A missionary tour of more than seven hundred miles has been made through Hyderabad by the Rev. Edward Porter, of the London Society. Mr. Porter found the people debased and grievously oppressed, but free from prejudice, less wedded to caste, and more willing to listen to the Gospel message than those of other districts he had visited. "In some places," he writes,

they came out of their villages in groups of thirty, sixty, and ninety, and followed us to the bungalow, beseeching us to tell them more of the good way. In this way we were engaged from day to day, instructing the people as long as we had physical strength to continue our labours among them." After hearing him preach, some would ask, "Sir, how long have your people known of this good way?" When answered, "Hundreds of years," the reply was ready, “Why did you not send us instruction before to tell us of the good way?

At Delhi, the Baptist mission is reviving. A very substantial and beautiful chapel-intended as a memorial of the martyred brethren, Messrs. McKay and Walayat Aliis in course of erection in the city. The attendance at all the chapels has increased; at some it has doubled. Twenty native agents are at work. The missionary, the Rev. J. Smith, is labouring with great assiduity and zeal.

The Rev. Mr. Shoolbred, of the Presbyterian mission, in journeying through the Mugra (Rajpootana), has explored the temple of Devi, or Peeplaj, a goddess who, in times of Brahmin sway, was to be propitiated only by human victims. He describes it as secluded in the very

heart of the wildest part of that country, surrounded by strange and awe-inspiring scenery. Amid an amphitheatre of lofty hills rises that on which Peeplaj rears her bloodstained head. After a graphic account of the barbarous and inhuman practices which take place in the temple court, Mr. S. gives the following description of the goddess, and of his behaviour in her presence:-"A most hideous and portentous female head, evidently formed of baked clay, with two staring silver eyes set on each side of a huge nose, like the beak of an eagle. Much to the amazement and terror of our Mair guides, and one or two others who accompanied us, I took the liberty of pulling the goddess's eagle-like beak, saying,

Now if she is a deity, why does she not strike me dead in revenge for such an indignity? We left Todgurk that evening for Kachubli. The tent sent forward was delayed, and we had to sit in the raw night air in

a

narrow valley soaked with the former rains. The result was, that next morning I awoke with a slight attack of bilious fever, which prostrated me for a day. My amusement was great when I heard afterwards that the Mair men universally attributed this to the indignity I had offered to Peeplaj." How deplorable that men should be the dupes of such superstition! There is surely a great work for the missionary to do.

The capital of China is now fully open to the operations of Protestant missions. The Church missionary and the Propagation Societies, the London Missionary Society, the English Presbyterian Mission, and the American Presbyterian Board are all represented at Pekin. Three of the missionaries are accompanied by their wives. The largest personal liberty," says one of the missionaries, "is enjoyed by residents here, and the presence of foreign women does not appear in the least to have disturbed the peace of the capital." The Rev. Joseph Edkins, of the London Society, whose name has frequently been mentioned by our Own missionaries, Messrs.

Innocent and Hall, has established a preaching station in a populous part of the city, and a day-school in another. Mr. Edkins has held frequent communication with the Mongols, to whom reference is made in the deeply interesting letter of the Rev. J. Innocent, which appears in the magazine for the month of April. Mr. E. has repeatedly found traces among this people of the labours of Messrs. Swan and Stallybrass, who, when stationed in Eastern Siberia, some sixty miles from the frontiers of Chinese Tartary, as missionaries of the London Society, translated the Scriptures into Mongolian, and circulated portions of them in considerable numbers among the Mongol-Buriats. This mission lasted about twenty-five years, and came to a close in 1840, in consequence of the hostile influence which it encountered from Greek ecclesiastics at the court of St. Petersburg.

At Canton, the Rev. Mr. Bonney, of the American Board, while distributing tracts, met two persons, who, he found, were themselves tract distributors. They were Chinese Christians from Poklan, where a Christian was beheaded a year or two since, because he would not bow down to an idol. Having been to Hong-Kong, they had brought a box of books with them thence, to distribute in their native districts.

Thus the Word of God is spreading into new places. Three American and two English missions at Canton have united in purchasing a plot of ground, east of the city, for a cemetery, upon the stone boundaries of which they have inscribed, "Burialground for Christians." "One by one," says the missionary, the obstacles in the way of Christian faith and practice are disappearing."

Our own missionaries in China are zealously-and, thank God, not without success-prosecuting their labours. The hand of the Lord is with them, and a great door and effectual is opened before them. Ere time shall close, may thousands and tens of thousands of the sons of Sinem be taught the way of salvation by Christ

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Jesus by the missionaries of our own denomination. The communications of Mr. Innocent, which appear in the Missionary Chronicle just issued, will be read with interest and thankfulness, as will also those from Mr. Maughan, and the Canadian brethren.

U

The intelligence from Madagascar is full of encouragement. The editor of the London Society's Missionary Magazine says the churches, both in the capital and in the surrounding country, enjoy liberty and peace, and are receiving constant additions to their fellowship. The printing press is hard worked, and schools are multiplied. The Rev. W. Ellis writes that many of the new converts have been recently brought out of heathenism, and also that the Queen and her Government, though attached to the old superstitions, are nevertheless honourably upholding the article of the new constitution, which affords freedom and security of worship to all the people of Madagascar. Mr. E. states that forty were added by baptism to the two churches in one day, twenty-two in the one case and eighteen in the other. It has been determined to proceed with the memorial churches, but building operations are for the present to be limited to one of the number.

There is favourable intelligence from Northern and Western Africa, Australia, New Zealand, British Columbia, &c., but we cannot give details, as we have again reached our appointed limits.

May Christ soon have the heathen for His inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession! Amen and Amen. April 5, 1864.

L.S.

FACTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF

GOD'S PROVIDENCE. WHEN Ptolemy, king of Egypt, drew a map of the world, he made a mistake by which Eastern Asia and Western Europe were made to appear as distant only from each other a few hundred miles. Columbus, on consulting this map, imagined that he could find a passage to India

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by the Atlantic, and in working out this idea, discovered America! This soon became a new world, and mark how the wisdom and knowledge" of God appeared in its development. In England, the "Puritans" were so persecuted for worshipping God according to their own interpretations of Scripture, that about a hundred of them resolved to go to America. They engaged a ship of 180 tons, freighted her with implements of husbandry, and took with them a full supply of sacred literature. Committing themselves to God, they left Plymouth, and agreed that on whatever part of America they might land, there they would abide. They landed on a barren rock on the east coast, no great distance from New York, settled near to this place, and called it "Plymouth." From this colony America derives her greatness. It was the "Iona" of that vast continent, and to our "Pilgrim Fathers" are the American people indebted for our Saxon language, our literature, and our religion.

A Dutchman was one day cutting letters by way of amusement on the bark of a tree. He put ink on them, and then imprinted the letters on a piece of paper. Here was the rude idea of printing. Afterwards printing became an art, and now the press may be said to transcend all other agencies of moral power. In all this history we trace the wisdom and knowledge of God, and yet His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out."

The overruling providence of God is no less wonderfully evinced in the spread of Christianity. In olden times, Christians were persecuted; but the "blood of the martyrs became the seed of the Church." In our day, Christianity has been spread by milder agencies, but not less marked by divine characteristics. Take a few examples.

In 1645 Leicester was besieged. A young man, named John Bunyan, was drawn to serve; but another youth volunteered to take his post, and was shot dead by a cannon-ball. John Bunyan lived to become a devoted Christian and a great writer; his "Pilgrim's Progress "being second

only to the Bible, and to be found in every land. During a war with France, an engagement took place between the French and the English fleet in the Mediterranean. On board the ship commanded by Captain Haldane the carnage was terrible. After a heavy broadside, the deck was a scene of desolation and of death. Having ordered fresh hands from below, the marines on getting to the deck were so shocked by the sight that they refused to serve. Captain Haldane in a rage pronounced an imprecation. A pious old marine walked up to the commander and said, “Captain, if God had answered your prayer just now, where would we have been?" The captain made no reply, but the old man's words laid hold of his heart, and in calmer moments were the means of leading him to Christ. Soon after he left the service, and was instrumental in converting his brother Robert, and both having a competency, they devoted themselves to the service of God. Robert was

the originator of a religious movement in Scotland, at the close of the last century, out of which sprang the Scotch Independents. James settled in Geneva, and was the instrument in converting twelve students at the college of Geneva, amongst whom were Neff, and Pytt, and John Merle D'Aubigné, the author of the "History of the Reformation." Thus Robert in Edinburgh, and James Haldane in Geneva, were led to exemplify the wisdom and knowledge" of God; and how true is it in their case, "What great events from little causes spring!"

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Christianity has been spread chiefly by the circulation of the Bible. Here, again, we have abundant evidence of God in history. A Welsh clergyman one day asked a little girl to name the chapter and verse from which the text of the sermon he had preached on the previous Sunday was taken. The child burst into tears, and said she had not a Bible. This led the minister to inquire if the people of the village were well supplied with Bibles, and on finding that few of them had the Word of God, his heart was roused, and by a

remarkable chain of providential circumstances, he was led to associate himself with a few other large-hearted Christians, and out of this grew the British and Foreign Bible Society! The hearts of many of God's people were now moved in this direction, and foreign missions were established, home evangelization promoted, and a new and blessed era was begun. Not only did "Ethiopia" stretch out her hand to God, but China also was moved. One fact on this subject is truly remarkable. Just see how God appears in it. Many years ago a wild youth was occupied as herd-lad, or cattlekeeper, among the Grampians of the North. He says, in his autobiography, that his highest ambition was to eclipse the "flunkeys" of a neighbouring squire, in the invention of expletives. One evening an itinerant missionary was to preach in a farm-house near to where this youth lived. He went as a fool to scoff, but remained to pray. His life now became as remarkable for good, as it had formerly been for evil. As a Sunday-school teacher he was zealous and devoted, and so mighty did he become in prayer, that he would shut himself up in an attic room of the house where he lived, and wrestle with God, like Jacob. We were once taken to this room by a patriarchal Christian, who said he had known him spend whole nights in prayer. Reading in the Evangelical Magazine about the missionary enterprise, his soul fired with a desire to be a missionary to the heathen. He offered his services, and was accepted. After studying at Gosport, he was sent to China, to co-operate with Dr. Morrison, but finding no opening, they settled at Singapore. Here, having availed himself of the printing-press, and employed a block printer, this apprentice became the first-fruit of his labours, and was the first heathen convert baptized in the Christian faith-who in turn became a missionary, whose labours were blessed to the conversion of the first of the Taepings, whose religious character and high moral influence were well known in connexion with the Taeping revolution, in as far as it was free

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from the cruelties and barbarisms which have characterized the conduct of other leaders in that great movement. Such was Leang-Afa, and such the Rev. William, afterwards Dr. Milne-From "Brands plucked from the Burning." By the Rev. J. H. WILSON.

WHY I ATTEND CHURCH ON RAINY SABBATHS.

1. BECAUSE God has blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it, making no exceptions for rainy Sabbaths.

2. Because I expect my minister to be there: I should be surprised if he were to stay at home for the weather.

3. Because, if his hands fall through weakness, I shall have great reason to blame myself, unless I sustain him in my prayers and my

presence.

4. Because, by staying away, I may lose the sermon that would have done me great good, and the prayers which bring God's blessing.

5. Because my presence is more needed on Sabbaths when there are few, than on those days when the church is crowded.

6. Because whatever station I hold in the church, my example must influence others; if I stay away, why may not they?

7. Because, on any important business bad weather does not keep me at home; and church attendance is, in God's sight, very important. (See Heb. x. 25.)

8. Because, among the crowds of pleasure-seekers, I see that no bad weather keeps the delicate female from the ball, the party, or the

concert.

9. Because among other blessings such weather will show me on what foundation my faith is built. It will prove how much I love Christ: true love rarely fails to meet an appointment.

10. Because those who stay from church because it is too warm, or too cold, or too rainy, frequently absent themselves on fair Sabbaths.

11. Because, though my excuses satisfy myself, they still must un

dergo God's scrutiny, and they must be well-grounded to bear that. (Luke xiv. 18.)

12. Because there is a special promise, that where two or three meet together in God's name, He will be in the midst of them.

13. Because an avoidable absence from church is an infallible evidence of spiritual decay. Disciples first follow Christ at a distance, and then like Peter, do not know Him.

14. Because my faith is to be known by my self-denying Christian life, and not by the rise or fall of the thermometer.

15. Because such yielding to surmountable difficulties prepares for yielding to those merely imaginary, until thousands never enter a church, and yet think they have good reasons for such neglect.

16. Because, by a suitable arrangement on Saturday, I shall be able to attend church without exhaustion; otherwise my late work on Saturday night will be as great a sin as though I worked on the Sabbath itself.

17. Because I know not how many more Sabbaths God may give me; and it would be a poor preparation for my first Sabbath in heaven to have slighted my last Sabbath on earth.-Christian Witness.

WATCH AND PRAY.

A TRUE Christian living in the world is like a ship sailing on the ocean. It is not the ship being in the water which will sink it, but the water getting into the ship. So in the like manner, the Christian is not ruined by living in the world, which he must needs do, whilst he remains in the body, but by the world living in him.

The world in the heart has ruined millions of immortal souls. How careful are mariners in guarding against leakage, lest the water entering into the vessel should, by imperceptible degrees, cause the vessel to sink. And ought not the Christian to watch and pray, lest Satan and the world should find some unguarded inlet to his heart, and thus entering in bringing him to destruction, both of body and mind? The world and

the things of the world press upon us at all points. Our daily avocations, yea, our most lawful enjoyments, have need to be narrowly watched, lest they insensibly steal upon our affections, and draw away our hearts from God.

DYING WORDS OF
WILBERFORCE.

'COME and sit near me, and let me lean on you," said Wilberforce to a friend a few minutes before his death. Afterwards, putting his arms around that friend, he said, "Let us talk of heaven. Do not weep for me. I am happy. Think of me and let the thought press you forward. I never knew happiness till I found Christ a Saviour. Read the Bible-read the Bible! Let no religious book take its place; through all my perplexities and distresses I never read any other books, and I never felt the want of any other. It has been my hourly study, and all my knowledge of the doctrines, and all my acquaintance with the experience and realities of religion, have been drawn from the Bible only. I think religious people do not read the Bible enough. Books about religion may be useful enough, but they will not do in the place of the simple truth of the Bible.”

THE SPREAD OF TRUTH ON THE

CONTINENT OF EUROPE. DURING the last three years, 100,000 Bibles have been bought by Italians; schools are multiplying rapidly; a Protestant theological seminary at Florence is in vigorous operation; Protestant preaching is established in at least fifty places; and, as might be expected, the most salutary effects are apparent. The same work is also going forward in other countries. In France, forty-one new Protestant churches have been added within two years. Austria has adopted a constitution securing religious liberty, and by favour of the emperor, Protestant worship is sustained in the imperial city of Vienna. Spain alone is reserved for the reign of intolerance and bigotry.