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care for the literary work, the correspondence, and keeping headquarters for our Sunday-school literature and reporting to the Sunday School Union in London, an editor and secretary is appointed. Spiritual revivals have done a very good work among our people from time to time, and the seed planted in the hearts of the children in Sunday-school has again and again proved to yield the largest fruit when the Spirit of God visited the people. Every spiritual movement shows the fact that the young people and the children together give by far the largest percentage to the Church of God. This fact makes the Sunday-school work the most hopeful of all our Christian work in Norway and it encourages us to continue along this line with all the energy, wisdom and strength that we can put into the work.

The statistical side of our work is perhaps not the strongest. At different times we have tried to get a Sundayschool census taken; last year the missionaries were asked to gather as good statistical information as they could. The figures obtained showed an enrolment of 25,000 to 27,000 children in the Sunday-schools that may be counted as in line with our Sunday School Union, the Evangelical Free Churches of Norway. The number of Sunday-schools may be estimated at three hundred and twenty-five and the number of male and female teachers at two thousand. Our three missionaries are traveling throughout the country all the year round, sailing along our stormy coast and enduring hardships in various ways. Their work is a manysided one: Children's meetings, teachers'-meetings, public sermons, addresses to parents, showing biblical and historical magic lantern pictures, collecting money for the work, etc. The number of meetings held of various kinds is about a hundred every three months for each missionary, making the number of meetings in the special interest of Sunday-school work 1,600 every year, in connection with our Union. A half dozen children's and young people's papers are published among the various Free Church bodies

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The Delegates from Palestine.

Mrs. A. Edward Kelsey. Mrs. John P. Newman.

The Rev. A. Edward Kelsey. Frances W. Kelsey. Irving W. Kelsey. The Rev. A. E. Thompson.

in Norway and at least the sum of eight thousand crowns used in the missionary work, besides money for the running expenses of the schools.

The precious seed of the Word of God is beginning to give its blessed fruit year by year, and many examples might be given showing that through the hearts of the children the way has been opened to the parents and the home. But when it is realized that about three to four hundred thousand of the children of Norway are not yet gathered in Sunday-schools, it appeals strongly to us to press onward in this great work.

It is with sincere thankfulness that we acknowledge the noble and valuable aid our work has received from the Sunday School Union of London. A great deal of the success our Sunday-school work has gained may be ascribed to this agency, and it is a great pleasure for us as a Sunday School Union of Norway to give our friends in England our sincerest thanks, hoping they may continue this blessed work for the Master among us.

Palestine

BY THE REV. A. E. THOMPSON

When the World's Fourth Sunday School Convention met in Jerusalem, an earnest effort was made to encourage work of all kinds among the children of the Holy Land. With the hope of increasing the number of Sunday-schools and assisting those already established to do more effective work, the Palestine Sunday School Association was organized at that time, and an amount of money contributed for Association purposes. While there has not been any marked development in the three years which have intervened, it can be safely said that there has been more attention paid than formerly to this distinctive work. The Association has supplied lesson helps in Arabic, free of cost, to any school desiring them, and the International Lessons are coming

into more general use. Attempts have been made to secure the services of a trained American worker to make a tour of the schools of the land, and also to send a local deputation over the field, but the right man has not been found for either purpose. A most hearty interest has been taken in the Association both in America and Great Britain and the Scottish National Union has made a liberal donation to our funds.

The Bible instruction in all our mission schools is so thorough, and the number of children touched by missionaries outside of the ordinary school work is so small, that many do not see the same need for Sunday-schools as is realized in the home field. The Secretary of the Church Missionary Society, the oldest and largest general mission work here, reports that they have about fifty day-schools for boys and girls, in twenty-eight towns and villages, scattered over Galilee, Samaria, Judea, Philistia, and Gilead, besides a Girls' Orphanage in Nazareth, a Girls' Boarding-school in Bethlehem and Bishop Gobat's school for boys and the English College in Jerusalem. He says:

"In all of these the teaching of Scripture, and in almost all the memorizing of parts of it, form an integral part of the school curriculum. It cannot be gainsaid that it would be much more politic to dispense with Sunday-school than to lose the opportunity afforded of imparting Bible truth on the five school-days of the week. As a matter of fact, however, a Sunday-school is conducted in most if not all cases, for those children who can be gathered together. In some places they also attend the church services, while in Jerusalem and Nazareth children's services are held in the church once a month."

What has been said of the Bible teaching in the Church Missionary Society schools holds true of most schools in the land. The list is a long one, including boarding and dayschools, conducted by the London Jews' Society, the English B, tihsopwo German Societies, the New England Society

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