mother and daughter insisted upon giving up their chamber for our comfort, and the latter waited upon the table with beautiful courtesy and grace. The senora now hears the epithets of heretic' and 'Protestant' flung at her by some former friends, with great equanimity, and is equally desirous with her son of seeing the gospel make its way. On Saturday they sent invitations to various houses of their acquaintance to meet us for song, prayer, and Scripturereading, in their large front room. About fifteen adults responded, representing five or six of the most respectable families of the town - amongst them the two lady teachers of the only public school for girls. Some plain words were spoken, contrasting the early simplicity of the Christian assemblies with the elaborate Roman hierarchy and ritual of the present day, conformed to the traditions of men'; calling attention to the great difference between the modified Roman Catholicism of the United States and that which passes under the name here; exalting the Bible as the safeguard of our liberties, civil and religious, and as the sufficient rule of faith and practice; and proposing that they should meet together regularly for the study of the Book, as did the early disciples, even separating themselves from the old church if necessary, to protest against its corruption, as did the reformers of the sixteenth century.

"It was thought that perhaps this plain declaration might have offended some of the hearers; but they returned in the afternoon for another Bible service, and on Monday evening met again, with half a dozen new individuals, to hear the reading of the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah with the marginal references, as an illustration of the method which might be pursued when by themselves."

West Central African Mission.

GLEANINGS.

LETTERS have been received from Bailundu dated September 25, with a postscript on September 29, saying that on the latter date Mr. and Mrs. Stover were

This brief post

to arrive at Bailundu. script says that they had a comfortable journey inland occupying thirteen days. Their carriers were quiet and peaceable, and Chitwi, the head-man, proved an excellent helper. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders had moved into the house formerly occupied by the Walters, and Mr. and Mrs. Stover were to take their old dwelling, which had been repaired for them. Mr. and Mrs. Walter, at Benguela, continue to find much to cheer them in the conduct of the Bailundu lads who have been with them, both their words and their lives affording good assurance that they are seeking to follow Christ.

Mr. Arnot, on his way into the interior, stopped at Bihé, and from that place wrote our brethren at Bailundu concerning the situation of affairs there. It seems that two Romish priests had been in Bihé for several months. Mr. Arnot visited them, and says of them that they are having a rather hard time. They had only soup and beans for provisions. The cloth they brought in was of such poor quality that the people would not buy it. These padres are supported by the Portuguese government, and Mr. Arnot says that when he entered their hut the odor of rum was overpowering. "You do not carry that stuff?" said a padre, pointing to six barrels under the table. "No," I said, "I do not." "Well," he replied, "it is bad stuff! bad stuff! but we are compelled to carry it." This is what the government gives them for their own use, and for currency to buy goods of the natives. These priests have already given enormous presents to the king, and a new demand comes every month. This conduct of the Romish priests will make it difficult for our missionaries whenever they undertake to establish themselves again at Bihé. King Jambayamina inquired about Mr. Sanders, and asked when he would come back again.

Everything moves quietly at Bailundu, though it is reported that King Kwikwi is contemplating another war. He seems to feel that something is necessary on his part to retain his position on the throne.

East Central African Mission.

A CAPABLE PEOPLE.

MR. WILCOX writes from the new station, Makodweni, some sixteen miles west of Mongwe, where he is now well established. His letter is dated September 21: "I am surprised at the amount we can get out of these people. All of our outbuildings, four in number, were built by natives without my laying a hand to a stick, except to put in two doors and two windows. They have prepared besides an excellent henhouse and yard. They made kraals for cattle, pigs, and goats; and nice mangers, racks, and stalls for my horsestable. One boy did all of the ceiling of my house. The same boy paved and cemented our kitchen floor and back veranda; he is now at work on the front veranda, having finished to-day a brick wall thirty-six feet long and two and onehalf feet high. I have told you how they made and burnt a kiln of 8,000 brick, and I only worked a few hours to get them started. One boy printed several charts for use in our school with the type which I cut out. The same boy is now our tailor. Mrs. Wilcox brought back with her from Natal a hand sewing-machine. With this our tailor makes two coats or a coat and a pair of trousers in a day, which we sell for enough to pay all expenses and a small profit. Mrs. Wilcox has done the cutting.

"The boys have built a very good chapel and seated it with desks and benches for a schoolroom. The architecture might be criticized, but it is roomy and comfortable, and it will answer our purpose for several years. I like it ever so much better than the one Mr. Richards and I built at Mongwe, with many days' hard labor on our part and a considerable outlay for material. One boy, who takes care of my horse, pigs, fowl, and milks the cow, does nearly all of my trading, which has been a great burden to me.

"But what is most worthy of remark is the success of our compositor. We have a young man who did not know ten letters six weeks ago, but now he reads my writ

ing and sets up type at the rate of about a page a day. Of course I have to do a good deal of overseeing and correcting. but he improves every day. He does all of the distributing and presswork without any supervision. You will see by this how nicely the press is working.

"We have already found some time for study. We have translated our Gitonga Dictionary, of 1,600 words, into Shitswa, or Gwamba as the Swiss Mission call it. We have also translated a catechism on the plan of salvation, of seventy questions and answers. The next thing we want to do is to arrange what Shitswa words we have got in alphabetical order, and then we shall be able to tell when we get a new word.

"Our attendance at meeting, on Sundays, still continues good, and all seem to enjoy the singing and the catechism, which I translate into Shitswa. The blind man I wrote about never misses a Sunday. The Lord grant that, though blind, he may soon come to see the truth! I have great hopes also of our boy who takes care of the horse and does the trading. I almost believe he is a Christian. He prays, and says he loves Jesus and is one of his people. He has never asked for baptism; but I have no doubt if I should hint to him that it was his duty to ask for baptism, he would only be too happy to do So. I notice a little bit of persecution which this boy endures for his religion. I spoke once to the boys upon the subject of prayer, and I told them if they loved God they would thank him for their food which he gives. This one boy said then that he would thank God; but when he would close his eyes to pray, the other boys would eat up all the food. However, I noticed to-day that he gives thanks, while some of the irreverent ones eat, and others try to disturb him with groanings."

Austrian Mission. FORWARD STEPS.

society, Betanie,' to have rooms or halls for Bible services anywhere in Bohemia, was of marked value last week. A member of our church opened a little shop in Lieken, and in the one room of his house (he has a kitchen besides) began to hold meetings twice a week. Unfriendly spirits soon complained of him to the authorities, who ordered him to appear before them. He took with him our statutes, with a special statement from me that I had rented his room as president of the society Betanie.' The officer of government was very friendly after learning that the meetings in question were really in connection with our Prague work.

"This new out-station in Lieken, where there are 12,000 people and not even a Roman Catholic Church, is already promising.

"We commence this week a new outstation in suburb Karolinenthal, so that from this time there are seven Bible services on Sunday evenings in Prague and suburbs. I need not tell you I am crowded all the time, but am happy to report myself and family in good health. We are sorry there is so little prospect of your soon sending a missionary family to our relief. The dear friends at home must help all the more with their

"I met the seven communicants, and the services of the day began by examining candidates for admission to the Lord's table. Eight persons presented themselves, and after passing a very thorough examination, they were all received. I was delighted with the clear views they held as to the plan of salvation, the amount of Scripture knowledge possessed by some, and the simple trust in Jesus and readiness to suffer for him, if need be, avowed by all. Of the whole fifteen now received, thirteen are heads of families and, with one exception, all are comparatively young men, just the kind of stuff you would choose for building a strong church.

"I enjoyed preaching to such men and to others who came in, about forty in all, including a few women. Never mind if they did all sit on the bare ground, and I had to depend on the light which strayed down the fireplace, it was a precious service and the room was light enough to show a circle of eager listeners. After partaking of the Lord's Supper, two children were presented for baptism. When we had finished I found we had been four hours in session, and after doing scant justice to an excellent village dinner, I hastened back to the city, to conduct somewhat similar services there.

"Two persons were examined and received to communion. One was formerly a bitter enemy, and, being in the employ of the Greek bishop, he came quite regularly to the Protestant meetings, solely to detect some ground for an accusation against them, or to disturb the services by stirring up discussion. He seems now to be converted through and through. At the close of the service I was introduced to a man from a mountain village nine miles away. He has got hold of enough truth to make him hungry for more, and he is trying his best to learn to read the Bible for himself. And it is remarkable that his father and brother and wife approve of his course. A young man from another village, three miles away, was absent on account of sickness. Had he been present he would have wished to

make a public confession of his faith in Christ. He is cruelly persecuted by his own relatives, but the truth appears to have got down deep into his heart. When looking over the rich plain of Strumnitza I could not help praying that God would quickly spread the light of his saving knowledge through all of those threescore villages. I fairly envy our beloved preacher Anastasoff. One of the brethren of Monospitovo has given a desirable building-site for a chapel, and the friends have drawn to the place a big pile of timber and stones, and by this time the building is probably under way. They have no idea of asking the Board for assistance."

Madura Mission.

PALANI.

MR. HAZEN, on resuming work in this mission, has been assigned to Palani, formerly written Pulney, and wrote from that station, September 18:

"We have recently started a Boys' Boarding School on the compound, with nine scholars and a promise of more. We have accommodations for one hundred, but many parents are so indifferent to the education of their children that the requirement of a small fee of eight annas per month, and a little cloth to cover their nakedness, is such an obstacle that they withhold their children. We have not come here to furnish rice for their children, and we try to teach them this fact by requiring these small fees.

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"It was not a little gratifying to administer the Lord's Supper at a village named Sattirapatty, ten miles from Palani, one Sabbath in June, and at that time to receive fourteen to the communion on profession of their faith, and to baptize seven children. Of those received, nearly all were heads of families. Previous to this time there had never been an addition to the church from that village outside of the catechist's family. Now, after eighteen years of patient waiting, we have this precious fruit. We have also had two additions to the church from Palani,

making sixteen in all during our first halfyear."

LARGE ACCESSIONS.

Mr. W. S. Howland, of Mandapasalai, reports a number of villages as ready to accept Christian teaching: :

"In one village where we have had only one Christian, ten families have joined us, and in another village, five families. In three others where we have had no Christians, twenty families are ready to embrace Christianity the moment we can put a person in their villages to teach them. Aside from this, two or three of my largest congregations are just now without catechists, from lack of funds to engage men to meet the increased demand for workers.

"This movement seems to us very important. Nearly all of these people are from one caste, and, though in different villages, some of them twenty miles away, they are all more or less related to the members of one of our most prosperous congregations. I have yet to learn that they come from any but the best of motives. We are also impressing upon them that if they wish us to send them teachers or catechists they must do as much as possible toward furnishing a house for him to live in, and a prayer or school house for a school and for Sunday and other services. One congregation has already given the land, and as soon as rain falls will build the walls of the prayerhouse besides providing a place for the teacher. We have agreed to furnish material for the roof of the prayer-house. The other new congregations will do as much. When regular services commence, they will begin to give in other ways.

"These people must be met on the very threshold, and catechists or teachers put in every one of these villages immediately, or they will become discouraged by the petty annoyances which are commenced at once by their heathen neighbors and employers, and turn back again; or they will be practically heathen, with only a name as Christians.

already at the limit, and there is no provision for any such accessions. I cannot ask the mission for help from present funds, as every station is limited, and to give more to one takes from another. Neither have I congregations which I can leave. I see no other way than to ask for a 'special contingent' to be granted early in 1886."

Hong Kong Mission.

BAPTISMS AND PERSECUTION.

MR. HAGER gives an interesting account of a visit he had paid to San Ning, Chik Shui, large towns some fifteen miles from Sheung Chak. He found in these places many Californian Chinese. He gives the following account of the reception of certain women to the company of believers :

"I went to the house of one of our returned Californian Chinese with the purpose of baptizing a number of believing women, who had been led to Christ through the efforts of their Christian husbands or friends. Fong Kat Loi, a member of the First Congregational Church in Sacramento, had returned to his home in China some four months ago, and had been with me for some time. From him I learned that his wife and a widow lady had given up idol-worship and had regularly kept the Sabbath for a number of years. They had been taught the Christian truth by our brother, and, according to his own testimony, were very sincere and devout in their religion, as well as patient under persecution.

"Some four months since, the wife of Fong Kat Loi was severely beaten by her uncle, from the effects of which she has not yet recovered, yet she seemed anxious to follow her Lord still further by receiving baptism. As I entered the village and commenced to speak to the people I noticed that many of them seemed not at all pleased to hear me, or to pay any attention to what I said. Still, a brother and I talked for some time. On the

following day we examined three women for baptism, and found that they had fully decided to cast in their lot with the people of God, though it was in the face of persecution. Two boys, the children of Christian parents, were also presented to receive the sacred rite, and as we had such perfect confidence in the integrity and truthfulness of the two Christian brothers presenting them, we could not say nay. One of these was Fong Kat Loi's boy. and another the child of Fong Tsing Yun, whose wife also received baptism on this occasion. Both of these men preach the gospel incessantly, and it seems to be a joy to them to tell the story. Fong Tsing Yun is also from Sacramento, and was previously connected with the Presbyterian Church. They are neither of them educated men, but the gospel is in their hearts, and it seems to flow from their mouths as the pure water from a living spring. If these men, in whose Christian fidelity I have all confidence, had been less earnest and devoted, I should have hesitated before receiving their children; but I am persuaded that they will order well their households after them, and will more perfectly teach the fulness and richness of the gospel to their wives who have thus followed them.

"The service, however, was scarcely over before the villagers circulated slanderous reports about these faithful women. Nothing, however, of a serious character occurred until the evening, when Fong Kat Loi's uncle struck him and his boy for allowing me to come to the village and meeting with the men, and especially with the women. I had already retired when this outrage occurred, but quickly arose and rebuked the offenders, and threatened to appeal to the authorities if they engaged in any more such vile proceedings. This silenced them, and there was quiet for the night, though on the following day, after I had left, the family of Fong Tsing Yun was threatened by the rude villagers, though they did not injure any one. What the sequel will be is exceedingly difficult to tell."