possible for God to bless us and to " revive His work in the midst of the years " ? He is summoning us to the duty, and will therefore help us if we strive to do His will. He is eager to fill us with the Holy Ghost, and is just waiting for us. Oh, how much longer will He have to wait ? How we are wronging our own souls, and hinder- ing God, and standing in the way of the salvation of men ! Let us prostrate ourselves before Him, and acknowledge our offences, and seek the forgiveness that is never denied to the penitent, and ask for the gift unspeakable ; and we shall rise up " endued with power " and instinct with the life of God. The time has come for another great prayer- union, WITH definite purpose AND AIM. And I believe the proposal would meet with cordial and wide- io8 A MISSIONARY BAND. spread response. A miu baptism of the Holy Ghost is our supreme ivant. And it is conditioned on agreement in prayer. And when it descends, the purpose of God in the redemption of mankind, and in the history of the world, will be hastened. Progress will enter upon its last and culminating stage, pressing up and planting its banners on the crowning heights. A new chapter will be written, more glorious than any in the long and chequered record ; and its heading will be : " This gospel of the kiiindom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations ; and then shall the end come" — ^From " Is the Spirit of the Lord Straitened ? " "^I^e ^trjsf awb ^reafesf ^icc6. Major-Gen. F. T. HAIG, R.E. NOW, what is the first and greatest need of India at the present time ? You say we want to send out mission- aries by hundreds and hundreds. Quite true ; but I won't put that first. Just let me say that all I have been saying to you about missionary work, and all the interest I take in it, is derived from actual experience in India. I am not a missionary, though, thank God, I have been permitted to do some missionary work. I have not derived my ideas about that work from missionary reports or mission- ary meetings. I know what the work is. I know Native Christians : some of them I carry in my heart day by day as dear brethren in Christ. Therefore I think I may say I speak to you with a perfectly unprejudiced mind of what I have seen and what I know. The first great need of India, at the present moment, is a great outpouring of the Spirit of God upon the Native Churches. What do these Christian Churches amount to ? There are one million Christians in India, half Roman Catholics and half Protestants. We speak about the small number of European missionaries going out there, but you have in India half a million of Protestant Native Christians, of whom one hundred and forty-five thousand are commu- nicants. Now just notice what an army of workers you have in India if the power of God came down upon them, if the mighty love of God for the poor heathen were shed abroad in their hearts. The natives of the country must understand their fellow-countrymen as you and I cannot understand them. They know their habits of mind, they speak the same languages, and can put the Truth before them more effectually than we can. But the first great need is the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon these native brethren and sisters. Do let us lay that before God. Do let us go away with this resolution in our hearts, to cry to Him to pour out His Spirit on the Native Churches. If we did that, we might then see a great turning of the people of India to God. ^rat)er, fde ^ooi an6 ^fretigflj of aff ^orft. By Rev. A. MURRAY. I FEEL sure that, as long as we look on prayer chiefly as the means of maintaining our own Christian life, we shall not know fully what it is meant to be. But when we learn to regard it as the highest part of the work entrusted to us, the root and strength of all other work, we shall see that there is nothing that we so need to study and practise as the art of praying aright. If I have at all succeeded in pointing out the progressive teaching of our Lord in regard to prayer, and the distinct reference the wonderful pro- mises of the last night (John xiv. i6;have to the works we are to do in His Name, and the greater works, and the bearing much fruit, we shall all admit that it is only when the Church gives herself up to this holy work of intercession that we can e.xpect the power of Christ to manifest itself in her behalf ***** Believer in Jesus ! — You are called, you are appointed to do the works of Jesus, and even greater works, because He has gone to the Father to receive the power to do them in and through you. " Whatsoever ye shall ask in my Name, that will I do." Give yourself, and live, to do the works of Christ, and you will learn to pray so as to obtain wonderful answers to prayer. Give yourself, and live, to pray, and you will learn to do the works He did, and greater works. With disciples full of faith in Himself, and bold in prayer to ask great things, Christ can conquer the world. " Lord, teach us to pray." — From '■ IVith Christ in the School of Prayer!^ ^^, for more ^rm?cr By Rev. C. H. SPURGEON. AND, dear friends, we must get up higher still in pray- i and we should soon have the clouds bursting with ing about Missions. I know some men can get showers. ... Ob, for more prayer— more constant, m- anything they like in prayer. Oh, for some five hundred cessant mention of the Mission cause m prayer ! and then Elijahs, each one upon his Carmel, cr>ing unto GOD '. I the blessing will be sure to come. PERSONAL SERVICE. 109 ^^TtSi^Tonar^ ^xccqqx'^kz^\\\\<^^. »5y Rev. WM. SWAN. THEY should be increased tenfold. If a right spirit pervade the frequenters of them, I would augur great things to the cause. But I think one great purpose of such meetings is by many almost wholly overlooked. They pray for missionaries. They pray for the heathen. They pray for the influences of the Spirit to descend upon the teachers and the taught. They pray for success to the work at large— and, so far, well. But they forget to pray that they themselves may be enabled to know and do their duty in helping the work. A man fallen into a pit, and another at the pit's mouth praying to God to help him out, is a fit emblem of a prayer-meeting where the members never think of their having anything more to do in the work. If the perishing man overheard such a petitioner offering up his prayers, and then going away about his own busi- ness, he would surely question his sincerity. But if he heard the man praying for courage to descend into the pit, or for wisdom and zeal to find out and employ proper means for his deliverance, he would conclude he was in earnest, and believe that such a prayer would undoubtedly be heard and answered. I should like, therefore, to hear the members of missionary prayer-meetings making this a prominent part of their supplications, that they themselves and others also, may be stirred up to devise, and act, and suffer what they ought, that the heathen may be brought out of darkness into the marvellous light of the Gospel. — Letters on Missions. JV fen) #^am:prc^ of ^cx^owai <^crx>Tcc. ^^x>. ^awwxzi ^x^zx. " If I thought anything could prevent my dying for China, the thought would crush . DO you ask me what I think of China, looking at it from the gates of the grave ? Oh, my heart is big to the overflow : it swells, and enlarges, and expands, and is nigh unto bursting : Oh, China, when I think of thee, I wish for pinions of a dove, And sigh to be so far away, £0 distant from the land I love ! If I thought anything could prevent my dying for China, the thought would crush me. Our only wish is to live for China, and to die in pointing the Chinese To His redeeming blood, and say, Behold the way to God ! — From " Life of Rev. Samuel Dyer." ^et>. go^^t ^uni. " Oh, lei me pray once more for Fiji ! " WHEN those who had just united in committing their great, crushing care to Him who cared for them, stood looking at the dying man, they marked how he kept on silently weeping. In a little while his emotion increased, and he sobbed as though in acute distress. Then, when the pent-up feeling could no longer be withheld, he cried out, " Lord, bless Fiji ! save Fiji ! Thou knowest my soul has loved Fiji : my heart has travailed in pain for Fiji ! " It was no sorrow on his own account that made the Christian weep. His own prospect was all unclouded brightness, and he had safely stored his last treasures — • his wife and children — in heaven. They were in God's keeping. But there was something that clung about his heart more closely than these. That object to which all the energies of his great soul had been devoted was the last to be left. He had lived for Fiji, and his every thought, and desire, and purpose, and plan, and effort, had long gone in this one direction — the conversion of Fiji. For some weeks he had been laid by from his work, his voice hushed, and his hand powerless. Yet he had never ceased to pray for the people of the islands ; but now his prayers also were to cease. Never till then did he feel how Fiji had become identified with his very life. And, in his utter feebleness, the spirit within him strove and struggled with its great burden. Those who stood by feared to see the weak frame so tossed about, and tried to soothe him. Mr. Calvert said, " The Lord knows you love Fiji. We know it ; the Fijian Christians know it ; and the heathen of Fiji know it. You have laboured hard for Fiji when you were strong ; now you are so weak you must be silent. God will save Fiji. He is savins Fiji." At this the dying missionary was calmer for a little while, but still he wept. The burden was there yet ; and his spirit, strengthened with the po^^•ers of an endless life, shook the failing flesh as it rose up and cast the great load down at the cross. He grasped Mr. Calvert with A MISSIONARY BAND. one hand, and lifting the other — mighty in its trembhng — he cried aloud, " Oh, let me pray once more for Fiji ! Lord, for Christ's sake, bless Fiji ! save Fiji ! Save Thy servants, save Thy people, save the heathen in Fiji ! " After this he gradually quieted down, and his peace was unbroken. — From " Life of Rev. John Himt.'" 5r. ^Tt>tngBfone. " My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my li'hole self to Thee." " 1\T '-'THING earthly will make me give up my work In in despair. I encourage myself in the Lord my God, and go forward." He pursued his investigations ; but at length the strong man was utterly broken down. They had reached Hala ; and as he could go no further, his followers built a hut, and laid him beneath its shade. The next day he lay quiet, and asked a few questions. On the following morning (4th May, 1873) when his boys looked in at dawn, his candle was still burning; and Livingstone was kneeling by the bed, with his face buried in his hands upon the pillow — He was dead ! and he had died upon his knees, praying, no doubt, as was his wont, for all he loved, and for that dear land to which he had devoted three-and-thirty years of his laborious life ! There is a touching entry in his journal, written upon the last birthday but one of his eventful life, and it reveals at once the motive and the earnestness of his whole career : " My Jesus, my King, my Life, my All, I again dedicate my whole self to Thee." — Modern Heroes of the Mission Field. " Let 7ne go ; give me a guide, I must go." From an Address by Major-General F. T. HAIG, R.E. THERE are noble men among those native Christians. Some three or four years ago I was at a little mis- sion with which I was connected,* 800 or 900 miles from Tinnevelly, and I was very anxious that a new station should be formed. I was aware that it was of no use writing home for men, and I thought to myself, " Why should not the Tinnevelly Church send us men?" I wrote to Bishop Sargent, and he laid it before the Native Church Council, for the Churches there are self-governed, and have their councils and committees. The Council replied, " We will send you two men, and, what is more, we will pay them." They did so. One man died soon after he arrived ; the other was left without a companion, in the midst of lonely j ungles, eighty miles from the nearest mission station. He wrote to Tinnevelly to have some one sent to him, but the country in his neighbourhood was very unhealthy, and, at first, no one would go. At last an old man of sixty years of age said, " If nobody else will go, I will go." And though this old man had never been * Dummagudem, Koi Mission, River Godavery. outside his own little village, he at once prepared to set out on a journey of nearly a month. He reached the headquarters, and then found that in his hurry he had left his little box of clothes behind him on the coast. They tried to persuade him to wait until his box came, but he said, " Let me go ; give me a guide, I must go," and at once set off through the jungles to join his brother. Some months afterwards, when a missionary went up that way, the people of the district said, "Who is that strange old man, who, whenever he comes, has only two words to speak to us in our language ? " The old man was a per- fect stranger to the place, and, being a Tamil man, he did not know their language ; but he had learnt the words, " Believe in Jesus," and he said them on every possible occasion. He spent about a year there, but at last got very ill, and he had to be sent back to his native place, which he had hardly reached ere he died. I say that old man laid down his life for Christ, and for the Kois. I often wish I could put up a tombstone, or some memorial to him, in that wild country, and just write upon it, for the people to read, these words :" He laid down his life for us." " / can conceive no higher privilege on earth," WE are so happy here in the Lord's work. No Mas- ter like Him, and He gives us much joy in His service. There is a peculiar joy, such as I have never felt before, in being permitted to bear the name of Jesus to those who have never heard it before. I can conceive no higher privilege on earth. Pray that we may be faithful, and not only preach CHRIST, but live CHRIST. — Extract from Letter. PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. rri \^^ox> c^mtn^^t9;fon. " If this is the last chapter of earthly history, then STARVATION, desertion, treachery, and a few other nightmares and furies hover over on?s head in ghostly forms, and yet, in spite of all, I feel in capital spirits, and feel sure of results, though, perhaps, they may not come exactly in the way we expect. In the midst of the storm I can say : — Peace, perfect peace, the future all unlmown ; Jesus we know, and He is on the throne. the 7iext mill be the first page oj the heavenly." And now let me beg every mite of spare prayer. You must uphold my hands, lest they fall. If this is the last chapter of earthly history, then the next will be the first page of the heavenly — no blots and smudges, no inco- herence, but sweet converse in the presence of the Lamb ! — Extracts from Letter written fuly i^th, 1885, three jnonths and a few days befoi'e he %'Jas killed. ^er^sonar gjepertence. By Rev. A. W. DO I MUST refer to the wonderful way in which God has at times provided for our needs. You have heard much about the China Inland Mission and about the fact that we receive no salary — no guaranteed support from anybody, except from God. Once I was telling this to a man, and he said, " Where do you get your support from ? " I said, " From God." " Oh ! " said he, " is that all ? " " Ah ! " I said, " whoever else may fail, He never will." The man did not understand our secret. Many times have I been " reduced," as you may say, in circum- stances, and had very little money, and very little food in the house ; but I have never yet been without a meal, and never yet wanted anything which can be called a neces- sary, and will give you one instance of the wonderful way in which God has provided. It is only one out of many that I could mention. When I was in the city of Wun-chau, with two other families of our missionaries belonging to the China Inland Mission, we were a long time without a supply of funds. We had run very short of money, and as it drew towards Christmas-time, we began to expect some from England, which was our usual source of supply. All the money was used up, but we said, "The steamer will be in at Christinas, and then we shall surely get some more." Christmas evening came, and with it the steamer, but not a cent of money for us. Our hopes seemed dashed to the ground. We had in bur house just a little flour and some potatoes and a few other things. We knew that we could get no more money from our usual source for pro- bably fifteen days, and our colleagues in the city were in just about the same fix.- Just at this time, I was subject to a little temptation, for I was offered a situation under the Chinese Government of /800 a year, if I would give up missionary work, but God enabled me to resist this temptation. I am sure that it was a tempta- tion from the devil. It came just at the time when we were depressed and had been short of money for a long time ; and probably had not my wife remained so staunch and firm and true, and so determined not to give up mission work, I might have yielded. She would not think of such a thing. Well, as I said, the steamer came, and with it no money — nothing to encourage us at all. We went as usual, and told the Lord all about it, for we went out to China knowing that we had only God to depend upon ; and we were quite satisfied that that was enough for us, and we told our wants to Him. Now you will see how that day, the LORD having shut up one source to try our faith, opened others. Before dinner time, a Chinaman came along with a large piece of beef, and said, " I want you to accept this as a present. I have received a great deal of medicine from you. You UTHWAITE, M.D. have done me good, and you would not take any money. Will you please to take this ? " I took it, and thanked God for it. Soon afterwards, in came another China- man, a gentleman, with a coolie walking behind him with a large bamboo over his shoulder, and a basket hanging from each hand. The man put the things down in the reception-room, and I was asked to come down. I went down and opened the basket, and found in it four hams, and some little things besides. He said, " I want you to accept this as a present." The usual thing with a China-, man is to expect you to take a little of what he brings and give him back the rest ; but I saw that this man in-, tended me to take all, and I did so, and thanked God for it. In came another Chinaman with a fat pheasant and some chickens and a basket of eggs, and he asked me to accept these ; I did accept them, and thanked God for them. But that was not all. Before evening, a European connected with the consular service came along, bringing with him a coolie carrying a huge turkey. He said, " See, 1 have been feeding this turkey for you for six months. Will you accept it ? " You see that the Lord knew six months before that we were going to be short on that day, and He provided for us. Thus we had an abun- dance of food for the whole of us, although our usual supply was cut off. Several other things came in. A week or two before then I had my umbrella stolen, and during this day in comes a Chinaman with a foreign umbrella, a silk one. He said, " I have been to Shanghai, and I wanted to get a present for you, and I did not know what else to get, so I have brought this umbrella." Towards the evening I received a letter from the custom-house officers, saying that, as I had gratuitously attended to them in cases of sickness, they had subscribed to purchase a case of instruments for me, but not knowing what I wanted, would I kindly accept the money .'' Of course I kindly did. They sent with the letter a roll of seventy dollars. Our hearts were full of joy. We gave God thanks for all that He had done for us ; and it is always a joy to me to look back upon that occasion and upon other similar occasions, and remember what God has done. " The young lions do lack and suffer hunger ; but they that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing." I have proved that, and all who trust in Him will also prove it. I trust that the little I have been able to say about my experience in China will encourage others to go forth, trusting in God alone ; for, again let me testify, it is the most glorious work in which any man or woman can be engaged. — From Address at the Annual Meeting of the China Inland Mission. A MISSIONARY BAND. ^:pirittta£ ^on)cr for ^Kx^^xowax^ "^orft. " IVJiat do Il'c luanl? I will express ii to you in one word. We luatii a great revival of personal piety. We -want a great effusion of the Holy Spirit. We loant another Pe?iteeostal season. Then the numbers of Gods servants luho liiill be prepared to go forth as missionaries luill be multiplied; the silver and the gold will be multiplied, too. The same blessed Spirit which stirs up the hearts of men to go and minister to their fellow-creatures will stir tip the hearts of His people also to supply the silver and the gold. Therefore I close with tlie prayer : '''Awake, O north wind, and come thou south wind, blow upon our garden, that the spices thereof mav jdovj forth."— Rtv. DANIEL WiLSON, Vicar of Islington. " In every age and every land the greatest and most constraining stimulus to labour and sacrifice in the cause of evangelism is loving loyalty to Christ, a sensitive concern for His ho?iour, enthusiasm for the coming of His kingdom, and a determination that His will shall be done on earth, even as it is done in heaven.^'' — Rev. James Gall. g)ur ^XQ^^xwQ, ^ee6 i^ a l^iax>i\^\\\ of 5t^i^^^ "^^oroer. By Rev. GRIFFITH fOHN. WE are told that the disciples " continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." Let us look at that wonderful prayer-meeting for a moment. The dis- ciples, though scattered by the crucifixion, were «// present. Peter was there, but a wiser and a stronger man. Incre- dulous Thomas was there, but with his faith firmly esta- blished. Mary, the mother of Jesus was there, praying for the first time in the name of her glorified Son. They were all with one accord. This is a term of music. Theirs was not a meeting of bodies only, but a concert of souls — souls musical with one sentiment, one purpose, one desire. They continued with one accord. There was a spirit of perseverance as well as union in their prayers. They were commanded to tarry until endued with power, and they simply obeyed. But they did not tarry in idleness ; they " continued with one accord in prayer and supplication." And they did this in faith — implicit faith in their living Lord and in the word of His promise. They knew that He would not disappoint them. The world would have knocked in vain at the door of the Church during these ten days of prayer. As yet they were not fit to face the world. Conscious of their utter helplessness, and feeling their absolute dependence upon God for power, they were cojnp^lled to tarry in prayer. But they knew that they were not tarrying in vain ; for He had said : " Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name. He will give it you." They used the name of Jesus, and put their supplications into His golden censer ; their prayers ascended to the throne of the Father, authorised and accredited by the name of the only-begotten Son ; and Pentecost crowned their devotion. This is what the Apostles did, and this is what we must do. Prayer is the indispensable condition. "There in the heavens is the residue of the Spirit ; prayer taps the reservoir, and the outlet widens as we pray." But our prayers must be earnest, united, believing, and impor- tunate. They must spring from a profound sense of a great want, and an unwavering assurance of the avail- ableness and adequacy of the Holy Ghost to meet it. We must pray much with our converts for this unspeak- able gift, believing that our Father, who gave the Spirit to Jesus without measure, will do for us exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. But especially must we spend much time alone with God. Spiritual work involves the expenditure of spiritual power ; and the soul can be replenished only by dweUing in the secret place of the Most High. " Nothing but waiting at the throne," says some one ; "nothing but keeping the heart under the e5es of the Lamb, to be again and again pene- trated by His Spirit, can put the soul into the condition in which it is a meet instrument to impart the light and power of God to other men." The man who takes his affairs on his own shoulders, works ordinarily like an atheist, and begins to pray only when he is in extremity, is necessarily weak, and doomed to failure. He will be left to himself, and God will allow him to be smitten by his own weapons. But that man wields a mighty power who has learnt the secret of instantly and directly going to God, and of holding face-to-face communion with Him. The enemies of Luther were wont to say that he could obtain anything from God. And Mary Queen of Scots was accustomed to say that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than she did the fleets and armies of Elizabeth. What think you, brethren, would be the result in China, if we, as a body of missionaries, were to resolve to make proof of the last possible efficacy of prayer on behalf of ourselves, our converts, and the heathen around us .'' " I have intimated my fear," says John Foster, "that it is visionary to expect an unusual success in the human administration of religion unless there were unusual omens. Now, an emphatic spirit of prayer would be such an omen. If the whole, or greater number, of the dis- ciples of Christianity were, with an earnest unfailing resolution of each, to combine that Heaven should not withhold one single influence which the very utmost effort of conspiring and persevering supplication could obtain, it would be a sign of the revolution of the world being at hand." Brethren, why should we not have such an omen in this conference ? But to obtain such an omen— to pray for such a blessing in such a spirit of resolve— the consecra- tion of ourselves to God must be absolute. We cannot, we dare not, ask for the Spirit's highest gifts while con- scious of the existence and influence of secret ambitions and half-consecrated purposes in our hearts and lives. We must be emptied of self, if we would be filled with God. Self-will must perish, and the soul become perfectly pliable in the hands of the Spirit, ere we can, as a prince, have power with God and with men, and prevail. We must be willing to be nothing, however painful the humbling may be. OUR STRENGTH. 113 Oh ! to be nothing, nothing, Only to Ue at His feet ; A broKen and emptied vessel For the Master's use made meet. Brethren, we do well to leive our respeftive stations for a season, and meet here for the purpose of conferring on matters of importance connected with our work. China is open now as it never was before ; the churches under our charge are multiplying and increasing ; and it is a pressing question how this immense field may be more fully occupied, and this growing work more eflfec- tually compassed. Moreover, methods of operation have been tried for a long period, and we want to obtain full and reliable information in respect to their intrinsic and comparative value. But I do feel in my inmost soul that our pressing need is a baptism of Divine power. I want to return from this conference, not only stimulated in mind and enriched with a store of valuable information, but filled with the Holy Ghost. China is dead— terribly dead. Our plans and organisations can do veiy little for this great people. They want life. Christ came to give life ; and He is not the I was but the I am. " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The secret of the success of the Apostles lay, not in what they did and said, but in the presence of Christ in them and with them. They saw with the eyes of Christ, felt with His heart, and worked with His energies. They were nothing, Christ was everything. Christ was living, breathing, and triumphing in their personal lives. _ Their entire nature being replete with His light, and their souls kindled with the fires of His love, they moved in the midst of men as embodiments of supernatural power. They spake with the demonstration of the Spirit ; when they came into contact with men, a mysterious energy went out of them ; and, under their vitalising touch, dead souls started into life. The Spirit had taken hold of the highest faculties of their nature, and was working with them according to His own will. Brethren, this is what we must be, if this mighty Empire is to be moved through us. But, to be this, the throne of grace must be our refuge— the secret place of the Most High must be our daily and hourly habitation. We must take time to become intimately acquainted with God ; we must take time to become filled with His power ; we must take time to be holy. May God help us during the days of this conference to wait upon Him in earnest persevering prayer ! Let us put our desires into one heart-felt petition for a baptism of the Holy Ghost, and not cease to present it until we have prevailed. So Elijah prayed ; he threw himself on the ground, resolved not to rise again till his request was granted. So Jacob WRESTLED with the angel. So Daniel set his face unto the Lord his God. So the disciples continued with one accord in prayer and supplication. — From " Beccrds oj the Shanghai Missionary Conference^ g)ur ^frengfl) : c^tr>iitcj ^itto^t wiffi gc^its gluisf. By Rev. H. C. G. MOULE, M.A., Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge. ONCE for all in these chapters let me reverently do Him His sacred honour, remembering, all through the subject. His work. It is He who mediates, ministers, makes the presence of the slain and glorified SAVIOUR to and in the soul. "If I depart, I will send Him ; He shall glorify Me " ; "I will come unto you." But this is just one of those divine truths which are meant not to encumber, but to intensify the soul's personal and absolutely simple life by faith in the Son of God. Stop and think of it in the reverent study of the Word, and it will enhance your view of the greatness of the process that is going on ; but so as to leave you the more free to act upon that process, to use to the utmost that contact with Christ which is secured and made divinely virtual and powerful, by none other than the Holy Spirit. Then, remembering Him, use the means by which He loves to do His spiritual work. " Pray in the Holy Ghost." Remember that a close walk with GOD, by faith in His Son, is perfectly sure, if really close, to be a life of watching and prayer such as never was before ; a life in which the very sense of holy joy and possession will instinctively work in you the blessed sensitiveness which must ever ask, while yet you have, and rest. " Search the Scriptures." For there the Spirit speaketh expressly. The closer the walk with God, by faith in His Son, the stronger will be the holy appetite for the positive assurance of your inheritance, and the positive precepts of His now delightful will, in His absolutely truthful and authoritative Word. " Worship God in the Spirit." Dream not that the life of faith can be its true self in neglect of the holy adorations and praises and confessions of the Lord's congregation. Expect rather to find in every public prayer of our blessed Liturgy light, truth, and help ten- fold. " Continue in the Breaking of Bread." It is your Lord's ordinance, and therefore divine. At the sacred table, taught by the Spirit, what less do you do than put your finger into the print of the nails, and thrust your hand into His side, and say, as if indeed you saw Him, the slain and risen Lamb—" My Lord and my God " ? Deep is the blessedness of the communion-hour, when we are habitually living by faith in Him — a blessed- ness sure to enrich with new spiritual realisation the daily and hourly contact with the living Lord Jesus Christ. But there is just our point. To do that is the true place and work of means ; to amplify, to bind the spiritual contact of the soul with the spiritually ever- present Lord, moment by moment, day by day ; the continuous " Not I, but Christ," in real life ; not I, but Christ in me, who loved me, and gave Himself for me. Yes, let us remember it well. Our strength against temptation, our ability for true obedience resides in nothing less, nothing else, than living union and contact with Jesus Christ our Head. That union and contact is immediate, spiritual. Nothing is to be between ; not the most venerable and apostolic organisation, not the most precious of CHRlST-given ordinances. But these 114 A MISSIONARY BAND. things are not, therefore, nothing. Rightly used by the spiritually-minded disciple, they have a sacred work to do. They are to be powerful things in the way of assuring the fact of contact, and of promoting, deepen- ing, enriching, guiding the sense of it. But the contact, the union, found and realised, is the vital thing, unique, immediate, wholly spiritual. Will the reader make perfectly sure that this is the possession of his own soul ? For nothing less than this is spiritual safety. Nothing else than this can bring spiritual satisfaction. It is, in fact, the deep secret, the substance and the sum of Christian sanctity. — " Thoughts on Christian Sanctity." £y Rev. IV. M. PUNS HON, LL.D. AFTER referring to the removal by death of many and valued labourers, Dr. Punshon said: — There are multitudes in this hall to-day — some just proving their armour, some bearing the scars of battle— who are prepared, beside the ashes of their fathers and their brethren, to renew their fealty to the cause of Christian missions, jealous with a holy jealousy lest our burial- ground should become richer than our Church. Oh, the sole remedy for all our woes, for all our apprehensions, for all our sorrow, is just to come closer to Christ — closer to Christ in personal experience, closer to Christ in daily communion, closer to Christ in perpetual reHance, closer to Christ in importunate prayer, closer to Christ in honest and hearty work '. When good Dr. Alexander, of Prince- ton, in New Jersey, lay dying, some one came to him and quoted a passage for his comfort, as he lay half uncon- scious : " I know in Whom I have believed ! " A fire lit up his glazing eye, and the old Christian warrior roused himself, as if for an utterance of latest testimony, and he said to his startled listener : " No ! I cannot allow even a preposition between me and my Saviour. ' I know Whom I have believed ! ' " Let us get up to that level ; let the great baptized heart of the Church get up to that level of intimate, close, faithful union with Christ, and we and our cause are safe ! No fear of the confessional then. Assur- edly those who will not bear an intervening preposition will never brook an interfering priest. No fear of over- weening sorrow then, for we shall remember that, although God buries His workmen. He carries on His work. No fear of relaxed efforts then, for idleness will be seen in its hatefulness as a sin against boundless love. No fear of straitened means, and empty exchequers, and niggard doles, and small-hearted liberalities then, for the frost of every heart must melt that is so near the Saviour ; and men, putting away the large greeds and little givings of their childish days, will, like Araunah, " as a king give unto the King " ; pouring out their treasures as brave warriors their blood, and giving, or striving to give, in some far-oft and reverent manner, after the measure of Him who, that we and the world might live, spared not His only-begotten Son. — From Speech at Exeter Hall. ^oxb^ of %av9i9- Total amount of British contributions for 1884, through joint Societies of Churchmen and Nonconformists, ;£i78,6i8. Total British contributions through English and Welsh Nonconformist Societies for 1884, ;2346,989. Total British contributions through Scottish and Irish Presbyterian Societies for 1884, ;£l90i439- But how slowly, how languidly, these missionary efforts advance, as compared with what we spend upon the luxuries and indulgences by which we are surrounded ! — Eev, D, Wilson, Joir S^K-|ttiiwIgcntt. The annual expenditure of the United Kingdom for drink during the ten years ending 1883, averaged £136,000,000. It has been estimated that the amount expended in London for Intoxicating Drink is £15,000,000 yearly, or £1,250,000 monthly. " It may be taken as a low estimate that £3,500,000 are spent for Intoxicating Drink in the City of Liver- pool." — Liverpool Popular Control and Early Closing Association. THEATRES OF LONDON AND PARIS. London Paris Gross Receipts per annum. £1,320,000 ;£845,ooo Expenditure, London. Pay to Actors Pay to Authors Rent Lighting, Sundries, and Profits Per Inhabitant. 7 shillings. £725,000 79,000 119,000 397,000 r :; — ^- £1,320,000 —From "Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics!'' ^Mi t?ou f^ina of it ? I AM persuaded that we must rise to a higher style of giving before the Lord will ever bless the nations through us to any great extent. Was not that well said, that our luxuries cost us more than our Lord ? Will you think of that, some of you ? Will you see if it is not true ? * * * The first consideration of a Christian man ought to be, " How much can I do for Christ ? " He pays his way, of course ; but, that being done, he says to himself, " I must cut down everything but my Lord. If I belong to Him, and all that I have, for Him I must live." " Ah ! " you say, "yours is Utopian talk." I know it is for some of you, but it is not so for some who, having tasted and tried it, do confess that the more they give, the more they have ; and, better still, they do not glor)- in having more, since it only brings more responsi- bility ; but it gives them joy and peace to be able to con- secrate their substance to the Lord. The heathen are perishing! Are you going to accumulate money ? The heathen are perishing ! they are sinking into hell ! You believe in no higher hope by which they will come out of it ; you believe they are lost for ever, at least, most of you ; and shall the little account of consols be added, or souls be saved ? Shall you look out for accumulating a fortune, getting your name in a comer of the Illustrated London News as having died worth so much ; or shall souls be saved, or, at least, shall your part of the work of consecration be done towards the work of their salvation? Let each man answer for himself — not to-night, but in the quiet of his soul before the living God. — From a Speech by Rev. C. H. Spurgeon. .^.4 CTS FOR THE THOUGHTFUL. 117 Shoivirii. Millions. •••I34"' "•132"- "■130"- ...,2g... "•126"- "•124"- "•I22"' "•I20"' ...jjg... "•ii6"- "■114"- "•112 " "•no"' "•io8"' "•io6"- "•I04"' "■102"- "•loo"' 98- 96- 94"' 92-" 90"- 88"- 86"- 84- 82"- 8o"- 78"- 76- 74'" 72"- 70"- 68"- 66"- 64- 62"- 6o"- S8- S6- 54- S2- SO- 48- 46- 44"' 42"" 40- 38- 36- 34- 32- 30- 28"- 26"' 24"- 22"' 20"- i8"- 16- I4'" 12 ■• lO"" •■••••8- 6- 4'" 2"' r the cl contra lief item sted wit Intoxi ...0".'. ...Q... —6— "•0-" ...0... ...d... :::%:: ::.t:: "•£"• ...CO... S of till h the Ai eating ...(-,... ...0... ...0... ...d... ...Q... "•iC"' ...CO-.. -Cfl... ... aJ... to ... (])... ...(!)... -0- ..!t3."." C — rt"- ... ^... ...(])... ...s... ... 3... CQ 1 Annuc mual C Liquc ■■'o'" "•0 -d— ...Q... ...0... :!:: 3V rl Expe oniribut :::8::: ...0... ...0... — O"- "•lO""' ...(M... ...q?... "•nj"- ...&0-- ... 3... CO 1 5> nditure ions for 136,00 ...Q... "•d"- ...0... ...d-.. "•{«"• ...o--- ...o... •q"' ...y... ■■•■o"' ... J.... ...nj... !!!©!]! ...5.... ... o--- ...0... ... ^... "•(])"• tag ^/ the Foreigr 0,000 !.'.'o.'.'! "•d" ...Q... ...o... ...icT--- ... tfl... ...0... to ... 0... ...a... ... 3... ...D..-. "•■0- "•q"' ...J-... ...0... to ... 2... ...Q... ...I... ... j_... ...0... a year on foreign missions, which is a piece of refined selfishness I cannot describe." — Church Missionary httelligencer. "^el'igioujs c^u^uric^s. By Mr. SYDNEY GEDGE. HE thought that those who gave money for religious purposes would admit that that did not show a just sense of proportion. Looking to the statistics of parishes and contributions for religious objects, he found that they indulged in a great outlay upon religious luxuries. There was more paid for the nicely-decorated edifices than for building up living temples to God's honour and glory. There was three times the amount spent in building churches and parsonages than was spent for Mission work. He thought it would be better for some of the churches to be left without the spire, in order to send the Gospel to rtie heathen abroad, better not to have such charming musical services than to neglect to call forth people in every part of the world from darkness to God's marvellous light. — From Speech «it the Church Missionary Meeting, Exeter Hall. ^tt^cnf^ ^^iaionjs in^fea6 of ^voo. WE do not believe that Church members give even a shilling a head or a penny a month, or that more than a third of the communicants give anything at all. Even in the most liberal instances, those of the Free Churches of Scotland and England, Carey fixed a penny a week as the lowest and ten shillings and six- pence a year as the average oiTfering for foreign missions, but the churches have reached only a tenth of this a hundred years after he wrote. Careful organization, directed by the highest spiritual motive, has a mine to work on. At Carey's average rate, without feeling any more pressure than at present, and as the result of a more business-like financial system, Reformed Christen- dom should afford to spend at least twenty millions sterling, instead of two, every year, on the many-sided manifestation of Christ to the nations. But the world is a hundred years older in numbers and wealth since he wrote.- — From an article by Dr. George Smith in the "British Quarterly Review" on "^ Hundred Years of Foreign Missions," 125 A Missionary band. Wx^^xonaxx? §fforf not a ^^aiUx of ®^otce. THERE IS no question as to whether or not missions are binding upon Christians. Missionary effort is not a matter of choice, but of obligation. Indeed, it is as much an obligation as baptism or the Lord's Supper. Christ gave very few detailed instructions for the guidance Of His Church. He left her poHcy to be shaped by the Holy Spirit. But one definite injunction He did give and that His last as the Risen Saviour : " Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you ; and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This is not merely a com- mission for baptism. It is the outline of a policy— the missionary policy of the Church. It presents to us a command, a duty, a statement of the principal object of the Church's existence, with the encouraging promise, in view of the immense obligation, of power commensurate with the task — " Lo, I am with you alway." Missions are not optional. " Make disciples of all nations " is as bind- ing as "This do in remembrance of Me." . . . . — Rev. William Dickie, M.A, "Iwish you Would put down in youy pocket-book how much you give per annum for missions, and then calculcHe how much per cent, it is of your income."— Key. C. H. Spurgeon. " I know thy Works." say ? " 'Why Gall ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things whieh If time and space permitted it would be easy to give striking facts and figures to show that the failure to support Missions to the heathen cannot be exclusively charged against any one class of society. An analysis of the giVings of the titled, the wealthy, the upper and lower middle class, and the working class, would alike show results painfully surprising. A comparatively few loving hearts in eVery class furnish the greater part of what is now given* Among many who are Christians not in name merely, Missions have ndt their rightful place* Out of -^81,573,237 contributed for objects in connection with the Church of England during the twenty-five years from i860 to 1884, only ;^iO; 100,000 were for Foreign Missions, and this is typical of all the sections of the Christian Church. When we have secured the lofty spire, the costly organ, the elaborate pulpit, the comfortable cushions, to say nothing of the home and its adornments, we give, as it Were, the crumbs from our table, towards letting the sin-stricken millions of our race know of those truths which are our comfort in this life, and our hope for the life to come. But we must turn from facts so depressing and look at the brighter side. Amid the discourage- ment there is much to cheer — examples such as those recorded on pages 105 -6 tell of a different state of things, and they are multiplying. Here is another in a letter just to hand : — " I have had the enclosed £7 los. put by in case of sickness, but now I feel I would like to just leave myself entirely in the Master's hands, so am sending you this together with another los. which has come from various sources, partly from a few friends saving ^d. per week." Were I in England again, I would gladly live in one room, make the floor my bed, a box my chair, and another my table, rather than the heathen should " perish for lack of knowledge." — Jffr. George King. Duty does what it ought. Love, without stint, does all it can. To be impelled by love is to drown the thunders oi"- 1 ought " in the music of "/ delight to."— Rev. Dr. Dallinger. . IV Wxcw) of ^^ing^ u)^ic^ wouf6 ^orft ^onbzx^. By Miss FRANCES RIDLEY HAVERGAL. " Take ',ny silver and my gold ; Not a mite would I withhold.'''' " '"PHE silver and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of J. Hosts." Yes, every coin we have is hterally our " Lord's money." Simple belief of this fact is the step- ping-stone to full consecration of what He has given us, whether much or little. " Then you mean to say we are never to spend anything on ourselves ? " Not so. * ♦ » - We are to spend what IS really needful 07t ourselves, because it is our charge to do so; but not/or ourselves, because we are not our own but our Master's. He who knoweth our frame knows its need of rest and medicine, food and clothing ; and the procuring of these for our own entrusted bodies should be done just as much " for Jesus " as the greater pleasure of procuring them for some one else. Therefore there need be no quibbling over the assertion that consecration is not real and complete while we are looking upon a single shilling as our own to do what we like with. Also the principle is exactly the same, whether we are spending pence or pounds ; it is our Lord's money, and must not be spent without reference to Him. When we have asked Him to take, and continually trust Him to keep, our money, " shopping " becomes a different thing. We look up to our Lord for guidance to lay out His money prudently and rightly, and as He would have us lay it out. The gift or garment is selected consciously under His eye, and with conscious reference to Him as FACTS FOR tliE THOUGHTFUL. bUrown dear Master, for whose sake weshall give it, or in whose service we shall wear it, and whose own silver or gold we shall pay for it, and then it is all right. * • * * It may be self-denial to us to turn away from something within reach of our purse which it would b»very con- venient or pleasant to possess. But if the Master lifted the veil, and revealed Himself standing at our side, and let us hear His audible voice asking us to reserve the price of it for His treasury, should we talk about self- denial then ? Should we not be utterly ashamed to think of it ? or rather, should we, for one instant, think about self or self-denial at all ? Would it not be an unimagin- able joy to do what He asked us to do with that money ? But as long as His own unchangeable promise stands written in His word for us, " Lo, I am with you alway," we may be sure that He is with us, and that His eye is as certainly on our opened or half-opened purse as it was on the treasury, when He sat over against it and saw the two mites cast in. So let us do our shopping " as seeing Him who is invisible." * * * * There is no bondage in consecration. The two things are opposites, and cannot co-exist, much less mingle. We should suspect our consecration, and come afresh to our great Counsellor about it, directly we have any sense of bondage. As long as we have an unacknowledged feeling of fidget about our account book, and a smothered wondering what and how much we '^ ought" to give, and a hushed-up wishing the thing had not been put quite so strongly before us, depend upon it we have not said unreservedly, " Take my silver and my gold." And how can the Lord keep what He has not been sincerely asked to take ? Ah ! if we had stood at the foot of the cross, a,nd watched the tremendous payment of our redemption with the precious blood of Christ ; if we had seen that awful price told out, drop by drop, from His own dear patient brow and torn hands and feet, till it was ALL paid, and the central word of eternity was uttered, '^ Ids finished! " should we not have been ready to say, "Noia mite will I withhold! ''—From ''Kept for the Master's Use!' "ginii^erjsif^ g>ra6uafe;s an6 '^x^^xoxk^. IN the year 1870, a list was published in the February number of the Church Missionary Intelligencer oi 'Cbe. names, the colleges, and the degrees of all University men, from Cambridge, Oxford, and Dublin (as far as they were known), who had gone forth to be missionaries to the heathen world, in connection with any of our Church of England missionary societies, between the years 1800 and 1869. It was said that at that time there were 23,000 ''A ma?i is more precious than the gold of Ophir!' clergymen in the Church of England, most of whom had received a University education, and yet that of this number only fifty were then labouring in the whole heathen world. The number of University graduates who had ever become missionaries to the heathen, as far as it was known, up to the year 1870 was 129. — The Pimjab and Sindh Missions of the Church Missionary Society. ^oman in JlBta. By Rev. JOSEPH COOK, D.D. BETWEEN Cashmere and Ceylon, according to an authentic and most recent official statement, which I hold in my hand, there are 21,000,000 of widows, and half of these were never wives. Even under the rule of a Christian Empress paganism makes the condition of India yet so desolate, that it is a common remark among the Hindus that the old form of immolation by fire was preferable, as a fate for a young woman, or even for an old one, than widowhood. Distressing beyond our con- ception must be a life with which Suttee is a blessing; and yet suicides are occurring in India almost every week. prompted only by the terrible sufferings incidental td enforced widowhood. Who can remedy these terrible mischiefs endured by women in ASIA except female medical missionaries ? They are wanted all through India. They are wanted in large numbersi They are wanted for Zenana work, iri teaching, for all kinds of instruction in mission schools and secular establishments of various kinds. An angel from heaven itself, as has been often said, would not be welcomed in Hindu Zenanas more cordially than a well- instructed female physician.—" Woman's Work for Woman in Asia." " ^^at i^ WanUb:' By Rev. WILLIAM DICKIE, M.A. WHAT is wanted of the Church is, to open up in all her congregations outlets for the latent missionary zeal of her members. There are thousands waiting for such work, and thousands would be blessed by it. We should wait till they demand it, far less allow them, by our not indiflference, to find it outside. We should provide the education and the stimulus of Home Mission work, so that our people, by realising the value of the Gospel as a redeeming power, may be inspired with new zeal and " interest in the kindred work abroad. It is not money we should demand ; not that first, and, perhaps, not that at all. First let us create and foster this love of souls ; let us teach our people by practical demonstration the power of the Cross, and that love will express itself in free gifts that will become potent for good by the prayers that shall accompany them. — From an article on " Some of the Re- quirements of a Missionary Church^' in the Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church. A MISSIONARY BAND. ' I ^HIS book has already grown to nearly double the number of pages originally intended, but the •*■ inspiring words of the following remarkable sermon preached by the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, for the Wesleyan Missionary Society, come just in time, and must be added. The Methodist Recorder, from which the report is taken, says : — the King's servants which England's most successful preacher displayed to his entranced hearers. He did not fail to warn us of our perils, or to rebuke us for our faults. But his severest irony and sternest invective were so clothed in love, and enforced by devotion, that, whilst every one was admonished, no one could be offended." " Its echoes are sure to be heard, ' not many days hence,' on every mission station at home and abroad; it will renew faith and re-kindle zeal into flames of loving loyalty. Faith, child-like in its simplicity, gaint-like in its strength, zeal of the true Elijah type, love like that of a lover, and loyalty unwavering in its obedience and radiant with reverence, these were the things touching If at any of the mission stations to which this book will find its way there should be a missionary whose heart sinks within him by reason of the manifold discouragements of the work, or whose 3eal is not what it once was, or whose faith in his Master's power needs to be renewed and strengthened, let him at all such seasons take up again this book and read this sermon. It will be to him as breath from heaven, inspiring him with fresh power to live and labour for his Master and for his Master's cause. It is no less a trumpet call to renewed zeal and effort on the part of all workers for the extension of the Saviour's kingdom, whether at home or abroad. Delivered on Friday Morning, April 30M, 1886, by C. H. SPURGEON, at Great Queen Street Chapel, London. " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." — Matthew xxviii. 18-20. BEFORE our Saviour's death He seems to have been almost always with His disciples ; but after He was risen from the dead He was not always with them. He came and He went in a very mysterious manner. The disciples are assembled at evening, on the first day of the week, with shut doors ; but Jesus comes and stands in their midst ; and " after eight days again, the doors being shut," there He was. When they were on the sea, too, in some similar manner. He stood upon the shore and spake to them. He came and went, manifesting Himself to them, as He did not unto the world. There seemed a speciality in His communion with them then ; but in the case before us, whatever speciality there was, there was much of familiarity, too. "Jesus came and spake to them ; " perhaps, a more correct translation would be "talked with them." It was no speech from a distance; but He came, bringing Himself into close proximity to them ; and He talked with them, as He had been wont to do aforetime, holding sweet intercourse with them. There may have been only the Eleven present ; the con- nection would make us think so ; and yet when we read, " They saw Him, and worshipped Him, but some doubted," one would think there must have been others with them ; for surely the Eleven had got over their doubts by this time. Many of the most learned expositors think that this was the occasion on which our Lord appeared to about five hundred brethren at once. It does not much matter whether it were so or not. If He spake to the Eleven, they represented the whole ; and if He spake to the five hundred, they were nearly the whole of His fol- lowers here below. Anyhow, He must have spoken, not only to those who were actually present, but to His whole Church ; because in no other sense can it be true — " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world ;" for they have gone, they have not remained unto the end of the dispensation. We do remain, and we take it that the Master's words were spoken to us all. Christ looked over the heads of the centuries, and He saw us, and He said to us who work for Him and serve Him in the preaching of the Gospel, yea, to all His people (for they all do this) — " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." OUR OMNIPOTENT LEADER 123 My subject really lies in these words, " Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth " ; but we shall need all the rest of the passage I read as my text. The point, then, to which I would ask your attention is this : What the S»viour said to these disciples was spoken to them in familiar intercourse ; and it is all about Himself. He begins by saying, " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." The work to which He is about to send them is one which is very dear to His own heart. He comes Himself to tell them about it, and He puts Himself in the forefront as the leader of it, and as the great source of supply in it. Brethren, we shall never do this work aright, except as we get very near to our Master. We cannot teach what we have not learned, and we cannot learn it so as to teach it well unless we learn it of Him. The first thing the Apostles must be made to know is who He is that sends them. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth " is the very first lesson for a missionary. If he does not know his Master and know his Master's power, if he does not believe in this up to the very hilt, he is not qualified for the work at all. It must be from his Master that he gets his commission, and he must know enough of his Master to knowthat all strength for the work committed to him comes from Him. The whole thing, indeed, is in con- nection with the Master. He says : " Because all power is given unto Me in heaven and earth. Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations." The teaching is to be done for Him ; the teaching is about Him. They are to disciple ; they are not to make disciples to themselves, nor to a party, but disciples to Him. He sends them that they may bring disciples to His feet, that He may be the Master of those who are thus discipled. And when they are baptised, it is to be in His name, in association with the reverend name of the Father and of the Holy Ghost. We are not baptised into this or that Church, nor even into this or that form or creed ; but we are baptised into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost — always, you see, for the setting forth of Jesus Christ, always for the making known of the savour of His name. Whether it be an outward ordinance or the ministration of the word vocally, it is still all for Jesus ; everything comes from Him and goes back to Him. " Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you " ; the Master still to the front ! The pastoring of those whom we have ingathered by our evangelistic services is all to be beneath the care of the Great Shepherd of the sheep. The only statute-book of the Church is the command of Christ. The only legitimate authority within the Church of God is the authority of Jesus. We teach men, not to observe what is commanded by a Synod or a Conference, or by some great prophet in our Israel ; but still teach them " all things whatsoever I have com- manded you." Christ to the front still ! " a leader and commander to the people," the true and only Rabbi of the people of God. And all this, beloved, is to be done, as you see, in constant fellowship with Christ : " Lo, I am with you alway." We do not go unless He sends us, and we go not except upon His errand. We go not to do our own bidding, but His bidding in all things. And then He must go with us. " If thy presence go not with me, carry me not up hence," every servant of Christ may truly say every day. If thou speakest because Christ speaketh in thee, thou speakest with power. If thou goest out to the ungodly and Christ goeth with thee, it is a Divine visitation. If thou dost preach, baptise, or pastorise — whatever it is — if thou doest it, thy Master Himself being at thy back, then doest thou some- thing that will stand that testing fire which shall try every man's work, of whatever sort it is. " Without Me," saith He, " ye can do nothing " ; and our answer is, " 1 1 is true, great Master, we can do nothing, neither will we attempt to do anything ; but we will ever fall back upon Thy generous and compassionate word — ' Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end.' " Then, to close this preface, we have to do all this in joyful expectation — that expectancy all being concerning Him unto the end of the era, or dispensation ; for I take it, brethren, that the great hope of the Church is the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. There may be differences of form as to our expectation, but the whole Church of God longs for the appearing and the manifesta- tion of the Son of God. " This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." We sigh from our very soul, " Come, Lord Jesus," and yet again, " Even so, come. Lord Jesus ! " " The Spirit and the Bride say. Come ! " Now, if I have been able to utter the thought that is in my soul, it is this : — Jesus Christ familiarly gathers us around Him now, and talks to us about that which is nearest to His heart. We are to go and teach the ignorant, convert the unconverted, and build up those who are converted. We are to do this as part of our loyalty to Him, who is the King. We are to do it for Him and with Him. We are to expect Him to come ; not saying, "My Lord delayeth His coming," but expect- ing Him soon to appear. We are to do this as servants that look to their master for their reward ; we are to do it as friends whose great delight it is to do this act of friendship — yea, of grateful love — towards Him who poured out His soul unto death for them. " Jesus came and spake to them, and said. All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." We must get to Jesus, brethren and sisters. We must keep with Jesus. We must live with Jesus. We cannot serve him else. The fellowship of Christ lies at the bottom of all true usefulness. If thou beginnest to serve God, and thou art not enjoying the light of His coun- tenance, leave thy gift at the altar, and go first and be reconciled to thy God. If there be any cloud between thee and thy Lord, attempt not to act as God's servant until that is put away. If ye walk in the light as God is in the light, then shall ye have fellowship with Him ; then in that fellowship shall ye work for Him, with Divine unction and power, without which ye shall labour in vain. Let this stand as the introduction to the text. Now I ask you to consider the important state- ment that lies before us. Our Lord said, " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." "All power "; that is not quite the word ; all authority would be nearer, and yet I do not think authority would be an exhaustive translation. You know Sma/us is power. Our Lord does not care about dynamite power, in which kings and princes take so much delight. Cannons are the last arguments of kings, but Christ has a more forcible argument than these. You remember the passage : " To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God." The word "power" in that passage we take to mean a privilege, right, liberty, to become the sons of God, and it does mean all that. That is what it means in this particular place — all authority, all right ; but not that exclusively, for some are kings de jure who are not kings de facto. They have the right to a kingdom, but they have not possession of 124 A MISSIONARY BAND. that kingdom. But, in the Lord's case, these two together — might and right. He is the authorised sovereign in heaven and in earth. All power, dominion, rule, majesty, might, are given to Him in heaven and in earth. " AW -powtr is gi'i'en." Do not let us read this text as if we were to go into the world and get power for Christ. Oh, no ; all power is given. He has it already. The King of all the world is Christ, after all. It is not only what He shall be, but what He is. This very day his drum sounds round the universe. He is King of kings and Lord of lords. Hallelujah ! The rightful sovereign of this world is King Jesus. It is not only true that He shall reign, but He docs reign. Yes, and He must reign until all enemies are made His footstool. Catch the word : "All power is given to Me." Christ has it now ; as the gift of the Father, it is even now with Him. As God, of course He is omnipotent ; as man. He could not contain all power ; for the vessel of a creature could not hold an infinity. But the text reflects Christ in His united person, in His complex nature, as " God-man, Mediator." That power He, in a measure, laid aside when He was here below ; though even then He was the rightful King of kings : that power He has reassumed since His resurrection from the dead. The Father has bestowed upon Him, as the reward of His travail, all right and all might, all authority and all power in heaven and in earth. He has it now ; His it is this very day. We may sing by poetic licence — " Bring forth the rojal diadem And crown Him Lord of all " ; but, as a matter of fact. He was crowned long ago ; and God hath declared the decree, " I have set My king upon My holy hill of Zion." The Lord reigneth ; let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad ! " All power is given unto Me i?t heaven." In heaven ! what a place in which to have power 1 In heaven ? Oh, brothers, if we had our choice of where we would have power, we would not deliberate long; but we would say : " Give me power in heaven." What a power was that of Elias when he went to the top of Carmel 1 He had turned the key and shut up heaven for the space of three years, so that there was neither dew nor rain ; but on the top of Carmel he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and cried, until he heard the sound of an abundance of rain, for he had power in heaven. As of old, so now, there are men and women of God who have power in heaven. " There," said they of Luther, " there goes a man who can have anything of God he likes." There are such among us still ; but all the power of all the Elijahs, and all the inter- cessors, will never come to as much as this. It is vested in the great interceding High Priest now before the throne, even in our Lord Jesus Christ. All power is given unto Him in heaven — in fact, all the power of all the interceders who prevail with God cometh from Him. He puts power into our pleadings and prayers. A fulness in that respect dwells in Him. He hath power with God, and if with God, then I need scarcely say that he hath all power in heaven among the angels. Legions of angels fly at His bidding ; and all intelli- gences, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or prin- cipalities, or powers, are all submissive to this great Firstborn, this Lord of all, He and He alone hath " all power in heaven." But the text further saith, " All power is given unto Me in heaven and z"« earth." In earth, too, Christ has power ; never let us doubt it. Our troubles come from our doubting about this. The world is in a dreadful hurly- burly. Everything is out of order. The storm-winds are out, and everything is in a rage. Think not so ! He seeth order where we see confusion. Where everything shakes, I hear Him amid the earthquake. The pillars of the earth are removed, and He saith, " I bear them up." The foundation of God standeth sure in the person of the unchanging Christ, " the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." I bless God that the power, after all, does not lie with the kings, nor, for the matter of that, with the mob. I rejoice that the power does not lie with the Premier, nor with the Cabinet, nor with the multitude. " All power is given unto Me," saith Christ. " Britannia rules the waves ! " Does she ? Put Britannia on the waves, and see. He that rules the waves — the waves of human thought as well as the waves of the sea, is everywhere Master and Lord, in the little and in the great, in the present and in the future. "The Lord sitteth on the flood ; yea, the Lord sitteth King for ever." Hallelujah I " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." That is my brief exposition of the text. I may not keep you longer, though it would need much more time to enlarge upon it, because I want now to use it ; and oh, may the Spirit of God take this glorious truth, which the Lord communicated to His disciples, and bless it to us now. There it lies in the Bible like a dead text. If the Lord will set it on fire so that we shall look at it until it burns into our very eyeballs, so that we may see all things through it, this will be a good morning for many of us 1 I. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," said our Divine Lord. Then, dear brethren, I think I can speak for you all when I say we rejoice to have it so, It thrills my soul with rapture to think that He whom we love has power. The head that once was crowned with thorns is crowned with glory now. Let it be so ! No more doth He endure infirmity and weakness. He has left His weakness on the cross, and all power is given unto Him — unto Him whom we love with all our hearts. No sorrow ever tears my heart like the thought that He is dishonoured. If His truth is denied, if doubts are cast upon His sacrifice, I see Him, as it were, torn upon the rack; but if He is glorified, if He saves men, and His name is great to the ends of the earth, then my spirit doth rejoice, then am I rich and abound : I am lifted high if He be lifted high. There is no honour and no praise that is equal to His honour and His praise. Many years ago, when but a youth, I was the subject of a great calamity, and it so depressed me and weighed upon my mind that it made my reason reel. I remember how, for some time, I could not open the Word of God to read it ; for even its precious pages seemed to trouble my poor weary brain ; until one day there came into my mind this thought, — " Him hath God highly exalted, and given Him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow." That thought calmed me. I knelt down and praised and blessed His holy name that if I, a common soldier, should die in a ditch, it did not matter if I could see the Emperor ride by in all his glory. The King had won the victory, and what mattered it what became of me ? I am sure that kind of feeling must often have passed through your minds, brothers and sisters. If He is exalted. Hallelujah 1 We would lift Him higher and higher still, though it should OUR OMNIPOTENT LEADER. 125 be at the cost of our sinking. Let all power be in Him. We do not want any power ourselves. We are sure that the power is so much better in Him, for we know He will use it well. If we haithe same power we might begin to filch a little of it for our own selfish ends. No, we are not fit to be trusted with power. The best men that ever lived are not fit to be trusted with unrestrained power, but as for Him, oh ! let Him do as He wills. We want no limited monarchy with Christ. Let Him have His way, and His will, to the full; for He never willeth anything but what is right, and true, and good, and holy, and kind. Let Him, therefore, have all power in heaven and in earth. We are glad it should be so. I, for one, feel glad that He should have all power, because I have now such a good excuse for oftett going to Him. If I had a little power of my own, I might depend upon it and live apart from my Lord as long as I had an independent fortune. But if all power is in Him, what have we to do, when we rise in the morning to get through the day, but to wait upon Him for power for the day ? If all power be with Him, He cannot blame us if we cry unto Him before we preach. He cannot blame us if we, having no power of our own, go to Him. We must go to Him. If anything is to be done or suffered He will not blame us for being often at His door. If He has stopped up all the wells — all but one, and He is that well. He must intend us to come and draw from Him- self. " All my springs are in Thee." If He says, Why comest thou to Me so often ? we say. To whom should we go ? Thou hast all the springs in Thyself. We must come unto Him. Is it not so? Are you not glad to feel that you have such excellent reason to come to Him, and one that you can plead without any fear that your Lord and Master will gainsay the plea ? Then it is so blessed that all power should be in Him, because He is so easy of access. We can come so readily to Him to get that power. You would find it hard to speak with a king, or with a prince ; but you can speak with the King of kings in the dead of night ; you can lodge your petition with the Prince by the highway, or wherever you may be ; for all powgr is in Hitn. That is where you can get at it. There it is, that the poorest sinner may touch the hem of His garment and be made whole. It is there, that the most tried saint, the most busy man, the man most deeply immersed in business may just step aside for a moment and get power from Him in whom power is lodged. We are all agreed about this, and we are happy in our souls to think that all power is in Christ. We do rejoice in this. The Father has exalted Him. Oh ! how the Father loves Him ! I bless the Father for His infinite love to His Son. We seem drawn into unity with the Father in knowing this common centre of our affections. God the Father loves Hfm, God the Holy Ghost loves Him, and we love Him ; and so we are in one fellowship. Truly, our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. We rejoice in Him, then, because He hath all power in heaven and in earth, and that we may come with boldness to Him, that we may be " strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power." II. — Now, in the second place, beloved friends, let us consider the practical outcome of the truth which our Lord declared—" All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth ; go ye, therefore " — that seems very strange, does it not .? " I have all the power," says Christ; " therefore, go ye 1 '' " But, Lord, we are so insignificant, we are so unworthy ; we have no power, according to what Thou hast already said." And yet He says, "Go ye ! " What does He want with us ? He does not want us at all. There is no want with Him who saith, " The cattle on a thousand hills are mine ; if I were hungry I would not tell thee.'' Yet in another place he says, " Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled Me with the fat of thy sacrifices." He does not want us; but oh, how He loves to honour us by using us ! I have all power, saith He ; I am not asking power of you ; but, having that, I am able to turn to you and say, " Go ye, therefore " ! I will tell you, brethren, how some have turned a text like this. They have said, " All power is given unto Christ in heaven and earth. Well then, it is all right; God will fulfil his own purposes. What a mercy ! Let us button up our pockets; let us go to bed; it is all right ! You would not have us do God's work, would you ? Surely, He can do His own work if all power is in Him ! What can we do ? Therefore, we are exonerated from all need to do anything." There are none of that kind of people here, I suppose; you are all of a more rational sort, and I hope of a more spiritual sort. No ; the fact that there is power in Christ is the incentive to action ; it is not the cause of inaction. " All power is given unto Me ; there- fore, go ye ! " Don't sit down and worry. Oh, what long sighs some people fetch ! " The world is in a dreadful state, the Church of God is all going wrong." Now, I believe there is much truth in all this ; at the same time I do not see the use of worrying. " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth " is the Master's word to you : do not sit down and worry, but go. " But, Lord, here are some of our brethren going wrong ; they think in such crooked ways, and we cannot set them right, for their consciences seem such complicated pieces of machinery." " Nevertheless," says Christ, " leave them alone, and go ! All power is given unto Me ; go ! " " But, Lord, we have not in our days the great men we used to have. We do not seem to have the old Methodist fire we used to have." " No," saith Christ, " but all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth ; whatever changes may have taken place, / have not changed. The same power is in Me as ever. Therefore, go !" The text, you see, puts us all on the "go." If we are in the right state of mind, it says to us : " Come away from your dunghills, shake off your dust, roll up your sackcloth, lay it on one side, and go about your Master's business. ' Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature,' because of this unchanging argument, that all power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.'' Laying the stress upon the next word, " Go ye ! " it does seem to me as if the Master looked round on those gathered about Him and said ; " Go ye — you, Peter, the headstrong, impetuous, that is your weakness ; but, then, I have all power to control you, to guide you. Go, Peter. And you, John, who would have called fire from heaven in your loving but unwise zeal, go, go ; I have all power, I can help you. And you that have been so long time with Me, and yet hast not known Me, Philip; and thou, Thomas, that must put thy finger into the print of the nails, ere thou wouldst believe. I have all power, and therefore I send such as you ; go ! And, go ye, ye men and women, the whole company of you ; go forth and tell abroad the Gospel of My love, because I have all power, and there- fore I have chosen you." You and I, it we look out for people to accomplish our purpose, have to look out for those with certain powers 126 A MISSIONARY BAND. and abilities ; but, supposing we had all the abilities and power within ourselves, we could then take the weakest and feeblest, and say, " I have all power ; therefore, go ye and teach all nations, and baptise them in My name ! " So, I see a reason why there should always be a practical outcome of this blessed statement. The disciples might have said, " But, gracious Master, we dare not go into some parts of the world, because we are aliens ; we are Jews, we may not go." " I will make out your passport," says Christ; " I have all authority in heaven and in earth ; there is nobody can stop you ; My warrant runs in every kingdom— north, south, east, and west ; all authority is given to Me ; go ye, therefore." " But, Lord," they might have said, " we want our commissions. We must not go without credentials." Brothers, you must always mind that, you Wesleyan ministers ! you are going where you may often be asked where your credentials are ; and you and I are not so wicked as to do anything without having our authority at the back of us. " There are your commissions," says your Master ; " go ye therefore, and teach all nations : because I have all authority, I authorise you." The next time anybody asks me for my authority to preach, I shall go on preaching ; and do you the same ; because, as long as Christ has authority in heaven and in earth, all those who are in Him have authority to go and spread, according to their ability, the knowledge of His truth, the savour of His name. All power is given to Him, and now He gives it back to each of us who know and love Him, and says, " Go ye and teach all nations, baptising them in My name." He gives them their passports. He gives them their creden- tials, and then He tells them, what they must often have remembered with great comfort : " I do not promise that I will send My power after you to follow up what you do ; but I give you this, as something better — My power has gone before you. All power is Mine — is Mine on earth as well as in heaven. Therefore, go ye where My power already is." It is as when Israel went into Canaan, and the Lord sent the hornet before them that the inhabi- tants might be driven out, that His people might take possession. Often, when missionaries land in new countries, they are surprised to find that there have been singular changes — political, social, and the like — preparing men's minds for the Word. The great steam-plough of Providence is turning up the wastes, to make everything ready for the scattering of the seed. Christ has already conquered ; He is already Master ; He is already Lord, There- fore, go ye and take possession of what He has bought with His blood, what He claims as the reward of the travail of His soul. It is not for you and me to speak with bated breath, and ask for courteous permission to live and preach. We are the representatives of a great King. We have a right to go anywhere. We have a right to be everywhere. "All the world is my parish;" a blessed word was that ! And so it is true of the Church of God. All the world belongs to our Christ. The earth is the Lord's and the kingdoms thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein. Let us go and take possession. It belongs to us already, it belongs to our Master, and we who are sent of Him to preach His Gospel have but to claim what is His by right, even at this moment. This ought to put the missionary enterprise upon a very cheering footing ; and I pray we may feel it to be so. IIL — But now, thirdly, concerning this statement, of which we have seen the practical drift, let me add, WE FEEL THE NEEO OF IT. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." What power have we? Unless our Master has power, alas ! w/iat can we do ? We cannot convert a single soul. If any man thinks he can, I should like him to try any one whom he chooses to select. If any Sunday-school teacher thinks she can save a soul of herself, let her try one girl. Oh ! you might as well try to create a world as try to change a heart unrenewed, a dead heart, into the life and love of God. No, we must have power, we must have the power of Christ resting upon us. I hope we are not accustomed to say this as a sort of compliment to the Holy Ghost. I hope we mean it. Brethren, it is easy to go into the pulpit and feel that we can slay the Philistines; but we may find, when we shake ourselves as aforetime, that the Spirit of God has departed from us. There is a real power and energy coming from Christ into the hearts of His believing people ; and if the power and energy be gone from us, what can we do.'' We are utterly incompetent for this great service. We must have our Master's power ; and when I think of the conversion of the world — for that is what we seek after — what opposi- tion there is; how can we look at the battle and hope to succeed in it apart from Divine power ? The history of Christianity is a story of the supernatural. It is supernatural all through. It is a series of miracles. Christianity is never truly spread except by Divine power. The power of moral suasion and education we do employ, and rightly ; but the basis, the real power, lies in the outgoing of the Godhead, in the majesty of the eternal might, upon the hearts and consciences of men. Hoary systems of idolatry will not crumble before elo- quence ; long-established systems of sin will not disappear before reasoning. It is the Holy Ghost, and the power from Jesus Himself, that must accomplish this deed; and we feel it to be so. The whole work is supernatural. This being so, brethren, I believe that between now and the coming of our Lord we shall want every kind of power to be employed for the overcoming of the foe. All power in heaven and in earth will have to be brought to bear upon this great warfare, and the mercy is that it is all ready. In God's great armoury are the shields, and the battle- axes, and the swords, and the arrows — " all power," all under the custody of Christ. Whatever is wanted to bombard the gates of hell, and carry the castles of iniquity by storm, is already laid up in Christ for the sure and certain result. " All power ! " Oh, how we want all power now /e all have our theories of the condition of the Church just now. I do not know what yours may be : mine is not very bright. But I have this one belief in my soul, that what is wanted most of all is one great revival of spiritual life — one wonderful downpour of the grace of God from heaven to flood all the churches. It seems to me that we get very much like the barges and the vessels down yonder at London Bridge when the tide is out. There they lie on the mud. You cannot move them ; all the king's horses and all the king's men cannot move them. What is to be done ? Now, will you great engineers tell me how much horse-power, how much steam-power you want ? There is nothing wanted but the tide. When the tide rises, every old barge begins to walk the water like a thing of life, and every vessel moves right readily, and they can all go out to sea in due time. When the heavenly tides of spiritual blessing begin to come up nothing can withstand them. Come up, O heavenly tide ! come up, we beseech thee, nothing can stand against thee ! O Saviour, we seem to see Thee standing at Thy palace door this morning, and the horses and the chariots of salvation wait for Thee. Oh ! take Thy place and ride forth conquering and to conquer. We all cry to Thee: "Arise, O King! O Christ, arise and come to the battle to the help of Thy people ! " OUR OMNIPOTENT LEADER. 127 What a glorious time it was when Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley were going up and down this land like twin seraphim, burning everywhere with the Divine flame, and carrying everywhere the Divine light. Can this be done again ? Can the masses of the people be raisad ? Can we raise those that are sunk in ignorance and degrada- tion ? Do you think it cannot be done ? We think it can be done. It must be done. It shall be done. And this is the reason why we expect it : all power is given unto Christ in heaven and in earth. He can find another student in Oxford ; He can find another potboy in Gloucester ; He can find some one somewhere upon whom He can pour out His Holy Spirit, and send Him forth to preach with a tongue of fire that shall wake up the churches and startle the world. Let us cry to God that it may be so. But we must first deeply feel the necessity of it, and rejoice that this necessity is met by the text : " All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." IV. — Once more, you will bear with me when I say, con- cerning the statement of the text, we believe in it, and WE REST IN it. " All power is given unto Me in heaven and inearth." I &?aA, we believe in if. But I must pause, and say : " Do we believe in it ? " There is such a thing as a sneering belief. At school, in our early days, we had bread and butter. We could not in honesty say there was no butter ; so now-a-days we have friends who have doubts and faith. We cannot in all candour say that they are without faith, but it is only just a suspicion of it. They have just a touch, a drop of faith, on the end of a sword. Oh, that they would plunge it up to the hilt ! They say sometimes, " Why, that man speaks as if he believes it " — it has got to be rather an unusual thing. I have heard say that some speak as if they were taught it, and some speak as if it was the proper thing to say, and some speak as if they believe it in the pulpit. Ah me ! we shall never do anything at this rate. We must believe, with the old sort of believing, meaning that it is true, that we are sure it is true, and that we are going to act upon it. Is it so ? Is all power given unto Christ in heaven and in earth ? " Well, but, you see, in entering upon an enterprise, it is well for us to be prudent, and to calculate the forces upon which we can depend." And that is believing that all power is given unto Him in heaven and in earth, is it .' " But, still, there is the adaptation of means to an end, which, I think, every person should take into view, and oftentimes we are kept from acts of fanaticism when we properly consider the balance of forces." Oh yes, I know all that. I have heard all that sort of stuff again and again, and of course I believe it ; only it seems to me that the moment I get hold of a truth like this— that there is all power in Christ — all calculation is done with. You have a factor here that is absolutely infinite, and what does it matter as to what the other factors may be f This Aaron's rod has swal- lowed up all other rods. "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye, therefore." "I will do as much as I can," says one. Any fool can do that. He that believes in Christ does what he cannot do, attempts the impossible, and performs it. Until we get back this old heroic spirit which believes in the Godhead of Christ, and in the infinite power of Christ, what shall we do ? Why, we shall stick in the mud, where we are now, keep in the old ruts, and do nothing. How ever are we to win the world, if we simply keep in our chapels and keep in our classes ? Let us, in the name of God, break loose ; it is time we did. May God help us so to do ! We cannot let the world die for fear we should violate the proprieties. Let us believe in Christ. Let us believe up to the hilt in Him, and go ahead. Oh ! but learned men have " discovered," and there are " grave doubts," and " the current of modern thought," and " the tendency of the times."— Dear sir, were you born yesterday, that the shell is not taken off your head? All this kind of thing always was from the beginning— from the days of St. Paul until now. God hath chosen the foolish things of this world still to con- found the wise, and the things that are weak to confound the mighty ; and you had better make up your mind which side you are going to be on — on the side of the foolish- ness of God, or on the side of the wisdom of men. If you are on the side of the wisdom of men, you will be shifting, of course, continually ; for that which is the wisdom of men to-day is folly to-morrow ; and you will be defeated in the long run ; for there is no more stark-naked folly in the world than the wisdom of men. If, however, you are content to be on the side of the foolish- ness of God, lift your banners high. " We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness." You will know where you are walk- ing, when you always keep to that which is always the same, and you shall find yourself one day among the victors who shall cast their crowns at His dear feet, in whose name they overcame. I may assume, then, that we do believe in this power. Then let us not seek any other kind of power. Let us not go bowing and cringing to get power from the world. Do not let us seek worldly amuse- ments and worldly patronage. Do not say, "Christ is not enough, you know ; we must have just a little bit of the theatre." Some say, " Let us go to the State ; Csesar, cannot you help us ? " The hand of the king in the old time was thought to cure the evil, and they brought the people up, in order that wherever the royal hand went it might cure the evil. My impression is that there never was a church that was touched by that hand but got the evil, and that it is a source of boundless weakness to all who depend upon it. Our principle should be to see that we have no king but Christ. We do not care for Caesar's power and help in this matter of religion. All power is given unto our Divine Lord; and we mean to fight the battle out in His power, with no help of any other kind. Instead of seeking any other power, we feel that we are of another mind — namely, to defy all other powers. Let learn- ing rise to her full height ; let culture reach her climax ; let all be done that can be done, and when all is done we will invoke the eternal might of Christ, and go forward still to the victory. " All power is given unto Me," saith Christ. Let us lay all the power that we have at His dear feet ; let us claim all other power as rightly subject to His sway ; but let us depend wholly, and alone, on Him who is able to achieve His own purposes, let men oppose Him as they may. v.— Last 01 all; if it be so, that Christ saith, "All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth," LET us OBEY THIS COMMAND. If He has all authority, let us yield to it. Let us go forth as He tells us : " Go ye, therefore, and disciple all nations." Have you all tried to disciple people ? Might I put a question to my congregation ? Are there not some of you who never tried to bring one soul to Christ ? Yet all power is in Christ, and He bids you, as His child, whoever you may be, " Go and make disciples." But have you sought this ? We who are ministers of Christ — and I am glad there are so many here — are we always trying to make disciples for Christ ? It seems to me that it is our one business. I am sure that the less we have to do with any other kind of work the better. We have, of course, to pastorise ; but our 128 A MISSIONARY BAND. first work is always to be trying to make disciples for Chnst. You say, We can preach fine sermons. Perhaps we can ; perhaps we cannot. But that is no business of ours. Our business is to make disciples ; and I confess that I would sooner speak in the most vulgar language of Billingsgate and win souls, than I would speak in the most polished tones of the classics and be simply myself admired. Oh, sirs, it is the result at the last that the Master would care for, that we should really have discipled men for Christ. Has our teaching been all for Christ ? Has He been the beginning and the end ? I do not blame you for making Wesleyans of those you disciple ; but still that is not your busmess. Your business is to make Christians of them. If I speak rather as a Baptist than of Christ, I should be ashamed, and should have need to be so ; for our first business is to make disciples unto Christ. If we do this, we have kept the faith and served Him well. Then He tells us that we are to teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. It seems to me that we are always to do what He tells us, and we are to do it just as He tells us. If all authority is given to Him in heaven and in earth, we do it simply because we have His bidding to back us. We will neither believe nor do anything which is not taught nor commanded by Him ; but be it once taught — be it once commanded to us — we go to do all things, even as the Master laid it down, because all power is given to Him. And as we thus teach and baptise, we then go on further to instruct. We tell men that they are to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded them. Let us take care that we do this. You know that the Christian Church is divided now into various sections, and we shall always be so divided until we all agree that we will follow Christ more closely than ever. Every now and then it is good for a brother to make a revision of what he believes and does not believe. We may be wrong, and wherein we are wrong we would not persist. We may be right, and wherein we are right we should knqw the reason of that right, that we may be strong m it. But the great business of the Church at the present day seems to me this, that after we have brought men to Christ, and they have been received into the Church, we should go on teaching and instructing them in all things which Christ has taught us. We want an in- structed membership more and more. People are getting to be wise in the things of this world. We must be more and more diligent in training them in the things of the world to come. Beloved, we want in this age, above all things, saints- more saints. That Church which produces most saints has really the most power ; and if in our ministry we can, by God's grace, feel that there is power in Christ for the pro- duction of saints, a power for the production of holiness — I mean holiness of life and character ; a power for the production of consecration of the most intense and vigorous kind ; if we can believe that in Christ there is all power in heaven and in earth, to make us live here a heavenly life, living among men as those who are inspired by God and filled with the Divine presence, we shall do for our age something that is well worth doing. Oh, Church of God, obey this teaching, as well as rejoice in it. Obey this, that inasmuch as Christ has all authority in heaven and in earth, you and I resolve from this day, by His help, that we will yield to that authority, that we will do what He bids, do it promptly, heartily, joyfully, and thoroughly. Oh, Christian men and women, if we were half what we professed to be, we should be infinitely better than we are. If we really believed that He had the whole supremacy over us, and therefore gave ourselves wholly up to Him, there is in this Great Queen Street Chapel — sup- posing we were all the Christians in the world — enough seed-corn to sow the nations. If we were all alive and endued with the Spirit of God, and germinating mightily with the inner life, there is enough here to shake London from end to end, and make these British Isles to burn and glow in the light and glory of the Spirit of God. May He help us so to do ! I am conscious of having spoken to you in great feebleness, but I am conscious that the truth I have spoken has power in it. God bless you, beloved brethren, for Jesus Christ's sake. LIST OF BRITISH MISSIONARY SOCIETIES. 129 c^xBt of ^nfijs^ 'g^iB^tonar^? gociefie^;. The following list of Missionary Societies is chiefly taken from that published by Dr. Grundemann in his " Statistics of Evangelical Missions." We have added the names of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the Religious Tract Society, and one or two others, and have also given the name of the organ of each, and by whom published. This will enable any one to obtain further information concerning the work of the several Societies. Where any particular information is desired, application should be made to the Secretary., at the Office af the Society, the address qf which is also given. Society. 1. Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (1701)- 19, Delahay-Street, Westminster, London. 2. Baptist Missionary Society (1792)— 19, Furnival-street, Holborn, London, E.G. 3. London IWissionary Society (1792)— 14, Blomfjeld-street, London-wall, E.G. 4. Church Missionary Society (1799)— Salisbury-square, London, E.G. 5. Wesleyan Missionary Society (1813)— 17, Bishopsgate-street Within, London, E.G. 6. General Baptist Missionary Society (1816)- 60, Wilson-street, Derby, England. 7. Established Church of Scotland (1829)— 6, N. St. David's-street, Edinburgh. 8. Irish Presbyterian Foreign Mission (1840)— 12, May-street, Belfast, Ireland. 9. Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Foreign Missionary Society (1840)— 28, Breckfield-road South, Liverpool. 10. Free Church of Scotland (1843)— Free Ghurch Offices, 15, New Bank-st., Edinburgh. Organ of Society, Mission Field — Monthly, 2d. The Gospel Missionary — Monthly, Jd. G. Bell and Sons, Covent-garden ; and Wells Gardner, Darton, and Co , Paternoster-buildings. The Missionary Herald Monthly, id. The fuvenile Missionary Herald — Monthly, Jd. Alexander and Shepheard, 21, Furnival-street, Holborn. The Chronicle of the London Missionary Society — Monthly, id. Juvenile Missionary Magazine — Monthly, \&. J. Snow and Co., 2, Ivy-lane, E.G. The Church Missionary Intelligencer — Monthly, 6d. The Church Missionary Gleaner — Monthly, id. The Church Missionary Juvenile Instructor — Monthly, Jd. Seeley and Co., Essex-street, W.C. Wesleyan Missionary Notices — Monthly, id. At Home and Abroad — Monthly, id. Wesleyan Mission House, 17, Bishopsgate-street Within. General Baptist Magazine and Missionary Observer — Monthly,2d. E. Marlborough and Go., 51, Old Bailey, E.G. The Church of Scotland Home and Foreign Mission Record— Monthly, id. R. and R. Clark, 42, Hanover-street, Edinburgh. The Missionary Herald — Monthly, Jd. Assembly's Offices, 12, May-street, Belfast. Y Drysorfa — Monthly, 4d. P. M. Evans and Sons, Holywell. Free Church cf Scotland Monthly Record — Monthly, id. T. Nelson and Sons, 35, Paternoster-row, E.G. 11. South American Missionary Society South American Missionary Magazine— Uonl'ixly, 16^. (1844)— Seeley and Co., Essex-street, W.C. I, Clifford's-inn, Fleet -street, London, W.C. 12. Presbyterian Church of England (1845)- 7, East India-avenue, E.G. 13. United Presbyterian Church of Scot- land (1847)- CoUege Building, Castle-terrace, Edinburgh. The Messenger and Missionary Record — Monthly, id. The Messenger for the Children — Monthly 3d. Publication Committee, 18, Paternoster-square, E.G. The Missionary Record of the United Presbyterian Church- Monthly, id. J. Cochrane, U.P. College-buildings, Castle-terrace, Edinburgh. 130 A MISSIONARY BAND. Society. 14. Indian Female Normal School and In- struction Society (1852)— 2, Adelphi-terrace, Strand, London, W.C. 15. Melaneslan Mission (1848)— Bromfield Vicarage, R.S.O., Shropshire, England. 16. United Methodist Free Churches' Foreign Mission (1857)— 443, Glossop-road, Sheffield. 17. Methodist New Connexion (1837)- Ranmoor, Sheffield, England. i8. Universities' Mission to Central Africa (1859)- 14, Delahay-street, Westminster, London, S.W. 19- Christian Vernacular Education Society for India (1858)— 7, Adam-street, Strand, London, W.C. 20. China Inland Mission (1865)— 6, Pyrland-road, Mildmay, London, N. 21. Friends' Foreign Mission Association (1867)- Buckfield, Leominster, Herefordshire. 22. Primitive Methodist Missionary Society— 71, Free Grove-road, HoUoway, London, N. 23. Original Secession Church of Scotland (1872)- 4, PoUok Villas, Pollokshaws, Glasgow. 24. Society for Promoting Female Educa- tion in the East (1834)— 267, Vauxhall Bridge-road, London, S.W. 25. Scottish Episcopal Church— 26. Medical Missionary Association— 104, Petherton-road, London, N. 27. Moravian Missions— 29, Ely-place, London, E.G. 28. The British and Foreign Bible Society (1804)- 29. The Religious Tract Society (1799)— 56, Patemoster-row, E.G. Organ of Society. Indian Female Evangelist — Quarterly, 3d. J. Nisbet and Co., 2i, Berners-stlree'., W. United Methodist Free Chunk Magazine — Monthly, 6d, A. Crombie, 119, Salisbury-square, E.G. Methodist New Connexion Magazine — Rev. C. D.Ward,D.D.,4,LondonHouse-yd., St. Paul's, E.G Central Africa — ^Monthly, id. Wells Gardiner, 2 Paternoster-buildings. Light for India — Quarterly, id. E. Stock, 62, Paternoster-rovi', E.G. ChincCs Millions — Monthly, id. Morgan and Scott, 12, Paternoster-buildings, E.G. The Friend of Missions — Monthly, id. S. W. Partridge and Go., 9, Paternoster-row, E.G. Primitive Methodist Magazine — Monthly 6d. Missionary Society Records — Bi-monthly. J. Toulson, 6, Sutton-street, Commercial-road, E. Original Secession Magazine — Bi-monthly, 6d. J. Gemmell, 15, George IV. Bridge, Edinburgh. Female Missionary Intelligencer — Monthly, id, J. F. Shaw and Co., 48, Paternoster-row, E.G. Mission Chronicle of the Scottish Episcopal Church — Quarterly, 3d. W. Blackwood and Sons, 37, Patemoster-row, E.G. Medical Missions at Home and Abroad — Monthly, id. Arthur Standing, 14, Paternoster-square, E.G. Periodical Accounts — Quarterly, 6d. Moravian Missionary Reporter — Monthly, id. Moravian Publication Office, 32, Fetter-lane, E.G. The Monthly Reporter of the British and Foreign Bible Society — Monthly, ^d. Gleanings for the K;««^— Monthly, Jd. 146, Queen Victoria-street, E.G. Religious Tract Society's Record of Work at Home and Abroad — Quarterly, 56, Paternoster-row, E.G. -#-^ ^r" ^c->^-«M®^^-)^ " T.^^ Missionary Societies flood the world with interesting information, but '• there are some who will not read them. The Sunday-school is instructed in the {' ^5) details of St. Pauts missionary jour/ieys, but knows nothing, or next to nothin'^, c-\ 1 of the great work of the successors of St. Paid. And yet the Reports of Missionary \ ) Societies, and their Periodicals, are filled with greater interest tJian the most \ fascinating romance, and have the advantage, er perhaps disadvantage, of being ^ ' ftrue. Perils by land, perils by sea, perils by robbers, perils by the heathen, perils in I j the city, perils in ths wilderness, perils among false brethren : in weariness, iti painfulness, in watchings often, iit cold and nakedness, besides the care of all the Churches J moving accidents by flood and field; disappointments and successes ; triumphs and abasements ; all these and more are to be found. As the narrative flows on in its simplicity, the narrow walls of the room seem to expand, and the reader is transported in thought to the great cities of Asia, the inhospitable regions of North America and the vast deserts of Africa. There stands an honest, God- feat:ing man, one of the reader's own race and kin and language, sent out to preach the Gospel by his Church, and is he not something in this cold, self-seeking, material age to be proud of? He has given up the prospect of wealth and honour and ease in his own country, and has gone out to endure hardship for the sake of the suflering, the oppressed, and the ignorant j nor has he gone alone, for by his side there moves a form scattering sweet flowers round his life in those God-forsaken regions attracting io herself hearts by the strange sight of the beauty of holiness ; they call her, in their untutored accents, an angel j he calls her wife, who, like Ruth, will not leave him. Are such stories as these not worth reading ? " — " A Cry for Missions and a Missionary Spirit," by R. N. CusT, Esq. ^ i^:±. ->#■ [ 131 J 5>tBtingui^^c6 ^S^i^^ionartc^. "And in that day when He comes to make up His jewels, I wonder if any brighter names will shine forth in the galaxy of heaven than the names of those great British Missionaries whom this century has produced — Henry Martyn, William Carey, Judson, Morrison, Marsden, Williams, Johnson, Hunt, Gardiner, Duff, Livingstone, Moffat, Bishop Patteson, the Martyr of Melanesia!' — Lord Cairns, in his last Public Address. Price 3^. dd. Life of Henry Martyn. By Rev. John Sargeant. "As to the name that should stand foremost on the list of 'Modern Heroes of the Mission Field,' there can scarcely be a doubt For the saintliness of his character, the devotedness of his life, and the influence of his bright though brief career, his name [Henry Martyn 's] stands confessedly pre-eminent." — From " Modern Heroes of the Mis- sion Fields^ London : Seeley and Co., Essex Street, Strand. Price 2J'. 6d. Henry Martyn. By C. D. Bell, D.D., Honorary Canon of Carlisle, and Rector of Cheltenham. "A worthy record of a noble life." — Whitehall Review. " In every way a most delightful volume." — Rock. London : HoDDER AND Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. Portrait and other Illustratio7is, 8vo, i6s. Life of William Carey, D.D., Shoemaker and Missionary, Professor of Sanscrit, Bengalee, and Mara- thee at the College of Fort WiUiam, Calcutta, 1761-18^4. tEORGE Smith, LL.D., Author of the Lives of John By George Wilson and Alexander Duff. tions. 8vo. Portraits and other Illustra- " There have been many lives of Dr. Carey, and he deserves many, but this is the fullest and the best."— Sfiectalor. " The records of Christian heroism and enterprise contain no more enkindling page and few that tell their story more delightfully."— Literary IVorld. " For more than half a century the world has waited for an adequate life of William Carey, the father of modern Missions, and the Wycliffe of Asia. Dr. Smith's work now leaves nothing to be desired, and is worthy to take its place by the side of his lives of Duff and Wilson."— London Quarterly Review. London : John Murray, Albemarle Street. Price 2s. bd. William Carey. By James Culross, D.D. "The work has a special value in recording an important chapter of Anglo-Indian history. It seems to us very well written."— Academy. "An excellent monograph. Dr. Culross has done his work well."— Athencsum. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. Price gj. Adoniram Judson, D.D., his Life and La- bours. By his Son, Edward Judson. "In spiritual stature; in absolute self-surrender and absorption in God's work, he was of the truly heroic type. In the calendar of the Universal Church his name will ever rank beside the Xaviers, the Martyns, the Brainerds, the Careys, the Livingstones— the most Christlike because the most self-renouncing souls. His distinctive glory in the future will be as the Apostle of Burmah It is because Judson's spirit of intense faith and intense devotion is indis- pensable to the Church, that we rejoice in the publication of lives like this. May many readers catch the holy flame ! " — The Londoit Quarterly Review. London : HoDDER and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. [ 132 Sixty-sixth Thousand. ?>vo, is. ; cloth, is. bd. John 'Williams. A Narrative of Missionary Enterprises in the South Sea Islands ; with remarks upon the Natural History of the Islands, and the Origin, Lan- guages, Traditions, and Usages of the Inhabitants. By Rev. John Williams. Unabridged Edition, with En- gravings. "The dangers which the missionary has to encounter in his contests with barbarous superstition; the satisfaction which rewards his toil when he sees a healthy civilisation growing up around him ; his hopes and cares and varied labours are all portrayed with liveliness m Mr. Williams' admirable volume."— 77;^ Athenaeum. London : John Snow and Co., 2, Ivy Lane, Paternoster Row. Crown 8»o, Illustrated. Price \s. bd. ; superior paper, 2s. 6d. Life of the Rev. John Hunt, Missionary to the Cannibals of Fiji. By Rev. G. s! RowE. "Here ends the history of John Hunt, whom the Spirit of God found an unlettered ploughboy on the broad plains of Lincolnshire, and changed his heart, and gave him power to bless the country folk, and then the citizens, with his words ; who left the fields and wrought hard in his study, and being full of faith and the Holy Ghost, did, by his preaching, turn many to righteousness ; who, being sent to the ends of the earth to preach Christ, went forth with cheerful faith ; who made a home among the savage men-eaters of Fiji, and prayed and toiled, until he saw many of these men of blood living blameless, loving, and useful lives, and reading in their own rich language the New Testament of the Lord Jesua."— Extract. London : T. Woolmer, 66, Paternoster Row. Price 2s. bd. Alexander Duff. By Thomas Smith, D.D. " As an original study of a great man by one of his most intimate friends and co-workers, it would be impossible to speak too highly of this little volume." — Christian Leader. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. Third Edition, 6s. The Personal Life of David Livingstone, LL.D., D.C.L., F.R.S., chiefly from his unpubhshed journals and correspondence in the possession of his family. By William Gardner Blaikie, D.D., LL.D., New College, Edinburgh. With Portrait and Map. "As a man, a Christian and a missionary, a philanthropist, and a scientist, Livingstone ranks with the greatest of our race. Nothing can be more telling than his life as an evidence of the truth and power of Christianity ; as a plea for Christian missions and civilisation; or as an illustration of the connection between religion and science."— Extract from the Preface. London : John Murray, Albemarle Street. Fifty-third Thousand. Crown 8-vo, cloth, y. bd. David Livingstone. The Story of his Life and Labours ; or. The Weaver Boy who became a Mis- sionary. By H. G. Adams. With Steel Portrait and Thirty Illustrations. "An admirable condensation of 'The Story of the Life and Labours of Dr. Livingstone.' Comprehensive in range, abounding in detail, and vividly presenting the graphic description of the great explorer himself"— /fccorrf. London : Hodder AND STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. 5)i^fincjui^^c6 ^iTi^^ionaric^. " We may challenge the history of the world to produce instances of heroism more exalted or more heart- stirring than those which are enumerated hete; and we may claim for these champions of the Cross a valour and a self-devotion as disinterested as they were sublime." — From " Modern Heroes of the Mission Field." Crown 8vo, cloth, Is. 6d. The Lives of Robert and Mary Moffat. By their Son, John Smith Moffat. "With new Preface, and Supplementary Chapter by the Author. Four Portraits, Four Illustrations (two of which are new), and Two Maps. London : T. Fisher Unwin, 26, Paternoster Square. Fifth Edition. 2 vols., crown Svo, 12s. Patteson. Life and Letters of John Coleridge Patteson, D.D., Missionary Bishop. By Charlotte M. YoNGE, Author of " The Heir of Redclyffe," with Portraits engraved by Jeens, after Richmond, and from Photograph. Maps and Illustrations. " Such a life, with its grand lessons of unselfishness, is a blessing and an honour to the age in which it is lived. The biography which we have here reviewed cannot be studied without pleasure and profit, and, indeed, we should think little of the man who did not rise from the study of it better and wiser." — Saturday Review. " In him were singularly combined the spirit of chivalry, the glorious ornament of a bygone time ; the spirit of charity, rare in every age ; and the spirit of reverence, which the favourite children of this genera- tion appear to have combined to ban. It is hardly possible to read the significant but modest record of his sacrifices, his labours, his perils, and his cares, without being vividly reminded of St. Paul, the prince and model of all missionary labourers, without feeling that the apos- tolic pattern is not even now without its imitators, and that the copy in this case, well and truly, and not remotely, recalls the original." The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P. London; Macmillan and Co. With Portrait. Small crown Zvo, cloth, y. bd. Burns (W. C.)- Memoir of the late Rev. William C. Burns, M.A., Missionary to China. By the late Professor Islay Burns, D.D., Glasgow. Crown 8vo, cloth, ^s. td. Weitbrecht (J. J.). Memoir of the Rev. J. J. Weitbrecht, late Missionary of the C.M.S. in Bengal compiled by his Widow from his Journal and his Letters' With a Preface by the late Rev. H. Venn, M.A. London : James Nisbet and Co., 2, Bemers Street. Crown Zvo, ^s. Modern Heroes of the Mission-Field. By the Right Rev. W. Pakenham Walsh, D.D., Lord Bishop of Ossory. The lives sketched in this volume include : Henry Martyn William Carey, Adoniram Judson, Robert Morison, Samuel Marsden, John Williams, WiUiam Johnson, John Hunt, Allen Gardiner, Alex. Duff, David Livingstone, and Bishop Patteson. "It is a very noble record. . . . The sketches are necessarily brief, but they are discriminating and Just, and furnish admirable estl!- mates of the work of e^sHa." —British Quarterly Review. "The man who can read these brief biographies without beine stirred to the very depths of his nature with noble ambition, must indeed be cold of heart and dull of hrms.."—Weskyan Methodist Afj^rrft Kit/It?. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 27, Paternoster Row. Crown 8vo. Third Edition, y. bd. Master Missionaries : Studies in Heroic Pioneer Work. By Alexander H. Japp, LL.D., F.R.S.E. With Portraits and Illustrations. " An extremely interesting book. The reader need not be afraid of falling into beaten tracks here." — The Guardian. "A collection of sketches from the practised pen of Dr. Japp, of men who have rendered good service to their race. All are graphic and very interesting." — Nonconformist. " It brings before the reader a vivid conception of all the grandest chapters in pioneer effort throughout the world. There are many who must have felt the want of just such ahandy book as this, and these will be grateful to Dr. ]s.^p."— Glasgow Mail. London ; T. Fisher Unwin, 26, Paternoster Square. Crown Svo, with Portrait, is. Memoir of the Rev. John Thomas, of the Friendly Islands. By the Rev. G. Stringer Rowe. " One of the most wonderful chapters in the Missionary history of the Church." — Methodist Times. Crown ?nio, cloth. Price Is. Memoir of Mary Calvert. By G. Stringer Rowe. Crown 8vo, ^rice is. Memoir of Mrs. Scarborough, of the Hankow Mission. With Introduction by Rev. E. E. Jenkins, M.A. London : T. Woolmer, 66, Paternoster Row. With Portrait, crown 8vo, Illicstrated, cloth, gilt edges, price 2s. dd. Alfred Saker, Missionary to Africa. By Edward Bean Underhill, LL.D., Hon. Sec. Baptist Missionary Society. " Pre-eminently worthy of wide circulation."— CAm/ia«. _," A perfect portrait of one of the noblest heroes of our century "_ Christian Leader. "A bright little record of a sublime cs.reer."— Christian World. London : Alexander and Shepheard, 21, Castle Street Holborn. ' A Memoir of William Jackson Elmslie, M A M.D.,F.R.C.S.E., etc. By W. Burns Thomson. " '' "Finished 'Seed-time in Kashmir ' (Elmslie's life, the medical mis sionary), and felt a distinct call from God there and then to dediratj my life to the same work ; for this resolve I shall bless God through all eternity I thank Hun that He has called me to this grand and Zrious work. Oh, may He Himself make me faithiul,and^fit me fo? it""!! From Diary oj Dr. Schofield. = lui lu . _ London; James Nisbet and Co., 21, Bemers Street. Crown 8vo, ^s. Heroines of the Mission Field. Biographical Sketches of Female Missionaries who have laboured in various lands among the Heathen. MOND Pitman. By Mrs. Emma Ray- i^ZZ] London ; Cassell, Petter, Galpin and Co. 31 ^etovebJW^V^&idan. Extracts from Dr. SCHOFIELD S LETTERS AND DIARIES. B^Openlrheanind7EEpfTrENt'?,';h';°" '"r^rV' ^^^r'^ ^^'P '^^=°"« ^'-"-t ^y*'"? - =^ Christian. blautifuriettiZifsend r^u.h ^n^ ?i, ^^ °^ V^^ ^"""^ J^^^^s, and to the love of others, Ind to everything pleasure anlthlpowe^^ Father who gives you bo[h thi We cannot ex- pect successfuUy to imitat€ Christ, unless we contem- plate His person ; any more than a painter can repro- duce a landscape without his study- ing it, and drink- ing in the spirit which pervades the whole. We must take time to sit at His feet, studying His cha- racter as revealed to us in the Gos- pels, and being transformed, as it were, unconsci- ously into His image. What we want is not more knowledge of truth, but more practical carrying it out. The love ol Jesus can do any- thing. Paul and Barnabas were mere men who had hazarded their lives for Christ. What have you hazardedfor Him? You must be con- tent to be consi- dered peculiar — enthusiasts, if you will ; for are not those who are bad enthusiastic enough about their own bad- ness? What en- thusiasm do you show for your Master ? How do you commend Him if you do not show this enthu- siasm ? iiHfai ./itiMtw^**^'£- M Afe^S^^jto DR. HAROLD SCHOFIELD. {From a Photograph by Byrne & Co.t Richmond.) Make me real. Make me like one who waits for his LORD. Give me to meditate constantly on Thy Word. Do make Thy Word continually the food of my soul. Give a constant desire at least to do Thy will. Enable me at least to aim at nothing less than walking in this world as CHRIST Himself walked ! Save me from the subtle snare ot lowering my standard bit by bit to meet my miserable attainments. Oh, take my all, and fill my heart, and make, me wholly Thine. Do so reveal Thy beauty to me that to testify of Thee may be no effort, but spontaneous, Make me a great blessing and joy to my mother, brothers, and sisters. [ 134 ] Crown 8vo, 36. 6d. With Portrait. ^^craoxxat^ of ^. Harold JV. $c^ofie£b, B^.Jl., 1^: (Late of the China Inland Mission), FIRST MEDICAL MISSIONARY TO SHANSI, NORTH CHINA. Chiefly compiled from his Letters and Diaries, by his Brother, A. T. SCHOFIELD, M.D. London: HODDER & STOUGHTON, 27, Paternoster Row. From " ne Church Missionary Intelligencer.'^ " This is a memoir of deep interest, and full of profitable and suggestive reading. Harold Schofield was a remark- able man : a child who preached grave sermons to his pet rabbits (arranged as a congregation) at five years old, and who gave his heart to Christ at nine ; a schoolboy who was to the front in all athletic sports ; an Oxford undergraduate who combined in an unusual degree physical, mental, and spiritual power ; a student of science and medicine at Oxford, Manchester, and London, whose scholarships amounted to ^1,500, who held forty certificates of honour from the Victoria University, and who won the highest honours in the London University examinations ; a medical man with a brilliant career before him, beginning as house-surgeon and house- From " The Wesley an " And now the preparation for his life-work was over. Professional honour he had already attained, and he was already half-way up the ladder of professional success. A comfortable and honourable career awaited him at home, when an inward voice, which he soon recognised as Divine, called him to leave all and follow Christ. We cannot wonder that when first he projected offering him- self for medical missionary work in China, his friends sought to dissuade him. He had spent many years in gaining the best medical training possible ; large sums of money had been expended on his education (the value of his various scholarships was nearly ;£i,5oo), he was known to be one of the very ablest young men in his profession, and it seemed to many something like a waste of power for such a man to go out to a Chinese hospital where any ordinary practitioner might do the work. But such considerations could not move Harold Schofield. ' I weigh all you say,' he writes, ' and have been pray- ing about it a great deal to-day, but cannot for a moment think that home is my sphere, especially as natural incli- physician at St. Bartholomew's ; a zealous evangelist and Sunday-school teacher and superintendent, losing no opportunity to do his Master's work ; a Biblical student who won at Oxford the Hall and Houghton Greek Testament Prize ; a devoted medical missionary in China; a faithful servant of the Lord, called to his reward at the age of thirty-two — at every point his life was one of interest. And when we find his diaries and letters so full, as they are, of bright and holy thoughts, we see that his memoir is just one which it may please God to bless to the stirring up of many hearts to more whole-hearted service. We hope the book may find its way into^f\c hands of hundreds of young men, especially UniVi^isity men and medical students." Methodist Magazine." nation is all on that side, as well as prospects of worldly advancement, etc' " This crisis in his life reminds one of the similar crisis in the life of the young ruler whom Jesus loved, who longed to inherit eternal life, and was bidden to sell his great possessions and to come and follow Christ. But Harold Schofield had placed a truer estimate upon the comparative value of earthly advantages and Christ's service ; so when the call seemed clear, he laid all his laurels at the Redeemer's feet. And who shall dare to speak of his enthusiasm as rash or unwise ? What are earthly treasures worth, if not to lay at the feet of Him who, being 'rich, for our sakes became poor'? What the value even of the heavenly crown, if not to cast it before Him upon whose head are many diadems ? Who will not envy his glorious zeal ? Was it not worth living for to go out to minister to the bodies and souls of the dense masses in China, to preach the Gospel and heal the sick in the Name of the Great Physician? to win there an early grave, but to win also an early crown in the true Celestial Empire ? " Testimony " I have often been struck, on reviewing the past, with the remarkable way in which God prepared his servant, in Schofield's case, for the peculiar work to which He had purposed to call him in due season. Physically : his bodily strength, ability to endure fatigue, sound constitu- tion, and simple habits of life. Mentally: his remarkable talents, especially his readiness in learning languages ; his large acquirements and distinguished professional attainments and skill. Spiritually: his love and devoted- ness to Christ, and his sympathetic yearning for the salvation of others— all these features, physical, mental, spiritual, being strongly-marked characteristics, combine to show us how One who — " ' Deep in unfathomable mines Of never-failing sldll, of Dr. BISS. Treasures up His bright designs And works His sovereign will,' — fitted the workman for his work, and sent him forth worthily furnished for the toil. Why, then— the question is hard to repress — why was he — so specially prepared, and so manifestly sent forth to the work, so happy in it, so prospered in it— suddenly taken home? To teach us, perhaps, that He whose work it is, is, after all, inde- pendent of His own choicest instruments ; perhaps, also to mark, in this way, a life of singular devotedness, of peculiar usefulness, as it could not otherwise have been emphasized, so that others may ponder and be stirred up to a holy emulation. In this way his death may do more for the cause he loved, and gave himself to, than even his life singly could have effected." Testimony of the Rev. A. M. W. CHRISTOPHER, Rector of St. Aldatis, Oxford. " Of the great number of undergraduates, who, during the last quarter of a century, have attended habitually throughout their Oxford course, the meeting for prayer and the exposition of the Word of God held in the St. Aldate's Rectory every Saturday evening, I can remember no one who appeared to me to be more truly spiritual than dear Robert Harold A. Schofield, scholar of Lincoln College. For four years I had ever before me at that meeting the healthy, pure, and kindly countenance of the future medical missionary to the heathen of China." Copies of the above may be had from the Offices of the China Inland Mission, post free, for y 6d [ 135 ] ^iTt^^ion^. "Know, and you will feel. Know, and you will pray. Know, and you will help." — The Dean of Llandaff. Price 2S. bd. Short History of Christian Missions from Abraham and Paul to Carey, Livingstone, and Duff. By George Smith, LL.D.,F.R.G.S. *' An invaluable and faithful epitome of Missions in all ages."— London Quarierly Review. Edinburgh : T. AND T. Clark. Small crown i>vo, 2s. kd. cloth. The Foreign Missions of Protestantism : their Present Condition. A Universal Surs'ey. By Theo- dore Christlieb, D.D., Ph.D. Authorised Translation from the German by David B. Croom, M.A. "The volume is evidently the fruit of very wide and accurate re- search. . . . We commend it to all friends of missions." — The Christian. London : James Nisbet and Co., 21, Bemers Street. Crown %vo, us. dd. The Missionary Problem : A History of Protestant Missions ; with Historical and Statistical Ac- counts of the Rise and Progress of Missionary Societies in the 19th Century. By James Croil. London : T. Woolmer, 66, Paternoster Row. Crown Svo, 232 pp., 31. 6d. Outline of the History of Protestant Missions from the Reformation to the Present Time. A contribution to recent Church-History. By Dr. GusTAVE Warneck. Translated from the second edition by Thomas Smith, D.D. " It presents a careful summary of Protestant Mission work from the Reformation to the close of the i8th century, and deals more fully, though in a sort of statistical and commercial fashion, with the opera- tions that have been carried on in the mission iield during the present century." — Scotsman. Second Thousand, crown Svo, price s,s. 6d. Modern Missions and Culture : their Mutual Relations. By Dr. Gustave Warneck. Translated from the German by Dr. Thomas Smith, Professor of Evange- listic Theology, New College, Edinburgh. "A capital subject, worked out most skilfully, and set forth with such a wealth of missionary facts that it is a delight to read. . . . The book proves beyond all dispute that missions raise the races which are visited by them, and that the Gospel prepares the way for trade, education, domestic purity, and every good thing."— Sword and Trowel. Edinburgh : James Gemmell, George IV. Bridge. Crown &V0, 2s. bd., cloth. The Missionary Work of the Church : Its Principles, History, and Present Aspects. Forming a com- plete Manual of Missions. By Rev. Professor SiowELL. New Edition, revised and enlarged. By Rev. E. Storrow. " We commend it heartily to all Christians of all Churches ; they will gain here a comprehensive and intelligent view of the great missionary \