should close our ranks and unite our forces, it is in China, and now. Christianity is not a mere religion like Buddhism or Taoism or any other religion, nor a system of dogmas, still less a system of ethics like Confucianism; but a religion plus "a power"; and that power" divine; and the only force under heaven to meet and eradicate human depravity and permanently establish human society. When a man apprehends the grand truth of the fatherhood of God, the colour of the skin goes for nothing. The knowledge that we are all brethren in Christ Jesus, joint-heirs with Him, neutralises for ever all race distinctions. The brown Christian in the Indian mutiny stood by the English as brethren; and it is a great thing to be able to say that amongst almost every nation and people and tribe on earth there are those who count their union to God, and title to heaven, more valuable than parents or houses or lands or country or anything under the sun. Only Christianity, therefore, can really accomplish true accord among races-and alone really effect peace on earth. We represent Christianity. We are stewards of this "Power of God." Most assuredly He will call us to account. We really occupy the most solemn and responsible position on earth. If we continue to play into the hands of the enemy-the wicked one-by our own divisive courses, how is it possible we can escape the condemnation of our God. Everything, therefore, that is good to man and beneficent in Christianity; everything which is important for China, calls on us for co-operation. In view of these facts, so full of significance and warning to us, surely it becomes us to halt and consider whether we are using our forces in the most efficient way. If any arguments should weigh with us in favour of co-operation and economy of strength and resources, surely the foregoing should suffice. I respectfully submit there is no question to which we can apply our minds of more importance than the one before us. It involves the salvation of men on the widest possible scale, and the advancement of God's kingdom in the country which is to play the most powerful part in the entire Orient in the future of the world. The great object of the entire missionary body is one, namely, the enlightenment of the nation; the strengthening of the nation; the salvation of the people; and the elevation of the nation into the clear atmosphere of Divine truth and a purer civilisation. This is our common object; Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Methodists, Congregationalists, Baptists, alike all aim at this. Surely, then, we should lay our plans so as to facilitate this grand achievement and not retard it. How then are we are acting? I almost fear to place the case before you in its naked truthfulness lest I anger some, and so beg the indulgence of my brethren. It is no pleasure to me to set forth our divisions, but we must look at them. To begin with, we have the Church of England with her Thirty-nine Articles, her Prayer Book, and her formularies, all translated, and she is striving and hoping to impose them in all their entirety upon China. Again, we have the Presbyterians with the Westminster Confession, their longer and shorter catechisms, their system of church government, also translated, equally zealous and sanguine in their endeavour to lead the Chinese to adopt their system. Further, we have the Methodists with their elaborate organisations, the Congregationalists with their form of Government, the Baptists with theirs, the Lutheran Church seeking to reproduce in China a fac simile of itself, nothing less or more, the American Episcopal Church with a like aim. And so with other denominations. What a spectacle to thoughtful Chinainen ! And there are many such. No wonder they say to us: Agree among yourselves, and then we may listen to you." But this is not the worst aspect of our divisions. We have three branches of the Episcopal Church, eight different sects of Presbyterians, six sects of Methodists, two Congregationalists, two Baptists, besides several other minor bodies, all acting independently of each other, and in addition to all we have the Inland Mission, many of whose members belong to our own denomination, but the bulk of whom disclaim creeds and systems; and unless the leaders of that mission receive special guidance from God it will become neither more or less than another sect. 66 Nor is this even the worst aspect of the situation. Look at the matter locally, and take those places with which the writer is best acquainted. Begin with Shanghai. In this city we have seven missions-viz., the London Missionary Society's mission; the American Presbyterian (North); the American Protestant Episcopal; the American Episcopal Methodists (South); the Church Missionary Society; the American Baptists;. and the Seventh-day Baptists; with a total membership among them all of something under 1,000! Here, then, we have seven sets of foreign missionaries working seven different churches; seven sets of sermons every Sunday, seven sets of prayer meetings, seven sets of communion services, seven sets of schools, two training agencies, seven sets of buildings, seven sets of expenses, four or five versions of the Bible, and seven different hymn books at least. What a waste of strength! We are throwing ourselves away. One foreigner and one native pastor could manage the whole number of converts and the others be set free for other work. Lately an esteemed missionary, speaking publicly, said "his duties were so manifold that he could not do one duty well as to please himself. He was pastor, evangelist, school teacher, superintendent of out-stations, treasurer, and several other things." This is the case with most of the missionaries. Why should it be so? Why should there not be divison of labour as far as possibly can be? Why should one foreign missionary be preaching to a handful of converts in one quarter, and another engaged similarly by a second handful only a few hundred yards away? So also with schools, Why not throw them all together and one man attend to them? We would do five times more work by organise. tion, and present a far more seemly appearance to the Chinese. This waste of strength is similar at Tientsin. There we have five societies at work with an aggregate of littl over 400 members. So also at Pekin, where there are five denominations; in fact, we may take these as typical of our work in China. Now when we think of our creeds and our varied and elaborate system, can we hope to impose all or any of them on this great, independent, vigorous, and active minded people? The Judaizing Christians seeking to impose the Mosaic ritual on the infar Church was nothing to this. LEPER HOME AT JERUSALEM. An eye-witness gives the following account of the removal from the old asylum to the new, of the Leper Home, at Jerusalem, which is under the care of the Moravian Church :"Here, on the hillside to the west of Jerusalem, representatives of different creeds and nationalities file past us in one common fellowship of suffering. These twenty men and women are all lepers in different stages of the terrible disease. The halt, the maimed, and the blind are there. It is a melancholy train-in front those who can still see, and the blind bringing up the rear. Yet they are all contented-nay, even cheerful and happy, for they are going to their new home. Behind them is that old asylum on the road leading out from Jerusalem to Jaffa, where for twenty years such leprous patients have been received and lovingly tended for Christ's sake by volunteers from the Moravian Church. Before them is the new and very much larger and more convenient building, which has been in course of erection for three years. The same self-denying and indefatigable missionaries will care for them in the new home as in the old. Mr. and Mrs. Müller are themselves conducting them thither, and, with their like-minded helpers, will abide with them there. What wonder that even the little group of lepers are glad at heart as they wend their way to the new asylum, over whose doors stands the fitting inscription, Jesus Hilfe' (Jesus' Help). Still, it was a strange procession, and we doubt whether, through all the centuries of its history, the ancient city of Jerusalem ever saw its like. "Leprosy, which is so frequently mentioned in the history of the Jews, still lingers in Palestine in its frightful forms of corruption and death. There are about 400 to 500 lepers in the country, of whom about onetenth are in the neighbourhood of Jerusalem. In 1865 the Baroness Keffenbrinck Ascheraden, moved by compassion for the forlorn and pitiable condition of these sufferers, resolved to found an asylum for them. It was opened in May 1867. From the first the Moravian Church, which had already found Christian workers for a similar service of mercy to lepers in South Africa, supplied the missionaries and nurses for this "Leper Home," and in 1880, at the request of the noble foundress, the Moravian Directing Board undertook, in conjunction with the local committee, the care and responsibility of the Institution. In April 1887 a much larger asylum was entered. More than twenty patients removed from the old to the new home. "The cost of the new building is nearly defrayed, but the ability to admit many more of these incurables involves the neces sity of an increased staff of Christian workers, and, indeed, augments the expense of maintenance in every way. "The Moravian Church, in entering in faith on such a work of mercy, feels that she may confidently rely on the aid of Christian friends." Missionary Notes. WEST AFRICA. The Church Missionary Intelligencer says: "The foundation-stone of a new church at Aroloya (a part of the town of Lagos) was laid, on February 28 last, by Mr. J. A. Payne, Registrar and Taxing Master of the Supreme Court of the Colony of Lagos. The new church, which is to take the place of one which has outgrown its requirements, is to be 83 feet long, 45 feet wide, and 20 feet high, and will cost £1,500. This is, of course, raised by the native Christians themselves." The LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY. Chronicle says: "The past year has, indeed, been a remarkable one in the history of our own Society, as well as of Foreign Mission work generally. We ourselves, have been convulsed by a financial crisis, and most of the missionary administratives at home have been dragged to the whipping-post on account of methods of work abroad, and as the victims of a panic for 'more results.' Canon Taylor had not long been repulsed, when there arose another little cloud from over the sea, like a man's hand-writing criticism to beget mistrust in established methods. The heavens became black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. But good has come out of seeming ill-indeed, a London daily paper has come to the conclusion that criticism seems to be a discipline which suits the missionary societies very well, and adds: They thrive on disparagement.' As regards our own financial crisis, we feel devoutly thankful to God that in a great measure it is over. It has aroused the churches to a deeper sense of their responsibility; it has elicited the stirling devotion and sympathetic help of our brethren in the field; but it will not be wise to lower the storm signal until the whole of the extra £15,000 per annum is assured. The Directors have conducted a most rigid investigation into the expenditure of funds, which should establish the perfect confidence of the body of constituents; and, further, a thorough sifting of methods of work abroad, and continued efforts to earn the whole-hearted support and trust of the churches at home, promise to make the coming year also a period of effective service in the Mission cause." BAPTIST MISSIONARY SOCIETY.-Mr. R. Wright Hay, of Dacca, India, reports: "The little chapel has usually been filled of a Sabbath evening, and a gratifying feature of the gatherings has been the frequent presence of a number of Mohammedans, some of whom have also attended the Bengali service of the native church. A student in my Bible-class, in reading Luke's story of the crucifixion, was so struck and overcome by the prayer of Christ for His murderers, that he reasoned with himself: "This is not man; this must be God. And this is the God I need--one who will forgive even to the uttermost. This is my Saviour; I will trust Him!' I have seldom seen, even in young converts at home, the same degree of the rapture of faith which this brother manifested. I found conversation, prayer, and study of the Word with him a distinct means of grace to my own soul. We arranged for his baptism to take place one Sabbath evening in presence of the ordinary congregation, nearly the whole of which is native. The young man's father being a Brahmo, and professedly a seeker after truth, we anticipated no opposition to the convert's openly avowing his faith in Christ Jesus; but, at the last moment, when the young man was leaving home for the chapel, his friends seized him and locked him up. This was a great disappointment; but a very great impression was produced by the incident as I related it to those assembled in the chapel-an impression, probably, as salutary in its ultimate effects as might have been produced by their witnessing the baptism. Next day the convert sent me a letter by the hand of a young Mohammedan whom he had begun to teach about the Saviour. In this, among other things, he said, 'They took the Bible from me, but they failed to take those precious truths in it which I have read from my mind. They also failed to take off my mind from my Lord Jesus Christ. Although they shut me in a room, they failed to shut me from my belief in my Savi ur.' And again: A voice in my heart s ys, Wait; the time will soon come when you will be able to speak freely, to read freely, to think freely, and also to pray together with your Christian brothers and sisters. Oh! when will come that happy moment?' Finding that they could not, either by threats or bribes, induce him to recant, his friends determined to send him right away from Decca; and this they did, putting him under the care of his father-in-law, a staunch Hindu, in a village a day's journey distant. There he was kept for over a month, when, his Mission. The island is not without it religious history. On the road to Kingchow the traveller passes a large Chinese burying-place. Among the graves there are some headed by marble slabs engraved with the cross and other Christian symbols. These are the last earthly resting-places of the last members of what, more than 100 years ago, was a flourishing Roman Catholic Church. From the inscriptions we learn that the dead were once rich and honoured, but now for gotten." This is one of the many illustrations of the truth that a popular Bible is essential to the permanence and vitality of a native Christian Church. guardian having to leave home on some | Catholic priest is at work here; there are also Government business, he seized his oppor- three members of the American Presbyterian tunity and returned to Dacca. From the boat which brought him he came direct to the Mission-house, eager to report his arrival. He told us how the reproaches of them that reproach Christ had fallen on him, how he had been urged by threats and besought by tears to refrain from declaring himself a Christian, and how he had had grace given him to reply steadfastly I am a Christian, and I must follow my beloved Jesus.' After we had praised God together for His goodness during what of trial had passed, and besought His strengthening for what yet remained, the young man said: 'Now I must go to my father's house. I must show all my friends that I forgive, and that I do not fear them. I must live my Christian faith before them, that they may be convinced that it is good to follow Jesus.' Then he went to his home. There he found a cousin-ore of those who had made a prisoner of him not many weeks before-lying seriously ill. In this he saw his opportunity, and bravely and faithfully did he use it. I have heard from others how patiently he watched, how tenderly he helped, night and day, the sick man who so recently had stoutly stood against him, thus showing forth the mind and heart of Him whose infinite forbearance and forgiveness, even on the cross, had first won himself; and we can never know how much this testimony to Christ was used of God to work in the soul which, under its benign ministry, passed to its eternal portion." JAPAN. Writing upon the promulgation of the new Constitution in Japan, the Rev. C. F. Warren says: We may rejoice and thank God that under it the people of Japan will enjoy full religious toleration. It is now rumoured that the revision of the treaties is practically completed. With a Constitution giving Christianity a fair field, and the present restrictions on the residence of the missionaries in the interior removed, it will be more than ever the duty of the Church of Christ to send her representatives to win Japan to Christ. SOUTH CHINA.-The Bible Society's Reporter speaks of the South China agency as full of evidence of progress. In almost every part of the field there has been an increase in the circulation of the Scriptures. Many instances are given of good done to individuals, and there are interesting glimpses of the people and the land. This is a curious and picturesque passage: "Hai-nan is a large island in the Gulf of Tonquin. A single Roman MADAGASCAR ought to be specially prayed for just now, for a work is beginning there, we hear, such as has not been seen for many a year. In Bètsileò, at one meeting, over sixty stood up in token that they wished to forsake their sins, and lead new lives really consecrated to God. That set others longing more than ever that they might see a similar movement in Antananarivo. During October this longing was realised, particularly in Mr. Standing's boys' school at Ambòhijatòvo; and in the girls' central school, they had the very new experience of Malagasy coming to them burdened with a sense of sin, and longing for salvation. Five of the girls and two teachers were with one of the ladies in charge of the school one after another one day; and five more girls came to the other lady for a private talk the next day. Fire of the teachers found peace in Christ in one week; some of them after bitter crying ins prayer-meeting among themselves. Another young woman was recently converted, being suddenly convicted of sin and compelled to pray for herself, while her husband and two other young men were spending the afternoon in prayer for their wives in another house The workers ask for our prayers that this may continue. THE HERVEY ISLANDS are now under British rule, we trust to the moral as well as the material gain of the islanders. But caution and care are needed if this is to be so. The petitions sent by the various islands emphasised the fact that they owe all to the missionaries of the London Missionary Society, who saved them from heathenism by bringing them the Gospel. There is one thing we ought to try and guard against, that is, the introduction of spirituous liquors into these islands. Rarotonga is a very good example of the evil that may be, wrought by the introduction of liquor, drunkenness and immorality having become sadly prevalent there. On Aitutaki, Mangaia, and the Windward Islands, on the other hand (with the exception of Atiu), very little liquor is landed. One or two bottles in the course of a year may be smuggled ashore, but that is all. What the missionaries are afraid of is, that it may be forced upon them now that they are under British protection. If Great Britain leaves the people to administer their own laws, they will have little fear. One who knows states that he is convinced that such a prohibition clause would be the salvation of Rarotonga. MALAYSIA.-The Rev. J. Haffenden, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society, after a stay of some months in England, returned to Singapore. In the autumn of last year, five young men, volunteers for Christian service, were with him. Great interest was felt at the time in this band of Bible-workers, and the report, which has recently been received, is very interesting. The writer says: "On the 30th of August I arrived, at six in the morning, at my destination (near Singapore). A great many Malays and Chinese were congregated at the landing place, so I opened my bag. The contents were soon inspected, and many copies were bought. On going into the town I entered a Chinaman's house. I was astonished at the absence of the usual picture of Confucius, the table, and metal pot of earth. These were replaced by several Bible pictures, and by a stand with the ever-welcome teapot on it. When I inquired from the owner of the house something of his history, he told me that fifteen years ago he had purchased a Chinese portion of the Bible in the depôt at Singapore. What he read impressed him deeply. He thought, and finally made his resolve. At length he abandoned his earlier faith and his idols, and I found him a believer From Messrs. JOHN SNOW & Co. in God and in the Lord Jesus Christ." Another writes: "The journey to this place has been a very wearisome one, but at length we got over the awful mountain. We have begun our sales at last (this was near Selangor in Malacca), and after going from house to house we have disposed of fifty-nine copies-exactly the number of streams and rivers we had to wade on our way from Tras to Kuala Kuba." One is hardly surprised to know, after reading such journals, that the Malaysian circulation for 1888 is almost double that of the year before. JONKOPING, SWEDEN.-Madame de Ramsay writes encouragingly of her work, and mentions that the Fosterlands Stiftelsen (Swedish Home Missionary Society), has now a resident preacher in the town. His services are held in Mrs. de Ramsay's hall. A Young Women's Christian Association has been formed, and the Committee includes many of the principal ladies of the town. There are also mothers' meetings, classes, and Sundayschool, all having grown considerably. Looking back on the twenty-eight years of work, however, the results seem small; but the trials and difficulties of the work have been very great. Referring to the observance of the Week of Prayer, Madame de Ramsay adds that all who had the privilege of attending the meetings, held in the Victoria Hall, agreed that they had never had such a prayer week before. Visitors to Jonkoping will be gladly welcomed-and ministers especially"but only those holding sound views on the atonement, and who preach the unadulterated old Gospel." Our correspondent adds: “We should be so thankful if any friend could send us magic lantern slides that have been used too much in the same place. I have a magic lantern, and find it exceedingly useful here, where they are not very much known. We give regular addresses to our young women, exhibiting various series of views.” BOOKS RECEIVED. Popular Objections to Foreign Missions Considered and Answered. By the Rev. EDWARD STORROW. From CASSELL & Co. Conquests of the Cross. (Part 1.) From Messrs. HODDER & STOUGHTON. The Preacher's Commentary on the Gospel Gleanings from a Tour in Palestine and the |